First, to make sure we’re working with the same language, An Affiliate Program is where an individual can receive a commission for promoting a particular product. A Two-tier Affiliate Program allows you to sign up additional affiliates on your team. That means that when the sub-affiliate earns a commission, the referring affiliate (you) will also receive a commission or override. Generally speaking, the override is smaller, but if you have a lot of sub-affiliates, those smaller commissions can really add up. And that’s just one of the benefits of a two-tier affiliate program.

Other benefits of a Two-tier Affiliate Program include:

· It forces you to be aware of marketplace trends; if you’re out looking for good programs that offer a two-tier commission structure, chances are that you’re going to have a pretty good idea of what’s out there and what’s working.

· It also forces you to know your product; you don’t want to promote inferior quality products or merchants, because your name is essentially riding on it. Bonus: inferior quality products and merchants don’t get fed, so they eventually go away, which creates a higher quality standard for everybody.

· Visitors / customers may become sub-affiliates if it’s a good program/product; again, it’s important to know what you’re promoting.

· Reach; you’re covering more of the marketplace than you could on your own by leveraging the reach of your sub-affiliates. Your sub-affiliates are doing the legwork for sales so you get paid time and time again just for having that original relationship with your sub-affiliate. You’d be surprised how creative some affiliate can be.

· You develop a larger customer base through your sub-affiliates and you have a greater reach through your sub-affiliate networks.

Now, let’s consider this from the potential sub-affiliate’s perspective:

· The product likely attracted your attention, and since you have excellent taste, it must be good.

· The "Master Affiliate” has gone before you and done the research to find this quality product, which saves you time so you can start generating commissions more quickly. If you know that person, there may be other products they offer that you can promote as a sub-affiliate.

· You learn how to promote by observing the Best practices of other master affiliates.

So, what do you need to know about two-tier affiliate programs before you make the decision to do it?

· Know the product; if you don’t know it, test it before you create a sub-affiliate structure.

· Make sure you’re ready to put your name on the product; otherwise, you risk disappointing people and damaging your credibility in the marketplace.

· Understand the compensation structure; for example, things you want to know include…the actual commissions, how commissions are tracked and paid, affiliate promotion tools, the visitor-to-conversion rate of the product, accessible merchant site so you can see your statistics anytime.

Working with Two-tier Affiliate Programs is one of the best long-term strategies for any serious Internet marketer.