NO, at all! Just join the MoreNiche affiliate program and read their beginner guides! You will learn a lot of things to start with affiliate marketing.
You can be an affiliate without having any html knowledge. Some affiliate sites give you a whole storefront. But others give you widgets to post on your site. A simple copy and paste. While kind are you interested in?
No, there are TONS of free and paid templates out there, or you could just hire a designer. There is also Squidoo and HubPages, Blogger, Wordpress, ...
In todays age, theres software to make software. Therefore, theres software to make websites, simply and effectively. Like someone said it sure does help, but if you can at least get a website up by not learning the code and all - You should concentrate on how to market your site instead.
No HTML does not have to be your first language. If your interested in affiliate marketing find yourself a program that offers you a complete website pre built for you and ready to take money orders. By having a website built for you , you will only have to worry about marketing your site. If you don't know how to market your site find a program that offers you a complete guide on internet marketing. Such a program will help you get traffic to your site and with traffic you will start to see money coming in. If your looking for a program that offers both these two attributes check out the second line of my sig. Kind Regards Jason.