I started this project on January 1, 2026 so I could easily track progression throughout the year. It is now January 2, 2026 and I’ve already seen firsthand how some of the things you see on the internet are bullshit (shocking!).

Well, I started diving into it around Thanksgiving 2025 when the first IG ad hit my feed and I spent the last month and a half just consuming all of the content and info I could on the subject. Probably too much b/c I can’t keep it all straight and I was worried that if I just kept reading and reading, I’d never actually do anything.

One post caught my eye b/c it was finally something relatable. It was a post with a guy sitting on a chair just pointing at his screen saying a vpn company would pay you $10k/month. The premise is you go to their site, sign up as an affiliate, put the link in your IG bio and when someone signs up for their service you get paid. Ez pz.

The VPN is relatable to me b/c I do a lot of work on hotel and airport wifi networks so VPN’s are critical. Also, I’m typing all of this up on my work issued laptop too 😬 So this is something I could talk competently about if anyone asked.

Now what they don’t tell you online is that you don’t sign up to be an affiliate, you apply to become an affiliate. You put in information about your sites you’d use to promote and well since I started this one day ago and I don’t have a site or any followers or any presence, you can probably imagine their response:

Well, crap.

Guess I need to build up my gang and reapply.