Everyone wants to “make money while they sleep.” It sounds so poetic — like your bank account is a fairy godmother sprinkling passive-income dust while you snore.
But here’s the catch: this dream is just that — a dream.
Welcome to the cold shower.
The internet loves to tell you that anyone can build a business from nothing. All you need is “consistency” and “value” — two words that sound noble and mean absolutely nothing without traffic, timing, or luck.
You’re told you don’t need experience, products, or money — just “drive.”
That’s like saying you can win a marathon barefoot, blindfolded, and running the wrong direction… as long as you “believe.”
The truth?
This “anybody” movement mostly benefits the platforms, not the creators. You’re feeding the machine, not building one.
Affiliate marketing: the oldest, dustiest promise in the online business graveyard.
Yes, you can “make money” promoting someone else’s tool or course. You can also make about 27 cents per click and spend six months writing blog posts that maybe earn enough to buy a coffee — a small one.
Here’s the real model:
You write endlessly about tools you’ve never used.
You chase algorithms that change monthly.
You call it “freedom,” but it’s just unpaid marketing for big brands that already have freedom.
But sure — keep calling yourself a “digital entrepreneur.” It sounds better than “unpaid affiliate intern.”
The blog brags about “pipelines,” “automation,” and “dashboards.”
Translation: hours of tinkering in Notion to feel productive while making no money.
You’ll build:
A content pipeline that mostly collects half-finished drafts.
A keyword library full of phrases 200 other blogs already rank for.
An affiliate tracker that reminds you how little you’ve earned.
Automation tools that break every time an app updates.
But hey — at least you’ll have color-coded tabs.
There’s a four-phase “growth plan.” Spoiler: all four phases are basically “work harder for less.”
Systemize: write SOPs for tasks you’ll never delegate because you can’t afford help.
Compound: keep rewriting the same SEO article hoping Google notices you exist.
Monetize: add more affiliate links nobody clicks.
Delegate: hire someone from Fiverr to fix your Fiverr-tier blog.
That’s not scaling. That’s a hamster wheel disguised as a staircase.
They say process beats chaos. True — except when your “process” optimizes something that doesn’t work.
A machine that’s perfectly calibrated to produce zero results is still useless — just more efficient at wasting your time.
Zapier, Make, Airtable, Notion…
A beautiful stack of shiny distractions.
Automation doesn’t fix bad strategy; it just helps you fail faster.
You can automate publishing, tracking, even posting on X — but you can’t automate being interesting.
The article insists that consistency turns nobodies into somebodies.
Except it doesn’t — not anymore.
The internet is a shouting match. You’re competing with AI content farms, billion-dollar media machines, and influencers who have actual charisma.
Your little affiliate blog about “Top 10 AI Tools” is a whisper in a hurricane.
Google says you need “E-E-A-T” (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
So everyone fakes it.
Every blog now has a “written by” bio, a fake headshot, and made-up credentials.
You know what that builds? Not trust — noise.
Everyone’s “credible” now. Nobody’s believable.
You know that elegant loop:
“Create → Traffic → Revenue → Automate → Create”?
It sounds so smooth — like perpetual motion. Except it stalls when any part breaks.
Which it will. Constantly.
Traffic drops? Game over.
Affiliate program shuts down? Back to zero.
Algorithm changes? Welcome back to square one.
It’s less of a “flywheel” and more of a wobbly shopping cart with one broken wheel.
Every failed online entrepreneur has one thing in common: too many subscriptions.
$15 for hosting, $25 for analytics, $29 for email automation, $49 for SEO tools — and $0 revenue.
You don’t have a business. You have a collection of software you’re emotionally attached to.
“Measure what matters!”
Great advice — except when nothing you measure actually moves the needle.
Traffic? Inflated by bots.
CTR? Useless without conversions.
Revenue per thousand? Laughably small.
Hours per post? Increasing, because you’re exhausted.
You don’t have analytics. You have numerically formatted disappointment.
Scaling assumes there’s something worth scaling. But most people build castles in the cloud — beautiful, but vapor.
Iteration doesn’t fix a bad foundation. You can polish the system, automate the content, track the KPIs — and still be wrong about the market, the niche, and the audience.
All you’re doing is making failure more sophisticated.
Once you’ve burned out on affiliate marketing, you’ll be told to “create your own product.”
So you’ll spend three months making a Notion template or mini-course that earns $19 total.
Congrats — now you’re not just an affiliate. You’re also a disappointed creator.
“Started with 4,800 visits and $13 revenue.”
Wow. Inspirational.
That’s enough to buy a sandwich — if you skip the drink.
The only real “momentum” here is the spin.
“Pick a niche. Stay consistent. Believe in yourself.”
Sure — and while you’re at it, build a house out of good intentions and wishful thinking.
Because here’s the truth: most people who try this quit. Not because they’re lazy — but because the system they were sold never actually worked.
“Systems turn nobody new into somebody people pretend to know.”
That line accidentally nails it.
This isn’t about freedom or creativity. It’s about optics — looking like a “somebody” while quietly burning out in the background.
It’s not building a business. It’s building a façade that collapses the moment you stop posting.
“Build a business without touching a product” sounds romantic — but it’s really code for build nothing, touch nothing, own nothing, and hope something happens.
If you want to build something real, start by creating value that can’t be automated away. Otherwise, you’re just another “nobody” shouting into the void, waiting for the algorithm to notice — and it probably won’t.