TrekGuider Is Open: Why It Took an Extra Year

Last year we said TrekGuider would open before the end of 2025. We didn't make it. The site went live on October 6, 2026, and we were pretty quiet here for most of that year. So here's what we were doing.

Why it took so long

We could have opened sooner. But a marketplace handles other people's money and other people's work, and we didn't want to open until we were sure about the details.

A traveler wants a guide the moment they pay for it, and their money back if it isn't what the listing promised. A creator wants every sale counted and every payout on time. That gets a lot harder when buyers and creators live in different countries, pay with different cards and file taxes under different rules.

Money took the most time. We worked through every case where it changes hands: purchases, subscriptions, gifts, tips, refunds and card disputes. We also planned for the awkward ones, like a gift sent to someone who already owns that guide.

Paying creators was the hardest part. A creator in Texas, one in Germany and one in Canada each need their own identity check, bank details and tax forms. We built all of it right into TrekGuider and explained every step in plain English.

Along the way we made the site faster and adapted it for every device. Before launch we went through the whole buyer and creator journey ourselves, more than once, and fixed whatever got in the way.

For travelers

Find it and buy it

TrekGuider sells digital travel products from people who have actually been there: guides, itineraries, audio and video guides, e-books, maps, courses, checklists and more. You can browse by where you're going or by topic, and search covers products, articles and creators. Save what you like, and follow creators to hear about their new releases.

You don't need an account to buy. Check out as a guest and set a password later. With an account, you can save your card or top up your TrekGuider balance and pay from it. Prices are in US dollars, and you pay exactly the total you see. Your files are ready as soon as you pay, and every one of them has been scanned for viruses.

If a guide isn't right for you

Every product page shows its refund window. The creator picks it: 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, and some products have no refunds. Within the window you get the full price back. Just pick a reason and add screenshots if you like. If the creator doesn't respond within 30 days, the refund is approved automatically.

Gifts, subscriptions and tips

You can send a guide as a gift even if you don't have an account yourself. Your friend gets an email with a link and has a full year to claim it, and we'll remind them if they forget. You can change the recipient's address, and only the person you sent it to can claim the gift.

Some creators keep their guides up to date with entry rules, seasonal road closures and ferry schedules. You can subscribe to those monthly, quarterly or yearly and always get the latest version. If you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you paid for, and the last version you received stays yours.

If a creator made your trip better, you can thank them with a tip, once or every month.

Something to read

Travel News publishes short daily stories that could affect your trip: new routes, openings, and changes in transportation and booking. Each story is based on its original sources. Travel Insights has in-depth destination guides and practical travel articles. Our creators directory has more than 1,500 pages, each showing who the creator is, where they travel, what they sell and where to find them.

If something goes wrong, the Help Center answers the common questions, and you can reach us through the contact form with screenshots attached. You choose which emails you get in your settings.

For creators

Getting started

You sign up, verify your identity and add your bank details right on TrekGuider. Verification takes about two minutes: a photo of your ID and a selfie. Creators in the US, the UK, Canada, Switzerland and the European Economic Area get the full setup and are paid in their local currency. Creators in many other countries can join too, wherever our payment partner can open an account for them.

Money

Your commission goes down as your sales grow: 10% to start, 8% after $1,000 in sales and 5% after $5,000. Top creators can negotiate their own terms. New creators pay 5% for their first 30 days, and a level you've reached never drops.

Earnings land in your balance and can be withdrawn after 10 days. A standard withdrawal costs 0.5% + $0.25 and takes two to four business days, so withdrawing $100 puts $99.25 in your bank. If you need it faster, an express withdrawal reaches an eligible debit card in minutes for an extra 1% + $0.50. The minimum withdrawal is $50.

Tax forms take a couple of minutes on the site. US creators fill out a W-9 once their sales reach $600 in a calendar year, and everyone else fills out a W-8BEN before their first withdrawal. All your tax documents are kept on your Documents page. If a US creator earns $600 or more in a year, we deduct a $2.99 fee for the 1099 form, once for that year.

Sales aren't the only way to earn. A product you keep updating can be sold as a subscription, and any product can be bought as a gift. Fans can leave you tips. Promo codes for your products are free for every creator. And when you invite another creator, you earn 25% of our commission on their sales for their first 30 days and 12.5% for the rest of their first year.

If a buyer opens a card dispute and the creator loses it, we only pass on the dispute fee our payment processor charged us.

Products

You create a product step by step: type, category, location, description, price, refund window and files. If the category or location you need isn't there, you can suggest it. Files of several gigabytes upload straight from your browser, and you can pause an upload and pick it up later. Books, audio, video, design files and GPS tracks that open in navigation apps all work.

You can edit a published product without taking it off sale. While your changes are in review, buyers see the previous version. Only people who bought your files can download them, and you can report anyone who copies your work.

Your page and your articles

Every creator has a page with a photo, a short bio, the places they cover, their products and links to their social channels. Travelers can follow you, and partners can reach you through a contact form without seeing your email address.

If you run a travel channel on YouTube, we may have already made a page for you. To claim it, add a short code to your profile description on YouTube, TikTok or Discord.

You can publish your own articles in Travel Insights and schedule them for the right time in your time zone. Your dashboard shows sales, payouts, tips and referral earnings, with every fee spelled out.

Security

You can protect your sign-in with a code from an authenticator app. If someone signs in from a new device, we'll email you, and you can sign out of every other device with one click. Passwords need at least 12 characters, and passwords that have shown up in data breaches aren't allowed.

Every money transaction is recorded, and every day we check that we can pay out everything we owe to creators and buyers. Products, articles and reviews are checked automatically, and our moderators review anything that gets flagged.

We don't store ID numbers. Identity checks are handled by our payment partner. In the cookie settings you can switch off analytics and marketing cookies. You can delete your account at any time, and you can change your mind until the deletion takes effect.

What's next

We'll keep shipping updates every week, based on what you tell us. Creator+, with email newsletters for creators, is coming soon.

Thanks to everyone who has followed us since our first posts and waited this long. We know it was a long wait, and we hope you like what you find.

If you're planning a trip, take a look at guides from people who've already been there. If you write or film about travel, set up your page and list your first product.

Welcome to TrekGuider.