Trouble getting those first sales

Hi! First post, and I'll try to keep it brief.

The short of it is... I'm attempting to make sales without spending too much money on the front end on advertising, so I'm trying to recruit affiliates for me. I've made a couple of sales from random people who stumbled onto my site, but I am having trouble getting affiliates.

The slightly longer version is... by day I'm a high school teacher, but I've gotten the online and IM bug since December. I've been researching A TON and have learned A TON. I'm using stuff from Joe Sugarman, Russell Branson, Jeff Walker, etc. I've also got a really good friend who's very successful at all this, and he's given me excellent feedback. In fact, he's the one that opened my eyes to the fact the people actually make money online (I just thought they were all scams...). So I quickly developed my first product, designed a website, and have spent a few months contacting similar businesses to email for me. I spend almost every evening and weekend working at this thing, and to be honest, I've been having a blast. I see the potential. I see how it can happen.

But this is where I get hung up.

I have a spreadsheet of over 60+ businesses I've contacted and have received only 1 or 2 leads (which are still in process). I'm starting with ClickBank, so I'm offering 75% commissions on my core product and upsells, and providing a couple of email swipes. I'm offering reciprocal mailing as well, but since I don't have a substantial list of my own or any solid sales numbers yet, I'm getting blown off.

What I'm looking for is wisdom. Those of you who remember what it was like at this beginning... should I keep plugging away, continuing to recruit affiliates and sending emails? Should I look into other traffic sources? What do you think?