Which affiliate payout do you feel is better for the host, and more attractive to potential affiliates?

1) One-time per-sale commission.
For instance, $50 per referred sale.

2) Percentage of sale, with recurring sales included.
For instance, if a user signs up for a $10 plan, which renews every month, the affiliate gets a % every single month the user stays.

What are the pros and cons of each, and what has your experience been like?

1) One-time per-sale commission.
IMO: That sounds more attractive, Its not worth it with the per month thing for you and the referrer :)
Regards,

I would stay with the One-time per-sale commission. It can get complicated if you ever end up selling your company down the road and the new owners don't want to pay those reocurring fees anymore. The affiliates might come looking for the original owners. If you go this route, make sure that you have all of these things covered in your terms...ex.."If we ever sell our company, we are no longer obligated bla bla bla...

I have seen this happen to a company that operated an online gift shop and it caused them all kinds of problems.

Have you considered offering both?
You could give the affiliate a choice.

The smaller monthly payout could be better for your cashflow.

I would personally stay away from the One-time per-sale commission, especially if your a web host, for example, if some referr's a $6 per month account, you pay him say $30 for that client, what if the client cancell's after a month? you would ave lost that investment, if this happens a number of time per month, you would be looking at an unacceptable loss.

Originally posted by Dactyl
I would personally stay away from the One-time per-sale commission, especially if your a web host, for example, if some referr's a $6 per month account, you pay him say $30 for that client, what if the client cancell's after a month? you would ave lost that investment, if this happens a number of time per month, you would be looking at an unacceptable loss. This is a good point but I have looked at quite a few affiliate programs from hosts while I was researching what software to go with and most have 2 or 3 terms in place to stomp out that problem.

1) Minimum dollar amount in affiliate account before affiliate can withdraw funds.

2) Minimum stay from referred client, something like 60-90 days. This would help put off potential scammers and people abusing the system

3) I have even seen where new clients can't break the tos at anytime during the probation period set. This way if you have a new client sign up and after 45 days they start spamming or something, you can cancel their account and the affiliate doesn't get paid. Not to many use this one but I remember seeing a few.

It all depends how you setup your terms but there will always be someone trying to beat the system.

I see, those are good solutions to the problem, the 1st and 2nd points are implemented as you said by web hosts and a almost all affiliate programs I've seen, I would say that its the best way for a web host.