Now, don't get too excited about the second tier benefit, because you probably would go wrong if you're thinking that you can depend on it to do the job for you. The second tier commissions are just too small to make a difference on your bank account, but if you get lots and lots of sub-affiliates, then you will do very well.

In order to use two-tier affiliate program to your advantage and generate more income by encouraging sub-affiliates to sign-up below you, you have to take this steps before entering such a program:

- pick those merchants who generate stable stream of high quality products

- do they give you high or at least fair commissions?

- is the program offering real time tracking?

- does it give you a proven and tested advertising arsenal, that will make things a lot easier?

- how do they treat their affiliates?

- does the program have high visitors-to-sales conversion rate?

- does the merchant have a user-friendly website which you can access anytime so that you can see your statistics including visits and sales?

Don't ever promote poor affiliate programs because your visitors might think that the product or service you are reselling could have a low value also! You are just wasting much of your time and effort and worse, damaging your integrity if you do this.

This is the main reason why it is so important to pick good affiliate programs. Throughout these, you can build up a good relationship with your visitor, who has more confidence in the affiliate program (if this has a good reputation) and who could easily become a sub-affiliate under you.

Be aware of affiliate programs that give more importance to the profits earned in taking on other affiliates than on the income from sales, because you could have the unpleasant surprise to eventually find out that someone has already close those sales without informing you. This kind of affiliate program offers a very low first-tier payment but a sky-scraping second-tier commission, so if you see something like this, it's better to stay away.

If you have your own product and you are thinking of starting an affiliate program of your own, you will have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program. Maybe you want to make it a two-tier one but there's something holding you back. Well, if that's the case then let's see what benefits does the two-tier affiliate program has:

1. Your profits will increase because of the more and more sales that will be made from the customers that your second tier has referred. You will gain more income and at the same time you will have more affiliates working for you!

2. You have a much broader customer base to which you can sell your products.

3. You could gain more income because the customers referred by your affiliates and sub-affiliates could probably develop a lifetime loyalty on your site and your products (if they are top quality ones).

These are the most important benefits of the two-tier programs. The decision is only yours to take, accordantly to your future plan of development. But, if you do wish to develop continually, then this sort of affiliate program is a must for you!