I want to start this with full transparency, because that's what build in public is all about. Six months ago, I had zero affiliate income. Today, I'm pulling in consistent monthly revenue from promoting AI APIs, and I want to walk you through every step, every mistake, and every dollar along the way.
This isn't a "I made $50,000 in 30 days" story. It's an "I did the work and here's what actually happened" story. With screenshots. With real numbers. With the ugly parts included.
The Affiliate Rabbit Hole (And Why Most People Quit)
Let me be brutally honest with you. My first attempt at affiliate marketing was a complete disaster.
I picked a random SaaS product I had never used, wrote a generic "top 10" review post that was basically a reworded version of their landing page, slapped my affiliate link at the bottom, and waited for the money to roll in. Three months later, I had made $14. Total. Across all my "content."
That was my wake-up call. I realised two uncomfortable things:
- You can't promote what you don't actually understand
- Passive income is only "passive" after you put in active, painful work upfront Most people who try affiliate marketing fail because they treat it like a lottery ticket. Buy a domain, write five articles, hope Google sends traffic, collect commissions. That's not a strategy. That's a fantasy. I went back to the drawing board and asked myself one question: what do I actually use every single day as a developer that other developers would
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