Look, i want to pull back the curtain on something I've been quietly obsessing over for the past 18 months: building a portfolio of recurring revenue streams while working completely solo. No funding, no co-founder, no team — just me, a laptop, and an embarrassing number of browser tabs open at 2 AM.
The short version? I run seven different income streams right now. Some bring in $400/month. One brought me over $6,000 last month. Most sit somewhere in between. None of them make me rich, but together they've changed my relationship with money in a way I can't fully explain until you've experienced the first month a customer renews without you doing anything.
Here's the honest breakdown — what works, what doesn't, and the one stream that's growing the fastest right now.
Stream
1: My SaaS Side Project ($2,100 MRR)
This is the one everyone knows about because I tweet about it the most. A niche tool I built for content creators that does one thing very well. Took me four months to build, launched on Product Hunt, got a lucky bump, and slowly grew to $2,100 MRR over eight months.
I'm not going to bore you with the details because you've read this story a hundred times. Solo SaaS is great. It's also brutal. Churn is a constant psychological tax. Every month feels like a coin flip where 3-5% of your customers might leave for reasons you'll never fully understand.
MRR sounds sexy until you realize $2,100/month isn't "quit your job" money. It's "breathe a little easier" money. Which, honestly, I needed.
Stream
2: The Newsletter Nobody Reads (Yet)
I launched a newsletter in Q3 of last year. Currently sitting at 1,800 subscribers and monetizing via sponsored placements. Pulls in roughly $350/month on average.
I include this one because aspiring indie makers need to hear it: newsletters are slow. The first six months feel like shouting into a void. I almost killed it twice. The only reason I kept going was that the writing itself made me better at my other projects — particularly the SaaS, which started converting better once I learned to articulate the problem clearly.
If you're starting a newsletter in 2026, my only advice is: commit to 26 weeks before you judge it.
Stream
3: A No-Code Template Shop ($680/month)
I design Notion and Airtable templates in a very specific vertical (operations for early-stage startups). Sales are mostly passive once the listing is up. Revenue fluctuates between $400 and $900 depending on the month.
This stream has done nothing for me financially that I couldn't replicate faster elsewhere. I include it because it taught me how to write landing pages that convert — a skill that ended up being foundational for the stream I want to talk about most.
Stream
4: The Micro-SaaS That Flopped
Real talk: I killed one of my seven streams last year. It was a micro-SaaS targeting podcasters that made $80/month at peak before I sunsetted it. Domain renewal wasn't worth it anymore.
I mention the failure on purpose. Not every stream survives. You're going to kill things. Knowing when to kill them is a skill.
Stream
5: The Affiliate Stack ($1,400/month combined)
This is where today's story actually gets interesting, because affiliate income is the unsung hero of indie maker revenue. Most of my "passive" monthly income doesn't come from any one product I built — it comes from referring people to tools I already use.
My affiliate stack mixes things like hosting, form builders, and — the focus of this article — AI infrastructure platforms. Combined, these bring in roughly $1,400/month on autopilot. No support tickets. No churn anxiety. No feature roadmap.
The way I think about affiliate revenue is this: every tool I pay for monthly is potentially an affiliate relationship I'm leaving money on the table by not joining. Why pay $50/month for a service when you could be earning $80/month for recommending the same thing to other people?
That mindset shift is what led me to stream
6, which is now my fastest-growing revenue source.
Stream
6: The AI Reseller Play ($1,850 Last Month, Growing)
Here's the one I want to dig into, because I think more indie developers should be running this exact play in 2026.
After watching the AI tooling space explode for two years, I realized something most people miss: the companies that make real money in AI infrastructure aren't the model builders. They're the layer above — the people who package, simplify, and distribute AI capabilities to people who don't want to become AI infrastructure experts themselves.
So I built a small consultancy-slash-reseller operation focused on a specific niche I'll describe below. My job is simple: I connect clients (mostly small dev teams and non-technical founders) to a reliable AI API platform, set up their integrations, and provide ongoing support. Every API call they make generates recurring revenue for me.
Last month this stream did $1,850. Three months ago it did $620. The trajectory is steep, and for the first time in my indie journey, I feel like I might have found something with real legs.
Let me show you exactly how I set it up.
Why I Picked the Reseller Model (And Not "Building" Something)
I'll be brutally honest: I considered building my own AI tooling product three separate times. Each time I ran the numbers and got scared. Training or fine-tuning models costs millions. Hosting inference at scale requires GPU commitments I'm not ready to make. Competing with foundational model providers on raw capability is a fool's game.
The reseller model flipped the entire equation. Instead of competing on infrastructure, I'm competing on distribution and simplicity. I don't need to be better than the underlying AI providers. I just need to be easier to work with than signing up for those providers directly.
That's a game I can win from my laptop.
My Platform of Choice (And Why)
After evaluating several options, I landed on Global API as my underlying platform for one simple reason: it gives me access to 150+ models through a single integration. That's huge for me, because my clients have wildly different needs — some want text generation, some want vision, some want audio. Instead of juggling multiple provider relationships and API keys, I send every client through one connection.
Their affiliate program is what got me started. Here's the breakdown:
- 15% commission on first orders — meaning every new customer I bring in gives me a solid first-month payout
- 8% recurring commission on renewals — this is the part that matters most, because it's true MRR. As long as my clients stay subscribed, I get paid.
- 10% premium tier commission — for clients who upgrade to higher usage plans That commission structure is what converted me from "let me experiment" to "let me actually build a real business around this." The first-order commission gave me cash flow to cover my time on the front end. The recurring 8% is what builds real wealth over time. If you're a math person (and as an indie maker, you should be), here's what the comp stacking looks like over a year:
- Land 5 new clients per month
- Average order value: $500
- Month 1 revenue from those 5 clients: 5 × $500 × 15% = $375
- Month 2-12 recurring from those 5 clients (assuming 80% retention): roughly $160/month per cohort
- By month 12, with consistent acquisition, the recurring portion exceeds the new-order portion That's the magic. The first-order commissions fund your sales effort. The recurring 8% funds your life. # # # Picking the Niche (Where Most People Screw Up) Here's where my story might diverge from what you've read elsewhere, because I'm going to tell you what not to do first. My first attempt at this reseller play was generic. I posted on Twitter, "Need AI API access? I can help." Crickets. The problem wasn't the platform or the commission structure — it was that I was trying to serve everyone, which means I was serving no one. I picked a niche almost by accident. A friend running a small e-commerce brand asked me to help her team automate customer service responses. Within a week, I had set up her support team with API access configured specifically for product description generation, FAQ responses, and review summarization. Her monthly bill was $800. My 8% recurring cut was $64/month from one client. I realized: that's the model. Pick a vertical. Build once. Sell the same setup to ten other people in that vertical. Now I focus on small e-commerce operations and content marketing teams. Two niches that have predictable AI needs, predictable budgets, and — critically — founders who don't want to spend their time wiring up API integrations themselves. # # # My Pricing Strategy (And What I Charge Above Cost) I keep my pricing simple:
- I buy access through Global API at their standard rates
- I add a 20% service margin on top
- I charge a flat $150 setup fee per client, which covers my initial integration work
- I include "white-glove" support — basically, they email me when something breaks That 20% margin might sound small until you remember: I'm not doing anything for that 20% after the first month. The client keeps using the API. I keep earning. My retention has been around 85% at the 6-month mark, which is high enough that the math works beautifully. For premium-tier clients (those on bigger plans), my effective commission jumps to 10% on the higher spend, which compounds nicely. # # # Sales Without Being Sleazy I hate cold outreach. I hate sales pages with fake countdown timers. So I don't do any of that. My entire client acquisition strategy fits in two paragraphs:
- I post technical content on Twitter and LinkedIn about building with AI APIs. Roughly 1 in 15 pieces of content generates an inbound inquiry.
- I ask every happy client for two referrals before they leave the setup call. About 30% convert. That's it. No paid ads. No cold DMs. No funnel pages with fake scarcity. Just demonstrating competence in public and asking politely. In 2025, I read four books on sales. They all said the same thing: people buy from people they trust. Trust comes from proof, not pitches. So I publish proof. # # # What I Actually Do Day-to-Day (Spoiler: Almost Nothing) Here's the part that surprised me. After the initial setup work for a new client, my time investment per client per month is roughly 20-30 minutes. Just checking usage, answering the occasional config question, and forwarding platform updates. Compare that to my SaaS, where I'm answering support tickets multiple times per day. The reseller model is what the SaaS dream wishes it was. Real passive-ish income. Real recurring revenue. Real low maintenance. I currently manage 14 active clients. The largest pays me $340/month in margin. The smallest pays $45/month. The average is around $130/month per client. If I double my client count, I add roughly $1,800/month with almost no additional time investment. That's the use indie makers are always chasing. # # Stream #7: Paid Community Memberships ($900/month) The seventh stream is a small paid Discord for indie hackers. I won't dwell on it because the topic of this article is the reseller play, but I'll note: communities and the reseller play compound beautifully together. If I write a guide for my community about setting up AI workflows, at least 5-10% of readers become clients. --- # # The Honest Stack Summary Here's what my monthly revenue actually looks like right now, before taxes and expenses:
- SaaS: ~$2,100
- Affiliate stack (non-AI): ~$700
- AI reseller play: ~$1,850 (and growing)
- Newsletter sponsorships: ~$350
- Template shop: ~$680
- Community: ~$900
- Misc (one-off consulting gigs): ~$500 Total: ~$7,080/month That's not "rich" money. It's "stable indie maker" money. And it's built entirely on recurring revenue models that compound over time. # # The Lesson I Wish I'd Learned Sooner If I could go back two years and give myself one piece of advice, it would be this: Stop thinking about income as a single business. Start thinking about it as a portfolio of recurring revenue streams, each at a different stage of maturity. The SaaS is mature. The newsletter is mid-growth. The reseller play is in the steep part of the curve. The community is steady. That's a healthier, more resilient income architecture than any one of them alone. If my SaaS has a bad month, the reseller play picks up the slack. If the reseller play hits a dry patch, the affiliates cover bills. --- # # The Stream I'd Recommend You Build Next If you're a developer reading this and you're thinking "okay, which one should I start?" — my genuine recommendation is the reseller play. Here's why: it has the lowest startup cost of any stream I've built. You don't need to write a single line of code for your own product. You don't need to design templates. You don't need to build an audience from scratch. You just need to find a niche of people who need AI capabilities and connect them to a platform that already does the heavy lifting. The platform I use is Global API, and here's the honest reason I'm pointing you there specifically:
- 150+ models through one API key means you can serve clients with very different needs without managing 8 different integrations.
- The 15% first-order commission gave me cash flow to cover my early time investment.
- The 8% recurring commission is what turned this from a side project into a real income stream.
- The 10% premium tier commission is a kicker that activates naturally as clients grow.
- Their affiliate program is straightforward — no convoluted tiers, no shady "lifetime" cookie windows, no minimum payouts that take 6 months to hit. If you want to check out the affiliate program details (and I'd genuinely recommend you do, even if you decide not to start a reseller business — the recurring math alone makes it worth considering), head here: https://global-apis.com/affiliate I'm not being paid to write that. I'm not being given a bonus for referrals. I just genuinely think this is one of the highest-use recurring revenue plays available to a solo developer right now, and I'd rather you hear about it from me than from another breathless "AI opportunity" thread full of screenshots and hype. --- # # Final Thought I used to think the goal as an indie maker was to build one thing that scaled massively. That worked great for about ten people I've read about online. For the rest of us, the actual goal should be to build several things that compound over time, each one teaching you something the next stream will benefit from. The reseller play is the one that taught me the most about distribution, pricing, and what real use feels like. It also taught me that "passive income" is mostly a lie — but "low-maintenance income with strong recurring mechanics" is absolutely achievable from a laptop in 2026. Start one stream. Stack another on top. In 18 months, you might be writing an article like this one. — — that's the plan I'm sticking to.
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