June 7, 2023
This page contains affiliate links, and we may earn commissions for purchases on other sites.
Let’s understand how recurring affiliate programs work before we make passive income and commissions for life. A recurring affiliate program pays a commission indefinitely, and commissions come from ongoing customer payments. For instance, a customer pays $60 monthly to a marketing software company, and the affiliate gets $24 (a 40 percent commission rate) each month.
Software and SaaS companies dominate the recurring commission program category. This is because many software/SaaS companies charge monthly and annual subscription fees, allowing them to share revenue with affiliates. By contrast, non-software companies like Fiverr offer recurring commissions through repeat customer purchases.
Recurring affiliate programs can be very profitable for marketers. So, let’s review the best recurring affiliate programs for beginners and experienced publishers in this post.
Best Recurring Affiliate Programs
Unlike some bloggers, I won’t waste your time with unproven merchants that won’t make you money. By contrast, my list features reputable and established merchants that pay recurring commissions of at least 15 percent for a minimum of 12 months (one exception is web hosting companies). Many recurring commission programs qualify as high-paying affiliate programs.
Marketing & Sales Affiliate Programs
GetResponse
GetResponse is an all-in-one digital marketing platform offering email campaigns, landing pages, conversion funnels, webinar hosting, opt-in forms, web push notifications, and other marketing automation tools. GetResponse will help generate leads, increase sales, sell knowledge, and engage customers.
The GetResponse affiliate program is rewarding for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 33%
- Cookie/referral period: 120 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
MailerLite
MailerLite provides the latest email marketing features to help you grow subscribers and build stronger relationships, including design editors, templates, opt-in forms, and marketing automation. MailerLite also offers website and blog builders, landing pages, and e-commerce solutions for a complete offering.
Affiliates get the following with the MailerLite affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Systeme.io
Systeme is an all-in-one marketing platform that allows you to launch an online business. It offers various tools, such as sales funnels, email marketing, website building, affiliate management, online courses, and marketing automation.
The Systeme affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: 50%
- Cookie/referral period: Lifetime
- Payout threshold: $30
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Aweber
AWeber‘s digital marketing services are used by small businesses, bloggers, and entrepreneurs worldwide. Aweber offers email marketing automation, landing page builder, content notification, and e-commerce tools to grow your business.
Marketers get the following with the AWeber affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 365 days
- Payout threshold: $30
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
EmailOctopus
EmailOctopus provides email marketing that’s simple, intuitive, and affordable to help grow your audience and sales. It gives you everything you need to build a list, create impactful campaigns, and get results.
The EmailOctopus affiliate program is appealing for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 31 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
EngageBay
EngageBay is an all-in-one SaaS platform combining customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation. It helps small businesses generate sales, reduce marketing costs, and build a brand.
The EngageBay affiliate program offers the following incentives:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Mangools
Mangools is a 5-in-1 SEO toolkit for business owners, marketers, bloggers, and agencies. It supports keyword research, SERP analysis, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and other SEO activities.
Affiliates get the following with the Mangools affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $150
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Omnisend
Omnisend is an e-commerce-centric email and SMS marketing automation platform built to help agile teams drive more revenue without increasing their workload. Its features include marketing automation, email campaigns, user segmentation, and lead generation forms.
The Omnisend affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: 300%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is a CRM and lead platform that salespeople build for sales and marketing professionals. Its visual and fully customizable app enables users to get leads, manage sales, automate communications, and more.
Marketers get the following with the Pipedrive affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 33%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a social media scheduling and marketing tool for social media professionals, digital marketing agencies, bloggers, and individuals who want to increase their social media presence. Its features include social media scheduling, content curation, analytics, and team management.
The SocialPilot affiliate program is appealing for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 20%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
YouTube Affiliate Programs
TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a browser extension, website, and mobile app that integrates with YouTube. It offers 60+ channel and video optimization tools, including video SEO, keyword research, tag management, analytics, productivity, bulk processing, marketing, and more.
The TubeBuddy affiliate program offers the following incentives:
- Commission rate: Up to 30%
- Cookie/referral period: Lifetime
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
VidIQ
VidIQ offers AI-driven growth tools to help creators and marketers grow their channels and brand awareness. Its Chrome browser extension features video scoring, SEO, keyword research, tag management, analytics, and more.
Affiliates get the following with the VidIQ affiliate program:
- Commission rate: Up to 25%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
AI Affiliate Programs
Jasper AI
Jasper is a generative AI platform for businesses and helps marketing teams create content faster. Its tools cover social media marketing, email marketing, advertising, article writing, e-commerce, and digital art. In addition, Jasper Chat is a conversational way of interacting with generative AI and is a robust alternative to ChatGPT.
The Jasper affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $25
- Affiliate software/network: FP
Writesonic
Writesonic helps you create SEO-optimized and plagiarism-free content for your blogs, ads, emails, and website. It offers 100+ features for writers, e-commerce sellers, marketing teams, and entrepreneurs.
The Writesonic affiliate program is appealing for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $25
- Affiliate software/network: FP
Frase
Frase AI helps you research, write, and optimize high-quality SEO content in minutes instead of hours. Frase also uses your Google Search Console data to give actionable insights about content opportunities. SEOs, content marketers, and marketing agencies can benefit from using Frase.
Affiliates get the following with the Frase affiliate program:
- Commission rate: Up to 40%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $25
- Affiliate software/network: FP
E-commerce Affiliate Programs
Fiverr
Fiverr is the largest online marketplace for freelance services starting at $5. Also, thousands of freelancers offer marketing, business, graphic design, website design, writing, translation, video, and programming services. Fiverr Business, Pro, Studios, Logo Maker, and Workplace round out the full suite of services for SMB customers.
The Fiverr affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: $10 + 10% for 12 months
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $100
- Affiliate software/network: Cellxpert
Debutify
Debutify is a top-rated, user-friendly, and high-converting free Shopify theme with 55+ premium add-ons to increase your e-commerce sales. Launch your e-commerce product, build a dropshipping business, or expand your retail presence online with Debutify.
Marketers get the following with the Debutify affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 25%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: Impact
Spocket
Spocket helps dropshippers discover high-quality products from US and EU suppliers. It integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, WooCommerce, AliExpress, and other e-commerce apps for quick setup.
The Spocket affiliate program is appealing for these reasons:
- Commission rate: Up to 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: Impact, ShareASale, and PartnerStack
VPN Affiliate Programs
NordVPN
NordVPN is a top-rated VPN offering military-grade online security and protection applications. It provides numerous benefits, including secure internet, strict no-logs policy, servers worldwide, malware blocking, and more.
The NordVPN affiliate program offers the following:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: Impact & CJ Affiliate
IPVanish
IPVanish spans 40,000+ IPs on 1,900+ servers, allowing you to surf anonymously and block websites from around the globe.
Affiliates get the following with the IPVanish affiliate program:
- Commission rate: Up to 50%
- Cookie/referral period: 45 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: CJ Affiliate
PureVPN
PureVPN specializes in helping internet users reinforce their online security and privacy by using a virtual private network.
The PureVPN affiliate program is excellent for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 40%
- Cookie/referral period: 60 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: CJ Affiliate
HideMyAss
HMA helps millions of people safely and securely surf the internet and preserve their fundamental right to choose how and when they share personal information.
The HMA affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: Up to 40%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: Tune
Surfshark
Surfshark is a fast-growing cybersecurity company that develops privacy and security protection solutions to secure people’s digital lives, including a VPN, antivirus, and search apps.
Marketers get the following with the Surfshark affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 40%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: Tune
Website/Hosting Affiliate Programs
Thrive Themes
Thrive Themes offers robust WordPress plugins, themes, and tools to build websites, market products, and increase sales. For instance, users can create landing pages, funnels, online courses, membership sites, quizzes, and scarcity campaigns.
The Thrive Themes affiliate program is rewarding for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 25%
- Cookie/referral period: 2 years
- Payout threshold: $20
- Affiliate software/network: iDevAffiliate
Carrd
Carrd offers simple, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything. Users can build sites for free or upgrade to premium features.
The Carrd referral program offers the following incentives:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie duration: Lifetime
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Cloudways
Cloudways is a cloud platform that offers an effortless way to monitor and manage high-performance applications. It provides complete freedom coupled with simplicity and agility in every process.
Affiliates get the following with the Cloudways affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 7%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $100
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Kinsta
Whether you run a website, online shop, agency, or enterprise, Kinsta‘s premium managed WordPress hosting offers optimal performance and reliable support. Also, Google’s cloud platform powers Kinsta to ensure lightning-fast load times.
The Kinsta affiliate program is excellent for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 10%
- Cookie/referral period: 60 days
- Payout threshold: $100
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Leadpages
Leadpages enables you to create landing pages, build websites, capture email addresses, and nurture leads with marketing automation. In addition, Leadpages integrates with 100+ third-party apps to expand your online ecosystem.
The Leadpages affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: Up to 50%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days;
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Webflow
Webflow empowers designers to build professional, custom websites in a visual canvas with no code. It uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for a fast, reliable, and hassle-free hosting experience. As a result, you launch new projects faster, optimize your site, and connect to marketing tools for performance insights.
Marketers get the following with the Webflow affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 50%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Other Recurring Affiliate Programs
Many crypto and bitcoin programs pay high recurring commission rates. For example, Binance is a leading cryptocurrency exchange paying affiliate commissions of up to 50 percent on referral trading commissions. Learn more about Binance and the best cryptocurrency affiliate programs.
Tidio
Tidio is an all-in-one customer service app that improves your customer support and helps generate more sales. Its live chat widget makes your business available 24/7, while AI-powered chatbots engage your customers in real-time.
The Tidio affiliate program is appealing for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: CJ Affiliate
1Password
1Password helps simplify your online life by automatically filling, storing, and securing passwords, personal data, and credit cards. It provides solutions for individuals, families, teams, and developers.
Affiliates get the following with the 1Password affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 25%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Appointlet
Appointlet is an appointment-scheduling app for marketers, salespeople, business owners, and recruiters. It helps you turn more prospects into customers by letting them book you immediately.
The Appointlet affiliate program is excellent for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 20%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: Tapfiliate
Calendly
Calendly is automated scheduling software that makes booking appointments and finding meeting times easy. Its features include routing forms, team scheduling, embeds, and more.
The Calendly affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: Up to 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
ClickUp
ClickUp is a task and team management platform that makes your personal and professional lives more productive with docs, reminders, goals, calendars, inboxes, whiteboards, and more. Its automation and integrations enhance your workflow.
Marketers get the following with the affiliate program ClickUp affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 20%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $20
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
Depositphotos
Depositphotos is a stock content marketplace that provides access to a vast library of photos, vectors, illustrations, music, videos, and sound effects. Also, use its background remover for free.
The Depositphotos affiliate program is lucrative for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 15%
- Cookie/referral period: 180 days
- Payout threshold: $50
- Affiliate software/network: Tune
Help Scout
Help Scout gives growing businesses everything they need to deliver world-class customer support in one simple, scalable platform. It provides email-based customer support, a knowledge base, and embeddable search/contact tools.
The Help Scout affiliate program offers the following:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Jotform
Jotform is a full-featured online form builder that makes it easy to create robust forms, collect essential data, and get leads. In addition, Jotform offers hundreds of templates and app integrations for a scalable solution.
Affiliates get the following with the Jotform affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 60 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: In-house
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds offers an online course platform for creating, selling, and promoting your online classes. Additionally, users can monetize their skills, experiences, and audience with continuing education, compliance training, and employee/customer onboarding content.
The LearnWorlds affiliate program is favorable for these reasons:
- Commission rate: 30%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Podia
Podia helps thousands of creators earn money with an all-in-one website builder to sell courses, webinars, downloads, community, and more. Its user-friendly platform doesn’t require technical skills, allowing you to start selling fast.
The Podia affiliate program has the following benefits:
- Commission rate: 20%
- Cookie/referral period: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Affiliate software/network: Impact
Monday.com
Monday.com is a centralized platform for teams to manage every work detail, from high-level roadmap planning to specific tasks. Monday supports sales, CRM, marketing, project, and development teams.
Marketers get the following with the Monday affiliate program:
- Commission rate: 25%
- Cookie/referral period: 90 days
- Payout threshold: $5
- Affiliate software/network: PartnerStack
Your Next Move
Recurring affiliate programs are a beautiful thing. First, you’ll keep earning as long as your referrals keep paying. That equation can lead to making significant monthly passive income. Secondly, many recurring program merchants pay 20 to 50 percent commission rates. However, merchants that pay 5 to 20 percent could also be worth promoting. For example, I’ve made money with Printify, which pays a 5 percent recurring commission rate. Therefore, promoting merchants with recurring affiliate programs should be a top priority.
What are the best niches for recurring affiliate programs? There are several top categories, including digital marketing and online business software.
| Top Niches | Commission Examples |
| Business apps | 30% per sale |
| E-commerce apps | 60% per sale |
| Marketing apps | 50% per sale |
| Email marketing apps | 300% per sale |
| Software apps | 50% per sale |
| VPN apps | 40% per sale |
| Web hosting | 50% per sale |
Where to Promote Your Affiliate Links
In affiliate marketing, more is more, not less. Should you embrace that philosophy, your mission is to distribute as many links as possible to attract enough clicks, conversions, and sales. Publishers who make four, five, and six figures monthly get 10,000+ clicks. Also, they promote reputable and high-converting merchants that offer in-demand products and services. Let’s review the most common ways to promote and distribute affiliate links.
Blog & Website
A blog is a standard place to do affiliate marketing. I like it because I own and control what happens on Digital Fodder. By contrast, I’m at the mercy of social and content platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Medium, etc.
A blog allows marketers to add links in multiple places, such as primary and secondary menus, widgets, pages, posts, banners, and footers. For instance, my website/copyright info section has an affiliate link to my web hosting company (SiteGround). The only thing limiting affiliate links on your site is your creativity.
Success in affiliate marketing requires the flexibility to experiment, which some content platforms don’t provide. Content publishing platforms like Medium and Blogger aren’t suitable for affiliate marketing because users can’t tinker with the software. Case in point, you can’t add opt-in forms and widgets to deploy links. You can only include links in your articles, which is limiting. For those reasons, millions of bloggers and site owners use WordPress.
Landing Page
For marketing purposes, a landing page is a one-page website or page for a specific purpose, for example, a webinar registration page. It generates leads and promotes a product, service, webinar, course, or giveaway. You can also use it to promote merchants like you would with a blog or website. GetResponse and Thrive Themes are two top-rated landing page providers.
YouTube
YouTube is a favorite for many publishers and marketers. Affiliates can add links to their descriptions, comments, community tabs, and about-page channel links. While those areas are enough for most creators, YouTube is somewhat limiting.
Some merchants and websites will trigger strikes and violations. For instance, I got a strike for adding a link from VidIQ, a channel management tool and a YouTube-certified partner. There was no valid reason for the penalty, so it must have been a “systems error.” I appealed the strike, but YouTube’s nameless and faceless humanoids rejected my request. Such is life when dealing with big tech.
Still, YouTube is a promising platform for generating affiliate commissions. Also, TubeBuddy and VidIQ are excellent apps to grow your channel, views, and subs.
Social Media
Like YouTube, Facebook is a content superhighway with billions of users. In addition, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, and Pinterest have sizeable user bases. Of course, each platform has pros and cons regarding affiliate marketing, but they’re worth exploring because of how many people use them.
Of the options, Facebook is the most promising for making money because it’s multifaceted with profiles, pages, and groups. Twitter is useful because it encourages users to click and leave the site. Publishers somewhat underestimate LinkedIn, but it’s a global platform of engaged members. It’s also where I frequently post affiliate links. Finally, consider using a social media marketing and management tool to save time and post content simultaneously across platforms.
Social networks are a breeding ground for spammy and suspect affiliate marketing activities and tactics. Unfortunately, some marketers seeking to make a quick buck punch out links as if humanity is about to end. That creates a distrustful atmosphere where nobody gains. Therefore, create a plan, be cautious, and avoid spamming to keep your account in good standing. Moreover, consider the benefits and drawbacks of using marketing automation tools to post on your behalf.
Email Marketing
Email marketing goes hand-and-hand with a blog/website, a standard accessory in a marketer’s toolkit. The goal is to convert traffic into subscribers to “build a list.” Then, upon subscription, an autoresponse sequence can deliver your content and links.
Manual email blasts and monthly campaigns can support your marketing objectives too. An overlooked area is the email footer, but you should update/replace the provider’s link with your affiliate link if possible.
People use opt-in forms to collect email addresses and user info. Opt-in form types include:
- Popup
- Smart, header, footer, or ribbon bar
- Floating bar
- In-line
- Slide-in
- End of content/post
- Exit intent
- Widget
- Screen overlay and fullscreen
- Content lock/protected
- Scroll mat
- Quiz/test
- Survey
- Coupon wheel
- Countdown timer
Given the options above, a common mistake is to bombard visitors with too many forms. It happens to me occasionally, which makes for an unpleasant experience. I keep things simple with one popup at the end of each post. My autoresponse sequence has a few emails that go out over weeks.
GetResponse and MailerLite are excellent email service providers. Also, explore Thrive Themes for a suite of robust WordPress marketing plugins.
Digital Media & Webinars
Digital media includes online courses, ebooks, and pre-recorded webinars/videos. Combining digital content with affiliate marketing allows you to earn passive income twice with one product. For example, suppose you teach a marketing course on Skillshare. You could create a lesson about marketing tools and link them in the text field. Ebooks are no different than blog posts, so there are opportunities to send traffic to merchants. Lastly, a webinar allows you to collect email addresses and prospects to market to them later through email marketing.
Communities & Forums
There are communities and forums for all walks of life on the internet. While Facebook Groups support millions of users, Reddit, Quora, and Stack Overflow offer high engagement for various topics. However, most platforms have policies concerning affiliate marketing, so understand them before posting links.
Livestreams & Live Chat
Posting links on a live stream might be worthwhile, depending on the speed and flow of user comments. Still, it’s a low-probability way to make significant earnings. You might also consider distributing links through chatbots and follow-up emails.
Paid Ads
Using paid ads to promote affiliate offers seems counterintuitive, but it can work under the right scenarios. For example, suppose you can bid $0.10 for a keyword that will position you at the top of page-one search results on Bing Ads. One hundred clicks will cost $10. The merchant you promote converts at 1 percent, 1 out of 100, and pays a $20 commission. Under that situation, paid ads would result in a $10 profit ($20 – $10 = $10).
Unfortunately, most merchants don’t convert at 1 percent, and cookie durations of 30 days or less work against you. Secondly, most advertisers have policies restricting affiliates from using paid ads and specific keywords. Advertisers implement those policies to avoid competing with themselves by bidding against their affiliates. Finally, third-party links from affiliate networks won’t work with paid ads because search engines don’t allow redirects. Therefore, you must use first-party links from high-converting merchants that permit paid ads, which can be hard to find.
