Travel blog are a popular medium to share your travels with not just family and friends but also with the rest of the world.
We’ll show you how to build a travel blog the right way and even earn money from it without any specialized technological knowledge in this article.
What is Necessary to Launch a Travel Blog?
- To start a travel blog correctly, you need three things.
- A domain name (the name visitors will enter in to discover your site to access your blog, such as adexvibes.com)
- Web hosting account (this is where the files for your website are kept online)
- 30 minutes of your full attention.
So with that said, let’s begin.
Step 1: Selecting the Appropriate Platform
The largest error made by most newbies is choosing the wrong blogging platform at first. You won’t make that error as you are already here.
WordPress.org is what we advise using. The most effective and well-liked blogging platform available today gives you total flexibility to establish, develop, and monetize your blog.
It’s crucial to distinguish between WordPress.org and WordPress.com because they are two distinct systems.
The well-known open-source website builder program is called WordPress.org (sometimes known as self-hosted WordPress). As opposed to Wix or SquareSpace, WordPress.com is a website hosting provider.
A domain name and a WordPress hosting account are required to launch a travel blog on WordPress.org.
A domain name typically costs $14.99 per year, and monthly web hosting packages start at $7.99.
That’s a lot for those just starting off with a travel blog.
Fortunately, Bluehost has consented to provide our readers with a free domain name and a discount on web hosting. They are among the biggest hosting providers on the planet and have received WordPress.org’s official seal of approval.
Basically, you’ll only have to pay $2.75 a month to get started.
Since 2005, Bluehost has made a commitment to supporting the WordPress community.
They have guaranteed us that if you are unable to set up your blog in 30 minutes by following this instruction, our experienced staff will do it for you at no charge. You don’t need to pay for it since they will make up for it.
After all of that, let’s go on to buying your domain name and hosting for your travel blog.
In order to get started, you must first open the Bluehost website in a new browser tab and select the green button.
The plan you want to choose will then be shown to you (the most common choices among our users are basic and plus).
The domain name for your website will then need to be entered.
Tips on Choosing a Trave Blog Domain Name:
- Make sure your domain name is easy to pronounce and spell.
- Most people use their travel blog name as their domain name. You can also use keywords that you think people will search for when looking for a travel blog.
- Stick with the .com extension to make your domain easy to remember.
- Don’t use numbers or hyphens in your domain name because they make it more difficult to type, spell, and pronounce.
After deciding on a domain name, press the next button to proceed.
To finish the procedure, you must now input your account details and confirm the package information. The 36-month plan is the greatest value, therefore we advise choosing it.
Additionally, you’ll find a few add-ons that are optional and are for sale. This covers backups, security, and domain privacy protection, among other things.
After that, you need to enter your payment information and finish the purchase.
Once finished, you will receive an email with details on how to log in to your web hosting control panel (cPanel).
Step 2. Installing WordPress
If you select Bluehost, WordPress will be installed on your domain name without your involvement. The link in the email you received after signing up must simply be clicked.
You’ll then be directed to your hosting control panel. To access your WordPress dashboard from here, simply click the login to WordPress button.
Your website’s administration panel is the WordPerss dashboard. You may manage your website from here, add themes and plugins, make content, and more.
You are now prepared to alter the look of your travel blog and begin adding content.
Step 3. Choosing a Theme for Your Travel Blog
One of the finest aspects about WordPress is its themes. There are several free and premium WordPress themes to pick from, and they govern the look and feel of your website.
All different types of websites utilize WordPress, thus there are a ton of free templates and paid themes accessible.
To launch a profitable travel blog, even free themes are quite adaptable. A personalized logo, sidebars, colors, a blog layout, and other options are all available.
You will require a theme that is appropriate for a travel blog’s design and feel. Here, the key is to go for simplicity and strike the ideal balance between form and function.
Step 4. Adding Content to Your New Travel Blog
The next step after installing and configuring a WordPress theme is to begin adding content.
Posts and pages are the two standard content kinds that come with WordPress. While pages are used to provide static information to your website, posts are the entries in your travel blog.
Because it aids in creating a website’s framework, we advise adding static content initially.
Step 5. Content Ideas for a Great Travel Blog
You will find your own voice and engage your readers in your travel blog postings. They must be instructive, enjoyable, and beneficial.
The first few entries may be added fast, but it will grow more difficult for you to routinely come up with fresh topics for your blog postings.
We also advise you to often browse well-known travel blogs to find ideas for future blog posts. Study the top travel blogs and imitate their strategies on your own site.
You could, for instance, see that certain travel blogs emphasize luxury vacation experiences, locations, and more. However, other blogs may concentrate on advice and tricks for traveling on a tight budget.
We are not suggesting that you copy the information or steal it. All you need to do is gather themes, ideas, and motivation.
Once you have some ideas, brainstorm them to come up with original material that reflects your own personality.
Additionally, effective travel bloggers publish rather frequently, as you’ll discover.
This is so because the secret to effective blogging is to keep a regular frequency.
You must maintain a regular publishing schedule for your content. We advise beginning with three articles each week and increasing your output to five articles per week over time.
Step 6. Getting More Traffic to Your Travel Blog
The next step after starting to contribute material to your travel blog is to make it easier for visitors to locate it. You must follow these procedures in order to do this.
1. Work on Your Blog’s SEO
The majority of websites and blogs on the internet get the majority of their visitors from search engines.
To improve their website’s exposure in search results, they advise website owners to follow specific best practices.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the name given to these best practices.
WordPress is already incredibly SEO-friendly. There is, however, a lot more you can do to increase traffic to your travel blog.
2. Improve Website Speed and Performance
A slow website is disliked by all. Your users will quit your website instantaneously with a horrible user experience and you will probably never get them back.
It also impacts your website’s search ranks since Google regards speed as one of the top ranking criteria.
To speed up your website, you won’t make specific WordPress performance tweaks.
3. Start Building a User Following
Did you realize that over 75% of website visitors leave without returning?
You must turn visitors into subscribers if you want them to be able to return to your website.
Building your email list is the greatest approach to do this. All well-known travel bloggers, as you’ll see, are actively pushing their email newsletters.
Constant Contact is the greatest email marketing platform for bloggers and small businesses, thus we strongly suggest utilizing it.
However, merely adding email signup boxes to your website won’t persuade the majority of visitors to subscribe.
To help with this, there is OptinMonster. The greatest conversion optimization tool available can assist you in turning blog visitors into subscribers and buyers.
4. Track User Statistics
Most newbies make their best assumptions about what their audience will like to read or see. When you can collect real data to show you exactly what your consumers want and do on your website, you don’t need to do that.
With the help of this information, you can plan your path into blogging and create a content strategy to expand your website.
You must begin utilizing Google Analytics in order to obtain these insights. It provides information about the number of visitors, what they view, their origin, and other factors.
Step 7. Making Money From Your Travel Blog
Ever pondered how the best travel writers visit far-flung locales throughout the globe?
Traveling can be pretty expensive, and some of these popular bloggers do it for a living. How do they generate income?
Here, we’ll explain how other travel bloggers monetize their sites and how you may with your own.
1. sponsorships
For well-known travel bloggers, sponsorships provide the best travel benefits. These sponsorships are provided by lodging establishments, airlines, cruise lines, tour companies, and even government organizations that support tourism.
You can get in touch with these firms on your own if your site has a respectable volume of regular visitors.
They could offer you free goods or a fixed price in exchange for mentioning their business or service on your blog. You can receive requests from businesses to submit sponsored or guest content on your site.
How do you identify potential buyers for such a deal?
Check out whether businesses are already supporting other travel writers, or just wing it with hotels and airlines for the destinations you wish to visit.
Although you will receive some benefits from sponsorship agreements, they are unlikely to generate enough revenue to turn your travel writing into a successful company.
2. Commercials
The majority of travel blogs, as well as almost all other popular blogs on the internet, rely on adverts. Use of Google AdSense is the most common method of displaying adverts on blogs.
It links marketers seeking for a niche audience with bloggers like you. Google receives funding from advertisers and pays you after deducting a little fee for itself.
3. Partner Marketing
You are able to promote vacation goods that you utilize and like via affiliate marketing. When one of your users buys something after clicking on your link, you receive a commission.
You must locate travel-related businesses and items with an affiliate program if you want to succeed with affiliate marketing. These may include tour operators, adventure camera makers, selfie sticks, backpack producers, and so on.
Amazon Affiliates is the largest affiliate program you can join. There are a ton of items available, including luggage, bags, apparel, electronics, and travel accessories.
You may also register for affiliate programs offered by businesses like Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor, and others that are specifically for the travel industry.