The Team Behind Passport and Stamps
Before we get into how Travelpayouts makes managing multiple projects effortless, let us introduce ourselves.
We are Toti and Ale, the UK travel couple behind Passport and Stamps. This project reflects our mission to explore as much of the world as possible and immerse ourselves in the culture and traditions of each place we visit. Though it’s been online less than a year, this is our flagship project, and it’s already making a full-time income for both of us.
We also believe in meaningful travel, where the purpose is to explore and elevate yourself. That’s why we created Curious Little Trips — to enhance authentic local experiences and slow travel. In recent years, we’ve found ourselves traveling and staying in places longer, becoming digital nomads without a stable home but with a backpack full of experiences.
Of course, our very first project, which got us into blogging, is Italian Trip Abroad. This blog focuses completely on destinations in Italy with insights from locals.
Why We Love Travelpayouts (And How We Use Every Feature)
Travelpayouts has many incredible features, and its team is constantly developing new ones. This is a great approach and is among the reasons we love the company so much.
We manage two of our three projects from one platform, so we don’t have to open new windows or constantly log into different platforms. Below, we go through the features we use and highlight ones that stand out to us:
All-In-One Dashboard
With multiple projects under our umbrella, juggling different providers and multiple payment streams was difficult. Just a few years ago, we spent every day checking multiple platforms, none of which had unreliable customer service. That was when we decided to switch to Travelpayouts.
On Travelpayouts, we’re able to manage each in a single dashboard. You can even pin your favorite brands to better monitor traffic, bookings, and earnings.
Customizable Travelpayouts Dashboard Filters
For each brand’s partner program, you can read stats to understand what works, what doesn’t, and what needs a quick fix. Every project is different, and we love analyzing each to maximize profit and serve our audiences better. The Travelpayouts dashboard lets you group by date range, project, devices, and customer country.
At the end of the month, we go through the stats to see whether we’re making progress.
We also use filters to monitor data for specific affiliate blog posts and see if our strategy is working.
100+ Brands to Choose From
Having over 100 brand’s partner programs on one platform is pretty awesome. When we first launched Passportandstamps.com, our audience was minimal, but our traffic grew significantly after partnering with brands via Travelpayouts.
We found a lot of success with articles such as our guide to the Bangkok–Chiang Mai sleeper train, earning through the 12Go partner program. Readers appreciated our tips on avoiding the mistakes we had made in our travels. The article has since been earning us a steady income stream from ticket sales.
The good part is that most of the brands available on Travelpayouts don’t require minimum traffic to apply. This allows you to earn from your favorite platforms, even as a newbie.
Easy-To-Use Partner Links and Widgets
Convenient Link Generation
When creating affiliate links for new blog posts, switching between the website of your affiliate brand partner and the Travelpayouts dashboard can get tiresome. But thanks to a simple Chrome extension, you can create these links without leaving the brand’s website.
All you have to do is download the app from the Chrome store, and a little icon with the Travelpayouts logo will appear in the top right of your browser. When you go to any brand’s website, a little window will appear under the site address with an already-generated affiliate link. This tool has been a game-changer when it comes to streamlining mundane (but very necessary) activities.
Shorten Links or Connect to Bit.ly
With the same Chrome extension, you can also request a shortened link or track clicks through a third party by connecting to your personal Bit.ly account. I was impressed by this feature because it demonstrates the transparency of link tracking by Travelpayouts.
If you don’t use the Chrome extension, that’s okay; you can still shorten your affiliate links on the Travelpayouts dashboard.
Customizable Widgets
Widgets are our sweet spot. Travelpayouts makes them easy to implement, and most affiliate programs offer them and allow you to customize them to your brand colors.
In our guide on Laos, we integrated contextual links to create a more meaningful and organic user experience.
Features That Make Your Job Easier
Confidently Delegate Access
Travelpayouts allows you to give various levels of access to different members of your blogging team. For example, you could grant your virtual assistant the ability to create links, but nothing else. Don’t worry: sensitive information is never released.
This special feature allows us to publish articles much faster, and we even sometimes delegate the entire process to virtual assistants or editors.
I (Toti) am very fast at writing, but very slow at editing the post in the blog CMS. I estimate that having a competent editor create the affiliate links, graphics, and widgets saved me about five hours of work on this guide to booking tickets for the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
Switch Links in One Click
Affiliate marketing is a very fluid experience. Our blog has gone through many stages, and some affiliate brands we were working with have closed their programs or moved to other platforms. We were afraid this would make us lose part of our affiliate revenue, but then we discovered LinkSwitcher, which lets us automatically switch links from other affiliate platforms such as СJ, AWIN, and Partnerize. Just like that, our revenue stream was saved.
LinkSwitcher also helps you replace broken links automatically. It works behind the scenes with a lightweight script that does the heavy lifting for you — all without harming SEO. If you don’t want the hassle of creating specific links, you can link directly to the page you want to promote, and the LinkSwitcher script will automatically convert it into an affiliate link through Travelpayouts.
Please note: As of October 2024, searching for broken links is not available in Travelpayouts’ LinkSwitcher. However, you can still use this tool to replace links on your site with affiliate links. Read about how it works in our article.
Payment Is Always on Time
In the more than two years we’ve been with Travelpayouts, we’ve never had to chase down a payment. Other companies we’ve worked with were difficult when it came to payment deadlines, minimum payouts, and payment methods. Travelpayouts, on the other hand, has always been reliable in this respect.
How We Optimized a New Travel Blog to Maximize Affiliate Income From Day One
Setting up a new blog can be challenging, but you can easily outsource some tasks, like thinking of a name, branding, hosting, and design.. However, when it comes to affiliates, you should be hands-on and pick the ones that fit your brand, values, and content. Here are seven handy tips to put on the right track:
- Set up a new Project on Travelpayouts (or create a new account)
- Install the LinkSwitcher script
- Apply for the best programs
- Create specific subIDs for the campaign (this helps you track earnings better)
- Create Delegate Access for your virtual assistant, editor, or any other member of your team
- Download the Chrome app for deep links
- Integrate widgets within your content.
Do all this, and you can focus on your amazing journeys rather than the difficulties of affiliate blogging!