15+ Best Affiliate Marketing Programs with Recurring Commissions

Are you looking for the best affiliate marketing programs to join?

Selling affiliate product is one of the easiest — and the best — ways to make money from blogging. Mainly because an affiliate blog requires fewer traffic than blogs that rely on PPC ads. If you plan to create a new affiliate blog, we strongly recommend join affiliate programs that offer recurring commission instead of one-time commission.

Joining affiliate programs that offer recurring commission is great for a long-term. It allows you to build monthly recurring revenue (MRR), just like SaaS businesses out there.

In the future, once you already have a certain number of referred customers on the affiliate program you joined, you would keep earning commissions on a monthly/yearly basis, even if you don’t take care of your blog anymore.

Why Recurring Affiliate Commission Matters?

If you ever noticed, today’s most online-based services and tools offer an affiliate program. Including big brands like Adobe and Canva. However, only a few of them offer recurring commission. They mostly only offer a one-time commission scheme, which is not worth your effort.

Creating blog content is not easy. It takes time. Sometimes, you also need to spend extra bucks conducting research to get the valid supporting data of the content you want to create. So, you need to work more smartly to get more decent return on your investment.

Affiliate Programs that Offer Lifetime Recurring Commissions

1. Kinsta Affiliate Program

If you plan to create a blog that cover WordPress, then you may want to join the affiliate program of Kinsta — which is one of the bests in the WordPress ecosystem. Kinsta offers two commission types. First, you will earn a $50 to $500 one-time affiliate commission. The commission amount depends on the plan you refer. Second, you will earn a 10% lifetime recurring commission when your referred customers renew their Kinsta plan. With the plans that Kinsta offers for its WordPress hosting service ranging from $35 to $450, you will earn $3.5 to $45 lifetime commissions for every single customer you have referred.

Kinsta itself uses a custom-built tool for its affiliate program, instead of using a third-party tool such as PartnerStack and Impact. From your affiliate dashboard, you can monitor metrics like the number of active referrals, referred page views, referred visitors, and so on. The cookie length offered by Kinsta is 60 days, while the payment method it accepts is PayPal. You can visit this page to learn more about Kinsta affiliate program.

Kinsta affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: $35 to $450 one-time commission plus 10% lifetime recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 60 days

2. Cloudways Affiliate Program

Cloudways is a managed VPS for WordPress, Magento, Laravel, and PHP. So, if you have a blog — or want to create a new one — that cover one of these topics, joining the affiliate program of Cloudways is a great idea. The hosting service of Cloudways also has a great reputation just like Kinsta. Being a VPS, it offers isolated server resources for each website.

The affiliate program of Cloudways offers two commission schemes. First, it offers a performance-based affiliate commission called Slab. The more customers you refer each month, the higher your affiliate commission you will earn. The second commission scheme that Cloudways offer is called Hybrid. This scheme is the same as Kinsta’s affiliate scheme whereby you will get a one-time affiliate commission plus a 7% lifetime recurring commission. Cloudways itself also uses a custom-built tool for its affiliate program just like Kinsta.

Cloudways affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: $30 one-time commission plus 7% lifetime recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 90 days

3. FlyingPress Affiliate Program

FlyingPress is a speed optimization plugin for WordPress. The features offered by FlyingPress include caching and the ability to disable unnecessary WordPress features. It is one of the WP Rocket competitors. The affiliate program that FlyingPress offers is also tempting to join to. FlyingPress offers a one-time affiliate commission plus a 10% lifetime recurring commission. The affiliate dashboard of FlyingPress is also clean and intuitive, similar to Kinsta’s. You can monitor metrics like active reffered customers, number of visits, and so on.

FlyingPress affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 20% one-time commission plus 10% lifetime recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 60 days

4. Elegant Themes Affiliate Program

Elegant Themes is a well-known software developer company in the WordPress scene. Divi is its flagship product. It is a WordPress theme that has a built-in page builder feature (no extra plugin required to use its page builder). If you have a blog that cover WordPress, not joining Elegant Themes affiliate program could be a mistake.

The affiliate program that Elegant Themes offers is one of the bests in the WordPress scene. Elegant Themes offers a 50% lifetime recurring commission. With the membership fee of $89, you will earn $44.5 for every new customer you managed to refer.

A crucial thing to note. Elegant Themes adopts a yearly-based billing cycle. So, you will earn the $44.5 recurring affiliate commission on a yearly basis as well. Also, Elegant Themes offers a lifetime membership. If your reffered customers prefer this option, you will not earn the recurring commission.

The best part of joining the Elegant Themes affiliate program is that you have many affiliate products and services to promote, not just Divi. You can promote all products available on the Divi Marketplace and Divi Cloud.

Elegant Themes affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 50% lifetime recurring commission for yearly membership
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 30 days

5. Atarim Affiliate Program

Atarim is a visual collaboration tool designed specifically for WordPress. The tool was formerly known as WP FeedBack Limited before got rebranded. Atarim also offers an interesting affiliate program you can join. While it also offers only 10% commission fee, but it is recurring. With Atarim adopts a monthly billing cycle, you will earn your recurring commissions on a monthly basis as well.

Atarim affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 10% lifetime recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 180 days

6. GetResponse Affiliate Program

Do you good at email marketing? If so, maybe you want to share your knowledge via a blog while earning passive income. GetResponse is one of the email marketing tools that offer affiliate program. You will get a certain amount of bucks for every paid customer you managed to refer. GetResponse offers two affiliate commission schemes you can choose from. If you prefer a large commission upfront, you can choose the Bounty scheme option. If you prefer recurring commission — with a lower amount — you can choose the Recurring scheme option.

The Recurring affiliate scheme of GetResponse offers a 33% for every paid customer you managed to refer. With the cheapest plan that GetResponse offers is $19/month, you will get the minimum of $6.27 recurring commission per sale.

GetResponse affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 33% recurring commission or $100 per sale for one-time commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 120 days

7. AWeber Affiliate Program

AWeber is one of the GetResponse competitors in the email marketing tool segment. If you plan to create a blog about email marketing — or already have one — joining the affiliate program of AWeber can also be a great idea to build another revenue source. The affiliate program of AWeber also offers a lifetime recurring commission just like the previous affiliate programs above. The commission percentage that AWeber offers is the same as Elegant Themes: 50%. With the cheapest plan of AWeber costs $14.9, you will get the minimum of $7.4 recurring commission for every paid customer you managed to refer.

AWever affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 30%-50% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 365 days

8. MailerLite Affiliate Program

Another recommended affiliate program to join to if you have a blog that covers email marketing is MailerLite. The affiliate program also offers a lifetime recurring commission with the percentage of 30%. The cheapest plan of the MailerLite service itself costs $10/month. Meaning that you will get the minimum of $3 lifetime commission for every paid customer you managed to refer to MailerLite.

MailerLite itself is known to be one of the best Mailchimp alternatives. You can use it to send newsletters and run other email marketing campaigns.

MailerLite affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 30% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 45 days

9. ActiveCampaign Affiliate Program

ActiveCampaign is another email marketing tool that offers affiliate program with lifetime recurring commission. Unlike MailerLite, AWeber, and GetResponse, ActiveCampaign is a fully paid tool. So, the chance of getting affiliate commission is higher if you have a good promotion method. The email marketing tool offered by ActiveCampaign comes with features like transactional emails, scheduled emails, visual email builder, and so on. In addition, ActiveCampaign also offers CRM tool and other tools.

The affiliate program of ActiveCampaign offers the commission rate of 20-30%, depending on the number of customers you managed to refer each month. To join the affiliate program, you need to be an ActiveCampaign user.

ActiveCampaign affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 20-30% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 90 days

10. Leadpages Affiliate Program

Leadpages is a landing page builder tool. Just like Elementor and Divi Builder, but doesn’t run on WordPress. According to a metric on one of its pages, Leadpages already has about 40,000 users. You can help Leadpages to get more users by promoting it, while also getting affiliate commission. The affiliate program of Leadpages offers lifetime recurring commission with the rate of 50%. Leadpages itself is a fully paid tool with the cheapest plan costs $37/month.

In other words, you will get the minimum of $18.5/month for every customer you managed to refer to Leadpages. By only referring 10 customers each month, you will have $185 passive income per month. Multiply it by 12 and you will get $2,220 passive income per year.

Leadpages itself uses PartnerStack for its affiliate program instead of building its own affiliate tool. So, you might need to make a double registration to join.

Leadpages affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 50% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 90 days

11. OptimizePress Affiliate Program

OptimizePress is a landing page builder plugin for WordPress. Unlike similar plugins like Elementor and Divi Builder, OptimizePress is optimized for marketing purpose. The plugin comes with native features like checkout, leads manager, and online course builder. The plugin itself is fully paid, with the cheapest plan costs $179/year.

The affiliate program of OptimizePress offers two commission types. First, you will earn a 30% of one-time commission upfront. Next year, when your referred customers renew their plan, you will earn a 20% of recurring commission. As long as your referred customers keep using OptimizePress, you will earn affiliate commission on their plan renewals. OptimizePress itself use FirstPromoter for its affiliate program.

OptimizePress affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 30% one-time commission plus 20% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 60 days

12. ClickFunnels Affiliate Program

If you have a blog that cover small business, the affiliate program of ClickFunnels might suite you. ClickFunnels is similar to OptimizePress whereby users can use it to create landing pages. The built-in e-commerce feature allows users to sell a product or service via the landing they created. Unlike OptimizePress, ClickFunnels doesn’t run on WordPress. Instead, it is a standalone service much like Leadpages.

ClickFunnels has an interesting affiliate program. It offers a %30 lifetime recurring commission for every customer you managed to refer. ClickFunnels itself is a fully paid tool. The cheapest plan it offers costs $147/month. That said, the minimum commission you will get for every single custom you managed to refer is $44.1 per month. Sounds tempting!

ClickFunnels affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 30% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 45 days

13. PureVPN Affiliate Program

If you have a blog that covers online security or privacy a lot, joining the affiliate program of PureVPN will be a great idea. PureVPN is a cross-platform VPN service. It is available for major platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, to Android. The affiliate program of PureVPN offers two commission types. First, you will earn commission on the initial customer sign up.

Second, you will also earn commission on customer plan renewals. The commission cycle depends on the billing cycles of your referred customers. It can be monthly or yearly. For the percentage, you will get %35 of the subscribe fee.

PureVPN affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 100% on initial sign up plus 35% on renewal for monthly billing cycle. 40% on initial sign up plus 35% on renewal for yearly and biennial billing cycle.
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 120 days

14. NordVPN Affiliate Program

NordVPN is a popular VPN service. Just like PureVPN, it is also available for platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. NordVPN also offers an affiliate program with the same commission scheme as PureVPN. You will get commissions on both the initial customer sign up and plan renewal.

The commission percentage for plan renewal is 30%. Smaller than PureVPN, but you have multiple products to promote. In addition to NordVPN, you can also promote the following products developed by Nord Security:

• NordLayer (VPN for business)
• NordPass (a password manager)
• NordLocker (a file encryption service)

NordVPN affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 100% on initial sign up plus 30% on renewal for monthly billing cycle. 40% on initial sign up plus 30% on renewal for yearly and biennial billing cycle.
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 30 days

15. Wordable Affiliate Program

Wordable is an online collaboration tool designed specifically at creating blog posts. With the tool, you can collaboratively create a draft a blog post with your teammates on Google Docs. Once the draft is one, you can publish it directly to blogging platforms like WordPress, HubSpot, and Medium. Wordable preserves the formatting once the draft is exported to a certain blogging platform so that you don’t make another editing.

If you are looking for a new affiliate program to join to, Wordable also offers the program. Its affiliate program offers recurring commissions with the commission percentage of 30%. The cheapest plan of the Wordable service itself costs 50 per month. In other words, you will get a $15 recurring commision for every new user you referred to Wordable.

Wordable affiliate program details:

• Commission rate: 30% recurring commission
• Payment method: PayPal
• Cookie duration: 30 days

The Bottom Line

Creating content is not easy. Thus, as a blogger, you need to be smarter. If you want to create a new affiliate blog, or want to add a new revenue stream to your existing blog by selling affiliate products, you need to be selective. Don’t just sell affiliate products, but sell affiliate products that give you more value.

Joining an affiliate program that offers lifetime recurring commissions is not only good to build passive income. It is also good to anticipate unexpected events. Like traffic decline caused by Google algorithm update, for instance. Once you already have certain number of active referrals, not making a single sale during a certain period is not a problem. Be a smart affiliate blogger by building MRR by joining affiliate programs that offer lifetime recurring commissions.