The vast majority of people work each day and earn linear income. They work for 40 hours a week (or more!) and get paid for 40 hours. The effort they put in is directly proportional to the income their employer pays out. If their effort drops (fatigue, sickness, etc.), their income drops as well. It doesn't matter that a year ago they completed a project and got patted on the back for a job well done. Their pay cheque today will be based on their effort in the most recent pay period. Residual income allows you to change all that and start making money over a long period of time with less effort.

How Affiliate Programs Work

Many people quit their jobs (you may be one of them) and dive into the amazing opportunity of working at home in an Internet business. What could be better than earning income at home and working your own hours, free to enjoy a nice afternoon golf game or spend time with your kids? With the amount of affiliate programs online, an in creasing number of people are setting up a home business to earn money on the Internet.

The concept of affiliate marketing is fairly straightforward. You simply join with a merchant as an affiliate, promote their products on your website, and receive a commission when a sale or predetermined action is made. It's very similar to word-of-mouth advertising except you get paid for the referral. Can you imagine how great it would be if your favourite restaurant that you told all your friends about paid you a commission when your friends went there for dinner? That's exactly how affiliate programs online work. For each customer you bring to the merchant, the merchant will pay you a commission.

Affiliate programs like CPA (Cost-per-Action) can be extremely cost efficient for merchants because you, as their affiliate are essentially part of their sales team. Instead of paying salaries and benefits to employees, they pay you a small one-time finder's fee for your efforts of bringing them customers who complete a sale or other established action. But most affiliate programs end there. You put in the effort of placing banners on your website, writing articles recommending their products, or advertising endlessly via PPC (Pay-per-Click) networks like Google AdWords, and they get a new potential lifetime customer. I'm not saying that the initial commission isn't fair, in most cases it is. Many affiliates are successful with this type of program because they've either found an affiliate program that's easy to convert visitors into customers or are very successful in finding new potential clients.

Now consider this. What if that customer you brought to the merchant continues to buy from them for years? You were a vital part of that chain because they would never have gotten that good customer without you! You've essentially made linear income like you did when you worked at your old job. The problem with including only these types of affiliate programs in your arsenal is that you must be invol ved in every aspect of each new customer you recruit. You put in one unit of effort and get compensated for one unit of income. The thing is, you can only work so much. If your day is consumed recruiting customers for Merchant A, you cannot be promoting Merchant B. You can never earn more. By incorporating Residual Income affiliate programs into your online business, you can start making more money faster and with less direct involvement.

Residual Income Affiliate Programs

Residual income, also known as passive income is a type of network marketing where income is paid for effort in the past. This can be a difficult concept to grasp in a world dominated by linear income where effort you put in is exactly compensated. Residual Income allows you to earn revenue from some effort you did in the past. Think of a songwriter whose song plays regularly on the radio. They wrote the song with initial effort and continue to earn commissions off that song each time it is played. Without them, that song wouldn't be available for you to enjoy as you drive to work! This is just like the merchants you join. Some of their customers wouldn't be their customers without you so why shouldn't you get a cut of the long-term profits?

In the increasingly popular world of affiliate marketing, more and more merchants are doing just that – paying affiliates lifetime commissions, or residual income. This in turn attracts more affiliates to promote their products or services. Residual income allows you to earn profit when customers you recruited in the past continue to purchase new products from the merchant or continue with their monthly subscription. So let's say you promote a merchant and get them a new customer. That customer purchases a monthly subscription with which you earn an initial finder's fee. Where normal affiliate programs would end, a residual income affiliate program will provide you with money the next month if the customer stays with the merchant. And the next month too! Now add other customers and from a variety of affiliate programs – all paying residual income. You can quickly see how profitable this payment structure can be! It's a great business opportunity to work from home.

Residual income can free up your time to be recruiting new customers or growing your business into new areas while still earning commissions from past efforts. This is a great way to earn a long-term income from home. Instead of being involved in every aspect of earning money, you put in effort once and reap the rewards over a long period. Put in the effort today and you'll be receiving big cheques for years to come. This strategy will lead you to long-term success in your career as a professional affiliate marketer.

Curtis Kopeschny, B.Sc. has been in the Internet industry for over 10 years. He is co-founder of Residual Income Finder, a human-edited directory listing affiliate programs offering residual income (passive , lifetime commissions) on one or more tiers.