How to reverse-engineer your REAL recurring from the dashboard

How to reverse-engineer your REAL recurring from the dashboard

Hot reminder: the "recurring revenue" tile on your affiliate dashboard is gross and lies by omission. Reconstruct the truth:

— Export 6+ months of approved commissions.
— For each cohort, track how many referred accounts are still paying month 4, 5, 6.
— Calculate YOUR observed monthly churn from that, not the program's claim.
— Subtract pending/held amounts that never approved.
— Plot net recurring, not cumulative. Cumulative always goes up; net tells you if you're treading water.

Most affiliates find their net recurring flatlined months ago — new signups just barely replace churned ones. That's not passive income, that's a hamster wheel with a payout.

Verdict: if net recurring is flat, you don't have an asset, you have a job.