I use to run a WSO on adsense and also a sales funnel on same topic (adsense) but stopped after the ban was getting out of hand.
Unfortunately, i was never banned and still very much into adsense, so i think am in a better position to shed some light into this new
venture for you.
$1k is a good budget but not so good. Back in the days we only spent money on building sites. I actually
didn't spend money on sites, i had a mentor that i emulated his static html sites and he did some
editing where i couldn't and pronto, we were up and rolling. And blast the damn sites with some
blog commenting, web 2.0, profiles, social bookmarking, angelas link and we are done.
In today's competitive cyberspace you need to build a good site. Not just a site but a converting
site that adhere to adsense TOS.
Pick a good niche and market to focus on. Go for the finest and modest keywords with the right CPC.
You wouldn't want to rank a site and not making any money from clicks.
In today's market, if i get any relevant product to my market i do promote them as well and there by
making multiple streams of income. If you can sell your own product on the site too that will help
you keep 100% of the sales.
The crucial part in all these is how to drive traffic to your site. Don't do fiverr, it's not
the right place for SEO. The game have changed and you need to be abreast of things
to do things correctly. Build your own network, this could cost you $1,000+ alone.
There are many more to this, it's not impossible in today's internet world, you just
need to be in the know. Good luck to you.