Earn Passive Income with These 14 Recurring Commission Affiliate Programs in 2024

Want to earn income while you sleep? Recurring commission affiliate programs allow you to do just that. With these programs, you get paid over and over again for a single referral.
Have you ever wondered how top affiliate marketers like Pat Flynn earn so much passive income? The secret lies in promoting products and services that pay lifetime recurring commissions.
In this post, we'll explore 14 of the best recurring affiliate programs that can help you compound your earnings.

How Do Recurring Commission Affiliate Programs Work?

With typical affiliate programs, you earn a one-time bounty or commission when a sale is made through your referral link. However, you don't get paid again if that customer makes a repeat purchase.
Recurring commission affiliate programs work differently. Here, you continue to earn a commission every time your referred user purchases again or remains a paying customer.
For example, when you recommend a SaaS tool that charges subscribers monthly, you'll get a cut of those payments for as long as your referral stays signed up.
That means your income from a single referral can grow with every renewal or repeat purchase. The longer users you've referred stick around, the more you stand to earn over time from recurring commissions.

Why Promote Recurring Affiliate Programs?

There are several advantages to focusing your efforts on recurring commission affiliate programs:

1. Passive Income Opportunities

The big draw of these programs is that they allow you to earn passively. You get paid month after month for work done once.
After referring users to a recurring program, you can sit back while the commissions roll in. This hands-off income stream lets you earn money even while sleeping.

2. Compounding Affiliate Revenue

Recurring programs create a compounding effect. Your commissions from multiple users and periods start to add up significantly over time.
Even if each individual commission is small, collectively they snowball into a large amount of passive affiliate earnings.

3. Continued Earnings from a Single Referral

Every additional month or year that someone you've referred continues paying for a product or service earns you more money.
Even a single recurring commission user can become highly profitable over several years. There's immense value in being able to continually monetize the same referral source.

4. Achieving Financial Freedom

The passive income from recurring commissions allows you to cover your living expenses without actively working. This makes achieving financial independence possible.
After you've built up a portfolio of programs earning recurring affiliate income, you can cut back work or even retire early.

What to Look for in Recurring Affiliate Programs

With hundreds of recurring commission affiliate programs available today, how do you pick the best ones worth your time? Here are the key factors to consider:

1. High Recurring Commission Rates

Naturally, you want to maximize the percentage of each transaction you earn. Look for programs offering at least 20-30% in recurring commissions. The higher the better.
Some pay up to 50% commission on every renewal payment. This includes big ticket programs where monthly subscriber fees can be hundreds of dollars.

2. Generous Cookie Duration

The cookie duration determines how long you get credit for a referral that signs up. The most profitable recurring programs have cookies lasting 90-120 days or more.
Some even offer lifetime cookies so you never lose out on being credited for recurring commissions.

3. Low Minimum Payout Thresholds

Look for programs with a low minimum payout amount. This ensures you actually get paid regularly, even if your monthly commissions don’t yet add up to a large sum.
Many programs allow payouts starting at just $50. The lower threshold, the faster you'll receive your passive income.

4. Reputable Merchant with Low Churn

Make sure to pick recurring programs offered by reputable companies known for keeping customers happy and loyal. You want low churn so users you've referred continue renewing for longer periods.
Check online reviews and churn rates before deciding which programs to promote for the best recurring affiliate income.

Key Factors for the Best Recurring Affiliate Programs

This table summarizes the key criteria to evaluate when selecting the most profitable recurring affiliate programs to promote

14 of the Top Recurring Commission Affiliate Programs

Now let's look at some of the best recurring commission affiliate programs available across different categories:

1. AWeber

AWeber is a popular email marketing platform used by over 250,000 small businesses. It offers an easy-to-use drag and drop builder for crafting email campaigns.

As an AWeber affiliate, you'll earn 30% lifetime recurring commissions on referrals. Their paid plans range from $19 to $149 per month, so there's significant income potential.
The 365 day cookie duration is also hard to beat. This makes AWeber's recurring program one of the most profitable options.

2. ConvertKit

ConvertKit is an email marketing service created specifically for digital creatives. It offers automation, landing pages, and ecommerce features.

Their recurring affiliate program pays out a 30% lifetime commission on all subscriber payments. ConvertKit's pricing starts at just $9 per month, so the signup barrier is low.
The generous commissions and niche audience of creators makes this a great recurring program to promote.

3. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder that helps businesses drive more sales of products and services online.

As a ClickFunnels affiliate, you can earn 20-40% in recurring lifetime commissions. Their subscription plans range from $97 to $2,497 per month.
The potential to earn high-ticket recurring commissions makes this program highly lucrative.

4. Leadpages

Leadpages allows users to create highly optimized landing pages, alerts, and popups without any coding.

Their top-tier recurring affiliate program pays out commissions starting at 10% that can reach as high as 50%.
With subscription plans priced from $27 to $321 per month, you stand to earn generous recurring payouts from referrals.

5. Groove.cm

Groove is a multi-app marketing ecosystem. It's a SaaS platform that has a landing page / sales funnel builder, email marketing system, ecom shop builder, membership site builder, evergreen webinar system, video hosting, and more.

6. Elegant Themes

Elegant Themes offers a huge library of premium WordPress themes and plugins. The themes are sold on annual subscriptions.

Their recurring affiliate program pays an impressive 50% commission of any subscription renewals. This makes Elegant Themes a great option for earning recurring affiliate income.

7. LiveChat

LiveChat provides live chat software that enables real-time customer support and communication on websites. Their plans range from $16 to $50 per month.

As a LiveChat affiliate, you can earn 20% lifetime recurring commissions on all subscriber payments. Their high value software and generous recurring rate make this a lucrative program.

8. The Ambassador Program

The Ambassador Program is not a standard commission program, but it can help you earn multiple commissions through a funnel in the make money online niche. Commissions can go up to 100% with their upgrade, 2-tier commissions, and you can also make commissions off upsells.

9. ThriveThemes

ThriveThemes offers conversion-focused WordPress plugins, themes, and related tools to boost sales and leads.

Their affiliate program provides 35% commissions on sales, plus 25% recurring commissions on annual renewals. This combination makes promoting ThriveThemes highly rewarding.

10. LiquidWeb

LiquidWeb is a managed hosting provider catering to businesses and agencies. Their hosting solutions are sold on recurring annual contracts.

As a LiquidWeb affiliate, you can earn monthly recurring commissions of 10-15% on customer payments for the lifetime of their account.

11. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign provides email marketing, sales CRM, and marketing automation software for businesses. Their platform drives more sales through better customer experiences.

You can earn 20-30% in lifetime recurring commissions as an ActiveCampaign affiliate. Their paid plans range from $9 to $229 per month.

12. MailerLite

MailerLite helps small businesses design and send high-converting email newsletters at scale.

Their simple recurring affiliate program pays 30% monthly commissions for the lifetime of referred subscribers. Plans start at just $10 per month making customer acquisition easier.

13. Ninja Outreach

Ninja Outreach is a lead generation and influencer marketing SaaS platform. Key features include prospect research, outreach campaigns, and relationship management.

As a Ninja Outreach affiliate, you can earn 50% recurring commissions for the lifetime of each referral. Monthly subscriptions cost up to $649.

14. Teachable

Teachable is an online course creation platform. It allows users to easily set up coaching programs, online courses, and membership sites to sell their knowledge.

The Teachable affiliate program offers up to 30% lifetime recurring payouts on subscriptions. Customers pay anywhere from $39 to $199 monthly for access.

Strategies for Promoting Recurring Affiliate Programs

Here are some tips to maximize your recurring affiliate commissions:

Use Content Marketing

Creating targeted content like blog posts, Pinterests Pins, and videos about the product, service, or brand is an effective promotion strategy.
Your goal is to highlight the key benefits you genuinely believe would provide value to your audience. Avoid overly salesy language.
The content helps establish trust and gets readers excited to sign up for recurring programs you recommend.

Email Marketing

Emailing subscribers and current website visitors about new recurring affiliate programs is another sound strategy.
Make sure to only promote to those who have opted-in and would be interested in your recommendations based on past behaviors.
Well-timed and relevant emails to engaged subscribers can convert extremely well for recurring programs.

Social Media Promotions

Promoting your recurring affiliate links on social platforms like Facebook, X (aka Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, etc. can generate leads.
Share your affiliate links openly or organically work them into non-promotional social posts where relevant to provide value.
Utilizing Instagram Stories and Facebook/YouTube ads can also get your recurring affiliate offers in front of targeted users.

Paid Advertising

Running paid ads like native ads and Facebook/Google Ads can rapidly scale your recurring commissions through increased conversions.
Ads allow you to test different offers and creatives to determine the most profitable recurring programs and promotion angles.
Retargeting past site visitors is an underutilized but lucrative tactic to promote recurring affiliate links.

Building an Audience and Community

The most successful recurring affiliate marketers have invested in growing their own audience.
Building an email list, social following, forum community etc. gives you recurring commission earning potential from your audience over the long-term.
Make sure you provide endless value before promoting so your audience trusts your recommendations.

Tracking Your Recurring Affiliate Revenue

Once you've begun promoting recurring commission affiliate programs, you need to closely track your earnings. Here are some tips:

Use Click Tracking

Instead of using raw affiliate links, I use a link shrinker that allows me to track my traffic. Here's a link to the one that I use.

Monitoring Your Program Dashboards

Most recurring programs provide affiliates with a dashboard to monitor latest conversions, clicks, impressions, commissions earned, and more.
Check your program dashboards regularly to ensure your links are performing well and that you actually get credited for conversions.

Reconciling Affiliate Payout Reports

When you start earning recurring commissions, make sure to verify the accuracy of your payouts.
Review direct deposit amounts and balance it against payout reports from various affiliate programs to catch any discrepancies.

Automating Data Aggregation

Tools like Zapier can automatically aggregate your affiliate revenue data across programs into a unified dashboard like Google Sheets.
Automation eliminates manual tracking and gives you a holistic view of your recurring affiliate earnings from all channels.

Optimizing Your Recurring Affiliate Promotions

To maximize the income potential of recurring commission affiliate programs, be sure to continually optimize your promotions:

Analyze Affiliate Revenue Data

Crunch numbers on your top converting offers, most profitable traffic sources, highest ROI creatives, and other performance data.
Use actionable insights from the analysis to double down on what's working and eliminate unprofitable activities.

A/B Test Promotional Content

Try out different headlines, copy, images, videos, and layouts when promoting recurring affiliate offers.
A/B split testing will reveal which content best resonates with your audience to drive more conversions.

Improve Conversion Rates

Work to continually improve your website conversion rate through faster load times, more relevant content, stickier engagement, clear calls to action, etc.
More converts directly translates to higher recurring affiliate revenue through more referrals.

Reduce Churn of Referred Users

Monitor if users you've referred are churning early before you earn maximum commissions. Try promoting only to the best-fitting audience.
Less churn means longer staying subscribers and increased recurring payouts.

Focus on Highest Lifetime Value Offers

Double down on promoting the recurring programs that result in the most earnings per referral after 12, 24, and 36-month periods.
Maximizing lifetime value leads to the highest possible long-term recurring commissions.

Wrap Up

Recurring commission affiliate programs provide an incredible opportunity to earn regular passive income online through your content and community.
Unlike typical one-time bounty programs, recurring ones allow you to continually monetize users you refer over months or years.
This compounds your affiliate earnings exponentially, making financial independence possible.
Hopefully this post has given you clarity on what recurring affiliate commissions involve and how to maximize your recurring income potential.
The 14 platforms highlighted are a great starting point for recurring programs to check out.
Now it's up to you to take action and build up those hands-off affiliate revenue streams. Buckle up and get ready to watch your passive earnings grow!