Thinking of starting a travel blog? It can be as challenging as it is exciting. Sharing stories and photos of where you’ve been is something we encourage all travelers to do. You may not be an experienced writer, but even if your blog doesn’t entice other readers, it can always be your personal travel journal your friends and family can take a look at. If you can inspire even just one person, it’s worth it! Our guide on Travel Blog How to Start helps you decide and set up what kind of blog (or website) you’re building.
Travel Blog: How to Start?
Before you start travel blog, there are things you need to consider. These are important to map out the start of your path and where you go in the future. Include these pointers in your checklist on how to travel blog:
Content focus
How do you envision your blog? Is it going to be a website with articles like what WIX offers? Or is it a platform to showcase your photos and videos? Or perhaps you simply want to create an online journal for yourself and a few other readers? The answer determines what kind of website template you should start with.
Your contribution
Let’s look at what skills to put into your travel blog. Are you good at writing? Photography? Or leading a community? Writing skills are necessary to create a website with articles. The same applies to other content focuses. However, you can always hire other people to do the job for you. Of course, this depends on your budget. Or perhaps, take courses on relevant skills you need to improve your blog?
Final goal
What are you trying to achieve with your travel blog? Some travel bloggers aim to gain revenue from ads. Some others make their websites a portfolio to showcase it to potential hiring companies. Many of them, though, start travel blog just for their own consumption. Now the question remains: which goal is yours?
Target audience
Whom are you trying to reach with your blog? Friends and family? A larger audience? Or potential hiring companies? The former takes less effort. And you can be as expressive as you’d like. The latter, though, takes more effort and consideration. Writing your post is not simply putting words together. You also need to take their point of view into consideration. What do they expect from you? What do they want to read on your blog?
Now that you know the main things you need to consider in the big picture, let’s dig into them one by one.
First things first: What is your content focus?
There is no particular format to follow when it comes to starting travel blog. It all depends on what you want to share and how you’d like to share it. In general, there are three things you can choose to focus on: article, photography, or community. Depending on your content focus, you’ll need different templates (and perhaps a CMS platform), website settings, and blogging skills.
Articles
This is the most common travel blog type. As a result, platforms like WIX and WordPress have tons of templates you can choose from. Focusing on articles means most of your content will be article posts that your audience will read. Engage them through the use of key phrases that lead to your posts. This is where your knowledge of SEO and how to travel blog is needed; we’ll talk about that later on. And consistency is a must if you’re aiming to grow your audience.
Photography
As they say, a picture can tell a thousand words. This is a great way to share your travel experiences if you’re into photography. It’s also easier than having to write articles consistently. The catch is that you’ll need extra effort to reach your audience. Sharing your photos on social media linked to your website is a must. Knowing how to use keyphrases is unnecessary, but it will help you gain more visibility on whichever platform you wish to promote.
Community
Many successful travel bloggers end up with more exposure through the community they build. After all, word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the best ways to promote. First, you need to engage your audience and get them interested in subscribing to your content, which eventually leads them to become a part of your community. A forum website, vlog, and other interactive types of content are what you’re looking for.
What is your final goal?
Next on our Travel Blog How to Start guide is figuring out your final goal. Is it revenue from website visitors? Gaining more exposure? Or simply creating an online journal? This is important to determine from the very first step of starting travel blog.
Suppose you start a travel blog only for personal consumption, then later on, you change your mind and want to gain revenue. In that case, you may need to revise all contents you have published. First of all, it’s so much effort. Second of all, making changes to your content may make Google think your website is an entirely different website, which leads to changes in your exposure algorithm. In other words, it’s as if you’re starting from zero, even though you already have some content published and ranked on Google.
Ads Revenue
Starting a travel blog with a consistent number of articles published per month is the best way to achieve this goal. Whether you use WIX or other platforms, keep in mind that you must be consistent in producing piece after piece. In the future, you may need to hire writers to keep up. You’ll also need good SEO knowledge to start. Reading articles on SEO, or even taking SEO courses, is highly recommended.
Promoting your Travel Service
Whether it’s itinerary planning, tour guide, or any other activities related to travel, promoting them through a website is a must. The key is to be easily found. Therefore, a catchy domain name and a user-friendly interface are also a must.
There are many virtual roads you can take to achieve this goal. You can start travel blog with consistent post publishing – which also leads to ads revenue – or stick with a certain amount of posts ready but with regular updates and promoting on social media. Better yet, you can set up an online shop with details of your services. Popular platforms like WIX and Squarespace have special templates for this purpose.
Fan Base
If those Instagram influencers can gain millions of followers, so can you! But first, you need to understand the consequences: the more popular you become, the more exposed you’ll be. Knowing how to travel blog is not that big of a deal compared to the effort you need to make in maintaining your audience’s engagement. Set up a travel website with some content ready for your soon-to-be fans to read. Then, link it to your preferred social media platforms.
Nothing in particular, just want to start travel blog for yourself
Good news! This is the easiest goal to achieve. All you have to think through before starting is which platform to publish your content. Platforms like BlogSpot is popular among travelers with no particular aim of starting travel blog. It’s free, easy, and effortless. With that said, you may still lose your content if the platform shuts down. This is why creating your own website is still recommended even if you don’t have any financial or exposure goal in mind.
Sure, you’ll have to pay for the domain. But nowadays, there are cheap domains to choose from many platforms such as WordPress, WIX, and THE platform for choosing domains, GoDaddy. It costs as low as 40 USD per year! Scroll down to the “Domain Fee” section below to learn more about this.
How to Travel Blog – Things You Need to Know
What is SEO?
It stands for Search Engine Optimization. These three letters are the ultimate key to gaining exposure online. It’s the tool you need to reach your potential audience, which gets you steps closer to your final goal of starting travel blog.
There’s no easy way to explain how SEO works. In a nutshell, it’s your vehicle to win the website rank race. You can make your engine better, adjust your chassis, tinker with the aerodynamic features, and other means necessary to win the race. The first thing you need to know about SEO is how to use key phrases, which leads us to the next point.
Using Keyphrases
When you look for something online, you’ll type something into the Google search bar. Other people may type in the exact same words, too. And that becomes the key phrase. The first link that shows up in your search result uses that keyphrase so that you and those people who look for that particular thing online can find it.
To start travel blog with article content, you need to apply the same strategy. Look for the keyphrases people use the most and compete with them. That’s where SEO comes into play. On that note, WIX offers SEO services to help beginner bloggers like you.
Building a Website
Lucky for us, CMS platforms these days offer us easier and better ways to start travel blog. They provide templates you can choose from. And all you need to do is pick one and start writing or uploading your content. It’s as easy as that! The basic templates are available for free. Another reason why we recommend WIX is that you can make any changes to the template you choose to make your website unique and one of a kind.
Domain Fee
Having a catchy and easy-to-find domain name is a must for maximum exposure. However, it’s not free. There’s a cost to purchase the domain and an annual fee to keep it. Find out more about the domain fee options on WIX here and more on GoDaddy. With that said, you can always start with the given domain name (usually including the platform’s name) and change it to your own preferred one later once you have enough content to showcase.
FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions on Starting Travel Blog
Is it easy to start a travel blog?
Yes! With templates provided by CMS platforms such as WIX, even beginner travel bloggers can set up their websites within minutes. Yes, minutes! Of course, the amount of effort you need to make depends on what type of travel blog you’re creating and your final aim. But in general, all you need to do is pick a template, set up your domain (or use the offered temporary domain, which you can change later on), and publish your first post. As simple as that!
What is the best platform for a travel blog?
Although it depends on what type of blog you’re creating, we recommend WIX for its user-friendly interface. The provided templates are easy to use – even by beginner travel bloggers – while advanced bloggers can make necessary edits down to what size and colors you want each segment to be.
Besides, WIX continues to grow, even years after its initial launch. As a user, you get to give feedback on new features they’re introducing, as well as on existing features that need upgrading.
How do I create a travel blog on Instagram?
Instagram doesn’t have a blog feature. However, you can create your own blog on another platform and link it to your Instagram bio. To keep your handle in sync with your blog, posting photos related to your blog content and traveling experiences is important. You can copy-paste one paragraph or two from your blog to your photo caption. And vice versa, you can also embed your Instagram post into your blog content.
Suppose you wish to make Instagram your primary source of engagement. In that case, you don’t have to publish blog content as often as you should post photos on Instagram. Focus on gaining exposure on Instagram by cracking its algorithm – which is a whole new world outside blogging – such as using hashtags.
What are the best travel hashtags?
The answer depends on your content and target audience. Suppose the photo you’re about to post is of you in Machu Picchu. In that case, you can use #MachuPicchu and #IncanRuins. With that said, there are popular travel hashtags you can generally use in most of your posts. Some of them are #traveling #traveler #travel #ilovetraveling #mytripmyadventure #mytravel.
Do you need to travel to have a travel blog?
Technically, no. Anyone can start a blog. But the general audience expects a travel blogger to have traveled. Imagine if you read articles on Cryptocurrency written by someone who has never owned any coin or is involved in any crypto trading. How would you feel? The same goes for travel blogs. In a way, the first step in starting travel blog is to travel.
How do travel bloggers get paid?
Many ways! To name a few: ads revenue, affiliate links, and sponsors. Some travel bloggers are also hired by well-known media to write and submit photos, whether paid per submission or on a monthly basis salary. The lucky ones are even sent to places to travel at the company’s expense. In a nutshell, starting travel blog can be a great start to an excellent career.
How do I become a travel influencer?
There are no specific numbers or requirements to be called a travel influencer. However, most renowned influencers have millions of followers on their social media platforms. Knowing how to travel blog is also the key to becoming a travel influencer. So, bookmark our Travel Blog How to Start guide for you to read again when you’re ready to carve your path as an influencer!
