Unlike products with a one-time fee, those that offer a residual income compensation plan must provide additional incentive for the user to stay one with the service or membership. Quality is the name of the game and those products and services that fail at providing sufficient quality for a person to continue using it, they will fail at making any long-term profit with it.

A very simple, but effective way of earning residual income is by becoming an affiliate marketer. Here are three simple ways how you can build a residual income stream for the future and do it with the help of affiliate marketing.

1. Two tier affiliate programs

Two tier affiliate marketing programs work great for people who are willing to spend time educating and motivating their affiliates. Recruiting and sponsoring may not be a problem, but keeping those people active could be. _that is why it is crucial not only to sell products and sponsor sub-affiliates, but it is vital for you to spend time sharing your tactics, strategies and methods to allow duplication within your team.

2. Membership based sites

Membership sites with recurring monthly billing are perfect for creating a residual income. You refer someone to the site, they buy the subscription and you get paid every month for as long as they stay a member. This is how most of the gurus and big name internet marketers are making the majority of their income.

One thing you need to remember whatever product or service you decide to promote is that it must be of great quality. Otherwise, your promotional efforts will backfire on you as you will not keep the costumer for long and you might lose a considerable amount of business in the future due to a bad recommendation on your part. Always keep the costumer first, promote quality and you will be more successful than 95 percent of your competition.

3. Creating information products

Probably the most popular thing among the top internet marketers for earning residual income is creating information products like ebooks and other types of internet courses that can be delivered in digital form, and having a small army of affiliates promoting it. This is an extremely profitable option as there are thousands of people searching for quality products to promote.

By offering 50, 60 or 75 percent commission, you can make your product very popular on places such as Clickbank and PayDotCom, which in turn will result in a large number of affiliates promoting your product and earning you a residual income without much long-term effort.

These are just some of the ways you can earn a residual income online, all highly popular and very effective methods that can earn you a substantial income if done correctly. The main thing to remember is that nothing can happen without work, patience and persistence. Affiliate marketing is a great way of creating a residual income and these three methods just go to show that it doesn't have to be very difficult, but effort and time have to be invested to make it work.