ecommerce sites/newbie... help please

Hi,
Just recently indirectly I've been reading here and on Lynn's blog about ecommerce sites and I feel it appeals to me (staying in my current niche idea of fitness) although need to do some keyword research on that but I thought it maybe a way for me to go as you have to drive traffic/buyers to your site of products. The reason for this is that I have to do something similar now in the work I do (small auction business but not on ebay) so thought maybe this would give me a step forward on the marketing side plus all the wonderful info I can get from lynn on how to get the traffic/buyers, call to action...anyway my question is...
Does anyone have any first hand experience on an ecommerce site? is it a harder option to START WITH for a NEWBIE? having so many products and trying to mostly aim at buyers online PLUS the actual website designing side!..or is it just the same really as setting up a content/info site with affiliate links or a blog...Is it something to do further down the line in affiliate marketing?
Again it just appealed to me as I seem to be able to drive buyers to my current business to earn myself a income so thought it could be an option in my start to affiliate internet marketing...I like marketing plus doing an added blog area for the info needed is an option of course..I took a look at a site Lynn referred to when talking about ecommerce and thought it was great it was 'simplynurserybedding.com' so it got me thinking....
thank you for any information...:)

Jamel,
You don't really need an ecommerce site with shopping cart unless you'll have your own products to sell. That's the beauty of affiliate marketing, you sell other peoples products and they usually give you everything you need to promote it (code, banners, etc.).

I'm in the weight loss/fitness niche too and there is plenty of room for more however you really need to define a certain niche to really make a go at it, I think.

But to answer your question, I don't have experience with ecommerce where I have my own shopping cart so hopefully someone who does can drop by and share with you.

Sorry just to make it clear I dont want my own shopping carts..didn't realise it came accross like that (didn't mention shopping carts??I don't think) I just meant an ecommerce site where people are then redirected ie..amazon to do the actual order,paying etc...I know nothing about ecommerce at present so any info on even how you set it up would be good! thank you!

There are many ways it can be done. You could just start a blog in which each entry is a product description containing your affiliate link. Blog categories can divide the site into types of products. You can make it more complicated, but that's a good basis.

Wade Watson

None of these are perfect solutions, and many will be limited to certain merchants:

• Code it yourself, or outsource the coding solution)
• Amazon Astore (there are also software products you can buy like phpAzon, Easy Store, Amaniche-excludes all products from Amazon, but there are lots of merchants who participate)
• Popshops, Datafeedr, Golden Can, Feedshare (all data feeds, some for free, some fee based - excludes Amazon products)
• Ebay (there are a variety of tools, like phpbay, but I'm not an ebay affiliate so I can't help much with that. At one time BANS = Build A Niche Store was very popular, but has gone out of fashion, I believe, because Google started de-indexing them.)
• The affiliate networks themselves often have things you an use (Build-A-Page in SAS, for example)
• There are plug ins for Word Press (I personally tried several and did not find them efficient, but you may be able to use them better than I did. If you are using WP and your store is only going to have a limited number of products, definitely consider this option.)
• Some hosts provide templates with their hosting. Again, some coding knowledge required.

The easiest is probably the Astore from Amazon. A good free place to start.

I'd also suggest that if you get denied, call the merchant directly. I've only had one say not after that - and that was a very large major retailer. In retrospect, I was better off with Amazon anyway.