Revealed: $100/Day Watching TV | Make Money Watching TV Online

When the commercials for the new Los Angeles Lakers documentary started running on Hulu, most people just watched them and moved on. Alston saw something different: 5.3 million views on a single trailer, millions more people Googling “how to watch” and “where to watch,” and a window of opportunity to earn affiliate commissions from every streaming signup, VPN purchase, and sweepstakes entry that followed. This video is the blueprint for how to plug into that moment.

The core insight is simple. You are not watching TV to make money. You are positioning yourself between people who desperately want to watch a show and the platforms, tools, and products that will get them there. Whether the trending show is a Lakers documentary, Yellowstone, Harry Potter, or Spider-Man Homecoming, the playbook is the same. Once you understand the buyer’s mind behind a “where to watch” search, you can build income streams that pay you long after the credits roll.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The exact search behavior that turns TV viewers into affiliate commissions
How to use “where to watch” and “how to watch” keywords to attract free traffic
The Hulu affiliate program payout structure and how to qualify
How VPN affiliate programs let you earn recurring commissions from geo-blocked content seekers
Why sweepstakes offers pay $40 per entry with zero purchase required
The long-game move that turns a TV-fan audience into a compounding email list
Tools used: Ahrefs, OfferVault, JustWatch.com, Amazon Associates
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Why “Where to Watch” Is One of the Most Underrated Traffic Opportunities Online

Most people think making money online means creating a product, running ads, or building a massive following. What Alston showed in this video is that you can skip all of that by simply answering one question millions of people are already typing into Google and YouTube every single day: where can I watch this?

Alston ran two simple searches: “where to watch” and “how to watch.” Combined, those two query types pull in 20 million views across YouTube and Google. That is not a niche. That is a category. People want to know how to watch Yellowstone, where to find Spider-Man Homecoming, whether Homeland is available in their country, and how to stream the new Lakers series. They are not casually curious. They are ready to open their wallet to solve the problem.

JustWatch.com built an entire business around this insight. When Alston pasted justwatch.com into Ahrefs, the tool showed the site ranks for 3.4 million keywords. All of them are some variation of “where to watch” a specific movie or show. The site is not a streaming platform. It does not produce content. It simply connects searchers to the right service, and it earns money from every click. You can do exactly the same thing, scaled to whatever shows your audience cares about, and you do not need millions of pages to do it profitably.

Alston pulled a specific example: “where to watch Spider-Man Homecoming.” Keyword difficulty was listed at 24 on Ahrefs, and it receives 22,000 searches per month. Videos answering that question had 5,000 views from a year ago, 44,000 views from seven months ago, and 10 million views from five years ago. The demand is consistent and evergreen. Once you publish the answer, it keeps earning.

The Low-Hanging Fruit: YouTube Partner Program Ad Revenue

The most obvious entry point is YouTube ad revenue. You create content about a trending show, people watch it, YouTube pays you a share of the ad revenue. The threshold to monetize is 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Alston is upfront that this is the “easy way” but not the most profitable way. Ad rates on entertainment content typically run lower than finance or business content, and you are dependent on YouTube’s algorithm to sustain views.

That said, if you are building a YouTube channel in the entertainment and TV commentary space, ad revenue is a solid baseline. Winning Time, the HBO show satirizing the 1980s Lakers dynasty, generated millions of views for creators who made reaction videos, fact-check videos, and deep-dive breakdowns. The new Lakers documentary on Hulu will do the same. You do not have to pick a single show. Build a channel that covers multiple shows and the ad revenue compounds across every video you have ever published.

The Better Play: Streaming Affiliate Programs Pay $20 per Signup

Here is where the real money starts. Hulu runs an affiliate program that pays $20 to $25 per new subscriber. If someone watches your YouTube video or reads your blog post about the new Lakers documentary and clicks your affiliate link to sign up for Hulu, you earn $20. They were already going to sign up. You simply became the bridge between their interest and the platform.

HBO has a similar structure. Alston showed an example from an affiliate network where a Homeland-related offer paid $6.50 as a cost-per-action. The requirements: users fill out a form and provide a valid credit card. A $1 or $1 EUR trial entry triggers the payout. For some of these offers, users do not even need to complete a full purchase. A free trial signup is enough for you to earn.

The math works because of intent. Someone searching “how to watch the new Lakers documentary on Hulu” has already decided they want to watch it. They already know it is on Hulu. They just need a frictionless path to sign up. Your content is that path. A 20-dollar commission for a 500-word blog post or a 3-minute YouTube video is a strong return, and the commissions keep coming every time someone finds that content through search.

Alston recommends vetting every affiliate offer before you promote it. Your name and your brand attach to whatever you recommend. Stick to well-known streaming platforms with clear terms, honest free-trial policies, and easy cancellation. Spammy or misleading offers will destroy the trust you are building faster than any algorithm change will.

VPN Affiliate Programs: Recurring Commissions From Geo-Blocked Content

Netflix and other platforms restrict content by country. A show available in Canada may not be available in the United States, and vice versa. This creates an enormous secondary market: people who want to watch a specific show but cannot access it in their current location. The solution is a VPN, which masks your IP address to make it appear you are in a different country.

Alston walked through a real use case: you want to watch Homeland, but it is not available in the United States. You grab a VPN, set your location to a country where it is available, and stream without restrictions. The same logic applies in reverse. If you are an American traveling to France and want to watch your regular US streaming services, a VPN solves the problem.

VPN affiliate programs pay well, and crucially, many of them pay recurring commissions. As long as the person you referred keeps their subscription, you keep earning. There are dozens of VPN affiliate programs across multiple networks. Commission rates vary but are generally strong enough to make VPN one of the better recurring-income plays in the affiliate space. If you build an audience around “how to watch shows in different countries” or “best VPN for streaming,” you are targeting buyers who convert at a high rate and who stay subscribed for months or years.

Sweepstakes and Contests: $40 Per Entry With No Purchase Required

Alston pulled up OfferVault and searched for “tv.” What came back were sweepstakes offers where people could enter to win a QLED television or other high-end TV equipment. The commission: $40 per subscriber. The requirement: the person does not even have to buy anything. They enter the contest, and you earn $40.

Think about who this audience is. They came to your content because they are interested in a TV show. They are, by definition, avid TV viewers. An offer to win a brand-new TV is perfectly aligned with their existing interest. You are not interrupting them with a random promotion. You are giving them a chance to win something they would genuinely use, and you earn $40 per entry.

OfferVault is a free aggregator of cost-per-action offers. You do not need to negotiate directly with brands. You search the platform, find offers that match your audience, grab your tracking link, and add it to your content. As with streaming affiliate offers, vet every sweepstakes before you promote it. Legitimate sweepstakes have clear rules, real prizes, and a credible operator behind them. Avoid anything that looks like a data-harvesting scheme with no real prize structure.

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Amazon Associates: TVs, Soundbars, and the Physical Products Angle

Once someone is invested in their TV-watching experience, they start thinking about upgrading it. They want a better picture. They want better sound. New televisions, especially 4K and QLED models, compress the audio channels to keep prices competitive, so the audio quality on modern TVs is often worse than on sets from a decade ago. That gap creates a natural opening for soundbar recommendations.

Alston mentioned that he runs a soundbar blog that still earns traffic and commissions every single day. It is a small site by most metrics, but the commissions are consistent. Soundbars are a classic Amazon Associates product: high enough ticket to earn a meaningful commission, frequently purchased as an add-on to a new TV, and something people research carefully before buying. A well-written comparison post or YouTube review can rank for years and convert steadily.

Amazon commissions on electronics run in the 1 to 3 percent range, which sounds low but adds up when you are recommending products in the $150 to $500 range. Soundbars, mounting hardware, streaming sticks, HDMI cables, and universal remotes are all natural cross-sells for a TV-focused audience. You build the audience with entertainment content and monetize with product recommendations they are already primed to buy.

The Long Game: Email List Building Ties All of It Together

Alston named email list building as the best long-term strategy in this entire model, and the reasoning is straightforward. Every other channel you build, YouTube, a blog, social media, is subject to algorithm changes. An email list belongs to you. When you send an email, it reaches your subscribers directly. No platform decides whether to show it to them.

If you know that your audience watches a lot of TV and is interested in specific genres or shows, you can reach them every time a relevant affiliate offer appears. A new streaming service launches and offers a free trial? Email your list. A new soundbar hits the market with excellent reviews? Email your list. A sweepstakes is running for a high-end television? Email your list. You are not trying to find new people every time. You are deepening the relationship with the people who already trust you.

The mechanism for building the list fits naturally into the content you are already creating. Offer a free resource in exchange for an email address: a guide to streaming services ranked by price, a cheat sheet of the best VPNs for each country, a checklist of the best TV setup accessories under $100. People who opt in for that resource are telling you exactly what they care about. Your future promotions can match their interests precisely.

The Step-by-Step Playbook Alston Laid Out

Alston ran through the complete sequence near the end of the video. Here it is in order:

Step 1: Find what people want to watch. Monitor trending shows on Hulu, HBO, Netflix, and Amazon. Pay attention to what is generating buzz on sports radio, social media, and entertainment news. The Lakers documentary, Yellowstone, Winning Time, Spider-Man, Homeland — each one represents a cluster of search demand.
Step 2: Research the “how to watch” and “where to watch” keywords. Use Ahrefs or a free alternative to identify which show-related search queries have low competition and meaningful monthly volume. Look at what JustWatch.com ranks for and find the gaps they have not covered.
Step 3: Create the content. Write a blog post or film a YouTube video that directly answers the search query. Your title is the search query. Your content is the answer. Include the affiliate links naturally within the solution you are providing.
Step 4: Attach the streaming affiliate link. If the show is on Hulu, join the Hulu affiliate program and link to the signup page. If it is on HBO, find the appropriate affiliate network offer. Earn $20 or more per signup.
Step 5: Add the sweepstakes offer. Place an OfferVault sweepstakes offer in your content for viewers who want to enter to win a new TV. Earn $40 per entry.
Step 6: Add the VPN affiliate link if the show is geo-restricted. If your content targets people trying to access a show that is not available in their country or available only in certain regions, include a VPN recommendation with an affiliate link that earns recurring commissions.
Step 7: Build the email list. Offer a free resource relevant to your TV-focused audience. Capture email addresses. Use those emails to promote future affiliate offers to a warm audience that already trusts you.
Step 8: Expand into physical products. Once you have traffic and trust, layer in Amazon Associates recommendations for soundbars, mounting systems, streaming hardware, and TV accessories. These commissions add up without requiring additional content creation beyond a few product reviews or comparison posts.

Honest Drawbacks to This Approach

The YouTube Partner Program threshold is real. If you are starting from zero, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours before you see any ad revenue. That takes time, especially in a competitive space like TV commentary. Affiliate commissions are not gated the same way, but they do require traffic to convert, and that traffic takes time to build through SEO or YouTube search.

Trending shows lose momentum quickly. The window to capitalize on a new release is measured in weeks, not months. If you try to rank a blog post about a show two months after the peak interest, you are fighting for scraps. The answer is to move quickly when a show drops, and to target evergreen shows and franchises that maintain search volume year-round alongside the trending ones.

Affiliate program availability varies by country. If you are outside the United States, some of these streaming affiliate programs may not be available to you, or the payout rates may differ. Always check the terms of any affiliate program before building content around it. Ahrefs is a paid tool, and while it is powerful, free alternatives like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or even YouTube’s search suggestions can give you directional guidance without the subscription cost.

Find Your X

The TV-watching affiliate model works best when you combine it with a clear sense of which income stream suits your situation. Someone with a large YouTube following will prioritize the streaming affiliate angle. Someone who already writes will start with the blog and SEO route. Someone who wants passive income fastest may focus on building the email list. The right entry point depends on your current skills, your available time, and how quickly you need results. finder.platformproof.com helps you sort that out fast — answer a few questions and get a clear starting point matched to what you already know how to do.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to watch the TV shows myself to create content about them?

Not necessarily. Much of the “where to watch” and “how to watch” content is informational rather than review-based. You are telling people which streaming platform carries the show, how much the platform costs, and how to sign up. That research takes minutes and does not require you to sit through an entire series. That said, if you are building a commentary or reaction channel, watching the content you discuss is important for credibility and depth.

How do I join the Hulu affiliate program?

Hulu runs its affiliate program through third-party affiliate networks. Search for the current active network hosting the Hulu program and apply directly through that network. The approval process typically requires you to have an existing website or YouTube channel with relevant content. Once approved, you get a tracking link and earn the commission rate disclosed in the program terms for each new qualifying subscriber you refer.

What is OfferVault and is it free to use?

OfferVault is a free aggregator that lists cost-per-action affiliate offers from dozens of networks. You can search by keyword or category, see commission rates and payout structures, and identify which network hosts each offer. To actually promote an offer, you need to join the relevant affiliate network through OfferVault’s link. Most networks are free to join but have an approval process. OfferVault itself charges nothing to search and browse.

Is Ahrefs required to do keyword research for this strategy?

Ahrefs is what Alston uses and it is a paid subscription. It is not required. Free tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest’s free tier, and YouTube’s own search suggestions can give you directional data about search volume and competition. For finding low-competition “where to watch” keywords, you can also manually check how many views exist on existing videos about a show and look for gaps. Paid tools speed up the process and give you more precise data, but they are not the starting line.

How long does it take to start earning affiliate commissions with this model?

The timeline depends on your traffic. If you already have an audience, commissions can start immediately once you add affiliate links to your content. If you are building from scratch, SEO-based content typically takes three to six months to rank well in Google search. YouTube content can rank faster because YouTube’s search algorithm surfaces new relevant videos more quickly than Google does for new websites. The fastest path is usually combining YouTube content with a blog to capture both platforms’ traffic.

Can I promote VPN affiliate programs even if I do not use a VPN myself?

You can, but your content will be stronger if you have actually tested the product you are recommending. Audiences can tell the difference between a genuine recommendation and a link dump. If you have not used a VPN, sign up for a trial of a reputable one, test it with a streaming service, and report what you found honestly. Authentic reviews convert better and protect your reputation better than copy-paste promotional content.

What type of content works best for soundbar and TV product recommendations?

Comparison posts and review videos tend to perform best for physical product recommendations because they match the way buyers search. Queries like “best soundbar under $200” or “soundbar vs. TV speakers” signal that the person is actively deciding what to buy. A thorough, honest comparison that explains the real differences between products, rather than just listing specs, converts well and holds its ranking over time because the search intent is strong and consistent.

How do I build an email list around a TV-focused audience?

Start with a lead magnet that solves a specific problem for your audience. A streaming service comparison guide, a “what to watch” monthly newsletter, or a checklist of the best home theater accessories at different budget levels all give people a reason to hand over their email address. Use a free or low-cost email marketing platform to collect addresses and send regular, valuable emails. Over time, that list becomes a direct channel for promoting affiliate offers without depending on any algorithm to surface your content.

Sources

Hulu affiliate program commission rates referenced in the video: $20 to $25 per new subscriber
HBO / Homeland CPA offer rate referenced in the video: $6.50 per qualifying action
OfferVault TV sweepstakes commission referenced in the video: $40 per entry
JustWatch.com keyword footprint: 3.4 million keywords per Ahrefs data shown in the video
Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers official Hulu trailer: 5.3 million views as of the video’s upload date
“Where to watch Spider-Man Homecoming” monthly search volume: 22,000 per Ahrefs data shown in the video

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.