Introductory offers for building a list

Hello fellow Warriors :-)

I just want to take a quick second before asking my question to thank the creators and moderators of this forum. Every day I get to read posts from real people who have been there, succeeded, and then have the graciousness to want to share their knowledge with those us still on the path. It's quite a blessing. Thanks, all of you.

That being said, I'm pretty much a newbie. A learning newbie. I haven't made any money online yet- my background actually is in computers and aerospace engineering. But I want to learn. Desperately. I know I am just like a lot of people out there- a slave, getting up each day in a job I don't like, wondering if things will ever change. Hoping someday to do something that can make a real difference in the world.

This may sound pie-in-the-sky, but from what I have seen, internet marketing really has the potential to change people's lives. Not just from earning gobs of money. I think it goes deeper then that. The real changer is the freedom. To do what you want with your life, without worrying about lack of money stopping you. To learn what you can become.

I'm not really sure I deserve such freedom yet. I've wasted so much of my life, you see, doing things that don't really matter. But some part of me still believes that if I could become rich, then I would do everything I could to help others do the same.

Oh boy, sorry about the speech :-) Here's my question...

If you were building a list in internet marketing, what affiliate offers would you pick to start out your list?

I know list building is extremely important when starting in this business. I also understand Solo ads are a good type of traffic to start with. My goal is to find really high-converting offers, so that when I send solo traffic past my squeeze page, it makes up the cost of my advertising.

I see a lot of people recommending free offers to build a list, but that seems pretty risky if you're using solo ads. Unless you find free offers that have really good OTOs?

Is it better to pick something very niche-specific, or something more general audience?

Should I just throw out an offer, then when people are on my list, ask them what they really want, and use that info to find a better front-end offer?

I want to know how people start to build a funnel and how they use feedback/testing to correct mistakes in the funnel.

Thanks!