Creative Ways to Make Money as a Tour Guide
If you do what everyone else is doing, youâll get the same results everyone is getting. Breaking from the crowd and charting your own path is the only way you can guarantee greater success than your peers and competitors.
If you are looking to become a tour guide or are already a tour guide, you donât have to use the same old tired marketing strategies that every tour guide in your city is using. Most of them donât work.
The travel industry has been completely revolutionized by the internet. It is a shame most tour guides have refused to evolve and are being eaten alive by big travel companies that are heavily using the internet to cut out the middleman or to become the middleman themselves. You can take advantage of the internet as well in your very own small way to succeed as a tour guide.
Below are three simple strategies you can apply to take advantage of the internet to land a consistent stream of qualified prospects to offer tour guide services to.
Create a Niche Travel Blog for Your City or Destination
According to Forbes, 97% of people now prefer to find businesses online. According to Amadeus, 60% of leisure travelers prefer to do their own travel planning and they generally prefer to do so online. Data from Rezdy also reveals that 40% of all bookings in the travel industry today are done online.
Given the above data, if you donât have a significant presence online as a player in the travel industry, you might as well be out of the game. Sadly, most travel guides are still stuck in their old ways and have no discernible online presence save for their social media accounts. This is a big mistake.
One of the most effective ways to get in front of people who are likely to use your services in the future as a tour guide is to create an online blog or guide for your city or destination. This way, someone doing their travel planning will encounter your site and may contact you to show them around if you come across as trustworthy and personable on your blog.
The blog should be targeted at a small niche for you to rank fast on Google for various keywords. You shouldnât be competing with the big travel companies for the very competitive keywords. Narrow down your niche.
Become a Host on Sites Such as Airbnb
The internet has also changed travel accommodation in a big way. Airbnb is now one of the biggest companies in travel accommodation and they donât own or maintain any of the real estate they use. Thatâs mind-boggling.
You can be part of this new economy and make money in two ways: as a host and as a tour guide. See, hosting travelers means that you will always have people in your home you can show around town. If your listing on Airbnb indicates that you also offer tour guide services, you will have lots of takers. Itâs amazing that barely any tour guides take advantage of this hack.
Bring Personality to Google AdWords
People love to do business with people they like and trust. There is a shift in the business world where people tend to favor companies that are more âhumanâ. In other words, the impersonal cold company is dying. Companies that are built around personal brands and whose owners put their faces out there to interact with customers are winning.
If you take the time to check out the results on Google AdWords when you do a search for tour guides in your city, most of the landing pages are for companies without a face. This is an opportunity. Create an ad and actually put yourself out there complete with a video of yourself on the landing page to let the prospect know that you are real. Your conversion rates will definitely be higher than average.
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