Many people dream of traveling the world for a living; and there can do this, who are not pilots, flight attendants, or businessmen. These people are known as travel bloggers and are paid to visit and write about their greatest passion in life: traveling.
Before you think it’s all a dream, it’s time to dispel some myths and tell some truths about starting a travel blog.
Travel blog truths
Who wouldn’t want to be a travel blogger? Travel can be expensive and the idea of getting someone else to cover their expenses is certainly tempting. But it’s not just about taking first-class trips. class in Paris. The travel blog is like a job.
Boost your WordPress site speed by up to 200% by simply switching to Kinsta.
Travel blogging isn’t easy. The fact that you travel and get paid to do it while staying in the best accommodation is what most people see. They don’t realize there are a lot of struggles that go along with figuring out how to start a travel blog.
Here’s what you need to know before you start as a travel blogger:
It’s a saturated niche. Everyone wants to ride the wave of being a travel blogger, thinking it’s all rainbows and sunshine – which, according to the travel blogger (and some followers), may require mandatory hotel stays. 5 stars. But it’s not that easy. There are a lot of travel bloggers who spent a lot of time building their empires before they took off to the point where they received special benefits (or compensation).
Many times, you are behind your computer. Being a blogger is like having your magazine and being the editor, photographer, writer, and stylist, all rolled into one. Some bloggers have teams now, but in the beginning, it’s just you. traveler photos and/or videos, writing, SEO, social media planning: all these tasks take some time in front of your computer.
Writer’s block. Companies pay you for content and to be a successful travel blogger you must meet deadlines like any normal job. that every place has to offer isn’t easy, especially when you just want to relax and you’re on a tight deadline.
You won’t earn a fixed income. As with freelancers in general, you’re only as good as your next project. You’ll also have to think of travel blogging as an expense in the beginning. After all, how are you going to start write about places you’ve never been? You need to invest some money to make the trip that will be the subject of your content.
If you’re a travel blogger on your own, it can’t go from place to place. And since you’re not in one place for too long, you’ll constantly break and break friendships and connections.
I don’t know what will be next. Becoming a travel blogger may seem exciting at first, but you constantly must plan for what’s next. result.
If you just want to learn how to open a travel blog to share your travels, then these truths may not apply to you. Your expectations and ambitions will be based on self-actualization (and perhaps sharing your adventures with your friends and family) more than building a brand to attract sponsors.
How to start a travel blog
Not afraid of the hard truths of travel blogging? Here’s how to start off a travel blog, slowly:
Choose a niche
There are two basic ways to start: travel, then figure out how to start a travel blog or intend to start a travel blog, then take the actual trip. The motivation for people in the first situation is probably specifically the fact that they want an outlet to share their travels with family and friends, while the latter is more suitable for those who intend to expand and monetize their travel blog in the future.
Like food blogs, there are a dozen travel blogs out there, so it’s best to start by picking a niche (especially when you eventually want to make money from travel blogging) that will help differentiate you from the package, as travel blogging generally doesn’t play well when it comes to SEO efforts.
Sub Niches Travel Blog
There are so many travel blogs niches that you can think of and fill a need. For some, their niche comes naturally. For others, it may take a while to decide. Here are some questions you can ask when determining a niche for your travel blog:
- Why do I want to blog?
- What excites me about telling or teaching others?
- What are my skills, strengths, interests, and skills?
- Can I write at length on this subject? The niche should not be too wide or too narrow.
If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some of the most popular travel niches:
- City blog: Con focused on your city (you don’t have to travel that far and maybe know the subject better than most)
- Country-focused: destinations across the country
- Region/Region: Focused on South America or Southeast Asia
- Focused on Demographics: How Travel Blogs Cater Specifically to US and US Passport Holders
- cheap travel
- luxury travel
- Solo travel
- women’s journey
- Traveling for work
- adventurous journey
- family trip
- Empty nesters / traveling for the elderly
- Traveling with a disability
Or, if you’re ambitious, you can even blog about your trip around the world, like Gary Arndt did on Everything Everywhere. He sold his house in 2007 and has since traveled the world (more than 175 countries and beyond).
Travel blogs around the world
To make sure someone wants to read your blog, search for your competition (to check if there’s an existing audience for your idea). popular in a niche, like “Travelling South America,” to get an idea of what other bloggers are writing. So, ask yourself, can you do it better?
Traveling to South America
Alternatively, you might want to try to be first in your niche. If you can, discover a difference in the market. If you’re wondering, “Why didn’t anyone do this?” ” – Do it yourself!
Mark
Most bloggers market themselves as brands. Your brand is what you’re known for and known as. It’s what makes people say, “That’s so XX! when they see a piece of your content.
Aspects of blog branding include:
- Name and niche of your blog
- The overall look of your blog: the theme, fonts, logo, color scheme, images you use, and so on
- The voice of your writing
Come up with your name Blog
Your blog name is important because it is also what your blog is known as (your brand). While you will be able to change many things about your blog over time, your name is something you should stick with. Think about it before you decide.
You can start with your name, a game with that name, or a mix of name and travel-related terms. Some general rules to settle on a blog name (which will also be your domain name):
- Also, it shouldn’t be too long
- Must not contain hyphens or numbers
For more advice, you can consult our guide: How to choose a domain name (8 tips to stand out).
Some brilliant travel blog names to look for inspiration to include Nomadic Matt, about a guy traveling around the world, Adventurous Kate, a blog about a girl who quit her job to travel around of the world, which is about a woman traveling alone is (you guessed it) blonde. There are also tanks lurking around, a travel blog/travel store.
Nomadic Matt Travel Blog
Setting up your blog
A professional blog has three technical elements that you need to put in place: domain name, blogging platform, and web host.
Choose a blogging platform
There are many free blogging platforms, such as Bloggers, WordPress.com, and Tumblr. Any of these options are fine for a personal blog, but if you’re going to monetize your site, a WordPress blog hosted by you is the best solution.
Other platforms have their own restrictions, but with a self-hosted WordPress site, you are free to fully customize it. WordPress with self-hosted also allows you to grow and don’t worry about having to switch platforms later if your Travel blogging suddenly becomes very popular. Learn more about the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com.
WordPress powers 35.2 % of the internet, is super user-friendly and offers flexible customization options. news portals or business sites. Due to its open-source nature, WordPress is free to use, but creating and maintaining a site can cost money.
Although the content management system you choose is free (assuming you choose WordPress), you will need to pay for your business domain name and web hosting.
Choose a reliable web host
The web host is where the website files are stored. Hosting plans can cost less than $4 per month and can be upgraded to give you more storage and bandwidth for visitors than your blog is growing.
It’s important to choose a reliable and stable web host that doesn’t have excessive downtime. If you’re just starting out, you can improve with shared hosting, which means you’ll be sharing a server’s other blogs. The downside is that your blog may load slower because you’re sharing resources with other websites. Also, you may have to spend more time fiddling with your site.
WordPress hosting run by a company like Kinsta has its advantages for those interested in starting a travel blog. Since you’re on a trip, the last thing you have time to worry about is downtime or chaos. with your server. Also, you may not always have access to the best internet connection to fix things. Falling back on a reliable managed host could save you money.
My Kinsta (19 years old)
A few other things to keep in mind when deciding on a web host:
- Optimized WordPress
- Good customer support
- Automatic backups
- Sufficient storage space
Modify the look and feel of your blog
After installing and setting up the free WordPress CMS with your web host, you can focus on setting up the look and feel of your blog, an important aspect of branding.
Customizing the following will help your travel blog become yours:
- Theme: You can choose between paid and free options. There are specific themes for travel blogs. When you’re just starting out, don’t think too much about your blog theme. First, because unlike your blog name, you can change the design later.
- Header: The header is at the top of your blog. You can utilize the header to share your blog or upload a photo file with your logo.
Personalization Cards on Pinterest
Increase blog functionality with plugins
What attracts a lot of WordPress users is the customization it offers through plugins, which are codes you can install to add functionality to your site. Since you’re just getting started, refer to the experts. B logging Wizard shares some of the must-have plugins that can help you with SEO, analytics, backup, security, and speed up your blog.
There are also a few plugins to consider that were created specifically for travel blogging. These include:
Travel map: to show your readers which places you have been
Content creation
Content shouldn’t be limited to articles (or text); it can also take the form of photos (graphs, infographics), video and audio.
Of course, you shouldn’t start with all these different types of content at once – it can be overwhelming. Instead, you can start adding new types of content as your blog begins to grow and you feel like it. you are running it.
For inspiration, we recommend that you consult this guide:
How to Create Evergreen Content That Lasts (17 Tips & Tricks) With WordPress
5 most important things for content-length content
Meet
Many people adopt a way of writing in a journal, telling people about their day or experience, while some choose how to guide message types.
The best types of blogs are those that offer a mix of content types. Many people who read travel blogs are looking for the information you can give them about a place, while your unique voice (which adds to the branding part of the blog) is what will attract your readers.
If you plan to travel after setting up your travel blog, you can track what content to write, what places to feature, what corners to write. Ideally, you will have at least 15 posts ready to publish before launch. This will give you the time to constantly release content as you work on your next pieces, giving readers enough content to stick around and read.
Tips for optimizing content for SEO
There is no hard and fast rule for content length and Google placement, but in general, longer is better.
While the ins and outs of correct on-page SEO fall outside the scope of this article, here are some quick tips for setting up content for success:
- Use headings to organize your article (and to use keywords strategically)
- Write headlines where people will pique people’s curiosity, so they share your post, but don’t be clickbait (which really means backing up the article with great content). Also, write headlines like they’re looking for people.
- Use keywords in URL snails
For a more advanced study of SEO (which is still suitable for beginners), check out our WordPress SEO checklist and some recommended SEO plugins you should start with.
Asher Fergusson, a successful travel blogger and Kinsta client, said the secret to her rapid growth in organic search rankings was conducting a controversial research study. After spending an Airbnb experience every night with her wife and 10-month-old son in Paris, he decided to review over 1,000 horror stories to see what is most likely to go wrong.
Photography
People are visual creatures, which is why platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are so successful and growing rapidly.
Taking great photos or videos that make viewers feel like you’re there or want to be will bring more visitors to your blog. Photos will also be used to promote your blog; beautiful photographs with catchy titles draw people to sites like Pinterest.
When thinking about images, don’t forget to optimize your images, both for performance and for SEO. You can’t just upload full-resolution photos to your blog and expect them to load quickly. You’ll need a little help from an optimization tool or plugins. Name your files meaningfully (and briefly), as Google looks at things like this when choosing what it should index for google image search. What tools and how to show your photos you can read our guy from: 8 best plugins for WordPress photo gallery s.
Promotion
Social Media: The easiest way to promote your travel blog is through your network, but social media, with hundreds of millions of active monthly users, is also known for targeted advertising, which means it can help your content reach the people who are most likely to worry about it. Instagram by Hand Luggage Only is a great example of a beautiful travel photo journal. Another great platform where you can promote your content is Pinterest. We’ve put together a step-by-step guide to Pinterest’s best marketing tips.
- Traditional Media: Getting featured in newspapers and magazines is good exposure, even for an online entity. In fact, that’s how popular blogger Nomadic Matt quickly grew his following.
- Search engines: the biggest potential source of traffic, but it involves a lot of competition.
Writing guest posts is another way to get backlinks to your site from larger travel blogs. In another note, collecting email addresses and sending email newsletters is an effective way to get more views, as it gives you a direct connection to your followers (unlike social media, which can limit your reach to your existing followers).
Nomadic Matt, arguably the most popular travel blog, recognized the potential of these tactics but went in a different direction. She posted guest blog posts to fund blogs on how to save money. money while traveling. He was a guest on entrepreneurship podcasts to talk about how he was able to build a business from his travel blog.
These tactics stand out from the rest and present his site to a different audience.
Monetization Travel Blog
There are many ways to monetize your travel blog, but when you start it can be tricky. What many travelers (or digital nomads) do to support their travel lifestyle involves taking on jobs as a virtual assistant, writing independently, advising, or offering other types of services.
Ways to make money from your travel blog
Besides using your personal brand to get clients for services you might be interested in offering, there are plenty of other ways to make money from your travel blog:
Affiliate Marketing: There are affiliates for everything! Travel accommodation, travel insurance, travel gear, and even web hosting Every time someone clicks on the link and makes a successful purchase, you earn a small commission. many bloggers have made a lot of money using this tactic, it is wise to note that traders pay a relatively small amount for each sale they make, so expect not to earn much especially when you start, and it doesn’t get a lot of traffic.
