I suspect that more people would consider a hands-free affiliate revenue site if they didnt feel that a web design would be cost prohibitive.
Whenever you start an online business (even an affiliate revenue site) you have to take into account the overall cost of doing business. For instance, it can cost you $1,500 or more to develop a new site and then as much as $100 or more a month to have the site hosted and revised as needed.
If your site is expected to amass $100 a month in residual affiliate revenue its easy to see the idea of a website development makes the idea a losing proposition.
If, however, you could develop your own web design that would contain all of the features you needed and you could realize the potential of $100 a month with a web hosting fee of less than $20 you would see a much greater return on your investment.
It should be noted that there are some affiliate revenue sites that make more that $100 and some that make less. The figure above was simply used as an example.
Interestingly if you can work at facilitating a solid web design in a cost effective environment you can take time to develop niche Search Engine...