In addition to the rest of this great advice you might try
Squidoo. I'm fairly new to it myself, but much like this site it will give you another community of people interested in helping you succeed. It's also another link, and a place for you to try new things before you put them on your blog. Finally, you can make some money there as well, but probably nothing like what you'll make on your current site once things get going.
As for images, try
Creative Commons. There are lots of images out there that are in the public domain, or are free for the taking (even in commercial ventures). Creative Commons is a great place to get started on finding them.
[Edited to add: This is obviously up to you, but you might consider removing the ads all together until your traffic is up. I've read (and now I can't find the link, sorry!) that before you are getting 500 visitors a day the ads don't do you any good and may actually turn people off of your site.]
Good Luck! You do have a great site and I wish you the best.