Traveling has become the most popular place of interest for blogging and making money. It also searches for new cultures and experiences, as well as learning what there is to know from the local natives, among other things. With the rise of blogging as a platform for people to engage with others, it’s not surprising that traveling has become one of the most followed and written about topics. Creating a travel blog is a great way to record your hobby, develop a community, and make money. If you put a lot of effort and give full time to it, you can even leave your job and become a full-time professional travel blogger. IN this article, we have discussed a step-by-step guide on how to start a travel blog – from picking your niche to the various methods of making money.
Table of Contents
Choose Your Niche
The first step of how to start a blog is to choose your blogging niche. A blog niche is a unique topic that your blog content will mainly be about. If you want to become a successful travel blogger, picking a niche is very important for many reasons.
Firstly, if you choose a niche and stick to it, you will have less competition and more opportunities to stand out. When you choose a niche, it makes clear what your content is about and what is your targeted audience. If you don’t pick any specific theme, it makes it difficult to attract a loyal audience because everyone will not be interested in every topic you cover.
On the other hand, if you choose a specific topic, people will attract to your content and want to read more about it. You don’t need to be an expert in the niche you pick for blogging. You don’t need to worry about how to start a travel blog. When you start a travel blog website, you need passion and curiosity for it. The more you write about the niche, the more grip you will have over it as time goes on. Picking a niche is also great for search engine optimization. For example, if you write content consistently about a unique topic, Google will link that topic with your website. It will help your blog rank higher on Google, attracting more traffic and new readers.
Following are some common examples of travel blog niches:
Budget Traveling
Budget traveling is for those people who want to travel on a budget. Budget travel bloggers write content that often includes affordable travel tips and reviews of low-cost living quarters and cheap travel gear.
Luxury Traveling
Luxury traveling is for those people who have a high budget and want the most lavish traveling experience. Luxury travel bloggers usually share reviews of foreign destinations and exclusive travel tips.
Family-Friendly Traveling
The target audience is people who want to travel with their families. Family-friendly travel bloggers usually work on kid-friendly travel plans and review kid-friendly destinations.
Solo Traveling
Some people want to travel alone.Solo travel bloggers usually write content that covers solo travel tips, especially how to stay safe and secure.
There are multiple ways to get to know the target audience of your travel blogging niche. Here are some tips for targeting your niche audience:
Social Media
Browse social media channels and observe your potential target audience. Analyze how they communicate, and what their requirements are, and join in the conversation.
Competitive Research
Read up on other bloggers in the travel niche you have picked. Read their content and analyze the areas that you can make better your content.
Read Comments
Comments on other blogs may include community feedback, which is great for content ideas.
Statistics
Statistics are real-world data that can help you find content ideas, support your claims, and add authority to your content in general.
News
When you start a travel blog, you must keep up with the latest trends related to your niche so that your content remains relevant to readers.
Pick A Memorable Blog Name
After choosing a niche, pick a unique name for your blog. It should be attractive, smart, and suit your personality. It should also be unique. Whatever you do, make sure you pick a name that you think you’ll still like years from now, because changing a website name isn’t really a choice.
Here are some tips to pick a memorable blog name for your website:
List Words Related To Your Niche
Keep in mind all words related to your niche. For example, if your niche is traveling, list words like ‘move’, ‘journey’, and ‘entertainment’. If you find difficulty in choosing words related to your niche, the tools like Related Words will help you a lot.
Think About Your Potential Audience
While talking about a topic, consider the language and style of your target audience. Browse social media and other blogs in the niche to familiarize yourself with them.
Keep Your Name Simple
Avoid difficult words, hyphens, phrases, characters, or numbers. Keep your blog name simple so that everyone can remember it easily. It should be easily pronounced and spelled so that people can find it without any difficulty.
Use Different Tools
If you don’t have any idea and find it difficult to pick a name, use online tools such as blog name generator and pick a suitable name. While choosing a blog name, don’t forget that it will be related to your domain name.
Choose A Blogging Platform
The next step of how to start a travel blog is to choose the travel blogging platform. There are many free blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress.com, and Tumblr. There are two categories for choosing a blogging platform – content management systems and website builders. A content management system allows users to manage, create, and modification of digital content. A CMS is typically used for business content management and web content management.
If you build a website with CMS, it becomes more accessible because you don’t need to code from scratch. WordPress is the most popular and open-source CMS at the moment, with a 65.1% market share.
A website builder allows users to create and manage websites easily. They are designed to help complete beginners create websites as soon as possible. The majority of website builders are closed-source, such as Zyro, Wix, and Squarespace.
Each platform has some benefits as well as drawbacks. However WordPress would be the perfect option for a professional blogging platform. If you compare WordPress CMS and website builder, WordPress offers you more customization, authority, and scalability. So, in this guide, we will discuss a step-by-step guide on how to start a travel blog on the WordPress CMS. Before installing WordPress, you have to choose a web hosting company and a suitable hosting plan for your blog.
If you are looking for a reliable and cheap web hosting company, Temok is the perfect option for you. They offer different kinds of hosting plans at very affordable rates. Visit their website and choose your desired hosting plan according to your business needs.
Purchase Hosting Plan And Install WordPress
Choosing a reliable hosting company is very important. It makes sure your website loads quickly and is always accessible to your visitors. There are many hosting companies but if you are looking for a reliable and cheap web hosting company, Temok is the perfect option for you. They offer different kinds of hosting plans at very affordable rates. Visit their website and choose your desired hosting plan according to your business needs.
- Is affordable
- Gives you a setup wizard that installs WordPress for you
- Makes it easy to purchase your domain name
- Has awesome support if you ever need help
You can choose the cheapest Baby plan starts at $0.5/mo. Then, you just need to follow the simple signup process. Once you sign up, Temok will configure your domain name and install WordPress for you which means you can officially work on your travel blog. The types of hosting we offer include shared hosting, cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated hosting. We also offer a free domain name (.com) with our Turbo and business hosting plans.
Customize Your Travel Blog
Making your travel blog aesthetically satisfying and easy to use will leave a positive impact on visitors and force them to keep reading. After installing WordPress and purchasing a hosting plan, you can focus on setting up your blog’s look, functionality, and features.
Customizing the following will help your travel blog become your own:
Establish Your Branding
If you establish good branding, it will be easier to attract and keep your target audience. When your blog is customized and has every element on it, the website will look more recognizable and memorable to new readers. Think about your target audience and goals.
Pick A Theme
Pick a suitable theme for your travel blog. A WordPress theme is a design template that can be applied to any WordPress website to modify its overall look and feel. WordPress users can install multiple themes from the official WordPress library or upload one they’ve downloaded from a third-party source. If you want the best and most professional theme blog for your travel blog, kindly consider these factors also:
- Pricing: If you’re looking for a paid WordPress theme, make sure that you’re getting good value for your money.
- Features: Check the theme’s information and find out whether it has all the features you want.
- Updates: You have to make sure that theme is regularly updated. Outdated themes can be unprotected from security breaches.
- Support: Check whether the theme offers dedicated and technical support for its users and if it does, for how long.
- Uniqueness: Make sure you have different theme from your competitors and your website will look totally different.
- Code quality: A theme with high-quality code will result in web pages being faster to load, making your blog an enjoyable experience for readers. You can check the quality of a theme’s code by using online tools like theme check.
There are both free and paid themes. Here are some areas where free and premium themes differ:
- Number of features: Free themes usually have limited features, while premium themes have many advanced features. For example, many premium themes include additional features such as page templates, multiple fonts, and custom-made elements.
- Frequency of updates: If we compare both free and paid themes, a paid theme is more updated than free themes, and paid themes are more secure.
- Support channel: Many free themes don’t offer dedicated support while premium themes offer.
Following are some recommended travel blog themes:
- Blossom Travel:
The blossom theme is designed for a travel blog. It is fully responsive, optimized for search engines, and has unlimited color choices. It also supports video banners and includes many custom-made widgets.
- Bingle:
- Bingle is a free elementor-based theme used for different purposes. It comes with 11 prebuilt starter sites, including one that’s excellent for a travel blog. Bingle is also SEO-friendly and mobile responsive.
- Essence Pro:
- Essence Pro is a professional theme designed for bloggers in different niches. In addition to mobile responsiveness, it’s also WooCommerce-ready, supports the Genesis Framework for intuitive customization, and has accessibility features.
- Installing a WordPress theme is very simple. You can either install one directly from the WordPress dashboard or upload a .zip file of the theme and install it. To make your website more unique, customize it by using the theme editor. Some themes also support drag-and-drop page builders like elementor which allows users to change theme elements in real-time.
- Create a Logo
A logo is a visual representation of your blog’s brand. It can be in the form of a letter mark, wordmark, symbol, or something else. A great well-placed logo can communicate the essence of your brand and make it more recognizable and unique. There are many ways to create a logo for your website. Try different sketches by hand and consider which logo fits your brand. If you are not sure about your logo, consult other people and members of your target audience.
You can also use a free logo maker or hire a professional graphic designer to create your logo. When you use online tools to create a logo, they have limitations but if you have the budget or hire a professional graphic designer, it would be worth it and you can get a high-quality logo.
- Install the necessary Plugins
Install the required plugins. They allow you easily to add features t your website without editing its code. Some plugins increase the experience of visitors, while others help website administrators perform their tasks more efficiently. There are more than 59,000 plugins available in the official library. When you install WordPress, you can install the plugin directly from the dashboard. Go to ‘Plugins’ and ‘Add New’ plugins. Users can also install a plugin downloaded from another source by uploading the plugin file – navigate to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
Set Up The Pages
When you customize your blog completely, the next step is to set up your all pages. Pages usually contain static content. Examples include the About and Contact pages. Some pages can be dynamic like Home page. They only need to be set up once at the start– all you have to do is add certain blocks or widgets, and the content will update automatically.
For example, Expert Vegabond has custom pages titled “Destinations,” “Travel,” and “Nomadic Life.” These pages include links to other pages or articles that fall under the same category.
To create a page, login to the WordPress admin dashboard and follow these steps:
- On the left sidebar, go to Pages -> Add New.
- You will be taken to the block editor where you can add the page’s title, write text, and configure its settings.
- Add blocks from the blocks library, which allows you to add different types of content and widgets.
- Once it is all complete, select publish.
If you want to add more pages on the blog’s navigation menu, modify the settings by going to Appearance and then Menus.
Publish Your First Blog
When you complete all these steps, it’s time to publish your travel blog. If you want a successful travel blog, you have to make a well-planned content strategy and post on regular basis. Create valuable and attractive content by writing about specific and unique topics.
While writing a blog, you have to choose a unique topic in which your targeted audience is interested. A successful blogger writes for both themselves and the audience. Do a lot of keyword research. Keywords research is very important according to SEO. It involves choosing a particular topic that will target a specific keyword you’d like to rank for. For effective keyword research, use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush. If you’re on a tight budget, there are free tools you can use instead, such as a free keyword generator, and keyword surfer.
Promote Your Audience
If you want to become a successful travel blogger, promote your blog after publishing it. It drives more traffic to your website. You can increase and grow your audience by following some rules:
Search Engine Optimization
When you write a travel blog, optimizing your blog on Google is one of the best ways to promote it for free. Use specific and target keywords. Also, use Yoast SEO plugin. It can help you to get a high rank and increases the chances of getting a new audience.
Social Media Marketing
Share your blog articles on social media channels like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. Each channel has its strengths – for instance, Twitter is great for executing word-of-mouth marketing campaigns, while Instagram and Pinterest are great for visual-heavy content.
Email Marketing
Promote your blogs through email marketing and reach your target audience. On your blog, invite people to sign up for your newsletter. As a motivation, you can promise unique content with the newsletter.
Guest Posting
Guest posting involves writing articles for other blogs to promote yours. It’s also a great way to network with other blogs in the niche.
Join Travel Communities
Communicate with other people related to your niche and share your blogs with them.
Pay-Per-Click-Ads
With platforms such as Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and Instagram Ads, you’ll be able to advertise your blog. But keep in mind that is not free. It is a paid method to promote your blog.
Earn Money with Travel Blogging
Once your travel blog is complete, you can earn money. If you do it all the time and manage it successfully, you can make more money. How much money you make will depend on how good your income strategy is and the number of income streams you have. You can make money as a travel blogger by following some common ways:
- Advertising
- Affiliate links
- Sponsored Posts
- Paid Press Tips
- Unique Content
But keep in mind that you have to work hard before making money. You have to remain consistent and keep some patience towards your goals.
Conclusion
We have discussed all steps of how to start a travel blog and how can you make money. Travel bloggers explore the world, share their experiences, and attract a readership while making money off their content. It’s no wonder that many people want to become successful travel bloggers. Starting a travel blog is very exciting. Follow the above steps one by one and start your own travel blog. Wish you good luck to launch your own travel or other niche blog,