Experienced marketers....please solve a problem!

Wrong move. Why? You're worth more.

At a push, I'd suggest Fiverr.com.

The trouble with working for others is you're not working at growing your own business. Long-term, it's a bad move.

If you'd like to ease into IM, consider one of 3 things:

1. Blog.
2. Squeeze Page.
3. Both.

Learn how to grow traffic to those from free locations (FB, Twitter, YT, etc).

Stick with PPL (pay per lead) offers for now, too. (The email submit offers that you've no doubt seen). Easier to convert for beginners.

There's no problem here that anyone else can solve for you.

The problem is in your mindset... only you can cure that. If risk scares you
this might not be the right time for you to consider starting a business.

you need to invest in learning it and invest in building the business....

First try to learn as much as you can. Look around. Find a method you like and stick to it. See what the top people are doing. Model what they do.

To make money you don't always need to spend money, but sometimes its essential.

The chances are that you are not going to like the advice, but here it goes...

Instead of becoming a parasite (a middle man) and peddling someone else's crap like we all -- the internet marketers -- do, I would suggest you to learn some valuable skills that you can always use. This will allow you to actually create something of value, not another Adsense site or a "digital product."

Learn to create games, esp. mobile games.
If you were to come up with the Angry Birds game, you'd be a millionaire.
Angry Birds Bad Piggies Review - Business Insider

Learn to create animations. Initial investment is needed to buy a program like Vue, Maya, Crazytalk animator etc. Unless you can find some freeware to play with.
If you made an animation like this and sold via istockphoto you would have made over $60,000 from selling this video file alone. It's sold thousands of copies at $20 a piece on average. Perhaps you've seen it on TV or internet.
World network stock video 6844637 - iStock

How do I know? Insider information. I also sell videos at istockphoto.
Take a photography course.
If you have a camera and live near an exotic beach you could make over $5,000 shooting videos like this
Seamless Loop Palmtrees on a beach stock video 2978376 - iStock

Learn to draw and paint. The possibilities to turn your art into products these days are endless.

Take a writing course and start writing novels. Perhaps you won't become the next Dan Brown and sell million copies, but perhaps you can do as well as Tom Harper.

Of course you can outsource any of this and become a parasite, like the rest of use, producing nothing yourself.

When you say you don't want to lose your money, does it mean
1) You don't want to make an upfront investment, but you don't need to start making money immediately. ie. you can afford to build a business slowly, as long as it doesn't require constantly spending money, or
2) you need to start making money immediately?

Consider doing some freelance stuff if you want to make some extra money. If you have any skills leverage those skills and make money off of them. If you afraid to risk any money right now look for some free training anywhere you can. Lots of great information can be found over the net. This forum is good, blogs, and videos are a good place to start. Anything you learn put into action. Just because you know how to do something doesn't mean you KNOW how to do it. Begin implementing the things you do know and when you hit a roadblock find a solution. Don't go spending your money like a mad man. Make sure you do the proper research and if it's something your comfortable with go for it. Make sure you actually study and learn what you need to learn. Most people who buy products and services don't utilize them properly.

Try something like cheap ppc with 7search, bing....i'm also a newbie to IM but have being reading stuffs here and from the looks of it...that's where you might not lose a ton of money

Probably Fiverr. Or Amazon. You should invest in Ebay a little too. But if you want to create your own "real" business - where YOU call all the shots and work when you want to.... you need to start your own website. It doesn't cost much. You can start with under $50.

You could offer your services on fiverr.com, you can sell blog comments, short post writing, seo analysis, setup a campaign, there are literally hundreds of ideas and most people less experienced don't mind spending a five to get things done, you can even upsell with additional "gigs" on the same offer.

To help finance your new venture you could register on odesk.com, freelancer.com or elance.com and offer whatever services you can provide, or bid for gigs. Visit the "Warriors For Hire" section on this Forum and see what others are doing.

And start a blog that records your progress, so you start to attract a following. That can lead to all sorts of things.

Rather trying to figure out yourself, I would suggest you get a good coaching program. Learning from ebooks, websites and such will make you lose even more money.