LinkSwitcher: Turn links on your website into Travelpayouts affiliate links

If you work directly with travel brands and already have links to their websites on your blog, you can easily convert them to Travelpayouts affiliate links using the Travelpayouts LinkSwitcher. This includes links from the brand's direct affiliate programs, links from affiliate networks like CJ and AWIN, and regular links to the brand's websites copied directly from their site and shared on your blog for your readers.

With this tool, you will continue receiving rewards for all bookings made via your affiliate links, but also gain additional benefits, like monetization of regular, non-affiliate links, access to all major travel brand programs all in one place, automatic and timely payouts, and detailed performance stats. All of this can be conveniently managed in one place: your Travelpayouts dashboard. All of your original SubIDs will remain intact, so you will be able to check your statistics easily.

Important! LinkSwitcher can only switch links. Other tools, such as widgets, banners, etc., will not be affected.

What types of links does LinkSwicher convert?

Links from the brand's direct affiliate programs (you get these links if you are signed up with direct affiliate programs of travel brands).
Links from affiliate networks (СJ, AWIN, Partnerize, Avant, Skimlinks, ShareASale, CommisionFactory, and Admitad).
Regular links to the brand's websites (copied directly from the brand's site and shared in your blog).

LinkSwitcher supports popular URL shorteners such as tinyurl, bitly, cuttly, pinit, and wpme. This means that if a shortened link from one of these services is detected on a page, hiding a travel brand link, LinkSwitcher will automatically convert it.

Please note! By default, LinkSwitcher does not convert cloaked links. However, if you have many such links on your site, contact the Support team — we will help convert them as well. More about cloaked links.

What do I need to start using LinkSwitcher?

To use the LinkSwitcher, you must have a website and access to its code editor. You also need to complete the following steps before starting with the LinkSwitcher:

1. Sign up for Travelpayouts if you have not yet done so.

2. Next, create a Project in your Travelpayouts account. The Project contains information about the website where you want to use Travelpayouts affiliate links. You can follow these instructions in our Help Center to create a Project.

3. Go to the program’s catalog and connect to the programs from brands, which links you want to switch into Travelpayouts affiliate links.
Note! All of the brands in the catalog are supported by LinkSwitcher with only 3 exceptions (Cheapoair, Indrive, and Ticketnetwork).

4. Open the profile page of the program you want to connect to and click Connect to program.
Note! Some programs require the brand's approval to connect. This means that your Project will be reviewed to ensure that it complies with the program's terms and conditions. You can find more information in the How to connect to a program article.

5. Once you are connected to a program — you will receive an email confirming that. Now you can install the LinkSwitcher on your website.

Important! If you are using Money Script, you need to uninstall it from your website to start using LinkSwitcher. This includes Money Script enabled via the Travelpayouts WordPress plugin.

How to install LinkSwitcher on your website

Once the steps above have been completed, you can install the script on your website. Please follow the instructions described in this article: How to install Tech Solutions script.

Make sure to activate the LinkSwitcher toggle, otherwise the tool won’t start working.

LinkSwitcher Settings

Select the brands for link-switching

Here you can select specific brands whose links you want to convert with LinkSwitcher. Adding a brand to the list means that all links from the brand's direct affiliate program as well as the regular non-affiliate links will be turned into Travelpayouts affiliate links. You can only select brands if you have connected to their programs in the Travelpayouts program catalog.

By default, all brands that you’re connected to using given projects will be automatically activated in the list.

You can also change the following settings:

Switch from affiliate networks to Travelpayouts — this setup allows you to automatically switch links from other affiliate networks (currently СJ, AWIN, Partnerize, Avant, Skimlinks, ShareASale, CommisionFactory и Admitad) into Travelpayouts affiliate links.
Add new brands automatically — this setup ensures that every time you connect to a new program of the travel brand in the Travelpayouts program catalog, it will automatically appear in the list above. That means that the script will automatically process your links to this brand (both the existing ones and the ones you’ll be adding in the future).

Exclude specific pages

If you have some specific pages on your website where you don’t want LinkSwitcher to switch the links, simply add their URLs in this section.

1. Click the View pages button.

2. Add the URLs of the needed pages. The URLs should be full and include the domain.

3. Click Save settings.
You will be able to remove pages from the list at any time.

Next steps after installation and setup

After you’re done with the installation and setup steps, open any page on your website with the installed script. This will speed up the installation process.

You will see the Works label next to LinkSwitcher identifying that everything works correctly.

Once LinkSwitcher is turned on, it will automatically switch the links from all the brands that you are connected to on Travelpayouts. You will be able to see all clicks and bookings made via your Travelpayouts links in the Reports section of your account. For more details, check out the Affiliate program summary article.

How to check if the LinkSwitcher is installed correctly?

You can check whether LinkSwitcher is installed and working properly on the given page. To do this:

1. Launch the developer console in your browser. For example, in Google Chrome you should open the Chrome Menu in the upper-right-hand corner of the browser window and select More Tools -> Developer Tools

2. If the LinkSwitcher script is successfully installed on the page, you will see the following logs in the console:

where:

[tp] linkswitcher init means that the script was inserted into the page and started executing.
[tp] linkswitcher convert links means that the script sent a request to convert links.

FAQ about LinkSwitcher

Does LinkSwitcher slow down the website and affect SEO?

No, LinkSwitcher does not slow down the website. Currently, a site with our script can achieve a score of 100 on desktop and 84 on mobile in Google PageSpeed.

I am not working with the brand’s direct affiliate program, but I still have some links that I manually placed in my articles. Will LinkSwitcher help convert them into Travelpayouts affiliate links?

Yes, LinkSwitcher will convert such links as well.

I already joined the brand’s direct affiliate program on their site. How can I add this brand’s program on Travelpayouts without requesting to connect?

To work with any brand via Travelpayouts, you need to connect to their program within our platform separately. So you can’t skip this step even if you previously joined the brand’s program directly on its website.

I joined the Booking.com direct affiliate program before I joined Travelpayouts. Do I need to delete my Booking.com account and re-apply through TP to have all my data in one place?

You can use both accounts, as it’s in line with the terms provided by both Booking.com and Travelpayouts. Therefore, there’s no need to delete your Booking.com account to start working with Travelpayouts. This also applies to any other brands.

Can I transfer my statistics from the direct program to Travelpayouts and have all the history there?

Unfortunately, there's no possibility to transfer and merge statistics on your performance from the direct affiliate program into your Travelpayouts account. As long as these accounts can't be connected in any way, the statistics in your Travelpayouts account will be collected separately.

Can I apply for the brand’s program in Travelpayouts if I was canceled in their direct affiliate program?

Sure, but you still need to send a request to connect to a program via Travelpayouts. To do this, you need to create a Project in your Travelpayouts account and make sure to specify all the details about your website in it. Please note that some brands (e.g. Booking.com) provide rather strict requirements for our partners’ projects when it comes to approval. It’s important that your website is a travel-related content project updated on a regular basis.

Please note that if your request to connect to the direct affiliate program was declined, and you received a detailed explanation, you still need to bring your website in compliance with the requirements provided by the brand. After doing so, feel free to apply for the program within the Travelpayouts platform.

Where can I check the statistics for the Travelpayouts affiliate links?

Once LinkSwitcher converts the links, you will be able to check impressions, views, and clicks using the Reports section in your Travelpayouts account. You can filter the stats by Project, which will allow you to see how well the links are performing on each of your websites where LinkSwitcher is enabled.

Does LinkSwitcher add attributes to links?

Yes, LinkSwitcher adds the following attributes: noopener, nofollow, sponsored.

The links on my website contain manually created SubIDs. Will these SubIDs be retained if I start using LinkSwitcher?

Yes, all your existing SubIDs will remain intact. You can easily track them using the Travelpayouts Performance report.

How to turn LinkSwitcher off?

To turn off LinkSwitcher on one of your sites, open the Tech Solutions page in your Travelpayouts account and select the Project, where you want to turn LinkSwitcher off. Click the Pause tool toggle to deactivate it.

What is a cloaked link?

Cloaked links are links used to hide the real content or redirect users to different websites, typically to bypass moderation, filtering systems, or detection.

An example of how a cloaked link works: on a website, the link leading to a specific website is shown, but when the user clicks the link, they are redirected to a completely different resource that doesn't match the original appearance of the link.