Buck,
You are close. but I fear you are trying to do much, too fast.
keep it simple.
do something small first.
for a membership plugin that works to have an affiliate platform, you can use memberpress
but remember, unless you are on a big platform like clickbank or jvzoo, you are going to have a hard time finding affiliates until you build subscribers –
affiliates is a really tough way to get traffic when you are first starting out, I recommend building a list without worrying about affiliates, and focus on affiliates long run.
Keep it simple!
Sean