Some affiliate programs offer a different path to income: you can earn commissions not just by selling products, but by recruiting new affiliates to join the program. This model, often called two-tier or multi-tier affiliate marketing, pays you a percentage of the sales generated by people you refer to the affiliate program itself.
How Affiliate Recruitment Works
In a two-tier affiliate program, you earn commissions on two levels. The first tier is your own direct sales—the standard affiliate commission. The second tier pays you a smaller percentage of sales made by affiliates you’ve recruited. When someone signs up for the affiliate program using your referral link and later makes sales, you earn a commission on their earnings.
Some programs extend this to multiple tiers, though these are less common and require careful evaluation to ensure they’re legitimate business models rather than questionable schemes.
The Appeal of Recruiting Affiliates
The attraction is clear: you’re building leveraged income. Instead of being limited to your own promotional efforts, you benefit from the work of potentially dozens or hundreds of other affiliates. As your recruited affiliates make sales, you earn passive income without directly selling anything yourself.
This can be particularly lucrative with affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions, such as software-as-a-service products or membership sites. You might earn a percentage of subscription renewals from customers your recruits bring in, month after month.
Programs That Offer Affiliate Recruitment
Not all affiliate programs include recruitment tiers, but many do. Web hosting companies like Bluehost and WP Engine offer two-tier programs. Marketing software platforms such as ConvertKit and GetResponse reward affiliates who bring in other affiliates. Many digital course platforms and SaaS companies include recruitment bonuses to incentivize program growth.
The commission structure varies widely. Some programs pay a flat bonus for each new affiliate recruited, while others offer a percentage of their sales—typically between five and twenty percent.
Building an Affiliate Recruitment Strategy
Successfully recruiting affiliates requires a different approach than promoting products. You’re marketing a business opportunity rather than a consumer product. Your target audience is people interested in earning income online, building passive income streams, or monetizing their existing platforms.
Content that attracts potential affiliates includes tutorials on affiliate marketing, case studies showing earnings potential, and resources for beginners. You might create guides explaining how the specific affiliate program works, what commission rates they offer, and strategies for success. Some recruiters build email courses teaching affiliate marketing fundamentals while naturally introducing the programs they’re recruiting for.The key is positioning yourself as a mentor or guide. People are more likely to sign up under your affiliate link if they believe you’ll provide valuable support, training, or resources to help them succeed.
Important Considerations
While recruiting affiliates can be profitable, it requires honesty about several realities. Most people who sign up for affiliate programs don’t actively promote or generate significant sales. Your second-tier commissions depend entirely on your recruits’ efforts and success, which you can’t control.
There’s also an ethical dimension. You should only recruit people into programs you genuinely believe offer good products and fair compensation. Recruiting people into low-quality programs just for your second-tier commissions damages your reputation and isn’t sustainable.
Additionally, you need to distinguish legitimate two-tier affiliate programs from multi-level marketing schemes or pyramid structures that focus primarily on recruitment rather than actual product sales. Legitimate programs should have most revenue coming from product sales to end customers, not from recruiting affiliates or requiring affiliates to purchase inventory.
Making It Work
If you’re interested in earning through affiliate recruitment, start by identifying solid two-tier programs in niches you understand. Build genuine expertise in affiliate marketing so you can actually help people you recruit. Create honest, educational content about the opportunity rather than hyped-up income claims. Focus on quality over quantity—a few active, successful recruits generate more income than hundreds of inactive signups.Transparency remains crucial. Clearly disclose that you earn commissions from recruitments and be upfront about the challenges and realistic income expectations for new affiliates.Recruiting affiliates can add a meaningful income stream to your affiliate marketing business, but it works best as a complement to direct product promotion rather than your sole focus. The most successful affiliate recruiters are those who’ve already proven they can succeed as affiliates themselves and can credibly teach others to do the same.