Pay per signup (PPS)
PPS pays a fixed bounty each time a visitor becomes a paying member. The appeal is predictability: you know exactly what a conversion is worth, which makes it easy to calculate whether a paid campaign is profitable. A $35 PPS payout means every join is worth $35 to you, full stop, and you can back into a maximum cost per click you are willing to pay.
The limitation is that PPS pays once. However long that member stays subscribed, you never see another cent. PPS rewards volume and front-loads your income, but it caps your upside on loyal members. For traffic that churns fast, that cap is irrelevant; for traffic that retains, it is a serious opportunity cost.
Revenue share (revshare)
Revshare pays you a percentage of what your referred members actually spend, for as long as they stay subscribed. glowDOLLARS pays 50% on the first signup and 40% on every rebill thereafter, processed by Vendo with monthly payouts via bank, Wise, or crypto. The payouts page has the full detail on timing and methods.
The power of revshare is compounding. Each month you add new members on top of the ones still rebilling from previous months, so a steady stream of quality traffic builds a growing base of recurring income rather than resetting to zero. The rebills guide walks through the compounding math in detail; the short version is that a consistent monthly signup rate turns into an active rebill base that pays you whether or not you send new traffic that month.
- 50% of the first signup.
- 40% of every rebill, for the lifetime of the membership.
- Income that compounds as your active member base grows.
The 12-month math: PPS vs revshare
To make the trade-off concrete, run the numbers on identical traffic. Assume a $29.95 membership, a 2% signup rate on a hundred joins a month, a $35 PPS benchmark, and an average retention of three months (the first signup plus two rebills) for the revshare path.
On PPS at $35 per join, a hundred joins a month is $3,500 every month, and over twelve months that is $42,000 — flat, predictable, and capped. The income stops the moment the traffic stops.
On the glowDOLLARS revshare, the same hundred joins a month produce about $15 each on the first signup (50% of $29.95), or $1,500 in first-sale commission per month. The rebills stack: by month two, roughly a hundred members from month one rebill at 40% of $29.95, adding about $1,200; by month three, two cohorts are rebilling alongside the new joins, and the recurring layer keeps building. By month twelve, the recurring base from prior cohorts alone is several thousand dollars a month on top of each month's new first-sale commission, and total twelve-month earnings pull well ahead of the $42,000 PPS figure — even before counting the members who retain longer than three months. Run the exact numbers for your traffic in the calculator, but the pattern is robust: on traffic that retains even modestly, lifetime revshare beats a fixed bounty over any multi-month window.
Hybrid and volume tiers
Hybrid deals blend a smaller upfront payment with ongoing revshare, smoothing cash flow while preserving lifetime upside. glowDOLLARS also considers volume bonuses case by case — high-volume affiliates can move from standard rates toward the top of the range as their traffic proves out.
If you're sending meaningful volume, it's worth a conversation. The right structure depends on your traffic's retention profile and how you'd rather balance upfront cash against long-term compounding. The payouts page describes the standard terms; reach out once you have a few months of data to show.
When PPS actually makes sense
PPS is not a worse model — it is a different tool. The honest case for PPS rests on three situations. First, short campaigns: if you are running a two-week media buy and need to know within days whether it paid back, a fixed bounty gives you a clean profitability calculation that revshare's trailing rebills cannot match.
Second, testing. When you point a brand-new traffic source at an offer, you do not yet know whether its members will rebill. PPS lets you read the source's conversion quality fast and decide whether to invest in scaling it; once the source proves it retains, switching the same traffic to revshare captures the upside.
Third, low-retention traffic. Some sources — typically high-volume, low-intent ones — produce joins that cancel before the first rebill no matter what you do. On that traffic, a $35 PPS payout genuinely beats 50% of one month, and revshare's compounding never gets a chance to work. The trap is mis-diagnosing your traffic: affiliates often assume their traffic churns when in fact their creative is baiting the wrong members. Before concluding PPS is better for your source, fix the intent mismatch described in the conversions guide and re-measure.
- Short, time-boxed campaigns where you need fast, predictable cash.
- Testing a new traffic source before you know its retention profile.
- Low-retention traffic where members cancel before the first rebill anyway.
PPS vs Revshare vs Hybrid at a glance
| PPS (Pay Per Signup) | Revshare (glowDOLLARS) | Hybrid | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it pays | Flat fee per signup ($30–$35 typical) | 50% first signup + 40% lifetime rebills | Smaller upfront + reduced revshare |
| Recurrence | One payment, then done | Recurring for the life of the membership | Blends both models |
| Advantage | Predictable, fast cash flow | Compounds as active base grows | Smooths cash flow vs pure revshare |
| Limitation | Capped — no recurring income | Slower start, higher long-term ceiling | Lower ceiling than pure revshare |
| Best for | Volume campaigns, low-retention traffic | Quality, retaining traffic; exclusive content | Affiliates balancing cash flow + upside |
The table above summarises the three payout models side by side. The key decision factor is retention: if your traffic stays subscribed, revshare wins over any time horizon longer than a few months. If your traffic cancels before the first rebill, PPS captures value that revshare never will.
Which model should you want?
If your traffic converts but churns fast, a fixed bounty can look attractive. If your traffic retains — people who genuinely want the content — revshare almost always wins over time because you keep earning long after the first sale. The twelve-month math above is the clearest way to decide which camp your traffic falls into.
Because glowDOLLARS content is exclusive and updated regularly, memberships tend to stick, which plays directly to the strengths of a lifetime revshare. Send traffic that wants to stay, and the 40% rebill keeps paying. The FAQ covers the common questions about how payouts are calculated and when they land.