The highest earning affiliate programs on the web have a number of common factors.

This includes paying out second tier commissions to affiliates and having a turnkey marketing system. This means that apart from earning income from their own efforts, the affiliate also gets the chance to earn from the efforts of their referrals.

The implications of second tier commissions are huge. It means for instance that it is possible to earn from doing nothing and without generating any traffic or revenue for your own site.

The Referral Affiliate Strategy

In fact there are affiliates who have become very successful using this alternative strategy. Instead of relying on their own efforts they have deliberately chosen to be referral experts. So they concentrate on referring lots of people to the affiliate program and then make money by earning second tier commissions from their sales. This tends to add up very quickly, if they have referred hundreds of people most of whom end up in a situation where they are earning a good income from their activities.

When you really think about it, it is usually much easier to refer folks to an affiliate program than to actually work on it and generate good results in terms of sales. All you need to do is to assure your contacts and associates that somebody is able to earn some serious money working the affiliate program that you introduce them to.

All That A Turn-Key System Requires Is An Ability To Follow Instructions

The other affiliate programs that are right at the top in terms of earning potential are those that take the trouble to create an effective turn-key marketing and selling system for affiliates. What this means is that all a new affiliate has to do is duplicate what has already proved to be successful. To do this, not many skills are required and all that one needs to have is the ability to carefully follow instructions that are given to them.

In the offline world, turn-key solutions are what has made franchises like the legendary McDonalds great. What has happened is that virtually anybody can run a McDonalds as long as they can implement everything that is in the simple franchisee manual.

The same principal works even better online in affiliate programs that have been able to see the effectiveness and amazing opportunities that are made available by creating and testing an effective turn-key system for success.  

See an excellent example of a turn-key affiliate program selling system: