Expedia doesn’t own any hotel, airline, car rental company or cruise ship, and yet they made over $12B in revenue in 2019!
How does Expedia make money?
This should be the first question you should ask your self in case that you are willing to make money online.
And most important, can you make money with the same business model of Expedia.com?
If yes, then how and where to start from.
And if no, then what should you do instead?
These questions and more I will be answering in this short article, and in five minutes from now, you will know how you can start, just as I did, your own business that makes you money like Expedia website and app make money to their owners.
So, without further ado, let’s start!
How Does Expedia Make Money?
Expedia makes money with affiliate marketing, aka referral marketing, which means that they get paid from hotels, airlines, cruise trips companies and car rental companies for every client who books a service at these companies from Expedia’s website and app.
And this is a great way of making money with services that you don’t own or provide yourself, and it is a completely legit way of making money online.
And this model is similar to how Vrbo makes money, and how Priceline makes money as well, but each company offers some unique services, packages, or stays sometimes.
And now to the most important question:
Can You Make Money with The Expedia Business Model?
Yes!
Expedia’s business model, affiliate marketing, is a great way of making money online and many people generate their income with it, including myself.
The nice thing with this model is that, like Expedia, you don’t have to own a product or provide a service by yourself, but you can leverage others’ products and services and market them for a commission and on every sale that you bring.
And the more sales you bring, the higher your income goes.
And you don’t have to start as big as Expedia or spend money on branding at the beginning.
You can start an affiliate marketing business at any scale you want.
And better, you don’t have to promote hotels and airlines in order to make money with this model, you can make money in any industry or niche.
For example, I personally make money with Expedia’s business model in the basketball niche, where I promote a training course that helps players learn how to jump higher for dunks, and I get paid for every customer that I bring.
And of course, you can make money with this model in the travel, tourism and leisure industry by promoting hotels, airlines, rental car companies and cruising trips like Expedia website and app.
Can You Make Money with Expedia itself?
Sure!
Expedia offers something that is called an affiliate program that you can join in order to make money with them.
And when you join Expedia’s affiliate program, you get a unique link and banners that you can add to your website in order to promote services that are listed on Expedia, and when someone clicks on them and goes to Expedia.com to book anything, you get a commission.
And this commission would be anywhere from 2-6% depending on the service, the company, the location, the duration of the booking, the season, ….etc.
And if you liked the way how Expedia.com makes money, and you are willing to make money with the same method, buy you don’t know what you should do, then the next section is for you.
Start Your Own Mini-Expedia Business in 3 Steps
1 – Choose a Group of People to Help (Niche)
This is a crucial step as you need to understand the people to whom you are going to promote products and services in order to be able to find the best deals for them and make money through the process.
For example, your audience (niche) could be people looking to lose weight while eating delicious food, and you would recommend to them a Mediterranean diet plan for example, or you would recommend certain recipes for delicious meals that are healthy and help lose weight.
Or maybe your niche is about traveling to Goa, India. You need to get people the best deals on flights, hotels or rental villas, rental cars, ….etc.
You need to focus on a specific group in order to make money with Expedia’s model, just like Expedia.com focused on people looking to travel or go on a vacation.
2 – Create a Simple Website Like Expedia.com
This part doesn’t require any technical experience or coding.
I personally have created many affiliate websites without caring about the technical stuff thanks to the tools I will tell you about in the following section below.
But you need to have your own website in order to make money with the same model of Expedia.com.
Your website allows you to gather your audience and show them the relevant promotions you found so that they buy them.
3 – Start Answering Your Audience’s Questions
Expedia helps people find the best deals on hotels, cruise trips, rental cars and flights, and that’s why people book these services through Expedia’s website and app, which allows Expedia to make money.
Imagine, if Expedia was to offer higher than the average rates, would anyone use it to book any service? Of course not. And then they would never make money.
And that’s your role as an affiliate marketer if you want to make money like Expedia does.
Let’s say that you have a website about the Indian city, Goa.
You would find questions that people ask on Google and answer them, such as:
- Best yoga retreats in Goa
- Best yoga schools in Goa
- Best beaches in Goa
- Best hotels in Goa
- Best beach resorts in Goa
And so on.
And for each question of these, you write a list of the best options out there and link to it through a unique link (affiliate link), and when someone clicks on that option and goes to book the service or the property you recommended, you get a commission.
That’s how you make money with Expedia’s business model.
And you can even make it easier for yourself by joining Expedia’s affiliate program and start linking to services listed on their website, and when someone clicks on those links and goes to Expedia.com and books something, you get a commission from Expedia based on the value of the booking and the type of the service.
This means that you work as a sub-affiliate under the main affiliate, Expedia.com.
And that my friend is how you can create a business that works like Expedia.com and makes you money with the same business model.
And if you are interested in starting your own Expedia-like business TODAY and you don’t know where to go in order to start, then the next section is for you.
Someone to Take You by The Hand to Start a Website Like Expedia.com?
You have come to the right place.
Expedia’s business model, affiliate marketing, is the best way of making money online as it is the easiest model to understand and implement, and it can be started at the lowest possible investment (and risk).
But make no mistake though, you are still going to start a business and you need to put in the work in order to make money online like how Expedia does. There are no push-buttons.
And if you are interested in learning affiliate marketing, step-by-step, then my recommendation to you is to go to Wealthy Affiliate, which is the same place where I went when I was starting my journey with this model.
This platform is the best place to start with affiliate marketing as it provides you with:
- The step-by-step, easy-to-follow training.
- The best research tools in order to find opportunities for making money like Expedia.
- The best web hosting with the amazing support so that you don’t waste your time and your energy on technical stuff.
- The amazing support of 2 million online entrepreneurs that are willing to help you whenever you need.
And much more.
And all of the above is provided for a monthly fee that is affordable instead of investing millions like Expedia did with their platform.
Even better, this platform I’m recommending offers a free Starter plan that gives you an access to a good part of the training and tools in order to learn more about it before you pay anything.
In my opinion, if you are interested in starting a business that makes you money like Expedia does, then check out my full review of Wealthy Affiliate in order to learn about the services they provide that can help you in your project, and get the free membership at least in order to get the free part of the training.
You don’t have to go with the paid membership unless you want to advance your business.
Conclusion
I hope that now you understand the Expedia business model and you know how Expedia.com makes money online without owning properties, airlines or even rental cars.
If you are interested in making money with the same business model, then my recommended platform in the previous section is the way to go, as this is where I started building my business with the same model, and now it’s making me the most of my income.
And if you have any question about Expedia’s way of making money or about anything in this article, please, feel free to leave it below in the comment’s section and I will be happy to come back to you asap 🙂