Many affiliate programs offer affiliate multiple tiers to recruit other affiliates. A tiered affiliate program literally means that an affiliate gets paid a portion of the earnings of the affiliates that they recruit. Some programs offer only 2 tiers, which means an affiliate gets paid a portion of the earnings of the affiliates that they directly recruit. Other programs pay out to multiple tiers of recruitment, which means an affiliate gets paid not only on the affiliates they recruit, but they also get paid on all the affiliates that that affiliate recruits, and so forth.