Earn Money From Your Holiday With Simonseeks | Sixt rent a car blog

Earn Money From Your Holiday

19 Jun 2009 by Mike Osolinski

Beat The Recession By Turning Your Holiday Into An Investment

With many people struggling to cope with day to day costs at the moment, a holiday is probably the last thing on the agenda for most of us. Unfortunately, those who have planned trips months in advance and already paid are left with little option but either to go as planned or accept their losses.

Whether you are in a similar position or would just like to make some extra cash to subsidise your trip, there are ways in which you can try and recoup some of the money when you get home.

holiday sunset Earn Money From Your Holiday

An exciting new service launched yesterday might just help make this easier and may even uncover hidden talents you never knew you had!
Simonseeks is a new website from Simon Nixon, the man behind the hugely successful MoneySupermarket, which provides product price comparison in a wide range of verticals.

The idea is to allow travellers to make money from their experiences by writing reviews and guides about places they have visited and services they have used such as hotels and restaurants.
These articles are then submitted to the site and, subject to a review process could appear online for other’s to view.

Making Money From Your Travels

Unlike many copywriting assignments, the payment is not based on the number of words you write but how popular your article is (the number of people who view it).

holiday money Earn Money From Your Holiday

On top of this, commission is earned on people actually taking action based on your recommendations and making a booking with partners to the site which include hotels.com, lastminute, ebookers and superbreak.

Unfortunately, the information provided on the site doesn’t give much of an idea what you might expect to make per article but they do offer online monitoring which allows you to see how much you have earned to date so it should soon become clear whether it’s worth your time and effort.

Some Tips On Increasing Your Chances Of Getting A Submission Accepted

To increase your chances of actually having an article approved and, more importantly making some money, there are some simple points you can bear in mind.

Make An Impact With Your Headlines

holiday headlines Earn Money From Your Holiday

The headline for your review or guide is hugely important so think about what is likely to catch people’s attention. Make it short, snappy, intriguing and above all honest.

Don’t use clever headlines to draw people into something that is irrelevant to the title.
Here are some key points to try and guide you in the right direction

Be short, snappy and to the point.
Be accurate. Don’t use misleading titles just to get people to read your article.
Be suggestive. Whilst bearing the points above in mind, think about what would make you want to click on a headline.

Maximise Your Opportunities

The more you see and do on your trip, the more you will have to talk about and review when you get back and going away organised and with some kind of plan will not only help you to make the most of your holiday but also take every opportunity to gather content to write about when you return. Here are some simple tips to bear in mind:

Research bars and restaurants before you go, this will save you valuable time trying to find somewhere decent when you arrive at your destination.
Think about using car hire as a more flexible means of getting around. The easier it is to travel, the more you will be able to see!
Communicate with the locals! They will know better than anyone where the best places to eat and drink are and will be able to point you in the right direction to get some great write up material.

Content

holiday pen Earn Money From Your Holiday

A big part of the money making potential offered by simonseeks comes from the commission that can be earned when your reviews actually convince a reader to take your advice and make a reservation.

If you have had a good experience it is important to be able to communicate this in a way that appeals. A few tips:

Read other peoples reviews and see what kind of response they get and how useful people find them.
Only write about places that you have genuine experience and knowledge of. Writing a review based on reading an article on Wikipedia will not only probably be inaccurate but will also sound forced and false.
Try to evoke an emotional response. If you can make your reader imagine that they are relaxing in an outdoor street cafe in Tuscany on a warm summers evening then they are more likely to be encouraged to consider a visit than if you say that you went to a cafe in Tuscany and they had good coffee.
If you are planning on writing reviews when you get home try to take some notes of your experiences whilst you are away as this will help you give a much more detailed review later.

Photography

holiday photos Earn Money From Your Holiday

A key element in making your article engaging and visually appealing is to include good photographs.

Not only does this help people imagine themselves in the scenario you are presenting but also helps to break up your text and make it more readable. A few photography tips below:

You don’t need a hugely expensive camera to get good shots. You could give the worst photographer in the world the best camera and it probably wouldn’t make much difference.
Composition is key to a good shot. Take your time and frame your shot properly.
If you are using a digital camera you can also take a number of shots of the same scene and then later choose the one that you like best. On the same note, make sure you have spare memory cards and a charger with you!
Learning the basic principles of the rule of thirds can make an amazing difference to your photos and is really simple to apply.
Simonseeks have a great Travel Writing Tips section with plenty of information to get you started.

So, will it take off?

All in all this sounds like a great idea and a way for people to make some money back on their holidays / time spent travelling. Potentially it could even lead people into a new career if they find they have a talent for writing.

My real question is how accessible the potential income will be to the average holiday maker?
In today’s Metro newspaper Mr Nixon was said to have expressed the hope that simonseeks will become one of the top ten travel sites in Britain within a year and that contributors could be able to give up the day job and earn a living from travel writing.

It’s a nice idea… but in reality online copywriting is a hugely competitive industry, perhaps more so in travel than any other so will the site becomes overcrowded with professional writers or will the opinions of the general public actually be heard?

If you are interested in other ideas, The Guardian also have a great article on How To Make Money On Holiday

Neil Wills June 24th 2009 at 12:18 pm #

I’ve had a look at the T&Cs of SimonSeeks and they’re so weighted against the writers that authors that, without actually making the site a scam, it is a total rip-off.

At first sight, it looks like a good deal. However, SS only hands over 50% of NET revenue (ie after all the website’s myriad costs are taken out – and even then they have the cheek to reserve the right to make yet more deductions) and only when a reader makes a booking directly after having read a particular guide, or it can be proved that advertising revenue has come in because of that guide.

Even then, SS states:
“As things stand the technology doesn’t – in every case – allow us to track exactly which Guides have produced a booking commission or a payment from an advertiser. However, where we are able to confirm that revenue has been generated directly as a result of visitors solely visiting your Guide (for example by tracking click-throughs or bookings) you will be entitled to 50 per cent of the net revenue which results.”

Therefore, the author is dependent on SS going to some trouble to check whether a booking has been made directly as a result of the piece he/she has written. Why would SS spend time and energy doing this when it’s not in their financial interests to do so? There’s certainly no mention of a team dedicated to tracking click-throughs. Furthermore, even where a booking has been made directly because of an article, if the reader clicks through to an advertiser but then thinks about it for a bit before going back to book, it’s highly unlikely that that the booking will be accredited to the writer.

I suggest that the vast majority of writers (who, incidentally, have to hand over all copyright to their pieces in perpetuity so SS can sell them on without handing over a penny) will get nothing at all from this.

On a separate point, as a reader, I would be instantly suspicious of any review where the reviewer stands to profit from any bookings made from his/her recommendations.

In my opinion, the site is flawed from top to bottom and has been set up exclusively to make money for its creators.

[Reply]

Charlie Roberts Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

I would like to point out to Neil Wills that we are fully committed to our authors. Our terms of use clearly state that we undertake to pay half the net revenue. If he had quoted our terms in full, this would be clearer. We have robust systems in place to ensure that all clicks resulting in revenue will be tracked and apportioned in the way that we have promised to do. This is important to us as it’s central to the model we have set up.

Earn Money From Your Holiday