How to start a travel blog – the complete beginners guide

A complete guide to starting your own travel blog

As a travel blogger one question I often get asked by non-bloggers is how do I start a travel blog?

I’m a passionate advocate for people starting a blog, whether it be travel or otherwise. I set up this page to show new bloggers how to set up a travel blog from scratch. This is the same method I set up this site and my first travel blog.

Starting a travel blog has been one of the best business decisions I’ve made. I first started making how-to travel web sites in 2001 as a hobby. I had no idea that I could make money from it, but it was a passion that I wanted to follow. Making travel information websites is now my full-time (dream) job.

I started my own travel blog in 2009 which has brought me all kinds of benefits and business opportunities. It’s given me a platform as a travel writer and helped me become a leader in the digital nomad space. I’ve been offered paid writing jobs in international press, invited to countries from tourism offices, and received leads for my web business.

From a non-business perspective I’ve made countless friends with people who found me via the blog, and I love having an online archive where I can look back at all the stories and photos from my travels.

Whether you’re looking to become a professional travel blogger or just want online travel journal to share your travel stories with the world, I’ve put together a quick-start guide on how to start a travel blog.

Following these steps will get you online in less than half an hour. From there it’s up to you how much time you put into your blog; from a once-a-week hobby to a full-time business.

How to start a travel blog in 5 steps:

Choose a name for your travel blog
Register your domain and buy hosting
Install WordPress
Choose a theme
Install plugins

Step 1: Choose a name for your travel blog

If you already know what you’re going to call your blog then you can progress to the next step of buying your domain and hosting.

If you’re still thinking about what to call your site I have written a guide to choosing a domain name for your travel blog. This is an important step as you don’t wan’t to be stuck with a name you don’t like or one that limits your future blogging.

Once you have picked a name you’re ready to register your blog name and get a domain and hosting package.

Step 2: Register your domain and buy hosting

To get a website online you need to register a domain (like travelbloggersguide.com) and rent hosting space (the company that keeps your site online). These are two separate items, though many hosts will sell both domain and hosting.

For domain and hosting I personally recommend Bluehost, which I use for many of my sites – including travelbloggersguide.com. Bluehost is one of the biggest hosting providers in the world, and I’ve been using them here since 2009.

With Bluehost you also get a free domain with your hosting (otherwise a domain name normally costs about $10-15 a year to register).

You can buy the cheapest package available (starter) which is enough for a new blog.

Start setting up your site by ordering your domain and hosting here and follow these instructions.

On the Bluehost page go to the top nav bar and select products > shared web hosting.

From there click get started now and select starter. If you will be hosting more than one site select plus (you can upgrade later if you start a another site).

Next you will be asked to register your domain name.

Assuming your chosen domain is available you will then be taken to the account information page. Fill in your account details as required.

For the package information I opt out of the extras, but if you want to keep your domain ownership private you can opt in here. Domain registrants are required to publish the name and address of the owner of a domain. If you are not comfortable with your address being made public then select Domain Privacy Protection.

You now have domain and hosting for your travel blog. The next step is to set up WordPress.

Step 3: Install WordPress

WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging platform and I use it for this site. I have used other blogging platforms for other sites and WP is by far the most user friendly. WordPress is free to download and can be done within your hosting account.

It is estimated that WordPress is operated by 25 to 33% of all websites on the internet, so that gives you an idea of how popular it is.

WordPress is so popular because you can create a website without having to know anything about code. You can make a website with a ready-made website template (called a theme) without worrying about how it works. All you need to do is type in your content into a box (similar to an email composition box) and hit “Publish”. It’s non-technical nature has let anyone to be able to become a publisher online.

WordPress also have thousands of plugins available which can be downloaded to enhance your site. You won’t need any to get started but you will soon learn about plugins once you start designing your site.

To install WordPress onto your blog, login to your Bluehost account which will take you to your cPanel.

Click on the hosting menu, find the section called Website and select “Install WordPress”.

Next you will be taken to an installation page. Select Install at the Do it yourself (FREE) option.

From here select which domain you would like to install to. You can choose to select your domain with a www or without. I’ve written about which one to use, but I say just pick which one you prefer.

At the next step select Show advanced options. Here you will set your username and password for your site.

Enter your details and select Install Now.

Congratulations, you have now installed WordPress on your blog. You will get an email with your login details, or you can go straight to your login page at yoursitename.com/wp-login.php.

Once you are logged in you should select a good permalink structure. This is what the blog post link looks like after the .com.

A new WordPress installation will set your URL to the default “Plain”:

http://travelbloggersguide.com/?p=123

If a visitor sees this link outside your site they will have no idea what it is for. I prefer “Post Name”, which makes posts look like this:

http://travelbloggersguide.com/sample-post/

To fix this, go to your left hand column and select Settings > Permalinks. From there select the “Post Name” option.

There are other options of course, and if you want to read more about that, here is my post about WordPress permalinks. The main thing is to get this right the first time, so you don’t find yourself wanting to change your link structure once you have an established blog.

Step 4: Choose a theme

After WordPress is installed on your domain you can technically start publishing immediately using the pre-installed theme. A theme is separate to the WordPress installation which controls the look and functionality of the website. This system allows you to pick a pre-made design without having to know anything about PHP, HTML, CSS, or any other scary coding acronym’s.

While the pre-installed themes are practical to get started, you are better off finding another theme to differentiate yourself from the thousands of blogs that didn’t bother to change the default theme.

To change your theme, go to the menu on the left hand side and select Appearance > Themes. In that section you will see preloaded themes from WordPress.

For free themes you can start looking in the official WordPress Theme Directory. This is a good place to begin if you are starting out and haven’t settled on a look for your site. These themes are connected to your Themes contol panel, so you can also browse and upload directly from your site.

I personally use and recommend StudioPress, which I use on this site. This is a premium theme, which you can buy for a fraction of what a custom-made site would cost.

There are thousands of themes to choose from though, so here is a more detailed guide for choosing a WordPress theme.

Step 5: Install plugins

In addition to themes, the other feature that allows you to change the look of your site are plugins. A plugin is additional software that can be installed on your blog to enhance its features and functionality. At the time of writing there were over 40,000 available plugins, but you should use as few as possible (I use 9 here) because too many may slow your site speed.

To get started here are the plugins I always install on new sites:

Akismet – Filters out the avalanche of spam comments that WordPress blogs attract.

Wordfence – WordPress security plugin provides free protection from hacks and malware.

Jetpack by WordPress.com – Provides a range of features within one plugin, including adding site stats to your dashboard.

Plugins are something you can play with as you get used to how WordPress works. For example there are dozens of social sharing plugins, which allows readers to easily share your blog on social media. They all have different styles so browse for the one that best suits your site.

You might find that you need a specific functionality added to your theme, so just Google it and see if someone has already made it.

Reserve your Gmail and social media names

Once you have picked your domain name you should also reserve your Google email alias, preferably the same name as your domain. Even if you plan to use your domain as your email (eg yourname@yourwebsite.com) there are two reasons why you should reserve your name anyway.

– The first is to stop someone else claiming your great name.

– The second, more practical reason, is that you will need a Gmail account to login to other Google sites.

Gmail, the email service by Google, also acts as your account login for other Google services such as Adsense, Analytics, Youtube, and webmaster tools.

Also reserve you social media names using the same name as your domain. Even if you don’t think you’ll use them it is better to get before someone else takes them. At the very least register:

– Facebook
– Twitter
– Instagram

If you really want to go crazy and lock down your name everywhere, Knowem lists over 500 sites where you can create a public username.

Reserve your WordPress/Gravatar account

In addition to reserving your major social media handles, be sure to register a wordpress.com account.

Having a WordPress account is handy for 2 reasons:

– You can get an API key for the Akismet spam filter.

– Your WordPress profile is used at Gravatar.

Gravatar

What is Gravatar?

“Your Gravatar is an image that follows you from site to site appearing beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog.”

Have you ever commented on a blog and noticed that other commenters have their image or site logo next to their name? On WordPress when you put your email address in the comments section, if it matches your Gravatar email, WordPress will automatically add your image.

Set up Google Analytics

One of the reasons you need a Gmail account is to be able to access wide variety of services that Google offers. When it comes to finding out how many visitors your blog is getting, Google Analytics is one of the best traffic counters for websites. It is also the industry standard, so if in the future an advertiser wants to know your website stats, they will want to know stats provided by Google.

Analytics provides details like daily visitors and page views, what country your visitors come from, and which websites sent you the traffic, among many other stats.

When you open your account you will be given a unique code to place on your blog. You will need to check with your Theme to see where to place the code. If you get stuck and don’t know where to place the code, use the Google Analytics For WordPress plugin. Try and use as few plugins as possible though, so just this until you figure out your theme settings.

Start an email list

Ask most established bloggers and they will say that they wished they started a mailing list earlier. Email subscriptions are not handled by hosting providers so you need to do this independently. An email list is a great way to keep your readers up to date on your site. Even if you don’t know how you’ll use your mailing list you should start collecting subscribers to your site.

There are many email services out there, and they do get quite expensive once you start growing a serious list. A good option for beginners is Mailerlite, which is free for the first 1000 subscribers, or Mailchimp, which has offers 2000 free subscribers. If your mailing list needs get more complex you can always move your list – the important thing is to get that list started.

Start travel blogging

Setting up a travel blog is the easy part. Now you can begin to fill your site with content.

Before you get started ask yourself what type of travel blog you are starting? A travel blog can be a personal travelogue of your travels, or it can be an information site about any travel-related topic.

Is your travel blog going to be a hobby site or is it something you want to develop into a full-time business?

If you’re considering creating a site as a business, you will need to put a lot of hours into your site. When I first started out I spent a year of doing not much else in my spare time but developing my websites. In fact, it might make you unsociable as you spend your nights and weekends after work on your website. The payoff for me was that I was able to make my publishing business a full-time job, and now I set my own work hours.

Personal Travel Blog

Starting your own travel blog is a great outlet for creative expression. As well as showcasing your writing and photography talents, you can build relationships with other travel bloggers and create your own community of like-minded people.

Not everyone who starts a travel blog intends to become a full time blogger. Most personal travel blogs are travelogues, made for the purpose of keeping friends and family up to date when on the road, and as a permanent record of a trip.

Just because your site isn’t commercial, it doesn’t mean you can’t be professional in your approach to blogging. Anyone can see your site, so why not create something to be proud of.

Information Travel Blog

A travel blog doesn’t just have to be about you and your travels. There are so many subjects (niches) you could possibly blog about, the options are endless. It could be a destination guide, a travel gear review site, or an air travel news blog.

If you are going to start an information travel blog, stick to what you enjoy. Pick a subject that interests you and become the expert in that. You don’t need to be an expert in the field when you begin. You will learn things as you go, and perhaps in the process become the expert in the field.

One of the most enjoyable aspects I have found about running travel information blogs is that it keeps me talking about travel even when I am at home.

If you do find yourself “grounded” in your city for whatever reason, you could create a travel blog about your own city. The city you live is a tourist attraction for someone else. It’s easy to be the expert of a city if you live there.

Travel blogging FAQ’s

In addition to the technical questions of setting up a blog, here are some of the most frequently asked questions about starting a travel blog.

How much does it cost to start a travel blog?

At a bare minimum it will cost just under $50 for the first year for your hosting and domain. Most hosts provide a half price first year rate, so expect to pay about $100 per year after that. From this domain and hosting base other optional expenses will accumulate as you craft a blog to your own taste and needs.

How can I start a blog for free?

If you’ve read this and just want to start a free travel blog you can do so at wordpress.com. You will get a domain with WordPress in the domain, like travelbloggersguide.wordpress.com. There are other blogging platforms as well, such as Blogger, which gives you a blogspot.com domain, though I recommend WordPress. The free site is fine if you just want to write on the cheap and have to desire to turn your blog into something larger.

Do I have to quit my job to start a travel blog?

It’s become a popular theme in the travel blogging space to declare that you “quit your job to travel the world!” While that is great if you are in the position to do so, most people are happy to keep their job and travel part time. Indeed, with such a low barrier to entry, travel blogging in your spare time is a low-risk way of discovering if full time travel blogging is for you.

Can I make money by blogging?

Absolutely! Before I began my travel blog in 2009 I had been making money online since 2003 by making travel websites.

How can I make money travel blogging?

Thee are numerous ways to make money from a travel blog, so it will depend on what type of site you have created. Some ways you can make monetize a travel blog include:

– Affiliate marketing.
– Banner advertising.
– Membership sites.
– Infoproducts.
– Writing physical books (from memoirs to traditional guide books).
– Sponsored posts.
– Paid press trips.

Is it true that travel bloggers get paid to travel the world?

In addition to being paid cash for your writing services or advertising on your blog, some travel bloggers are also offered free tours, hotel stays, flights, and travel gear for reviewing. In addition to free travel, some promotional campaigns also pay a daily rate and expenses on top of that. So yes, some bloggers are getting paid to travel the world. Of course you have to ask yourself if this is what you want to do on your blog, and if your readers trust your judgement when being paid to write about a place. That is a topic for a separate blog post..

So can I travel the world for free as a travel blogger?

Sigh. I’m hearing this one more often than I would like, often from travel blogs that are selling the dream, so to speak. I always think back to my high school economics class, which is where I first heard the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. If it was free travel then that would mean you are getting something for nothing. Some of the most prominent bloggers I know who have most of their travels paid for are also among the hardest working bloggers I know. They are the ones holed up in their hotel room putting together a weekly newsletter or editing the days video, or expanding on their notes for a 5000 word in-depth article on a destination they just visited.

How much money can I make from a travel blog?

There are so many variables that go into a successful travel blog so there is no simple answer. Some part-time blogs might make ten dollars a month, while others are making ten of thousands of dollars a month.

There are a number of bloggers who are on record saying they earn six figures a year, and one of the biggest blogs nets around $750,000 annually. I also know bloggers that are making a comfortable income that aren’t blogging about it.

Should I set my site up on a premium host?

If you read some of the more established travel blogs you may notice that they promote web hosting that costs anywhere from $25 to $150 a MONTH! On my main travel blog I have now graduated to a premium host which costs $25 a month. Don’t worry though, you don’t need this level of hosting for a new blog.

Premium hosting is useful for when your blog is getting over 100,000 visitors per month. At that point having a dedicated server and optimising your site for that fastest possible load times can make a difference in your rankings. For a brand new site though these small improvements isn’t worth the extra cost.

I want to be a travel writer for magazines and newspapers. Should I still start a blog?

You should especially start a blog if you want to write for traditional media outlets. I’m still amazed when I meet traditional writers who don’t have a home on the web. A blog is like an online business card. You can promote your writing services here and list your catalog of published works. You can also use the blog for articles you have written that don’t end up finding a place to be published.

Personally I haven’t pursued paid travel writing for other publications as my time is better spent on other sites I run. Even so, I’ve been approached by publications out of the blue asking me to contribute because they read my travel blog. Having a blog is another avenue for someone to find you.