Unlock agentic AI to earn with email affiliate gigs

Affiliate gigs pay you when a lead you introduced becomes a customer. The work is simple: send a short, personal email about a client's offer to a business that can use it. When the lead replies, the reply goes straight to the offer owner, who closes the sale. This chapter sets up the one tool that makes it possible — your own email domain, connected to GigDesk — and then hands the planning and sending to your AI agent.

How an email affiliate gig works

A client (the offer owner) posts a gig with an offer and a payout. You (the affiliate) find businesses that fit the offer and send each one a personal email from your own domain. Almost every gig uses the same simple shape:

to:        dana@acme-dental.com
reply-to:  offer-owner@theirbusiness.com, hello@yourdomain.blog
subject:   Quick question about new-patient bookings
body:      Hi Dana — (a short, personal note about the offer)

The two reply-to addresses do the work. When the lead answers, the offer owner gets the reply and closes the deal by email. Your domain gets a copy too — and a domain that receives real replies keeps a good reputation with Gmail and Outlook. That is the whole interaction. You and the offer owner coordinate the details in a private group chat (WhatsApp, Telegram, or similar), not inside GigDesk.

Perks & benefits

• Your own sending address. You send as hello@yourdomain.blog, a domain you own. It is yours even if you change tools later.
• Your personal Gmail stays safe. Outreach runs on a separate domain, so your everyday inbox keeps its good name.
• Replies come to you. Put your normal inbox (or the offer owner's) in reply-to. There is no new inbox to check.
• Your AI agent does the heavy lifting. Once the gateway is live, one prompt lets Claude, ChatGPT, or any agent pick offers, draft each email, and send through the GigDesk API.
• You can see what works. GigDesk counts sends, replies, opens, clicks, and bounces for your domain.
• Free to start. GigDesk is free, Resend's free plan covers a starter volume, and a domain costs a few dollars.
• Many offers, one setup. The same domain works for every affiliate gig you join.

What it costs

Pros & cons

Pros

• Low cost to start, and no inventory, product, or client management — the offer owner closes.
• It scales with judgment, not hours: your agent drafts, you choose who is worth writing to.
• You own the asset. A domain with a good sending history is worth more every month you use it well.
• You can run several offers at once from the same domain.

Cons

• Pay depends on results. Affiliate gigs pay when leads convert. Some weeks pay nothing — pick offers with a clear payout and a real fit.
• A new domain must warm up. Start small (10–20 emails a day) and grow slowly over a few weeks. Rushing hurts delivery.
• Reputation can be lost. Too many bounces or spam reports can put your domain in spam folders. The rules at the end of this chapter protect it.
• Free-plan limits. Resend's free plan stops at 100 emails a day and 3,000 a month.
• Some manual setup. You make two API keys (Porkbun and Resend) yourself. GigDesk does everything else.

Before you start

• Your everyday inbox — the one you read daily. It becomes your reply-to.
• A second inbox you can open (a spare Gmail is fine) — you send the test email to it.
• A card or balance to buy the domain on Porkbun.
• Your GigDesk account, signed in.

Set it up, step by step

1. 1

   Buy a domain on Porkbun

   Go to porkbun.com and search for a short, neutral name — for example supernet.blog. Do not use your main business domain. Buy it and finish checkout. The domain stays on Porkbun's nameservers (the default), which lets GigDesk write its DNS for you.

2. 2

   Make a Porkbun API key and turn on API Access

   Open porkbun.com/account/api and create an API key. Copy both values: the API key (starts with pk1_) and the secret key (starts with sk1_). Then open Domain Management, click your domain → Details, and switch on API Access. Without that switch, the domain does not show up in step 5.

3. 3

   Make a Resend account and a Full access key

   Sign up free at resend.com. Open API Keys → Create API key, and set the permission to Full access (a "Sending access" key cannot add your domain). Copy the key — it starts with re_ and Resend shows it only once.

4. 4

   Open the GigDesk setup page

   In GigDesk go to Settings → Email gateways → ＋ Connect Email → Custom domain, or open it directly: v2.gigdesk.cc/settings/email/setup/resend. The page is a checklist; each step unlocks the next.

5. 5

   Connect Porkbun and pick your domain

   Paste the two Porkbun keys and click Check. GigDesk lists every domain in your Porkbun account. Pick the one you bought. A domain marked turn on API Access still has the switch off — go back to step 2. GigDesk uses these keys for this setup only and does not save them.

6. 6

   Connect Resend

   Paste the Resend key, choose your sending address (for example hello) and a display name, then click Connect. In about 15 seconds GigDesk adds the domain to your Resend account with sending, receiving, and open + click tracking turned on, and writes every DNS record into Porkbun for you: the DKIM signature, the SPF and bounce records on send., the tracking link on links., the inbound mail record, and a DMARC record.

7. 7

   Wait for "verified"

   Resend now checks the DNS. This usually takes 1 to 10 minutes; the page re-checks every 10 seconds and each record turns green. If it is slow, click Check now. You cannot send until the domain shows verified.

8. 8

   Send a test email

   Put your second inbox in To (it plays the lead) and your everyday inbox in Reply-To. Click Send test email, then open the second inbox. Look in Spam too — a brand-new domain sometimes lands there at first. If it does, mark it "Not spam".

9. 9

   Do the full round trip

   From the second inbox, press Reply and write anything. The setup page shows a tick when GigDesk receives the reply on your domain. Check that the reply also arrived in your everyday inbox, then reply back to the lead from there. Tick both boxes. This is exactly how every real lead conversation will flow.

10. 10

    Hand it to your AI agent

    Copy the prompt from the last step of the setup page and paste it into your agent. It reads the GigDesk skill, finds your gateway, and helps you choose offers and send. Your agent also needs your GigDesk API key from Settings → Developer.

What your AI agent does next

Think of your Resend plan as a budget — for example, "we have about 1,000 emails this month." A good agent asks the question that matters: what should we send so that budget earns the most? It will:

• Compare offers by payout per sale × how likely a lead is to reply and buy — not by payout alone.
• Ask the offer owner (in your group chat) for their reply-to address, the payout, and who the ideal lead is.
• Pick a small, precise list of businesses that clearly fit, instead of a large, vague one.
• Draft one personal email per lead, send it through your gateway, and pace the volume to protect your domain.
• Watch the results — replies, bounces, and clicks — and adjust the next batch.

Protect your domain's reputation

• Warm up slowly. 10–20 emails a day in week one, then grow a little each week.
• One lead per email. Personal, short, and relevant. Plain text reaches the inbox most often.
• Only real, relevant businesses. Never use bought lists. Check addresses before you send — bounces hurt fast.
• Stop and fix if bounces pass about 2% or anyone marks you as spam.
• Say who you are and give an easy way to say "no thanks". Honour it at once and never write to that person again.
• Never pretend to be the offer owner. You write as yourself, on behalf of their offer.
• Follow up gently — two or three short follow-ups, days apart, in the same thread.

If something goes wrong

• "Porkbun rejected the API keys" — copy both keys again; the API key starts with pk1_ and the secret with sk1_.
• My domain is missing or says "turn on API Access" — switch on API Access for that domain in Porkbun (step 2), then click Check again.
• "Resend rejected the API key" — make a new key with Full access, not Sending access.
• Stuck on pending for more than an hour — confirm the domain uses Porkbun's nameservers, then run Connect again. It is safe to repeat: it repairs the DNS and keeps the same gateway.
• The test email went to Spam — normal for a new domain. Mark it "Not spam", reply to it, and keep your early volume low.