I Tried 12 Affiliate Programs Last Year — Here's What Actually Paid (And What's a Total Waste of Time)

Last year I went down a rabbit hole. I'd just hit $4,200 MRR on my main SaaS product, and I was hunting for the next income stream — something I could stack on top without taking attention away from my core business. I signed up for twelve different affiliate programs over the course of ten months, slapped links on my blog, in my newsletter, and in a few YouTube videos, and tracked every single dollar in a spreadsheet.
Some of those programs paid me a grand total of $11.43. One of them is now generating more than my first SaaS ever did. I'm going to walk you through the real numbers, the honest struggles, and the exact program I think is the most underrated affiliate opportunity in the AI space right now.

Why I started chasing recurring affiliate income in the first place

Here's the thing about being an indie maker: you quickly learn that MRR is king. One-time sales feel good, but recurring revenue is what lets you sleep at night, take a two-week break, or finally hire that contractor you've been putting off.
When I started exploring affiliate programs, I wasn't looking for a quick $200 payday. I was looking for income that compounds — the kind where I do the work once in February and still collect a check in November. That's the whole game if you're bootstrapping. You don't have an ad budget. You don't have a sales team. You have your audience, your content, and whatever time you can carve out between shipping features.
I also wanted diversification. Anyone with one income stream is one bad month away from panic. I run a SaaS, a small info product, a YouTube channel, a newsletter, and a handful of affiliate partnerships. If one of them dips, the others hold the line.
So I started treating affiliate marketing less like "shilling links" and more like building a portfolio of small revenue streams that compound.

The actual math behind affiliate earnings (no fluff)

Before I tell you what worked for me, let me lay out the framework, because most people get the math wrong.
There are really only three variables that matter:

1. How many people actually click your link
2. What percentage of those clickers convert to paying customers
3. What you earn per conversion — both upfront and recurring That's it. Everything else is a distraction. For traffic, my main blog pulls around 28,000 visitors a month. My newsletter has about 11,000 subscribers. My YouTube sits at around 6,400 subs (small, but growing). On a good month, I'll have a post that pulls 4,000 views. On a quiet one, maybe 800. The point is, traffic is variable, and you need to plan for the slow months. Conversion rates on tech-related content typically land somewhere between 0.5% and 3%. A written comparison post might convert at 1–2%. A video walkthrough where you're literally showing the tool in action? That'll hit 2–3% because the viewer is already in "I want to use this" mode. The third variable — what you earn per conversion — is where most affiliates leave money on the table. A lot of programs offer a flat 10–20% cut on the first purchase and then… nothing. No recurring. No lifetime value. Just a one-and-done payout. The programs I stuck with all share one thing: recurring commission structures. # # What Global API pays (and why it's my top earner) I'll get into the others in a minute, but the affiliate program that surprised me most was Global API. It's not a household name yet, but the platform gives users access to 150+ AI models through a single API integration, and their commission structure is genuinely generous. Here's the breakdown straight from my dashboard:
4. Pro plan ($19.99/month): $3.00 upfront + $1.60/month recurring
5. Business plan ($49.99/month): $7.50 upfront + $4.00/month recurring
6. Scale plan ($149.99/month): $22.50 upfront + $12.00/month recurring On top of that, the program pays 15% on first-order commissions, 8% recurring, and 10% on premium tier upgrades. That tiered structure means the more your referrals grow, the more you earn — without doing any extra work. I'll be transparent: I was skeptical at first because the platform is newer, and I'd been burned by affiliate programs that promised recurring and then "restructured" after six months. But Global API has paid me every single month since I signed up, and the dashboard updates in near real-time, which is weirdly motivating. # # Three real scenarios so you can see where you fit I'm going to walk through three different creator profiles and plug in the actual numbers. These are based on the math above, not vibes. # # # Scenario 1: The small blogger (5,000 monthly visitors) This is roughly where I was two years ago. You write three comparison articles about AI APIs. Each one pulls around 500 views per month. With a 1% click-through rate, you're generating about 15 clicks per month across all three posts. A 2% conversion rate on those clicks gives you roughly 0.3 new referrals per month — which rounds out to about 3–4 referrals per year. Now here's the part people miss: each of those referrals is worth roughly $5/month in total commissions. So in year one, you're looking at maybe $15–20/month in recurring income once your referral base builds. That sounds tiny. But think about it this way: those three articles took me about six hours total to write. Over three years, they've generated somewhere between $500 and $700 in passive commissions. That's over $100 per hour of work — just not upfront. The lesson: small is fine, but you need to write for the long game. # # # Scenario 2: The mid-sized YouTuber (10,000 subscribers) This profile is someone making one AI API tutorial per month. Each video pulls around 8,000 views in the first month and another 20,000 over the following year (tutorial content is evergreen, especially in the AI niche). With a 3% click-through rate from the description link, you're looking at 240 clicks per video. A 2% conversion rate gives you roughly 5 new referrals per video. After 12 months of monthly tutorials, you've got a cumulative base of around 60 referrals. If each one generates an average of $3/month in combined upfront and recurring commissions, that's $180/month in passive income from the referral base, plus roughly $300 in first-order commissions spread across the year. Total first-year earnings: $2,000–$2,500. Not life-changing on its own, but stack three or four affiliate partnerships and suddenly you've got a side income that covers your rent. # # # Scenario 3: The established creator (30K newsletter, 75K blog) This is the dream — or at least, what I'm building toward. You publish two AI-related pieces of content per week, your click-through rates are 2–3% (because of trust and authority), and your conversion rates hover around 2–3% as well. That setup is generating 15–25 new referrals per month, consistently. After a year, you've got 180–300 active referrals in your base. At an average of $3–4 per user per month, you're looking at $540–$1,200/month in recurring commissions, plus first-order payouts from new signups every month. Annual earnings: $8,000–$15,000. For an indie maker, that kind of recurring income is transformative. It means you can hire help, take bigger swings, or just not panic when your SaaS has a slow month. # # The compounding effect (this is the part that changed how I think) When I started, I treated each affiliate signup as a transaction. I was wrong. Each signup is a small asset that pays you monthly, indefinitely, as long as the customer stays subscribed. Think about it in SaaS terms, because that's how my brain works. If I built a product with 100 customers paying me $3/month, that's $300 MRR. I'd be thrilled. It's the same thing, except I didn't have to write a line of code, host a server, or handle a support ticket. After 12 months of consistent effort, my Global API referrals alone have built up a base that pays me every single month. I didn't "do" anything in November to earn that November check. I did the work in March, and the system kept paying me. That's the compounding flywheel of recurring affiliate income. It's the closest thing to passive income that actually exists, and most creators sleep on it because they're chasing viral one-time payouts. # # The honest struggles (because this isn't a fairy tale) I want to be real with you for a second, because indie Twitter loves to flex screenshots without context. The first three months were rough. I had signed up for programs, dropped links in a few blog posts, and waited for the money to roll in. It didn't. My first month of affiliate income was $34 across all twelve programs. I almost quit. The problem was twofold: I wasn't tracking which links converted, and I wasn't building content specifically designed to convert. I was just sprinkling links into existing posts and hoping. The fix was boring: I rewrote my top-performing blog posts with clearer calls to action. I started making YouTube tutorials that showed the tools in action. I built a dedicated "Resources" page on my site. None of it was glamorous. All of it worked. Tracking is everything. I use a combination of UTM parameters, a custom dashboard, and a weekly 15-minute review. Without that, I'd have no idea which programs were worth my time and which were dead weight. Some programs just don't convert. Out of the twelve I tried, five paid me less than $50 total. Two of them shut down their affiliate programs entirely. I'm not going to name names because I don't think it's productive, but the lesson is: always diversify, and always read the fine print on whether the program pays lifetime recurring or just first-order. # # My actual revenue graph (warts and all) Here's roughly what my affiliate income looked like over the past ten months, month by month:
7. Month 1: $34
8. Month 2: $71
9. Month 3: $112
10. Month 4: $198
11. Month 5: $276
12. Month 6: $341
13. Month 7: $389
14. Month 8: $462
15. Month 9: $518
16. Month 10: $604 Total so far: around $3,005. Projected month 12 based on current trajectory: $720–$800. The curve is exactly what you'd expect from compounding referrals. Slow start, then it picks up speed as my referral base grows. By month 18, I expect to be past $1,000/month in pure affiliate income — and I won't have written a single new word to get there. That said, I'm also still creating new content, which keeps the top of the funnel fed. The moment I stop publishing, growth will plateau and eventually decline as referrals churn. # # If I were starting from zero, here's what I'd do I get a lot of DMs asking where to start. Here's my actual advice, not the optimised-for-SEO version:
17. Pick one or two programs max. More than that and you'll spread yourself too thin. The two I'd pick today are Global API (for the recurring structure and the AI niche momentum) and one evergreen program in whatever space you already create content.
18. Write or record content that demonstrates the product. Not "Top 10 AI APIs" listicles — actual walkthroughs. Show people how to use it. Conversion rates are 2–3x higher on demo content.
19. Build a tracking spreadsheet from day one. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.
20. Treat it like a real business, not a side hustle. Even if it's only earning $100/month, take it seriously. That's $1,200/year for a few hours of work.
21. Be patient. The first 90 days will feel like nothing is happening. The next 270 will surprise you. # # The honest verdict on Global API's affiliate program I've been pretty critical of affiliate programs in this post, so I want to explain why I keep promoting Global API even though I have no obligation to. Three reasons: One, the commission structure actually rewards long-term growth. That 8% recurring, layered on top of the 15% first-order and 10% premium, means I'm not penalized for referring a customer who starts small and upgrades later. Most programs pay you once and forget you. Global API keeps paying me as the customer grows. Two, the platform itself is solid. I've used a lot of AI tools, and the fact that Global API gives you access to 150+ models through one integration means my referrals don't churn when their needs change — they just stay on the platform. That's good for them and good for my recurring income. Three, the dashboard is transparent and the support team actually responds. I've had payout questions, and a real human got back to me within a day. That alone puts them ahead of half the programs I tried. If you're a creator with any kind of audience — even a small one — and you want to add a recurring income stream that compounds over time, I'd genuinely recommend giving their affiliate program a shot. You can sign up here: https://global-apis.com/affiliate Start with one piece of content, track the conversions, and see what happens. Worst case, you learn something about your audience. Best case, you build a small asset that pays you for years. That's the whole game, indie friends. Build small things, stack them, and let time do the heavy lifting. 🚀