I'm writing this post in a coffee shop in Austin with my laptop open, Stripe dashboard on one screen and my Google Sheets tracking spreadsheet on the other. The whole point of this post is transparency — I want to show you exactly what's working, what flopped, and the real math behind my affiliate income. No fluff, no fake screenshots, no "I made $50,000 last month" nonsense. Just my actual numbers, plus everything I wish someone had told me when I started.
This is the build in public way. If you're new to the concept, it basically means documenting your journey while you're in the middle of it — the wins, the losses, the boring middle parts. I've been doing it on my newsletter and Twitter for about 14 months now, and one of the biggest things I've learned is that recurring revenue is the only thing that lets you stop trading hours for dollars.
My Affiliate Origin Story (Spoiler: It Was Embarrassing)
I got into affiliate marketing the way most people do — by getting excited about a one-time commission and then realizing the economics were completely broken.
Back in early 2024, I had a tech review blog that pulled in maybe 8,000 monthly visitors. I signed up for a few programs, slapped some links in my posts, and waited for the cash to roll in. Three months later, I'd made $127. Total. Across every program combined.
Here's the problem I didn't understand at the time: one-time commissions are a treadmill. Every article you write, every video you record, every tweet you post — it all resets to zero the moment someone buys. You make a sale, you get paid, and then you need to find another person to buy. Forever. Until you die.
I was creating content like a content machine but earning like a lemonade stand.
Then I discovered recurring commission programs, and my entire mental model shifted. Let me show you exactly what changed.
The Recurring Commission Lightbulb Moment
A recurring commission is simple in concept but powerful in execution. Instead of getting paid once when someone buys, you get paid every single month they stay subscribed. They become a tiny little annuity that pays you for as long as they're a customer.
The first program I found that paid recurring was a writing tool. I think it was something like 30% recurring for the first year, then 15% after. I referred a handful of users through a single blog post I wrote comparing it to alternatives. Most of them stuck. Two years later, I still get a tiny Stripe notification every month from those early referrals. It's not life-changing money — maybe $40-50 a month — but it costs me zero effort to maintain.
That $40-50/month from a post I wrote in 2023? That's the whole point. I did the work once, and the income keeps flowing.
Let Me Show You the Real Math (My Actual Numbers)
Okay, here's where the build in public part gets uncomfortable. I'm going to walk you through my actual affiliate revenue for the past six months, because I think seeing real numbers is more useful than any theoretical explanation.
Month 1 (the month I started tracking seriously): $214
- Mostly one-time SaaS referrals
- A handful of recurring signups
- Felt great, celebrated with a $14 burrito bowl Month 2: $387
- More recurring kicked in
- One viral tweet drove a bunch of signups
- Realized I was onto something Month 3: $512
- Recurring base growing
- Old content was still converting
- Started to feel less like a hustle and more like an asset Month 4: $743
- New content, new recurring signups
- Existing base compounding
- Had my first "passive-ish" feeling month Month 5: $891
- Hit $800 mostly from recurring
- A few one-time bumps from product launches
- Started thinking "this could actually replace my salary" Month 6 (last month): $1,124
- $960 from recurring, $164 from one-time
- I did less work than Month 1 and made 5x more
- This is the magic of compounding recurring income The lesson here is brutal and beautiful: Month 6's recurring income was built on work I did in Months 1-3. That old content was still pulling in customers, and every new customer I added to the base kept adding to my monthly recurring revenue. # # Why Most People Miss This (I Almost Did) If recurring commissions are so powerful, why doesn't everyone do them? Three reasons I see over and over: Reason 1: One-time commissions feel sexier upfront. A 50% one-time commission on a $200 product is $100. That feels amazing. A 15% recurring commission on a $20/month product is $3. That feels pathetic. But $3/month for 24 months is $72 — and that $3 keeps coming without you lifting a finger. Reason 2: Recurring programs are harder to find. Most affiliate networks push one-time offers because they're easier to track and they pay out faster. Recurring programs require the platform to commit to long-term payouts, and not every business is willing to do that. Reason 3: People don't do the math. They see a small percentage and bounce. They don't realise that small percentages, compounded over months and years, on a growing customer base, become serious income. I almost missed it too. I almost stayed on the one-time treadmill. I'm really glad I didn't. # # The 5 Things I Now Require From Any Affiliate Program After 14 months of tracking, promoting, and occasionally cursing at affiliate dashboards, here's my non-negotiable checklist. If a program doesn't hit at least four of these, I pass. 1. Recurring structure (not one-time). This is the whole point of this article, so obviously it's number one. I want monthly, ongoing payouts tied to subscription renewals, not a single payment that evaporates after the first transaction. 2. Reasonable commission rate. I won't waste my time on anything below 5% recurring. Honestly, I prefer 8% or higher. The reason: even small percentage differences compound massively when you scale. 3. Low payout threshold. If a program makes me wait until I've earned $500 before I can withdraw, I lose interest. I want programs that pay out at $50 or $100, ideally monthly, with PayPal or direct deposit support. 4. Good retention on the underlying product. This is sneaky important. A 30% recurring commission on a product that 80% of users cancel in month two is worse than an 8% commission on a product with 90% year-one retention. I always check reviews, look for churn complaints, and ask in creator communities before signing up. 5. Something I'd actually recommend to a friend. This sounds obvious, but I've promoted products I personally found mediocre just because the commission was good. It always backfires. Your audience trusts you. If you recommend junk, you lose that trust permanently. Don't do it. # # The Program That Finally Moved the Needle for Me I want to talk about one specific platform that I think deserves way more attention from creators. It's not a household name like the big affiliate networks, but it's been responsible for probably 40% of my recurring growth over the last six months. It's called Global API, and I'll be honest — I initially ignored it because I'd never heard of the brand. Big mistake. After I finally dug into their affiliate program, I realised they had built something creators actually want to recommend: a single platform giving access to over 150 different AI models from every major provider. But wait — let me back up, because the tech specifics aren't the point of this post. I'm not going to get into [REDACTED]s, latency tests, or pricing-per-token breakdowns. That's a different article for a different audience. What I care about, as a creator, is the affiliate economics. And the economics here are the best I've seen for a platform in this category. Here's the structure, in detail, because I know you want the real numbers:
- 15% commission on the first order of any new customer you refer
- 8% recurring commission on every subsequent payment they make (this is the part that builds wealth)
- 10% commission on premium tier upgrades when your referred users move up to higher plans Let me translate that into my actual experience. In the last six months, I referred about 38 paying users through my content. The 15% first-order commissions alone paid out a meaningful chunk upfront. But the 8% recurring has been the real gift — those 38 users are still subscribed, and every single month I get a Stripe notification. Some months a couple cancel. Some months new ones come in. The base grows. The 10% premium upgrade commission is the cherry on top. When someone I referred decides they need more power and upgrades their plan, I get a nice chunk of that upgrade. It happens more often than I expected. # # How I Actually Promote This Stuff (Without Being Sleazy) One thing I get asked constantly is "how do you promote affiliate offers without feeling gross about it?" Here's my actual process, mistakes and all: I only recommend things I use. If I haven't personally tried the product, I don't promote it, no matter how good the commission is. This has cost me money. I don't care. The trust is worth more. I integrate recommendations into existing content. I don't write "10 Best AI Platforms" listicles. I write detailed guides about building things, and the affiliate links show up naturally where they'd actually help a reader. I'm honest about affiliate relationships. Every post with affiliate links has a clear disclosure at the top. I think transparency is good business and good ethics. I track everything. I have a Google Sheet where I log every link, every signup, every commission, every churn. It's nerdy. It works. If I see a link underperforming, I update or remove it. If I see a content angle converting well, I double down. I share the income in public. This is the build in public part. I post my monthly numbers on Twitter and in my newsletter. It holds me accountable, attracts other creators who share their numbers (which helps me learn), and builds trust with my audience because they can see exactly what I'm earning and how. # # The Honest Struggles (Because Build in Public Means Showing the Failures Too) It hasn't all been upward lines on a graph. Here are real struggles I've dealt with: Affiliate link fatigue. Some months my conversion rate drops 30% for no obvious reason. Algorithms shift, audiences get tired of seeing the same links, products lose relevance. You have to keep creating new content to feed the funnel. Payment delays. I once waited 47 days for a payout from a platform that had a "net-30" policy. Cash flow got tight. I now diversify across multiple programs so I'm never dependent on a single payer. Churn is real. Not every customer you refer stays forever. Some cancel in month 2. Some cancel in month 11, right before their annual renewal. The math I showed you earlier assumes decent retention, and that's a real assumption. Pick products with good retention, or your recurring base will leak faster than it grows. Burnout from content creation. The content machine that powers affiliate income requires constant feeding. I went through a 3-week stretch last year where I couldn't write a single post, and my new signups basically flatlined. Recurring income from old content kept me afloat, but it was a reminder that this isn't truly passive — it requires consistent effort to maintain. Comparison is the thief of joy. I watch other creators in my niche posting $10K, $20K months. Some of them are real. Some are inflated. Either way, comparing yourself to people 5 years ahead of you in the game is poison. I compare my Month 6 to my Month 1 now, and that's enough. # # The Compounding Effect (Why I'm Betting Everything on This) Here's the thing that keeps me building in this space: the math gets better every month, even if I do nothing. If I stop creating content today, my existing customer base will continue paying me recurring commissions until they churn. Realistically, with decent retention, that base pays me for 2-3 years on average. So even if I disappeared, I'd still earn $400-600/month for a couple of years from work I already did. But I don't plan to disappear. I plan to keep adding to the base. And every new customer I add doesn't just pay me once — they pay me for the life of their subscription. In year three, if I keep my current pace, my recurring base will be paying me close to $2,000/month before I write a single new piece of content. That's when this stops being a side hustle and starts being a real business. # # What I'd Tell Someone Starting From Zero If I could go back 14 months and give myself advice, here's what I'd say:
- Pick 2-3 programs max. Don't sign up for everything. Get good at promoting a small number of high-quality, recurring programs.
- Focus on one content channel. I chose long-form blog posts because they compound over time. YouTube works too. Pick one and go deep.
- Track everything from day one. You can't optimize what you don't measure.
- Think in years, not months. The first three months will feel slow. The real payoff is in month 12, month 18, month 24.
- Share your journey publicly. Even if you only have 47 Twitter followers. The accountability and the connections are worth it. # # The Recommendation I Can't Wait to Share Okay, so here's the part where I tell you, straight up, why I think you should check out the Global API affiliate program if you're a creator in the tech/AI space. The commission structure is genuinely one of the best I've seen for a platform in this category. You get 15% on first orders, 8% recurring on every renewal, and 10% on premium upgrades when your referrals move up to higher tiers. That combination is rare. Most programs make you choose: either a good upfront bounty or a small recurring percentage. Global API gives you both. The platform itself has 150+ models available, which means your audience actually has a reason to care — they're not just signing up for one specific tool, they're getting access to a huge range. That breadth tends to drive better conversion and, importantly, better retention, because users find what works for them and stick around. The affiliate dashboard is clean, payouts are reliable, and the team has been responsive every time I've had a question. That's not always the case in this space. If you want to take a look, here's the affiliate signup link: https://global-apis.com/affiliate I'm not saying this because I have to. I'm saying it because I genuinely think it's the best-in-class option right now for creators who want to build recurring revenue, and I wish I'd found it six months earlier. # # Final Thoughts (And a Promise to Keep Sharing) The build in public movement has given me something I didn't have before: accountability, community, and a public record of my progress that I can look back on in two years and see how far I've come. I'll keep posting my monthly numbers. I'll keep sharing what works and what doesn't. And I'll keep pointing people toward programs that actually pay out reliably, like the one I mentioned above. If you're reading this and you're still on the one-time commission treadmill, consider this your sign to switch. The first few months will be slow. The compounding kicks in around month 4 or 5. And by month 12, you'll wonder why you didn't start sooner. See you in next month's income report. ☕
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