If you’re wondering how to start a travel blog, you’ve come to the ideal place. With blogging, you get the chance to educate, inspire and entertain your readers, and as you grow, you begin making money.
While most people think of travel blogging as time-consuming and daunting, you cannot go wrong with this. In this post, we walk you through the steps you need to start a travel blog.
Let’s discuss.
1. Choose a blogging platform.
First, you need to select a blogging platform for publishing your travel content. There are several sites to consider that can help you create a professional-looking blog. With pretty straightforward platforms providing you with free web templates to choose from, you can personalize your site and adjust it according to your target audience’s needs.
Since all the templates are fully customizable, you can begin your blogging journey with ease by opening the template and playing with the different layouts until you find what you fancy. You can alter the images, delete sections, change the site name, etc. The options are endless.
Go for a template that covey’s your blog’s subject idea and reflects the mood you want to set.
Always choose a design you like.
In case you’re wondering, starting a travel blog is free.
2. Select a hosting platform
Once you’ve chosen your blogging platform, you need to pick a hosting platform. That stores your website on a server under a unique address and allows visitors to find you. To choose a hosting platform, you can consider the bandwidth, uptime, and customer support offered.
Once you select a blogging platform and hosting provider, you can think about what you want to write.
In this case, you already know that you want to write about travel.
3. Choose a blog name and domain.
By now, you might be wondering the best name to give to your travel blog. However, you can come up with a name that appeals to your audience, one that reflects what you’re writing about
Once decided, go ahead and choose your domain name That gets influenced by your travel blog’s name.
4. Brainstorm travel topics
Technically, your travel blog is almost set to go, so you need to think about the topics you want to delve into and share.
Think about the insights you want to share, success, and crucial travel elements. As you figure this out, try to get into your target audience’s head. Think about what they’re excited to know and how you can help solve an issue.
5. Write your first blog post.
With the above ideas in mind, you’re ready to dive into writing your first blog. Begin with researching the ideal keywords. That increases your chances of your blog appearing on search engine results. For instance, if you want to share how to travel on a budget, you’ll want to target keywords such as travel, budget, and so on.
Since some keywords are more obvious than others, you want to refine this using free keyword search tools. Ensure to target this throughout your article and structure the blog posts using formats you see in the top search results for those keywords.
Remember to outline your primary points, create a blog post title, write engaging content, insert images, optimize for SEO, edit and publish your travel blog.
6. Create an editorial calendar
Now that you’ve written your first travel blog post, you need to schedule the rest of the month’s postings. Creating an editorial calendar is crucial when starting a travel blog. It helps you stay consistent, holding yourself accountable, ensuring that you do not deviate from your writing goals.
Readers want fresh content, and you need to deliver. Also, search engines assess the frequency with which you publish to determine your website’s overall ranking.
You might be wondering how often you need to have a travel blog up on your site.
As a rule of the thumb, the more frequently you blog, the more traffic you get. There’s no set standard, but you can do your best to write several times a month. That will also help you get many leads.
7. Promote your blog
Since you have all the information needed to start a travel blog, you need to promote it. And readers will never know about you without marketing what you do.
Research creative ways to increase traffic to your site. You may use SEO, share your content on social media, create blog newsletters, write for other websites, reach out to an existing community, participate in question and discussion sites, invest in paid ads, and try new content formats.
8. Make money blogging
Finally, if you’re looking to start a travel blog, the odds are that you want to make money from the same. Some of the best money-making strategies to consider include
- Affiliate marketing– This is one of the most common ways of making money through blogging. It is effortless to get started with this, and the amount you earn goes up with experience.
- Advertising within your blog- Another way to make money blogging is by advertising within your blog. That means that you will be selling your blog ad space for adverts. The method is reliable, and you earn from pay per click. Google AdSense is one of the most reliable programs you can consider.
- Offering paid subscriptions- Do you know of companies or brands that make you pay to access their content? You can do this for your travel blog. Even though some of your blogs should be free, you can create content that readers can access via subscription plans.
- Writing sponsored content- Another way to make money via your travel blog is by reaching out to, say, travel companies. Or, as your blog grows, you need to make it effortless for brands to reach out to you regarding sponsorship opportunities. You can write travel blogs promoting these companies, and you will get paid for the same.
- Sell travel merchandise and e-books- You can sell goods directly off of your site. That might include merchandise and products related to travel and other useful resources. Add a pay button to allow readers to click to browse your merchandise.
