Glossary

Sub-affiliate

An affiliate who joined a program through another affiliate's referral link and earns that recruiter an override on the newcomer's results. The override is usually paid by the program on top, not taken out of the newcomer's own commission.

Also called: sub-aff, second-tier affiliate, referred affiliate, two-tier affiliate.

Many programs and networks give partners a referral link for recruiting other partners. Whoever signs up through it becomes your sub-affiliate, and you receive a percentage of what they earn or of the revenue their players bring. At a hypothetical 5% override, a recruit who earns $2,000 in a month brings you $100. The model pays best for publishers whose audience is other affiliates: forums, newsletters, tool reviews.

The catch is the base. A share of the recruit's commission and a share of their players' NGR are different numbers, and on an NGR base a month when the recruit's players win big can feed into your own balance under negative carryover. Ask whether sub-affiliate earnings are lifetime or time-limited, and whether the override survives if your recruit later negotiates a private deal with the program.

In CPA networks the word has a second meaning: the sources behind an affiliate who resells traffic, such as the publishers of a small ad network. Networks ask for their IDs in a sub ID parameter, so a bad source can be cut without cutting the whole account.