Are you looking for the best affiliate marketing programs with recurring commissions? Do you need to earn passive income? If yes, then you should read this article. Hi, my name is Francisco, and I am the owner of Planet Marketing, a Digital Marketing Agency. My company specializes in Facebook Ads, Google Ads and Affiliate Marketing. I have been in business for over a decade, and affiliate marketing is a subject with which I am very familiar. In fact, I earn a large part of my income through affiliate marketing. One thing that I have discovered is that it’s better to look for affiliate marketing opportunities that offer recurring income. That’s the best way of building your passive income. In this article, I am going to;
- Briefly define Affiliate Marketing
- Discuss how affiliates get paid for referrals
- Give the 7 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs with Recurring Commission
What is Affiliate Marketing
I am not going to dwell much on the definition of Affiliate Marketing in this article. If you want to learn more about the subject, read my Affiliate Marketing Basics article. All that I can say here is that affiliate marketing involves the use of affiliates by brands to promote products. Affiliate marketing can be thought of as a cycle involving the following players;
- The brand/advertiser/vendor/merchant comes up with the product. This product can be anything, from the latest Smartphone to software and other digital products.
- The affiliate comes up with marketing channels and uses these to market the brand’s products. These channels include blogs, email lists, YouTube, Social Media and other digital communication channels.
- Affiliate networks, who serve the job of the middleman. They are responsible for bringing affiliates and brands together under one roof. Examples are CJ Affiliates, ShareASale and ClickBank.
How to affiliates get paid?
Now we get to the crux of the matter. How do affiliates get paid? Well, payments for affiliates are important since they are the ones that motivate them to promote products and services on behalf of vendors. Overall, affiliates get paid in two ways;
- They get once off payments
- They get recurring payments
Once off payments
If you check on this website, you will notice that I am an affiliate for a wide range of companies. These include web hosting companies, companies that do online reviews and companies that offer SEO services. The following are examples of some of these companies;
- Shopper Approved
- SEMrush
- Trustpilot
- Verified Reviews
- Moz
- Pro Rank Tracker
- Rank Watch
- Rank Ranger
- Bluehost
- Dreamhost
- Kinsta
- Rackspace
- InterServer
Most companies offer once off payments
As noted, I am an affiliate for a wide range of companies. The ones above are but a few of them. One thing to note is that most of these companies offer once off payments for affiliate referrals. They don’t offer recurring commissions.
What it means is that once someone has signed up with Dreamhost, as an example, using my link, I get paid something like $100. In fact, most web hosting companies offer once off payments. And the average amount that they pay for affiliates is around $100.
Web hosting packages cost $5 or less, so how can they pay $100?
If you go to InterServer, as an example, you will notice that the company’s web hosting packages cost only $4 per month. In fact, they sometimes run promotions offering packages starting from $1 per month. Most people wonder how these companies can pay affiliates once off amounts of up to $100 per referral when the customer is only paying $4 per month. How do they make a profit?
They think long term
The answer to that is that these companies think long term. They offer such payments to affiliates knowing full well that most of these referrals will become customers for life. If a person creates a website, they will remain a customer ten, twenty years into the future. So, the web host is assured of earning a profit at the end of the day.
Recurring payments
This is the second type of payment that is made to affiliates by companies involved in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing with recurring commission is the ideal. Take it from me; once off payments are okay. But they are not going to be able to sustain you in the long run. Once you have referred someone, they cease to be of benefit to you.
Just to go back to the example of web hosting companies; we have already noted that once someone has created a website using a particular company, they are likely to remain a customer well into the future. The affiliate only benefits once, in spite of the fact that he or she is the one responsible for making referrals. Whereas the brand benefits for as long as the referral remains active.
How does affiliate marketing with recurring commission work?
- A brand comes up with a product that they want to put on the market. Let’s assume that it’s a piece of software. People who want to use this software are expected to pay monthly subscriptions. So, the company goes to CJ Affiliates or to ClickBank to look for affiliates. They may also run an affiliate marketing program in-house, as already noted.
- Affiliates who join this program then begin promoting the product. They are paid once they have succeeded in convincing someone to sign up for the product.
- The difference with once off payments is that the affiliate gets paid each time the referral settles their monthly/annual subscription. These payments continue for as long as the customer remains active. That could very well be years and years into the future.
Recurring payments are not large
Depending on the nature of the product, recurring payments are usually not that large. That’s one disadvantage of this mode of payment from the point of view of the affiliate. Instead of receiving a big reward for the referral, an affiliate only gets a few dollars. Again, it all depends on how much the product costs. Usually, affiliates are paid a certain percentage of the total sale.
You need to refer lots of people
That’s the key to success when it comes to affiliate marketing with recurring commissions. You need to refer lots and lots of people. Recurring commissions don’t earn you as much as once off payments. Let’s assume that you will be paid 10% per sale. So, if someone is subscribing for a program to the tune of $100 per month, you will only get $10 per person. And truth is, most recurring affiliate commissions will only earn you even less. Maybe $3 or $5 per referral per month. So, you need to make lots of sales.
A personal example
Okay, let me bring this closer to home with a personal example. As noted earlier, I earn most of my passive income through affiliate marketing. I have been doing it for over a decade and in that time, I have managed to build up a nice earnings buffer.
In fact, I have done it so well that I no longer need to work for anybody. I was able to quit my 9 to 5 due to affiliate marketing! And I could stop working right now and I will continue to earn more than enough to make a comfortable living for the rest of my life. But back to the example
I earn recurring commissions from Shopper Approved
Shopper Approved is personally the best company for me as an affiliate. I earn thousands of dollars from this company every month. And I will continue earning money from this company till the company I die. But how was I able to build this passive income stream?
Shopper Approved does online reviews. If you want to get star ratings in Google Ads, they are the company that you should approach. Anyway, I do content marketing via this blog. I have lots of articles on Shopper Approves. Some of these rank at number 1 on Google. So, people who are looking for more information read my articles. And they sign up with Shopper Approved using my link.
I have referred hundreds of people to Shopper Approved
So far, I have been able to refer over 300 people to Shopper Approved. And I continue to refer more. The trick is to make sure that my content remains ranked high on Google and on other Search Engines. Anyway, the people that I have referred to this company pay annual subscriptions. And I get paid a certain percentage each time one of my referrals settles their account.
Recurring payments are good for building passive income
Wherever you turn these days, you will hear people talking about passive income. That’s not really surprising. With the way things are around the world, passive income is a great way through which students, stay at home moms, single moms and everybody else can supplement their income. It’s the key to living a stress free life.
The simple definition of passive income is that it’s regular income that you earn without needing to put in regular work. The topic of passive income is one that we have covered a lot on this blog, so feel free to check out our other articles to find out what we are talking about.
Passive income can be earned through Affiliate Marketing. That’s one way of doing it. And I have already given my example. I have built up so many passive income channels that I no longer need to work. So, if you want to build your passive income, you should look for affiliate marketing opportunities with recurring commissions.
How much can you earn?
There is actually no limit to the amounts that you can earn through affiliate marketing with recurring commission. The trick, as is the case with all affiliate marketing, is to be able to sign up as many people as is possible.
I was able to do it in the case of Shopper Approved, through content marketing. You can do it through social media or using any other means.
However, it’s not as simple as it may sound at the beginning. Most people think that they can create their blogs today and tomorrow they are going to start earning thousands via affiliate marketing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
You need a vibrant channel
For the entire thing to work, you need to have a vibrant marketing channel. Let’s say you are going to do affiliate marketing using a blog. First, you need to create the blog. Then you need to make sure that you do SEO to make it visible to search engines. And you need to create RELEVANT content. Relevant to the products that you are promoting. This could be in the form of reviews or other helpful content.
Once your site is ranked high enough, you will begin reaping the rewards. But the entire process can take years. It will not happen in a single day. Search engine optimization, as an example, will only begin to bear fruits maybe 6 months or a year into the future. So, you need to start planning now if you want to make the most out of it.
Recurring payments work only for digital products
One thing to note before wrapping up this article is that recurring commissions only work for digital products. If you do affiliate marketing via Amazon Associates, as an example, you will only get paid once somebody has bought a product. So, you need to continue referring people. Maybe you have convinced people to buy one of the JBL headphones wireless ranges. You will only get paid when somebody buys one of these headphones.
But with a company such as Shopper Approved that does digital products, I earn more because the customer is going to continue making subscriptions well into the future. So, that’s the ideal situation as far as affiliate marketing with recurring commission is concerned. This is what you should look for.
7 Best Affiliate Marketing Programs with Recurring Commissions
The following are some of the best affiliate marketing programs with recurring commissions that can be found on the market today. Feel free to check them out if you want to earn passive income;
Shopper Approved
I have already talked about this company. Shopper Approved does online reviews. You can use them to get star ratings in Google Ads and in Google Shopping. I have been very successful with this company. If you can copy me, I won’t begrudge you! I have referred so many people to this company that I can afford to share!
Shopper Approved offers you 20% commissions for the life of the referral. So, if somebody is paying $200 per month, which is about the price of the entry level plan, you will get $40 from that person per month. If you can refer 100 people to this company, you will be set for life! You will be getting $4000 per month!
SEMrush
SEMrush is another great example of an affiliate marketing program with recurring commissions. SEMrush offers SEO, products, so it will do great if you have a site dealing with related issues. The company pays a commission of 40% per referral.
This makes it one of the most generous companies as far as affiliate payments are concerned. This is another company for which I am an affiliate. And I have referred a number people to this company over the years, so I know what I am talking about here.
Get Response
Get Response is one of the most popular tools as far as digital marketing is concerned. It is best known for its email marketing tools. As far as affiliate commissions are concerned, Get Response is another of the most generous companies that you will be able to find out there.
If you refer someone to Get Response, you will get 33% commission for the life of that referral. The company also offers a Bounty program in which you can earn a once off amount of $100 per sale. From the point of view of an affiliate, the affiliate marketing program offering recurring payments is the best. You may be tempted by the once off offer, but getting paid $33% per individual is the best.
Shopify
Shopify is one great prospect as far as affiliate marketing programs with recurring commission are concerned. Why is that the case? Each day, hundreds of eCommerce sites are created. And many of these use Shopify as their eCommerce platform. So, this is a product for which demand will always be growing. Shopify offers a recurring commission of 20% per referral.
Kinsta
Kinsta is a favorite of ours as far as web hosting goes. So much that we actually chose this company as our web host. Yes, the Planet Marketing website is hosted by Kinsta. Kinsta is one of the few web hosting companies that offer recurring payments.
And the company is really generous as far as affiliate payments are concerned. You can earn up to $500 per referral with this program. On top of that, you get 10% monthly commission for the lifetime of the referral. So, if you have a blog that talks about web hosting and related issues, this is the company that you should go for. You probably will not be able to find another web host that offers recurring commissions.
Pure VPN
Use of VPNs has been growing over the past few years as more and more people look for secure ways of using the internet. So, this is another one on which you are unlikely to go wrong well into the future. Pure VPN has a rather generous affiliate commission schedule. In fact, you probably won’t find a similar program that’s as generous. The following is the affiliate payment plan for Pure VPN.
- You get 100% on your 1st sale for the 1 month plan
- You get 40% on first sales for the 6 and 12 months plans
- You get 35% commission whenever a user renews their subscription.
To find out how much you can earn, head over to the Pure VPN website and use the tool that’s on there.
Hubstaff
More and more companies now have people working remotely from various parts of the globe. The COVID 19 pandemic has only served to accentuate this phenomenon. If you have a company that’s into this, then you should consider doing affiliate marketing for Hubstaff. This company is another great option for those looking for affiliate marketing with recurring commissions.
Hubstaff is an employee management platform. It makes it possible for people to carry out remote work. Using the platform, you can do time keeping, schedule meetings, track productivity and other functions. Hubstaff’s affiliate program offers 30% recurring commissions. You will note that this company is easy to sell, considering that they have plans starting from as low as $7 a month. So, you don’t need much to convince people to buy.
Go for it!
There are plenty of options out there when it comes to affiliate marketing programs with recurring commission. You probably won’t have trouble getting something that fits your channel. If you are into Digital Marketing like me, then all these programs will be a perfect fit for you. The important thing is to create relevant content, as already mentioned.
If you sell something to the wrong audience, you will not get any sales. So, if your site talks about web hosting, you need to become an affiliate for web hosting companies. That way you know that you are marketing to people who are interested in what you have to offer.
