How Do I Monetize an Asian Destination Guide Site?

[old_expat]

Hello, newbie alert!

If I'm in the wrong place with this, maybe one of you guys can slap me around a bit and point me in the right direction.

Basically, I'm trying to figure a direction in which to proceed.

I have a travel site, guide sort of thing for an Asian destination. Pretty much a niche market. Lots of content at 200+ pages (and still growing). Some of it rather unique, some is boiler plate.

The traffic ain't great ... with the war, SARS, Googles dementia, etc. I'm getting a bit over 30,000 page view per month (was up to 50,000).

My intent was/is to create that good old mouse trap and then think about income. So I'm trying to decide whether to attempt to get advertising or to get involved with affiliate arrangements.

I've done just a bit of looking but I know there are sharks all around. Some of the potential affiliate arrangements are apparent, travel related, gear related, etc.

I know the questions I have posed are far too general, but I'm not yet smart enough to ask the right ones.

So I'm wondering if some kind soul can give the old geezer a tip or so?

[mfishy]

With that type of traffic, the income potential with affiliate programs is far greater.

Mix in affiliate text links with good content. Write copy that sells. Make sure the visitor has every opportunity and is gently nudged into leaving your site via the affiliate links.

I have no experience in the travel area but plenty here can help you with affiliate program reccomendations.

[gopi]

Mix travel affiliate links within the content and also you can try Google Adsense

[jamie]

old_expat

hotels, hotels, hotels and more hotels...

if you are lucky enough to run a niche site and know the area well, then instead of looking at affiliate links, which at the end of the day will give someone else the biggest bite out of your cake, why not put some time into developing your own hotel reservaton site, based around the content which you already have, with a view to generating sales commissions.

if you live there (i presume so with that name ;-) and know the area well, you can be selective with your choice of hotels, as opposed to having to deal with all the hotels the affiliate lumps you with. this always sells well - "we have personally selected all hotels in our site, we work together with the hotels on the ground, etc, etc..."

furthermore you can give the hotels the type of service which a global HRS (hotel reservation system) can never do.

it will be far more work to start with:

1) sell the idea to the hotels
2) make hotel websites
3) outsource the technology to enable online reservations (will cost you a % commission of every sale)
4) maintain good relations with the hotels

but because of your niche market, you are in a far stronger position than anyone else to capitalise on it.

more long term than short term ;-) but could be worth a pop!

good luck!

p.s. if you are serious about it, get a good designer and an ex-hotel manager in the team

[old_expat]

Hello again guys,

Thank you very much for the thoughtful comments.

My biggest question, I guess ... is can I trust the principles, especially hotel sites in Asia, as an example, to report referrals and pay commissions accurately?

Does anyone have any positive recommendations on Asian destination hotel affiliates?

Jamie, thanks for your detailed recommendations. It sounds great for someone with more energy and financial resources. I'm a one-man show and have 3 sites.

I'm also in Thailand, where a brick and mortar store, plus VAT registration, etc, etc is required to have a merchant account. PayPal won't deal in Thailand.

If I go with affiliates I'm thinking of hotels, sports equipment (relates to content), luggage, can't find anyone with cameras, travel insurance ...

[DavidT]

If you haven't done so already look at the Bali travel sites. They are actually huge networks, interlinked, some of them just asking for some sort of Google penalty. But most are very successful I think, or at least were before the recent problems in Bali and Asia.

Note how they tie Bali travel into Bali products, how most of them are tied in with a furniture/handicraft manufacturer.

Plenty of food for thought looking at them, both what to do and what not to do.

[labinski]

Hi:

Don't forget also - you can join as an affiliate with amazon.jp

If Asia is your target market, consider selling travel books.

Good luck
Steve

[subject99]

Old Expat,
Go for Hotels.
Allthough the roomrates are low, compared with European/American cities, you will see huge commissions by visitors who book 1-3 week vacations.
Be aware there is at least one huge hotel affiliate progam scam out in Asia.
( unsure if i can name the city or even country from where this company is operating..... TOS....)
You can go for the more trustworthy larger USA based affiliate programs, but they have a very poor coverage of Asian Hotels. The local based companies are far better in coverage as well as prices of roomrates.
I work with 4-5 timely paying local based companies, all have there own "special" coverage of 1 or more countries.
just me 2 cents.......
Pete

[old_expat]

Hello subject 99,

First, thanks very much for taking the time to reply. Second, thanks for confirming what I suspected (having lived in TL since '96.)

"Be aware there is at least one huge hotel affiliate progam scam out in Asia.
( unsure if i can name the city or even country from where this company is operating..... TOS....)"

There are the kinds of affiliates I'm trying to avoid getting involved with.

See your stickymail for more.