A very simple definition of affiliate marketing is where you get paid to sell another person's product. Residual income is money that is paid back to you on an ongoing basis. It is sometimes referred to as walk away income because it means that you get paid many times for doing your work one time.

When you apply this definition to affiliate marketing you can see that a residual income affiliate is someone who is selling products that can potentially earn an income on an ongoing basis. You may be asking yourself what types of products can continually earn a residual income?

Selling a membership to a niche type marketing training program is one example. These are popular today because as people come online looking for ways to make money they understand the importance of getting training.

Niche marketing is where you take a broad based theme and narrow it down to a specific smaller niche. For example golfing could be a large theme, where golf equipment could be a narrower niche, and putters could be a very targeted niche.

Another example of a potential residual income affiliate program would be website hosting. People need to host their website somewhere online and you can make money selling that to them.

One of the benefits of selling this kind of program on a regular basis is as long as that person keeps their website active you will earn a commission every month. A lot of people will keep their website hosting with the same company for several years which could mean a lot of money for you.

You can do the math, but for example if you are earning $10 a month on one hosting account how many accounts would it take for you to retire and not have to make any new sales in the future?

This is what residual income can do for you as an affiliate marketer. It gives you the opportunity to literally plan your retirement by working hard today and representing products that people have a need for and are willing to spend money on.

These programs are great to represent because they will let you earn an up front commission which is significant to your income today. Another important point is these types of programs allow you to earn residual income in the future as an affiliate which is vital to your potential retirement.