Make Money as a Travel Blogger with Language Courses

 
Every destination post you write is the perfect place to recommend learning the language before the trip.


 

Travel bloggers can earn money by joining the 17 Minute Languages affiliate programme and recommending its language courses inside destination guides, trip reports and "useful phrases" posts. You earn a commission of up to 60% of the sale price for every course bought through your affiliate link, the programme is free to join with no obligation, and you can unsubscribe at any time. One important condition upfront: applicants must live in the EU or EFTA to become an affiliate. 17 Minute Languages has been selling language courses online since 1997 and covers 80+ languages, so nearly every place you blog about has a matching course you can recommend.


 

Here is why this fits travel content better than almost any other affiliate offer: a reader planning a trip to Lisbon, Tokyo or Marrakech is already in a "preparing to go" mindset. They're booking flights, building packing lists and reading your guide precisely because they want to be ready. "Learn a bit of the language before you go" is not a hard sell to that person, it's obvious, useful advice, and the course link is the natural next step. You're not interrupting your content with an unrelated banner. You're answering a question your reader already has.


 

How a travel blogger actually earns from language courses


Your only job is to send an interested visitor to the course page with your affiliate ID attached. 17 Minute Languages handles the ordering process, payment, dispatch and customer support, and the commission is credited to you automatically when a sale completes. That means your work lives entirely inside the content you already produce. Here are the concrete formats that convert for travel blogs:

  • Destination guides with a "before you go" language section.
    In your Kyoto, Buenos Aires or Hanoi guide, add a short block: "Learn a few essentials before you arrive." Link the language name (Japanese, Spanish, Vietnamese) directly to the matching 17 Minute Languages course. This single placement sits in the highest-intent part of the post.
     
  • "Useful phrases for [destination]" posts.
    These rank well and attract readers with clear intent. List the 15-20 phrases yourself, then close with: "Want to go beyond a phrase list and actually hold a conversation? The full course is here." The free phrase list earns trust; the course link earns commission.
     
  • Packing and prep checklists.
    Add "basic [language] phrases" as a line item alongside adapters, SIM cards and travel insurance. Travellers treat the checklist as a to-do list, and the course becomes one of the boxes to tick.
     
  • In-line callouts inside trip reports.
    When you describe a moment where not speaking the language caused friction (a mistranslated menu, a missed train announcement), follow it with an honest aside: "This is exactly why I now learn the basics first." Place the link right there, while the reader feels the problem.
     
  • Banners and ready-made marketing texts.
    The internal affiliate area gives you banners, marketing texts, templates and statistics. Drop a sidebar or end-of-post banner on your highest-traffic country pages so older guides keep earning without you touching them again.
 
 

Monetisation options for a travel blog, compared


Most travel blogs stack several income streams. The point of this table isn't to say course affiliate links replace everything else, it's to show where the earning logic differs, so you can put the right offer in the right post.

Monetisation option How you get paid Rough earning logic Best placement
Language course affiliate (17 Minute Languages) Commission per sale, up to 60%, credited automatically A handful of sales can outweigh thousands of ad impressions; older posts keep selling "Before you go" sections, phrase posts, prep checklists
Display ads / CPM Paid per 1,000 impressions Income tracks raw pageviews; niche guides with modest traffic earn pennies Broad, high-traffic content where you just want baseline revenue
Hotel / booking affiliates Commission per confirmed booking Decent per-sale value but capped to readers booking through your exact link and dates Accommodation reviews, "where to stay" posts
Gear / Amazon affiliates Small percentage per item Low per-item commission; relies on volume and cart size Packing lists, gear reviews
Sponsored posts Flat fee per post One-off payment; no recurring income after publishing Campaign-driven, brand-specific content


For context: many language-app affiliate programmes pay considerably less than this (often in the 10-40% range, and subject to change), so the "up to 60%" figure is genuinely high for the category. Treat all percentages, including ours, as the headline rate rather than what every single sale will hit, and check the current terms in the affiliate area.


 

Matching the right course to the right destination


The mistake that kills conversions is linking the wrong language. Match the course to the country's actual main language, and be honest with your readers about dialects so the recommendation feels expert, not lazy:

  • Portugal posts (Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve) get the Portuguese course, with a note that European and Brazilian Portuguese differ.
  • Latin America and Spain get Spanish; Quebec and France get French.
  • Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea each have their own course, so don't lump "Asia" together.
  • For Morocco or the Gulf, point readers to Arabic and mention that spoken dialects differ from Modern Standard Arabic, so they know what the course teaches.

With 80+ languages available, you can give a precise, destination-specific recommendation almost every time, which is exactly the kind of detail that builds the trust that earns the sale. Keep the placeholder on every 17ML link so your affiliate ID is always attached.


 

What you get as an affiliate


  • Commission of up to 60% of the sale price, credited automatically per sale
  • Banners, marketing texts and templates ready to drop into your posts
  • Comprehensive statistics so you can see which destination guides actually convert
  • Support offered in multiple languages
  • A partner that handles ordering, payment, dispatch and customer care, so your work ends at the click
  • A proven product line: 17 Minute Languages has been online since 1997


Honest eligibility note: much of the travel-blogging audience reading this lives outside the EU. To be clear, the programme requires applicants/affiliates to live in the EU or EFTA. If that's not you, the realistic route is partnering with an EU/EFTA-based co-author or entity who holds the affiliate account. We'd rather tell you now than waste your writing time.


Disclosure: links to 17 Minute Languages courses are affiliate links. If a reader buys through your link, you earn a commission at no extra cost to them. Always disclose this relationship to your own audience as well.


 

Frequently asked questions


  • Which 17 Minute Languages course should I recommend for a given destination?
     
    Match the course to the country's main language, not the continent. For a Lisbon or Algarve post, link the Portuguese course; for Mexico, Argentina or Spain, Spanish; for Kyoto, Japanese; for Marrakech, Arabic (and note Moroccan Darija differs from Modern Standard Arabic so readers know what they're getting). 17 Minute Languages covers 80+ languages, so almost any destination you write about has a matching course. Put the affiliate link on the specific language name in your text, and use a destination-relevant anchor like "learn basic Portuguese before Lisbon" rather than a generic "click here."  
  • Do my readers need to live in the EU or EFTA to buy a course through my link?
     
    The rule we can state clearly applies to you, the affiliate: to join the programme and receive commission, applicants must live in the EU or EFTA. We don't make a claim here about where your readers must be located, so don't promise your audience anything on that point. What matters for your earnings is that you qualify as an EU/EFTA-based affiliate. 17 Minute Languages handles ordering, payment, dispatch and support after the click, so your job ends at sending a qualified, interested visitor with your affiliate ID.  
  • I'm a travel blogger based outside the EU/EFTA. Can I still join?
     
    Not as the affiliate of record, because the programme requires applicants to live in the EU or EFTA. If you're outside that zone, realistic options are to partner with an EU/EFTA-based co-author or business entity who holds the affiliate account, or to focus on monetisation methods that don't have this residency requirement. We'd rather you know this upfront than discover it after writing ten destination guides.  
  • How does language-course affiliate income compare to display ads on a travel blog?
     
    They scale completely differently. Display ads pay per thousand impressions (CPM), so income tracks raw pageviews and a niche destination guide with modest traffic earns very little. A single course sale at up to 60% commission can be worth more than thousands of ad impressions on the same post. The two aren't mutually exclusive: many travel bloggers keep display ads for broad traffic and layer course affiliate links into the prep-focused posts where buying intent is highest. Commission is credited automatically per sale, so a guide you wrote last year keeps earning when this year's travellers read it.  
  • Where exactly should the course link go inside a trip report?
     
    Place it where the reader is already thinking about preparation, not buried in the conclusion. Good spots: the "before you go" or "what I wish I'd known" section, right after a moment where not speaking the language caused friction (a mistranslated menu, a taxi misunderstanding), and inside or just below a "useful phrases" list as the natural next step. One honest, well-placed callout converts better than five scattered banners. Always disclose the affiliate relationship near the link.

 

Start earning from the guides you already write


You're already writing destination guides, phrase lists and trip reports. Adding a single, honest "learn the language before you go" recommendation turns that existing work into recurring income, at up to 60% commission per sale, with everything after the click handled for you. Joining is free, carries no obligation, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Applicants must live in the EU or EFTA.


Join the 17 Minute Languages affiliate programme here »

 
 

 

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