What is a Sub-affiliate

31 Oct 2025 Updated: 31 Oct 2025
By Bill Robertson
Glossary
A sub-affiliate is a partner who doesn’t work directly with an affiliate program or advertiser but instead joins under another affiliate.

How it works:

  • The main affiliate builds a team and recruits sub-affiliates
  • Sub-affiliates bring traffic and earn their commissions
  • The main affiliate gets a share of their earnings (e.g., 5–10%)
  • This forms a multi-level structure that scales easily

Example:  If a program pays $50 per signup, and a sub-affiliate brings in 10 users, they earn $500.
The main affiliate gets 10% from that — $50 — without doing the actual traffic work.

Why it matters:

  • Helps grow traffic reach and coverage
  • Generates passive income for top affiliates
  • Enables building affiliate networks and scaling with less hands-on effort
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