In the last two tips we focused on thinking about your affiliate commissions in terms of the percentage of the initial sale price that is paid out to you, the marketer.

In today’s tip, we’re going to turn to a slightly different topic, and think not just about the percentage of the sale that gets paid out, but how you can choose offers smartly to get paid recurring fees over time.

How It Works

Recurring commission affiliate programs are pretty straightforward to conceptualize. You refer a user, and instead of a one time fee (often called a “bounty”) for referring the customer, you get a smaller initial payment, but an added incentive of future payments if the customer continues to purchase the product or service.

This works really well with subscription based services. When a user signs up – usually as a free trial or special discounted offer – the affiliate gets a nominal fee. Over time, however, as users continue to re-subscribe each month, you’ll continue to earn your ongoing percentage.

With these types of programs, the initial payout is often far less important than the total long-term earnings potential. I’ve worked with programs where I earned as little as $1 for referring a user, but then gradually built up over time, and all in all I was earning an average of over $100 per user that signed up!

That’s a great way to watch your earnings compound month over month, as a percentage of your earlier sales continue to resubscribe and earn you more money.

Does this offer sound too good to be true?

Does this offer sound too good to be true?

Where to Find These Programs

What types of programs work well with this model? You might have guessed: anything that uses a subscription based payment system or long term payment plan.

The point is to incentivize you, the affiliate, to bring in users who will be long term customers, not one and done free trial members. You can find these types of programs with many SaaS systems, or with membership-based courses and info products.