How to make money from travel without being an influencer

Every time I come home from a trip, I tell myself I’m going to stay put for a while and save some money.

Then I see a cheap flight, discover a place I’ve never heard of, and decide that yes, this is an emergency and I absolutely need to go right now.

The problem is, no matter how much I cheapskate my way through a trip, there’s no escaping the fact that travel costs money.

Even those $1 instant noodles and local bus fares are going to add up at some point.

So over the years, I’ve found different ways to make my travels a little more financially sustainable.

One of those ways is through affiliate marketing with Travelpayouts.

And no, you don’t have to quit your 9-to-5, become a professional influencer, or suddenly make online business your entire personality.

It started because I simply loved writing (and oversharing)

I was already dabbling in blogging before Blogspot was even a twinkle in its creators’ eyes.

I tinkered with some of its prehistoric predecessors, back when the internet was still wearing dial-up, and having a blog was more about keeping an online journal than running a business.

I did it simply because I enjoyed writing. I was also a chronic oversharer.

Then, when I started traveling, I began documenting where I’d been, sharing the things I’d discovered, and telling people about the (mostly self-inflicted) disasters that happened to me on the road.

How that changed

While my propensity for oversharing is still the main reason I blog today, my approach has changed somewhere along the way.

Instead of only writing about where I went and what I experienced, I recently started paying more attention to how it could actually help someone else.

Let’s say I’m writing about a hostel in China.

Someone reading the article is probably not there purely for my riveting description of the carpet that reminded me of my nanny’s home.

They’re likely planning their own trip and wondering whether the hostel is actually worth booking.

So, instead of just throwing random snippets of my musings onto the internet, I’d write more about what that place was really like — the good, the bad, and the ugly,

Similarly, if I took a tour, I’d talk about whether it was actually worth the money or just a bus ride, a rushed lunch, and a guide yelling, “Five minutes!” at every stop.

If I figured out how to get somewhere without spending a fortune, I’d share the route.

If I made a stupid mistake so someone else didn’t have to, even better.

In short, my travels became my research, and my blog became a place where other travelers could use that research to plan their own adventures.

Turning travel experiences into $$$

This is where affiliate marketing started to make sense to me.

I first came across it while I was looking for ways to make money so I could travel more (which is probably what you’re doing right now too 😄).

In simple terms, affiliate marketing means recommending a product or service using a special link.

This could be anything from hotels and tours to travel insurance, rental cars, airport transfers, and more.

If someone then makes a purchase or booking through your link, you earn a small commission.

It’s important to note that the reader doesn’t pay anything extra for using your link.

It’s the travel company that shares part of the revenue with the person who referred the customer.

And what surprised me most was finding out that some travel bloggers were making a pretty impressive amount every month from it.

We’re not talking about some pocket change to buy an extra fridge magnet at the airport.

We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars.

Granted, many of these were big, established content creators with huge audiences.

But I figured, why not give it a try?

I was already posting a lot of pictures and writing about the hotels I stayed at, tours I joined, and other travel services I used anyway.

If someone was reading my hotel review and decided to book the same place because of my recommendation, I might as well earn something from helping them find it.

And that was really how I got started.

I wasn’t a professional blogger already building an elaborate online business.

I simply found a way to make the content I was already creating work a little harder for me, while helping fund the next adventure.

At best, everybody wins. The traveler finds something useful, the travel company gets a customer, and I make a little money that can eventually go toward my next trip!

So where does Travelpayouts come in?

Travelpayouts is essentially a platform that brings travel affiliate programs together in one place.

Instead of having to hunt down individual affiliate programs for different travel services, you can access programs from multiple travel brands through the platform.

Its currently lists more than 90 travel brands across categories such as flights, hotels, tours and activities.

For someone like me, who writes about a pretty wide range of destinations and travel experiences (and who’s also scatterbrained), that is super handy.

My content isn’t about one particular destination or one particular type of travel.

Plus, I don’t have to sign up to multiple affiliate programs and memorize multiple passwords.

You don’t have to be an influencer

This is probably the part I want to emphasize most.

When people hear “affiliate marketing,” they often immediately think:

“Oh, that’s something only serious content creators or influencers do.”

Of course, having a blog or social media helps.

The more people who see your recommendations, the more opportunities there are for someone to actually book something.

But the underlying idea is much simpler.

If you regularly post, write, or even talk about your travels to people, and they often ask you for your itinerary and recommendations, there may be opportunities to earn from that.

It doesn’t matter if you have a travel website, a YouTube channel, social media, or even just a Whatsapp group with your friends and family members.

You don’t need to be some gigantic travel influencer with millions of followers.

As long as you have people who trust your recommendations.

And this could be your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, dentist, psychiatrist… basically anyone who has ever asked you, “Hey, what was that hotel you stayed at in Bangkok?”

That’s something I’ve learned from years of travel blogging: trust is far more valuable than follower count.

Earn from your own bookings

Some programs on Travelpayouts also allow you to earn a commission on your own bookings.

So if you’re already a frequent traveler, or you’re that designated “travel agent” in your family, friend group, or office, who everyone sends their passport details to, you can actually turn those bookings into a little extra income without having to promote anything to anyone.

It’s basically like getting cashback on all the travel you book. And may I say, a well-deserved reward for your underappreciated and most probably unpaid services. 😂

Let’s be realistic

Now, let’s take a step back.

Affiliate income isn’t going to magically make travel free.

There are still flights to pay for. Hotels. Food. Visas. Transportation. Entrance fees.

And the occasional stupid decision that seemed like a good idea at the time.

It’s not an entirely passive income where you make millions while doing absolutely nothing.

There’s still work involved.

As mentioned earlier, although I’ve been blogging for years, I’ve only recently started getting serious about creating genuinely useful content for my readers and actually earning from it.

I’m nowhere near the mega influencers who inspired me to get into affiliate marketing.

Plus, I get to help someone create their own adventures, which is really one of my main motivations for blogging in the first place.

And personally, I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.