Suggestions for affiliate programs (traveling blog)

[jurassicaffirm]

Hello everybody,


I saw an old thread here about an affiliate program although I didn’t see many responses there so I thought I would write a new one and maybe ask for some fresh insights. Since I’m trying to focus on traveling and blog about my trips I could really use some extra cash, therefore I researched more about affiliate marketing and these are the popular programs I found:

• https://surfshark.com/affiliate (for staying secure while traveling)
  
  
• https://www.booking.com/affiliate-program/v2/index.html (for finding hotels)
  
  
• https://www.tripadvisor.com/Affiliates (for travel tips)
  
  
• https://www.partners.skyscanner.net/affiliates/affiliate-networks (for good flight, car rental deals)
  
  
• https://www.airbnb.co.in/c/harsha26 (for finding rooms and apartments to stay)
  
  
• https://www.lonelyplanet.com/about/affiliate-program (for books and ebooks on traveling)

I would love to hear some feedback if you worked with them or any suggestions on how to make an extra buck while traveling and blogging would be highly appreciated.

 

[fisicx]

You ain’t travelling anymore so there is nothing to blog about.

 

[jurassicaffirm]

True, not for some upcoming time, but I can always start building it on my past experiences and journeys

 

[Darren_Ssc]

True, not for some upcoming time, but I can always start building it on my past experiences and journeys

booking.com is likely going to be your best bet. If you start now though, don't expect to make anything at all for a year and, after that, not much more. If you can keep going for 10 years then you may have enough income to make a living out of it.

Some travel affiliates make a ton of money but most don't.

You can get a head start buy buying up travel blogs that have been abandoned and consolidating them into one but finding owners who'll let them go for a sensible sum is going to be tough.

Expired domains with archived content and existing backlinks can be found, however. Depends how far you want to go down that road though?

 

[fisicx]

You can. But pointless setting up affiliates until you get traffic. In fact many of them won’t even let you add links until you can show traffic

 

[Travelpayouts_official]

True, not for some upcoming time, but I can always start building it on my past experiences and journeys

Hi, it's true that the travel niche isn't so active as before, but still, there are tons of ideas of what travel affiliates and bloggers can actually do nowadays. You can use trendy queries and update your content, try new ways and themes to gain the traffic, consider what your audience might need right now, and look closer to various offers. But most importantly, get ready for deferred demand, as the niche will get back to normal one day.

And regarding your starter question: you should consider that various affiliate programs are setting its programs on pause now (people are less traveling after all), so we'll advise looking closer to the affiliate networks, where you can work with a number of different programs simultaneously. This gives you an opportunity to keep up with the latest travel trends and follow the programs which are still on today.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

...where you can work with a number of different programs simultaneously..

I wouldn't go with this advice. Most affiliate programs exist solely for the purpose of ripping off their members. You need to find one or two that actually value you and want to pay you.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

When WW2 ended there was a boom in people taking holidays. They had demob pay and took off for the seaside. The railway companies put on extra trains and people flooded for the seaside. Very little foreign travel of course.

I think there will be a similar thing when the pandemic is over and lockdowns are no more. If I was you I'd be writing about the current situation.

 

[Travelpayouts_official]

I wouldn't go with this advice. Most affiliate programs exist solely for the purpose of ripping off their members. You need to find one or two that actually value you and want to pay you.

Hi, can't comment about other programs, but it's actually quite simple for us. If our affiliate sees that it will be easier for him\her to work with some affiliate program directly, we'd lose an income. So we're dependant on good service, support, features, tools (which we're developing constantly) and overall it couldn't be otherwise for us, but to be interested in the affiliate's well-being.

As a matter of fact, we even came up with a temporary solution for HotelsCombined affiliates (the program was paused for selected affiliates) and made it possible to redirect their traffic to Hotellook with nothing but just one script (and yes, once the HC program is back to normal, all the affiliates can switch back in a matter of minutes, so it's not about poaching affiliates from another network, but about helping out the travel niche overall).

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Well I'll amend my advise. Avoid 2nd tier affiliate programs like the plaque.

 

[Travelpayouts_official]

Well I'll amend my advise. Avoid 2nd tier affiliate programs like the plaque.

Hi again, sorry that can't change your attitude. We're making our best to help travel affiliates in today's circumstances, after all, for us the travel niche is everything, so it's us, our affiliates, other affiliates and everyone dependant on travel niche - we're all in this together. Would still advise checking our website\blog\socials - at least you'll find some important info, and it might really help.

 

[James Laden]

Hi! I think skyscanner and Expedia have some good affiliate program. Also, a lot of Travel companies offer a CPC (Cost per Click) program that can be much easier to convert.

 

[James Laden]

Q1 would be a great time to start using travel affiliate marketing programs to monetize your blog as this is normally when we see a peak in bookings. On the other hand due to covid pick a brand that customers trust.