Hey there,
Affiliate marketing is great for beginners as well as some experts (usually experts like to build their own product and sell them, but some don't!)
A great way is to build an autoresponder series that promotes a digital product at the end of the autoresponder
Digital products like ones you can find on clickbank, shareasale, commission junction, etc. are great because there's no cost to produce them which give you a bigger commission sale on the product!
I'd suggest creating a squeeze page that promotes a free offer to entice people to join your list this can be an eBook, PDF, Video Series, etc.. just something that makes them want to join.
Then using a service like Aweber create a followup series of helpful information that they can use right away and make a difference. Have it be 5-10 emails long, I wouldn't stretch it out longer than that to offer your first product to them.
Then use things such as forum marketing and other free methods (forum marketing being the best in my opinion) and build your list and have them funnel through and check your conversions. Then when you have enough pay a email copywriting specialist to create you a 10 email followup sequence that you can then use to maximize conversions and once you have the conversions to make $2 with your $1 then it's time to go for some solo ads (my favorite paid advertising way)
Do small orders of solo ads from a GOOD seller (emphasis on GOOD, he needs a responsive list. No fake ones) order around 100 clicks check the conversions and if you don't make more than what you put it in get a new copywriter to go through and fix to try to make it better, but if you do make your money back do around 2 more 100 click/small orders to make sure it's consistent and once it is consistent and you make your money back + some. You can then ramp up the order and start ordering 500, 1,000, 2,000, etc clicks and go from there.
Hope that helps a little
That's my method at least..
Take care, Adam