Redirect to hotels.com?

I have a domain that was previously used by a hotel/lodge in the US, and it's getting a few visits a day. Is it worth redirecting the domain to hotels.com or to another similar website?

I have never tried redirecting through an affiliate program so any input from experienced domainers are greatly appreciated.

 

Check the terms, some companies don't allow redirects. If the traffic is real, not bots, I expect it would be worth it.

 

The traffic is real, but only 2-5 visits a day.

 

wow, is that possible? Didn't think of that. hmmm

 

2 commissions per month is better than 0 commissions per month. You can still list the name for sale.

 

rebuild it!!!
if you dare to redirect it, within a month or two the visitor will be forever gone

 

If the domain looks like generic ("best hotels" dot something) - and implies hotel-related content - then monetizing it using affiliate scheme makes sense. You will earn more $$$ (vs. pure parking).

If the domain may be considered as a TM (registered or not) in connection with any specific hotel related business ("my hilton" dot something) - and by itself does not imply hotel-related content - then monetizing it using hotel related stuff is the last thing one may elect to do. Bad faith. UDRP. Risk of not being paid by aff. program. Etc, etc, etc.

With adblockers becoming de-facto standard for surfers, using classic affiliate links (provided by networks like commission junction etc) is not recommened. Many visitors will not be able to visit it, as the destination link would be instantly blocked. Workaround: white label affiliate program. I beleive there are a lot of white labels especially in travel-hotels-tickets niche. Your domain will become a separate website (hosted by aff. program) and the visitors will be tracked without cookies and without any "adblockable" stuff.

 

Many affiliate programs I am familiar with will not accept you with such low traffic. Even if they do, after they look at stats will often close the account unless they see traffic and clicks. It can take about 200 to 400 visits to get 1 click so with 3 visits a day its a long time, maybe 2 to 4 months or so.

Amazon.com routinely does that and I suspect closes far more accounts than they keep. I am sure other big sites also do that but not sure why since a little traffic is better vs no traffic from affiliates however they do not seem to care and only desire high traffic affiliates for some odd reason. Anyone here know why?

 

I used to build websites until recently, and it's not for me, so I won't rebuild it. I prefer to keep things as simple as possible, and focus on domaining. But redirecting traffic could maybe be a solution...

 

That sounds interesting! Which white label program is best in your opinion?

Ok, good to know.

Yeah, I've used Amazon a lot and they are pretty quick to close your account if you're not generating any traffic or revenue.

 

Sorry, I did not try anything in this niche. I just remember when I was looking for a whitelabel solution in a completely different niche, there were a lot of (too many) travel-related whitelabel offers in searches which I had to "filter out"...

 

I’ve been in this hotel affiliate thing for 20 years and I would be very surprised if you get more than 0-5 confirmed bookings a year. This was easy in 2000, not now.

But why not give it a try?! I would be happy if you prove me wrong.

 

Well, I would be happy too.

In your opinion, what would be the best affiliate program to use when redirecting the domain?

 

Probably a white label solution, and if not available, maybe Booking.com. But as @namemarket mentioned, it MIGHT not be worth it. On the other hand, it only takes a few minutes to sign up for an account.

 

IMHO, if you're just not into development, with that little traffic, you are probably better off just selling the domain. If you are getting traffic due to rankings in search engines, any traffic you do get will eventually die off because your site's pages will be gone since you have no content and the home pages is redirected to another site.

You also have to take into account payout thresholds. You might make $50 in a year, but if the payout threshold for that affiliate program is $100 or more, you will never get that $50 you earned when you traffic dies. You just gave the affiliate vendor free traffic & sales with no compensation.

Just sell it.

This is why when I want to engage in affiliate marketing, I generally stick to the internet marketing products. Many of these vendors don't have a threshold and will payout any amount with a 1 month holding period. Affiliate programs with high payout thresholds are really only good for people who get enough traffic and sales that they know they will always get the sales to get their commissions.

BTW: Ad blockers do not necessarily block affiliate links. But that's a huge topic and if you want to find out more you can google it.

BTW2: I opened and Amazon affiliate account 8 years ago and never used it. Never sent them a lick of traffic. But but the account is still alive. Maybe I was grandfathered in?

 

you can use hotelscombined.com, though min pay $100, NET+25. They will pay for per visit not hotel booking

 

They don't seem to be very transparent in their terms. https://www.hotelscombined.com/Affiliates/Agreement?languageCode=EN

They make you dig google for more information, and even then you don't get much...

Then you got this...

... and you have to rely on 3rd parties who may be dead wrong or giving old info.
Maybe this person knows what they're talking about? Who knows, it's the internet!

Anyhow, might be worth looking into.

 

I am using hotelscombined.

I have tried booking.com for one of my site, there were visits to hotel pages but no booking. I think booking.com has very poor tracking system

in hoteis combined, I at least see some earnings. best part is they have 365 days cookie duration. there are some earnings from repeat visits. hotelscombined is an Australian company. time zone GMT + 10.

as far as 03/01/2019 there are 4 new leads ( earning $3.66) and 3 repeat leads ( earning $3.04) all USA traffic. again there are some days with 0 earnings.

 

You should try protectedparking.com they have contract to monetize booking and hotel traffic with affiliate model, just check them out and their partners.

 

Yes PP is way to go like decades said. Direct to affiliate page handled through 3rd party is best way. Plus they are incredible.