A blogger wanna be with some questions

I have been using Weebly to build a blog site and am a little frustrated because I am always dreaming and talking about doing a blob but have done very little actual blogging. I know nothing of this forum and found it when searching for blogging resources. I am hoping we are respectful of each other because I am sure many of our blogs could be on polar opposite ends of each other as far as view points on what we blog about.

I could be all over the place when it comes to what I need and questions I have and I sincerely hope this forum can get me pointed in the right direction. I am rethinking everything I have been doing and am willing to start from scratch. Like I said I have been using Weebly and what I like about their service is even I can figure out how to build a site with their tools, and that is saying something. I do not use their service directly, I use them in conjunction with Startlogic, my webhosting service. One huge reason why I like Weebly is if I want to put a product link on my website to take advantage of an affiliate relationship it is really easy.

I use Wordpress for a photography website I have along with a custom theme I purchased, so I am familiar with WordPress. My biggest concern with WordPress is product links and I hope my concern is unfounded. I used a web programmer to help me figure out how to use product links and the process seemed complicated the way he did it. I had to create code before and after the product links. With Weebly I could place a html box on the webpage and simply copy and paste the product link (html code) into that box. So my first very important question is - is it easier than what I think to put a link for an Amazon product, for example, in a WordPress site? It has been a couple of years since I actually designed anything in WordPress so some things may have changed. I am also willing to consider other website building and hosting options as well.

This is important to me because my blog will not just be my opinions, I will reference books and would like to provide a link for any book I reference. I guess I should clarify the product links I want to use are the ones provided from affiliates I use. Yep, I would like to make a couple of bucks for my efforts. And speaking of making money, I am hoping that is possible. I am retired but have few bookkeeping accounts. My goal is to eventually spend all my time researching, reading, and writing for my blog while making a few hundred bucks a month (my financial needs are pretty minimal). I guess that could depend on what I blog about and how much interest I generate. I will be blogging about subjects not many people care about - faith, politics, and the media! I intend for my blog to be more respectful than controversial. For fun I also want to do a travel and photography blog.

So I hope this will be a good place to find help, make some friends, and eventually contribute to - Gary