You must truly be an intrepid explorer, because you’ve ventured onto our disclosures and editorial policies page!
Here we’ll explain:
- How the content on Indie Traveller is created
- How the site makes money (and how it affects you)
Our content creation philosophy
Our mission is to share useful no-nonsense travel guides to help you plan your next adventure.
We adhere to these principles:
Honest, tell-it-like-it-is travel guides. Simply put, we’re not here to hype places up or to do the travel industry’s work for them. Not every place needs to be the best thing since sliced noodles. Some places or experiences are just okay or might be fun to check out if you have a specific interest. At Indie Traveller we will tell you what to expect, good or bad, while trying to be as helpful as we can.
No SEO. You may have heard that many websites follow Search Engine Optimization practices. This usually means trying to guess popular search queries on Google and then exactly matching pages against them. This is how you get blogs with such riveting topics as “Best mosquito spray for Thailand” or “is Austria in Australia” (yes, this is real!). While we do try to write catchy titles and descriptions so people can find our content, we don’t use keyword research and don’t play to the algorithms.
Expert writers. Everyone who writes for Indie Traveller has been selected for their personal knowledge and experience. It’s crazy we even have to say this, but we only write about places we have been ourselves! While we also regularly add updated information through research (such as alternative travel options), the core of each post is always the writer’s own experience of doing the thing.
Strictly no AI. Artificial intelligence can do many wonderful things. Alas, an AI can not itself travel, have opinions about travel or, well, be human. Since AI answers are merely a machine’s interpolation of the most commonly written words on a subject, the advice is often highly generic anyway (and sometimes incorrect). We do not use AI to write articles (apart from things like spellchecking), only writing in our own words and based on our own experiences.
We’re not exactly investigative journalists — just a bunch of people writing about their trips — but we do try to be as accurate and helpful as we can.
It can be difficult to keep up with all the developments in travel, so if you spot an error or a place has changed, please let us know.
Why not write for us?
Our commercial policies
How does the site make money?
While all content on Indie Traveller is free, the site makes money in a couple of ways. The main sources are:
- banner advertising
- book sales
- affiliate commissions
As a general rule we don’t do paid content, sponsorships, or paid trips. If anything is ever paid-for, you will know.
Banner ads can be annoying or distracting sometimes — we know! — but they are a necessary part of the revenue mix. Indie Traveller deals mostly with budget destinations and a commission on, say, that $10/night hotel in Bolivia won’t exactly keep the lights on. Banner ads help us fund the content we produce. We work with a single ad network (Mediavine) that places ads automatically.
What are affiliate links?
Affiliate links let us earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase at a 3rd party website.
For example, when we link to the Hostelworld booking site, this is usually an affiliate link. If you follow such a link and then make a booking, Hostelworld gives Indie Traveller a kick-back (usually a small percentage of the booking fee). This comes at no extra cost to you.
We love affiliate links as a way to monetize a site as it’s relevant, can help you out directly, and we’re totally in control of these links. No one is telling us what to write or what to link to and, in most cases, we don’t even have any direct contact with these partners (as these links typically use automated systems). We can recommend or un-recommend any product or service at any time and only link to products or services we believe in.
Affiliate links are often a win-win for you and us, which is why they’re the main way we monetize the site.
You can view our privacy policy here.
P.S. Amazon legally requires us to put a particular disclosure phrase on the site, so here goes: “I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Just so you know.
