If you are in the travel niche or thinking about going into the travel niche as an affiliate marketer, then you’re likely interested in the Expedia affiliate program.
Expedia is one of the most popular online travel booking websites used by travelers. The Expedia Group Family also includes other brands such as Vrbo, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, and Ebookers.
When you apply to the Expedia affiliate program, you get access to those brands as well. In this review, I’m going to share what the affiliate program offers and one of the best ways to begin making commissions.
If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! I have been an affiliate marketer for a few years now. It is my goal to share as much as I can about affiliate programs and various affiliate courses for sale. You can learn more on my about page.
How Much Does Expedia Affiliate Program Pay?
The Expedia affiliate program pays up to 6% commissions. You can view the commission table here. They aren’t high commission rates but because the travel niche is so popular, those small commissions can add up fast.
The key is to get as many targeted visitors as you can to your website. When you have a steady flow of web traffic, it is not difficult to make multiple affiliate sales in the span of a month.
You should also keep in mind that Expedia is a well-known travel brand. Many of the people that come across your website may have likely used Expedia in the past to book their trips.
Therefore, the conversions could be quite high since many people are familiar with the brand and have trust in it as well.
How to Become an Expedia Affiliate
Becoming an affiliate is as simple as applying to the affiliate program and waiting for approval. The sign-up form is basic. I do not know if there is instant approval. However, I can’t imagine that it is difficult to get approved.
Of course, it will help greatly if you already have a website up and running with some content. If you are a brand new affiliate marketer, I recommend setting up your niche website first.
Post at least 5 or more pieces of content (blog posts) related to the travel niche. When you apply, the application will likely ask for your website’s domain name.
Having a website already up with some content will greatly increase the chances of being approved (if there is an approval process.)
Most companies want to ensure that you are a serious affiliate marketer and will promote their brand in a positive and professional manner.
How to Make Money with the Expedia Affiliate Program
One of the best ways to make money as an affiliate of Expedia is by creating a niche website. Niche websites are ideal for promoting any type of affiliate product.
Your goal as an affiliate is to send as much traffic as you can to Expedia through your affiliate links. Paying for traffic using paid ads is expensive and risky when you aren’t experienced.
A niche website relies on SEO (search engine optimization) which is another way of saying content marketing.
Content is the articles that you write or have written by someone else to put on your website. You optimize your content by adding related keywords that you are wanting to rank for.
This requires doing keyword research to understand what it is your audience is searching for.
Choosing a Subniche Within the Travel Niche
The travel niche itself is broad and competitive. It is difficult to rank your website well for broad travel keywords. That is why I like to choose a sub-niche.
There are so many options that you have when choosing a sub-niche in the travel niche. Here are some ideas to help you brainstorm:
- Travel food blogging
- Traveling to a specific country
- Travel gear (luggage, clothing, cameras, etc.)
- Traveling with children
- Cruiseships
- Solo traveling
- Traveling by train
- Hotel and airline reviews
- How to save money on travel
You probably get the idea. When you focus on a sub-niche, there is usually less competition which gives you an even better chance of ranking well in the search engine results.
What is great is that regardless of the sub-niche you choose, you can still join any number of travel affiliate programs.
Setting Up Your Travel Niche Website
Getting your website up isn’t difficult, even for the technically inexperienced person. Many web hosting providers make it an easy process.
There are three things that you will need:
- A domain name
- Web hosting
- WordPress installed on your hosting account
Some hosting companies will automatically install WordPress for you. Good examples include Dreamhost and Bluehost.
The last thing you’ll do is choose a theme for your website. WordPress has tons of free themes and premium themes.
Creating Content for Your Travel Blog
A niche website is essentially a blog. In order to get organic traffic, you’ll have to create content in the form of blog posts on a regular basis.
Let’s say, for example, that you decided on creating a travel blog that focuses on travel gear.
You’ll want to focus on creating content (blog posts) that addresses the concerns of your target audience.
It begins with keyword research. Choose any keyword tool of your choice. Google’s keyword planner is free and offers a lot of keywords to choose from.
Here are some keywords that came up when I searched for the seed keyword “travel gear.”:
- travel accessories for women
- travel accessories for men
- best waterproof duffel bag
- best daypack for travel
- minimalist travel accessories
- travel gear for men
You can then take those keywords and do a search on them in the keyword tool you are using to get more topics for that specific keyword phrase.
Once you have your blog post topics, it is a matter of writing your content or outsourcing the writing to a freelance writer.
Either way, you want to create the most helpful piece of content that you can. Always write for your target audience and not the search engines.
Closing Thoughts
Joining the Expedia affiliate program offers a great opportunity to earn affiliate commissions in the travel niche. It is a well-established brand and that definitely helps with conversions.
If you are serious about earning affiliate commissions, I highly recommend following the same online training course I did when I got started.
What I learned helped me take my niche website from zero to making steady affiliate commissions.