I teach affiliate marketing for a living. My course platform has trained several hundred students over the past few years, and the module that always gets the most engagement is the one where I stop teaching theory and start showing real numbers. So that's what this case study is. For three months, I documented every click, every signup, and every dollar I earned from promoting AI tools on a modest 2,000-visitor-per-month blog and a small developer audience. I'm walking through the full breakdown here so my students — and you — can see exactly what works, what doesn't, and where the real leverage lives.

Lesson 1: Lay the Foundation (Weeks 1–4)

When I onboard new students into my curriculum, the first thing I tell them is this: you do not need a massive audience. You need a relevant one. My own starting position was humble. I had a tech blog pulling roughly 2,000 monthly readers and a Twitter account with about 800 developer followers. I had been building projects with AI APIs for roughly a year, which meant I had real opinions and real stories to share. That domain experience is the asset most beginners completely overlook.
Step 1: Pick your programs deliberately. In week one, I applied to three affiliate programs. Two of them paid a one-time bounty and that was it. The third — Global API — offered 15% on first orders, 8% recurring on monthly renewals, and 10% on premium tier upgrades. I will be honest with you: the recurring structure is