In this day and age, 80% of travelers plan their trips through the internet, and 30% of them read travel blogs for advice, tips, and ideas.
Not only that, but 59% of travel bloggers run more than one travel blog which can create a lot of passive income opportunities, especially because 94% of them sell advertising.
With that said, the remaining content will tell you how to start a travel blog with WordPress, and everything else you need to know about travel blogging!
Ready to explore? Let’s get started!
In addition to your passion for travel, you’re going to need a few more things to get your new blog off the ground.
Every new blog will need:
• A domain name
• Web hosting
• Free WordPress software.
• A suitable WordPress theme.
• Some WordPress plugins to boost your blog’s performance.
With that said, let’s jump into some niche ideas:
There’s no doubt that travel blogging is a crowded niche, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of room for some newbies like you.
If your brand new travel blog has a generic name and writes about generic topics, it’s going to drown in search engine results that are already packed with full-time bloggers who have written about those topics.
Luckily, picking a good niche doesn’t have to be hard.
Brainstorming specific locations you might like to focus on, audiences you might want to target, or styles of travel you may want to specialize in is a good place to start.
Additionally, here are a few travel blog niche ideas:
Whatever you do, pick a niche that you will be able to sustain long-term.
It’s going to take a lot of patience and persistence to achieve success.
The best blog names are short, easy to spell, and memorable.
You want people to be able to easily type it into a search engine or browser without being directed to an entirely different website.
Some general rules for choosing a blog name are:
• Include your niche
• Avoid using hyphens
• Use humor, puns, and alliteration if it works
• Don’t be afraid to use your own name or nickname
• Select a target keyword in your blog name
• Pick an abbreviation or acronym
• Keep it simple and memorable
Lastly, come up with several options as your preferred blog name might already be taken.
Your domain name is the website address that people will type into their browser to visit your travel website.
There are a ton of different sites that make it easy to find and buy a domain name.
Some of the most popular are:
• GoDaddy
• WordPress
• Google Domains
• NameCheap
The cost will depend on the level of demand for your chosen domain name.
We’d recommend doing a quick Google search to find the best domain deals and free domain name offers.
You should also check the domain privacy policy, as privacy for your domain name will assure no one can find out your personal details.
Also consider if your chosen domain name is available on social media platforms, as this will come in handy later.
Next, you’ll need to get yourself a web hosting account:
Web hosting can be compared to a plot of internet land you need to reserve to build your site.
There are many different web hosting companies to choose from to find the best fit for you and your needs.
In fact, industry leaders such as GoDaddy cover around 20% of the web hosting market, followed by Amazon AWS and others.
Additionally, here are some other popular web hosting companies:
• Bluehost
• Hostgator
• Hostinger
They all offer different deals, packages, and prices, so you might want to shop around to find the best hosting plan for you.
When choosing your hosting provider, you’ll want to check that they make it easy to set up WordPress through your account.
Whichever hosting company you choose, the process of buying hosting and getting it set up is fairly simple.
Just head over to the hosting company’s website and select one of their plans.
Each company will offer varying plans, and for a personal blog, you may just need a basic plan that covers one single domain.
Just make sure it includes an SSL certificate and unmetered bandwidth.
The next step to setting up your travel blog is to choose which content management system it will be based on.
There are a wide range of blogging platforms out there, including big names like:
• Wix
• Ghost
• Squarespace
• WordPress
They all offer different website-building tools, available features, and varying subscription prices.
For new travel bloggers, we would recommend basing your site on WordPress.
WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the internet. It’s the most popular web developer out there due to its functionality and user-friendly interface.
WordPress has a huge range of handy plugins and widgets that make it easy to create a professional-looking site that performs well on search engines.
Additionally, most web hosting companies make it easy to integrate WordPress to your site.
Keep in mind that WordPress.com is different from WordPress.org. WordPress.com is a blogging platform whereas WordPress.org is the software.
Additionally, many beginner bloggers start out using WordPress.com as their blogging platform.
In this guide, we will be showing you how to sign up for WordPress.com.
Here’s how:
Head on over to WordPress.com.
Click on “start your website”:
Pick your domain name or a pre-existing one:
Pick your preferred plan:
Tell WordPress your goals:
Pick your category:
You will then be guided through customizing your chosen theme!
Ready to make your new WordPress blog look professional? To do this, we’ll need to add a WordPress theme.
Head to your WordPress dashboard, click the tab titled “appearance” and select the option called “themes”:
You’ll now see the huge range of themes available, including loads of free themes that will transform your site into something sleek and eye-catching.
Each theme comes with a preview as well as a tutorial on how to use and customize it.
However, you might want to consider opting for a premium theme as these tend to have more customization options.
The main section you need to focus on right now is “site identity”.
Here you can change your site title and tagline, as well as add a logo. If you’ve already got a logo for your travel blog, go ahead and upload it.
Let’s move into branding:
Not a graphic designer? No worries!
There are plenty of websites and apps that make it easy to create a professional-looking logo for free.
Search “free logo maker” on Google or create a free account with Canva.
Canva is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop graphic design tool.
They offer loads of free templates, font combinations, and symbols that will help you create the perfect logo for your travel blog.
Here is an example:
When designing your logo, remember to make it clear, simple, and effective.
You want it to look as professional as possible so that visitors to your site will trust your advice and see you as an authority.
Once you’re happy with the finished product, download your logo as a compressed file with a transparent background.
Then upload it in the “site identity” section of your WordPress website editor.
The next thing you need to do to create your travel blog is use some helpful WordPress plugins.
Plugins are pre-made features and software that you can download and incorporate into your site.
It saves having to spend a lot of time and a lot of work.
Some plugins help optimize your images, some integrate your social media content into your site, and others help you ensure every page and post on your site is search engine optimized.
Click on the “plugins” section on your WordPress dashboard and you’ll see the vast array of tools available to add to your site.
It might be tempting, but don’t go mad and download them all!
Too many plugins will slow down your site. Instead, start off with our recommended basics:
Elementor is a website builder plugin that allows you to visually build your site. It’s available for free with the option to upgrade to Elementor Pro for premium features.
What we like about this plugin is that:
• You can use a drag-and-drop tool to easily build every page on your site
• You can edit your website live and watch as it comes to life
• Access to over 100 widgets
• Access to over 300 templates made by professional web designers
• Ensure your website theme has a responsive design that looks great on desktop, mobile, and tablet
• Establish global settings that make sure fonts and colors are consistent across your whole site
A lot of people make Yoast SEO one of the first plugins they install to a new site because it makes SEO so easy.
There’s not much point in starting a travel blog if no one is going to read it, and Yoast SEO helps you make your site as visible as possible on search engines.
Social media is going to play a huge role in building an avid audience for your travel blog, and this plugin is essential for integrating social media on your site.
This free plugin supports over 80 social media platforms including all the big names like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
You can add buttons to your blog posts, images, and videos that make it easy for viewers to share your content on their social media.
You can also add buttons to your site that allow readers to follow you on social media with one click.
Once you start publishing blog posts, you don’t want to have a comment section filled with spam. It’s annoying for you, and off-putting for readers.
This plugin prevents you from having to delete all of these comments manually - as this becomes near impossible when you have upwards of 10 blog posts.
Check your pre-installed plugins and you might find that your WordPress site has already got Akismet installed and ready to go.
A huge part of marketing your blog and making it monetizable is building an email list. This free plugin makes building a list of email subscribers easy.
You’ll need to create an account with Mailchimp before linking it to your plugin and creating a subscription.
Are you ready to write your first post?
You first need to decide if you will be writing it yourself or for having an article writing service create your content for you.
You probably have a ton of ideas, whether that be travel guides, travel tips, pros and cons of budget travel, or a travel diary from a recent trip.
It could be helpful to do some keyword research.
Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines like Google and Bing.
Researching keywords to use in your blog ensures that you are providing information that people actually want to know.
Using these keywords in your content also helps you appear in search results.
To do this, simply head to a free keyword research tool and search for a phrase based on your blog idea.
Once you have an idea for your very first post, we can go ahead and write it!
WordPress will have automatically given your site a designated homepage, but you’ll probably want to spruce it up with some added content and features.
A homepage should look inviting to blog readers. It should provide them with information about your blog and convince them to read your content.
You can begin editing your homepage by heading to “pages” on your WordPress dashboard and locating the homepage.
You can then edit the page with headings, text, and images.
We’d recommend including the following content on your homepage:
• A short statement of who you are and what you offer
• A recent post slider that displays your recent blog posts.
• A call to action
• A mini bio
• An email opt-in form
Make sure you deck out your About page with information about you, your experience, qualifications, hobbies, interests, maybe a bit of a story about yourself, and a little picture of you on your travels wouldn’t go amiss either!
Here are a few tips for creating a great “about me” page:
• Use either first or third person
• Don't use fluff
• Include images
• Use your brand's voice
• Use humor or relatability
• Be honest and friendly
Before we move on, now would be a good time to set up a few more pages that are essential for a good travel blog such as a “Contact” page.
Your contact page should provide a contact email, phone number, or any other information to reach you that is tailored to your blog.
You may also want to consider adding a contact form that makes it easy for readers to reach out.
You might’ve noticed that some of your site’s pages include a sidebar. To really make the most of this space we’ll need to add some widgets.
Widgets are visual features and functions that allow visitors to your site to do things like follow you on Instagram, search your posts, subscribe to email, or click on a call to action.
In addition to your sidebar, widgets can also be added to your header and footer.
To get started, go to the “appearance” tab on your WordPress dashboard and select “widgets”.
Over on the left, you should see the widgets you currently have available.
Then on the right, you will see the different locations that are available for widgets (such as your home sidebar, post sidebar, and page sidebars).
It’s a good idea to include a search widget, a featured posts widget, and an email subscription widget on your sidebar.
Then you can include social media in the footer.
You’ll be happy to hear that your site is now almost complete!
There’s just one more thing to sort out and that’s your site menu.
A clear menu not only helps visitors navigate your site but also helps Google’s crawlers index your site in their search rankings.
With a site that looks as good as yours and a handful of helpful blog posts under your wing - you’re ready to start growing an audience.
The more people read and engage with your blog, the easier it will be to attract organic traffic to your site.
There are several ways to begin building an audience as a new blogger, and we’ll explain them here:
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn are daily touchpoints for your target audience.
The average adult spends 95 minutes every day on social media, so make sure you’re promoting your posts on their feed!
Whether you’re sharing your new blog post on Facebook or uploading a teaser photo and caption to Instagram, social media is one of the most valuable sources of initial blog traffic.
Another effective way to reach new members of your target audience is to publish a guest post on another popular blog.
Browse the internet for other travel bloggers in your niche and find out if they accept guest posts.
You can then reach out and pitch an article that you think would fit in on their site. If they accept, you’ll be able to include an author bio where you can link to your own site.
Get out there and get acquainted with the other travel bloggers in your niche!
Without the risk of coming across as fake or spammy, digitally introduce yourself to other bloggers and make friends.
Aim to create lasting connections without being disingenuous.
Your network could come in handy for advice, introductions to brands, and even business deals down the line.
Then you might want to start by interacting with other travel blog posts.
Leave a comment on another blog’s post using your blog’s account and it’s like a little ad for your own blog and content.
The more you interact in comment sections, the more other readers will start recognizing your name.
The travel communities on online forums are a great place to demonstrate your expertise, engage with other bloggers, and promote your blog.
Take Quora for instance. It’s a site full of people asking questions about traveling that you can answer!
Provide in-depth, helpful answers to people’s questions and include a link to your site for more information. It’s a great way to get free advertising for your blog.
Search engine optimization is a long-term approach to receiving a constant stream of organic traffic.
It requires strategically-written blog posts that use target keywords, related keywords, and long tail keywords in order to appear in search results for a certain query.
Make sure your blog is targeting search engines by writing blog posts based on topics you find in your keyword research.
Once you’re getting a reliable stream of organic traffic to your site, you can think about making some money.
With that said, here are some pro tips for SEO:
• Write keyword-rich headers
• Consider guest posting
• Publish consistently
• Improve your page speed
• Use alt-text
• Use Google Analytics
• Write out meta-descriptions
• Write long-form content
• Use long-tail keywords
Now for the good stuff!
Let’s explore the best ways to make money with your travel blog:
When it comes to monetizing your new travel blog, you may be under the assumption that you need to have a million followers and pageviews to begin making money.
This is just not true!
As we’ll explain here, there are lots of lucrative methods available to get the most out of a steady flow of traffic.
Such as:
When your blog is still in its early stages it makes sense to get signed up to Google Adsense and make the most of the steady drip of traffic you have so far.
Google Adsense allows bloggers like you to place text, video, and image-based ads on your site.
Then you get paid when someone clicks on an ad on your site.
To get started, you’ll need to provide Google with your blog URL, name, and address. You should also check out Google’s guidelines to make sure you get accepted.
It takes around 24 hours to get accepted, but once you’re in you’ll want to log in to your new Google Adsense account and add new ads.
A great way for blogging beginners to start receiving income is to use affiliate marketing programs.
Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product in one of your blog posts, and then include an “affiliate link” that provides you with a commission when the person buys the product.
Amazon Associates is one of the easiest affiliate programs to start with. As you probably already know, Amazon is loaded with products in every category and niche.
So it shouldn’t be hard to find lots of relevant products to recommend.
As a travel blog, you may want to recommend a certain suitcase, backpack, or camping supplies. And Amazon’s affiliate program is free to join and quick to set up.
Once you create an Amazon Affiliate account, you’ll be able to create special links for products you want to recommend.
These links include a tracking code so that Amazon knows you sent them a customer.
Then if the customer purchases that product within 24 hours of clicking on your link - you receive a commission!
Lastly, make sure every affiliate link comes with a disclosure statement - you don’t want to mislead your readers!
Don’t waste time waiting for the sponsorships to start flooding in, create your own digital product to sell to your readers!
As a travel blogger, you obviously have lots of expertise, so why give it all away for free?
You can turn it into premium content that your readers won’t mind spending a little bit of money on.
Great ideas for travel-based digital products include:
• Location-specific eBook travel guides
• Printables such as packing checklists and to-do lists
• Campfire recipe eBooks
• Sell your travel photography
Take some time to create a really high-quality product that is worth the money.
If you’re creating an eBook, free online tools like Canva make it easy to design a book cover that looks professional and top quality.
You should also be careful to price your product wisely and promote it across your social media accounts.
Once you have a solid following and a steady flow of high-quality traffic coming into your site, you may be ready to earn money through sponsorships.
Sponsorships are when a travel brand pays you to write about them, or they may offer you a free trip as long as you write about it.
But how do you land yourself a sponsored post as a travel blogger?
Unless you’ve become mega famous overnight, you’ll probably have to approach travel brands with a proposal for sponsorship.
When you do this, make sure you are realistic about the size of a brand that would be happy to work with you.
Some tips for landing a sponsorship include:
• Engaging and interacting with your target travel brands on social media.
• Create a 1-page media kit that includes your social reach, blog page views, a headshot, your niche, and any current brand partnerships or ambassador roles.
• Sign up for sponsorship networks designed to pair influencers with brands.
We touched on the potential of using social media to build your audience, but we think it’s such an important source of traffic.
In fact, a whopping 95.9% of bloggers promote their content on social media.
Tips to earn traffic from Instagram:
• Utilize the link in your bio
• Use Instagram’s story highlights feature
• Start a conversation
• Optimize your Instagram account
• Publish consistent content
• Schedule Instagram posts in advance
• Get partners or brand advocates
• Avoid buying followers
• Showcase your socials everywhere
• Post content your audience wants to see
You can update your Instagram bio link whenever you like, so it makes sense to update it with a link to your brand new post or your digital product.
You can then include a call to action in your Instagram posts to “click the link in bio to find out more”.
Additionally, Instagram has a feature that allows you to add stories to categorize highlight reels on your profile.
This allows your stories to exist long beyond their 24-hour limit, which is ideal if they included calls to action.
Encourage your followers to slide into your DMs!
You can then send them links to recommended blog posts or your digital product.
Tips to earn traffic from Facebook:
• Optimize your Facebook page
• Use your Facebook Insights
Don’t overlook your Facebook page’s analytics. You can use them to see which posts your followers engage with the most.
Make sure you include a URL to your site, useful information about your blog, an engaging profile and cover photos, and a CTA button.
Pinterest is one of the most valuable sources of free traffic for travel bloggers.
Here’s how to drive traffic to your blog with Pinterest:
• Make sure that your blog has a Pinterest Business account
• Make a list of all of your blog posts so far. Now type each of those topics into the Pinterest search bar and look at the suggested searches
• Learn how to make an optimized pin
• Upload your pin to Pinterest with a Title that includes your target search term, and include any related keywords in the pin’s description
• Make sure you have a selection of boards on your Pinterest profile, such as “budget travel”, “travel guides”, and “packing lists”
• Utilize Pinterest’s amazing analytics software to see which pins are performing well
When it comes to understanding how to start a travel blog, it’s important to remember that it is a crowded market and a lot of hard work.
Our tips will give you a great head start to finding a valuable niche and designing an impressive site, but the real secret to becoming a successful travel blogger is patience and persistence.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed?
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Schedule a call today with one of our experts!