My Affiliate Income Spreadsheet: How a Side Hustle Dev Added $500/Month With Zero New Code
Last January I sat down with my Notion dashboard open and did something I should have done years earlier. I tallied every dollar my side hustles brought in for the previous twelve months, divided each stream by the hours I actually worked, and ranked them by return-per-hour. Three of my five income streams looked fine on the surface. Two of them were embarrassing when I did the math. That…
Last January, the author sat down and calculated the income generated by their side hustles over the past year. They divided each stream's revenue by the hours they worked to determine the return per hour. Three of the five income streams appeared reasonable, while two were disappointing once the math was done. This exercise led to the addition of an AI API affiliate program to their side hustle.
The author's income sources include freelance client work, a SaaS product, YouTube sponsorships, blog ad revenue, and an AI API affiliate program. The freelance work pays between $100 and $150 per hour, with a scaling factor of 1 as the author's income stops when they are not working. The SaaS product brings in $800 to $1,200 per month on a recurring basis, with a per-hour rate of $50.
YouTube sponsorships generate $500 to $1,500 per video, equating to $66/hour, but are unpredictable. Blog ad revenue falls between $200 and $400 per month with an 18-hour monthly commitment. The AI API affiliate program, now the most lucrative income stream, brings in $350 to $600 per month with a scaling factor of 5, and requires only two hours of maintenance per month.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
