Noob Questions

Hi Warriors,

I'm brand new to this website, and also affiliate marketing. Maybe been into it a couple of weeks. But still, so many questions arising. Hoping to get some answers here. They say there are no stupid questions, so here it goes!

I have been researching keywords and I feel like I have found some well-targeted niches. But the problem is, a lot of these words don't seem to have corresponding affiliate-linked products out there, on say like Clickbank. For instance, say I happen to research dog collars and I find an interesting niche market via keyword planner, but then I look around on Clickbank and can't find anything. What should I do next, give up on the niche in question, or look elsewhere?

Also, again this might be a silly question, but how hard is it for people selling a particular product that doesn't have any affiliate programs visible online to like, whip up an affiliate program just so I can be an affiliate? Is this a highly involved process, or do you guys think if I contacted such and such seller, and said "hey, I'm going to make us some profit, but first you need an affiliate program".. does this ever happen?

My last noob question for the day is regarding setting up your first site. I have done the following: picked my niche, set up my website, optimized it, but left off the main post that will essentially sell the product. If that post or page contains all my main targeted keywords, how is Google going to rank me if I don't have that on there. The reason I'm leaving it off is so that Google can see that I'm not just a spam site, and start ranking me sooner, but I'm not going to rank if the thing I'm about isn't even on there, right? What am I missing here? I backlinked to a bunch of sites, put a video up on Youtube, i'm optimized as far as I know. Is this just a waiting game now? Is there some kind of rule of thumb here I don't know about? My site has been up for a couple days, but I don't want to put my "product page" up yet, as I'm attempting to come off as a blog, and I don't want to get sandboxed or whatever.

Any help would be great, I'm excited to be part of this community! Hopefully the buzz I have going on for this affiliate marketing stuff sticks, because I find it very fascinating, and it appeals to some part of my psyche that hasn't really been tapped into before I don't think.

Later,
Dave