Joining two-tier affiliate programs is the best way to do this with affiliate marketing. Here are five tips on how you can create a residual income of your own using two-tier affiliate programs.

1. Attempting to recruit affiliates into 2 tier programs is pretty tough to do if you are not a successful affiliate yourself. Therefore it is important that you become an expert on making money on the Internet using affiliate marketing.

2. It is easy to join two-tier affiliate programs, but you must focus your attention on learning everything you can about the products and making personal sales. You can pass on your expertise to the affiliates you recruit once you have become an expert on a specific product.

3. When you choose an affiliate program to join the offers a second-tier program, pay attention to both levels of commission. Obviously you will make more money on your personal sales if there is a higher commission rate on the first level.

Equally as important is the percentage of commission paid on the second level. The higher this is the more money you will make whenever someone you personally recruit makes a sale.

4. If you expect them to be successful we prepared to spend some time training your recruits. Many people do not know how to properly do marketing as an affiliate and this gives you an opportunity to train them on the things you are doing to be successful.

5. Offer additional things that your competitors do not. For example, you could set up a personal blog for your affiliates and show them how to drive traffic blogging and social bookmarking.

Many affiliates will not do this in 2 tier programs and the fact that you're willing to offer this type of additional service will help you recruit more affiliates.

6. Be prepared to recruit a high number of affiliates before you find a handful that will be successful. Two-tier affiliate marketing is no different than network marketing in this regard.

It is somewhat a numbers game because you cannot do the work for a person, nor can you control their work ethic or motivation. If you spend the majority of your time selling, and some of it on recruiting, eventually you will develop an online business that has residual income coming in.