Not so long ago, we conducted an extensive research study on the current state of travel affiliate marketing. We analyzed both the industry’s leading players and small and medium-sized areas. This approach has allowed us to get a panoramic view of the travel partners market and we want to share our findings with you so you can start accumulating profits as soon as possible. The main idea behind this research was to find out if this niche offers any opportunity to generate income, and if so, how challenging the process can be. We discovered that the travel partners market has a very favorable climate not only for established brands, but also for newcomers. Read on to find more interesting information that will definitely help you better understand the competitive landscape of the travel affiliate market and what types of strategies will facilitate your productivity.
Creating a web content project is the best thing you can do
By reviewing our list of the top 10 affiliates that send the most traffic to advertisers on a monthly basis, we found: 40% of sites content can be project sites.
We’ve also found that, on average, travel content projects can send up to 50% of their traffic to advertisers. For example, the average CTR on Google Ads across all industries is 1.91% on the search network and 0.35% on the display network; this proves once again that users don’t want to click on banners nowadays. Your readers are much more motivated to click when a link is placed on a piece of content they find useful or at least interested in reading.
Indeed, creating high-quality content is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website. Have you heard that Brian Dean of Backlinko increased his organic traffic by 110% in 14 days by creating an article with keyword traffic potential, backlinks and of course value? But how do you know which topic to cover in your next piece?
If you’re not sure what type of content will resonate best with your audience, we highly recommend checking out a free tool called Bloomberry. It collects data from the Internet’s most popular communities such as Reddit, Quora, and others. For example, here’s a screenshot of what people are talking about when discussing “most popular places”:
Adopting this technique before creating your next content will help you connect with users who will read your article in its entirety. One of the best formats is a Q&A guide that covers a topic. Ideally, it should help your readers solve a problem or fill a need, which is what we’re all looking for. Try creating this type of content and you’ll find that it’s really easy to promote it and get people to link to it.
Maximizing the efficiency of content projects by focusing on local markets
Another opportunity that is notably overlooked, especially by leading travel partners, is to launch a content project targeting a non-English speaking audience. We’ve learned that these types of projects can make money much faster because they don’t need a lot of connections. For example, Podoroznik.co.uk on a Polish-language site with over 2,000 visitors per month from organic search and only 47 referrer domains. Frankly, competition in local markets is less aggressive at Google than in the US.
To predict whether a particular niche is competing on Google, you can use the SEMrush Keyword Magic tool, which allows you to analyze how difficult it is for you to rank in the top 10 for any topic. In the screenshot below, you can see the average keyword difficulty for ‘top travel destinations’ is 47.57%:
Use this tool to narrow down your search for a specific issue, or get inspired to center your search around a specific location because it has a better chance of sending 40% of your traffic to advertisers. Lasvegas-entertainment-guide.com is an excellent example of a mid-sized site that outperforms other average sites of its kind.
Small sites tend to perform better at sending users to advertisers. On average, they send 11% of their traffic to advertisers. That’s 1.57 times more than the top affiliates (the top affiliate site only sends 7% of its traffic to major advertisers).
It takes 15 posts and 130 referrer domains per month to attract 2.oooo visitors via search in less than 12 months
We analyzed exactly how content projects that receive constant traffic from search can achieve such outstanding results. What we found is that these websites are publishing two posts per week for a total of 15 posts per month. Basically, this means that you need to prepare your pieces of content in advance to be able to post regularly. If you don’t think this strategy will fit your busy schedule, you can create a set of travel guides or a set of travel guides that will help your readers learn more about a particular destination without having to browse dozens of other sites. case studies that show exactly how your product can help users or make their lives easier. Both such posts should be regularly updated and contain easy-to-navigate content.
Another thing we want to emphasize is the number of referring domains on your site. This number directly affects your Google ranking. The minimum number of referrer domains required for your site to appear successfully in search results is between 130 and 140. Without that many links, it’s nearly impossible to generate traffic without searching.
Content creation is crucial to search engine rankings, with search accounting for 68% of overall traffic. This is something you should devote enough time and effort to.
Solution
After collecting the answers from the industry experts we surveyed and the data we collected, our research proves that you don’t need a massive traffic flow to your website to have a successful business. Consider starting a content project or converting your existing site into one, as placing links to relevant articles published on platforms other than your website will bring you more clicks and ultimately more money. When searching for referral areas, stay between 130 and 140 areas. If you have some quality content posted on your website, you should start getting anywhere from 1,000-2,000 monthly organic visitors.
Local travel markets are rather underestimated. We’ve been able to confirm that content projects that focus on local markets or the preferences of a specific audience perform best.
Additionally, our data-driven research shows that the current environment of the affiliate travel market has favorable conditions for generating income, even if it decides to work with leading affiliate programs.
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