Expedia Affiliate Program Review: Is It Worth It?

Expedia is a top travel site for people to book their vacations, and you’re more than welcome to make a profit from it.

If you have a travel website with a good-sized audience, then you’ll love what’s in store.

The Expedia affiliate program allows you to match your readers with their dream destinations for a commission.

Joining the Expedia affiliate program is worth it because it allows you to recommend flights and hotels to your viewers. You can sign up and get your site approved in less than a week, allowing you to promote ads in the form of text links and banners. The commission rate is currently 2% to 6%.

Throughout this article, you’ll learn the following info about Expedia’s affiliate program:

Pros and cons that you should know before signing up
Whether or not it’s a good partnership for your website
How you can make the most out of the affiliate program

What Are the Perks of the Expedia Affiliate Program?

The Expedia affiliate program is one of the best choices in the industry. With an easy sign-up process that gets most people approved, you’ll be able to start making money right away.

There are countless benefits of joining the membership, so let’s cover everything you need to know.

Here are five top-notch reasons that you should consider joining Expedia’s affiliate membership:

According to Blogging Lizard, Expedia offers a varying commission rate that grows. It starts at 2%, which isn’t bad considering people often book through Expedia. Imagine having hundreds or thousands of people clicking your links and earning you a commission. Eventually, it rises to 6% after enough sales are reached.
You can insert banners and links anywhere on your website with their simple integration system. You don’t have to worry about coding or interesting, difficult links. Everything fits seamlessly into your website without developing the flow or requiring high-end technical knowledge.
There are over 250,000 bookable locations and adventures for your readers. Since you’re likely earning viewers from all over the world in the travel niche, you’ll need to have enough places to keep them entertained. There’s nothing wrong with having over a quarter of one million amenities!
It’s one of the most trusted travel booking programs in the world. People are much more likely to click a link and follow through with an order from a company they trust. If you’re linking to an unknown website, they might be less comfortable uploading personal details, including bank account information.
They sell billions of dollars worth of travel amenities annually. If you’re looking for results, the company published that they sold over $30 billion in one year. You could have a piece of the income if you’re able to get approved and upload advertisements to your website.

As you can see, there are more than enough reasons to think about joining Expedia’s affiliate membership.

Whether you’re in it to make money on the side or help your viewers link up with the best deals, it’s an excellent tool to have at your disposal.

In the next section, you’ll learn all about a handful of issues that you might run into when you’re partaking in the program.

What Are the Downsides?

As with all affiliate programs, you’ll encounter a few hiccups dealing with Expedia. It’s one of the best programs, but that doesn’t mean that it’s flawless.

Fortunately, none of them are deal-breakers for most potential affiliate partners.

Let’s review a handful of issues of the Expedia program below.

Car Transactions Over $5,000 Don’t Give You a Commission

One of the many programs of Expedia is a car selling and renting service.

You can make quite a bit of money on this portion of the partnership, but you won’t be earning commissions on automobile sales over $5,000.

Expedia hasn’t disclosed information about why they remove this option, but it’s a rule nonetheless.

You Won’t Benefit From Pre-Packages Bookings

Niche Facts shows us that premade vacation packages aren’t part of the program.

There are quite a few packages, but as long as you stay away from them, you won’t have to deal with any trouble.

Unfortunately, they slip through the cracks sometimes. If you sell a package, it’ll go away and put a negative mark on your account.

The Travel Industry Is As Tough as It Gets

Although it’s not Expedia’s fault, the travel niche is the toughest niche you’ll have to deal with. Millions of websites, blogs, and businesses are involved in travel, so it’s important that you know how to create a good development strategy.

You’ll need a certain amount of traffic to your site to get approved for the partnership.

Expedia’s pros outweigh the cons of the affiliate program.

Stick to the parameters, and you’ll have a great time to advertise high-quality vacations and make a good income from it.

If this process sounds like something you want to get involved with, proceed to the next section.

How to Sign Up for the Expedia Affiliate Membership

If you’re ready to start your partnership with Expedia, you’re in the right place.

The prerequisites include the need to have an established website with decent traffic, bank account info for your business, and access to the interface of your website.

Follow this step-by-step guide to sign up for Expedia’s affiliate program:

Apply to Conversant through Expedia’s affiliate page. Conversant covers a variety of affiliate programs, so you’ll be able to apply for plenty of others if you get approved by the company. Furthermore, it’s not too difficult to get approved because they only require that you have identification.
Once you’re approved by Conversant, it’s time to apply to Expedia’s program. It might seem tedious to have to apply to two programs rather than one, but it’s designed to weed out bots and scammers. Getting approved by Expedia requires the aforementioned details from the start of this section.
Test a few codes before you fill your site with them. Even if you get approved, you shouldn’t cover your website with too many codes. It’s a good idea to wait it out and run a couple of trial banners and links for a couple of weeks. You’ll be able to analyze the results and make adjustments accordingly.
Load up your site with more ads and keep it running smoothly. This process will remain an important step for the rest of your partnership with Expedia. You’ll always have to figure out what banners work, how you should place text links, and so on. It’s an ever-changing program.

Signing up and working with Expedia will allow your website to thrive and provide supplemental income. Some case studies produced a few hundred dollars, whereas others have been enough to replace a full-time income.

However, some people feel that a couple of dollars here and there isn’t worth their time.

What do you think? Learn more below.

Is It Worth Your Time?

Affiliate programs can be found pretty much anywhere these days. They’re not as rare as they used to be.

Since Expedia is one of many travel companies on the market, it’s easy to understand why it might not be worth it for some people.

That being said, most partners end up enjoying the deal.

Have You Been Around the World?

If you’re not well-traveled and you don’t know much about the destinations that you’re recommending, then you’ll find it difficult to make any money.

People want to know that you’ve experienced the vacations that you’re suggesting, and it’s very obvious if you’ve never been there. Those who’ve seen it all will thrive in the program.

Are You Dealing With a Lot of Viewers?

If you have a lot of people coming back to check your suggestions, then you’ll be able to make a decent income.

On the other hand, if you have a small collection of loyal fans, you probably won’t be quitting your day job any time soon.

Try to have a few thousand visitors every month before you apply to the Expedia affiliate program.

Do You Know How Affiliate Programs Work?

If you’re not familiar with affiliate networks, you might struggle. That being said, don’t let it deter you from giving it a shot.

Expedia uses a user-friendly interface so you’ll be able to get into the swing of things in due time.

If you’re an experienced affiliate marketer, then you’ll be able to handle this program like a breeze.

Most people who join the Expedia affiliate program agree that it’s a worthwhile experience.

You’ll learn all about the industry (if you don’t already know it enough), and you’ll be able to connect people to fun vacations and make money doing it! What’s not to love?

How Can You Make More Commissions?

If you’re worried about the 2% commission rate, then you’re not alone. Other services offer higher rates, but there are many reasons that people choose Expedia over the competition.

You’ll learn more about other affiliate programs in the travel niche in the next section.

For now, let’s find out how you can get more money in your wallet.

Try these tips and tricks to get more commissions from Expedia:

If you sell enough, you’ll be able to gradually increase your commission to 6%. It might seem a bit low still, but you’d be shocked by how much 6% can get you from hundreds of sales. For this reason, you can already assume that you need quite a few people clicking on your links.
Speaking of which, you can make more sales from existing traffic by placing the banners properly. Keep your banners out of the way of the article, so people don’t get annoyed. The last thing you want is to lose credibility by placing ads all over the place and looking far too spammy.
Expedia suggests that you diversify your ads by linking to hotels, stores, and other amenities. Try not to stick to only hotels or flights. You’ll end up wasting your time focusing intently on one subject and miss out on extra income. Expedia lets you advertise anything related to the travel industry.
Follow local attractions and current trends. It’s a good idea to know what people are searching for. There are countless research tools that will show you what locations are popular so you can create articles and ads about them. You can keep a banner on the bottom of the page or the right side of each article.
Create posts that show people how they can get to a place, book hotels, have fun, and get back home. Itinerary posts are a top-seller in the travel business, so you’ll have good success if you do it right. They all you to incorporate links for every part of the journey. Make sure you don’t overdo it with too many links, though.

There are many ways to increase your Expedia income. You don’t need to be an expert marketer to have a good time with the program.

In fact, it’s a fantastic entry program to help you know the in’s and out’s of affiliating yourself with companies in the travel industry.

Are There Competitors?

Traveling is a hot industry throughout the year, even when the economy is low.

With dozens of companies at the top of the booking charts, you’d imagine that they’d all have affiliate programs.

While some of them seem to be lacking, others offer competitive rates that might make you reconsider your partnership with Expedia.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is debatably the best company to join their affiliate program.

They offer high commission rates between 3% to 5%, and they also add 50% of their cut.

While these portions are generous, it’s not very easy to get approved for their membership.

You’ll have a hard time working with TripAdvisor if you don’t have a sizable source of traffic.

Priceline

Priceline is also a great company to try out. Their program offers similar commission rates as Expedia, but they usually focus on hotels.

However, many experts recommend that you try to work with a couple of programs to make your readers know about a variety of places.

You probably know Priceline from their internet ads.

Booking

Much like Priceline, Booking is known from its ads on the internet and TV. They let you book hotels, flights, and more. Again, their hotels are the most common part of their advertising.

Join their affiliate program to start making recommendations to your readers. Booking’s affiliate program isn’t too hard to get approved for.

These are just a handful of affiliate programs that you could join. You might also consider Agoda, CruiseDirect, Hotels Combined, and other offers.

Make sure that you’re comfortable writing about these topics since some of them are far too specific to wing it.

You know almost everything about Expedia’s program from this review, but you might run into a few problems along the way.

Fortunately, we’ve got you covered in the final section, so you don’t have to start asking questions right when you join.

Tips and Tricks for Expedia’s Affiliate Program

Expedia’s program is fairly straightforward.

Even those who haven’t spent much time developing an online business will be able to work through the interface and get their website monetized with ads and banners.

That being said, it’s reasonable to assume that you might have a handful of concerns before you request to join.

Here’s a list of suggestions to make Expedia’s affiliate program infinitely easier:

Never spam links all over your website. The last thing readers want is to be bombarded with thousands of pop-up ads from Expedia. You should learn how to integrate them with the rest of your site. Furthermore, banners should be few and far between to make them stand out on the side panel and bottom.
Get your website up and running before you apply to the program. Most companies don’t want to accept people who’ve just recently started their website. New bloggers aren’t the most trustworthy source, so it’s important that Expedia maintains its online trust for all of their potential customers.
Cover all parts of the vacation that you’re talking about. Never rely on one type of package. Vacations are all about having a good time, but many people find themselves in situations that they’ve never experienced. If you’re able to simplify it and cover everything they need to know, they’re more likely to book the vacation.

Check Out A Completely Free Affiliate Marketing Training

Conclusion

Expedia offers some of the best rates and the easiest way for people in the travel niche to get involved with affiliate marketing.

You’ll be able to connect readers with the best deals on the internet while making a reliable, long-term income to supplement the site.

Here’s a quick rundown of the post:

Expedia’s affiliate commission starts at 2% and goes to 6%.
It’s worth your time if you have reliable traffic from your website.
The acceptance rate is significantly better than other affiliate programs.
Other optional programs include TripAdvisor, Priceline, and Booking.
Run the website with a few ads to test their placement and conversion before you load it up.