Earlier this year, the world’s largest online travel community contacted AIM to speak at one of their Toronto events, ranked in the Top 3 largest and most engaged groups within the Travel Massive global community.
Travel Massive is comprised of 51,000 travel insiders, 3,300 companies and 118,000 connections, and growing daily. They are quickly becoming the voice of the global travel community, and a source for education, inspiration, best-practices and networking opportunities for those in the travel sector looking to monetize their businesses effectively.
With a consistent interest in monetizing their content and audiences, travel writers and influencers who have historically turned to sponsored posts and display ads are now turning to affiliate marketing to help them earn money more passively.
“The constant chase for “jobs” and one-off payments through sponsorships and press is tiring and un-scalable for many. Influencers and content writers are burning out with this model, and we need to learn how affiliate marketing works as a source of passive income to help us scale our earning potential so we stop burning out. We need to make the content and traffic we get work for us versus the other way around” – Anonymous (and very successful) travel writer
About 50 travel bloggers and Influencers came to our Toronto talk, and learned quickly that affiliate marketing is not as hard or overwhelming as it seems, and that they can create the type of passive income that they are looking for to support their lifestyles and further monetize their content while scaling up.
Prior to the meetup, we sent out a survey to ensure we understood our audience’s questions and challenges, and could address those during the session. Some of the questions posed by these travel writers and influencers included:
- How do I pick an affiliate network to join?
- Do I have to work with an affiliate network or can I work directly with a brand? How do I go about doing that?
- How do I pick a product or destination to promote?
- How do I know if the program I pick will make money?
- What are the best types of creatives or assets to use to make money? What actually works?
- I don’t understand how to make the traffic convert, so what are the best practise here?
- What are some conversion strategies so that I stop sending traffic to the wrong places?
- How do I track my traffic?
- How do I work with affiliate managers / networks? What should I be asking for?
- How much commission is normal for programs? How many “cookie window” days should I expect?
- What if the brand or company I want doesn’t have an affiliate program? Can I still work with them on a performance model?
- Why would I work with a brand directly vs going to Expedia or Amazon directly?
We spent approximately three hours with this group in a Downtown Toronto workspace, 45 minutes of which was an educational session with slides answering these questions. The other portion was a five-person panel of travel writers who have been successfully making money through affiliate marketing partnerships for years, sharing their best practices on how they do it and what to look out for. This panel was moderated by AIM, and included everything from the do’s and don’ts to key learnings, life-hacks, tips and tools to implement into blogs, and even best practices for how to monetize YouTube channels with affiliate marketing links.
As the world continues to understand the contribution of affiliates in the customer’s journey, and technology advances for us to see the full picture of every touch point of a guest or buyer’s journey, these types of relationships become more and more imperative in order to remain competitive, to enhance the customer’s journey, and to become (or remain) the market leader in your space.
Having a diversified affiliate and partner portfolio means understanding the pain points, questions, objections and goals of different types of partners, and investing in their understanding and success too. AIM was proud to contribute to the education of Toronto’s Travel Massive Community and meet so many wonderful people there.
“Sarah and the AIM team put together an incredible session focused around affiliate marketing for the Toronto Travel Massive community. As our keynote, Sarah delivered on all fronts, being able to set the foundation for what affiliate marketing is for those looking for more of an introductory lesson, while also being able to dig deeper into the niche of travel and provided substantial examples, platforms, and tools to provide proper take-aways from the event that attendees are hungry for. The feedback from the group was superb and could be one of the best workshop sessions we’ve ever run.” – William Tang, Travel Massive Toronto
As an affiliate management agency that services travel and hospitality clients as one of our key verticals, we will continue to invest in the advancement, success and understanding of affiliate partnership opportunities within the space.
On a side note, a great big thank you to the Travel Massive community for inviting us to be with you this quarter and for actively engaging in thoughtful conversation, learning and creating action items to take some important steps towards affiliate marketing success together.
To read more about the key takeaways from the Travel Massive community from this educational session with All Inclusive Marketing, click here.
How Affiliate Marketing Can Create Mutual Wealth for Travel Bloggers and Brands – Webinar
Interested in learning more? Join our CEO, Sarah Bundy and Travel Massive on July 3rd, for a webinar about travel bloggers and brands making money online using affiliate marketing strategies that work. This practical session will leave you with some simple action items to implement right away.
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