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recruiting
Joined: Jun 03, 2004
# Posts: 3
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Posted: 2004-Jun-03 10:18
I am VERY new to this type of E-business. I have just signed up with IAN.COM and I have found them to be very crude when it comes to user interface web templates and customer (AFFILIATE) service. I have a great business plan for my "soon to be" travel domain(s) but I can't get a site going with them? Any advise on how or where to get a IAN.com affiliate FUNCTIONAL website that I can edit myself? Or can I only use their template. I understand I can not edit the search functions but the header, background, placing banners and basically maintaing it is something I need to do, besides their templates really look poor...
Any advise for a new guy in this business...
Thx,
Bill
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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2004-Jun-03 16:27
Welcome to the forums, recruiting.
I don't know anything about the ian.com affiliate program or how their technical setup is, so I cannot help you there. I guess you'll just have to rely on their support (or lack of it). If you're not getting help from them, then you might try calling them on the phone to see if they will help. After all, as an affiliate you're helping them get more revenue, and they should be bending over backwards to help you.
This is why some affiliate programs fail and some do very well. The merchants need to realize that the affiliate is there to bring them more business and market their products--in ways that the merchant might not be able or willing to do.
As for your particular situation, spend more time building your travel sites and don't build them around one particular company or affiliate program. If you have a great travel site then there will be ways to monetize it later. And the advertisers will come to you.
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recruiting
Joined: Jun 03, 2004
# Posts: 3
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Posted: 2004-Jun-03 21:28
Thanks for the warm welcome. IAN.COM (aka Hotels.com) is one if not the biggest reseller of travel (so they say) If there was another option/company for selling travel I would really want to look at it.
Do you know of any OTHER travel companies out there doing what they do? Support comes in slow site changes, email to email, if and when they don't get my vision/ideas right (which is 99% of the time)It really ticks me off because this justs wastes my time. A site change that could have taken me a minute now taks 3 days of emails...
Thanks again,
Bill
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cabbagehead
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 532
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Posted: 2004-Jun-22 09:30
yes, there are definitely others but honostly, IAN is the best out there at the moment in my opinion. Its a little suprising given some of their UI shortcomings ... but true. Perhaps their closest rival is WCT (World Choice Travel) who was recently aquired by TravelOCity.com. And of course there is Lodging.com as well. All 3 of these provide XML APIs so if your primary concern is a crude UI, consider the XML option and retain complete control over your UI.
Cheers.
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recruiting
Joined: Jun 03, 2004
# Posts: 3
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Posted: 2004-Jun-22 19:38
Thanks for the good info. I really hate their website choices/designs, so plain! I wish there were a better way for intergration into a half-way decent website design.
I have been looking on EBAY for a good one but 99% of them look the same, I kind of want to stand out. Many auto part websites use the same affiliate company and you can tell when you visit them, and do a search I don't really like that too much.I just want to look a little different...
Thx,
Bill
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bhartzer
Staff
Joined: Jun 08, 2000
# Posts: 7042
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Posted: 2004-Jun-22 19:50
There are a few others that you might look at, including the OneTravel Partner Program and WCTRavel.
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gamiziuk
Joined: Aug 23, 2000
# Posts: 630
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Posted: 2004-Aug-31 00:15
I just signed up for a new one, named Viator (viator.com). Does anyone have previous experience with them?
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Catalyst
Joined: Oct 24, 2001
# Posts: 130
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Posted: 2004-Sep-05 17:06
Ian.com is one of the top travel affiliates out there. I know their manager and they typically offer very good support.
Remember on your travel sites to offer other travel related programs to help increase your site revenue. Travel insurance and luggage are good add-ons to carry. LuggageOnline.com is one of our clients. Write a little text ad like "Travel in Style, with brand name luggage at guaranteed lowest prices!" or "Ready for your trip? Got luggage?" Then add a link and some discount coupons.
If you are creative what would work really well on travel sites is a little text bank of ads, on the side similar to Adsense ads. One for computer cases, one for wheeled carry-ons, one for luggage insurance, etc.
Happy travel sales!
Linda
[ Message was edited by: Catalyst 09/06/2004 08:58 am ]
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resideorob
Joined: Apr 09, 2007
# Posts: 2
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Posted: 2007-Apr-09 17:38
Sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I'd like to hear from the original poster & contributors -- were you able to get your IAN.com affiliate program up and running? Is it still running?
I've been looking for some online user groups focused on IAN affiliate programs, but haven't found anything (I've started my own).
Thanks!
[ Message was edited by: bhartzer 04/10/2007 06:53 am ]
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georgew
Joined: Apr 26, 2007
# Posts: 7
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Posted: 2007-Apr-26 20:11
I have been a WCTravel.com affiliate since January 2005.
I own a city dot com site for a popular medium sized southern city.
My revenues from WCT have been predictable, following the general trends of people visiting my city.
I earn around $400 per month average...
That is untill March of 2007, when they launched a "much improved" travel portal site.
Since the new site launched, we see only 25% of the traffic we used to, and only 20% of the revenue. Tech support tried to tell me that my links were less than optimal (they had not changed). The partner reps tell me that they count hits different now... without offering an explanation of how/why that impacted my revenue.
Before the change, WCT was an outstanding program, offereing a pre-built travel portal as an option to the XML build-it-yourself version.
I am reviewing other options now, but I am not impressed with what I am finding.
If WCT repairs their portal in a reasonable amount of time, I will post the results. However untill it is repaired, I must give World Choice Travel the lowest possible rating.
George
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georgew
Joined: Apr 26, 2007
# Posts: 7
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Posted: 2007-May-03 16:17
Oh, here is an interesting side-note on the WCT changes.
All of their changes were designed to improve SEO.
By focusing on improved SEO, they reduced sales by 75%.
For all of your SEO experts out there, this is a warning...
Customer experience must come first, SEO second. If you put SEO first, you will never get the results you are looking for. Don't ruin your web site with SEO.
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