Two affiliates refer the same customer. One gets paid 5 times more.

Written and researched by
Rob Fore
Online marketer since 1996 · HBA affiliate since 2020 · author of the 32-producer study. 297 HBA customers referred, and $278,272.87 in HBA commissions over six years, per his own back office.

Typical results are far lower. HBA's own disclosure for the 12 months to 31 July 2026: the average active affiliate earned $530, and the median earned $0.

Can you really make money as an HBA affiliate?

I don't know.

Nobody does. Anyone who says otherwise is guessing, or selling.

But here's what I do know. I've brought 297 people into this company since 2020, and I kept every record. Who joined. What they bought. How long they stayed. How much I got paid.

But here's what I do know. Rob Fore has brought 297 people into this company since 2020, and he kept every record. Who joined. What they bought. How long they stayed. How much he got paid.

So this report can show you what 297 real people did.

Here's the part that surprised me.Here's the part that surprised him. Two people can refer the exact same customer, and one gets paid five times more. Same customer. Same sign-up. Same work.

It isn't how hard you work. It isn't how well you sell. It's one thing, and you decide it on your way in.

It's what YOU own.

HBA has a rule called own-it-to-earn-it. You get paid only on the products you own yourself. Don't own it, and you can send 100 people to it without seeing a dollar.

That sounds small. It isn't.

What ONE customer paid the affiliate who referred them, over all the years they stayed

The same people in every row. The only change is what the affiliate owned. From my own records.From Rob Fore's own records. * Let's Goal didn't exist until 2024, so the last bar uses newer figures and is less solid.

One affiliate owned only the $25 Funnel Builder. They earned $131 per customer. Another owned Funnel Builder, Premium and the Financial Literacy Academy. They earned $659 from the same customer.

Same people. Same work. Five times the money. Nobody worked harder, and nobody sold better. One of them could simply collect more.

That's the difference that made the difference for me. I didn't plan it. I got lucky: I bought all three early because I wanted to use them.

That's the difference that made the difference for Rob Fore. He didn't plan it. He got lucky: he bought all three early because he wanted to use them.

That's one ledger, not a forecast. HBA's median active affiliate earned $0 in the 12 months to 31 July 2026.

Is this report for you?

Be honest with yourself here, because the answer changes what you do next.

If you just want the tools, a page, a funnel and a way to email people, stop here. The $35 package does that job. Go build your thing. You don't need the rest of this.

Get the $35 package and skip the restI earn a commission if you join through this link.

If you want to build a real affiliate income, keep reading. This shows you how to be set up to collect the most, without paying for things you don't need yet.

Here's what's inside.

• My real records.Rob Fore's real records. What 297 people bought, and how long they kept paying. The good news, and the bad news nobody publishes.
• Three ways to join, and what each one leaves on the table.
• Three AI prompts. One builds a week you can actually repeat. Two set up your follow-up emails the day you join.

15 minutes to read. You don't have to decide today. Nothing here expires, except one window I'll warn you about ahead of time.

Where the money actually came from

I keptRob Fore kept a commission ledger. 297 customers who joined from 2020 to 2023, followed through 2026. Not a survey. Not a sample. Every person who bought anything through myhis link, for as long as they stayed.

Here's what they were worth, split by product.

Share of every commission dollar. For every 100 people who joined, the money came in like this: Funnel Builder $13,104, Premium $40,569, Financial Literacy $12,224.

Read the middle row again. Premium was 61.6% of every dollar. That's more than the other two put together.

Funnel Builder is the front door. 68.4% started there, and 88.2% ended up owning it. It still brought in barely 1 dollar in 5.

Financial Literacy was bought by fewer than a third of them. It still brought in almost exactly what Funnel Builder did, and nearly all of them bought Funnel Builder.

Own only Funnel Builder, and you miss 80.1% of those commissions.

Not because you failed at anything. Because of a choice you made on the day you joined.

How long people actually stay

This is the part nobody publishes. It's the reason I did.Rob Fore did.

Commission collected per customer who owned that product, across their whole life in myhis ledger.

Now the uncomfortable line.

The typical customer paid for about 3 months, then stopped.

Not 3 years. 3 months. People start leaving around month 3, and most who leave are gone by month 7. When IRob pulled these numbers, 77.5% of the Funnel Builder members and 83.4% of the Premium members had already stopped paying.

Now the part I didn't expect, and the reason I still do this.Now the part Rob didn't expect, and the reason he still does this.

From November 2023 to August 2026, Ihe stepped away. No emails. No ads. Nothing published. 33 months.

39 people kept paying mehim anyway.

That's 13.1% of them. Some had paid for almost 3 years. Some for nearly 6. They kept paying through 33 months without a single email.

That's what residual income really looks like. Not a fortune, and not most people. 13 out of every 100. But money that arrived while I wasn'the wasn't working, from work done years earlier.

The simple version, one line at a time

Forget percentages. Here's the same thing in plain arithmetic, from myRob Fore's records.

I didn't work harder at any point on the way down that list. I didn't get better at selling. I bought a thing, and it changed what I was allowed to collect.He didn't work harder at any point on the way down that list. He didn't get better at selling. He bought a thing, and it changed what he was allowed to collect.

From myRob Fore's ledger: 297 customers who joined 2020 to 2023, followed through 2026. Averages across everyone who came through the link, not a forecast of what you'd earn. Half of all active HBA affiliates earned nothing in the year to 31 July 2026.

So how should you join?

You've seen what owning more was worth to meRob. Here's the practical version: three ways in, by what you can spend. Every price is published by HBA or the company selling it.

Whichever you pick, the rule is the same. HBA pays you only on products you own yourself. It's written into the agreement, and it's the same for everybody, me included.Rob included.

Not sure which one is you?

Answer 3 questions and I'll tell you which of the three I'd pick in your shoes, and why. It can, and does, say “not yet”.

What you get from me on top

Join through my link and you get more than the products. You get everything I wroteRob Fore wrote to make them work, because a tool nobody shows you how to use is just another bill.

No invented dollar values. No “$4,997 value!” tags. Each one is a document I wrote from my own records.Rob Fore wrote from his own records. Here's exactly what arrives at each level, before you spend anything.

The rebranding is the one I'd point at. Getting somebody to your link is where nearly everybody stalls, because they have nothing of their own to send people to. From Funnel Builder up, you get mythese documents with your name on them. You don't write them. You don't build them. They're yours to hand out on day one.

No cash, no rebates, no invented values. Everything above is a document, a tool or my time. HBA's agreement doesn't allow cash rebates for joining through somebody's link, and I wouldn't offer one anyway. If the business only works because I paid you to start it, it doesn't work.

See the full HBA presentationI earn a commission if you join through this link.

So what happens after you join?

Fair question. You've read a lot of myRob Fore's numbers. Here's what lands in your inbox, in order, so none of it is a surprise.

The same day, whatever you joined atFirst, whatever you joined at

You get an email from me. Not a robot sequence. Me, at this keyboard.

It has your documents in it, for the level you came in at. It tells you the one thing to do next. And it says reply, which is not a figure of speech. You get an answer from me, usually inside one business day, whether you ever spend another dollar or not.

If you came in at $35: Let's Goal plus Funnel Builder

You get the documents listed above, with your name on the cover and your links inside. And you get something I think is worth more than all of them.

You get this whole funnel, set up with your links.

All 7 pages. Both reports. Your HBA links on every button, and the people who opt in land on your list, not mine.

You don't write it. You set it up yourself in about 90 minutes, on one page with a Copy button for every word and a screenshot for every click. Then you have somewhere to send people on your first day.

If you came in at Premium

Everything above, plus the full Premium library: the Swipe File, the Premium Edition plan, Start With These Three and Your 23 Links. Your name goes on those too.

So Funnel Builder gets you the funnel and your name on the documents. Premium adds the rest of the library.

And if you only ever want the tools?

That's a completely fine answer, and it's the one I'd give a lot of people.

Join, use the funnel builder and the email tool, build your own thing, and ignore every word about referring anybody. You still get mythe documents. You still get a reply from me, usually inside a business day. Nothing expires, and nobody will chase you.

The affiliate side is a door, not a turnstile. It's there when you want it, and it costs nothing to leave shut.

The cost nobody quotes you is the hours

Everything above is about money: what you own, what it pays, what it costs. That's the easy half, because the numbers are printed and you can check them. The half that decides it isn't printed anywhere. It's whether you get busy.

Owning the tools doesn't build a business. The tools just sit there. What moves is a person giving a stranger a reason to click, then answering when they reply.

HBA's published disclosure. Counts, not forecasts.

Read the first two rows together. Nearly 3 in 4 affiliates didn't make one sale all year. That's what happens when nobody shows up to turn the machine on.

The last row cuts the other way. 46.8% of paying customers never touched the affiliate side. They bought the software because they wanted the software. That market is real, and it's nearly half the customer base. But reaching it takes weekly work, not a purchase.

Source: the five figures above are HBA's own published counts for the 12 months to 31 August 2026, collected in the Home Business Academy review on Opportunity Grade, opportunitygrade.com/reviews/home-business-academy-review.html. I runRob Fore runs Opportunity Grade, so that's not a third-party opinion in the strict sense. It's the one where nobody gets paid when you click.

One prompt before you decide

This prompt is for right now, before you spend a dollar. Owning the tools isn't the same as building a business with them. What decides it is usually not money. It's whether the hours are there most weeks. This prompt builds a routine that fits the time you really have, bad weeks included.

The day you join, you don't need a prompt. The nine follow-up emails are already written. Your setup page walks you through loading them, with a Copy button for every subject line, preview and email, and a screenshot for every click. About 90 minutes, done in one go.

I am about to start building an affiliate business around a
funnel that is already built for me. Owning the tools is not the
same as building a business with them, and what decides it is
whether I actually show up most weeks. I want a routine that fits
the time I really have and does not depend on me being motivated.

Hours a week I can genuinely give this, counting a bad week and
not a good one: [N]
Where I already have people who would hear from me - list, page,
channel, group, or a room of people who take my word for
something. If none, say so: [ ]
What I am willing to put out: [writing / video / voice notes /
one-to-one conversations]

Build me a weekly routine that fits in [N] hours. For each slot:
what I do, how long it takes, and what it is for.

Rules:
- It has to survive a bad week. Tell me which slot is the one I
  protect when everything else falls over.
- No daily habits I will quit by week three.
- Batching is fine if it genuinely saves time.
- If [N] hours is not enough to run all of it, cut the routine
  down to what fits and tell me plainly what I am giving up -
  do not pretend it all fits.

Then give me the first two weeks, dated from this coming Monday,
as something I could put in a calendar.

Do not include earnings targets or income projections. This is a
schedule, not a forecast.

What to do today

• Join at the level you can afford. You already know which one.
• Run Prompt 1 first if any part of you is unsure. It builds the week you can actually repeat, and “this doesn't fit” is a real answer.
• Set up your funnel in one go. About 90 minutes, and it's the one thing that makes the funnel yours.
• Load the nine follow-up emails the same day. They're already written, and your setup page has a Copy button for each part.
• Send that first email to your list, however small it is.

So what do you do with this?

The whole report comes down to one sentence: you collect only on what you own. The churn, the tiers, the five-times gap: that's the sentence with the arithmetic shown.

Because I joined with Funnel Builder and Premium, I earned about 4 times what I'd have earned from the same people with Funnel Builder alone.Because Rob joined with Funnel Builder and Premium, he earned about 4 times what he'd have earned from the same people with Funnel Builder alone. $131 a person became $537. That's not a sales argument. It's how HBA's own-it-to-earn-it rule works.

The people in myRob Fore's ledger didn't get paid differently because some were better at this. They got paid differently because of what they owned on the day someone joined through them. That's the one part you control completely, before you've done any work at all.

Come in at the level you can keep up for a year without it hurting. I came in on Funnel Builder and Premium in 2020. Starting today, I'd come in on the $35 package.Rob came in on Funnel Builder and Premium in 2020. Starting today, he'd come in on the $35 package. If you want to hand this report to your own people, it rebrands to you, and so does every link in it.

See the full presentationI earn a commission if you join through this link.

If the quiz told you to wait, then wait, and don't let anyone talk you out of it, me included. Owning more doesn't bring people to you. It only decides what you collect when they arrive. Nothing here expires except the Financial Literacy window, and that only starts if you join. This page will say the same thing in 3 months.

If you want none of the income side, that's a real answer too. 46.8% of HBA's paying customers never touched the affiliate side in the 12 months to 31 August 2026. Take the $35 package as software and ignore every number above. Or build on systeme.io's free plan instead: 3 funnels, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, no card. (Affiliate link. The free plan is free.)(Not an affiliate link.)

If not HBA, what? Write down what you'd do instead, and what it would cost. If that plan is better, run it. I mean that. I'd rather you did what works for you than what I sell.

And if not now, when? If nothing changes, nothing changes.

Where these numbers came from

I measured every figure in this report from my own commission ledger,Rob Fore measured every figure in this report from his own commission ledger, 297 customers who joined 2020 to 2023, followed through 2026, or took it from a price HBA publishes on its own pages. Commissions of $8, $20 and $100 are the published rates on the $10, $25 and $125 products. Nothing in this report is a projection, an average outcome you should expect, or a guarantee of your results. Read thehba.app/income before you decide anything.

Related: The $35 Machine covers the 8 pieces that have to be running before any of this matters. If you haven't read it, read it first. This report assumes the machine exists.

Bless and be blessed,

Rob Fore · author and researcher · HBA affiliate since 2020