This is a super old thread, but I broke the 11k mark a month, So, there is people here that have done it and pass info and tips freely to help others.
Didn't you get a warning before replying to old thread? You might be better off creating new thread so that people can benefit as well from your sucess
Before I sold a site to a mega corp a few years back, I was bringing in $10K - $15K per month, so its very do-able. The problem is almost everyone is looking for a shortcut, and not willing to put in the effort.
$5,000 per month is not easy to acheive but also it's not a big number. It's possible, and if you spend little more time analysing what works and what doesn't you will reach thoose $5000 very fast.