If you don't have any starter funds, research a few ways to generate free traffic. Thats a solid place to start, I'll ramble some half drunken stuff stuff below:
Each platform has its pros and cons, pinterest for example is great for certain niches and terrible for others.
Overall they're more friendly to affiliate marketers than other platforms. Also easy to automate later on if you've made a few sales or have the extra funds.
Although you have to know your target audience. Pinterest is DIY creativity art health bloggers and things of the like and mostly female audience. Could sell affiliate products via etsy or amazon with their affiliate. Or you could get % earnings via selling other peoples creativity on fiverr using their affiliate program.
There might be a better platform for the niche you decide on.
With the ability to drive traffic to an offer you can test what works and what doesn't. Its best to focus on a niche you have an interest in so you don't get burnt out too quickly. Consistency matters early on and social media is one of the easier free traffic methods.
If you have any skills with web design, videography, programming, writing etc. Try to lean on it to start your first page(s). Try to build a content strategy around your interest and skills as much as possible and learn the rest as you go. Dedicate 1-2hours a day if you can. Have a plan.
Study email marketing if you'll be affiliate marketing, it will allow you to capture emails / leads, build rapport and follow up with them continuously overtime
You can sell subscription service, physical products, digital courses, offers from artists(fivverr) + endless options.
there are many other affiliate websites: digistore24 clickbank systeme.io + many websites offer their own affiliate programs you can sign up for, they usually have a link on the bottom of their page for their affiliates to click.
You could also make some money with CPA as someone else said earlier.
And as he suggested, its better to do CPA when you have some money to spend. However if you are actually willing to put in the work, its doable.
example: someone clicks your link and signs up for a website or someones email list
You get $1-$3 and it cost your lead nothing.
If you have a consistent free traffic figured out, you can trickle some clicks to a few cpa offers as well, decide what converts best with your audience.
Aim for $10/day then increase traffic with multiple accounts or moving into other methods.
Use the social proof of your first social media page to help grow another and funnel a few more clicks/impressions where you need them.
CPA can make good money, but its not as easy with free traffic.
Plus hard to push these offers into an email list or build a loyal following around these topics, so unless the cpa offer fits in with your overall concept it might not be the easiest.
Keep in mind most affiliate programs will let you use their creatives websites and email swipes to promote and are willing to pay you between 40-70% of their sales.
alright rant is done. *burrrpp**
need another brew
good luck and welcome to bhw m8