The Monetization Mismatch: Why Your Business Model Might Be Holding You Back
There are moments in every entrepreneur’s journey that make you cringe in hindsight.
For me, one of those moments came when I looked back at the time I spent trying to make affiliate marketing work—with a small but engaged email list.
At the time, it seemed like a smart strategy.
Send helpful emails → Drop in affiliate links → Collect commissions → Repeat.
Simple. Scalable. Passive income, right?
Not exactly.
What Actually Happened
Here’s how it played out:
70 total clicks
Across 3 weeks
Resulting in just $66 in commissions
Meanwhile, I was spending hours each week crafting thoughtful, valuable content for my subscribers.
I believed in what I was recommending.
I believed in the value of my emails.
And I believed this model would pay off.
But I missed something big.
The Hidden Truth About Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate income is a game of volume.
The more people that click, the more you earn. That’s the entire equation.
Affiliate models thrive on scale—thousands of page views, hundreds of clicks, massive reach.
And me?
I had around 1,000 email subscribers.
Engaged, curious, and even ready-to-buy.
But not nearly enough of them to generate meaningful affiliate revenue.
That’s when it hit me:
I was playing the wrong game.
What I Had Was Trust—Not Traffic
Affiliate models are designed for creators and businesses that can drive traffic. Lots of it.
But I wasn’t there yet.
Instead, I had built something arguably more valuable: trust.
People opened my emails. They read them. They even replied.
But trust alone doesn’t make an affiliate link convert if it’s only seen by a handful of people.
This realization led me to a powerful concept I now call the Monetization Mismatch.
What Is a Monetization Mismatch?
A monetization mismatch happens when the business model you’re using doesn’t align with the stage of growth your audience or platform is in.
It’s not that your product or service is bad.
It’s not that your audience isn’t interested.
It’s that the way you’re trying to earn money isn’t built for your current situation.
Here’s how it breaks down:
Low-margin, volume-based models—like ads, affiliate marketing, or low-cost digital products—require a large audience to produce significant results.
But when your audience is small, you need to prioritize leverage, not volume.
What To Focus On Instead (When You’re Still Growing)
If you’re a creator, consultant, coach, or small business owner with a modest audience, you don’t need scale to earn revenue.
What you need are offers that convert without traffic.
These include:
✅ High-margin digital products
Templates
Mini-courses
Premium guides
Bundled resources
✅ High-ticket, high-touch services
1:1 coaching or consulting
Audits or strategy sessions
Group programs or cohorts
These types of offers generate more revenue per customer—and they rely on trust, not reach.
That’s the model that fits your stage.
It’s Not Just About Selling—It’s About Selling the Right Thing
Whether you sell physical products, digital resources, or services, the principle is the same:
You need to align what you sell with where your audience is.
If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking:
“Why aren’t more people buying?”
Consider this:
Maybe it’s not your product.
Maybe it’s not your audience.
Maybe it’s the model.
Final Thoughts
There’s nothing wrong with affiliate marketing. It works great—for the right business, at the right stage, with the right scale.
But if you're still in the early phases, trying to build a following, don’t fall into the same trap I did.
Start with leverage.
Start with higher-margin, trust-driven offers.
And build your way toward scale from there.
That’s how you create revenue that’s sustainable—and actually rewarding—long before your audience hits five or six figures.
