Offbeat Guides, the travel site launched last summer by Technorati founder Dave Sifry, has launched a new affiliate program. Affiliates will make an 8% commission on every purchase driven from their sites; to help get the program started, Offbeat Guides is increasing this commission to 15% through June 30th for affiliates that sign up by January 31st. To join the affiliate program, you can fill out an application here.
Offbeat Guides are similar to traditional books like Lonely Planet or Frommers, but are flexible and customizable because they’re built on the fly. After prompting users for their destination and the dates they’ll be visiting, the site scours the web, using a variety of sources to generate travel guides for nearly any city (it also supports regions). The site also has a leg up on traditional guides because it can include time-sensitive information like event listings and find activities based on your interests. Guides can be previewed in the browser for free, downloaded as a PDF for $10, or printed into a full-color guide and shipped within a few days for $25.
To mark the launch of the new affiliate program, Offbeat Guides is offering $10 off printed guides and free PDF guides to the first 50 TechCrunch readers who enter the promo code ‘techcrunch10off’.
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Thanks to TC, i just got a PDF version of the guide for my next travel destination
Are these locations not available?
We couldn’t find Mauritius.
We couldn’t find Malaysia.
I thought these were some good locations for a holiday!
Malaysia is available. You must type the city first. For example Kuala Lumpur.
I love offbeat guides. I’ll have a video up later today with Dave Sifry, CEO. That will be up at http://www.fastcompany.tv
I have my offbeat guide for Davos in my hot little hands and am getting on the plane shortly.
Got my free report for Cape Town South Africa, thanks. 77 pages, on all aspects of the city, great stuff. Saves me searching the net, that’s for sure.
I’m going to order one for Bangkok and write a review… sounds like a great idea!
I do like affiliate payments but 8 or 15% seems low. I met a company at #asw09 (affiliate summit) that paid and $80 spiff on a $10 sale. I wonder what Dave Sifry’s follow-up sale pctngs will be.
If I were a new company starting out, I’d toy with 75% commission to get sales in the door and change the deal on my affiliates after all the links are out there (buhahaahaaa, am kidding). Affiliate marketing plays dirty and they’re always changing deals.
Good luck Dave and great write up Jason
I wish my co. could get plugs here when we launch an affiliate program. Seriously, how does is this newsworthy?
It is Definately News Worthy :
1. Offers 50 readers with free try out
2. Offers a really useful service for travellors with complete information either in a Hard-Copy or a Soft Copy which can be read from the latest smart phones too
3. Isnt this service unique?
1. So all I have to do is offer coupons to get coverage? Is this SlickDeals now?
2. This service has been covered before by TC in depth with plenty of endorsement. This article adds nothing new to what was already covered.
3. I think so. In fact I tried it out on a TC invite from the initial launch. That said, see #2. There is no NEWS here other than handing out coupons and promoting its aff. program.
Thanks for arguing the point though. When I saw the reply I sincerely hoped I had missed something.
Totally agree. The first TC plug of this service screamed of “good buddy” endorsement and to follow that up with a post about an affiliate program launch is just overkill.
@ Scoble: Davos is so 2007.
Just got one for LA – doing a travel show episode there in March. Thanks!
The whole affiliate setup by offbeat seems pretty cool …
Does anyone know if this is custom built or if its some kind of an “affiliate program in box” component you can grab somewhere?
P.s. Does anyone know some cool “affiliate programs in box” solutions?
Thanks
It’s a great idea, but as a product, for 95%+ of the world’s destinations, it’s beyond lame (try it out). My city, Quito, Ecuador, is a 23 page wikitravel.org copy full of spam and spanglish. $25 for 23 pages of dead tree with spam (yea right, close window, don’t come back) If you want to venture somewhere outside of a city, forget it, they don’t have the content. As far as being a real product to be used by someone really traveling, it’s useless. Partnering with legit travel publishing companies, could make this into a viable product though. Dave selling it for a few million to a publishing company? Maybe, but they’d soon realize that with a few programmer months using old school xml->pdf technology (not to mention some really good PR) and they could make their own. Progressive real travel publishers like Lonely Planet and new companies like Viva travel guides that actually make usable products with real content will leave Offbeat behind.
why would i pay 10 bucks if i can copy the report to word?
Huh, I don’t get it. Seems kind of low tech for TechCrunch. IMHO, why would someone pay for something that they could print off. I was expecting the site to be something entirely different…like generating a smart travel itinerary with flights and local entertainment. Bummer.
ppl forgot AAA, they provide great service on getting maps and guides
not sure how this thing will work out, putting too many efforts in non-existing business
i wonder if this company crosses the bridge without going into deadpool
This coupon has been used the maximum amount of times…
if you’re looking for a free downloadable customized guidebook, try NileGuide (http://www.nileguide.com/)
I think Offbeat Guides has a winning business model and marketing machine. They’re going to take away business from the likes of Lonely Planet for years to come. I just wrote a quick analysis of the situation on my blog, if you’d like to check it out.
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