The travel niche offers many affiliate marketing opportunities because there is so much terrain to cover. For example, a travel content creator can discuss her experiences, tips, hacks, things to do, places to visit, dining, nightlife, tours, reviews, travel reward cards, and more.

Millions travel annually for pleasure and business, making the travel and tourism industry lucrative. However, margins are tiny for many travel products and services, negatively impacting what advertisers can pay affiliates, amounting to commission rates in the single or low double digits. Still, many travel items sell for high-ticket prices like airfare, tours, and luggage, meaning travel affiliates can earn sizable incomes.

The direct affiliate marketing approach aims to promote products and services in posts. For example, you create a Facebook post about a book that you read and include an affiliate link from Amazon.com. A user who clicks on the link will go straight to Amazon. By contrast, the indirect approach aims to direct traffic to a site where affiliate links are present. For instance, you post your blog about the best marketing tools. That post contains affiliate links.

I use direct and indirect methods as they’re both useful. I typically use direct ways to promote free items, trials, and pay per lead programs because they’re low resistance and high-converting. I direct traffic to my blog when I want to influence, persuade, and provide commentary and insights.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, perhaps you caught wind of the hype surrounding high-ticket affiliate programs. “High-ticket” refers to products and services that cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. For example, some online training programs cost more than $1,000, while some auctions on eBay run into the tens of thousands. We’ll review the best high-ticket affiliate programs for beginners and experienced marketers in this post.

The standard way to make money as an affiliate marketer is through sales commissions. For instance, I promote various WordPress plugins on my site. A click on one of my affiliate links, followed by a sale, will result in a commission for me. Successful affiliate marketers who earn four and five-figures monthly rely on sales commissions. However, money can be made elsewhere and with more ease through pay-per-lead (PPL) affiliate programs.

A pay-per-lead affiliate program is a type of cost-per-action (CPA) program that compensates an affiliate for getting prospects. It’s also known as cost-per-lead (CPL) and pay per action (PPA).