I tried it years ago and the initial response was good. The problem was getting traffic. Affiliates by then controlled the game. They simply wouldn't promote a site selling 20 videos for $5 when they could promote a similar site selling for $30 recurring. The magic join links was a side show to take attention away from the fact that affiliates were telling everyone then that a high price made people think it was a better product.
Comparing what the OP is talking about with C4S shows how little people understand.
So I will make memberships for $5 for 5 days on
www.paulmarkhamteens.com and
www.astral-blue.com if enough people show willingness to send traffic for 50% rev share. Then you can see if it works.