Hellbilly

so im sitting here looking at my websites which have been for the most part ignored for the past 2 years. they still make some money, some hits but not enough to make a living off of. i used to mail but i stopped, too much bullshit and its just too risky anymore. not to mention the proft to cost ratio sucks these days. so im getting back to my roots, back where i started 7 years ago with adult sites. the ways of getting traffic have really changed.

my main question is this: how does one effectively start from basically only a few thousand hits per day and grow consistantly, at least enough to make 4k a month or so.

do i need sites on different ip's?
is using a lot of content (keywords) on your pages effective? or are backlinks what determines your position in google?
if i work hard, linking sites together with revelent content and keywords, do you think i could build my income up, or just wasting time?
i've come to find you can work hard, really hard but if you aren't doing the right things its pointless.

all in all im looking for advice on how to get traffic in todays market.