Hooking Up Travelers with the Dream Vacation Rental Property – While Getting Paid!

Beachfront villas in the Caribbean. Mountain lodges in the Rocky Mountains. Cottages in New  England.

For many travelers and tourists, a regular hotel room just won’t do for a visit to a new city, state, or even country. Maybe the group is too big. Or they want the whole family in the same house – it’s a reunion. Or just maybe they have the money to burn on comfort, space, and luxury.

No matter the reason… you can make big money by renting out vacation homes across the country and around the world, even if you don’t own one yourself.

How?

Through affiliate marketing.

My regular readers will already be familiar with this concept, but I’ll go through the main principles of becoming an affiliate marketer here:

• Your job is to advertise another company’s products with unique links trackable to you
• You can do this through a website, email newsletters, social media, online videos, and any other type of marketing you want to do
• For every sale that your advertising efforts produce, you make a guaranteed commission
• The more effectively you advertise, the more you sell, and the more money you can make

So How Does that Work with Vacation Properties?

Today even the wealthiest folks are looking to save money and open new revenue streams. For families who own a vacation home and only use it a month or two out of the year, it makes no sense for it to sit vacant and unused most of the time. Many of these families are now looking to rent their vacation properties when they don’t use them.

There are also plenty of people who’ve invested in vacation homes for the express purpose of renting them out regularly to provide them with income. It’s like an investment, and they’re ready to see regular returns.

Here in Orlando, there are plenty of folks who fall in both categories. And this area is full of vacation homes just waiting to be occupied – and provide income for the owner and the person that helps them rent it out – you!

What Exactly Is a Vacation Property?

That really depends on your ideal vacation spot. For some folks, it’s a beach-side condo. Others might have the means to enjoy a furnished Manhattan penthouse, while others might prefer nothing more than a small wood cabin in a remote neck of the woods.

It’s all about individual preference when it comes to vacations, after all. Some people look to get out of the city and get back to nature, while others flock to major metropolitan areas for the amenities big city living offers.

So your job as an affiliate marketer is to work with folks who want to rent out there vacation properties, decide what segment of the population would be interested in that specific vacation rental, and target that audience with direct, targeted marketing.

And it can be a truly international endeavor, as well. I mentioned all the vacation homes in Costa Rica. But they can be found in neighboring Nicaragua, as well as Thailand, the United Kingdom, and even your own neighborhood.

How to Find People with Vacation Properties to Rent

Let’s face it, being a landlord is a major hassle. As anyone who has ever owned rental property or anyone who has been a renter knows, the landlord faces a challenging and sometimes frustrating job.

Every time something breaks, the A/C goes on the fritz, the toilet backs up… guess who gets the call? That’s right, it’s the landlord. And even if he or she doesn’t physically go to the property and fix the problem, they still have to pay out of pocket for a service person to do it. No wonder property management companies are so popular.

That’s why people who are looking to rent out their property will take whatever help they can get. And finding suitable and dependable tenants is the first and, in many ways, the most important step.

That’s where you, as the one marketing vacation homes as an affiliate, come in. Your services are much appreciated. Of course, you won’t be working directly for the homeowner. Instead, your commission comes from the vacation rental listing service the homeowner has joined. That makes you, the entrepreneur doing the grunt work, the unsung hero of this story.

Here are a couple of websites where you can browse the affiliate marketing programs and find your first homes to list on your site or sites:

• http://www.perfectplaces.com/affiliates/

• http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/affiliate.html

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, and there are plenty of other sites below in the Resources section.

The way these specific websites operate is that people who want to rent their vacation properties pay a small, one-time fee to have their property listed for affiliates such as yourself to advertise.

What’s cool is that many of these directories will pay you a commission even if all your prospects do is ask for more information on the property. You cash in big-time when they actually book a stay.

Depending on your background, you may prefer to cater to a specific type of vacation rental, such as country getaways, because you know about the lifestyle and what people can expect when renting such properties. You could also focus on a geographic area you know well.

Set up your site and fill it with content on the relevant subject, whether it’s beach cottages or mountainside cabins, or homes near Disney World. This will bring traffic to your site from the search engines – and that means more potential customers.

Become an Expert at Vacationing

Take anything in your life and turn it into an asset in your job as an affiliate marketer. You may have only been on a few vacations in your life, but you know about those few places you’ve been to. And to be honest, once you’ve stayed in one beach-side time-share, you’ve stayed in them all. Take whatever little experience you may have and play it up in your advertising as an authority.

Even if you’ve never been on a real vacation, maybe you know about something that might not immediately come to mind – like golf. There are many people (okay, mostly men) whose ideal vacation entails 54 holes of golf a day. As someone who knows about golf, you can research the top golf resorts in the world and offer your golf expertise and authority when you start affiliate marketing to certain regions.

Nothing makes a potential renter looking for a long-range vacation home more confident in their choice than a well-informed salesperson guiding them along and spelling out the details.

I know you can do it.

I wish you the best of luck!

Mark Edwards

P.S. I’ve just given you all the information and tips you need to become a successful vacation property affiliate, but here are a few more resources to help you get inspired and make it a smashing success. I suggest you browse each of these to get a broad sampling of the sheer breadth of vacation rentals available.

Resources

Vacation Rental Affiliate Programs

http://www.perfectplaces.com/affiliates/

http://www.vacationhomerentals.com/affiliate.html

http://www.lodgix.com/affiliates.html

Inspiration for Your Affiliate Website

http://www.vacationrentals.com/

http://www.vacationhomes.com/golf-vacation-rentals

http://vacationrentalpros.com/

http://beachfrontonly.com/

http://www.7heavenvacation.com/vacation-homes-in-orlando-area

http://movingmountains.com/