Monetization Resources for Travel Content Creators

Creating travel content for free is not an easy task. Here’s a list of travel affiliate partners and monetization platforms I recommend for travel content creators to start with. Most of us start out funding our trips before learning how to generate multiple streams of income and getting press trips and paid campaigns.  Creating travel videos and blogs is not a cheap hobby as you guessed. Thus, the sooner you can build income streams, the better.

Making money as a travel content creator does not have a pre-defined roadmap – we all have different strategies based on the unique vision for how we want to use our platforms. But it has some reliable and reputable brands you can start from.

As a solo travel blogger and solo travel YouTuber, I juggle multiple streams of income through my content and I freelance in video.  I won’t sugar coat it– being a solo content creator is a challenge, because not only do you have to juggle the content hamster wheel but you must also find time to seek ways for your content to reimburse your efforts and investment. Affiliate links, call to actions, email funnels, etc… can be tedious work!

Some of the recommendations I get commissions for at no extra cost to you and if i’m getting them, then signing up for the affiliate, you can do the same.

Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Content Creators

Affiliate programs – I love to hate them, but when they pay out, it makes the effort feel worthwhile. It’s tedious work to implement affiliate links into my blog, so I hate when the affiliate program makes changes forcing me to update all my links.  Entering into an affiliate program is like a marriage – most have a payout threshold you have to meet and you want to make sure they are established to last years into your blog.

Over the years I’ve only worked with a few well-known affiliate programs. Only a few perform well for travel content and I only share services I personally vet or know are well-vetted mainstays by fellow bloggers and travelers.  I don’t take on many new affiliates.  The two affiliate programs I list below I use in tandem. They work differently.

Stay 22 :  Stay 22 makes the jobs of researching, changing and maintaining your hotel booking links  less tedious and painful.  Pools hotel affiliate links into one space where you can track them and automatically replace the broken ones. It detects your existing links and its script transfers it to your Stay22 affiliate code.  Takes 40% commission but it helps me avoid the pain of programs shifting platforms and it has additional AI widget features that help readers discover hotels they are interested in vs specified by my blog.  It houses Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia and this helped tons when Agoda booted me from their program for not making enough sales and when Booking.com closed its affiliate program.  Stay22 has been the safety net.  It’s a MUST for  all Travel Bloggers. Sign up for their blogger referral program.

Recently, it added Amazon and YouTube. The latter is the gamechanger: their AI researches the hotels in my videos. On my Shinsekai red light video, during my neighborhood walk showing love motels, I suggested links for hotels I posted hotel rates for, talked about in passing or were in my video background.  The surprising part was I didn’t even know they had listings on Booking.com or Agoda!  Stay22 bridges the gaps so I’m not losing money.  Join now! 

Travel Payouts: Vast library of travel affiliate programs to work with housed under one roof so you can grab affiliate links from one place.  This is easier than signing up for individual programs and accessing them separately. I haven’t found as much traction with them though, because I’ve been too lazy to convert my existing links. Instead, I use them for testing smaller affiliate programs whos service I used once but don’t have enough content to make it worthwhile to sign up for the individual affiliate program.   Unlike Stay22, Travel Payouts doesn’t have an AI script that allows you to effortlessly switch your links to their program. TP requires you to use their TP affiliate codes. So if you’re on a program they partner with, you have the option to either, stay a partner with that program or switch your link to TP to work through the TP’s program. The one thing I notice many content creators use them for is their generous blogger referral program– many new creators or Instagrammers who don’t have a blog, make money simply referring bloggers to them.   Join TravelPayouts Now.

Safetywing: Every travel content creator buy travel insurance. It’s a given.  Safetywing is an economical insurance for travelers and nomads. The main advertising focus of their affiliate progam is to get fellow travel content creators to sign up for its affiliate program. Rather than promoting to travelers, they’ve made a big play for content creators. I don’t jive with their ethics. They have a good product that many bloggers swear by, but I can’t tell if the blogger actually likes.

WorldNomads Every travel blogger should have a preferred trip insurance service they use. World Nomads has been my longtime trip insurer – I’ve been with their affiliate program for a long timetoo .  However, they broked my trust twice when they switched platforms (this caused a mass exodus of bloggers who liked them). This upended all the links I placed for them and til today i’m still finding broken widgets and links that is sending them free traffic! I don’t share them as much as I did and when I do, I share them through a special plugin called pretty links, where I can replace their link when they change their platforms.

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