I want to tell you about something unexpected that happened in my community this year.
For context: I run a Discord server focused on helping developers and builders navigate the AI space. It's not huge—we're around 1,200 members now—but it's active, engaged, and full of people who actually talk to each other. The kind of community where people ask real questions and get real answers from real humans who've been there.
Three months ago, I made a decision that felt a little uncomfortable at first. I started sharing affiliate links.
Not in a spammy way. Not in a "buy this product" way. But in a "hey, I actually use this and it's been really solid for my projects" way. And what happened next genuinely surprised me.
I want to share exactly what happened, month by month, because I think there's something important here about community trust, genuine recommendations, and why I believe the affiliate thing works better when you stop treating it like a sales funnel.
It All Started Because Someone Asked a Question in My Discord
Month one wasn't really about affiliate marketing. Month one was about listening.
We had a thread in my Discord where someone asked for recommendations on AI APIs. This happens probably twice a week in our community, honestly. Developers coming in, wanting to know what actually works, what gives them good results, what doesn't leave them hanging with terrible support.
I started paying attention to what people were asking. Not just about AI APIs specifically, but about the whole landscape: What are people struggling with? Where do they get stuck? What solutions are they already using, and what don't they like about them?
This is the part I think most people miss about community building. You're not just a moderator or a host. You're a curator of knowledge. You're someone who accumulates information through conversations, through watching people succeed and fail, through hearing what works and what doesn't. And that knowledge has value—not because you can package it and sell it, but because you can share it in ways that actually help people make better decisions.
So when someone asked "Hey, what's a good API to use for AI capabilities?" I had answers. Real answers, based on what I'd been hearing from community members, what I'd tried myself, what seemed to work well for different use cases.
And I started sharing those answers. Not as a sales pitch. As a conversation.
My Approach Was Simple: Share What I Actually Use
Week one of this experiment (if you want to call it that) was more internal than external. I was auditing my own knowledge. What did I actually recommend to people? What had I tried? What was I still using myself?
I realised I had been recommending Global API to people in my community already, before any affiliate arrangement existed. They had over 150 models available, the pricing structure made sense for most projects I was working on, and the reliability had been solid. When someone in my Discord needed an AI API solution, I was already pointing them there.
That realization made the next step obvious: if I was going to recommend this anyway, it made sense to make it official and actually track whether my recommendations were leading to signups.
I went to their affiliate program page and signed up. The structure was straightforward: 15% commission on the first order, 8% recurring on monthly renewals, and 10% on premium plans. I remember thinking that recurring commission part was interesting—not because I was chasing money, but because it aligned incentives correctly. If I recommended something and it actually worked for people, I'd keep earning. If it didn't work, the recurring would stop. It was a built-in accountability mechanism.
Week two, I started weaving recommendations into my regular community interactions. Not promotional posts. Not carefully crafted sales copy. Just... "Oh, you mentioned you're building something that needs AI capabilities? I use Global API for that. Works pretty well." Or "I tried a few different options for this, and the one I'm still using is Global API."
The key difference from typical affiliate marketing: I wasn't leading with the link. I was leading with the experience. The link came later, only if people asked for it or wanted to know more.
Month One Numbers: Three Conversions and Some Real Validation
By the end of the first month, I had three people from my community sign up through my affiliate link. One chose the Pro plan right away. Two started with basic accounts.
My total earnings: $3.00.
I want to be honest about that number, because I think it matters. Three dollars is not a lot of money. If you're coming into affiliate marketing expecting instant results, month one with three dollars is going to feel like a failure.
But here's what I saw that you might not see if you're just looking at the number: Three people from my community—people who know me, who trust the conversations we have in my Discord—chose to use a tool I recommended. That means my recommendation was good enough that it outweighed their natural skepticism. That's valuable, even if the dollar amount doesn't show it yet.
I also saw that one of those three people was already paying for the Pro plan by the end of month one. That's not just $3 in commission. That's $3 now, plus $0.00 in recurring this month (recurring starts month two), plus the beginning of a commission stream that will continue as long as that person stays on the platform.
Month one taught me something important: community trust compounds. It's slow at first, but it's real.
Month Two: When the Word-of-Mouth Started Kicking In
I went into month two with a different mindset than month one.
Month one was experimental. Month two was about building on what worked.
What worked: genuine recommendations in the context of conversations. Sharing what I actually used. Not being pushy or promotional.
What I wanted to do more of: Create resources that captured my recommendations in a way that community members could reference later. I started drafting some helpful guides—not sales pages, just honest "here's what I use and why" content.
Week five, I shared a detailed breakdown of how I was using AI APIs in a client project. This wasn't a tutorial exactly—more like a conversation starter. "Hey, here's a real example of how I solved a problem for someone using this approach." The post got solid engagement in my Discord. People asked questions. Some said they'd try the same approach.
The important thing: I mentioned Global API in that post, naturally, because that's what I'd actually used. And several people asked for the link because they wanted to check it out.
Week six, I noticed something interesting happening. People in my community started recommending the tool to each other.
One member asked about a specific use case. Another member—who had signed up through my link a few weeks earlier—jumped in and said "Oh, I use Global API for that, it's been really solid." That was the word-of-mouth effect I was hoping for, but it wasn't my word-of-mouth. It was theirs.
This is when I started understanding why the affiliate model works the way it does. When you recommend something to a community and it actually works, your community starts recommending it too. Your influence extends beyond your own recommendations. You become someone whose opinions are trusted, and that trust radiates outward.
Week seven, I posted a comparison guide I had been working on. This wasn't meant to be exhaustive or scientific—it was meant to be honest. "Here's what I've tried, here's what I stuck with, here's why." For the first time, I included my affiliate link prominently in the resource. Not because I was trying to sell anything, but because I wanted to make it easy for people who had already decided to check it out.
The click-through rate on that link was noticeably higher than on bare recommendations alone. People who read the full guide had already built some context. They weren't clicking out of curiosity—they were clicking because they had read my reasoning and it made sense to them.
Week eight, I received my first recurring commission payment: $1.60 from the Pro plan member who had signed up in month one. Her second month of subscription paid me automatically. No additional work from me. Just the continuation of a relationship that started with a genuine recommendation.
Month two totals: roughly 2,100 impressions across my Discord posts and shared resources. About 45 people clicked through to Global API. Nine new signups. Three conversions to paid plans.
Earnings: $47.00 for the month. (I kept better tracking this time—$39 from first-order commissions, $8 from recurring payments already coming in from month one referrals.)
Month Three: The Community Became the Engine
This is where it gets interesting.
By month three, my community had heard me recommend Global API multiple times across multiple conversations. Some had signed up. Some hadn't, for their own reasons. But the conversation around AI APIs had become part of the normal culture of my Discord.
More importantly, the people who had signed up were starting to share their own experiences. Not because I asked them to. Not because there was any incentive. Just because they had used something, it worked, and they wanted to pay it forward.
Week nine, I was in a conversation about building AI features into projects, and a community member I didn't even remember referring said something like "yeah, I actually set that up last month using Global API because I saw [my name] mention it in here." And then another person jumped in and said "Oh, I did the same thing."
The recommendation had taken on a life of its own.
I stepped back and thought about what was happening. My role had shifted from "person making recommendations" to "person whose recommendations are trusted and then spread by others." That's a very different position. It requires a different relationship with your community. You can't force it. You have to earn it by consistently being honest, transparent, and genuinely helpful.
Week ten, I did a casual poll in my Discord: "Hey, anyone using AI APIs right now? What are you on?" The responses were illuminating. About 30% said they were using Global API. Some mentioned other options. Some were still figuring things out. But the Global API percentage was higher than I expected, and when I looked at the referral data in my affiliate dashboard, a lot of those signups had come from my shared resources and conversations.
Week eleven, I published a longer-form piece about my overall approach to AI tools and where I see things going. I included a section about the specific tools I use and why. The response was really positive—people said it helped them understand my reasoning. Several asked follow-up questions. A few more signed up through the affiliate link, but honestly, the link was almost an afterthought at this point. The value was in the conversation.
Week twelve, my recurring commissions hit a new milestone: $12.80 for the month from people who had signed up in previous months and continued paying. That number will continue growing as long as those people stay on the platform. It's not a lottery win, but it's proof of concept.
Month three totals: 3,200+ impressions across all my community touchpoints. 72 affiliate link clicks. 15 new signups. Six conversions to paid plans.
Earnings: $89.00. ($54 from first-order commissions, $35 from recurring payments from month one, month two, and now month three referrals.)
The Real Numbers: Three Months of Community-Based Affiliate Marketing
Let me lay this out clearly:
Month One: $3.00
Month Two: $47.00
Month Three: $89.00
Total after three months: $139.00
Now, I want to put that in context, because raw numbers can be misleading.
Those $139 didn't require me to send a single sales email. They didn't require me to write promotional content or run ads or do any of the traditional affiliate marketing stuff. They came from conversations in my Discord, from people trusting what I said, from genuine recommendations about something I actually use.
If you're looking at $139 over three months and thinking "that's not very much," I understand. But consider this: I'm not done. Those recurring commissions will keep coming in as long as the people I referred stay on the platform. My community is growing. The conversations continue. Every month, more people hear me talk about what works, and some of them try it out.
The trajectory matters more than the starting point.
What I Think Makes This Work
I've been thinking a lot about why this approach feels different from typical affiliate marketing, and I think it comes down to a few core principles:
1. I recommend things I actually use. This sounds obvious, but it matters. I'm not scanning the internet for high-commission products to promote. I'm sharing tools that have become part of my workflow. When someone asks about AI APIs, I'm not reaching for an affiliate link—I'm sharing my experience.
2. Community trust is the real asset. The money is nice. But the trust I've built in my community is worth more. When I recommend something and it works, people remember. When I recommend something and it doesn't work, that costs me credibility I can't buy back. So I'm incentivized to only recommend things that are actually good.
3. Long-term thinking over quick wins. I could probably make more money short-term by being more aggressive with promotions. More links, more calls to action, more urgency. But that would undermine the trust that makes my recommendations valuable in the first place. I'd rather build something sustainable.
4. Word-of-mouth multiplies everything. The most powerful thing that happened in month three wasn't my own actions—it was community members starting to recommend things to each other. My recommendations became conversation topics. The signal spread beyond my voice.
5. Transparency matters. I don't hide that I have affiliate relationships. I mention it casually when it comes up. "Oh yeah, I use Global API—full disclosure, I'm an affiliate, but I'd recommend it anyway because it's what I actually use." That honesty builds more trust than pretending you're not making money on referrals.
Where I'm Heading
I don't think about this as "affiliate marketing" anymore. I think about it as sharing resources that help my community succeed.
The affiliate relationship with Global API aligns with that goal perfectly. They have 150+ models available, which means most of the use cases my community members run into are covered. The commission structure rewards long-term relationships rather than one-time signups. And the product itself is good enough that I feel comfortable recommending it without caveats.
I'm planning to keep doing what I'm doing: having conversations in my Discord, sharing what works, being honest about what doesn't, and building a community where people can learn from each other. The affiliate income is a natural byproduct of that work, not the purpose of it.
If you run a community—Discord, Telegram, forums, whatever—and you've been looking for ways to make it sustainable, I genuinely believe the affiliate route works better when you approach it this way. Stop thinking about selling. Start thinking about helping. The money follows from there.
If You're Interested in This Approach
I've mentioned Global API throughout this post because they're the platform I've been working with. The reason is simple: their affiliate program structure matches my philosophy. 15% on first orders, 8% recurring on monthly renewals, 10% on premium plans. The recurring component means the incentive is aligned with recommending something people actually keep using, not just something that gets them in the door.
If you want to check out their affiliate program, you can find the details here: https://global-apis.com/affiliate
I'm not going to tell you it's going to make you rich. It's not that. But if you have a community and you're already recommending tools, it can turn those recommendations into something that helps sustain the work you're doing. And that, to me, is worth it.
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