Sick of wanderlust? wanna see the world Why not start a travel blog to share your experiences with others?
Besides just being fun to write about your adventures, creating a travel blog can even help you make enough money earn money to fund even more fun adventures.
Reading: How to create a travel blog for beginners
The 5 things you need to create a great travel blog
Besides your great writing and pictures, these are the 5 things you need to build your travel blog.
- Web hosting – this is the engine that powers your travel blog and makes it available to visitors around the world. (We recommend SiteGround)
- Domainname – your blog’s permanent address. Our example is themeeisle.com.
- The free WordPress software – we strongly recommend you to use self-hosted WordPress, located at wordpress .org. This is different than WordPress.com.
- A WordPress theme – once you install WordPress, your theme controls how your travel blog looks.
- WordPress Plugins – Plugins help you add functionality to your website without any technical knowledge required. You’ll use them to add maps of places you’ve been, travel galleries, and more.
Once we show you how to set up these basics, we’ll also share some tips how to create content, promote it and maybe even make money from your blog.
How to start a travel blog: step-by-step
Here is your step-by-step guide -How to start a travel blog:
- Step 1: Choose a niche
- Step 2: Choose a domain name
- Step 3: Purchase WordPress hosting and install WordPress
- Step 4: Choose a travel blog theme
- Step 5: Install helpful travel blog plugins
- Step 6: Create and add content
- Step 7: Build your blog’s audience
- Step 8: How to make money from your travel blog
Step 1: Choose one Niche
There is a A wide variety of travel blog niches to choose from – specific countries or areas, backpacking, target audiences, luxury travel, traveling with kids or pets, and more. Your chances of creating a high-traffic blog will improve if you focus on a few specific areas.
Pick what interests you the most because you’re on your way Have a look!
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Step 2: Choose a domain name
Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember.
Using a brand name in the domain may not be an option for you if you are just starting out. So you should do the next best thing and pick a name that you can build into a brand. Something that’s short, easy to remember, and maybe a little quirky. Keyword-based names are also good, although you’ll find that most are already taken.
You could even use your own name if you want to maintain a very personal style on your blog. Or you can use part of your name in a trademark – e.g. nomadicmatt.com.
We have some general tips for choosing a domain name. And if you’re really stuck, you can try using a blog name generator to get ideas.
Step 3: Buy WordPress hosting and install WordPress
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Your hosting is important because it ensures that your website loads quickly and is always available to your visitors. There are a lot of quality WordPress hosting services out there, but SiteGround is a good place to start.
Not only does SiteGround consistently score well in our annual WordPress hosting survey:
- Is affordable
- Gives you a setup wizard that installs WordPress for you
- Makes buying your domain name easy
- Has great support if you ever need help
You can select the cheapest StartUp plan to get started. Then all you have to do is follow the simple signup process.
Once you sign up, SiteGround will configure your domain name and install WordPress for you…which means you officially have a working travel blog!
Step 4: Choose a travel blog design
The design of your blog determines how it looks. Luckily, you can find a range of free and premium themes, many of which are designed specifically for travel blogs.
Selecting an existing travel blog theme will instantly give you a great looking travel blog. To help you find such a theme, you can check out lists of:
- Best themes for free travel
- Best themes for premium travel
Besides those lists, here are three specific options to get you started:
- Travel Blog
- Neve
- Soledad
For example, the Neve theme offers some of the following features:
- Over 100 pre-built websites, including those ideal for blogs and websites are focused on travel.
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- Compatibility with Gutenberg block editor and also with popular page builders like Elementor.
- Lightning fast performance – consistent among the fastest WordPress themes.
- Clean code built with SEO in mind.
- Fully responsive and AMP compatible.
All these built-in features make it super easy to start a travel blog that looks great and loads fast to keep your visitors and the search engines happy.
To install your chosen theme, visit your WordPress dashboard and click Appearance → Themes → Add New.
Step 5: Install helpful travel blog plugins
WordPress plugins help you add new features to your travel blog Without any technical knowledge required on your part. They are one of the things that make WordPress so great. And pretty much every WordPress site makes good use of plugins.
There are some must-have plugins for all websites, including travel blogs. The most commonly used plugins fall into several categories, most of which are presented below.
See also: How to Write an Awesome Blog Post in 5 Steps
👉 The following links will take you to specific articles on each topic:
- SEO Plugins
- Caching Plugins
- Social Share Button Plugins
- Security Plugins
- Contact Form Plugins
- Gutenberg -Block Plugins
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Besides these popular options, you’ll also want some special travel plugins. While this may vary depending on your area of focus, here are some good ideas:
- A good photo gallery plugin like NextGEN Gallery to share your travel images in a gallery
- Plugins to support integration with Instagram and Facebook
- Slider plugins to display stunning full-width photos
- A lightbox plugin , with the reader your photos in a customizable lightbox
- A map plugin for drawing places and routes is a must if you want to start a travel blog. It helps keep your readers in touch with you as you move from one place to another. The Interactive World Map Plugin is a good premium option.
- Plugins like TravelPayouts help you add travel booking functionality to your blog. It helps your visitors find deals on flights and hotels to different locations while you earn a commission.
Learn how to install WordPress plugins.
Step 6: Create and add content
Once you have the foundation of your travel blog in place, you can start adding content. To write blog posts in WordPress, go to Posts -> Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
From there you can use the Add Media use to insert images and the text editor to write and format your content:
Step 7: Build your blog’s audience
There are a few channels you can use to drive traffic to your blog.
With millions of active users, social media can help ensure your content reaches the right audience. Adding social media share buttons makes it easy for readers to share your content. Instagram and Pinterest are suitable platforms to promote your blog and should be part of your social media strategy.
In addition, you should also familiarize yourself with SEO and topics such as keyword research.
Building an email list is another great way to build a long-term audience.
Step 8: How to make money from your travel blog
Once You start getting some traffic, here are some ways you can make money from your blog:
- Affiliate Marketing: You can have affiliates for almost anything – Accommodation, insurance, travel equipment, web hosting. Every time someone clicks on a link that leads to the purchase of an affiliate product, you earn a (small) commission.
- Google Adsense: Google generates travel-related ads on your blog . When visitors click on the offered ads, you earn revenue.
- Premium (Gated) Content: You can sell digital travel guides for the places you visit to save other travelers time .
- Add a donation button: Of course, this only works if you have built up a loyal readership.
- Offer personalized advice : Offer travel-related advice for a fee, or offer personalized or guided tours to specific locations, or create travel itineraries.
- Sponsored Posts: Travel-related companies can do this for you pay to write about it on your blog. Just make sure to be transparent.
- Sponsored trips: Tourist boards, private companies or brands may ask you to visit and write about their places.
- Workshops: Accept offers to conduct travel-related workshops.
Closing 🏁
Have more questions about starting a travel blog ? Leave a comment and we’ll try to help.
* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on any of the product links and then purchase the product, we will receive a commission. But don’t worry, you’ll still pay the standard amount, so you won’t incur any additional costs.
See also: How to Create a Website From Scratch (Step-By-Step Beginners Guide)
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