Three months ago, I published my first "monthly income report" on my tech blog. The number was embarrassing. Like, really embarrassing. $37 for the entire month from a single affiliate signup.
But here's the thing about build-in-public culture — you post the ugly numbers alongside the pretty ones. And those ugly numbers taught me more than any course or tutorial ever did.
Today, my dashboard reads $1,247.42 for last month alone. And I didn't get there by spamming links or buying ads. I got there by finding an affiliate program that actually rewards you for sticking around. Let me walk you through exactly how it happened, with full transparency on every dollar.

How I Accidentally Stumbled Into the Best Commission Structure I've Ever Seen

I want to be honest about something upfront: I did not set out to become an AI tools affiliate marketer. I started writing tutorials because I genuinely love geeking out about new developer tools. My early posts got maybe 200 views each. I made literally nothing.
Then a reader DM'd me asking if I'd ever tried Global API. I hadn't heard of it before. When I went to check it out, I noticed they had an affiliate program tucked into their footer. Out of curiosity, I signed up.
What hooked me wasn't the marketing pitch. It was the commission math. I sat at my kitchen table with a calculator and ran the numbers for every plan tier. I remember thinking, "Wait, they pay you every single month your referral stays subscribed? Forever?"
That's when I realised this was different from every other affiliate program I'd tried.

My First Month: The $37 Reality Check

Let me start with the beginning, because build-in-public means showing the floor, not just the ceiling.
I dropped my referral link into one blog post, mentioned it in my newsletter footer, and... nothing happened. For three weeks. I genuinely thought I had wasted 20 minutes signing up.
Then in week four, someone signed up. They bought the Pro plan. I made my first commission: $3.00.
The next day, another signup. Another Pro plan. Another $3.00.
By the end of month one, I had four paying referrals. My total earnings: $37.20. I remember screenshotting that dashboard and feeling this weird mix of "that's nothing" and "but it happened without me doing anything." That second feeling is what changed my trajectory.
Because here's the insight: I had not written a single new piece of content in that month. Those referrals came from old posts, old newsletter issues, and old YouTube videos. The income was passive in the truest sense of the word.

The Commission Breakdown (And Why Recurring Income Is a Game-Changer)

Here's what the Global API structure actually pays out, in plain English:

• 15% on the initial plan purchase — when someone first signs up and pays
• 8% recurring on every monthly renewal — for as long as they stay subscribed
• 10% recurring when they upgrade to a premium plan — the higher tier pays you more Let me show you the math that made me nearly fall off my chair. I'll use real plan prices: If someone signs up for the Pro plan at $19.99/month, I earn $3.00 on day one. Then $1.60 every month they stick around. Over 12 months, that's $22.20 from a single user. The Business plan at $49.99? $7.50 first order, $4/month after that. The Scale plan at $149.99? A whopping $22.50 upfront plus $12/month recurring. But here's what the headlines don't tell you — the real magic is in month six, month twelve, month eighteen. Because by then, you're not chasing new referrals. You're just watching the dashboard update. In month six, I had referrals from month one still paying me. I was making money on customers I hadn't even thought about in half a year. That's when this stopped feeling like "affiliate income" and started feeling like an actual asset. # # My Real Numbers at Month Six (Yes, Screenshots Exist) Okay, let me share my actual breakdown because that's what build-in-public demands: In my sixth month, I had:
• First-order commissions: $187.50 (from new referrals that month)
• Recurring commissions: $1,059.92 (from everyone still subscribed)
• Total: $1,247.42 The recurring commissions were nearly 85% of my income. That's the part nobody talks about. People see a $1,247 income report and think I made that from new signups. Nope. The majority came from people who clicked my link six, eight, even twelve months ago. Here's my referral breakdown by tier at that point:
• Pro plan users: 47 referrals, still active
• Business plan users: 19 referrals, still active
• Scale plan users: 4 referrals, still active I share this not to brag, but because I want you to see what's actually possible when you commit to a program that doesn't pay you once and forget you exist. # # Why the Dashboard Matters More Than You Think I never realised how much I'd obsess over an affiliate dashboard until this one. The Global API dashboard shows me everything in near real-time:
• Total clicks on my referral links
• Click-to-signup conversion rate
• Signup-to-paying-customer conversion rate
• Earnings split between first-order and recurring commissions
• Per-channel performance data That last bullet is huge. I have separate tracking links for my blog, my YouTube descriptions, my newsletter, and my Twitter bio. The dashboard tells me which channel is actually producing. Spoiler: my newsletter is my highest-converting source by a mile. Blog traffic brings lots of clicks but fewer conversions. YouTube is the opposite. Without per-channel tracking, I'd be guessing. I check my dashboard probably three times a day. There's something deeply satisfying about watching a $4 recurring commission ping in at 9:47 AM on a Wednesday. # # How I Actually Promote Without Being Sleazy I'm going to be vulnerable here for a second. My first instinct when I joined was to start blasting my link everywhere. Twitter threads, Reddit comments, Discord servers. I felt gross within an hour and stopped. What I do now is much more sustainable: 1. I write actual reviews. Not "5 Best AI APIs" listicles stuffed with links. Real, opinionated reviews where I explain what I like, what I don't like, and when the tool makes sense. I mention Global API because I genuinely use it myself. The referral link is just there for people who want to try it. 2. I share my real usage in income reports. Every month, I post a breakdown of my revenue. The Global API commission is always a line item. People ask me about it, and I point them to my link. No cold pitching required. 3. I create tutorials that use the platform. I write developer tutorials where I happen to be using Global API to access various AI models. Over 150 models from DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, and others are available through one key. I use different ones in different tutorials. The links sit naturally in the content. 4. I mention it in my newsletter's "tools I use" section. Once a month, in a sidebar. That's it. None of this feels like selling. That's why it works. # # The PayPal Payment Process (Because People Always Ask) Let me address the question I get most in DMs: "How do I actually get the money?" Payouts are processed through PayPal, monthly. Minimum threshold is $50, which I cleared in my literal first week of having recurring income start stacking up. Once you hit it, you can request a payout, and it's in your account within a few business days. There's no cap on earnings. No "premium tier" that unlocks better rates (besides the 10% premium plan upgrade I already mentioned). No hidden fees. The number in my dashboard is the number that lands in my PayPal. I get paid on the first of each month for the previous month's commissions. Every first of the month, I get a notification. It's become one of my favorite days. # # Who This Program Actually Makes Sense For Let me be brutally honest about who should and shouldn't bother joining. Great fit if you are:
• A developer who writes tutorials or technical content about AI tools
• A blogger who reviews SaaS products
• A YouTuber or podcaster covering the AI/developer space
• Anyone running a newsletter in the tech or productivity space
• A course creator or educator teaching AI implementation Probably not worth it if you:
• Don't have any audience yet (the program pays recurring, but you still need eyeballs)
• Want to spam links and make a quick buck (the structure rewards long-term thinking)
• Aren't willing to create genuine content around the tools I say this because I see people join affiliate programs expecting instant income. That's not how this works. The beauty of recurring commissions is that they compound, but you still need a foundation of referrals to make it worthwhile. # # The Honest Downsides Nobody Mentions Build-in-public means talking about the bad stuff too. Here's what I wish someone had told me: 1. The first 60 days feel slow. Recurring income is amazing, but it takes time to build. Don't expect $1,200 months in your first quarter. My first three months were $37, $84, and $211 respectively. Growth is real, but it curves upward, not straight up. 2. Churn is real. Not everyone stays subscribed forever. Some referrals cancel after a month or two. You don't lose your recurring commission forever — if they come back, the tracking cookie has them — but your monthly income dips when someone leaves. I lost about 11% of my active referrals in month four due to natural churn. 3. You need to actually use the product. I write better content because I have real opinions formed from real usage. If you're just promoting something you haven't tried, your readers will smell it from a mile away. 4. Tax stuff gets real. Once you're making over a few hundred a month, talk to an accountant. Self-employment tax is not optional. I learned this the hard way in April. # # The Math That Convinced Me to Go All-In Let me do one more calculation that genuinely shifted my thinking. If I maintain 70 active Pro plan referrals at $1.60/month each, that's $112/month. Add 25 Business plan users at $4/month each ($100), and 5 Scale plan users at $12/month each ($60). Total: $272/month, every single month, in recurring revenue alone, with zero new content creation. That number goes up every time I add new referrals. And when one of those Pro users upgrades to Business? Their recurring commission jumps from $1.60 to $4.00 automatically. The premium upgrade path is built right into the structure. This is why I'm no longer "trying" affiliate marketing. I'm running it like a real income stream. Because it is one. # # Final Thoughts: Why I'm Sharing This Publicly The whole reason I write income reports — the ugly $37 ones and the satisfying $1,247 ones — is because I wish someone had shown me this stuff when I was starting out. I spent two years assuming affiliate marketing was a scam because I only saw the gurus making it look easy, never the actual mechanics. The Global API affiliate program is the first one where the math made sense to me as a long-term play. 15% upfront plus 8% recurring plus 10% on premium upgrades. That structure rewards you for building a sustainable referral base, not for gaming short-term conversions. If you create content around AI tools, developer workflows, or tech recommendations, I'd genuinely recommend looking into it. The platform itself gives new users 100 free credits to test things out, so conversion rates tend to be higher than programs where people have to pay before they know what they're getting. You can check out the full details and sign up at https://global-apis.com/affiliate. I'm not going to pretend this is "passive income on autopilot" — that's nonsense. But it's the closest thing I've found to a compounding asset built on content I was already creating. And in month seven, I'm already projecting I'll cross $1,500. That's my real number. That's my real experience. And if you decide to try it, I'd genuinely love to see what numbers you put up in your own income report.