2 tier affiliate program

A 2 tier affiliate program allows an affiliate to recruit co-affiliates and pays out commissions to the affiliate for the sales generated by the co-affiliates. The affiliate merchant generally pays out a lower commission for the sales generated by co-affiliates which would be calculated on pre-fixed basis. Mostly the second tier commission is calculated as the percentage of the first tier commission. Let us look at some benefits of joining a 2 tier affiliate program.

Benefits of a 2 tier affiliate program

• A two tier affiliate program allows the affiliates to grow their network by recruiting affiliates under them
• The affiliate can earn on a dual basis
• The affiliate can build a big team that would in turn help the affiliate merchant improve his sales
• The affiliate merchant get more affiliates without any work

Finding 2 tier affiliate programs online

There are many directories that offer information about businesses offering two tier affiliate programs. Some of the best ones to refer are affiliatefirst.com, 2-tier.com, refer-it.com and 2tiered.com. Even yahoo! and google web directories offer good information on second tiered programs.

Affiliate and referral program

A referral program is different from an affiliate program as a referral program is strictly based on referral where are an affiliate program may be based on referrals as well as sales leads. Generally referral programs involve paying out one time commissions to the sales person for his referral services, but in case of an affiliate program the commission may be for life time also.

Affiliate program benefits to affiliate merchants

Affiliate and referral program have come up in large numbers with many companies adopting a specific affiliate or referral based promotion schemes. The benefits to the companies that offer affiliate and referral program are many. Firstly they get access to free internet advertising space in high ranking websites. In addition to this they also get access to free online marketing and promotion schemes like email marketing, newsletter advertisements etc. The best part about starting such a scheme is the fact that the company needs to do any kinds of payments to its affiliate if and only if the desired results are achieved. Other than this the company can enjoy free brand awareness and marketing.

Changing situation

But there seems to be a twist in the tale with hundreds of companies starting their own affiliate programs. This has given rise to competition between affiliate merchants to keep best performing affiliate to them and attract more affiliates. In order to achieve this company has not only got to pay out good commissions by also go for paying additional incentives and special offers. This has in turn benefited the affiliate who was till now at a point will all odds against them. Now the situation seems to be changing and affiliates are being rewarded with good incentives and commissions most of them life time ones. The future seems to be bright for affiliates if this kind of a situation develops even further. And if that happens, the odds will surely be evened out.