Newbie in need of advice please

Okay Eric, so I will assume that you are, though not that you actually are, completely new to business and marketing, just for the sake of giving advice slanted towards new businessmen and marketers looking for ways to make money online, by selling affiliate products/services online, for commissions per sale. For all terminologies mentioned below, you can Google those and find exact definitions. So, if I were this person, I would:

1. Determine market buying trends which would provide me with the best long term benefits. I'd go to Google and do some research. I initially come up with the possible buying trends in these industries/topics/categories/niches which would be beneficial for someone like me:

a) Recession
b) Green Power
c) Senior Market
d) Discount Retail
e) Education
f) Parental Outsourcing
g) Health and Wellness
h) Texas (yes, because a lot of US nationals are interested in moving to Texas because of better real estate rates and cost of living rates, also due to number 1 above)
i) Affordable Alcohol
j) Pets

2. Let's ay I pick letters a and b then slant it towards gadgets, especially since it's Christmas season. So, my target buyers would be people looking for solutions to their needs and problems related to topics covered by letters a and b above as well as to the Christmas season (Christmas season topics would be for now so I could earn the soonest from my affiliate marketing effort). I then zone in on a buyer group with businesses looking for ways to cut down their overhead costs and increase their marketing campaigns. Their needs and problems for their businesses may or may not be related to letter b above. The people included in my target buyer group can be between the ages 30 and 50, so Christmas gifts related to letter b above will also be interesting for them. I then do keyword research using this private keyword tool I programmed: Grayscale Keyword & Competition Research Tool

3. I would then create a website with an information section, a product review section, a blog section, a mailing list sign up box and a video panel. I'd research on Google about HTML and CSS then focus initially on HTML tables. I'd then research on Google about mailing list subscription boxes and video panels then download free scripts and modify them to best suit my website. I then come up with a website layout and design concept and implement it. I'd make sure layout/design concept is optimized for my target buyer group and for search engine indexing.

4. I'd optimize my sitemap.xml, onsite meta info, robots.txt and static pages. I also make sure my website is W3C and XML compliant.

5. I'd do some research on ClickBank as well as on other similar affiliate marketing companies for relevant products which I can sell as an affiliate, keepin in mind letter a above, letter b above, the Christmas season, my target buyer group and my target keywords. I'd also look for the most useful products for my target buyer groups and will analyze saturation of affiliate market for those products. I will select those which will provide me with the best benefits as an Internet marketer and also provide my target buyer group with the best benefits and utility. Of course, I can only do this after I sign up as an affiliate of the merchants and as a vendor of those affiliate marketing companies.

6. I will write content pages and product review pages for my website. I'd also write some blog posts about certain topics rampantly discussed in forums and blogs with relevant discussions, on the blog section of my website. I will also develop a short 5-minute video discussing topics relevant to my content and business.

7. I'd develop an ebook or report or video tutorial that will help my target buyers with their needs and problems relevant to letter a above, letter b above, to the Christmas season to my target audience and keywords. I offer this as a free downloadable product upon signing up to my mailing list and also create a good softsell copy on the page of my website where I explain specifics about my mailing list. I also regularly send updates about new content of my website to my mailing list and include affiliate product reviews and links as well as inform them about new free downloadable products/content from me and provide the download links on my newsletters, too.

8. I make sure my internal linking systems are all optimized and properly working. I also take down the URLs of my website pages for backlink building purposes as described by number 9 below.

9. I use my target keywords to search for the top ranking websites. I determine if those sites allow others to contribute content on their sites and allow links with the contributed content, with the links pointing to any website or page offering supplementary info/advice/content which will add unique value to the discussions on their website and pages. I will also keep in mind to contribute content primarily on websites and pages that have not been blacklisted by major search engines for spamming or illegal content, that have high domain authority, have a long lasting credible reputation, have high volumes of targeted traffic, have high Google PR, and are dofollow. I'll also consider contributing content with backlinks to nofollow sites, especially if the factors I mentioned have high levels of benefits for me as an Internet marketer, like a chance to funnel huge volumes of traffic from those nofollow sites to my website and pages. Okay, to clarify further: These sites can be forums, niche sites, community sites, social network sites, article directories, video directories, Web 2.0 sites, product review sites, document-sharing sites, press release directories, etc. If I can't find a way to contribute content to a few of those sites, I will contact the webmasters of those sites and offer content in exchange for links pointing to my website and pages placed with my content on their sites as well as ads about content from me with my links placed on their newsletters.

10. I continue doing numbers 5 to 9 above.

11. If I want to add websites under my chosen industries/categories/niches above, I'll do numbers 2 to 10.

12. If I want to try other niches/industries/categories, I'll do everything above (numbers 1 to 11).

Hope this helps. You can also check out our Grayscale Guide -- This is something I wrote and am currently developing as a free resource for beginners in business and marketing, slanted towards Internet business and marketing topics.

just make some software. Something like google or facebook will probably work

nah I recommend you check out challenge.co - free 30 day course will teach you the basics