How to Start a Travel Blog, Successfully (in 10 Steps)

Seeking to begin a journey weblog?

Imagine me: you need to ensure you learn to set it up appropriately from the beginning. And then you definately need to work out a marketing strategy for the best way to develop your viewers and a income stream.

The selections you make if you end up simply beginning a journey weblog have cascading results later within the lifetime of your weblog. That’s why it’s vital to get it proper from the start.

That can assist you out, I’ve put collectively this fast however detailed step-by-step information to all the pieces it’s essential to do to arrange a journey weblog in simply 6 simple steps.

A bit about me and Journey Lemming so you already know I’m legit: I’m a recovering lawyer who began the Journey Lemming journey weblog in 2017 whereas on an prolonged backpacking journey all over the world. It’s now my full-time gig, and Journey Lemming even has an amazing group of freelance writers who helps me publish a brand new journey information virtually each day!

I haven’t all the time been profitable. I made some technical and strategic errors once I began this weblog that actually price me. Foolish issues that I didn’t perceive ended up holding me again. I bought over all of it clearly, but it surely might have been averted had I recognized then what I do know now.

That can assist you keep away from my errors, I wrote this information to the best way to begin a journey weblog from scratch:

You too can bookmark all my journey running a blog guides for extra free useful suggestions. Okay, let’s dive in:

Disclosure: Journey Lemming is an impartial reader-supported weblog. You’ll be able to assist my work by buying by way of the affiliate hyperlinks on this web page, which can earn a fee for this website. Thanks!

Easy methods to Begin a Journey Weblog

Step 1 – Decide a Area of interest

First issues, first, it’s essential to have a selected concept about what you may be writing about. Journey is a large topic and a $3 Trillion industry. There may be a variety of competitors, however a small slice of a large pie remains to be nice. So it’s essential to plan to concentrate on a distinct segment to have any likelihood of gaining an precise viewers.

Go for a distinct segment that’s slender sufficient you may not have as a lot competitors, however so slender you received’t discover an viewers. Concentrate on a selected class of the journey business. This might imply honing in on a sort of journey, like backpacking journey, scuba diving journey, ski journey, and so on. Or it might imply specializing in a vacation spot, like a metropolis, state, or nation.

Go as slender as you may, whereas remembering to nonetheless hold it broad sufficient to have sufficient folks truly within the topic. Additionally, do not forget that proper now the worldwide tourism sector is in a sustained despair as a result of international well being disaster.

Which means it’s exhausting to seek out an viewers as a journey blogger in 2021, however there may be excellent news: today anybody with even a small on-line viewers within the journey sector ought to be capable of discover first rate monetization alternatives. We’ll get into the best way to earn money later on this submit, however you want the viewers first..

After you may have your area of interest, it’s time to select a reputation:

Step 2 – Decide a Area Title

You’ll be able to’t begin a journey weblog till you may have selected a journey weblog area identify. It’s vital, so don’t rush by way of this step. Your area identify is probably probably the most lasting determination you’ll be making at this stage. Practically all the pieces else will be simply modified down the road, however not your journey weblog identify.

A whole lot of apparent weblog names are already taken, so use the software beneath to see in case your identify is out there:

Listed below are a couple of vital guidelines of the street for choosing a journey weblog identify:

• You need to solely use a .com extension (or probably a rustic stage like “.co.uk”) – the rest is an unnecesary gamble.
• Be sure your weblog identify describes your goal area of interest precisely – don’t get too cute with the identify, hold it descriptive.
• Hold it quick (3 phrases max!)
• NO dashes or particular characters
• Attempt to be authentic however nonetheless descriptive
• Hold your area identify broad – depart your self area to develop your area of interest. Don’t field your self into simply writing about funds journey with a reputation like “cheaptraveldudes.com.”

Should you get caught making an attempt to consider domains and wish some assist brainstorming, try my detailed step-by-step information to how to decide on a journey weblog identify.

Step 3 – Signal Up for a Internet hosting Firm

After you’ve selected a reputation, your subsequent steps are:

1. Purchase your area, and
2. Join a bunch (the corporate that serves your content material).

Right here’s the excellent news: you may simply do these two elements concurrently by way of your host – all in a matter of minutes on-line. And internet hosting these days is ridiculously low-cost. Typical internet hosting prices for a small to medium sized web site are solely $10-20 a month.

The most cost effective respected possibility is BlueHost.

Right here’s all you must do to rise up and working with them in 5 minutes:

1. Go to the BlueHost offer page.
2. Hit the massive inexperienced “Get Began Now” button (you may’t miss it).
3. Choose your plan: a budget “primary” one shall be simply effective to your first 12 months or two.
4. Declare your free area you selected in Step One.
5. Enter your identify and the standard particulars, your bank card information, and take a look at.

Word: if you try, you’ll see some “extras” within the checkout display screen. You most likely don’t want any of these besides perhaps a budget area privateness safety (I don’t personally pay for it, however doing so will assist hold your private particulars from being publicly accessible).

Step 4 – Set up WordPress

Until you’re a hard-core coder able to constructing your individual website (yeah, I didn’t assume so 🙂 ), you’ll want to make use of an internet site constructing software to truly create your weblog. By far one of the best and hottest platform for managing your journey weblog is WordPress.org.

Necessary observe: it’s essential not to confuse it with the very completely different WordPress.com. The latter is absolutely for informal private blogs that don’t search an viewers or being profitable. I’d guess that 97% of journey bloggers use WordPress.org, and I wouldn’t dare suggest the rest.

The WordPress platform is 100% free and open supply, and there are tons of free “plugins” that may aid you customise your website with out writing a single string of code.

Okay, so right here is how you put in WordPress. Assuming you signed up by way of BlueHost, it is a tremendous easy course of:

1. Log in to your Bluehost cPanel account (you’ll obtain this in an e mail).
2. Discover the Web site part and choose Set up WordPress.
3. Click on the Set up button.
4. Select the area identify to put in it to. Within the subject subsequent to the area, you may enter a subfolder resembling ‘weblog’ or depart it clean if you’d like the positioning’s primary web page to be the weblog.
5. If vital, you may edit the e-mail tackle, username and password for the brand new WordPress set up. Click on “superior choices” and you may change these settings.
6. Learn by way of the license and repair agreements and test the packing containers.
7. Choose the Set up Now button.

Okay, on to the enjoyable elements:

Step 5 – Select a Theme

The subsequent factor it’s essential to do is choose and set up a WordPress theme, which is mainly a pre-made design to your website.

There are a ton of themes on the market. Should you’re on a decent funds, WordPress comes pre-installed with a couple of free ones. However since these are pretty primary and over-used, most journey bloggers select to buy a premium theme.

The choices for premium themes are overwhelming. I’ve tried out a number of completely different themes, and my recommendation is to stay to a WordPress theme that’s easy, quick, and has a free and premium model. Most of all, it needs to be a preferred theme. Fashionable themes are likely to have better-funded growth groups, and are thus more likely to final (many free themes crash or turn into buggy over time).

Personally, I’m presently on the Astra theme, which checks all of the packing containers I discussed above. The opposite main themes that additionally test the packing containers can be Generate Press and Kadence WP.

Don’t overthink design relating to choosing your theme. The way in which issues are going with WordPress’s future route, Gutenberg is slowly rising its position. It would quickly be, or argually already is, the extra vital software program for controlling how your website seems to be, anyway. You’ll be capable of model your website simply effective with any of the themes I discussed.

Step 5 – Customise Your Journey Weblog’s Theme

No matter WordPress theme you put in, you’ll have to customise the theme to construct your individual journey weblog. Most significantly, you’ll need to arrange a homepage that appears skilled and slick, utilizing your individual journey images and your customized emblem (to get a kind of, you may rent a designer on Upwork or you may simply create your individual on Canva).

My recommendation when customizing your homepage is to select a easy theme – once more Astra, Generate, and Kadence are all nice – and take a look at to not mess with it an excessive amount of. Insert your individual authentic images, change the colours to match your model, add your emblem, and just about depart it at that. Till you might be snug with WordPress, the much less you contact, the much less you may break.

Step 6 – Set up Plugins (However Solely a Few!)

Plugins are little items of code you may have insert into your WordPress factor to make it do absolutely anything. They’re one of many biggest issues about WordPress, however they’re additionally a entice. Don’t set up too many plugins. They are going to come into battle with one another and crash your website. Keep on with the necessities, and once more solely go for plugins which can be up to date commonly and supported by growth groups.

These are the one plugins I’d counsel for brand new bloggers:

• Rank Math – and search engine optimisation plugin, which in my opinion is best than the extra widespread Yoast search engine optimisation Plugin
• Akismet Anti-Spam – this helps weblog spam commenters (I get dozens a day)
• Imagify – this helps compress your photographs so your website masses quicker
• WP Rocket – a bit extra difficult, and optionally available in my ebook. However if you wish to take it to the subsequent stage, that is one of the best website velocity optimization plugin.

All of those are free or have free plans with limits that needs to be effective for brand new bloggers. All are very fashionable and backed by good growth groups. Past the above, I’d be very even handed about putting in any extra plugins.

Step 7 – Set Up Social Media Handles

Beginning a journey weblog requires extra than simply establishing your website! You even have to start out social media accounts to assist construct your following and analytics instruments to trace your progress. Let’s begin with social media.

At a minimal it’s best to undoubtedly at the least declare your model handles for:

1. Instagram – I’ve a love/hate relationship with Instagram. However, prefer it or not, most each journey blogger wants an Instagram account these days.
2. Fb – Begin a enterprise web page on Fb beneath your weblog’s identify, after which use it to advertise your content material and construct a following. You too can strive beginning a bunch when you get sufficient of a following.
3. Pinterest – I knew nothing about Pinterest once I began journey running a blog, however now it’s my #2 supply of site visitors (behind Google). It’s an amazing platform for driving site visitors to your weblog!
4. Twitter – Twitter doesn’t drive a lot site visitors, however a variety of locations and types use it, so it’s useful to have a presence there.

Moreover, should you plan on create journey movies, it’s best to make a YouTube account to your model. Word that you simply’ll want 100 followers earlier than YouTube will allow you to declare a customized URL. The above are the principle social media platforms, however others you would possibly think about using embody: Flipboard, Snapchat, Reddit, Tik Tok, and Quora.

Step 8 – Set Up Google Analytics and Search Console

I can overstate how vital knowledge analytics is to changing into a profitable journey blogger.

There are two instruments you completely want to trace your progress in your website: Google Analytics and Google Search Console. These progrmas will provide you with nice knowledge on how many individuals are coming to your web site, what they’re studying, how lengthy they’re staying, and a few primary details about who they’re. That is invaluable, and also you need to begin amassing it instantly even when your site visitors is low.

It isn’t almost as exhausting as you assume! Listed below are directions for Google Analytics and for Google Search Console. The toughest half is including the verification tag to your theme. It relies on the theme you selected, however most ought to have directions included of their assist part. There are additionally plugins you need to use to insert the monitoring code if that doesn’t work.

Step 9 – Write Your First Weblog Submit

After you may have your property web page, about web page, and theme arrange, it’s time to create your first weblog submit!

To put in writing weblog posts in Phrase Press, merely go to Posts > Add New within the left hand column of your WordPress dashboard. That can open up the WordPress submit editor, the place you can begin to craft your first submit utilizing the helpful Gutenberg editor. It’s pretty intuitive to make use of, however listed below are some good training videos should you need assistance.

To your first submit, I counsel writing a submit that may assist your readers. Be taught the fundamentals of search engine optimisation specifically, and attempt to use key phrase analysis to seek out matters readers are more likely to be looking for. Then attempt to write a greater weblog submit than the content material that’s already on the market on the internet.

👉 Professional tip: it’s value studying the best way to use Gutenberg now, even when haven’t gotten so far but. WordPress affords this tremendous cool free Gutenberg emulator you need to use to follow proper now.

Step 10 – Be taught the Fundamentals of Journey Running a blog for Begginers

Okay, after you’ve printed your first submit, your remaining step to journey running a blog is to learn my information to journey running a blog for begginers.

Performed studying it?

(okay, at the least bookmarked it hopefully?) …

Properly, congratulations, you may have now began a journey weblog! Positive, the weblog is only one submit, however from right here on out the method of making content material is absolutely simply one among iteration. Rinse and repeat. Make it a bit higher every time. Be taught as you go.

Publishing content material is just one a part of what it takes to start out a profitable journey weblog, nevertheless. You now have to learn to flip that weblog right into a enterprise.

Easy methods to Make Your Journey Weblog Profitable

Making a journey weblog right into a profitable journey weblog boils down to 2 issues: discover an viewers, discover a monetization technique. I’ll break down every half:

Easy methods to Discover an Viewers

To create a journey weblog that’s profitable, the very first thing it’s essential to do is locate an viewers. You’ll be able to go for an viewers on another person’s platform, like YouTube or Instagram or Tik Tok. Nevertheless it’s typically exhausting to push that viewers to your individual web site, so it’s essential to resolve the place you’ll focus your efforts.

That is the easy method I believe is almost certainly to result in success for many beginner journey bloggers:

• Take the time to be taught search engine optimisation early – Search-engine-optimization (“search engine optimisation”) is tremendous vital to being profitable as a journey blogger, because it’s probably the most constant option to drive site visitors to your weblog.
• Notice that running a blog takes a variety of time – Don’t depend on any actual revenue or significant site visitors for a 12 months, probably extra.
• Be sure to put in writing informative and helpful content material – “Diary” kind posts most likely aren’t helpful to your reader. Informative articles, or inspirational ones, are more likely to get learn by folks not named your mother. Make a genuinely good and helpful information!

That’s it – for me, specializing in search engine marketing from the get go simply makes probably the most sense – in case you are affected person with it.

With time, your audinece will develop. After which, you’ll get to the subsequent step – and the one you’ve most likely been ready to speak about:

Easy methods to Make Cash With a Journey Weblog

Okay, so now that you already know the setup mechanics down, let’s discuss in regards to the query that’s high of everybody’s thoughts:

How do you make your journey weblog generate income?

The quick reply is that there are a variety of other ways to earn with journey running a blog. Lets shortly cowl a few of the most typical income sources for journey bloggers:

Affiliate Advertising and marketing

Most likely the most typical technique for monetizing a journey weblog, internet online affiliate marketing mainly entails partnering with a web-based retailer who provides you a fee anytime on of your weblog posts sends site visitors their approach that makes a purchase order.

You implement this by way of particular monitoring hyperlinks (like these on this text for the merchandise I point out).

Most main journey manufacturers have an associates program you may join. Frequent ones embody Amazon Associates, World Nomads (for journey insurance coverage), and Reserving.com for lodges. However there are actually tens of hundreds of applications on the market for nearly any product.

Show Advertisements

On-line adverts don’t make a ton of cash per customer, however they’ll add as much as important revenue when you have a ton of eyeballs. And working adverts is the best and most simple option to earn money from beginning a journey weblog.

There are various completely different advert applications you may be a part of, however many of the premium ones require a sure variety of month-to-month periods earlier than you may qualify (I’m presently on the AdThrive community, which is widespread with journey bloggers however requires 100,000+ month-to-month web page views to use).

Should you’re simply beginning out and need to strive your hand at adverts, you need to use Ezoic to get some primary adverts working in your website. Simply understand you’ll want a lot of site visitors – and the best site visitors – to actually begin being profitable from adverts.

Promoting Your Personal Merchandise

In a variety of methods, that is probably the most worthwhile possibility if you may make it give you the results you want.

Should you personal your individual merchandise, you’ll be making the whole revenue margin off their sale, moderately than only a small lower out of your affiliate. Listed below are some widespread merchandise that journey bloggers promote:

• T-shirts, tote luggage, or different bodily merchandise
• Ebooks
• On-line programs
• Images presets or filters

Data merchandise like ebooks are a very enticing possibility for being profitable from a weblog as a result of the marginal price of fine is so low, that means that every sale is 90%+ revenue.

Begin a Tour

A trending revenue supply for journey bloggers to promote excursions to their viewers.

Principally, you package deal up a tour, working with resort and tour operators to rearrange for an superior group itinerary. Then you choose some dates, create a web page to promote the tour and take deposits, after which attempt to get your viewers to enroll.

Although I’ve but to do it, I perceive excursions will be comparatively profitable.

And one of the best half is that, in contrast to the opposite strategies talked about above, you don’t actually need an enormous viewers – all you want are six to 10 folks keen to pay to journey with you.

I’ve seen some comparatively new journey bloggers create and promote out excursions, so it’s undoubtedly possible.

Partnerships

This can be a broad class, however there are a lot of other ways to earn money by way of partnership or sponsorship with manufacturers.

On the most simple stage, many journey bloggers pitch lodges or tour firms for comped journeys in alternate for a evaluate or inclusion in a weblog submit, Instagram submit, or YouTube video.

Actually, I don’t love this technique for being profitable, since except you’re additionally paid it’s not tremendous sustainable in the long term.

As you develop your journey weblog, you might also have the chance to get long run sponsorships from greater journey manufacturers. These will be much more profitable.

Press Journeys

Much like a partnership, however a bit completely different, press journeys are normally organized by a tourism board.

They normally contain a bunch of bloggers, influencers, and journalists touring by way of a vacation spot on a pre-arranged tour after which producing content material to advertise the vacation spot.

When you find yourself beginning out, most press journeys will most likely solely cowl your journey prices. However journey bloggers with bigger audiences can receives a commission (typically hundreds of {dollars}) for taking press journeys. It’s an honest option to receives a commission for journey running a blog, although it’s not my private favourite as a result of I don’t like to combine journey and work.

Freelance Journey Writing

Freelance writing simply entails writing articles for different web sites and earn money for it. Many on-line journey websites and magazines pay writers (I’ve even finished it!), as do many manufacturers for their very own blogs.

Whereas this isn’t precisely a option to earn money from a journey weblog, since you may technically do it with no weblog, I do assume that beginning a journey weblog could be very useful if you wish to get freelance journey writing initiatives.

Take a look at our information on the best way to turn into a contract journey author to get began.

FAQs for Begginer Journey Bloggers

That’s it for this fast information to the best way to create a journey weblog. Do not forget that making a profitable journey weblog takes time, persistence, and the willingness to be taught. Journey running a blog takes time, so simply keep in mind to plan for that.

When you’ve got any questions on beginning your weblog, or should you simply need to join, please scroll down and depart me a remark! I’d like to learn your weblog as soon as it’s up and working!