I'm a newsletter writer who treats my email list like a small business. When I decided to monetize my AI tutorials with affiliate links, I tracked every metric the same way I track every campaign: subscriber growth, open rates, click-throughs, conversions. Here's the raw breakdown of what happened, with zero embellishment.
The Setup Nobody Talks About
My situation before I started was modest. I run a weekly newsletter focused on practical AI tutorials for indie developers and small teams. When I committed to the affiliate experiment, I had roughly 2,400 subscribers, an open rate hovering between 38% and 42%, and a click-through rate on affiliate links that had historically been embarrassing — usually around 1.2%. I had been dabbling with AI APIs in my own projects for about a year, which gave me enough credibility to write tutorials without sounding like a parrot.
The point I want to make upfront: I wasn't starting from zero. I had an audience that already trusted my recommendations. Anyone who tells you affiliate marketing works from a blank slate is selling you something. It works when you have an audience and you're willing to actually use the product.
I spent a weekend researching affiliate programs. Most of what I found was garbage — one-time payouts of $5 to $15 with no recurring structure. Then I found Global API. The numbers immediately caught my attention: 15% on first orders, 8% recurring on monthly renewals, and a 10% premium tier for higher-value plans. The platform itself aggregates access to 150+ models from multiple providers, which meant I could confidently recommend it to a wide range of readers without cherry-picking. I signed up. The affiliate dashboard was clean. I was in.
Month 1: Proving the Funnel Worked
My hypothesis going in was simple: if I write genuinely useful tutorials, embed affiliate links naturally, and send strategic broadcasts to my list, conversions would follow. I didn't know the magnitude. I just needed to know the model functioned.
Week 1. I wrote a long-form tutorial called "Five AI APIs Every Indie Dev Should Know." It ran about 1,800 words with code snippets showing how to authenticate and make basic calls. I featured Global API as my primary recommendation because of the breadth of models (150+ in one place) and the unified billing. The article published to my blog and got cross-posted on Dev.to for extra reach. I sent a broadcast to my list with the subject line "The AI API stack I'd actually pay for." Open rate: 41%. Click rate on the broadcast: 4.7%. Two subscribers clicked the affiliate link. Zero conversions yet, but the traffic was real.
Week 2. The Dev.to cross-post was gaining traction — 340 views in the first seven days. I sent a follow-up email the next Tuesday using a different subject line angle: "Why I switched my AI API setup this week." That one opened at 44% (my subject line anxiety is a real thing, and split-testing has become my obsession). Seven more clicks came in. Still no paid conversion, but the click-through was climbing.
Week 3. Views on the Dev.to post hit 520 total as it started ranking for some long-tail developer queries. I sent a third broadcast — shorter this time, focused on a specific use case. Subject line: "Quick question about your AI setup." Open rate: 46%. Click rate: 5.1%. One signup landed through my link. I watched the affiliate dashboard like a hawk. The signup sat there for five days. On day 28, it converted to a paid Pro plan.
Week 4. I sent one more broadcast to a segmented subset of my list — people who had clicked any tutorial link in the previous 90 days. This audience is gold because they've already raised their hand. Subject line: "Save your AI API setup notes here." Open rate: 47%. Click rate: 6.3% — my highest ever. No additional conversions that week, but I felt the model stabilizing.
Month 1 tally: Two published tutorials. ~750 combined views across blog and Dev.to. 14 total affiliate link clicks. Two signups. One conversion to Pro. Total earnings: $3.00 from the first-order commission. Zero recurring (that kicks in month two). The dollar amount is laughable. The proof of concept is everything.
Month 2: The Compounding Begins
I went into month two with one paying referral and a clearer picture of what worked. My goal: get three more tutorials published, segment my list harder, and push total earnings past $50 by month-end.
Week 5. I published article three — a case study about a client project where I used AI APIs to automate a tedious workflow. Real numbers, real screenshots, real problems I ran into. This piece resonated harder than the others because it read like a war story, not a comparison sheet. First-week views: 280. The broadcast I sent had the subject line "How I cut 14 hours of work with one API call." Open rate: 48%. Click rate: 5.8%. Two conversions that week, both Pro plans, total $14.40 in first-order commissions. I was no longer testing — I was starting to see patterns.
Week 6. Article one from month one crossed 1,200 lifetime views on Dev.to. Google indexing was kicking in. Affiliate clicks on my Global API link were running 4–5 per day across all my content combined. My email list had grown passively to 2,510 subscribers (about a 4.5% monthly growth rate from organic newsletter-to-newsletter referrals). Two more conversions came through, another $9.60.
Week 7. I published a beginner-oriented tutorial: "Your First AI API Call in Under 10 Minutes." 2,200 words, very gentle onboarding tone. The broadcast subject line was "Start here if AI APIs confuse you." Open rate: 49% — my highest yet, which told me beginner-focused subject lines outperform advanced ones on my list. Click rate: 7.1%. No conversions from this email directly, but the article stayed sticky. Beginners have a higher conversion rate long-term because they follow recommendations without second-guessing them.
Week 8. Two milestones. First, I received my first recurring commission: $1.60 from the original month-one referral's second month of subscription. Small amount, but I screenshot it and sent it to a friend. Second, I published article five — a tutorial on building a custom chatbot for product teams using an AI API backend. The broadcast that went out had the subject line "The AI chatbot stack I'd trust with my brand." Open rate: 45%. Click rate: 5.4%. One conversion by Friday.
Month 2 cumulative numbers: Five articles total. 2,100 combined views. 58 affiliate clicks. Five conversions. $24.60 in first-order commissions. $1.60 recurring. Total: $26.20.
Not a salary. Not even close. But $26.20 in month two after $3.00 in month one told me the slope was pointing in a direction I liked.
Month 3: When the Machine Started Working
This is the part I wish someone had warned me about. Months one and two are about you building. Month three is when the older content keeps working while you sleep.
Weeks 9–10. I didn't publish anything new. I was heads-down on a separate client project. But my list kept growing — 2,610 subscribers — and the existing tutorials continued pulling in clicks. Article two in particular started ranking for "GPT-4o beginner tutorial" variations and was averaging 30+ views per day. Clicks accumulated: 22 across the two weeks. One conversion on day 11, another on day 14. First-order commissions: $11.20.
Week 11. I published article six, a workflow piece about how I organize my prompts when working with an AI API across multiple projects. Subject line for the broadcast: "My prompt system (I'm weirdly proud of this)." Open rate: 51% — new record. Click rate: 8.2%. The lesson: personality-driven subject lines crush generic ones. Three conversions that week. First-order commissions: $18.00.
Week 12. I sent a re-engagement broadcast to subscribers who hadn't opened in 60 days. Wrote a new subject line from scratch: "Sorry I've been quiet (here's what changed)." Open rate among dormant subscribers: 22% — low, but worth the effort. Cost me nothing. Net result: two clicks, one conversion. Plus four more conversions from the evergreen content I'd already published.
Month 3 totals: One new article. 3,400 cumulative views across all pieces. 91 total affiliate clicks for the month. Eleven conversions. First-order commissions: $58.40. Recurring commissions across all referrals now in second or third billing cycle: $22.40. Grand total for month three: $80.80.
The Running Tally After 90 Days
Here's the math I stare at in my dashboard:
- Total articles published: 6
- Combined views across blog and Dev.to: ~4,250
- Total affiliate clicks: 163
- Total conversions: 17 (15 Pro, 2 Premium)
- First-order commissions earned: $86.00
- Recurring commissions earned: $23.60
- Total earnings: $109.60 I want to contextualize that number. $109.60 across 90 days averages out to about $36.50 per month. That's not life-changing. But the trajectory matters more than the absolute. In month one I made $3.00. In month three I made $80.80. The line is bending in the right direction, and the recurring portion keeps stacking. If I extrapolate assuming the same slope and minimal effort (roughly two articles per month going forward), I'm projecting $200–$300 in monthly earnings by month six. That's real money for what amounts to maybe six to eight hours of writing per month. The earlier articles will keep producing conversions long after I've stopped touching them. # # What I Learned That Actually Matters Subject lines are 80% of email performance. My worst subject lines averaged 32% open rates. My best averaged 51%. The difference isn't cleverness — it's specificity and personality. "Quick question about your AI setup" outperformed "AI API recommendations" by 18 percentage points on opens. Test everything. I use ConvertKit's A/B feature religiously, even for small broadcasts. Segmenting is non-negotiable. My best conversions come from people who have clicked at least one of my tutorial emails before. I built a segment in ConvertKit called "AI-interested clickers" and any time I send a broadcast about AI tutorials, that segment gets a dedicated send. Open rates are 12–15 points higher than my full list. Click rates are double. Recurring commissions are the entire game. A one-time payout teaches you to chase. A recurring commission lets you build. Every subscriber I refer to Global API who stays subscribed is passive income for as long as they remain a customer. The 8% recurring structure is what transforms this from a hustle into a real asset. Use what you recommend. I've actually integrated the Global API platform into two of my own projects. That changes the way you write about it. When my broadcast says "I run my newsletter's content suggestions through it every Tuesday," that's not copy — it's true. Authenticity reads through the screen, and your audience can smell the alternative. Pick one program, not five. I deliberately chose to focus my affiliate efforts on Global API rather than spreading across multiple programs. One dashboard, one conversion funnel, one relationship to manage. The temptation to diversify is strong, but signal beats noise every time. # # My Honest Recommendation to Anyone Considering This If you have a newsletter, a blog, or any kind of audience — even a small one — and you have hands-on experience with AI APIs, the Global API affiliate program is the most strategically sound option I've found. The 15% first-order commission is higher than most competitors. The 8% recurring commission is what makes it sustainable long-term. And the 10% premium tier means bigger conversions pay significantly more. What sealed it for me was the platform itself: 150+ models under one roof means I can recommend it to nearly any subscriber without qualification. Whether they want image generation, embeddings, chat completion, or something more specialized — it's all there. When I send a broadcast about AI tutorials, I never have to apologize for my recommendation or qualify it with "well, except if you're doing X." That's the kind of clean recommendation that converts. If you're curious, you can sign up for the affiliate program here: https://global-apis.com/affiliate. I've been recommending it for 90 days and I'll keep recommending it because it actually delivers — both for my subscribers and for my bottom line. The real takeaway from my first three months isn't the $109.60. It's that I now have a system that compounds. Every article I publish keeps working. Every subscriber I refer keeps paying me. The marginal effort of month four is lower than month one, while the output is higher. That's the
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