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June 2007
Supplement to Travel Trade

I really didn’t know what to expect doing my seminar on “Turn Your Web into a Virtual Money Machine” at Travel Trade’s 25th annual CRUISE-A-THON in Seattle.
I had written a somewhat ominous description of the seminar to discourage those only casually interested in the Web from attending with the hope that I would get a small group of people who would be interested in hearing about the opportunities that travel affiliate marketing offers them. The topic requires some basic understanding of the Web and I wanted to avoid those who did not have it.
Boy, was I surprised with what I experienced. People started pouring into the seminar after the general session finished. I queried the agents in the room as to their level of involvement with the Web, affiliate marketing and contextual advertising publisher programs — and much to my surprise, there were a number who were highly evolved.
One woman sitting in the front row (I wish I had gotten her name) was operating 22 different Web sites and had acquired over 100 URLs.
She was a travel agent who was supplementing her commission income with advertising and affiliate revenues. While she didn’t share the numbers, she was clearly doing quite well. There were several other travel agents exploring the travel affiliate opportunity.
All in all, it was very exciting. What was of most interest was the penetration that travel affiliates had made in the agent side of the industry. I well remember times during past decades when I would ask, “How many have an E-mail address?” or “How many have a Web site?” I was always shocked at the answers from the group. I­t seemed that the trend was slow to start and then gained momentum.
It was obvious to me that travel affiliate marketing was yet to be embraced by the majority of travel agents as a viable addition to their revenue stream. So, I thought I would take my opportunity to “talk” to the industry in this article as a way to expand everyone’s sphere of opportunities.
For the next few months, I am going to focus on the realities of travel affiliate marketing and the revenue streams that they can create. Before I go much further, I will share that this information comes from hard-learned experience and that it is based on my personal achievements and is not meant to be the Holy Grail for travel affiliate marketing — only what has worked for me in the past.
Get Involved Now! Just like when travel agencies automated with CRS, or when storefronts moved to Home Based, the travel affiliate paradigm is just now starting to evolve in accelerating numbers. You cannot afford to ignore the wonderful profit opportunities that travel affiliate marketing presents you. While travel agents possess the core skill set to exploit the paradigm, some new skills are required to succeed. Here is what you should do.
Start Building Your Own Web Sites: Once the idea of building your own Web site was daunting, but now anyone with a personal computer can build sophisticated sites loaded with rich content. The only thing standing between you and a new major revenue stream is your ability to create and publish Web sites. Purchase a HTML editor (such as Expression Web, DreamWeaver or even an old copy of FrontPage 2003) and get going now. There are “Dummies” books for each HTML editor and you will be surprised at how easy they are to learn. Set aside an hour a day to focus on learning to build sites and within days you will have developed your ability to create keyword driven Web sites.
Start Acquiring Keyword Domain Names: Keywords are at the very center of affiliate marketing and the more keyword domain names that you can acquire and subsequently publish to, the more money you will make. Fortunately, keyword domain names are readily available for registering. To find a domain name registrar, simply enter “Domain Name Registrars” in Google and pick the one you like the best. Many agents swear by www.GoDaddy.com. Their normal registration fee is only $8.95 per domain name, per year and they offer many other services, as well.
Start Generating Content: Keyword oriented content is the name of the game. Start writing articles, reviews, opinions and any other kind of content that you can use on your site(s). Check your old client files for presentations that could be modified into Web content and start accumulating articles from the free article Web sites for use on your site(s). You can also use one of the article bots to create many keyword-generated articles. Consider adding a community discussion, chat or project site to your content and then mine the content that accumulates in the threads, rooms and project to build searchable archives.
There is no question that travel affiliate revenues will become a good part of your future revenue flow. Don’t be the last one to jump on the bandwagon at the tail end of this paradigm. Act now and dramatically increase your profitability.

For more information, visit www.HomeBasedTravelAffiliate.com or
www.TravelAffiliateResourceCenter.com.