20+ Best Residual Income Affiliate Programs and Networks [2024]

The whole idea of affiliate marketing is linked with making passive income. What better way to make a passive income than one that earns you money for months after you have referred a user? These types of income in affiliate marketing refer to programs that offer memberships, subscriptions, or recurring commissions for you. This means that for a long time, you will still be making money from that one purchase somebody made 12 months ago.

Pretty impressive, huh? That is exactly why we're taking the time to explore residual income affiliate programs and networks today to help you make more money by doing less. In this article, we'll explore what residual income affiliate programs are, how they work, and how you can promote them easily to make more money.

What Are Residual Income Affiliate Programs and How Do They Work

As mentioned before, residual income affiliate programs entail you getting paid for one purchase or subscription somebody committed to once before. Simply put, whenever a customer subscribes to a service, purchases a plan, or even purchases one product, some programs choose to pay you on a regular basis every month for a period of time. Some of them will pay you for as long as a customer is paying them every month, and some others pay you for the first year or the first few months. Anyhow, there are many different ways to get paid in the long term by these programs.

This is as opposed to the programs that pay you a complete Commission up front. Therefore, in residual income affiliate programs, you can expect a lower commission for a longer period of time. So for example, if you would earn a 70% upfront Commission, you can imagine a 20% recurring Commission for the lifetime of a customer in these programs instead.

You should also keep in mind that there are many different niches and categories of products and services you can promote to earn residual income. Therefore, there is absolutely no limit to what niche you are and what you're promoting. If you look hard enough, you can find a residual income affiliate program in your own niche.

What Can You Promote

So, as we mentioned, you can earn residual income in various niches. But what niche or categories are there that have the most residual income affiliate programs in them? Of course, some niches Tend to have more subscription-based services in them. Here is a list of these niches.

• Membership Sites: Promote subscription-based membership sites that provide exclusive content, resources, or community access to members who pay a recurring fee.
• Online Courses: Market online courses or e-learning platforms where learners pay a one-time or recurring fee to access educational content and resources.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): Promote subscription-based software products that provide ongoing value to customers, such as project management tools, marketing automation software, or CRM systems.
• Web Hosting Services: Advertise web hosting services that offer recurring commissions for referring customers who sign up for hosting plans.
• Financial Services: Promote financial services like investment platforms, robo-advisors, or credit card referral programs that provide ongoing commissions based on customer activity.
• Email Marketing Platforms: Market email marketing platforms that offer recurring commissions for referring customers who use the service for their email campaigns.
• Affiliate Marketing Training: Promote affiliate marketing training programs or courses that teach individuals how to build successful affiliate businesses and earn ongoing income.
• Health and Wellness Supplements: Market subscription-based health and wellness supplement programs where customers receive regular shipments of supplements and you earn commissions on each sale.
• Online Marketplaces: Promote online marketplaces that offer affiliate programs, such as e-commerce platforms or digital marketplaces where sellers pay transaction fees.
• Travel and Accommodation Booking: Advertise travel booking platforms or accommodation services that provide ongoing commissions for bookings made through your referral links.
• Renewable Energy Services: Promote renewable energy solutions like solar panel installation or green energy providers that offer ongoing commissions for customers who sign up for their services.
• Dropshipping: Market dropshipping programs where you earn ongoing commissions for each sale generated through your referral links to products shipped directly from suppliers.
• Personal Finance Tools: Promote personal finance tools like budgeting apps, expense trackers, or investment platforms that provide ongoing commissions based on customer usage.
• Online Subscription Boxes: Advertise subscription box services that offer recurring commissions for customers who sign up to receive curated products or experiences on a regular basis.
• Passive Income Training: Promote training programs or courses that teach individuals various strategies to build multiple streams of passive income and earn ongoing commissions.

Payment Models in Residual Income Affiliate Programs

After understanding what affiliate programs are and how they operate, it is important to also comprehend how you will be compensated. Affiliate programs typically have multiple payment models to pay their affiliates. This section will discuss the payment models used by a specific program to pay its affiliates.

Revenue Share

In the revenue share model, affiliates are paid a percentage of the product's value as determined by the program's terms. For example, if the product is worth $100 and the commission rate is 10%, then the affiliate will earn $10 for a successful sale. It's important to note that the potential for earning more money increases with the value of the product. This model is commonly used in affiliate programs.

Cost per Lead (CPL)

The cost per lead payout model is when you get a commission whenever someone becomes a lead for a business. This means that if someone signs up for a free trial or inputs their payment information and becomes a potential customer, you will receive a flat commission. However, the definition of a lead may vary depending on the program, so make sure you understand the specific actions that qualify as a lead. The amount you can earn from a lead can range from $1 to $100 depending on the value of the product or service, but a safe average is around $10.

Cost per Sale (CPS)

The cost per sale payout model is similar to the revenue share model, but instead of receiving a percentage of the product value, you earn a flat commission whenever someone makes a purchase. This means that the commission is the same regardless of the product's value, making it a common model in programs with limited product options.

Cost per Action (CPA)

The cost per action model allows you to earn a commission whenever someone completes a specific action on the affiliate program's website. The action can be varied and is usually defined by the program's terms and conditions. Actions can include signing up for a website, downloading an application, registering for something, or getting a free product. The amount of commission you can expect ranges from $1 to $10 and varies from program to program.

What to Consider When Choosing a Residual Income Affiliate Program

When selecting an affiliate program in a particular niche, there are several factors to take into account. It's not necessary to work with all the programs and go through their sign-up process just to review their products. Instead, concentrate your efforts on the programs that will provide you with a significant return on investment. To choose the right affiliate program, consider a variety of factors, such as familiarity with the products, commission rates, brand recognition, cookie duration, payout frequency, marketing assets and resources, affiliate support, application process time, performance-based bonuses, and promotions and discount codes.

Your Familiarity with the Products

It's important to have some familiarity with the product you're promoting or a similar product. Don't promote a product you're completely unfamiliar with, as you risk losing the trust of your audience. If you're not familiar with the product, you can research it through online reviews, YouTube videos, or other resources.

Commission Rate

When choosing an affiliate program, the commission rate is important, but it's not the only factor to consider. The average order value is also important, especially when it comes to revenue share models. For instance, a commission rate of 90% on a $10 average order value won't earn you much money, but a 10% commission on a $1,000 average order value will earn you $100. Therefore, it's crucial to pay attention to both the commission rate and the average order value of the program.

Brand Recognition

It's important to partner with a brand that has a good reputation and satisfies its customers. You don't want to promote a brand that has negative reviews or poor-quality products, as it could reflect badly on you. You can determine the credibility of a brand by looking up reviews on unbiased websites, asking for opinions on forums like Quora or Reddit, and asking your peers on affiliate forums if they have any experience with the brand. By doing your research and considering all the reviews, you can make an informed decision about whether or not to work with a particular brand.

Cookie Duration

The length of time that a program tracks a specific user's activity on a website, known as cookie duration, is an important consideration when promoting an offer. A cookie tracks data about a visitor's activity, allowing the program to count any purchases made by that visitor during the tracking period, even if they have visited the website before. For example, if a program's cookie duration is 30 days and a user visits the website twice, with 20 days between visits, any purchases made during the second visit will still earn a commission. Longer cookie durations increase the chances of earning a commission, with most programs offering a duration of 30 days, although some can be longer (up to a lifetime) or shorter (as little as one day).

Payment Frequency

Most affiliate marketers prefer to receive their commissions on a monthly basis, as waiting for three months or more can be frustrating. However, some programs have terms that require them to pay out every two, three, or even six months. This is not ideal, as waiting so long to receive payment can be detrimental to an affiliate's income. The reason for these payment terms is often due to the program's policies regarding product returns. They may want to avoid paying out commissions until the warranty period has expired to ensure the customer does not return the product, resulting in a loss for the program.

It is important for affiliate marketers to carefully consider a program's payment terms before signing up. Waiting too long to receive payment can be difficult, especially if the marketer is relying on affiliate marketing as their primary source of income. Therefore, it is recommended to choose programs that offer monthly payments, or at least payment every few months, to ensure a steady income stream.

Minimum Payout

Affiliate programs have a minimum payout threshold, which is a balance that must be reached before payment is made. This threshold is determined by the program, with many requiring affiliates to earn at least $50 before they can cash out their earnings. However, some programs do not have a minimum payout threshold, allowing affiliates to cash out immediately regardless of their balance. This provides flexibility for affiliates who prefer not to wait. By choosing a program without a minimum payout threshold, affiliates can receive their earnings as soon as they are earned without having to reach a certain balance first.

Affiliate Trackers

Affiliate programs provide affiliate trackers that offer data and statistics about the performance of visitors on the program. If the program is on a network, there may be an affiliate tracker available on the dashboard. This provides insights into marketing and allows the optimization of campaigns if necessary. The affiliate tracker includes information on clicks, signups, commissions, sales, and bonuses.

Marketing Assets and Resources

Affiliate programs typically offer various assets and resources to their affiliates to help them promote their products and earn more commissions. These resources may include logos, banner ads, text links, pre-written content, visuals, imagery, icons, and even ready-made landing pages and websites. While most affiliate programs offer some level of resources, there are some that may not provide any or only offer a link. If having access to these resources is important to you, choose a program that provides a variety of imagery and content to make your job easier, especially if the program is visual in nature. If the program doesn't provide images of their products, it only makes sense for them to provide the photos themselves.

Some affiliate programs may even offer samples of their products to their affiliates, which allows them to test the product and write reviews or create videos. This can have a significant impact on the audience and help increase sales.

Affiliate Support

For new affiliates or those who want more support, it is important to ensure that the affiliate program has active and accessible support through chat or email. Many of the programs on the list have good support, but it's always a good idea to check with peers on an affiliate forum. Dedicated affiliate managers can provide regular emails and tips to improve income, and newsletters can inform affiliates of new products and promotions.

Some programs offer performance-based bonuses for top affiliates, increasing commissions, or offering bonuses for reaching sales milestones. Those who want to offer promotional deals to their audience should look for programs that offer custom discount codes or seasonal event promotions, as some programs may not offer any discount codes at all. It's important for new affiliates to choose a program with accessible support and consider the available bonuses and promotional opportunities.

Application Process Time

If you want to join an affiliate program quickly, it's best to choose programs with short application processing times. Some programs take a long time to review applications and may ultimately reject you. Others may provide immediate access to their affiliate area, allowing you to start promoting right away. Therefore, pay attention to this detail before spending time filling out an application form.

Performance-Based Bonuses

Some affiliate programs offer incentives and bonuses to their most successful affiliates as a way to thank them for generating high sales. These bonuses can take the form of increased commissions or sizable rewards for reaching certain sales goals. We've identified which programs on our list offer performance-based bonuses, so keep an eye out for those if you're interested.

Promotions and Discount Codes

If you're an affiliate marketer who values offering your audience promotional discounts, consider joining affiliate programs that allow you to have your own custom discount code. These programs give you the opportunity to create your own discount code for your audience, while some may provide a universal discount code for all affiliates during seasonal events or promotions. However, some affiliate programs do not have any policies regarding discount codes and will not provide you with the opportunity to offer your audience promotional deals. To ensure that you have the ability to offer your audience promotional discounts, it's important to filter out programs that do not provide this option. By doing so, you can ensure that you are able to provide your audience with the best deals available and maximize your earning potential as an affiliate marketer.

Top Traffic Sources for Residual Income Offers

Now that you know how to choose the best residual income affiliate program, it's time to learn more about the potential traffic sources to use in this niche to get more people your way.

Social Media

Social media is one of the top traffic sources for residual income programs. As mentioned before, you're going to be working across various niches, so depending on your niche, you should aim for a different main source of income, be it social media or your website. Having your website is absolutely necessary, so let's talk about social media first.

The reason you might need social media is that you want to share a lot of visual content quickly and reach a large audience before you even have your website. Having a website can be very hard and getting your audience directed toward it can take a long time especially if you're just starting out in 2023 which is exactly when the competition is at its highest. So whatever niche you're working, make sure you consider social media as one of your main sources of traffic as well. On your social media account, you can share content about the products are promoting, deals, experiences, sketches, etc.

Once you want to refer people to your affiliate links, all you have to do is post a link to your affiliate website or your Linktree page on your bio and just ask people to click on it.

Website Content

Through website content, you can achieve a lot of good things, especially if your audience is of the type that actually likes visiting websites, reading articles, commenting, and all those types of interactions. If you're targeting a younger audience, you should probably forget about website content. However, if you're trying to get more traffic through search engines for long-term commissions, you should probably have your website content in place as well, because it will get a lot of views throughout a long period of time, and you can earn a passive income whenever anybody purchases something through your website. So this is just a very good long-term option for driving traffic here and there. In the later sections, we will be explaining how to write a killer product review to promote the products to your audience.

Forums and Communities

If you're looking to get more traffic to your website, there are other ways to do it besides relying on search engines. One way is to participate in online forums and communities related to the niche you’re active in. By answering people's questions and providing helpful information, you can build a reputation for yourself and earn points. It's important to be patient and follow the forum's rules. You can also include links to your website or articles you've written about the topic. However, be careful not to come across as spammy by including too many links or promoting your affiliate links too aggressively. By being helpful and contributing to the community, you can establish yourself as an authority in the field and attract more traffic to your website over time.

Paid Ads

If you want to quickly generate traffic to your website, you can utilize ad networks such as Google ads, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, TikTok ads, or Instagram Ads. Each platform has its own unique purpose. For example, if your content is more visual, you can opt for TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads, or Facebook Ads. However, if you want to direct people to your affiliate website or a written article, Google Ads is the best option. This platform allows you to target specific keywords to attract potential customers, increasing traffic to your website where they can view your affiliate links. By using ad platforms, you can quickly generate traffic to your website and promote your affiliate product. Google Ads is particularly useful for directing people to your website and allowing them to view your affiliate links, making it the ideal choice for those looking to generate more sales.

Tips to Promote Residual Income Affiliate Offers Successfully

After learning about the various methods to promote affiliate programs, it's important to implement effective strategies to generate more traffic on your website and boost sales.

Find Effective Platforms

To effectively reach your audience, it's important to find the right platform. This means exploring various social media channels and determining where your target audience is most active. If you find that there isn't enough engagement for your niche on one platform, consider shifting your focus to another. The same goes for your website - if you're not seeing enough traffic, it may be time to reassess your approach. For this particular niche, the audience is dispersed across search engines, social media, communities, etc. By creating valuable content on your website or other media platforms, you can still attract a significant amount of traffic.

Keyword Targeting

When you create a website in your niche, conducting thorough keyword research and incorporating the keywords in your content is essential. Using these keywords can help you rank higher in search engine results when users search for them. You can find more similar long-tail keywords by conducting further research. This will help you to identify the most popular keywords in your category.

For the residual income affiliate programs, you should pay attention to your niche and then come up with specific keywords in that niche.

Trends

Keeping up with trends is crucial for affiliate marketers. Not only should you take advantage of seasonal deals and promotions, but also capitalize on the latest trends. Posting content related to a trend can easily drive traffic to your product because people are actively searching for it. Social media platforms are especially important for trendspotting. Keep an eye out for relevant hashtags and trends in your area or target market. Fortunately, there are various online tools that can help you track these trends, including AnswerThePublic, ExplodingTopics, and Google Trends. By staying on top of trends, you can ensure that your marketing strategy is always relevant and up-to-date.

Review Products

To ensure that your audience trusts your product reviews, there are specific guidelines you should follow. There are several factors to consider when introducing products to your audience.

Firstly, your content should be unique. People don't want to read or listen to information that they can easily find on the manufacturer's website. You need to provide them with more than that. You need to provide them with your own firsthand experience or expert opinions. If you don't have any firsthand experience with the product you're promoting, you can learn as much as you can from YouTube videos and other commentaries to better understand the product you're promoting. This is crucial in affiliate marketing. Therefore, ensure that your reviews are honest and unique.

Secondly, you should provide some pros and cons of the product so that customers can easily compare them with other products. While obvious points about the product might be easy to see, highlighting the pros and cons of the product will help customers make an informed decision.

Thirdly, visuals and imagery are important, especially in content written on your website. Even if you're making video content, you should have your own footage of the product instead of using stock footage that anyone else can use.

Lastly, it's essential that your audience understands that you're promoting a product that you've tried before. Therefore, ensure that you communicate that you have firsthand experience with the product you're promoting. Also, don't forget to include links to your affiliate website if you're reviewing them on your social media, and include links to the affiliate website beneath every product on the review article.

Following these guidelines will help you establish trust with your audience and ensure that your product reviews are well-received.

Focus on SEO

To attract traffic to your website, it is crucial to focus on search engine optimization. Even if your website has excellent content, it will not reach an audience without SEO. Therefore, it is essential to use the keywords you choose consistently throughout your text, titles, image alt descriptions, and other relevant components.

Benefit from Lead Magnets

If you have a website that promotes affiliate products and you already have a good amount of traffic, one way to keep your audience engaged is by offering them the chance to sign up for your email list. This allows you to keep them informed of your latest content and promotional offers, especially during peak times. You can do this using lead magnets, which are essentially pop-up windows that ask users to provide their email addresses in exchange for something free. This could be anything from an ebook to a useful resource, depending on what your audience is interested in. However, it's important that you obtain their consent in order to send them promotional emails. Be sure to avoid spamming your audience, as this could result in negative consequences. Instead, provide them with relevant and valuable content that they're interested in receiving. Always be sure to ask for their permission before sending them any promotional emails, and make sure that your content is aligned with their interests and needs.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to promote offers in the residual income category, make sure to check out some other offers among other affiliate programs and affiliate networks that could be suitable for your audience. You can also check other programs of this type, including membership affiliate programs. So just use the tips mentioned in this article to get the audience you need and earn passive income over a long period of time easily.