As someone who has put in years in Affiliate marketing, I can now guide my readers on the best affiliate programs that can give you good income.
I’m always looking for ways to make money by recommending products or services. The best kind of programs for this are the ones that pay you over and over again – every month or year – whenever the people you referred keep paying for the service or product.
In this guide, I’m going to tell you about Best Recurring Affiliate Programs. I picked them because they are trustworthy, they pay well, and they offer things that people really want and keep using.
This guide is great for anyone in affiliate marketing, whether you’re just starting or have been doing it for a while.
These programs can help you make a steady income by promoting things your followers will actually use and love.
Let’s get started and see how you can make more money with these awesome programs.
Content Outline
What Are Recurring Affiliate Programs?
Recurring affiliate programs are a way for people who recommend products or services to keep getting paid every time the person they recommended makes another payment.
For example, if you tell someone about a website where they can take online courses and sign up for a monthly plan, you get paid a little bit for bringing them to the website. But it doesn’t stop there. Every month, when that person pays for their course again, you get paid again.
This is really good for people who recommend things because it means they can keep earning money over time, not just once. It’s like getting a bonus every time the person you helped sign up keeps using and paying for their subscription or product.
These kinds of programs are great because they usually involve things that people keep using for a long time, like software they need or classes they enjoy. So, it’s a win-win: customers get something valuable, and you get to earn money regularly to help them find it.
Why Do I Prefer Affiliate Programs With Recurring Commissions?
Promoting affiliate programs where you get paid over and over again (recurring commissions) is a smart choice for a few reasons.
Here’s why it’s a good idea:
1. You keep earning money: These programs let you earn money every time the person you recommended pays for their subscription or buys something again. A report found that about 30% of people who recommend products like these because they can keep making money from them for a long time.
2. Customers stick around longer: When you promote services or products that charge a recurring fee, like software or online classes, the people who buy them tend to keep using (and paying for) them longer compared to one-time buys like clothes or gadgets. This means you have a chance to make money for a longer time from each person you refer.
3. It saves effort and could earn you more: With these programs, you don’t have to keep looking for new people to buy stuff. Once someone signs up through you, you’ll keep making money off their purchases without extra work. Plus, you might be encouraged to promote the product more because you want to keep earning from those ongoing payments.
For example, Shopify, an e-commerce platform, offers a 20% commission that you keep getting for as long as the customer stays with them. Aweber, which is an email marketing service, gives a 30% commission every month for each person you refer.
SEMrush, a tool for SEO (helping websites get more visitors), offers a 40% commission that keeps coming in, and Hootsuite, which helps manage social media, offers a 15% ongoing commission. These are just a few examples of programs that can give you a steady income for promoting their products.
Now, let me explain to you the best Affiliate Programs With Recurring Commissions.
Best Affiliate Programs With Recurring Commissions.
1. AWeber – 30% lifetime recurring commissions
AWeber is mainly for sending emails for marketing, but it can also be used to create webpages for marketing (landing pages) and send notifications directly to people’s browsers. It’s even useful for selling things online.
AWeber has a free version, but as an affiliate, you’d be encouraging people to sign up for the Pro plan, which costs at least $16.15 every month.
When you get someone to sign up for AWeber using your link, you earn 30% of what they pay at the beginning and then 30% of their payment every month after that.
AWeber helps you earn from your referrals for up to a year with something called a “cookie window” of 365 days. This is the longest period offered in any of the affiliate programs we know about, meaning if someone clicks on your link and signs up within a year, you’ll still get your commission.
- URL: AWeber affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commissions
- Cookie duration: 365 days
2. ConvertKit – 30% lifetime recurring commissions
ConvertKit is a tool for people who run online businesses. It helps them send marketing emails, sell things online, and create special web pages called landing pages.
My favorite affiliate marketer, Pat Flynn, recommends ConvertKit, which shows it’s a really good choice for making money over time by recommending it to others.
Pat Flynn likes it because he gets 30% of the money from every customer he refers to ConvertKit, not just once but for as long as that customer keeps using ConvertKit.
The people who recommend ConvertKit get a lot of help from the company to do well. This help includes a special lesson from Pat Flynn, pictures, videos, and online seminars that they can use any time to get better at recommending ConvertKit to others.
Thus, this is my top bet for Affiliate Programs With Recurring Commissions, as they help me stay motivated and encourage me to keep pushing forward. It also gives me the opportunity to earn commissions on a recurring basis, which is a huge bonus for me.
- URL: ConvertKit affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commissions
- Cookie duration: 90 days
3. ClickFunnels – Lifetime recurring commissions of up to 40%
ClickFunnels is a tool that helps business owners build websites and sales funnels easily without needing to know how to code. It’s been really successful, helping over 110,000 customers make around $12 billion in sales.
If you decide to recommend ClickFunnels to others as part of their affiliate program, you start off making a 20% commission on the sales you bring in, which is a pretty good start. But it gets even better:
If you manage to earn $1,000 in commissions in a month, your commission rate goes up to 30% for all future sales.
If you have referred at least 40 customers who are actively using ClickFunnels for more than 30 days, your commission rate increases to 40%.
Plus, if you sell a specific ClickFunnels product called “One Funnel Away,” you can earn an extra $100 commission for each sale.
So, the more you sell, the more you can earn, with the chance to make more money from each sale over time.
- URL: ClickFunnels affiliate program
- Commission rate: A lifetime recurring commission of up to 40%
- Cookie duration: Lifetime
4. MailerLite – 30% lifetime recurring commissions
MailerLite is a user-friendly email marketing tool. It lets people make nice-looking emails easily, even if they don’t know how to code, thanks to a simple drag-and-drop system.
What makes MailerLite even cooler is its affiliate program, which is one of the best out there. If you tell someone about MailerLite and they sign up and buy something, you get 30% of what they spend, not just once but every time they make a payment, for as long as they keep using MailerLite. It’s a pretty easy way to make money, right?
To make things easier for you, MailerLite gives you access to great marketing materials that are just as good as what their own team uses. This means you can use their professional-looking images and content to help you spread the word.
- URL: MailerLite affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commissions
- Cookie duration: 30 days
5. ActiveCampaign – Up to 30% lifetime recurring commissions
ActiveCampaign is more than just an email marketing tool. It also has features for customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation, which help businesses treat their customers better.
It has different price plans that range from $9 to $229 per month, so lots of different people and businesses can afford it. This makes it a good product to talk about on your affiliate website.
Promoting ActiveCampaign can be really profitable because the average person who recommends ActiveCampaign makes about $1,350 for each sale over time, thanks to its program that pays you over and over again.
When you recommend someone to ActiveCampaign, you start by earning a 20% commission on whatever they spend as long as they keep using the service. If you do really well and bring in a lot of customers or the customers you bring to stay with ActiveCampaign for a long time, your commission can go up to 30%.
- URL: ActiveCampaign affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 30% lifetime recurring commissions
- Cookie duration: 90 days
6. GetResponse – 33% recurring lifetime commissions
GetResponse is a service that a lot of people use to send emails – about 765 million emails every week! It’s not just for sending emails, though. It also helps with automating regular online marketing tasks and making landing pages.
They have a special program for people who recommend GetResponse to others. You can choose to get $100 for every new customer you bring in, or you can join their recurring affiliate program, where you keep earning money over time.
Once you’re part of the program, you get paid on the 20th of every month for every person you’ve recommended who becomes a customer. If you do well, you could make up to $580 a month from this.
- URL: GetResponse affiliate program
- Commission rate: 33% recurring lifetime commissions
- Cookie duration: 120 days
6. Leadpages – Up to 50% lifetime recurring commissions
Leadpages is a tool that helps over 40,000 small businesses make better websites and landing pages to get more customers. It’s very easy to use and lets people create popups and alert bars on their websites.
Leadpages are a bit expensive, with prices ranging from $27 to $239 every month. This might make it a bit harder to convince people to buy it, but if you can, the rewards are great. They pay really well compared to other affiliate programs.
When you start recommending Leadpages to others, you’ll get a 10% commission for each sale you make. But, if you do a really good job and get more people to sign up, you can earn much more:
If the people you refer spend between $50 and $2,999.99 a month, you’ll get 40% of that money as your commission.
If they spend more than $3,000 a month, you get to keep 50% of that as your commission.
- URL: Leadpages affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 50% lifetime recurring commissions
- Cookie duration: 30 days
7. Thinkific – 30% lifetime recurring commission
Thinkific is a platform that helps people create and sell online courses and membership sites. Over 50,000 people have used Thinkific to earn a total of more than $650 million from their courses.
To use Thinkific and all its features, creators need to pay a monthly fee. Thinkific’s affiliate program is all about getting new creators to sign up and use their service.
If you tell a creator about Thinkific and they sign up for a monthly or yearly plan, you’ll earn a 30% commission from their payments for as long as they keep using Thinkific. This means you could earn up to $1,700 in a year just from one person you referred.
- URL: Thinkific affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commission
- Cookie duration: 90 days
8. Teachable – 30% recurring lifetime commission
Teachable is another platform like Thinkific that helps people create and sell online courses. Both platforms are pretty similar, but there are a few differences. For one, Teachable is a bit more expensive and doesn’t offer a free version.
Just like Thinkific, if you want to earn money by recommending Teachable, you’ll need to tell content creators about it. You make money when they sign up and keep paying for their plan.
Teachable also pays you a commission for as long as your referred creators keep using the service. You start earning a 30% commission on their payments, but if you do really well and hit certain targets each month, you could earn up to 50% in recurring commissions. This means the better you do, the more money you can make over time.
- URL: Teachable affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% recurring lifetime commission
- Cookie duration: 90 days
9. Moosend – 30% lifetime recurring commission
Moosend is an email marketing service that offers lots of extra tools, like customer relationship management (CRM) and ways to divide your audience into different groups, plus it helps you keep track of your results. Big names like Domino’s Pizza and Vogue use it, but it’s still affordable. Moosend has a forever free basic plan, and its Pro plan, which offers more features, starts at just $8 a month.
It’s a great option for recommending to others because you earn a 30% commission for as long as the person you referred stays with Moosend, and your chance to earn that commission lasts for 90 days after someone clicks your link.
And there’s a bonus: even if someone uses your link to sign up for the free plan and decides to switch to a paid plan after 90 days, you still earn your commission. This makes Moosend’s affiliate program really appealing.
- URL: Moosend affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commission
- Cookie duration: 90 days
10. Elegant Themes – 50% recurring annual commissions
Elegant Themes is a tool that helps people build websites on WordPress. It’s really good at what it does, getting top marks from Trustpilot, and is used by over 765,000 businesses and website designers. It makes over $3 million a year thanks to more than 30,000 people recommending it, making its affiliate program one of the most popular ones that pay you over and over again.
What’s great about recommending Elegant Themes is that you get 50% of the money each time someone you referred pays for their yearly plan again. This means you can keep earning money from the same referral, which is a nice way to make a steady income just by suggesting people use Elegant Themes for their WordPress sites.
Plus, Elegant Themes gives you a really good chance to earn from anyone who visits their site from your link because they keep track of those visitors longer than most other programs. This means if someone uses your link and decides to buy something a while later, you still get credit for the sale.
- URL: Elegant Themes affiliate program
- Commission rate: 50% recurring annual commissions
- Cookie duration: 180 days
11. Serpstat – Up to 30% lifetime recurring commission
Serpstat is a popular tool used for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), which helps websites rank higher in search results. It’s the top-selling SEO tool on a site called Appsumo, has the most votes on a platform named Product Hunt for SEO tools, and has a high rating of 4.6 stars on G2 from over 400 reviews. These good reviews make it easier to convince people to buy Serpstat, even though it’s a bit pricey, starting at $55 a month.
With Serpstat’s affiliate program, you earn money by recommending the tool to new customers. The percentage of money you make from each sale increases as you refer more people. It works like this:
For the first to fifth payment someone you referred makes, you get 10% of the sale.
From their 6th to 20th payment, you earn 20%.
After the 21st payment they make, you get 30%.
This means the more customers you bring in and the longer they stay with Serpstat, the more money you can earn from your referrals.
- URL: Serpstat affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 30% lifetime recurring commission
- Cookie duration: 30 days
12. Mangools – 30% lifetime commission
Mangools is a package of SEO tools that help you track website rankings, analyze keywords and links, and show what search engine results pages (SERPs) look like. It’s pretty affordable, with prices starting at just $29.90 a month. Plus, there’s a 10-day free trial, making it easy for people to try it out.
Mangools mentions that, on average, each person recommending their tools makes about $487 every month from their affiliate program. This means if you recommend Mangools to others and they sign up, you could earn enough money to replace your job.
You get a 30% commission for every sale, and this commission keeps coming for as long as the person you referred keeps their account. Because you keep earning over time, the money can really start to add up.
- URL: Mangools affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime commission
- Cookie duration: 30 days
13. Hubstaff – 30% recurring commissions for 12 months
Hubstaff is a tool that helps track time and manage how productive people are. More than 40,000 companies use it, including companies like Groupon and Instacart. You can see why it is so popular at just $14 for two users.
Because Hubstaff is affordable, it can be pretty easy to convince people to try it. But, if you want to make a good amount of money from recommending Hubstaff through their affiliate program, which pays you a 30% commission over and over again, you’ll need to get a lot of people to sign up.
There are a couple of downsides to this affiliate program. First, you only get your commission once a year, not for the entire time someone you referred keeps using Hubstaff. Second, you have to wait a whole year to get your commission, so it can take a while before you start seeing any money from your efforts.
- URL: Hubstaff affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% recurring commissions for 12 months
- Cookie duration: Unknown
14. NordVPN – 30% lifetime recurring commission
NordVPN is a very big company that lets people use the internet safely and privately with something called a VPN. By the year 2022, people around the world are expected to spend about $36 billion on VPN services, which means NordVPN is in a really popular business.
Many famous YouTubers, like PewDiePie, Casey Neistat, and Philip DeFranco, talk about and recommend NordVPN. Because these YouTubers are so well-liked and trusted, a lot of people know about NordVPN, which makes it easier for people who want to make money by recommending it.
NordVPN’s program for people who recommend it is great because you get paid 30% of the subscription price every time someone you referred pays for their service again, for as long as they keep using NordVPN. Plus, you can earn up to 100% of the payment from the first time someone buys a subscription, which is a big bonus.
- URL: NordVPN affiliate program
- Commission rate: 30% lifetime recurring commission
- Cookie duration: 30 days
FAQs
❓What factors should I consider when choosing a recurring affiliate program?
When choosing a recurring affiliate program, consider the commission rate, the quality and demand for the product or service, the reliability of the payment system, the duration of the cookie life, and the overall reputation of the company. It's also important to ensure that the product or service aligns with your audience's interests.
👍How do recurring affiliate programs work?
In a recurring affiliate program, affiliates receive a commission for every payment made by their referrals, typically on a monthly or annual basis. This continues for the duration of the subscription or membership, offering potential for long-term earnings from a single referral.
👉Why should I consider joining a recurring affiliate program?
Joining a recurring affiliate program can be advantageous because it offers the potential for a stable and predictable income over time. It allows you to build a sustainable revenue stream as opposed to one-time commissions, maximizing the lifetime value of your referrals.
Quicklinks
- Affiliate Marketing Secrets Unleashed
- 15 Affiliate Marketing Examples For Businesses
- 10+Best Affiliate Marketing Niches
- 10 Best Affiliate Programs For Bloggers
Conclusion
As an affiliate marketer, I’ve found that focusing on recurring commission programs is a really smart strategy for building a steady income. Programs like Leadpages, Aweber, ClickFunnels, and NordVPN stand out because they offer not only high commission rates but also products and services that people really want to keep using.
This means that the longer customers stick with these services, the more I can earn over time without having to look for new referrals constantly.
By choosing to promote these kinds of programs, you are not just making one-time sales; you are also creating ongoing revenue streams and developing lasting connections with your audience. This approach has truly transformed how I view and manage my affiliate marketing efforts. I hope it does too for you. Let me know about your strategy and we can chat!
