I thought I’d struck gold. I was building dashboards, lining up clients, and seeing dollar signs every time someone clicked my affiliate link. Then Notion shut me down—hard. Now I want to save you the trouble of learning the hard way.

How It All Started

For the last five winters, I messed around with Notion. Boredom plus a tinkerer’s mindset equals interesting projects, and I got really good at setting up complex workflows. Eventually, a client asked me for a huge Microsoft Teams build. It was going to be messy, expensive, and borderline impossible. I suggested Notion instead—and it worked beautifully. Thirty days later, I had a custom Notion workspace that solved all their problems. I was hooked. I was proud. I was about to be paid. Or so I thought.

The Affiliate Bait-and-Switch

I was an official Notion affiliate, supposedly getting 50% for every new client’s first year. My new client’s subscription was about three grand a month—hello, $1,500 monthly commission, right? Wrong.

Notion jerked me around for four months on that commission, offering no explanation beyond “we don’t see it in the system.” But I did—I could literally see the click-through data that showed my affiliate link was used. Ultimately, they claimed that because my email was connected to my client’s account (for setup and support), I was ineligible for the referral payout. Zero dollars. Zero concern for how obviously messed up that policy is.

Losing Faith

Fine, I thought—I’ll swallow the loss. But I still needed to use Notion for other clients and for my own business. So I kept paying for both a personal and a business account (totaling around $70 a month). I rationalized it by saying, “If I’m going to build a Notion-based business, I’d better know all the ins and outs.”

Then they slapped me in the face again. They’d promised a 50% discount on my business account but never applied it, even though my billing page literally said 50% off. I flagged it, they asked for ridiculous backdated info that they should’ve had in their systems—like the exact date it was applied. I was on vacation and just didn’t have time to do their job for them. End of story: I never got my discount.

Workflow Nightmares

By this point, I’d decided Notion was no longer worth it. Then a big update came and about 20% of my carefully designed workflows broke. Clients were livid. Hours of back-and-forth with Notion support went nowhere. Today, I’m still dealing with random issues like a button that’s grayed out for absolutely no reason in one client’s workspace, even though it works perfectly everywhere else.

My credibility with these clients has tanked because Notion is making me look like an amateur. They’re frustrated, I’m frustrated, and nobody at Notion seems interested in actually fixing the product.

The Ugly Truth

Here’s the bottom line: if you’re just making simple, copy-paste templates, maybe Notion’s good enough. But if you’re looking to build robust systems for paying clients—or an entire business around it—don’t. You’re basically at Notion’s mercy, and they do not care about individual entrepreneurs.

They’re riding the wave of being “the big productivity tool,” but it feels like a matter of time before something else comes along and eats their lunch. If you value your time, money, and sanity, be careful hitching your wagon to Notion.

My Advice

• Don’t count on affiliate payouts unless you enjoy chasing your own tail.
• Double-check any ‘discounts’ or promotional pricing, or just assume it won’t happen.
• Prepare for random breakages every time they push an update.
• Know that Notion’s support will make you do all the heavy lifting for any billing or technical issue.

I’m already investing in no-code tools and custom apps to replace Notion. If you’re in a similar boat, it might be worth heading off the same cliff I jumped from.

Final Word

I poured eight months and untold hours into making Notion the backbone of my business. My advice: think twice before you do the same. Learn from my headache so you don’t end up with your own.

Edit: I was not expecting this much of an out pouring of love and interest. I may miss your question or inquiry. Please feel free to DM me if you need help or have a question. I am very welcoming and love teaching and learning. With much love and every good wish!