You don’t have to be a Travel Agent!

There are currently tens of thousands of people earning a combined millions of dollars a month from the sale of travel, and they are not travel agents! Affiliates are an emerging breed of entrepreneur that have staked a claim on an intersection of the Internet and earn substantial amounts of money by redirecting visitors to partner sites that pay them for the traffic. Known as affiliate marketing, travel ranks as one of the highest and most profitable products affiliates seek.

Amazon.com pioneered affiliate marketing, only to be followed by a surge of MLM and other slick operators that viewed affiliate marketing as a “get-rich-quick” opportunity. Affiliate marketing exploded overnight and was then followed by many failures. Today, affiliate marketing technology has evolved to a level of sophistication that assures reputable companies a viable opportunity if they choose to develop an affiliate network to promote their business.

Today’s typical affiliate has a niche web presence and is able to command the attention of web surfers looking for specific keyword driven information. Travel affiliate websites run the gamut from small personal travel sites to huge content-based sites that receive millions of page views and unique visitors per month. They are in a position to qualify (and then transfer) potential clients to another site for remuneration in the form of affiliate payments. Many travel agents have websites that could generate a meaningful amount of additional income by offering their site as an affiliate partner.
Traditional Marketing vs. Pay for Performance Marketing

Imagine if you could go to your local newspaper and approach them with the idea of paying for advertising with a small percentage of what was actually sold from the ads. The newspaper could decide how many times to run the ads, how big they would be, and how they were designed. The only cost to the advertiser would be when someone actually purchased something (or completed another specified action). Let’s say that you had 10 group departures of 20 cabins each and that you budgeted $50 per cabin as an affiliate payment for any affiliate that brought you the sale. Since your inventory is finite and your distribution costs established by your affiliate remuneration program, you will be able to market the space through an affiliate network profitably. In the case of the newspaper, I suspect they would not want to do this, but would favor the traditional column inch rates with absolutely no guarantee of anything.

Pay for performance marketing makes sense for the travel industry because it connects the supplier with the consumer in a way that promises the most effective transaction for both parties. It promises the most effective distribution and enhances agent’s potential to earn a reasonable income from their Internet presence. Here are just some of the more interesting affiliate programs that are available to anyone that has a travel related website.

Google.com
Google’s AdSense pays a portion of the click through rate generated by contextual ads that are delivered to your website by Google. Depending on the number of page views your site enjoys and your click-through rate, Google’s AdSense can be very lucrative. I personally saw one travel site that generated $7,134.39 on 638,213 page views with a click through rate of 2.6% in one single month.

http://www.Google.com/AdSense/

British Airways
Affiliate with British Airways and earn 2% commission on sales. 30 day return cookie.

http://ba.reporting.net/affiliates/pitch.htm

British Airways Holidays
British Airways Holidays offers hotels, rental cars and sightseeing worldwide. They offer 4% commission and a 30-day cookie.

http://www.baholidays.com/home.jsp?chosenCountry=GB

(Click on the “Affiliate” link at the bottom of the page.)

Cathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific is proud to offer an affiliate incentive program for the sale of air travel exclusively to Asia. Pays $15 on every booking.

http://www.cathay-usa.com/offers/affiliate/affiliate_home.asp

Delta.com
As a delta.com affiliate you can earn $3 per sale you refer.

http://www.delta.com/prog_serv/affiliate_marketing/index.jsp

TACA.com
TACA.com pays$3-$7 per sale. Plus, the top two selling affiliates in each quarter will receive two free tickets each to any TACA destinations

http://www.taca.com/

(Click on “TACA Affiliate’s Program”)

QIXO.com

Earn from $3 to $5 per ticket depending on volume. QIXO searches over 28 airline sites for the lowest airfare

http://www.qixo.com/

(Click on “QIXO Affiliate”)

Expedia.com
Expedia pays commission on air, car, cruise, hotel, package, specialty lodging and vacation travel. Earn from $3 to $5 commission for each flight booked by your referrals, plus 5% of the net revenue on hotel bookings and 2% on car rentals. Affiliates are paid quarterly once the amount due is over $150.

http://www.expedia.com/daily/associates/default.asp?CCheck=1&

These are just some high profile affiliate programs that should spark your interest. The fact that airlines and airline owned web sites are willing to pay affiliates commissions for simply referring traffic, while not paying travel agents commission for completing a transaction, should peak your curiosity. If you have questions regarding affiliate marketing, drop me an e-mail at CruiseReviews@aol.com.