If you are wondering how to start a travel blog then you are in the right place! This comprehensive step by step beginner’s guide will show you everything you need to get started with creating a travel blog to getting it successful. 

Blogging has become a viable career in today’s age of the internet. While a couple of decades ago, people couldn’t even imagine a career like this to exist, it is now very much possible. And a lot of people earn a very comfortable living from it.

Making money from travel blogging has become more and more popular in the past few years and for good reason. This is largely in part because it allows people to turn their passion into a sustainable business model that helps them earn from diversified sources of income. 

Not only that, travel blogging helps you earn even while on the move. You are not tied to a desk all day, working year-round with minimum vacation days at your disposal. For travel bloggers, the whole year is a vacation. 

They make money while on the move with passive income sources. Which means that their money works for them, instead of them working for the money.

Instead of learning through trial and error, you can learn from my experiences so you won’t have to make mistakes and set yourself back. This is what this blog aims to do for you: to provide guidance in the realm of travel blogging so there are minimum chances of messing up.

Of course, everyone’s experiences are different. And since blogging is a fairly new industry, everyone has different experiences navigating through it. But there are always some best practices that you can put in place to get started. 

This comprehensive travel blogging guide will serve as the first step towards starting a successful travel blog. It will take you through each step and answer any important questions that need to be addressed along the way. 

This guide on how to start a travel blog is geared towards complete beginners with no experience in this area. We will be focusing on both the technical and practical side of things. 

Let’s get started!

How to Start a Travel Blog: A Comprehensive Step by Step Beginner’s Guide

Starting a travel blog can intimidating. But with the steps outlined below, you will be able to start a travel blog in no time and with minimum effort!

Pick a Travel Blog Niche

Before you start your travel blog, you should pick a specific niche that you are going to focus on.

Yes, travel in itself is already a niche. But it is such a broad category that you need to narrow it down even further and choose what kind of travel blog you want to be.

Maybe you want to be a budget travel blog. This means your blog posts will mainly focus on budget traveling and how to be thrifty while traveling. Or maybe you want your niche to be “vegan travel” where you would educate people on how to find vegan eats whichever country they choose to go to.

There are many options out there for you. You need to find something that is both fun and enables you to stick to it long-term. 

It is okay to produce off-topic blog posts every now and then. But that should be a rarity rather than the norm. You simply can’t please everyone so you might as well not try. 

Whatever you do, make sure you are providing meaningful and valuable content to people. 

Brainstorm a Good Travel Blog Name

Choosing the right name for your blog is vitally important. Many people underthink this step because they are in a hurry to start their travel blog as quickly as possible. Therefore, while choosing a name for your travel blog, take your time and give it a lot of thought. 

Here are a few things to keep in mind while choosing the perfect travel blog name:

• Keep it short and simple. You need a travel blog name that is easy to remember. Find a way to represent what your blog niche is in as few words as possible so that people can easily come back to your website. 
• Think long-term. It is extremely important that you think way ahead when it comes to picking a name for your travel blog. You want your blog name to grow with you. Also, you should make sure the name sounds professional so that brands in the future are not hesitant to work with you because your blog name sounds childish or too informal.   
• Check the availability of your blog name. Before you land on a travel blog name, check to see if that name is not taken by someone else on social media platforms. You also need to make sure the domain for that name is available. You would ideally want your domain name and social media names to be similar to maintain consistency. 
• Consider your market. If you want to start a blog in English, you should buy a domain name that ends with .com. However, if you want a blog aimed towards another audience in a specific region, it is good to register a domain name with the extension of that particular country. For example, for Germany, you would use .de, or for China, it would be .cn. 
• Don’t name yourself similar to another travel blog. You don’t want people to confuse you for someone else constantly. When looking for the perfect travel blog name, you will find many creative and good ones out there that you wish you had chosen. However, do not try to copy any other blog’s name. You won’t build a strong branding personality this way. 

Register a Domain Name for Your Blog 

The next step involves you buying and registering your domain name. A domain name is the URL that appears at the top of every website. 

Often, the web hosting service that you choose for your website includes a free domain name as well. So, it would be more convenient for you if you look for a hosting company that provides that service as well. 

A quick Google search will show you many great hosting options with competitive prices.  

Set Up Hosting for Your Travel Blog

Web hosting is a requirement before you can set up and start using your travel blog. 

Before your website can be launched onto the internet and be viewed by other people, it needs a space to stay on the web. This space is provided by a web hosting company to you. 

While you can go for free hosting options, such as WordPress.com (not the same as WordPress.org), buying paid hosting provides you with full control over your blog and its contents. 

This way, you and only you decide what paths you want to monetize it through. 

The finances associated with web hosting should not worry you, though. Because most web hosting platforms are pretty cheap, costing only $4 to $5 for basic packages. 

Pick Your Blogging Platform 

Nowadays, there are many blog hosting platforms. Joomla and Wix are popular platforms. But the most popular one is WordPress and there is a very good reason why. 

It is simple to use and a great choice for beginners and experts alike. 

With so much popularity, the platform also has tons of support available and a helpful community built around it. What makes it even better is that it is largely free. Everything that requires money on the platform is an optional choice made by you. 

Install WordPress for Your Travel Blog

The next step involves installing your blogging platform of choice on your computer. For the purpose of this blog post, I am choosing WordPress since it is the best and most popular choice. 

You can install WordPress through its cPanel. Some hosting providers will also guide you through installing WordPress once you sign up with their hosting package. 

Buy a Premium WordPress Theme to Set You Apart

Once you have installed WordPress, it is now time to select a theme for your travel blog website. WordPress themes help you design your website. It is what a visitor will see once they open your blog. 

While WordPress does have a plethora of free themes to choose from, it is recommended to choose a paid theme as you want your travel website to look and feel professional. Moreover, free themes come with a ton of restrictions and are not very customizable to your liking. 

Premium themes often come with a lot of customizable templates and features that allow you to modify the website to your liking and create a nice-looking website out of it. Not just that, you also get access to tech support in this option which is something you will find yourself needing more than you might think. 

Don’t Forget WordPress Plug-Ins

WordPress plugins can take your travel blog to the next level. They also make everything a whole lot easier and convenient for you. They are key if you want to remain productive on the WordPress platform. 

Here are a few plugins that every blogger should have:

Yoast SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can make or break the success of your travel blog. Therefore, you need a WordPress plugin that tells you how your blog post is doing in terms of SEO before you post it. Using an SEO plugin is going to help your content rank better on search engines and help people find you easily. 

MonsterInsights

When it comes to running a successful business, website analytics are key. They play a vital role in any business’s growth and future potential. 

MonsterInsights is a WordPress plugin that can set up Google Analytics for your travel with a few simple steps and see how your website is performing.

This WordPress plugin makes the task of following your website analytics easier than ever. It lets you understand complicated analytics that can help you realize where you should focus your future efforts in.

Anti-spam

Anti-spam WordPress plugin fights spammers for you. It removes any comments it deems as spam such as comments containing links or abusive language. 

WPForms

Contact form is an essential part of any website as it is a way for your audiences to get in touch with you. 

WPForm is a user-friendly must-have WordPress plugin that provides you with a contact form. It is a drag and drop online form creator. This WordPress plugin can easily integrate with many different kinds of platforms such as payment and marketing platforms. 

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a popular WordPress plugin that allows manual as well as automated backup options including Dropbox, email, and Googe Drive. It allows you to restore and delete backups along with containing remote storage options and remote backups. 

Enhance Your Travel Blog with Beautiful Graphics and Images 

Graphics matter a lot. And if you want to make your travel blog successful, you will need to become best friends with a photo editing software. 

While Photoshop is a great tool for this purpose, it requires more time and effort to learn. If you are already familiar with it, that’s great.

For those of you who are complete beginners at this, Canva is a great option. 

Canva is a graphic design platform that is extremely easy to use and provides a beginner-friendly user interface. If saving time and effort are a priority, Canva is the way to go. 

Get to Writing! 

Once everything is set up on your travel blog, it is not time to start writing. 

To create a new blog post, log in to your WordPress account, go to Posts and choose Add New.

Remember to always write content that provides value to the readers. Not only that, you should always use SEO best practices within your blog post.

Introduce a posting schedule for yourself that your blog posts will follow. Set goals for yourself and your blog. Share your blog across all your social media profiles as much as you can. 

And don’t forget to have fun!