How to Start a Travel Blog

Starting your first blog might seem like a huge task, but it’s actually pretty easy! You don’t even need to be technically minded to start a blog! Just follow my free step by step guide on how to start a travel blog. Get your own blog up and running today!

Although my blog is focused on travelling, this guide can help you start a blog no matter what your niche is.

How to start a travel blog (step by step guide)

1) Find the perfect name for your blog.

The first thing you need to decide on before creating your travel blog is the name.

To help you come up with a name, here are several points to take into account:

• Make it short and memorable.
• Avoid using hyphens and numbers.
• Make your name unique – use a personal word to compliment a more generic one.
• Think about your blog name in the long term (you don’t want a name that will only be applicable for a limited time frame).
• Check it doesn’t already exist as a .com domain – and also check social media

I came up with thegingerwanderlust.com, as I wanted a name that represented myself (being ginger is one of my most remarkable features) and also my love of travel (hence wanderlust). This name also works well as an Instagram handle (and it  was available – remember to check this also!)

Some other key travel words to help you come up with a name are: adventure, world, explore, discover, destination, escape, wander, trip, lost, somewhere, away, nomad, globe, passport, journey.

2) Start a travel blog – Set up the hosting

Hosting is basically a space that you “rent” on the internet for your website. Here, you can store all of your data, files, and photos that make up your site, so that people around the world can easily access it when they come to your domain name.

Free vs self hosted

When you start a travel blog you can either choose to host it for free (like on wordpress.com) or pay and be self hosted. If you want to monetise your blog, have full control over the aesthetic and have a professional domain name (like thegingerwanderlust.com rather than thegingerwanderlust.wordpress.com) then you should go self hosted.

When I created my blog I had no idea that self hosted existed so I originally set up an account on the free wordpress.com. As I wanted to have a domain name and use plugins I had to upgrade to a business account  (£240 a year!).

As my blog started to grow I realised I needed to become self hosted. I decided to migrate my blog over to BlueHost, which is 3x cheaper than wordpress. It was super easy to migrate over, I used the All-in-one WP migration plugin.

Being self–hosted meant I was able to set up a shop on my blog to sell my own products.

I wish I’d known about self hosting before starting my blog. Hopefully you won’t make the same mistake as me!

Bluehost

I am hosted by BlueHost. They are a great hosting company to start with, as they make setting up a new travel blog really easy. They offer quality shared hosting for a really low price of only $5.95 per month for 12 months through this link. If you really want to commit to your blog (and thus save money in the long run) it’s only $3.95 per month for 36 months. They have a great support and online chat service plus they give you a free domain name! 

I would recommend starting out with the 36 month plan with BlueHost. Not only for the potential money saved, but for the positive mindset that this will put you in. If you go into it thinking you’ll still be running your site in three years, you’ll be more likely to succeed!

Here, you can also check if you’re domain page is free, or add your existing domain page through BlueHost when you sign up.

I talk a bit more about hosting in ‘what I wish I knew before starting my blog’.

3) Install wordpress

If you want to start a travel blog, you need a self-hosted WordPress.org account. This means the WordPress software lives in your hosting company’s servers, and not on a free WordPress.com account.

“Why” I hear you ask:

• This way your website is “thegingerwanderlust.com” rather than “thegingerwanderlust.WordPress.com” (easier to remember and looks more professional).
• You own your data and information and have full control over your site.
• You can use Google Analytics tracking.
• You can sell advertising on your site and don’t have WordPress ads.
• If you want to use plugins it’s cheaper to be self hosted.

I would recommend WordPress over any other software, it is what I personally use, and what most professional websites use. It is also super easy to upload to your BlueHost account as it’s done automatically!

4) Make your blog look professional

Once you have your BlueHost account sorted and your WordPress account uploaded, you need to start thinking about the look and feel of your blog.

Pick a theme

The best place to start is with a theme. Themes help you to easily design your site, I first started my blog using the free theme called “Gateway”. Free themes are a great way to get started and work out what kind of layout you want, but they are a lot less flexible. I have since purchased a theme so that I am able to personalise my blog more. After careful consideration I chose a theme called Laurel, as I liked the minimalistic and clean style.

Add widgets

If you go to customize your blogs appearance you will see a section where you can add side bar and footer widgets. I would suggest adding at least a mini about me section (you can upload this using the text widget), a “follow my blog” widget and links to your social media.

5) Install some useful plugins

Plugins for WordPress are sort of like apps for a website, they give your blog additional features. Similar to apps, some plugins are free, others you will need to pay for. You can find and install plugins in the “plugin” section of your WordPress Dashboard.

You can only use plugins if you have wordpress business or bluehost account. A subscription to Bluehost is THREE times cheaper than wordpress.com business.

Here are a few useful plugins that I use:

• Yoast SEO – A super important plugin to help optimise your blog posts for Google Search.
• WPtouch – This plugin helps to make your blog mobile friendly. Ensuring that your SEO rankings do not drop due to not having a mobile-friendly website.
• Akismet Anti Spam – This plugin checks your comments for spammers.
• East Watermark – Easily add a watermark to all of your own photography (either automatically or manually), thus protecting your intellectual property rights.
• Easy Social Share Buttons – Easily share your articles on social media with the sharing buttons.

I also use Woocommerce to manage my shop. If you want to set up a shop I would recommend downloading this too!

6) Start creating content

About me

The “About Me” page on your blog is likely to become one of the most useful and popular pages on your blog. You might think this is crazy, but humans are naturally curious and so your new readers will want to learn more about you and why they should stick around.

Make sure you include:

• A photo of yourself
• What value you provide to your readers
• Who is your site for?
• You personal bio
• What kind of things do you write about?
• A call to action (follow me on Instagram, etc)

Write your first post

The main thing driving people to your blog is the content! So make sure you take your time to create useful blog posts that have impact. You want your articles to inspire wanderlust, as well as being full of tips.

Make sure you add headers and images to make your article easy to read and follow. Check out my step to step guide to writing a blog post for more tips, and use my blog post checklist to make sure your articles is optimised.

Here are a few ideas for travel blog posts:

• Top things to do in a country.
• Guide to a specific city/place.
• Travel itinerary ideas.
• Travel hacks

When you first start out, I recommend publishing a new article at least once a week. But remember, quality is more important than quantity! Learn more about how to write a good blog post (including SEO tips).

If you’re not travelling at the moment, don’t worry about it! Create a different kind of content, like how you are currently saving money for travel, or a guide to where you live. You can also reflect back on places you have previously visited. If you don’t have appropriate photos have a look on pixabay or unsplash, they provide free stock photos and videos.

Remember to add a category for each blog, this way you can then add that category to your menu and thus make your blog easier to navigate. Also make sure you add a ‘featured image’, I create mine on canva using one of my photos.

7) Work on your SEO

The last step to work on for your blog is to improve the SEO so that people can find your website. Other than tagging your blog posts and using keywords, there are a few ways you can improve your SEO (and your traffic).

Social Media

Sharing your blog on social media is a great way not only to bring traffic to your site but it also improves your SEO. As the more people clicking through to your website from external sources, the more trusted Google deems your site to be. Make sure you set up a Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, and every time you post, share it on each platform.

40% of my traffic comes from my Pinterest. For each of my blog posts I schedule at least 10 pins via Tailwind (a scheduling platform for Pinterest). This allows me to have pins coming out all week without having to manually pin them each time. It also allows me to join Tailwind Tribes so that I can have my pins shared by other bloggers (so more exposure).

A good practice to implement into each blog post is where you add 2 images at the end of each of your article that can be ‘pinned’. Use a pretty and relevant image and add the blog title plus your domain name. You can create this using Canva. Scroll down to see an example.

15% of the traffic on my blog comes from my Instagram. If you want to learn more about growing your Instagram, check out my e-book.

Network With Other Bloggers

Become an active member of the travel blogging community. Find other travel bloggers, not only are they a great source of inspiration and ideas, but you can also team up to promote each others blogs (where relevant). Show support on their blogs with comments, this also acts as a way for people to discover you!

Best of luck with your blog! Remember that at first your traffic will probably be low (just friends and family) but as you create more content, and improve your SEO, your traffic will grow! I wrote a blog post on 6 things I learnt in my first year of blogging, hopefully it will help you too!

Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links that help to support my blog 🙂

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