How does one get started with an affiliate marketing business?

The first thing you should understand is that affiliate marketing requires a lot of hard work and time to make significant money. I recommend joining affiliate marketing forums and reading what affiliate marketers in the industry are doing and not doing. In these forums you can find out which programs are legitimate. I highly recommend that you start a blog as your first affiliate marketing website because this will allow you to write about something you are interested in and sell products that you know within your writing.