What Are The Best Types Of Products To Promote As An Affiliate?

Think of any product nowadays and you can be pretty sure there's an affiliate program attached where you can earn commissions on any sales of that product that you may make as an affiliate. But with all this choice how do you decide which products you should be promoting?
As a list owner, I get asked this type of question quite a lot by my subscribers, and my answer is always the same. Rather than chase those products with high commissions, I recommend starting off my promoting products that offer commissions on a recurring basis. Classic examples of such products include autoresponders, web hosting services, and membership sites.
These sites will generally pay you a certain percentage in commission for every person you sign up and for every month they remain a member. So therefore, you can see that by promoting these types of products, you can create a constant residual income for yourself every single month, with no extra effort needed on your part.
The great thing about these types of products, particularly autoresponders and web hosting providers, is that if you can find and promote really top quality providers, you will find that very few members will change to a different provider because they are so happy with their current service. So you can potentially earn recurring monthly commissions for many years.
Compare this with the one-time commission that the vast majority of companies pay out and you can see exactly why I recommend that you find products that pay out recurring commissions. Sure you can promote products that pay one-time commissions, but make sure that you spend at least some of your time promoting products that offer you a recurring residual income, so you know you have a steady monthly income coming in in future months.
Other products that I recommend you promote are those that pay commissions on a two-tier basis. By that I mean products that pay out not only a commission for each direct sale you make, but also pay you a set commission on any sales that your customers may make.
For example, let's say you are promoting a product that costs $100, and which pays out 30% commission on every sale you make, and 10% on any sales your customers make. So in this case you can see that not only can you make $30 per sale, but you also earn $10 for every sale your customers make as an affiliate, so again your chances of earning additional income are greatly enhanced, with no extra effort needed on your part.
So to sum up, and to answer the original question, in my opinion the best types of products to promote as an affiliate are those that offer recurring commissions, or those that provide additional income opportunities such as two-tier commissions. These types of programs require the same level of effort to promote as products that pay one-time commissions, yet can offer far greater financial rewards.
James Woolley is a full-time marketer who runs a website and newsletter, dedicated to helping people make money online through internet marketing.