How to Start Affiliate Marketing for Travel Blogs

Contents

• Affiliate marketing for travel bloggers
• What is affiliate marketing?
• How affiliate marketing works for travel bloggers and why you should adopt an affiliate model 
• How to make income with affiliate marketing from your blog
• Advantages of ZenHotels affiliate program
• How to join the ZenHotels affiliate program
• Integration types for your travel blog content
• Strategies for travel affiliate marketing blogging
• Tracking and analyzing your blog’s performance
• Tips for scaling your affiliate marketing income
• Helpful online tools for affiliate marketers
• Monetize your travel blog with ZenHotels

Affiliate marketing for travel bloggers

Bloggers join affiliate programs for different reasons, from earning extra money to funding future travels. The affiliate marketing industry is booming, worth over $17 billion in 2023. The industry has grown almost 50% since 2018 with the post-pandemic travel boom making it the best time to start blogging.

The benefit of affiliate marketing is that once you’ve posted your content, it can generate passive income for years. This guide shares everything you need to know about affiliate marketing, social media blogging, and how to become like your favorite travel bloggers.

Joining an affiliate program can scale your blog into a successful business. Over 15% of affiliates are earning more than $50,000 in passive income annually. Most blogging affiliates earn at least $1,000 a month. Imagine how much extra traveling you could do with an additional $1,000 monthly.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when a blogger earns money by marketing a product or service on their website. These programs operate on a commission basis. When a website visitor uses a blogger’s link to purchase a product or service, they receive a commission for the sale.

At ZenHotels, our affiliate marketing program is designed for travel writers across every niche. We offer accommodation bookings for over 220 countries and territories for stress-free travel. Whatever your niche, you can link to hotel recommendations and earn commission by using our affiliate products.

How affiliate marketing works for travel bloggers and why you should adopt an affiliate model

Travel blogging is one of the niches where affiliate marketing is easiest. Whether you’re doing a travel guide or sharing your latest trip, you can naturally integrate affiliate products into your blog posts. Brand deals are the most lucrative way for bloggers to earn money, but these opportunities are hard to access, require you to make additional content, and have a higher barrier to entry.

By comparison, you can become an affiliate marketer from day one. You don’t need millions of social media followers to start earning money. ZenHotels allows you to monetize your online content with affiliate links for accommodation options and hotels globally.

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How to make income with affiliate marketing from your blog

You might be starting a blog just to become an affiliate marketer. Perhaps you already have a travel blog and want to start earning money for your work. It’s never too late – or too early – to start thinking about how to make income from your blog. 

It’s a common misconception that creating content for everyone will earn you more money. Focusing on a niche, identifying your audience, and choosing the right affiliate program will boost your engagement and give you the best affiliate results.

Finding your niche

Not everyone travels the same way. That’s the beauty of travel. No two travel blogs should be the same. Every blogger has their own perspective to add to travel, whether it’s from traveling solo, with kids, or only taking trains. If you already have a blog, it’s easy to transition your content to focus on a niche.

Don’t choose a travel niche just because it’s popular. Your niche should be something you’re passionate about and that reflects the traveling you enjoy. Travel aligns with other niches that you can tie into your content to make it uniquely your own.

If you’re a fan of Formula One, you can create travel posts focused on traveling to Grand Prix weekends. If you’re a fan of luxury shopping, it’s easy to tie in brands and stores to your blog posts with curated shopping recommendations. Food enthusiasts can also focus their content on restaurants, local cuisine, and must-visit eateries. The key to creating an engaging blog is to write posts you would want to read.

Choosing your audience

Once you’ve got your niche, you need an audience. For example, you might focus on weekend city breaks – but who are you writing for? Your audience could be first-time travelers, retirees, families, solo travelers, or groups. Understanding who your audience is will help you choose the best hotels and products to link to.

Writing your blog posts for everyone is effectively writing for no one. Usually, your audience will reflect who you are and the perspective you bring to your blog. Identifying your audience makes it easier to target traffic and drive the right people to your blog. 

Signing up for an affiliate program

The benefit of our affiliate program is that it works for every travel niche. You’ll find thousands of hotels and accommodation options on the ZenHotels website. Whether you’re blogging in the luxury travel niche or creating content for solo travelers, you’ll find dozens of hotel options to add to your posts. 

Advantages of ZenHotels affiliate program

At ZenHotels, we’ve curated our affiliate program for natural integration into your blog. We’ll give you the support you need to make your blog a success with fully customizable affiliate products and easy-to-use referral links. 

ZenHotels offers global coverage, meaning it’s the only affiliate program you need for referral links for hotels and accommodation options for the most popular travel destinations. Our in-depth blog posts and travel guides offer blogging ideas with industry insights for upcoming travel trends.

You’ll earn a commission for every hotel booked through your links. We offer affiliate tools to give you multiple transition points on your blog to direct users to your links and maximize bookings. 

Please note that you can join the ZenHotels affiliate program if you have a legal entity.

Got a question about our affiliate program? Drop us a message at [email protected].

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How to join the ZenHotels affiliate program

To join the ZenHotels affiliate program, you’ll be redirected to create an account with RateHawk, our B2B booking platform for travel professionals. 

To get started with the ZenHotels affiliate program, follow these simple steps:

1. Create an account at RateHawk, Emerging Travel Group’s online booking tool for travel professionals, and choose the “Referral links, widgets, white-labeles” option when signing up. 

2. Log in to your account and navigate to the “Links and widgets” section. You can create referral links or widgets that drive bookings and generate commissions from there. 

If you prefer a customized solution, contact your account manager for white label or API integration. These tools provide additional advantages, such as custom design options and the ability to build your user path, search logic, and payment flow.

3. Finish the integration process. Once a month, you will receive a commission statement. Confirm it and get paid, further boosting your revenue.

Become a ZenHotels affiliate today for free and start monetizing your travel posts. Contact us at [email protected] for more information about affiliate integration, the tools available, and the support we can offer your business.

Learn more here 

Integration types for your travel blog content

Most travel bloggers become affiliates once they’ve got a following. While referral links are the most popular, there are ways to naturally integrate other affiliate tools into your blog. 

We offer four integration types as part of the ZenHotels program:

Referral links

The easiest way to drive sales is by using referral links to hotels and accommodation options. It’s easy to hyperlink within your blog posts, images, and navigation buttons. It’s best practice to disclose the fact your links may earn you a commission either at the start or end of your blog post.

Co-branded white label

As you scale your travel blog, you might want to start offering your followers the option to book hotels directly through your website. Our co-brand white label product is fully customizable to add your blog’s branding at no additional expense. 

API integration

API integration allows you to tailor how your audience engages with your affiliate links and the booking process. You can customize your client experience even further, tailoring the booking process and design. 

You can check out this in-depth guide on hotel booking API to find out more about this tool.

Widget

You want your audience to click on your link instead of searching for a product organically. Widgets make it easy to ensure you earn commission from every follower with a hotel search form you can customize to match your website for seamless integration.

Strategies for travel affiliate marketing blogging

It’s not enough just to hit “post” on your article. As you continue blogging, you start to learn more about the industry and approach content from the perspective of a marketer. When your blog starts to earn passive income, you’ll want to find ways of driving more traffic to your site. 

Before you write a blog or choose a niche, start working on your strategy. Every marketer has products and software to track sales, monitor traffic, and enhance SEO.

Follow SEO best practices

You can’t ignore SEO as an affiliate blogger. Every market prioritizes SEO to boost the visibility of their website. There’s lots of information online about how to master SEO and incorporate best practices, such as meta descriptions and keywords, into everything you post. Optimizing your content ensures you get your blog in front of the right audience to maximize your affiliate potential. 

Start a newsletter

Your followers want to feel like they’re part of your travel journey. A newsletter is a great way to stay connected with your followers and drive engagement. You can spotlight your latest blog posts or directly incorporate affiliate links into your emails. A newsletter helps curate a highly engaged audience with another potential revenue stream. 

Add a pop-up or sign-up option to your site and include the link to your social media to grow your newsletter subscribers. It’s a good idea to offer a lead magnet for signing up, like a free travel itinerary or packing list. 

Don’t forget about social media

You want to grow your social media following alongside your blog. Platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook help you grow an audience you can re-direct to your blog or target in multiple ways to maximize your affiliate earning potential. Keep your branding consistent and make it easy for followers to find you on every platform with links on your blog. 

Tracking and analyzing your blog’s performance

Most blogging platforms offer in-depth insights and performance data to show where your traffic is coming from and your best-performing posts. Tracking your blog’s performance can help identify your strongest niche and how your audience engages with your content. It’s a good idea to start a Google Doc or Excel spreadsheet to track your following count, engagement rate, and affiliate income. 

Tips for scaling your affiliate marketing income

Once you’re making an income from using affiliate products and links, it’s time to start scaling your blog. The quality of your content will evolve with time as you become an authority within your niche and gain more experience. Your usual blog post may start to read more like an article from a travel expert.

Look for trending topics

You can start scaling your blog at any time, even if you’re not traveling. There are dozens of different types of content you can create, from travel product reviews to suggested itineraries and how-to guides. Pay attention to your competitors and watch out for trending content. 

While you want to look at what your competitors are doing, always put your own spin on the content. Copying content from other people or creating like-for-like blog posts might negatively impact your traffic and give your audience the wrong impression. 

Niche down your content

If you have an existing blog, consider focusing on a niche within the travel industry. It can feel scary to narrow down your content, but creating blog posts aimed at everyone is like talking to no one. Focusing on a specific type of content within the travel niche, such as flying to golf tournaments, trying local cuisine, or taking cruise vacations, means visitors come to your blog looking for your exact content. Think of it as a niche within a niche.

A well-defined niche can translate to higher affiliate earnings and a more engaged community who are interested in all your content, instead of just a small part of your blog. Think of who you’re writing for, what you’re writing about, and why you’re writing a travel blog. These three aspects should help you find your individual niche. 

Learn to sell products

Affiliate marketing means you sell a product. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the idea of creating content just to sell products. The good news is that travel products, from hotels to flights and accessories, are easy to incorporate into almost any blog post. 

The best way to sell a product is to be authentic and genuine in your review. Disclose the fact you’re an affiliate and make it clear if you’ve used the product, stayed at the hotel, or flown with the airline. It’s important not to oversell a product. Your blog post shouldn’t come across as a sales pitch. Your audience should feel like they’re getting a product recommendation or travel suggestion from a friend. 

Understanding ownership of affiliate products

Most affiliate products will be provided by the company with links being the easiest to incorporate into your content.

At ZenHotels, we go the extra mile to help you maximize the money you can earn with additional free tools, from widgets to co-brand white labeling. These tools will help you write high-quality blog posts and prompt your audience to click on your product links.

Advertising standards vary between different countries. It’s best practice to always disclose on your blog if you’re an affiliate. Transparency is crucial to building trust with your audience, so disclosing affiliate products and links should happen across all your posts. 

Helpful online tools for affiliate marketers

Don’t feel overwhelmed if you’re new to affiliate programs for bloggers. There are lots of (free!) tools you can use to optimize your blog and create highly engaging posts. We’re sharing four tools you can add to your travel blog.

Google Analytics AI

You don’t need to spend money on an expensive SEO or affiliate marketing course. Google offers dozens of free courses and products, designed specifically for bloggers. We’ve mentioned the Keyword Planner earlier in this guide, but Google Analytics offers extensive insights to improve your ROI. If you want to start earning more money as a travel blogging affiliate, these insights are crucial.

SEMRush

Using the right keywords is important to getting your blog in front of the best audience. Start your blog planning with research – for both your content and keywords. SEMRush is one of the most popular keyword research products and offers additional insights, such as competitor analysis. 

Grammarly

Grammarly is one of the most useful tools for any blogger. It’s more than just a standard spell-checker. The free version gives you everything you need for blogging, pointing out grammatical errors, and offering suggestions to improve your tone and readability. 

Yoast SEO

Before you hit “publish” on your blog post, it’s worth stopping to ensure it’s fully optimized. You’ll earn a higher income from affiliate marketing when you follow SEO best practices throughout your blog. Yoast SEO is a free product you can integrate into most platforms and ensures every page of your website is optimized. The paid version has additional features that may be useful as you grow your travel blog.

Monetize your travel blog with ZenHotels

Setting up a travel blog or monetizing your existing content is easy for effortless integration. At ZenHotels, our affiliate program gives you the tools to monetize your travel blog at any stage. Start making money to fund your future travels, grow your business, or turn your side hustle into a blogging career.

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Join the ZenHotels affiliate program today!

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