Time frame with IM projects?

when you see those videos or claims you are looking at 1 of 2 things the vast majority of the time.

either an outright scam or trick. Ie..ranking for a keyword that sounds good but has almost no completion or traffic.

or you are looking at something the "guru" did one time and is very unlikely to be able to repeat again with consistency...and he knows that.

If anyone can consistently rank sites high in google for competitive (and profitable) keywords, they would not tell you how unless you paid them a boat load of money.

Most of the time (I don't usually generalize, so I won't say all), these so called "gurus" hype up there products a lot more than they should, making beginners feel bad.

What you are doing seems fine may be a little slow but slow and steady wins the race as they say!

If I was you I would add a few more things to that list to really increase your list building potential

Example

Set up a YouTube channel with a link in your profile to your opt in page and start commenting on other people's videos and uploading videos of your own related to your niche this will get people clicking on your username and seeing your profile and click on the link to your squeeze page, not only that but the links in your videos will also increase your authority with Google as they love links from youTube.

Secondly create a twitter account and put a link to your squeeze page in your profile description and start following people that are interested in the niche that you are promoting this can be done by finding the authorities twitter accounts in your niche and following their followers because when you start following them they will check out your profile to see who you are and more than likely click on the link to your twitter page if you're offer is tempting enough.

The third thing I would suggest is find some forums in your niche and start becoming an active user put a link to your squeeze page in the signature with a clever caption to get them to click on your link and you'll be surprised at how many people do sign up this way. And this is another reason why it pays to be enthusiastic and promote something you are passionate about.(Also the link from the authority site in the same niche helps with Google rankings)

These tips should help you increase your list building by quite a measurable degree as you should be able to get to 1000 opt ins within a couple of weeks using the techniques I mentioned above if you also add them to your current strategy I believe you will have all the bases covered.

Except of course the Facebook but I never really get too involved with Facebook as I find it a little frustrating at times and find twitter a lot more responsive.

I've also faced this problem myself, and yes sometime I did fall behind.
But its all matters to yourself.
Internet Marketing is Not just For Fun.. You must treat it as a Real Business..
You don't open a real business, dump it aside "waiting" for money to come in.. You need to work on it..

1st of all, You must do research on the keywords...
Not just choosing a High Competition with High Searches..

To rank your keywords, My opinion is have many articles published and people search on it..
For Example, Don't go for "Make Money Online" with 3 Millions search and High competitive.. You Will NEVER get ranked or you'll won't be found.

To answer your "How long before you can start getting traffic? (2 - 3 months?)"...
There are 2 ways.. the ORGANIC way and Paid way..
If organic search, it will take quite some time for it to build up traffic..
For example one of my site www [dot] LeQish [dot] com.. it took me more than 3 months just to get 20 visitors a day with Quality Content..
If paid traffic, you prolly knew it would be faster..
No Pay No Gain...

How long before you build a list of 1000? (5 months?)
Its back to Basic.. Organic or Pay..
My other sites took me 1 months to reach 1000, but of course I used the Paid traffic method.
My other Niche like Forex... using organic method, it took me approx 6 months... Some people can get 1k within 3 months...

4. How long before you make money - your first sale? (4 months?)
My First sales was using Paid traffic... and yes I did Earn back along with leads..
Pay $45 for a 100 Clicks Solo Ads, about 25% opt-in, 3 sales.. I've covered back my cost and also kept the list for myself...

5. How much time do you usually spend working on your IM projects per day? (two hours? Or just during the weekends?)

Before I started IM while I was working Full time in an office.. But everyday even though I came back from work, I still Spare Atleast One Hour a Day to keep my self to learn on IM.
Sometimes I overly focused on IM, I past by 2 - 3 hours... but its all worth it..
You can do IM part-time, earn side income and Still work full time..
For Parents, well.. its based on your time management.. Take this IM bizz seriously and it will grow! And who knows, You can pass down to your kids to continue your work and You can rest and spend more time with them..

This is all my ways / doing...

1. Depends on the keyword ( 3 months for an easy keywords, 3-8 for medium, 8+ for hard)

2. Depends on the keyword
3. Depends on the keyword + traffic
4. Depends on sales page/traffic/keyword


I doubt that big guru's use traditional methods to get their traffic, since there are far better ways.