How to Start an Online Travel Agency Working From Home

Have you noticed that there are not many store front travel agencies these days? I guess it may have had a lot to do with the fact that many people are using their computer to book their own flights online. Also, after the disaster in New York on September 11th, people were scared to travel and a few years ago, a couple airlines lay off their workers and caused a slow period in the travel industry.

However, I think the main reason is the comfort of booking a flight from your own personal computer that fascinates the consumer to a do-it-yourself attitude. In lieu of this fact, it is apparent that an online travel agency is a good idea for a business opportunity to assist these consumers with trip planning and other customer service issues that they may still need.

There are two types of home travel businesses:

· Referral travel agencies

· Booking and selling agencies

A Referral travel agent is the easier of the two because all it requires is a word of mouth advertising to guide the customer to the online portal where they can book their flight. It is also a relationship business because the referrals in most cases come from family, friends and associates first.

The referring travel agent is compensated with a paid commission, which is decided in advance by the agency to which the referral will go. It is easy to be an online travel agent because it only requires handing out business cards, flyers and maybe placing online ads. There is no immediate contact with the customer unless it is someone who needs additional questions answered. This can be done on a part time basis until the full time income is replaced, then anyone make the transition to a full time business.

The booking and selling agencies fall into a category of only one travel agency. Since we have already confirmed that these agencies are not so popular anymore, we will only concentrate on the referring travel agent.

A referring travel agent does not need to know too much in-depth information about the specific travel details. All they do is to direct people to the website where they book their own flights and get help directly from the airline. In the case of the booking and selling agencies, they have to do the hard work of finding out all the information for the customer, which can be quite time consuming.

If you are considering the opportunity that is open to being a referral travel agent, be sure to find out if the company is stable, if they provide adequate customer service, what the compensation is, can you work full time or part time, do you need any special training, and is it something I can recommend to others with confidence.

One of the perks of being a referring travel agent is that you can work from home, you work on your own time, you get free trips called FAM trips, you get to travel first class, you get discounted air fares and priority baggage claim.

Once you have decided to pursue a travel business opportunity, make sure you treat this as a real business. Get a business name, if possible and a tax identification number. Keep good records of income and expenses because this business is tax deductible. Your vacation trips can be tax write offs if you use it also to refer travel to others.

I would also suggest that you choose a travel category and learn as much as you can about it and specialize in that category. An example is cruises or honeymoon packages. With cruises, you can target the baby boomers who love to take cruises and for the honeymoon packages, you target anyone you know who is thinking or planning to get married.

Let your enthusiasm about this travel business be infectious to everyone you meet. Make sure you take some vacations that you can talk about or suggest to your clients. Educate yourself and take this business seriously.

Paton Marketing: Quality Solutions for Effective Internet Marketing

Paton Marketing is an Internet Marketing Company Miami that has helped many clients generate great revenues through various online marketing techniques and procedures. Paton Marketing offers services like Search Engine Optimization, Website Development, Pay per Click Management, Reputation Management, and Social Media Marketing. We provide all the services you need at affordable rates.

Our online marketing strategy constantly thrives to get desired results for the clients. Our SEO campaigns cover all critical and diverse factors ranging from on-page, back link, content to website design. All SEO aspects are covered with the simplified three phase approach of Plan, Optimize and Track to strategize, execute and report SEO campaigns.

Miami Marketing Agency uses expert knowledge in a range of marketing services to help bring our clients’ websites to unprecedented levels of success. Through effective online marketing strategies and our expert SEO services, we can help turn your website in to your business’ most powerful lead generator. Google, like many other search engine ranks pages based on certain criteria. To start with, the quality of your site matters a lot.

We also specialize in Web Development and Web Design. Paton Marketing provides our clients with a strategically-developed premium custom website. A great website will go a long way in getting your business noticed online. It also delivers a high-quality user experience. We keep your website up to date regularly.

Internet marketing is much more than site creation. It requires precise marketing techniques and tools across the board. Without our professional assistance, your website will simply fail to generate essential web traffic. Web marketing also entails weekly progress reports. This includes web traffic, along with the number of hits your site secures on a weekly basis.

Miami Marketing Agency also specializes in Reputation Management. Reputation Management is one of most important factor in web marketing. Negative content can terribly affect your business. Paton Marketing Reputation Management strategies can protect your online reputation by suppressing negative content on the search results. We create positive and multiple micro-sites ensuring that the negative links are pushed further out of search results.

If you are struggling with web traffic issues, our dedicated marketing team can help you within time and budget. Simply contact us today.

Affiliate Marketing Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Making money on the internet is a popular way to get an extra income. Working online offers flexibility: people can do it whenever and wherever they like. Besides, there are many types of online businesses available today, and one of them is called ‘affiliate marketing’. This program allows you to be an affiliate marketer of some certain merchants and link their products on your site. When a product is sold, you earn a commission.

You are probably interested in this marketing program. But before taking a part in this business, it is essential for you to know the tips and tricks. Here are some affiliate marketing tips that would be useful for beginner affiliate marketers:

- First of all, you should build a website and you should select a topic that you love for your site. Try not to start with a topic that you don’t like since it will only make the site a boring place. People will know how well you know about your topic by looking at the contents of your website. That way, people will be interested in your website as well and you will draw more visitors. This may not get you the highest commission but it is a great way to attract traffic.

- A good website should feature a good design as well. It would be helpful if you know how to use a graphic design software. Adding graphics to your site will make it look attractive. If you are not sure how to use a graphics software, you can always rely on the tools available on the website builder site.

- When running an affiliate marketing business, people often ask about the best network to choose. Well, actually there is no exact answer to this question. It because each network has their own strong points and you should choose one of them based on the tools they offer. You can also choose merchants from the major networks and see which one that works for you.

- “Parasites” can have a negative impact to your business. When you are involved in affiliate marketing, you will find the term “ScumWare” or “ParasiteWare”. These are applications that can redirect your visitors to other websites. These applications often masquerade as file sharing applications or browser help objects. It is essential to learn more about these applications so that you won’t lose your visitors.

- Learn and learn more about the business. When you are involved in affiliate marketing, it is essential that you educate yourself. There are various things that you need to learn such as creating custom links or advanced HTML coding. You can easily find affiliate marketing tips and guides posted by other marketers on various forums.