Selima cochrane

Residual Affiliate Programs - Well Worth to Look For When looking at an affiliate programs commission structure, the term residual commission sometimes pops up. Joining an affiliate program with this commission model will increase the potential revenue from your affiliate advertisements. This is simply because of the enormous potential in recruiting potential long term customers for the affiliate program. Many affiliate programs offer residual – sometimes named recurring commission – but not all are of the same nature, and sometimes the term residual is flat out misleading.What does residual commission mean?When referring a new customer to any pay per sale affiliate program, you will always get a commission on that sale, should it occur within a set period of time (referred to as the length of cookie). With residual commission, you will not only earn a commission on the first sale, but on all future sales to that customer. The referred customer will be yours in a way and earning you commission every time he revisits the affiliate site and makes an additional purchase.Full vs. Limited residual commissionSome affiliate programs claiming to offer residual commission will decrease the commission earned, limit the products eligible for commission or limiting the period of time the customers stays yours.When looking at a program like this, you need to really look at the details of the program to see if they are really offering residual commission, or if they are using the term only to recruit more affiliates. If in doubt, find another affiliate program - without limitations or lower commission on future sales - to join instead.Potential of residual commissionCertainly, the possibility of making a commission on all future sales makes the overall revenue on each referred customer higher, but how much more can one expect to make with a residual commission model?Research shows that surprisingly few of the online customers will return to make additional purchases from the same website. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but it is suspected to be of two reasons. In part it’s because of the many websites offering the same products – making it easy for online shoppers to find a new web shop with a lower price on the next item to be purchased – and in part because of the many dissatisfied customers of online shopping sites with little or no customer care, poor logistics or with hidden costs.Taking this in mind, the chance of just any customer returning to an un-named web shop might be small, but if you choose your affiliate program with care, you’ll see the statistics can be lying – There are ways of greatly improving the chance of referring customers who will return again and again.To fully take advantage of a residual commission model is to find a high quality web shop to promote. If you can find a store with well known brands in your niche, offering residual commission, you are one giant step closer to making some serious money.Choosing a smaller alternative – perhaps offering a higher commission – may prove wise when dealing with regular pay per sale programs, but if you are hoping for your referrals to return for some more shopping, you better be sure the website you are sending them to is of good quality. There are a few important factors to look at when deciding on an affiliate program:Overall look and feel of the websiteIf the website you – in the hope of converting them into returning customers – refer visitors to looks poorly designed, made from a template or if it’s very slow loading, this may very well make the potential customer think twice about shopping. If they can’t manage a decent website, how much of a company is there behind the page?NavigationIs the website easy to navigate? Are people likely to find what they are looking for, or are they likely to grow tired of it all and do another search on google for an alternative place to shop?A wide range of productsIf the affiliate program only sells a few different products, the chances of someone buying more than one of course decreases, be sure to find a program with a wide range of products. As the range of products grow, the navigation becomes more and more important.PriceThe prices on all products sold is important, if they aren’t competitive, people will rarely – if ever – return for a second try. This applies to hidden costs, such as packing and shipping or other costs written in fine print.When you have researched all your potential affiliate programs - offering residual commission - you should have a clear view of which ones will be more likely to attract their customers for a second, third and fourth time.Read more about affiliate commission models at Affiliate Ranker, or join a residual affiliate program today.