Help understanding framework of affiliate marketing.

As a newbie, I think the biggest think holding people back is not understanding the overall "structure" of how AM works. So i appreciate any help regarding that.

My questions are:

1. Does AM (as an affiliate) involve mostly posting links (such as on your blog or on Facebook groups), paying for paid traffic (like Facebook Ads) or both? It seems both are subsumed into what AM appears to be. Which strategy if any is better?

Let's say I have my own product on Clickbank; if I have affiliates promoting this product; how would they go about doing this -- through posting links, or paid traffic (or both)? If paid traffic on Facebook for example, do I need to give them access to an ad account of a FB page for my product? If not how do they advertise on their own? what account would appear for that FB ad if not my product's own?

2. What exactly does PropellorAds do to push traffic? Is this mainly affiliates or content creators or both? I assume this is for ads on the main web; like an affiliate would use this to push traffic of a product he's promoting. Unless I'm wrong.