Travelpayouts Review: How I Make Money with Travel Affiliate Marketing

What is Travelpayouts? Is it Legit?

When I first started travel blogging, I didn’t know that much about affiliate marketing. I used to sign up for affiliate programs with companies separately, and honestly, it took forever before I could reach the payout threshold.

Then, I heard everyone talking about Travelpayouts in the blogging community. At that time, I wondered what Travelpayouts was, and if it’s even legit. I was thinking to myself, “Will I really get paid”? But over the years, Travelpayouts has become one of my trusted affiliate income streams, so yes, it is definitely legit.

Travelpayouts is an affiliate marketing platform that has numerous programs within one dashboard. Basically, first you sign up for Travelpayouts, then you can apply for several brands within its platform. This is great because you can track all the affiliate income in one place.

I also noticed that signing up with brands through Travelpayouts is much easier than trying to sign up for brands individually. For example, when I first tried to sign up for Booking.com, they rejected me because I didn’t have enough views yet. Then, when I tried to sign up to Booking.com through Travelpayouts, I got accepted without any issues (even though I still had the same amount of views).

Pros & Cons

Brands on Travelpayouts

Travelpayouts has over 100 travel brands within its network, including sites for hotel booking, tours & activities, eSIM, car rentals, and flight bookings.

It can differ from niche to niche, but there are a few brands that I find work best, including Booking.com (hotels), GetYourGuide (activities & tours), Viator (activities & tours), Airalo (eSIM), and Discover Cars (car rental).

Tools

Travelpayouts has various tools that you can use to make affiliate income, including embedding links and using widgets. It has recently also rolled out a new feature, ‘Drive’, that can help you monetize even further.

Links

Embedding links within blog posts is one of the best ways to monetize through Travelpayouts. You just generate the link within the Travelpayouts dashboard and then add it to the blog post.

I have been mainly using affiliate links, and they have worked best when embedded in specific affiliate posts. To this day, it’s mostly specific affiliate posts with embedded affiliate links that bring in consistent earnings.

Widgets

Travelpayouts also has a feature that allows you to add widgets to your blog posts. It’s like a small embedded box in the post that shows activities, tours, or hotels that readers can book.

I tried widgets, but they haven’t worked that well for me and haven’t really generated any earnings. Nevertheless, you should still test them out as they might work better for other niches.

Drive

Travelpayouts recently rolled out a new feature, ‘Drive’, that helps generate further passive income. Drive has different components, and once you turn them on, they work on autopilot. In contrast, when I use deep links, I have to manually add the links to each blog post.

Drive has five different features, and you can decide which ones you want to turn on and which ones to turn off. I am still testing all the features, but one of the features that I have been using is ‘Targeted Offers’.

Targeted Offers work very similarly to Stay 22’s Nova pop up. It works by triggering a pop-up window when a reader is on your site, showing a specific travel deal (e.g. hotel, tour) relevant for your reader. It increases the chances of the reader booking a hotel or activity, while generating income for you.

I was hesitant at first to sign up for Targeted Offers as I was already using Stay 22. I was not sure if the two could run simultaneously, but they actually do. The script that responds the fastest is the one that’s triggered. I now have both Travelpayouts’ Targeted Offers and Stay 22’s Nova pop up, and since I turned on both, I am getting bookings through both pop ups.

Referral Program

Travelpayouts also has a referral program, which is a bit like being an affiliate for Travelpayouts. If you have been using Travelpayouts for a while and trust the company, you could also recommend it to other content creators.

On my blog, I only recommend companies and products that I genuinely believe in, and Travelpayouts is one of them. Then, the more people sign up using your link, the more rewards you earn.

But you don’t need to be an established travel blogger to earn rewards, you can get a bonus even as a new blogger just starting out. When you sign up to Travelpayouts using my referral link, you can get a bonus!

Ready to start earning through Travelpayouts? If you sign up through my referral link, you can get up to a USD 100 bonus after signing up! → Sign up to Travelpayouts here and get the bonus!

After you sign up, you get the USD 100 bonus in stages:

• You get $ 25 after the first $ 50 you earn after enabling Drive
• You get another $ 25 after you first earn $ 100 in total
• Then, you get an additional $ 50 after you first earn $ 1,000 in total.

Getting Paid

Commission

The commission rate differs for each brand, but the rate is mentioned on the Travelpayouts platform, so you know what the commission is for each.

Some of the brands that work the best on my blog are GetYourGuide and Viator, each with an 8% commission rate. Booking.com has a lower commission, at 3-5% which sometimes works out very low, especially as most of my content is about destinations in Asia where accommodation tends to be cheaper than in Europe or North America.

Reporting Dashboard

Travelpayouts’ reporting dashboard is pretty straightforward. You can see all the bookings in one platform, the total number of bookings, the amount of commission, and whether the booking is confirmed, cancelled, or still pending.

Having all the brands in one platform is probably one of my favourite things about Travelpayouts. If I signed up to each brand separately, then the income would also be paid out separately. Usually, travel brands have a minimum payout threshold, and when you sign up to each brand separately, it takes longer to reach the payout threshold and get paid.

Travelpayouts also has a minimum threshold, but when you earn from numerous brands in one platform, it’s faster to reach the payout threshold.

You can also add multiple websites to one dashboard. I have two travel blogs, and my affiliate income from Travelpayouts from both blogs is accumulating within one dashboard. It makes it even easier to track affiliates for both of my blogs.

Payout

There are different payout methods, and you can choose to get paid into PayPal, Webmoney, or directly into your bank account. I get my payments through PayPal, which has a USD 50 payout threshold.

The payments are processed and paid out every month as long as you meet the payout threshold. The payment is reliable, and I have always been paid without any issues.

My Experience Using Travelpayouts

When I just started out as a travel blogger, it took me some time to learn about affiliate marketing. My affiliate income started improving after I joined Travelpayouts and started writing specific affiliate posts.

If you are just starting out with affiliate marketing, it might take some time until you start to see consistent earnings. Joining Travelpayouts alone is not enough because you have to write affiliate posts that can rank well, and place the affiliate links in a way that makes people want to purchase.

Earning potential also depends on the niche. Specific affiliates work better for specific niches. If you write about North America or Europe, then you’ll have a higher affiliate earning potential. The majority of my content is about Nepal which does not work that well for affiliate marketing. However, a few of my affiliate posts on European destinations consistently bring in income.

Seasonality is also important to keep in mind. There are low seasons when fewer people are traveling and affiliate income becomes lower.

In my experience, what has worked best is embedding the Travelpayouts links in my affiliate posts (I add affiliate links in almost all my posts, but the links in affiliate posts convert the best). It just takes a few seconds to create and insert the link in a blog post, and then it’s set up for good. I review my affiliate links every now and then, check that the link is not broken, and that the activity is still active.

I am still testing the new features on ‘Drive’, but so far I’m happy that Drive’s Targeted Offers (pop up) and Stay 22’s Nova pop up can work simultaneously. It’s one of the easiest ways I’ve found to monetize a travel blog.

My Final Advice for Using Travelpayouts

Overall, Travelpayouts is a great platform to earn affiliate income. You can test the different brands and features to see what works best for your niche. If you are just starting out with affiliate marketing, it might take some time until you start to see consistent income.

Dropping random affiliate links in a blog post rarely works, so I recommend writing targeted affiliate posts where you naturally add affiliate links within the text. You can also add “Call-to-Action” boxes in your post where you mention 1-2 features of why you recommend that specific product or service. These tend to convert the best.

Drive can run automatically, you just have to turn it on. If you are embedding links manually, then I recommend adding a clear SubID for each link, so you can track which link in which blog post is converting the best!

→ Start earning income through Travelpayouts and get up to USD 100 in bonuses if you sign up using my link!