All you need to have is a website with adequate contents that are related to the products of a certain online company offering affiliate programs. In many cases you don't even need a website.



By becoming a member of the program, or by becoming an affiliate, you can start earning a certain amount of money right away.

1. The majority of affiliate programs would pay you, as an affiliate, a one-time commission for every sale or lead you brought to the merchant's website. Commissions for this kind of affiliate programs are usually large, ranging from 20% to a high of about 75%. Other affiliate programs would pay you a set fee for every click through or traffic you send to the merchant's site. Programs like this often pay a smaller fee for every click through. The excellent thing about this type of program, however, is that the visitor won't have to purchase anything in order for the affiliate to get compensated.

2. A different type of affiliate program is the residual income affiliate program. Residual affiliate programs usually pay a small percentage of sales commission for every sale directed by the affiliate to the merchant's site. This commission often comes only in the range of 15% to 30% sales commission. Because of this, many people disregard residual affiliate program and would rather opt for the high paying one-time commission affiliate program. Are these people making a mistake, or are they making the right decision?

3. Residual affiliate programs would indeed pay at a lower rate, but merchants offering such programs would generally pay you regular and ongoing commissions for a single affiliate initiated sale. That means, for the same effort you made in promoting a particular affiliate program, you get paid only once in a one-time commission program, and a set and continuing commission for a residual program.

4. Thought you have directed traffic to the merchant and it converted into a sale, you'll get paid once by the first merchant for the sale you have initiated. But with a residual program, you'll get paid monthly for as long as the customer you have referred to the merchant continues to benefit of the web hosting service. That means that for the same endeavor of getting one buyer to avail of the merchant's service, you get paid monthly in residual affiliate programs while you only get paid once in a one-time commission type of affiliate programs.

So, are residual affiliate programs worth promoting? Yes, because you virtually get more money from these types of affiliate programs in the long run. With the benefits that residual affiliate marketing can provide, it would really be foolish to disregard such programs.