How would you monetise a TRAVEL related site?

28 replies
  • SEO
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Hi warriors,

I would just like to hear your thoughts, and prefferably your own experience, about whats the "best" way of monetizing travel related sites/blogs.

Adsense?
booking.com or similar affiliates?
CPA?
E-mail optins etc.?

Any other ideas?

Just wondering if anyone has tackled this niche before and what brought him/her the best results.

Sincerely, Buyseech
#monetise #related #site #travel
  • Profile picture of the author StevenJones
    Originally Posted by Buyseech View Post

    Hi warriors,

    I would just like to hear your thoughts, and prefferably your own experience, about whats the "best" way of monetizing travel related sites/blogs.

    Adsense?
    booking.com or similar affiliates?
    CPA?
    E-mail optins etc.?

    Any other ideas?

    Just wondering if anyone has tackled this niche before and what brought him/her the best results.

    Sincerely, Buyseech
    I depends on what amount of work you want to put into your this particular site. Plus travel is a bit broad, don't you think? If you only talk about traveling on a blog kind of site I don't think you should go with booking.com for example..

    What's your position in Google, can you be a bit more specific about the content?
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    • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
      I cant reveal the exact content, but it will be a specific site which will be complementary to ALL travel related sites. Its unique, and as far as I know the first and only of its kind. It will offer valuable info, which everyone will appreciate.

      ITs still being developed and the content is beeing written. But the main target audience will be people that are planning their travels.

      Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author zannix
    There are a lot of travel agencies that offer affiliate programs. Bingo!
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  • Profile picture of the author AnmolJ
    Adsense
    And Affiliates From Travel Companies!
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  • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
    Travel agencies that work worldwide? You mean like booking.com etc?
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  • Profile picture of the author AnmolJ
    More Suggestions: Try And Build A Mailing List And Drive More People To Your Site!
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    • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
      Originally Posted by AnmolJ View Post

      More Suggestions: Try And Build A Mailing List And Drive More People To Your Site!
      I have thought about that of course, but traffic just by itself is worthless, if you dont monetize
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  • Profile picture of the author Lyanna
    My tip: look over similar niche sites and find out how they monetize.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rndmals
    Originally Posted by Buyseech View Post


    Just wondering if anyone has tackled this niche before and what brought him/her the best results.
    ^^Yes.

    And to answer your question - Adsense. If you have traffic, you'll make a killing, I promise you that. Plenty of advertisers and relevant ads, and they are VERY clickable. You can test other stuff if you want to (Agoda, etc), but adsense is a no brainer.
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    • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
      Originally Posted by Rndmals View Post

      ^^Yes.

      And to answer your question - Adsense. If you have traffic, you'll make a killing, I promise you that. Plenty of advertisers and relevant ads, and they are VERY clickable. You can test other stuff if you want to (Agoda, etc), but adsense is a no brainer.
      In february I went on a 6 week expedition to SE ASia and everywhere I looked all the ads (Adsense) were showing hoostelbookers, Agoda etc etc. So I guess the travel niche is nicely stacked. Always good.

      I am digging the reccomendations so far. Keep em coming

      Thank you.

      Sincerely, Buyseech
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    • Profile picture of the author StevenJones
      Originally Posted by Rndmals View Post

      ^^Yes.

      And to answer your question - Adsense. If you have traffic, you'll make a killing, I promise you that. Plenty of advertisers and relevant ads, and they are VERY clickable. You can test other stuff if you want to (Agoda, etc), but adsense is a no brainer.
      It's true that people that are looking for travel a very 'clicky' when it comes to adsense I would just mix up some adsense and booking.com for example if you create a blog post about your stay in country and hotel just redirect to the same hotel with your affiliate link.
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  • Profile picture of the author goldeneye75
    commission junction has plenty of travel companies. just enter keyword "travel" into the search box to get matched with travel affiliate programs.
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  • Profile picture of the author goldeneye75
    you might want to sign up for the groupon affiliate program. people tend to buy groupons for the city they visit. you would get a percentage of each sale generated through your blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author HorseStall
    I would do a combination of AdSense and affiliate travel related websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author msu
    AdSense will work well because the both the payouts and ctrs tend to be good.

    On my travel related site I also use:
    hotelscombined.com
    Unlike the standard hotel affiliate programs where you only get paid if someone books a room and completes the stay, they are essentially a pay for leads program. You get paid if a user follows through to hotel site after doing a search. The payout varies but it's always good.
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  • Profile picture of the author dbwebdesignz
    Adsense is one of the best for monetizing your sites. This is what i would use and then place some clickbank links throughout my pages
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  • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
    Thanks for the inputs guys. Well I guess we will split test the hell out of it, once its up and running I am not surprised by the fact most preffer adsense, cause it does seem like the clickiest of the bunch

    Thank you.

    Any other comments and suggestions are always welcome
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    • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
      Expedia has a very unique and robust platform for affiliates that looks like it has lots of potential.

      One of my adsense sites is in a travel niche and I'm thinking of integrating this expedia platform instead.

      Take a look:
      Chameleon | Expedia Affiliate Network
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    We did a case study on a site that was on Flippa at auction that was KILLING it with Agoda as an affiliate partner. It was a really interesting site...we've since signed up for Agoda and plan to do some testing in the future.

    The site is extremely locked down...there are very few holes where you'd lose trafffic to anything that's not your own content or Agoda. One of the interesting things about their affiliate program is that they don't require affiliate links...you can send the traffic directly once you've signed up and have been approved. Check out the case study here:

    28K Per Month Authority Site Case Study | AdSense Flippers
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  • Profile picture of the author Oranges
    Try Agoda.com, im making some decent money with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Buyseech
    Does Agoda pay a % of the entire purchase (even if they pay at the hotel) or just a % of the reservation fee & full purchase online?

    The structure provided on their site is a bit weird, therefor not clear as to what you are getting. Any first hand experience welcome..
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  • Profile picture of the author DylanC
    I would like to see you try building a list with the traffic and then selling to the list, be it travel guides, Clickbank travel products, travel deals and offers etc. Will be interesting to see if it works
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    • Profile picture of the author writie
      Funny the love Adsense is getting. My travel site has Adsense and a hotel affiliate scheme. the latter brings far more in fees. It does require work, however.

      M
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      • Profile picture of the author cagliostro
        Originally Posted by writie View Post

        Funny the love Adsense is getting. My travel site has Adsense and a hotel affiliate scheme. the latter brings far more in fees. It does require work, however.

        M
        Yes you are right. Adsense is ok for travel sites but hotel affiliate is FAR better. And it is not as hard as you say, just some little work intially.
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        • You can use Adsense and affiliate programs, but you may also create and sell a travel guide or an ebook describing popular tourist destinations, hotels, spa resorts, etc. Paid reviews are a viable option as well. In addition to Adsense, you can use other similar programs like Infolinks or Chitika.
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  • Profile picture of the author amiral44
    I am interested to setup a hotel comparison website for the town I live in. Once an affiliate agreement is made with booking.com, hotelscombined.com, agoda etc, do you know if that will automatically update the latest prices on my website too ?

    Also is it easy enough to setup multiple affiliate agreements? Booking.com is a commission on a sale whereas hotelscombined is click through payments even if people do not purchase a hotel in the end. It would be ideal to have both on my website.

    I have read about metasearch software but this seems to be for larger websites scraping the web for hotel information for thousands of destinations eg travelsupermarket.com

    Anymore info on this stuff would be hugely appreciated.
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