How I Turned My AI Newsletter Into a Recurring Income Stream (Full Transparency)

#saas #ai #makemoneyonline #affiliate

I have a confession. I almost didn't write this post.
The whole "build in public" thing sounded cringey to me for the longest time. Sharing my revenue dashboards? Posting my conversion rates? Nah, that felt like a flex from people who probably weren't even making that much money.
Then I started doing it anyway. And honestly? It changed everything for me. Not just for the income — though I'll get to those numbers in a minute — but because the accountability forced me to actually treat my side projects like a real business. So today, I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the income streams that's been quietly growing in the background of my work: the Global API affiliate program.
Here's the real story, with my actual numbers.

The Side Hustle That Actually Sticks

Let me set the scene. I run a small but growing newsletter about AI tools, and I have a YouTube channel where I talk about developer workflows. Neither of these was designed to make money — I started both because I enjoyed writing and recording. But at some point, the audience got big enough that I needed to figure out a sustainable way to keep doing it without burning out.
That's when I got serious about affiliate programs.
I tried a few. Most of them were terrible. You'd send someone to a signup page, they'd sign up, you'd earn a flat $5 bounty, and that was it. No recurring revenue, no long-term upside, no reason for anyone to stick around. The economics just don't work when you have to constantly chase new referrals to make the same amount of money every month.
What I wanted was something where my past work kept paying me. A model where someone signing up last month still sends me a commission next month. After testing a bunch of options, I landed on the Global API affiliate program, and I'm going to walk you through exactly why I stuck with it — including the commission math, which is where the real story lives.