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Home How to earn lifetime commissions

How to earn lifetime commissions

Lifetime commissions programs are affiliate programs which pay commissions not just on the first sale, but every time a referred customer makes a purchase from the merchant.

In contrast, most affiliate programs pay only on the first purchase made by the customer.

For example, if you refer someone to Amazon and they buy a book you earn a commission. Next time, they remember the name, go directly to Amazon.com, buy a book and you DON'T earn a commission.

With lifetime commissions programs, the customer you refer becomes “yours” for life and you earn a commission on EVERY purchase the customer makes.

You do the work once and get paid over and over again.

Lifetime commissions programs include programs paying residual commissions on recurring fees. These are often associated with private membership sites, such as dating sites, or with Internet services like web hosting and autoresponders.

Each time a customer pays to continue the membership or service the referring affiliate earns a commission.

Look for good tracking

Good lifetime commissions programs are not always easy to find.

Many merchants advertise their programs as “lifetime” programs, but rely only on cookies for tracking sales. Cookies alone are not very reliable when it comes to long-term sales. They get blocked, or overwritten or the customer simply upgrades to another computer. When that happens the affiliate misses out on commission payments.

When considering lifetime commissions programs check to see how sales are tracked.

The very best programs are those that use database matching. They link the referring affiliate to the customer by associating the affiliate's ID with the customer's record. That way, if the customer returns months or even years later, the affiliate still earns commission on any purchases.

For reviews of lifetime programs, including information on which ones use database matching, see the LifetimeCommissions.com directory.

Limited lifetime commissions

Occasionally, a “lifetime commission” program may say that you have to generate a certain limited number of new sales each month for these “lifetime” payouts to continue. My top earning affiliate program does this.

This restriction scares off some less serious competitors.

Much more important to me are the company's superb products and fantastic value for money, which I can be genuinely enthusiastic about.

The program has been my top earning one for several years.

Here's my favorite lifetime commissions program

UPDATED: September, 2011
Feb 2, 2005Allan Gardyne
Top Paying KeywordsEPC explained
Comments: 10
  1. Elitsa Asenova
    16 years ago

    Hi Allan,
    Great post! I personally found lot of useful information here. Beginners will appreciate it. Thanks for the tips and the recommendations.
    Take care,
    Elitsa

    ReplyCancel
  2. Abby Batiste
    14 years ago

    Allan, I am sure you are making money somehow through this. Trust me, I AM NOT MAD :). Thank you for passing on the information and not charging me for your experience.
    Loving you much,
    Abby
    Winterville, NC
    252.814.5794

    ReplyCancel
    • anguagenotion
      5 months ago

      Affiliates who participate in phrazle lifetime commissions schemes get a percentage of all future sales from the customers they recommend.

      ReplyCancel
  3. Martin
    14 years ago

    Thanks for the detailed Affiliate Directory and all the great info on this site. Especially the lifetime commissions part. It really helped. Thank you!

    ReplyCancel
  4. alok kumar gupta
    14 years ago

    Thanks for the advise. I too advertise products of Amazon.com and they are really very good for earning huge commissions.

    http://www.secret-of-fitness.net

    ReplyCancel
  5. Daniel Shilina
    14 years ago

    Thanks for the information. I didn't know there were affiliate programs that paid lifetime commissions before. I found one however and it has been working out good so far. Tracking is done by cookies but once the customer makes a purchase then their email address is permanently linked to me so if they switch computers it doesn't matter. I hope it works out. Thanks.

    ReplyCancel
  6. Larisa E.
    14 years ago

    I never heard of companies that paid lifetime commissions until now. Thanks for all the good advice in what companies to affiliate with also. Thank you.

    ReplyCancel
  7. jason
    13 years ago

    The question is lifetime commissions on a low payout or just a one time high payout with no recurring commissions.

    I think by the end of teh day its all teh same, they both balance out

    ReplyCancel
  8. Glennys/admin
    13 years ago

    Not all lifetime commissions programs pay low commissions. My own preference is for lifetime programs if I find appropriate ones for the niche in which I'm working. They really work best for those products which people are likely to buy over and over again, rather than "one offs".

    Glennys

    ReplyCancel
  9. arnob
    12 years ago

    Thanks for the information. I didn't know there were affiliate programs that paid lifetime commissions before. I found one however and it has been working out good so far. Tracking is done by cookies but once the customer makes a purchase then their email address is permanently linked to me so if they switch computers it doesn't matter. I hope it works out. Thanks.

    ReplyCancel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Allan Gardyne

Affiliate marketing veteran, entrepreneur. Founder of AssociatePrograms.

18 years ago 10 Comments Beginners Articles, Improving Sales, Monetizing A SiteBeginners Articles, Improving Sales, Monetizing A Site271
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