Recurring Affiliate Programs: Mailbox Money for Gen X Beginners

… And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Today I’m talking about why I love affiliate marketing programs that pay recurring commissions and how beginners can get in on the action and start earning.

First, here’s a quick backstory…

One of the first clients I ever signed for my Google Ads business referred to an email service using my affiliate link, and I still get paid for it to this day.

Every year I get a check from that email service because that client has been using them since 2013. It averages out to about $165 a year, from one sale. It's not a lot of money, but it's something I sold back in 2013, and I've been getting a check every year.

That one sale is the reason I look for recurring affiliate programs.

Most affiliate programs pay you once for a sale. Which is fine but the ones with recurring programs can pay you again and again and again.

Back when I first started doing affiliate marketing, there was this dude named Jeremy Schoemaker. He had a website called ShoeMoney. He used to call recurring affiliate commissions "mailbox money."

The idea was that you'd get a check in the mail every month or every so often. Obviously we don't use checks or mail stuff out much anymore. It comes direct to your account.

But I've just always liked that term.

I put all 12 programs, with commission, cookie, and payout details, in one free cheat sheet.

That email service check was not the only time this happened to me.

Years ago I ran a music marketing site, and a couple of my Indie Bible review pages ranked in the search engines. Those pages kept bringing in traffic, so I was getting commissions every month from the same page over and over. I wrote them once and they paid for years.

I wrote the article around 2014, made a few small updates each year, and was still getting commissions until 2023.

I'm not getting commissions from them anymore because I haven’t been updating the website anymore, but it was a pretty damn good run.

The same thing is happening with Beehiiv now.

Beehiiv is not just a newsletter platform; it also acts as a blog so your content can live on the web. Search engines pick up those pages and bring traffic to your blog. I also have a few YouTube videos with affiliate links in the description that drive sales as well. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so your videos can act just like a blog post.

Here’s how much I’ve been bring the past month from work I did well over a year about.

I'm not showing you this to brag. I want you to see what it looks like when it's slow, because it started slow.

Nothing about that was overnight.

Like I said, most of it result of content I'd written or recorded a long time before.

This is a way to earn money without much effort.

It's good for beginners because you don't need to have your own product or service. Instead, you use someone else's product or service to make money.

Then you create something like a blog post, an email, a YouTube video, or a social media post. This content stays online and attracts people to the product, so you don't have to keep working on it.

These pieces of content act like salespeople, working for you 24/7/365.

You make the content once, share it in different places, and keep bringing people to the product. You still need to check on it occasionally, but you don't have to start from scratch each time.

This makes it a bit more passive, even though it's not completely passive.

If you're 40, 50 or older and starting from scratch, this is where I'd begin.

Think of it as another income stream, which fits the whole Redefining Retirement ethos of having multiple streams of income. Make Beehiiv your home base, because you'd kill two birds with one stone: you'd have an email list to start building while also making commissions by recommending Beehiiv to other people.

You can do the same and try Beehiiv through my affiliate link. Just use code GENX20 for 20% off, and I get paid if you sign up.

Later on, YouTube videos with your links give people another way to find you. Facebook, TikTok, and the other social sites can be sources of traffic too, to build your audience and get more sales. They may not be as evergreen as YouTube or search engines, but they give you some flexibility.

I wrote about affiliate marketing for Gen X a while back, and this post takes it a step further.

There are thousands of affiliate programs out there, but I like to look for programs that pay recurring income, month to month.

Beehiiv pays 50% of the sale for the first year. Basically, someone signs up and you get 50% of what they pay for their subcription every month. Unless they pay for a year in advance which in that case you get one big 50% chunk.

Neat huh?

Beehiiv is just one example. There are a lot more, and I whipped up a cheat sheet that lists a bunch for you.

After you choose a tool with a recurring affiliate program, start making content that shares your advice and experiences with it. Over time, you'll build a team of salespeople working 24/7/365 to bring in mailbox money.

Have a good one,

Corey