Affiliate Marketing Secrets

I want to be a market affiliate but more or less clueless about it. Moreover, the different sites are just bragging about themselves and less about the real process. So can anyone point me to some good resources related to this topic? also which market affiliate site is genuine , please let me know.

So, we are trying to sell travel online.
As I understand, the state of Washington makes one have a license to be a ‘seller of travel’. The first part of the process registers one as a business, costing $20, then $202 for the licensure. You do not have to have continued education, etc.
For our business we wanted to sell travel to many individuals across many states as we are an online business.
I also unsderstand not all states require this.
Here are my questions:
It seems that these states are the ones that require a license to sell travel:
CALIFORNIA
FLORIDA
HAWAII
ILLINOIS
IOWA
LOUISIANA
MASSACHUSETTS
MICHIGAN
NEVADA
NEW YORK
PENNSYLVANIA
VIRGINIA
WASHINGTON (STATE)
Is there any website or affiliated governement branch that could confirm this without my having to go to each and every state .gov website to see?
Also, if we wanted to sell travel outside our state to another state, would be have to have a business license in that state? or… would our registered business allow us to do business in other states.
We are just starting and so this is all very foreign to us.
Does anyone have any good resources for steps in beginning ones own travel sales business?
How would we begin to sell airfare, etc? Software? How do travel sales businesses go about this?
Thanks