Information overload - help getting started - Amazon affiliate primay goal

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There's a lot of reading for what might be a really short question, but I hope it will help contextualize everything.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

A little background.

I've been reading through this forum for a couple of days. It's awesome. I can't remember when I had to Google so many acronyms. I have a few bullet points in order, but I'm a more than little overwhelmed though.

The other day I was answering the same question with the same answer for the 100th time about a buying decision on a forum I hang out on.

I also answered the two follow up questions with buying recommendations that I know always come next because I've gotten so used to the pattern.

It occurred to me there's probably a referral opportunity there (average ticket is probably $500 and 1-3 items)! I've also been meaning to start a site for fun to get some of this stuff down since it's been a while since I had a project.

So I went to investigate the Amazon Affiliates program. Looks simple enough at first glance. I looked around a few minutes later and was like that escalated quickly.

Then I started going through the steps to get everything together and BAM! The world has gotten a lot more complicated.

Here's my experience level as it relates to sales and internet stuff:

• I'm a scientist who stayed up late playing first person shooters with a guy who taught me SEO and I got a job post-MBA as e-commerce manager for a big real estate company building their websites by way of a dev team (even on the BlackBerry), SEO, and an automated system to take leads from the web, guide them through our side and farm them out to agents cell phones. Mind you this is 2004ish.

• I then worked in a financial sales position for about a decade. I REALLY like sales.

• A couple of years ago I moved over to manage an online platform with millions of users and now I'm 100% native mobile dedicated

• Along the way I've found some loopholes in programs that closed quickly for things like TV service, online poker signups, and supplements where I made a couple thousand bucks, but I didn't need a website for that and it was like a couple of weeks-months between where I got the idea and a bunch of other people followed after seeing it and I got crowded out

• About two years ago I found an illustrator and coded up some niche Kindle kids books and a full website and social presence. That takes real world marketing time and during then I had my 3rd kid (oldest just turned 4 at the time, almost a 5 now) so I can barely sleep and keep my job much less really put in the effort required for something so outside of my normal lifestyle.

I've never had a coding class and as the years pass when I get back into this it's like starting all over again. I first saw WordPress over a decade ago and have seen it like every other year since. I have no clue every time I get started. I can read CSS and poke around and find bugs and change elements, but writing it takes me FOREVER since I don't really understand it (I should work on this, I know, just an example). My current job requires me to understand all the technical stuff, but other teams actually put hands on for it. I don't make the sausage, if you will.

This time what I want to do lines up with what my interest is and what I depend all my scant free time on anyway so I think I finally have some alignment to really make a dedicated effort instead of just throw it against the wall and see what sticks.

I've got my list of hosting, domain, emails, and accounts for social and video stuff that I'm going to tackle, but that's where the confusion starts. I need a good platform to connect to and I feel like I might be headed down the wrong path.

I'm fully intending for this to be fun and just a nice to have source of income so I'm dedicated to building out content. I just don't want to do a lot of work and need to convert things over totally start over because I missed something basic.

I have two goals.

1. I want to set something up that will work for me long term

2. I want to be able to include the sales/product stuff seamlessly and in a targeted way. I'm trying to target a very specific buying decision that creates an ongoing need for more stuff for the hobby and I want to provide a ton of content that relates to that. I've spend countless hours and a few hundred dollars poorly figuring all this stuff out and am happy to pass that knowledge along

My main question that I can't seem to make a call on is:

- Do I get a Wordpress theme that looks like it's good for building out sites and then get Amazon plugins? Do I even need Amazon plugins? What's the downside to hardcoding affiliate links? My universe of products is probably in the dozens.

I looked Instabuilder, Optimize Press, and some other things I've seen mentioned. I've also seen the Amazon-specific Zenotheme and Ultimate Azon.

I know I need something to give me efficiency because of my technical limitations and am expecting figuring out how to drive traffic will be a challenge.

I'm just trying not to shoot myself in the foot by getting started with a base that's too much or too little or not aligned with my goals to lose time.

Again, any help is appreciated!