Why Residual Makes a Huge Difference

As an affiliate, you need to work with companies that put you first. After all, you're the one driving the traffic to their site and they don't have a lot of risk since they only pay you when you generate a sale. But a lot of affiliate programs don't understand that. In fact, many programs out there are paying 5-15% commission on products they should be paying you a lot more for.

But there is another extremely important factor that determines success or failure as an affiliate marketer. That is whether or not the company pays you one time or pays you residual income for a single sale. This is a big, BIG, *BIG* factor you need to consider before you join ANY affiliate program.If I was promoting products from affiliate programs that only paid me one time for a sale, I'd still need a job somewhere else to cover my basic living expenses. But I realized from day one (after reading Robert Allen's Multiple Streams of Income book) that I needed to work exclusively with programs that paid me residual income. On the Internet, residual income is basically selling a "subscription service" so that when someone buys the product you get paid UP-FRONT one time and then each month when that person's subscription renews with the company, you get paid again, and again, and again... EVERY MONTH for as long as that person continues using the service.

I have Internet sales that I made 8 years ago that are still paying me today. This is the power of residual income. As crazy as it sounds, 90% of the people I see fail at generating any significant income from affiliate programs are promoting  products that do NOT pay a substantial residual income. So just as you might put on a pair of sunglasses to filter out UV rays, you should put on a pair of mental glasses that filters out ANY program that does NOT pay you residual income.

Affiliate programs that pay only one-time for a single sale are BAD for your financial health. Think about it. It takes the same energy on your part to promote something that pays you ONLY one time as it does to promote something that pays you EVERY MONTH forever. So would you rather spend a day to make a sale that you get paid for that day and that day only or would you rather spend a day and make sale that pays you for the rest of your life? There is only one RIGHT answer to that question. Unless you're just a hobbyist and don't care how much you earn from your efforts, then you shouldn't touch an affiliate program with a ten foot pole that doesn't pay you residual income.

You should ONLY focus on programs and products that pay you residual income. Everyone who wants to have their own website on the Internet needs a good web host. I discovered early on that web hosting sells like crazy and you can make a fortune selling hosting services as an affiliate because the demand for hosting is so high.