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Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

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How to Start a Travel Blog

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, including the links for HostGator and Bluehost. At no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links. If you have any questions about the companies or my status as an affiliate, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Whether as a hobby or profession, starting a travel blog is pretty easy. You can set it up in under 30 minutes. It’s a lot easier than when I started my blog in 2008. Back then, I didn’t know the first thing about making a website. Luckily, on my adventures around the world, I met Matt and Kat, a British couple who also happened to be web designers.

When I came home and decided I wanted to start this travel blog, they agreed to help me set it up and teach me HTML. I hand-coded the website and used a funky tool called Dreamweaver to build it. It was painfully slow and I wasn’t very good at it. (And my original website was really ugly!)

Luckily, you no longer have to build websites that way!

Creating a website has gotten a lot easier and simpler thanks to WordPress, an out-of-the-box platform designed to make sites easier for those not technically savvy (like myself). It powers over 25% of the internet and is the best platform to start a blog on. It’s super flexible and can do whatever you want it to do — from a simple journal to complex blogs and e-commerce websites.

In our blogging course , we’ve had thousands of students start a website on WordPress without any technical skills. They got them up and running — and you can too!

While I’ve talked about how to succeed as a travel blog in the past, today, I want to give a quick tutorial on how to create a travel blog from scratch in seven easy steps.  

Table of Contents

Step 1: Picking a Name Step 2: Signing Up for a Host Step 3: Installing WordPress Step 4: Setting Up Your Website Step 5: Installing Your Theme Step 6: Creating Your Main Pages Step 7: Joining Our Blogging Course Frequently Asked Questions

Step 1: Pick your domain name

The first thing you need to do is pick a domain name (i.e., your website name). When doing so, there are no hard and fast rules. There’s no such thing as a “wrong domain name,” but there are a couple of rules I like to live by:

Make a name that can last – If you pick “JohnsAsiaAdeventure.com” and then you leave Asia, the domain name won’t make sense anymore. Make sure you pick a name that isn’t so focused that if you decide to shift gears, you can keep the same domain name.

Don’t date your blog – Don’t pick something related to your age either. “Twenty-Something Travel” becomes really irrelevant when you get older, which actually happened to a blogger I know. Pick a name that can be used no matter your age!

Avoid certain words – Avoid words like “nomad,” “vagabond,” “wanderlust,” and “adventure.” They have been done to death, and they will make you seem like you’re copying people, not being original.

Pick a name that describes what you do as much as possible – I was a nomad, so “Nomadic Matt” was the best pick for me. If you’re into luxury, put words in your domain name that convey that. You want people to see the name and go, “I get what that website is about.”

Keep it short  – Use 3-4 words maximum. You want the name that rolls off the tongue. Even Ramit Sethi from “I Will Teach You to Be Rich” abbreviates his site to “I Will Teach” or “IWT.” The shorter, the better.

Keep it simple – I’m not a fan of using jargon or slang in your domain name, as I think that makes things confusing for people who don’t know it. The last thing you want is someone saying, “What does that mean?” or being confused. If someone has to think hard about the meaning, then you’ve already lost them. So don’t try to be clever!  

Step 2: Sign up for a host

After you’ve picked out your domain name, you’ll need to register it online and buy hosting (the little computer in the sky that’s going to power your website). There are a lot of basic hosting companies out there — and most of them are pretty terrible.

However, the two biggest and best are HostGator and Bluehost . I would go with one of those two.

While they are owned by the same parent company, I lean toward HostGator , as I find its call center customer service quicker and friendlier, and HostGator is prone to fewer outages (no one wants their website to go down!). It’s also really improved its service and now offers free SSL certificates (that’s the thing that tells users your website is secure).

Here’s a walk-through of how to set up your host with HostGator (it won’t take long):

First, head over to the website’s sign-up page and get hosting for only $2.78 per month. That’s over 60% off the normal price!

Next, choose your plan (I suggest the hatchling plan):

Enter your desired domain name at the top of the page. Make sure before you sign up that the domain you want is available, so as to avoid issues with your signup process.

The system will then prompt you to take out “domain privacy protection,” which we recommend you do. (Why? This will hide your address and contact details from appearing online when someone queries your domain name, and it will keep spammers from calling you to sell their sketchy web services. It’s really annoying — and once your name and phone number are out there, they’re out there forever. Nip it in the bud by hiding them from the beginning.)

If you already have a domain name but need hosting, simply select the “I already own this domain” from the tab at the top. Then, enter your domain name and continue to the next step.

Make sure you have selected the right hosting plan from the drop-down list and then select the billing cycle you are prepared to pay. The longer you lock in for, the cheaper initial pricing will be.

We suggest starting with the “Hatchling Plan” (which gives you hosting for one single domain), but if you have plans for more than one website, then opt for the “Baby Plan” instead, to give you room to grow (since you can host unlimited domains with it).

Next, you will then select the username for your account and a security PIN. Fill out your billing information and preferred payment type (credit card or PayPal.)

You can opt-out of all of the additional services on offer by unchecking them.

Review your order details and make sure everything is correct. Then click “Checkout Now!” at the bottom of the page.

Once your order has been received, you’ll be redirected to the HostGator billing portal. You will also be sent two separate emails with the login credentials to your hosting control panel and the billing portal for your HostGator account. Be sure to save the information. Save them on your computer and/or print the emails for safekeeping.

They will look similar to the example below:

For those of you with an existing domain or a domain purchased from a third-party site like GoDaddy, take note of the nameservers listed on your hosting account email. You will need to add those to your domain where you purchased it, to link your domain and hosting together. Please refer to the support documents from where you bought your domain for exact instructions on how to update your nameservers.

That’s it! All that takes about five minutes from start to finish!

Again, you can click here to go to  HostGator  to set it up.  

Step 3: How to Install WordPress

After you’ve registered your domain name and chosen your hosting package, the next thing you’ll want to do is install WordPress. (WordPress is what will actually run the website. The host is simply the computer your site sits on.)

WordPress is an open-source, free web publishing application, content management system (CMS), and blogging tool built by a community of developers and contributors to make it easy for people to blog!

After you’ve paid for your domain, you’ll get an email telling you your login details. Log in to your hosting control panel using the link provided to you by email when you purchased your hosting from Hostgator. The link would look similar to this:

https://gatorXXXX.hostgator.com:2083

The email will be titled “Your Account Info” if you have trouble locating it in your inbox.

Once logged into your control panel, you need to scroll down the settings page to locate the “Software” section. Then click on the “QuickInstall” link. The software section will be located toward the bottom of the page.

On the page that loads, select WordPress from the top menu or the WordPress tile on the page..

Select your domain name from the drop-down. Leave the “install/path/here” field blank.

Enter the name of your blog, an admin username (make sure the admin username is hard to guess), your name, and your email address, and then agree to the terms and conditions below. Then click the “Install” button.

Once the install process has finished, you will be given the password you need to log in to your WordPress site in the notification bar at the top (dismiss the popup that appears). Take note of the password, as we will show you how to change that later on. You will also be emailed the details if you miss or forget to save the info.

Step 4: Setting up your website

After you’ve installed WordPress, go to domainname.com/wp-admin and use the username and password you created to log in. You’ll see a screen like this after you log in:

Here’s a little overview of the menu on the left side of the screen:

• Dashboard  – The dashboard is the first thing you see when you log in to WordPress, and it’s the main administrative area for your blog.
• Home  – This will take you back to the main dashboard view.
• Updates  – This area will tell you if WordPress, your plugins, or your theme need to be updated.
• Posts  – You can view all your blog posts here, as well as set up new ones and add categories and tags.
• Media  – Here’s where you can view your media library and add new media content, like photos and videos.
• Pages  – Pages are the individual landing pages on your website (like your About page, Contact page, Resources page, etc.). You can add new pages here as well as review and edit existing ones.
• Comments  – Comments on your blog posts go here. You may want to check the spam folder periodically to make sure you’re not missing real comments.
• WPForms  – WordPress’s contact-form plugin.
• Marketplace  – Here you can create an online marketplace.
• Appearance  – This section lets you entirely customize your site’s appearance.
• Plugins  – Review, install, and update your plugins here.
• Users  – If there’s more than one person accessing your blog, you can create accounts and give them certain privileges here.
• Tools  – This section has certain tools to aid you with management tasks.
• Settings  – You can adjust all your site’s settings here, including things like your blog title and the size of thumbnails being used.
• Insights  – Insights provides traffic and user stats about those visiting your website. (Google Analytics is a better choice, though.)

Plugins are a great way to add additional functionality to a WordPress-powered site. And with over 50,000 listed in the WordPress Repository and many more premium options available from developers, there are endless possibilities as to what you can do with your site. (I’ll list some examples below.)

To get started, click on “Plugins” and then “Add New” when logged into your WordPress dashboard. Here you can search for plugins that you want and install them via a one-click install that automatically installs them to your WordPress platform.

Alternatively, you have the option to upload a plugin you have purchased or downloaded from a third-party site. To do this, see the “Step 3” arrow in the picture above. All you have to do is click “upload plugin” and you’ll be asked to upload the ZIP file of the plugin that you downloaded from the third-party website.

Once you have uploaded a plugin (or searched for one, as I’ve shown in the image below) you can install it.

After clicking the “Install Now” option, the button will change to say “Activate.” This allows you to enable the plugin on your site and makes it ready to be configured and used.

If you can think of a feature you’d like to have on your site, I can almost guarantee there is a plugin for it, but here are the essential ones for your travel blog:

Akismet  – Just like getting junk mail in your mailbox, your website will get spammers looking to leave junk comments on your site. Akismet seeks to reduce the amount of this by automatically filtering it for you.

Yoast SEO – The best SEO plugin out there. This combines the ability to create meta tags and descriptions for your posts, optimize your titles, create a sitemap for search engines to read, customize how your posts appear across social media, and do a whole lot more.

Relevanssi  – While WordPress does a lot of things well, what it fails at is adding search functionality to your site. Relevanssi seeks to fix this and give your readers the most accurate results when searching on your site.

UpdraftPlus – You can never back up your site too much. The WordPress database holds every word you’ve ever written, and if your blog has started to make you a few dollars, you would be nuts not to keep regular backups. UpdraftPlus does it perfectly.

Grow by Mediavine  – A great social sharing plugin for your site. It comes with great a simple set of icons that work well on both desktop and mobile.

Cache Enabler – This plugin creates saved copies of your site, making loading your web pages much faster.

Code Canyon – This interactive map is a cool way to highlight your travels and share them with your readers.  

Step 5: Install your theme

One of the most important things a blog needs besides good content is a good design. People decide in seconds whether or not they trust your website and choose to stay. A visually unappealing website will turn off readers and reduce the number of return visits you get.

So to accomplish a good design, you will need an amazing WordPress theme (i.e., design templates and files).

Luckily, there are lots of out-of-the-box options for you where you can download a predesigned theme, upload it to your website, switch it on, change some settings, and presto! A new look for your website!

You can get:

• Free themes – Free themes are plentiful and for budding new bloggers looking to make their mark online. They seem like a great option, as they allow you to keep costs low. There are many great free themes online, but most of them are not amazing. If you plan on blogging for a long time, this might become a problem as your website grows. However, if you just need a simple design to blog for your friends and family, then go the free route. You can find some good free themes at wordpress.org .
• Premium themes – The next step up from a free theme is a premium theme. Premium themes are paid themes that offer a bit more uniqueness, flexibility, and functionality. These cost $25 USD and up, depending on the developer and features.

I suggest getting a premium theme . Yes, it’s another cost — but here is why you should do it:

• With a premium theme, you almost always get customer support from the developers. If you get in trouble, they are there for you. You don’t get that with a free theme.
• With a premium theme, there are more controls and instructions so they are easier to change. Free themes don’t have that.
• Premium themes tend to be a lot prettier.
• Premium themes are faster and more SEO friendly.

Genesis themes by StudioPress are some of the best and most popular if you’re looking to invest in a top-notch theme.

To install your theme, simply go to the left-hand column, click Appearance –> Themes –> Upload.

Whatever theme you picked will come as a .ZIP file for you to easily upload. From there, you just activate it, and it’s turned on! All themes come with a manual and help file so you can customize your design to your specific needs.

(If you want a custom logo or need to hire any designers, two sites to find freelancers are Upwork and 99designs .)  

Step 6: Create your main pages

After you’ve uploaded your theme, you’re going to want to make a few basic pages on your website in addition to the blog posts. The difference between a page and a post is that a page is a static piece of content that lives separate from the blog. A post is a blog post that gets “buried” as you write more and more. For example, this post is a blog post. When I update again, another blog post will get put on top of it, and it will be pushed down in the archives, making it harder to find.

But a page, like my About page, lives on the top of the website, right near the main URL, and does NOT get buried. It’s a lot easier to find.

To create these pages, go again to your left sidebar and click Pages —> Add New. (For blog posts, use Posts –> Add New.)

I recommend creating four basic pages to start:

About page – This where you tell people about yourself and your history, what your blog is about, and why it will help them. This is one of the most important pages on your website, so make it personable!

Contact page – People need a way to reach you! Be sure to be very clear on what emails you will and won’t respond to, so people don’t send you spam.

Privacy page  – This is a standard user agreement page informing readers what the applicable laws on your site are, that you use cookies, etc. etc. You can find out-of-the-box examples throughout the internet.

Copyright page  – This is a standard page letting people know you own this work and not to steal it. You can find out-of-the-box examples of these, too, throughout the internet.

(If you look in my footer, under the “About Us” section, you can see examples of all four of these pages!)  

Step 7: Join our blogging program! (optional)

You’ll learn everything I know about creating a successful blog from creating engaging content, going viral, networking with bloggers, getting media attention, mastering SEO, creating products, growing a newsletter, and making money.

If you’re interested,  click here to learn more and get started !  

requently Asked Questions

Starting a blog can be an intimidating process. I struggled a ton when I first started blogging and had a lot of questions — but no one to ask them to. Since I continue to get questions about blogging emailed to me every week, I thought I’d share some of the answers here (we cover all of this in the course I mentioned above too).

How much does it cost to start a blog? You can start a travel blog for just a few dollars per month. Hosting costs less than $5 USD per month, which is the only expense you absolutely need. In a perfect world, you’d also purchase a premium theme, which can cost around $100-150 USD, but that’s about all you need at the start. Everything else can wait!

Can I blog if I have a full-time job? You definitely don’t need to be a full-time traveler to be successful. I started my blog as a hobby while working as a teacher — and so did tons of other bloggers who are now successful. Starting a blog is like starting a business. It won’t make money overnight, so keeping your day job is a smart move. Lots of part-time bloggers are successful!

Do I need a laptop or fancy camera to start a blog? You definitely need a laptop and, while a camera is helpful, a big fancy camera is not 100% necessary. A simple phone camera or point-and-shoot camera will suffice. I only travel with my iPhone and that works well!

Is it too late to start a blog? Definitely not! Think of blogs like restaurants. Is it too late to start a restaurant? Of course not! Yes, there are already a TON of restaurants out there, but there’s always room for a new, awesome restaurant.

The same goes for blogging. There are TONS of blogs out there, but most of them are average. There is ALWAYS room for new, awesome content!

Can you actually make money blogging? Definitely! This is not a get-rich-quick industry though. Most bloggers don’t make any money for their first year, however, there are thousands of travel bloggers out there making everything from a few bucks per month to full-time incomes. If you put in the work, learn the right skills, and stay consistent, it’s 100% possible to make a living in this industry.

Do I need a lot of technical skills to get started? There are some minor technical skills you need, but otherwise, that’s it. I had zero technical skills when I started, which is why I wanted to include a comprehensive tech unit in my course as the tech stuff is the most tedious. But you don’t need to be a computer whiz to get started. You just need to learn the basics.

How much money can you make as a blogger? There are travel bloggers bringing in over 1 million dollars a year from their website so the sky is the limit! But, realistically, the majority of full-time bloggers make between 80,000-150,000 a year.

That’s it! You’ve set up your basic website. Sure, there are social media buttons to add, blogs to write, images to upload, and things to tweak but all that comes later. Once you do the steps above, you have the framework needed to create and share your story with the world! To recap on how to start a travel blog:

• Step 1: Pick a Name
• Step 2: Sign Up for Hosting
• Step 3: Install WordPress
• Step 4: Set Up Your Website
• Step 5: Install Your Theme
• Step 6: Create Your Main Pages
• Step 7: Join Our Blogging Course (Optional!)

By following these steps, you can start your travel blog and your stories and tips with the world! (That’s where the real fun begins!) Don’t let the tech scare you. I didn’t know anything when I started. I was totally clueless and had to teach myself how to do this. If I can do this, you can start a blog too! I believe in you! (Email me if you want more encouragement.)

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

• SafetyWing (best for everyone)
• Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
• Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links, including the links for HostGator and Bluehost. At no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase using these links. If you have any questions about the companies or my status as an affiliate, please don’t hesitate to email me.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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How to Start a Travel Blog (The Ultimate 2024 Guide)

• Last Updated: February 5, 2024

Congratulations, you’ve decided you want to know how to start a travel blog! Let us be the first to welcome you to the club. You’re in for a fun ride!

Before we start there are a few things we need to clear up about starting a travel blog.

First of all, it’s not hard. Second of all, it doesn’t take long. Third, it is cheap.

The difficult part comes in trying to grow and make money from your travel blog, but there’s a lot of potential to do this successfully, and the rewards are worth the effort.

These days we make over USD$30’000 a month from this website and our various media clients. In other words, we make a good living from travel blogging.

We’re going to assume you’re in the same position that we were when we first decided to start NOMADasaurus. One day we decided to make a travel blog. So we opened up Google, started researching, and became completely overwhelmed with an entire world that we knew nothing about.

Hosting, domains, analytics, content management systems, HTML, social media marketing, SEO – all these terms went straight over our heads.

The truth is that starting a travel blog is actually quite a simple step-by-step process, and there’s no need to get overwhelmed by it all.

Let us walk you through that process.

We’re going to show you exactly how to start a travel blog in less than an hour!

• Pick a blog name
• Define your brand
• Register your domain
• Purchase website hosting
• Set up your host (we’ll show you how)
• Install WordPress (the easy way)
• Pick a theme
• Get some essential plugins
• Plus have some bonus professional tips to start making money asap!

Table of Contents

Tips For Picking A Travel Blog Name

Tips for defining your brand, domains vs hosts, our favourite host is siteground, managed wordpress hosting, step by step guide with siteground, step 3 – install wordpress, free vs premium themes, w3 total cache, google analytics, get on social media, make an about page, custom design your blog, network with other bloggers, don’t sign up for a travel blog course, start blogging, what you need before our ‘how to start a travel blog’ guide.

You’re going to need a few things before we begin.

• A computer (not a smart phone).
• An internet connection.
• A credit card or debit card.
• 1 hour of free time.
• A delicious drink to enjoy.

You also may have seen these companies that give you a free website and only take a few minutes to setup.

Some examples are Wix, Blogspot, WordPress.com and others. These are absolutely fine if you just want to make an online diary about your travels, and maybe have a few friends and family follow along.

But these aren’t any good if you want to make a successful travel blog, or if you ever want to try and make money from it in the future.

Do yourself a favour and start with your own hosted travel blog from the very beginning. Not sure what that means or how to do it? Well, let’s get started…

Step 1 – Pick Your Name and Brand

This is by far the hardest part of starting a travel blog. Picking a name can literally take weeks.

This will be your online identity, and you’ll be telling people all around the world this on a daily basis, so make it something you are happy with.

If you want to start a travel blog about one particular place or thing rather than being the face of your travel blog, then this is easier.

You can be “Food Adventures In New York City”, and everyone will know exactly what your blog is about.

Example: Is your name Jim? Then perhaps something like “Travelling Jim” would work for your blog name. Say it out loud. Do you like it? Awesome. In fact, let’s use “Travelling Jim” as our example blog for the rest of this article.

• Keep it as short and simple as possible. You don’t want to be telling people, “Hey, make sure you check out my blog, ‘www.jimistravellingtheworldforanindefiniteamountoftimestartingin2020-ihopeyoufollowme.com'” What a mouthful! If you can keep it between one to four words, awesome! Also avoid having a hyphen (-) in there, again for simplicity.
• Give your blog longevity. Travelling Jim works well, but “Jim’s 2020 Travels” doesn’t. What if you travel in 2017? Same with “Adventures Of A 21-Year-Old”. That’s not going to work when you’re 22
• Don’t limit yourself. If you want to start a travel blog about one particular place or topic, then go for it. These can be very successful in a niche market. But if you are travelling to Australia for example, don’t call your blog, “Jim Travels Australia”. How are you going to blog about Europe if you ever go there? If you want to have a general travel blog and don’t know what your exact plans are in the future, keep it broad.
• Think outside the box. While you want to keep things as simple and general as possible, don’t forget that travel changes people. Don’t call your blog “Forever Single Traveller” just because you’re single when you started. What if you get a partner? Then you’re no longer the Forever Single Traveller. Same with something like “$1 A Day Travels”, because you’re broke when you start. Maybe in two years time you won’t be broke (and hopefully you’re actually making money from your travel blog). Reasons like this are why it’s great to keep it simple. This also helps with brand partnerships in the future, but you don’t need to worry about that today.

You’ve thought long and hard about it, and love “Travelling Jim”. Next step is to make sure it is available. This is easy to do.

• Type in “travellingjim.com” into your internet browser. If nothing comes up, you might be in luck. If it does, it’s time to come up with something new.
• Go to NameCheap.com and type in “travellingjim” into the little box. Hit search and see what it says. If it’s available, then the name is yours for the taking! You’re ready for the next step.
• Go ahead and buy that domain on NameCheap. You’ll then own your URL for as many years as you choose to buy it for, and it’ll be quite cheap (around US$10 a year). If you would prefer to buy it with your hosting and have it all in one place, hold off and you can do that in the next step.

Bonus Tip: If “travellingjim.com” is taken, but “travellingjim.net” is available, DO NOT go for it. This gets very confusing if you tell someone your blog is called “Travelling Jim” and they accidentally go to .com instead of .net. Find something that is fully available.

You have a very important question to ask yourself: What is your travel blog about?

You’re probably thinking, “Duh, travel!” And you are right. But in this day and age having a “travel blog” isn’t enough.

If you have zero plans to turn your travel blog into a way to make money while travelling , then you can skip this part.

But if you do want to start earning money from your travel blog one day, you need to come up with a direction and style that will give people a reason to read your posts.

Don’t worry, your brand can change over time. Ours has! But for now, here’s some tips to get you started.

• Will you be making videos or trying to take amazing photos?
• Do you have a unique back story?
• Want to write about the awesome food you find?
• Interested in documenting environmental issues and sustainable tourism?
• Are you an adventure traveller? If so, what kind of adventures?
• Delving into culture?

The list is endless. You will get bonus points if you are doing something truly epic that gives people a reason to follow you. For example even though we had already been travelling for years, we only started this travel blog when we began our “Thailand to South Africa without flying” mission. That gave us purpose and reason to write.

If you can’t think of anything right now that’s ok. Just keep in mind that as your blog grows it will be handy to have a brand and direction.

Step 2 – Get Hosting And The Domain

Now that all the thinking is done, it’s time to get started on the technical things. This is what will take less than 48 minutes.

Don’t worry, it’s not difficult and we’ll walk you through the process of how to start a travel blog from scratch.

If you don’t know what these are, let us try to explain them as easily as possible. Let’s go with a ‘house’ analogy.

A domain (travellingjim.com) is an address. A host is a house. A website is you.

You live in a house, and your address is how people find your house. In internet terms, your website lives on a host and travellingjim.com is the address.

In more details, a host is a company that has a bunch of computers (also called servers) that are permanently connected to the internet.

Your blog and all its content, pictures, videos, etc actually “lives” on your host’s computers.

When someone types in “travellingjim.com”, their browser (e.g. Chrome or Safari) downloads your blog from one of these computers, and opens it up on your reader’s device.

Don’t stress too much about all this. Once you’ve set it all up once, it will be a long time before you have to worry about this again.

We personally use and recommend SiteGround . They are our third hosts now (having previously been with Bluehost and Dreamhost), and we couldn’t be any happier that we changed over.

Besides being great for established websites, they are also perfect for brand new blogs.

They have incredible support, fast servers, an easy control panel to navigate and very high uptime.

They are also very affordable, and getting setup with them is super simple. They really make it very easy when it comes to how to start a travel blog.

We must stress this again – their support is amazing. We have lost count of the number of times we’ve been confused about some technical thing we’ve tried to implement on our site and screwed up, just to jump on SiteGround’s 24/7 instant chat service and have their experts fix the problem for us in a matter of minutes. This alone makes them the best company out there.

By all means, feel free to go and do your own research. You’ll find that most companies have the same prices on their entry-level plans (SiteGround is $3.95 a month) and you won’t likely notice any difference in quality until your blog grows.

But we only ever recommend brands that we have used and are happy with, so that’s why we’re going through the next few stages with SiteGround.

As we’re going to go with WordPress (the best option by far), it’s good to get a dedicated and managed WordPress hosting solution.

What this means is that your host and server is optimised to run WordPress efficiently and with no issues.

Luckily SiteGround has a spectacular Managed WordPress Hosting solution which includes premium plugins (more on plugins at the bottom of this article), one-click installation, great security and a bunch more.

And if you sign up to SiteGround’s Managed WordPress Hosting solutions through our links, you will receive 60% off the regular price. Amazing deals all around!

Note: We are not sponsored by SiteGround in any way, shape or form. We pay for our hosting just the same as everyone else does (and in fact are on their higher-end cloud plan due to us needing to trust the best host out there to manage our website). We just really, really love them.

We’re going to walk you through the process of how to start a travel blog step by step.

• Go to SiteGround and click on “Sign Up”

• Choose the “Start Up” plan. This is only $3.95 a month and has all the features you’ll need to get started. If you feel like you really want to focus on growing your travel blog to more than just your friends and family reading it, you can go with the “Grow Big” plan, but if you’re happy to keep costs down let’s go with Start Up.

• Choose the “Register A New Domain” section. Enter whatever your domain is (travellingjim.com), and click proceed.

• Enter some account details and your payment options. We recommend paying for at least 12 months up front. On the $3.95 plan, that works out to be only $47.40. Even cheaper than $50! You don’t need Domain Privacy or HackAlert Monitoring, so feel free to unselect those and keep your costs down.

***UPDATE – Siteground now charges $14.95 a year for registering a new domain. Website transfers are still free if you already own your own domain name, which you can buy with NameCheap .

• You’ve now come to a verify page. SiteGround will run a fraud check to make sure everything is all good.

Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a new domain and host! At this point you will get all your login details for SiteGround sent to you in an email.

Don’t finish your drink just yet, there’s still a little bit more you need to do to finish starting a travel blog. And the next thing is to install WordPress.

What is WordPress we hear you ask? WordPress is a “Content Management System”, or CMS for short. Basically that is the system that allows you to put words, pictures and style on a website without knowing any coding or programming. WordPress makes building your website easy. In fact WordPress is used on 26% of all website on the entire web.

Now is a good time to mention that there are actually two WordPress’s. There’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.com is for free blogs, WordPress.org is for people who want to own their own blogs. You’re going to go with .org.

Installing WordPress onto your host is very easy to do, and with SiteGround it’s actually all automatically done for you with a very simple process.

• Login to SiteGround and click on “Get your new site up and running – Set up in 2 min!”

• You’ll get a popup with the SiteGround Account Setup Wizard. Select “Start a new website at (URL)” and hit proceed.

• Now you’ll be asked what type of website you need. Select “Personal/Blog” and then scroll down. The software you are going to use is WordPress, so select that and move onto the next part.

• Now you need to make up your WordPress login details. We recommend choosing something that would be really hard for people to guess, as this is the door to your website. So don’t choose “Admin” as your username for example. You will need these login details to access the “behind the scenes” section of your blog.

• Now you’ll be given an opportunity to choose your web design template. This is otherwise known as a theme, which we will go into more in Step 4. Feel free to click around and see if you can find a design you like. Otherwise you can skip this part for now.

And guess what – you’re done! You’ll get a very satisfying “Congratulations” with a big tick, and all your login credentials. We suggest you write these down somewhere safe.

What now? Well now you want to actually go to your website. And as usual, this is very easy to do.

• Simply go to the address bar in your internet browser and type in “travellingjim.com/wp-login.php”. You’ll be taken to this screen:

• Put in your login credentials and you’ll be taken to the WordPress dashboard. This is what it looks like (with a few less options on the left panel):

Welcome to WordPress! This is where all the magic happens. You will write your blogs under “Posts”, make things like your about page under “Pages”, change the style of your blog under “Appearance”, and so on. You’ll get pretty familiar with all this over the course of a month or so. But for now, let’s move on to the next stage!

Step 4 – Pick A Free Theme

You’ve got your domain, you’ve got your host, you’ve installed WordPress, now you need to choose a theme. What’s a theme? Well that’s what your website looks like when people go to it. Keeping up with the house analogy from before, think of it as all your furnishings and decorations.

Back in the day you needed someone who was good at computer coding to make your website look good. These days you just install a theme with a few clicks.

• Go into your WordPress dashboard.
• Look for “appearance” on the left panel and click on themes.
• Activate the WordPress Twenty Seventeen theme if it isn’t already, and your website is officially up and running!
• Now just type in travellingjim.com into your internet browser! There it is – how exciting!

There are thousands of themes out there to choose from. Some are free (yay!) and some cost money.

When you’re just starting out you should be pretty happy with just a free theme. But as time goes on and you get more content on your blog, you’ll likely want to upgrade to a paid theme. Why? They offer more customisation, they’re faster, and they look better.

All you have to do is Google “WordPress themes” and be prepared to lose the next few hours of your life as you scroll around. This all comes down to personal taste.

Personally for a few websites we own, we use the Elementor page builder theme . It’s a very powerful and simple to use “drag and drop” designer that is only limited by your imagination, but they also make a number of other awesome premium themes you can choose from.

 And guess what – you are now the proud owner of a fully functional travel blog! You did! If you want you can leave now and go get another drink. Otherwise stick around for some bonus tips to help make your travel blog extra awesome!

Step 5 – Download Essential Plugins

Now that your travel blog is fully setup and ready to go, it’s time to install some plugins. Think of plugins as extra additions to make your house better, like a security system or new light fixtures.

Again there’s thousands of plugins out there, but to begin with you only need a few core ones. To install a plugin go into your WordPress dashboard, look on the lefthand panel, click “Plugins” then click “Add New” on the page that opens up. Search for the ones listed below, click download, and activate. WordPress will do the rest.

This is an anti-spam plugin that filters out crap messages left on your blog. Don’t ask why (you’ll find out as time goes on), but you’re going to end up with hundreds of spam comments on your posts. Just install this plugin and let it do all the filtering.

You’re going to hear the term “SEO” a lot during your journey as a travel blogger. SEO stands for “search engine optimisation”, and that basically means when people go to a search engine like Google and type in something – for example “ things to do in Berlin ” – the posts that have the best SEO go to the top of the results, meaning more people click on them. It’s complicated and you’ll learn a lot more about it later, but for now just install Yoast.

Yoast is a plugin that pops up at the bottom of the section when you are writing a blog post. You put in whatever keywords you think you are writing about (like “best places for breakfast in Sydney”) and it will give you a list of things you can improve on to help make your post rank higher in Google.

Another plugin that is hard to explain for beginners, but essentially W3 Cache will make your website load faster for people who visit it. This is important. Install it and use the automatic settings until you learn more about it. One cool thing to note as well is that if you signed up on the Siteground “Grow Big” account, you also get a cacheing feature on your plan. Check it out.

WordFence is a great plugin that adds a layer of security to your website. This will stop people hacking your travel blog. Don’t ask why, but for whatever reason your blog will come under attack from hackers. Everyone’s does. So just install WordFence and let it do its thing.

Travel Blogging Tips

You’re now well on your way to being a travel blogger! Your site is up and running, you’ve installed WordPress, you have a theme to make it look pretty, and you’re ready to start writing.

Time to hit the world!

However if you’re still interested in becoming a professional travel blogger, or just would like to grow your travel blog, here are a few last bonus tips to help out.

Google Analytics is a program that tells you how many people go to your travel blog, and how they found it. When you first start blogging you’re probably really interested to know if anyone is reading what you write! Google Analytics will tell you.

Learning about how to setup Google Analytics and how to use it is an entire blog post in itself – something that we won’t get into. But you should read this article from Moz about how to set it up properly.

Now that you’ve got an awesome travel blog, you need to sign up for social media so people can learn about you and follow your journey! The most obvious ones are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and, but you’ll also want to look into Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest. Go to those websites and make accounts called “Travelling Jim”, and start connecting with the world.

One of the first things you should do on your travel blog is make an “about” page. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Add New Page” on the lefthand panel. Name your page “About”, and write up a little biography on yourself and what your website is. Upload a few pretty pictures and you’re sorted. Then all you have to do is hit publish and you’re all set! Also make a “Contact” page while you’re at it.

Because you’ve set up your theme, you can go into WordPress, click on Appearance > Theme > Customize, then start designing your blog. Pick some colours, change your font, add some menus, etc. Don’t forget to design a cool logo for yourself! If you don’t know how to do this yourself, you can just go to Fiverr and pay someone a small amount to make something basic.

You’ve signed up to Facebook, so now you can start networking with other travel bloggers. There are a number of really good Facebook groups you can join where you’ll find a whole bunch of people wanting to discuss blogging, from absolute beginners right through to the biggest names in the industry. We recommend signing up for “We Travel We Blog” and “Under 1000 Club – Aspiring Travel Bloggers” first. As you come up with questions about travel blogging, we’ll all be there to help you answer them!

This might go against everything other bloggers will tell you to do. But trust us, you don’t need them. The most popular ones are “Travel Blog Success” and Nomadic Matt’s course. Guess what – everything they teach you in those courses you can learn for free on Google or by asking in those Facebook groups we told you about. Save the hundreds of dollars and learn by doing.

That’s it, that’s all! You made it to the end of the article. Together we went from being an absolute beginner to having created your very own travel blog from scratch! You deserve another drink.

There is only one thing left to do now – start blogging! Get out there, take some photos, write some stories and make the best damn travel blog on the internet!

Play around with the WordPress dashboard, go to the section that says “Posts”, add a few new ones and hit publish. We promise you that publishing your first blog post is a very, very exciting moment!

You still have a lot to learn, and that’s ok. We’ve been doing this for 3.5 years now, professionally for 2.5, and we still learn things every single day. This is an ongoing process, but you’ve made the big leap and landed on your own two feet.

If you have any other questions please feel free to email us. Also make sure to check out those Facebook groups.

Our other last tip is to use Google.

We guarantee that no matter what problem you are having, whatever segment it is that you don’t quite understand, someone else has been in the same situation and asked the same questions.

Happy travels and enjoy the journey! We’ll see you out there in the blogosphere.

Alesha and Jarryd

Hi, We’re Alesha and Jarryd!

We’ve been traveling the world together since 2008, searching for the planet’s best destinations and adventures.

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Thanks for sharing tips, very informative.

Thank you for the wonderful guide on how to start a travel blog its must know for any beginnger thank you for sharing great info

This article is a breath of fresh air for anyone considering starting a travel blog. It’s refreshingly honest and concise, addressing common misconceptions head-on. The clear statement that it’s not a difficult, time-consuming, or expensive endeavor is reassuring for beginners. What sets this piece apart is the author’s personal success story. Making over $30,000 a month from a travel blog is not only impressive but also demonstrates the potential for real income in this field. The article’s brevity and candor make it an engaging and motivating read for those looking to dip their toes into the world of travel blogging. It’s a no-nonsense guide that leaves you feeling inspired and ready to take on the challenge.

Thanks a lot for posting such an informative article.

Glad you found it helpful. All the best

Thank you so much. We are glad you found the article helpful.

I really appreciate your blog it’s very useful, thanks for sharing. Nepal tour!

I can’t even begin to explain how this has helped me. I feel like it’s just so much easier to learn this way, and it’s fun. I love how interactive it is. I was able to find all the information I was looking for very quickly. The layout was appealing to the eye. I would highly recommend this website to anyone looking for this type of information.I just wanted to say thank you for the information. I am really enjoying it, and I appreciate the opportunity

Thanks for the great advice!

Wow, this is an amazing guide! I had no idea there were so many steps involved in starting a travel blog. This guide makes it seem so easy and doable. I’m definitely going to follow your tips and start my own travel blog! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

So glad you found it helpful. Thank you so much. If you have any questions, give us a shout.

This blog is a great resource for anyone looking to learn more about the topic.

Thank you so much. We are glad you found the article helpful. 🙂

I can’t even begin to explain how this has helped me. I feel like it’s just so much easier to learn this way, and it’s fun. I love how interactive it is. I was able to find all the information I was looking for very quickly. The layout was appealing to the eye. I would highly recommend this website to anyone looking for this type of information.I just wanted to say thank you for the information. I am really enjoying it, and I appreciate the opportunity to

So stoked. So happy we could help. All the best with your website journey. 🙂

It’s a really useful piece of information. I appreciate you providing us with this helpful information. Please keep us updated in this manner. I appreciate your sharing.

Nice information

Thank you so much for this very informative article! You are an angel. I’ve come across many blogs and this has been the perfect way to help starters like me to start our blogging journey. I wish to see more guide and help from you after blogging. The how’s and what’s. Thank you and more power!

There is a sort of amazingness about going far away and afterward returning all different.

I completely agree with what you have written. I hope this post could reach more people as this was truly an interesting post.

Thanks a lot for posting such an informative article. I have just started my blog website and your article has helped me gain confidence about how to kickstart my journey. Your article is the most useful and motivating article I have found so far.

Thank you so much.

Glad you found the article helpful. That is amazing you have started a website. CONGRATULATIONS!!! It is overwhelming. We totally understand. We have found YouTube so helpful for even little things we could not figure out. We have used it so much and still do today. Many people are so generous giving information about different things to do with website development. All the best with your journey and a massive congrats again. 🙂

Thank you for this step by step comprehensive instructions to create a travel blog, the best one I’ve seen so far. Thanks for sharing your tips. And wish you the best for the next.

You are welcome. Glad it was helpful. 🙂

Thank you for a very interesting article. I greatly appreciate the time you take to do all the research to put together your posts. I especially enjoyed this one!!

Thank you so much for your comment Shiwani. We really appreciate your kind words. 🙂

Hello from Morocco. i like your blog travel it’s very important to have bloger like this and well informed about travelbloger went above and beyond the expectations to show us how to get something very important and exactly the kinds of things we most interested in, and so much more that gave us a really memorable experience that i saw here in this bloger.

Thank you so much for this amazing things.

Nice info. This is a very impressive post, Very useful information, it clarified things a lot for us. Thanks for sharing valuable tips. – Shirdi

Hey Alesha and Jarryd, thank you for sharing! I just started my travel blog and this post is REALLY helpful!

That is AMAZING. Congratulations. We are stoked for you. So glad our article helped. 🙂

Hi Alesha And Jarryd . Just a couple of quick questions……. Can your photography be copied/ download from your site or do you use low res images for the site to stop the practice? I’m not to keen on the thought images can be taken. And finally- do you film in 4 k or is this a bit of overkill and 1080 p is fine ? Thanks in advance. Jim

Hi Jim, how are you? Sorry it has taken us a bit to get back to you. Unfortunately our photos can be. Definitely not downloaded but people can copy them as low resolution. We have had many sites steal our images. We give them a chance to delete them and if they do not we open a claim with our imagery copyright lawyers. 1080 is absolutely fine for social media platforms. If you intend to film a documentary or event, we recommend shooting in 4k. We do shoot in 4k. Some times it is over kill but we know we have high quality footage incase anyone want to buy it. It is totally up to you and your shortage situation. All the best

Wow! super impressed! Very throw! 5***** Your professionalisms and willingness to share, is like a breath of fresh air. Now that I’ve read through everything, time to start. Look forward to future conversations! Thank you!

Glad you liked the article and we could help. 🙂

Excellent i really want to start this project. Thanks !

Let us know how you go Alex. All the best.

Thanks for some new information and ideas which I’ve not seen in other places before

Glad to help. 🙂

Truly useful piece of information. It’s good to learn the ways to improve a blog from top bloggers.

Thank you. 🙂

Thanks guys

An excellent post , and great advice – learn by doing I have just subscribed and will recommend your site

Thank you so much. Glad we could help. 🙂

How do you guys earn money from the blog?

Hi Danny, through many different ways. Selling our photography, affiliate links, advertising and companies/tourism boards hiring us for different things, 🙂

Great article full of useful info. Love it!

Thank you. Glad you liked it. 🙂

Excellent article, I need to enhance the content i have truly. I have attempted to blog on third part systems, it did just not transpire the true way I needed it to. But your website has providing me a hope to do this. I will be bookmarking your website and checking it out from time to time. Many thanks!

Thank you so much. We are glad to help. 🙂

Thank you for this step by step comprehensive instructions to create a travel blog, the best one I’ve seen so far. Thanks for sharing your tips. And wish you the best for the next. Cheers.

Thank you so much. Glad we could help Lorris. All the best

OK, so I “just stumbled upon” you guys after about 2 weeks of reading, watching. listening to many other “How To Start A Blog” blogs. Without gushing, can I say you two had me mesmerized from the first photo, the content and “voice” which comes across your posts. To say this has been the most helpful of all the blogs and bloggers I have followed in the course of the past two weeks is an understatement. THANK YOU for this amazingly informative blog for newbies, sharing what equipment works for you, how to get started with growth in mind. I will take your advice to heart and yes, I will follow!

Hi Debra, thank you so much. We really appreciate it and are so happy this article helped you. It’s a lot of hard work, with lots of unpaid hours at the beginning but if you are committed you will come out the other end. Pick a unique niche and you will be noticed. And last don’t give up If this is what you want, it’ll come. All the best

Wonderful article. This is very informative one. I like it.

Awesome Blog!!! All the tips which are given in this blog are really helpful to start a travel blog

Awesome. Glad we could help. 🙂

Hi Alesha and Jarryd, Awesome post. Thankyou so much for sharing tips.

Glad we could help. 🙂

Hi Alesha and Jarryd, Thanks for the wonderful post. We have travelled to many countries, and, now motivated to start writing our blogs! Thanks for inspiring.

So glad we would inspire you. Once you have started the blog, keep it up. Put the hard work in and it will eventually pay off.

Hi Alesha and Jarryd! Great to find and follow you. Thanks for the fantastic information! We are a 50ish yr old couple from Colorado, USA. We’ve been all over the world, mostly for some pretty epic diving, and are heading out to Peru in the next few weeks. We DO have quite a backstory and have been thinking a lot about sharing it. Thanks for giving us the info to get started! Cheers! Dawn and Vern

Hi Dawn and Vern, Definitely share you stories and all your tips. There are so many more people travelling now. And all different ways too. We found it was a great project to do while we were on the road and then it expanded to what NOMADasaurus is today. It is a great way for your friends and family to ready your stories and keep track of where you have been. All the best and happy travels.

Wonderful Post!

Thank you so much John

We just signed up with SiteGround — thanks for the recommendation!

That was the most comprehensive instructions I I have ever seen. I have not had the time to do it yet but will give it a try. One question! I already have a URL address on Google. How do I move it to Worldpress?

So sorry we missed your comment. Thank you and we are so glad this article could help you. Our suggestion is to buy a URL through namecheap.com and buy hosting through Siteground (link above). Then you can install WordPress on there. If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask. 🙂

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WEBSITE ESSENTIALS

How to start a travel blog in 2024

• Lena Sernoff
• Nov 1, 2023
• 16 min read

While travel blogging is one of the most popular types of blogs, rest assured, you have not missed the boat (or plane) on your chance to start your own. While competition has increased over the years, so has demand: In fact, The World Travel & Tourism Council projects that travel and tourism in the United States will reach pre-pandemic levels in 2022, contributing nearly $2 trillion to the U.S. economy.

Today, the key to starting a travel blog is going into a niche and offering a specialty of focused content. New popular locations, adventures and hidden gems come to the surface every day. Even your own backyard and hometown might be unfamiliar to new readers, and you can add your unique perspectives to reviewing them.

In this guide, we'll help you navigate the field, from how to make a website and creating a blog to writing your posts and finding collaborations, to not only stand out but also get paid. Once you've learned how to start a travel blog, you'll have the world at your fingertips with this type of website .

Get started with the Wix Blog Maker .

Ready to start a travel blog now? Get started with Wix today.

How to start a travel blog

Choose the type of travel blogger you want to be

Pick a blog name and secure your domain name

Select your travel blog template

Create a blog logo

Prepare your footage

Write your first blog posts

Engage with your audience

Network with tourism partners and brands

Monetize your travel blog

Learn from the best (travel blog examples)

01. Choose the type of travel blogger you want to be

While you can cover all types of travel topics, choosing a niche will more easily lead to success. Think of who could benefit from your unique guidance and hone your content towards them. Not only will this naturally attract an audience of repeat readers, it will simplify the process of monetizing your blog , as you’ll have a defined value to bring to partners.

For example, Wix user Tales of Israel used her expertise as an Israeli resident to help citizens and tourists alike explore the country’s hidden corners.

We Are Travel Girls grew a solid following of more than 415,000 Instagram followers by focusing on tips for women travelers.

Here are some niche blog ideas in the travel space:

Country-focused

Budget travel

Luxury travel

Solo travel

Female travel

Traveling for work

Adventure travel

Family travel

Empty nesters

Accessible travel

Experiential travel

Festival travel

Couples travel

Backpacking

LGBTQ+ friendly travel

Traveling for seniors

02. Pick a blog name and secure your domain name

After choosing which direction you’ll take your travel blog, align it with a catchy name to help people discover and remember you. Just like naming a brand, coming up with a blog name should include some creativity and strategic vision of where you'd like to take your blog over the years.

Learn more:

Travel business names

Lifestyle blog name ideas

Travel blog name ideas

For example, if you’re going to be a city-based blogger, include it in your name. If you’re targeting solo travelers, try to pick a name that portrays that, so people know you’re catering to them. Just don’t let your name corner you in, as you still want to expand on topics in your niche.

Tip: Use a free travel agency name generator for travel name ideas.

Securing your domain name

Once you've found the perfect travel blog name, make sure it's yours and only yours. To prevent confusion when promoting your blog , ensure no other companies or individuals currently use your blog name or hold your domain name. Check that social media handles are available and secure them as well. The more easily people can find your blog, the more likely they’ll return.

You might also want to consider using a .blog domain extension , to make sure your blog stands out.

Tip: Secure your free domain name with Wix.

03. Select your travel blog template

Photos and videos can bring your adventures to life and invite your visitors to join in on your journeys. And that’s why you should choose a visual-forward blog website template to display your travel blog content.

Make sure it also has an inviting homepage, a detailed “About Me” page, a well-organized blogging section and a dedicated newsletter sign-up section—all great places to share your media.

Below, we've showcased a few of our favorite mobile-optimized travel best blog templates :

Travel blog website template 1 features:

A large homepage image layout to make a powerful first impression.

A mid-page menu to take visitors to your different types of travel guides.

A highly-visible subscriber form to help grow your newsletter.

Travel blog website template 2 features:

A dedicated “Work With Me” to showcase your partnership offerings.

A perfectly-placed blog logo that functions as a return-home button.

An attention-grabbing video background to greet visitors.

Travel blog website template 3 features:

An embedded Instagram feed to seamlessly showcase your social media content.

A video page to display high-quality footage or promote your YouTube channel.

A Live Chat tool to communicate with visitors.

04. Create a blog logo

A logo will help you build a brand around your travel blog. You’ll likely try out a few different tactics over the first couple of months as you cement your blog’s brand, like updating your site layout or changing your photography style. Use a blog logo on your site, professional email signature, and social channels to tie your online presence together with a distinctive trademark throughout the changes.

Tip: Get inspired by these blog travel logos and try creating your own with Wix’s free logo maker tool.

05. Prepare your footage

It’s easier to describe a must-see hot spot with images than simply words. In fact, articles with images get 94% more views as opposed to those with none. A good camera can help ensure your images are high-quality and properly-sized to look their best. It might be worth investing in a DSLR, drone, tripod, or other equipment to help elevate your visuals. You can also utilize stock images until you capture new content on your next trip.

Leverage photo tools to assist in gathering and preparing your content, and consider free photo editing software to filter and adjust your shots. What is a blog if not the perfect place to showcase your travel images.

Tip: Use a free Video Maker to craft a compelling video and check out these travel photography tips .

06. Write your first blog posts

Without articles, a live blog is just a website. Before sharing your blog with the world, write and publish at least three posts to give new website visitors a taste of the content you offer. This will also help create momentum behind your content creation strategy.

You can be as creative as you'd like when writing your blog posts. However, here are some blog ideas and blog formats you can build on:

The Ultimate [ insert location ] Travel Guide

How to See [ insert location ] in Just [ insert number ] Days

X Tips for Finding Cheap Flights During [ insert season or holiday ]

Best Things to Do in [ insert location ]

Why You Need to Go to [ insert location ]

Cheap Things to Do in [ insert location ]

Packing for [ insert type of trip ], What to Bring

What to Do on a Weekend in [ insert location ]

Awesome Stops on [ insert road name ] to [ insert location ]

Don’t forget to break up your content with rich media to hold your readers’ attention.

Over 80% of travel planning is done online, which means that your readers want to make decisions based upon your content—not just casually look for inspiration. (And if you are part of an affiliate network, those decisions can turn into real money for you.)

To make sure you get a slice of that active audience, make sure you optimize your content for search engines and make your site as visible as possible to these searchers.

Some blog SEO best practices are to:

Research keywords and common terms related to your destination or travel topic.

Include the keyword in the title, URL, a few times in the article in the SEO meta description.

Use internal linking in your blog and website.

Include alt text on images.

Editorial calendar

It’s good to set a regular schedule for publishing new content on your travel blog. It can be once a week or once a month—just keep your posting frequency consistent so readers know when to check back for the latest guides. Also, with new posts going live on the regular, Google will visit your site more often to index pages—improving your SEO.

To start filling out your content calendar, try one of these strategies to brainstorm great content:

Research the specific seasons, holidays or events happening at your destination to brainstorm content. There will be an influx of searches and demand for these topics at key times of the year.

Also, read competitor articles and blogs for inspiration. If you know what people have already said on specific locations or topics, you can add unique value and provide what’s missing.

07. Engage with your audience

Without interested readers, fans and followers, your blog is simply a diary. Use these channels and common methods below to authentically engage with your audience and drive traffic to your website :

Social media

Social media is an invaluable place to grow your travel blog. Up to 50% of travel enthusiasts use Instagram to find local places to explore.

You can use social to discover new audience members by:

Finding which social channels your target audience spends the most time on. See which hashtags they use, locations they tag and which brands and travel creators they follow.

Create content specifically geared to your target audience’s wants and needs. Check out our guide on social media content ideas .

Engaging with your target audience by following them, liking their content and commenting something meaningful on their posts. Here's how to increase your social media engagement.

Using social communities, forums and groups to connect and network with target audience members and fellow travel bloggers.

Tip: A social post maker can help you produce eye-catching, quality content.

Word of mouth

Connecting with potential readers in real life can be a pivotal way to grow your travel blog. Aside from telling your friends and family about your blog, inform people you meet on your adventures that you blog.

Even if travel blogging is not (yet) your full-time job, when you meet people that ask about your occupation, slip in how you just started a new travel blog, and you'd love for them to subscribe or follow. Travelers love staying up to date with the amazing people they meet on their trips, and they’ll likely become new followers.

Once you've gained a few subscribers to your newsletter, you can send email marketing campaigns to engage readers. In your settings, set up an automatic email that dispatches newly published blog articles.

08. Network with tourism partners and brands

Starting a travel blog doesn’t have to be just a hobby. Partnerships with tourism companies, attractions, hotels, restaurants and brands can provide great compensation opportunities, either through an exchange of goods or cash payments.

For example, you can get a free stay in exchange for blogging about the hotel and capturing quality content for them to use on their social media or site. Another example is a suitcase company sending you a free bag to tag them in a post. You might also consider writing content in multiple languages to partner with relevant tourism brands, learn how to start a multingual blog to expand your reach.

How to reach out to brands:

Identify the brand you wish to partner with

Do thorough research on them to understand their audience’s needs

Reach out with a pitch of the exchange of services you can provide

Outreach email template:

Hi my name is [full name],

[Mention something personal you like about this company].

I’m the travel blogger behind [blog name/hyperlink website URL], who specifically covers [list three main topics your blog covers]. My current readers and followers amount to [insert your total reach here].

My audience is mostly [include audience insights and engagement rates if relevant]. I highly believe that it can be mutually beneficial for us to partner as I reach the same audience your brand seems to want to attract.

Please let me know if you're currently looking for new partnerships, as I'd be happy to [insert which services you'll provide, such as a blog post, rich images, social media posts]. In the past, I've partnered with [brand names] and here [insert link], you can see the examples of the content I've created.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Signature with your email, phone number, website link, logo and social media channels]

09. Monetize your travel blog

As much as sipping a comped piña colada by a hotel pool sounds extravagant, it won’t necessarily pay the bills. Therefore, you can use any or all of these nine creative ways to make money blogging:

01. Sponsored posts: Most travel blogs publish sponsored posts as their main income source. Agree with your partner on the goal and length of the post and how much you’ll receive in return. The average travel blogger charges an average of $200 per sponsored post.

For instance, a sponsored post about a Caribbean boating service could be about the best way to island hop, and you mention the boating company and link to their website several times in the article and as you review your experience using their services. Just remember to include a note that the post has been sponsored to keep your readers’ trust.

Learn more: How to make money as a travel blogger

02. Affiliate marketing: Many travel bloggers also earn commission from marketing another company's products. You promote their products on your blog, social media accounts, and other platforms using a unique tracked link and make a profit from each sale. To begin, sign up for affiliate marketing programs and send readers to buy from recommended referral links.

Here are some common travel affiliate programs to consider: Expedia Group Affiliate Program , Booking.com Affiliate Program , Amazon Associates , Skimlinks , and AWIN .

03. Advertise: 94% of travel blogs sell advertising . When you're figuring out how to monetize a blog , one of the best ways is to get paid by running ads on your website. Tip: If your site is on Wix, you can add Google AdSense directly to your blog from the app market.

04. Premium content: Consider charging readers for more exclusive information and production-intensive content, like premium guides, digital downloadables or eBooks to open an additional revenue stream. For instance, if you've made a PDF map with all the vegan restaurants in Paris, you could charge readers $5 to download it.

05. Donation: Donations are becoming more popular in the content creation world, so don’t be afraid to ask for them. Accept donations via Patreon, PayPal, Zelle, Venmo, and or even paper checks in the mail.

06. Workshops and courses: You're likely an expert in your niche, especially if you travel often. Share your tips and tricks with readers in exchange for payment with an online course or in-person workshop. The two famous travel couples behind Club Life Design , for example, offer a social media and photo editing course.

07. Freelance: You don't necessarily have to make money from your traveling sites . You can choose to be a digital nomad freelancer and make money doing online gigs while exploring the world.

Tip: Wix Marketplace is a great way to grow your client base by designing Wix users’ websites.

08. Sell photos and videos: Make money selling your photos online. If you own a drone, this can be a great way to sell premium video footage to partners, which isn't easy for them to produce. Here's our guide on how to make money as a travel photographer.

Additionally, many travel bloggers, such as Aloha Jana , make money selling photo color preset filters to others who want to beautify their images.

09. Make and sell products: Sell or dropship branded items like swimsuits, sunglasses and travel gear.

Tip: You can add an online store to your blog to sell directly from your site or create a dropshipping website .

10. Learn from the best (travel blog examples)

Sometimes the best way to start a blog is to see how others have done it before you. These Wix users have created travel blogs websites that make us feel like we’re alongside them for all their travels:

The Bucket List Bums

Bucket List Bums’ clearly understands what her readers want: Information to help them plan their trips. Beyond her high-quality, stunning travel shots, she organizes her blog posts by country under “places,” allowing readers to explore their destination of interest. She also clearly defines how many days travelers should spend in each location, as you can see in this Three Days in Baja post.

Aside from offering her readers value, she gracefully makes her blog work for her, too. She’s added affiliate links to her shop page and also cleverly embeds them into image captions.

Anika Pannu

Anika Pannu’s travel blog is modern and interactive—perfect for her target audience looking to replicate that same experience on their journeys. Beyond immediately capturing her visitor’s attention with a parallax scrolling effect on her home page (featuring video and scroll-triggered motion images), she also provides content details that speak directly to her audience.

For example, Pannu rates her recommended stays with a helpful euro sign rating system, as seen in her A Weekend Guide To Lisbon, Portugal . This allows readers to quickly get a sense of the costs associated with her listings without going the extra mile to find pricing ranges. To grow her brand deals, too, she's smartly created a dedicated partnerships page.

Zion Adventure Photog

Just landing on Zion Adventure Photog’s earth-toned homepage makes you feel like you’re already visiting the eponymous natural park. Since this travel blogger is local to Southern Utah, she helps to provide that inclusive experience throughout the blog.

On the content side, their hiking blog posts all consistently outline the length, difficulty, location, when to go, trail details, and additional info sections. Both regular visitors and new readers alike can easily navigate the posts and get the information they need. They also have a clear call to action to follow them on Instagram to grow and engage their community offsite.

That welcoming feeling extends to their blog monetization strategy as well: They offer various photography services and offer a transparent pricing plan to support their readers’ experience beyond the planning phase.

How to customize your travel blog

Customizing your travel blog is a great way to make it stand out from the crowd and reflect your unique personality and style. There are many different ways to customize your blog, but here are a few ideas:

Choose a theme. A theme is a pre-made design that you can apply to your blog. There are many different themes available, both free and paid. Choose a theme that matches the overall style of your blog and that is easy to navigate.

Customize your colors and fonts. Once you have chosen a theme, you can customize the colors and fonts to match your branding. This is a great way to make your blog look more cohesive and professional.

Add a logo. A logo is a great way to make your blog more recognizable and to give it a unique identity. You can create a logo yourself or hire a professional designer to do it for you.

Add social media buttons. Make it easy for your readers to follow you on social media by adding social media buttons to your blog. You can also use social media to promote your blog posts and connect with other travelers.

Add widgets. Widgets are small modules that can be added to your blog sidebar or other areas of your site. There are many different widgets available, such as recent posts widgets, social media widgets and calendar widgets. Choose widgets that are relevant to your blog and that will provide value to your readers.

Add images and videos. Images and videos are a great way to make your blog posts more visually appealing and engaging. Be sure to use high-quality images and videos that are relevant to your content.

Write a compelling bio. Your bio is a chance to introduce yourself to your readers and tell them why you started your blog. Be sure to include your interests, your travel experiences, and your goals for your blog.

Target audience: Keep your target audience in mind when customizing your blog. What kind of travel are they interested in? What kind of tone and style do they prefer? Tailor your blog to their needs and interests.

Make your blog mobile-friendly. More and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to access the internet. Make sure your blog looks good and functions well on all devices.

Use a consistent design. Your blog should have a consistent design throughout. This means using the same colors, fonts and overall layout on all of your pages.

Keep your blog updated. Make sure to update your blog regularly with new posts and content. This will keep your readers coming back for more.

By following these tips, you can create a customized travel blog that is both informative and visually appealing.

How to pick a travel blog name

Here are some tips on how to pick a travel blog name:

Make it easy to remember and pronounce. You want people to be able to easily find your blog and remember its name. Avoid using difficult or unfamiliar words or abbreviations.

Make it relevant to your travel niche. What kind of travel do you write about? Is it budget travel, luxury travel, adventure travel or something else? Choose a name that reflects your niche and interests.

Be original and unique. You want your blog name to stand out from the crowd. Avoid using generic or overused names.

Keep it short and sweet. A long and complicated name will be difficult for people to remember. Aim for a name that is 2-4 words long.

Here are some examples of good travel blog names:

The Wandering Trotter

The Budgeteer

The Luxe Voyager

Adventurous Kate

The Travel Junkie

Nomadic Matt

Off the Beaten Path

The Wanderlust Files

Passport & Plates

A World to Wander

The Globetrotter

Travel Lemming

Once you have chosen a few potential blog names, ask your friends and family for their feedback. You can also do a quick Google search to see if the name is already taken.

Can you start a travel blog writing about old trips?

Yes, you can start a travel blog writing about old trips. In fact, many successful travel bloggers started out by writing about their own travel experiences, even if those experiences were from years ago.

Here are some tips for writing a travel blog about old trips:

Write about your personal experiences. People are drawn to travel blogs that are authentic and personal. Share your stories, your insights and your tips from your old trips.

Use photos and videos. Photos and videos are a great way to bring your blog posts to life. Include photos and videos from your old trips to illustrate your stories and make them more engaging.

Update your blog regularly. Even if you're writing about old trips, try to update your blog regularly with new posts. This will keep your readers coming back for more.

Be specific and informative. When writing about your old trips, try to be as specific and informative as possible. Share details about the places you visited, the activities you did and the lessons you learned. The more information you can provide, the more valuable your blog will be to readers.

Add a contemporary twist. Even though you're writing about old trips, you can still make your blog posts relevant to today's readers. For example, you can share tips on how to save money on travel, how to find the best deals on flights and hotels or how to travel sustainably. You can also write about current events or trends that are related to travel.

Other types of blogs to consider starting

How to start a finance blog

How to start a real estate blog

How to start a gaming blog

How to start a health blog

How to start a teaching blog

How to start a music blog

How to start a tech blog

How to start a mom blog

How to start a sports blog

How to start a beauty blog

How to start a lifestyle blog

How to start a travel blog FAQ

Do travel bloggers get paid.

Yes, travel bloggers can get paid. There are a number of ways that travel bloggers can make money, including:

Affiliate marketing: Travel bloggers can earn money by promoting products and services related to travel, such as hotels, flights, tours and travel gear. When a reader clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the travel blogger earns a commission.

Advertising: Travel bloggers can sell advertising space on their blogs to businesses that want to reach their audience. The amount of money that travel bloggers make from advertising depends on a number of factors, such as the size of their audience and the type of advertising they sell.

Sponsored posts: Travel bloggers can write sponsored posts for businesses that want to promote their products or services. Sponsored posts are typically paid for by the business, and the travel blogger will disclose this to their readers.

Selling products and services: Travel bloggers can sell their own products and services, such as e-books, travel courses and photography prints.

How much does it cost to start a travel blog?

Is it worth starting a travel blog, how much money can you make from a travel blog, do you need equipment to become a travel blogger, how to start a travel blog without traveling, related posts.

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How to Start a Successful Travel Blog in 2024

Last updated: 13th February 2024. 

Starting a travel blog is the best decision I’ve ever made.

Through this site, I’ve funded 12 years of full-time travel and gained a book deal for my travel memoir, along with a big New York City agent. I’ve been featured in large publications, like the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, and the BBC. I’ve been interviewed on the radio in front of an audience of 1.6 million listeners. I’ve been to over 100 countries. And I make a comfortable six figures each year in entirely passive income, meaning the money comes in whether I’m working or not. (In 2024, I average about three hours of work a day).

And yet, before starting Never Ending Footsteps, I had zero writing experience, had no idea how to run a website, didn’t really know what a blog was, and had never heard of WordPress.

I hadn’t even travelled before.

I’d just graduated from college with a physics degree and was fully intending to throw myself into a career in particle physics — that is, after I took a year-long round-the-world trip.

Guys, I’ve now been travelling full-time for twelve.   freaking. years . That’s 12 years of travel paid for entirely through this travel blog. I want to cry when I think about it.

But you know what? Success to me isn’t just about the money, the book deal, and the media mentions.

Running Never Ending Footsteps has led to life-changing friendships with some of the most fascinating and inspirational people I’ve ever met. It’s taught me dozens of new skills and taken me to over a hundred countries. I even found my boyfriend of 10+ years through this travel blog!

So yeah, I’d say starting a travel blog was the best decision I’ve made.

There are approximately seventeen bajillion articles describing how to start a travel blog in 2024, so I hesitated throwing my take into the mix for many years because of it. After reading several of these articles and cringing my way through them, though, I couldn’t hold back. So much of the information was outdated and wrong! And so, I want to write an article about how you can actually start a travel blog.

I want to show that you can build a six figure business — quickly and without selling out. And that being creative doesn’t have to mean being broke.

You don’t need to do what everyone else is doing — in fact, I recommend actively avoiding it. In a space as crowded as the travel blogging world, you need to stand out and that’s why my guide is the one you should follow. It’s one that’s based around what will give you the best chances of success in the present day.

And how do I know it works?

Because I’ve been mentoring a dozen brand new travel bloggers over the past two years, helping them get set up and find financial success in lighting-fast time. I even secretly started a second travel blog in March 2023 (anonymously, so that I couldn’t use my existing audience to jump-start its success) and it’s already making $1,000 a month in passive income, less than a year after starting it.

So many of the biggest travel bloggers write these guides but have no idea how to gain success in 2024 because they all did it back in 2010! The tactics that worked back then (back when Instagram didn’t even exist!) are the opposite of what works now.

I know what works in 2024 because I’ve been successful within the past year.

So with that out of the way, let’s jump into the article!

Here’s how to start a travel blog in 2024:

• Find the perfect name to suit your personality
• Set up hosting for your blog
• Install WordPress
• Learn how your blog’s dashboard works
• Download a lightweight, user-friendly theme
• How to design a logo
• Install these essential plugins
• Start making money from day one (yes, it’s possible!)

What You Need to Know About Travel Blogging in 2024

The first thing you need to know is that travel blogging in 2024 is nothing like the travel blogging of a decade ago.

Most people’s impression of travel blogging is that it’s producing diary-style first-person narratives about somebody’s own travels, sharing their first impressions and personal experiences of a country.

This was the type of content that reigned supreme in 2012. Back then, you cultivated an audience who followed your adventures in each and every destination you visited. Bloggers didn’t publish helpful guides; they wrote chronologically about their travel experiences, focusing on telling stories and offering their opinions of a country, sharing lessons learned and future plans. People followed personalities, and they followed them for entertainment.

A decade later and this style of blogging is archaic. How many Gen Z-ers do you know who subscribe to blogs? No, when it comes to entertainment, people are looking to Youtube and TikTok to follow along on travellers’ adventures.

So what is travel blogging in 2024?

Travel blogging is more along the lines of guidebook writing. It’s actually useful to think of it as running a travel website rather than a blog. It’s not about entertainment (at least, not entirely), it’s about helping people. It’s writing detailed guides to destinations, sharing the top things to do and how to make the most of your time there. It’s about positioning yourself as a travel expert and teaching readers how they can see more of the world.

It’s actually a lot of fun, and these useful guides make so much more money than personal narratives.

My storytelling posts usually average $100 a year in advertising income, while my detailed city guides make more like $2,000 a year from ads. You can do the math: write 50 excellent city guides and you’re making $100,000 a year! Or… you can write 1,000 excellent stories to reach that same income level.

I know which one I’d choose.

First, we’ll take a look at the technical steps you need to take to get your blog up and running, then I’ll dive into how you can write those detailed travel articles and set them up to make you money.

Step One: Deciding On a Name for Your Travel Blog

Finding the perfect name sounds as though it should be one of the most challenging aspects of starting a travel blog. A lot of new travel bloggers spend days and weeks agonising over finding the name that feels just right .

In reality, though, as long as your chosen site name isn’t offensive, you’ll be all good.

This ties in to what I was saying in the previous section: in 2024, the vast majority of your income is going to stem from writing helpful guides to cities and countries. And I’ll let you in on a secret: for most successful travel bloggers, 90% of their site traffic comes from Google ( not social media). People will be googling what to do in Tokyo , find your blog, browse the article, then get on with their trip. Most likely, they won’t have even noticed what your website was called.

Think about it: when you’re searching online for travel tips, how much attention do you give to the names of the travel blogs you end up visiting?

That’s why your blog name is less important than you think.

If you can rank in Google (and I’ll teach you how to do that later on), you can easily make money from that traffic. And the name of your blog? It could be anything and you would still be pulling in income.

So. With that being said, here’s what I recommend keeping in mind:

You don’t really need to stand out:  Yes, names like Nomadic [name], [name] Abroad, Backpacking [name], [name]’s Travels, and Wandering [name]have all been done to death, so if you go down that route, know that your site name is going to be fairly generic. That’s not a bad thing! It’s short, catchy, and has worked for others in the past; there’s no real need to avoid choosing similarly.

What about your name?: If in doubt, register your own name as the title of your travel blog! Why not? You’re never going to grow out of it, it’s an accurate representation of who you are, and it makes branding a hell of a lot easier.

You should probably take a long-term view:  Don’t call yourself The Thirty-Year-Old Traveller if you plan on running your site long-term — what happens if you’re running that blog when your 50?. Likewise, My African Adventures is going to lead to you feeling as though you can’t write about anything outside of the continent. Having a travel style in the blog name — like Backpacking [name] or [name]’s Luxury Travels Travel — could cause problems down the line if you decide, for example, you no longer want to stay in dorms every night.

Keep it classy:  If you’re hoping to eventually end up taking sponsored trips or working with companies in any capacity, think about how you’ll feel when handing over your business card or pitching for a trip. “Hey, I run the successful travel blog, “Sex, Drugs, and Travel” won’t necessarily make for the best first impression. Imagine introducing your site to the CEO of a tour company to see if it feels right. Imagine being older than you are now — will the name hold up when you’re 50, 60, or 70?

Make the name as easy as possible to share:  I’d avoid a site name that contains more than around five words, and I’d also recommend against using hyphens, because they make it tricky to describe your site address to people. Imagine being on a podcast and having to say, “my site is travel hyphen like hyphen a hyphen local,” or, “my site is Travel Like a Local with hyphens in between every word.” Most bloggers I know with hyphens in their url have come to loathe it.

Similarly, long, complicated words can make it tough for people who may not know how to spell them off the top of their heads. The word peripatetic describes a person who moves from place to place — sounds like a great word to include in your travel blog name, right? Now imagine how much of the general public can spell the word correctly first time, let alone know what it means!

Keep in mind that not everybody uses American English or Commonwealth English — if you’re Canadian and call your blog something like My Favourite Places or The Bold Traveller, not everybody will spell those words in the same way, so may not be able to find your site.

Check out the social media options before buying the domain:  Before purchasing your domain, see if the name of your site is available on every social media network you can think of. It’s not the end of the world if your chosen site name is too long for a username because you can modify it slightly. I’m NEFootsteps on everything, for example. And if you’re really in love with your blog name, just use your actual name for social media — lots of bloggers do that.

Think of puns and quotes: If you’re really struggling, I suggest finding a long list of travel quotes and seeing if any of them resonate. Do you have a favourite inspirational saying that you can work into a blog name? Can you think of a play on words with your name to twist it into a travel-themed phrase? How about your favourite songs? Are there any lyrics that resonate with your current mindset?

How Did I Choose Never Ending Footsteps?

I opted for Never Ending Footsteps for the name of my travel blog because it’s one that can grow with me. It doesn’t link me to a particular travel style, specific age, or length of trip. I personally wanted to choose a site name that didn’t include my own name because — thinking long-term! — it would be easier to sell my site somewhere down the line if it wasn’t tied to me as a person. Finally, I liked that, while Never Ending Footsteps evokes a sense of travel, I could potentially transition it into something else in the distant future. Never Ending Footsteps would work as a name for a hiking blog or a personal development site, for example.

Hopefully by now, you’ve decided on a name for your blog. Now it’s time to move on to the next step: registering it!

Oh, and full disclosure, as always: This blog post contains affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through one of these links, I receive a commission from the sale at no additional cost to you. (I’ll also teach you how you can do this too, later on in the post! )

Step Two: Setting Up Hosting

Hosting was the scariest part for me, because what even is hosting? When I started out, I had no idea. Fortunately, it’s quick and easy to get it all set up.

Hosting is essentially a home for your travel blog — it’s where it lives on the internet. So in order to have your website exist, you need to sign up with a host . What your host does is provide the physical servers for your website to live on, maintain the software required to keep your site online, and perform regular maintenance to keep your site up and running smoothly.

Honestly, I don’t understand much more than that, so don’t panic if you’re baffled by what on earth I’m going on about. You don’t need to know how it all works to get your blog set up — I’d say 95% of travel bloggers couldn’t clearly explain what hosting actually is to you.

All you need to know is that: you need it in order for your site to exist.

I’ve tried and paid for four different budget hosting companies over the years and had countless issues with all of them apart from  Bluehost . They’re the host I recommend most. I use them every single time I start a brand new website — and all of the bloggers I’ve mentored do, too. In other words, I’m putting my money where my mouth is: I use this myself!

And exciting news time! I’ve reached out to Bluehost and got them to agree to give readers of Never Ending Footsteps a discount on their hosting! When you use  this link , you’ll pay just $2.95 a month , rather than $8.99.

Bluehost is also one of the cheapest options around, their live chat support team are helpful, friendly, and can usually fix issues within minutes, and — bonus! — you’ll receive your domain name (the url of your site) for free. Setting it up should take you less than ten minutes, and I promise it’s super-easy.

Head to Bluehost’s homepage . This is what you’ll see — you can change your currency in the top right-hand corner:

Hit that green button that says “Get Started Now” and you’ll be redirected to a page outlining their different hosting plans:

Don’t go for their recommended plan, “Choice Plus” — you absolutely don’t need this. Instead, I recommend the cheapest plan, for $2.95 per month. This is the one I always use when setting up a new site.

(The “Plus” plan is for people who will be running multiple blogs, which you won’t be doing right now. The added privacy and security included with “Choice Plus” aren’t needed, as there are free, just-as-good alternatives to those features out there. And the “Pro” plan is for sites that receive a lot of visitors — this isn’t you right now, so you don’t want to pay extra for resources you’re not using.)

Select the “Basic” plan and you’ll be sent to the following screen:

This one’s easy! Type your chosen blog name into the box on the left and click next. Check the name multiple times for spelling errors! Now check it again . You wouldn’t believe how many people register a domain name with a spelling mistake in it and don’t realise until everything is set-up and paid for.

Okay, so you’ve chosen your domain name and have clicked next. Now it’s time to pay for your hosting.

This is the part when Bluehost tries to get you to sign up for things that you absolutely don’t need, so I’m going to tell you which extras I always add to my package — as well as what you should skip out on paying for.

Okay, let’s dive into these options, what they all mean, and why you don’t need most of them.

For the service term option, I recommend 12 months (which is $2.95 a month) as opposed to 36 months ($4.95 a month). Well, that’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? You’re tied into a shorter contract and paying less money for it.

As you can see above, domain privacy + protection is the only additional feature I recommend going for. Basically, when you run a website, it’s possible for people to use services to find out who owns the blog and what their home address is. You definitely don’t want this on the internet! The privacy and protection feature hides these details and replaces them with a generic Bluehost address.

None of the other features are needed, as there are free, same-quality alternatives out there to all of them. There are free programs that backup your site for you; Yoast SEO has a free option that contains everything you need to optimise your site, you can get a quality SSL certificate for free, and Google Workspace Business Starter is not required at all.

So that’s everything! Fill in your personal details and payment information and you’re good to go!

Bam! You’ve now set up your hosting and domain name — easy, right?

You’re now so close to having your site up and running.

Step Three: Installing WordPress

Now that you’ve set up your hosting, it’s time to install WordPress. This is the software that you’ll use to run your website. Through WordPress, you’ll be able to publish articles, accept comments, install useful features, and customise the look of your travel blog.

As you’ll see in the screenshot above, it’s now time to create your account on Bluehost. After you click on that blue button, you’ll be asked to enter a new password for your site.

When you’ve entered in your password and clicked “create account”, it’ll take a couple of minutes to process and take you through to the next step, so don’t panic if you’re sitting there for a while.

And with that, it’s time to start building your site. You’ll see the below graphic next, and you already know what to do: click create your website !

Okay, now the fun part starts! Fortunately, Bluehost really holds your hand through every step of the process. So let’s choose the option of “a little help” on the right-hand side:

On the next screen, you’re going to want to click on “blog”.

On the following screen, it’s pretty self-explanatory: the type of blog you’re creating is “travel & documentary” and you’re creating the site for yourself:

Moving on! You’ll now enter the name of your site — I’ve used “Lauren’s New Travel Blog” as an example, and then you can enter in a tagline. Honestly, just put some placeholder text in here, as you’re easily able to change this at any point in the future — there’s no point agonising over it right now.

Now, Bluehost will ask you to pick a theme that appeals most to you. Just as with your tagline, I wouldn’t recommend spending any real time on this. This is just a placeholder to help you get your site off the ground — you’ll want to change it to a premium theme once you’ve finished setting up. (I’ll recommend some of my favourite ones in the next step).

So in this case, I’ve just selected the first them on the list (Sinatra) and clicked “use this theme”.

Guess what?

You can breathe now.

The hard part is over.

The technical part is finished.

You’re all done.

You’ve now successfully registered a domain name for your site, signed up for hosting, and installed WordPress. And now?

Now is when the fun truly begins.

Step Four: Logging In to Your Site

There’s now two different ways that you can access your website. The first is displayed in that screenshot above: just click on the button that says “log into WordPress”.

The second method is what you’ll be using from now on. Just head to https://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin. You obviously want to replace “yourdomainname” with the url you just purchased. (And the wp-admin part stands for WordPress admin).

With that, you’ll see the following screen:

Type in your username and password and you’re in!

That screen you now see is your WordPress dashboard and that’s where you’ll be running your business.

Down the left-hand side, you have all of the important stuff

• Posts (for writing articles for your readers)
• Pages (for static pages on your site, like an about me or contact page — these will be shown on the navigation bar at the top of your site at all times and will be easily accessible to your readers)
• Comments (where you’ll approve, spam, or reply to comments on your articles from readers)
• Appearance (where you’ll alter the look of your site by installing a new theme, editing its code, and adding sections to your sidebar)
• Plugins (for adding additional features to your site)
• Settings (where you can alter your site settings).

It all sounds a little overwhelming right now, but I promise it’ll all fall into place within a day or two.

Here’s what your next steps should be in order to get your site live and kicking:

Step Five: Finding a Theme

It’s time to make your site pretty! Your website theme is how you’re going to personalise your site to get it looking exactly how you’re currently hoping it will. Here are a couple of options for finding a theme, and I’ve used both of these on Never Ending Footsteps:

Elegant Themes : The very first version of my blog used an  Elegant Themes theme (Divi is my favourite), and I made my way through several other ones during my first couple of years. For $89 a year, you’ll gain access to 87 professional-looking themes. It’s great value for money, getting to choose from such a wide selection means you can play around with different designs, and the support team always managed to solve any problems I was having within 24 hours. You can browse all of the designs before signing up, too!

ThemeForest: If you want to use a theme with an even slicker design head to ThemeForest . There, you’ll pay around $50 per theme (the price varies, but averages out at around $50), but the themes available have hundreds of options for customisation and have a support team to solve your queries within a few hours. I’m currently using a ThemeForest theme on Never Ending Footsteps and I love it!

Once you’ve bought a theme, it’s time to install it on your site.

Themes will usually include installation instructions, so this shouldn’t be difficult at all. On Themeforest, for example, you’ll be able to download an installable WordPress file.

Once you’ve downloaded the file, you can log into WordPress, click on Appearance – Themes – Upload, upload the zip file you’ve just downloaded from Themeforest, and you’ll be on your way to a beautiful site.

Prepare to spend a week or two customising your theme, learning how it works, and getting everything to look exactly how you want. This part can be overwhelming at times, but don’t panic — whenever I install a new theme, I find myself still optimising it a month later. It’s something you’ll probably work on for a while, so there’s no need to get it perfect right away.

If you’re having problems and want to get your site looking a certain way, you can use the support forums on Elegant Themes or Themeforest to get help from the theme’s creator.

And if you’re really struggling, just drop me an email. I’ve installed and customised themes for over 30 travel bloggers now, so I can probably show you exactly where you’re going wrong.

Step Six: Getting Yourself a Logo

A logo/banner/header is what you’ll use to differentiate yourself from other bloggers, so it’s kind of a big deal. But I’ll jump in here and say that I don’t think it’s something you need to put a huge amount of time or money into in the beginning stages of your blog. More important is your kickass content, then once you’ve started to build a following, you can pay more attention to your site’s design. As with practically everything in life, you’ll gain more benefit through investing money early on, but if you want to cut corners, this is where I recommend doing so.

Here’s what I recommend:

Canva:   Canva is completely free to use, so if you’re starting your travel blog with a tight budget, this is a great option. Once you’ve created an account and signed in, click on create a design and play around with any of the banner-sized options. If you click on, for example, Tumblr Banner or Logo, you’ll find a list of pre-made templates that you can customise with your blog name. I created the logo for Never Ending Footsteps with a free trial of Canva Premium!

Fiverr:  If you’re not comfortable with your own design skills, I recommend heading to Fiverr and checking out what’s on offer. You’ll be able to browse reviews and examples of each designer’s work on the site to ensure you receive a decent-looking end result. If I wasn’t confident in my design skills, I’d use Fiverr to find a designer.

Etsy: Fun fact! Etsy is a fantastic place to pick up a premade template for a logo for your site. Just search for travel blog logo, blog banner, travel logo, and see if any of the designs work for your vision. This is a great way to get something up on your site that’s well-designed and professional-looking without having to learn graphic design yourself.

Step Seven: My Essential Plugins for Travel Bloggers

You’ve got all of the design features of your site installed at this point, so it’s time to start working on some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. With your site almost ready to go at this point, you’ll want to start installing some WordPress plugins. These will help improve the functionality of your site and give you access to a ton of new features.

Head over to the plugins section of your site and click on “add new”. You’ll then be able to search for the following plugins:

Akismet:  I didn’t realise how much websites are inundated with spammy comments until I started this site. At the moment, I receive 2 or 3 spam comments a minute.  Fortunately, I don’t have to see any of them because Akismet catches and deletes them automatically.

Comments Not Replied To: Building a community is important, and this plugin shows you a list of comments you haven’t replied to yet. If someone spends their time commenting on your blog, it’s worth taking a few minutes out of your day to reply. Plus, if your readers can see you reply to everyone, they’ll be more likely to leave a comment themselves.

Contact Form 7: This will add a form to your contact page so that people can email you.

Interactive World Maps:  Have you seen the beautiful map on my Where I’ve Been page? It’s a plugin called Interactive World Maps , which I highly recommend getting. It’s a paid plugin, so it’s not something to opt for if you’re trying to keep your costs low, but if you want a beautifully designed map to showcase your travels, this is the one to go for.

Yoast SEO:  If you install only one plugin, make it this. Yoast SEO makes it so easy to improve your rankings in Google and is the absolute best plugin out there. It comes with hundreds of features and options so I won’t list them out there, but needless to say: you need this.

Step Eight: Your First Blogging Steps

Create an about page:  Before you even publish your first post, you should create an about page. The first thing I do whenever I arrive on a travel blog for the first time is find out who the blogger is, what they’re currently doing, and why I should care about them. An about page is so, so important. It tells potential readers why they should follow along on your journey. This is also the place to let your personality shine! Share weird facts about yourself, tell people why you want to travel, show them you’re human and worth following. You want to be anything but boring here, as this is your chance to grab your readers and convince them to stick around.

Write your first post:  After you’ve got your about page sorted, make your first blog post about you. Tell people why you started the blog, what it’s going to be about, where you’re going, and where you’ve been. Your introduction is how people will get to know you and it helps kick your blog off with a bang. Once you’ve written it, start sharing it on social media — Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are where you’re going to want to start publicising your wonderful content.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through:  Don’t be boring. When I decided to start a travel blog, I was so focused on appearing professional and being an expert that I ended up writing bland posts that read like a Wikipedia article. Little did I know, it’s your personality that’s going to convince people to subscribe. Once I embraced my inner idiot and started writing about the ways I’d screwed up on the road, my traffic skyrocketed. It’s so important to have a personality in blogging; don’t try to be a guidebook. Be a person. Be yourself. Even if you’re really weird. One thing that helps me achieve this is to write my blog posts as I would speak, then tidy up the grammar and sentence structure afterwards.

Create a business plan:  Nobody talks about this, but it’s so important! If you want to find success, you need to treat your travel blog just like any other business.  How are you going to find success? How will you monetise your site? How will you build an audience? Where do you want to be in three months? Or in a year? Which companies do you want to work with? Where do you want to be featured? Start thinking long-term, write down your goals, and start working towards them from day one.

If I was starting a travel blog in 2024, my plan would involve joining dozens of Facebook groups to network with other travel bloggers, looking for travel blogging guest post opportunities to build links to my site, focusing on Pinterest to build traffic, writing 3,000+ word resources that are better and more detailed than anything on Google’s first page, and making $500 a month. You should be able to achieve that income goal within 3-6 months of starting your travel blog.

Install Google Analytics: You’ll want to be able to record how many people visit your site each day, so Google Analytics is a must. This will allow you to track your traffic and find out more about your readers. Don’t get obsessive over it though! It’s far too easy to waste an entire day staring at your live analytics. Check every couple of days to see which posts are receiving traffic and whether it’s increasing or decreasing over time.

Stand out from the crowd by doing things differently: There are hundreds of thousands of travel blogs out there now. How are you going to stand out from the crowd? I’m a contrarian so if I see that everyone’s doing something, I try to do the opposite in order to find a niche.

I don’t take press trips or sponsored hotel stays or even accept free products for review. Why? Because every travel blogger does all of those things and I knew it was one of the things their readers dislike most about their blogs. I decided I’d pay for everything myself and travel how non-bloggers travel and have received nothing but amazing feedback in response to it.

I don’t offer advice on how to travel the world. Instead, I write about how I screwed up while travelling, because nobody else is doing that. And because travel isn’t always amazing but so many travel bloggers pretend that it is. I don’t make out that my life is perfect and I’m living the dream — instead, I write frequently about my battles with anxiety and what it’s like to deal with a mental health disorder on the road. I write about what it’s like to get lost in every goddamn city you visit; about how it feels to get scammed for the twentieth time in a year; about how to deal with your boat starting to sink in Thailand.

Everyone says to create a regular posting schedule. I didn’t start off by posting regularly though, and I never have. Bloggers say to post three times a week, but sometimes I’ve posted once a week for months on end. When I got a book deal, I posted once every three months and my traffic still grew. Interestingly, I once posted every single day for a month and my traffic dropped! Most important of all is focusing on your quality of writing. Don’t rush to post as much as possible if it’s going to sacrifice the quality of your work.

There are some things that will help you find success and that’s why everyone’s doing them. Go self-hosted with Bluehost, come up with a catchy name, find a beautiful theme, and come up with a way to brand yourself. But everything else isn’t as important. Post when you want, travel where you want, and write about the things that interest you. Be yourself. That’s the way to build a successful travel blog.

How Do You Make Money With a Travel Blog?

A lot of travel bloggers recommend waiting until you’ve built a large and engaged audience before you even start to think about monetising your site, but I don’t think it’s necessary. There are plenty of ways to start earning money that won’t negatively affect your growth or annoy anyone who visits your site. Here’s how I recommend getting started:

Adsense: The easiest way to start making money with advertising is through Adsense . Sign up for an account, enter in the ad settings you want (I’ve received the most success with a 300×250 sized banner placed below the first paragraph of a post), and then you’re good to go! Download the Quick Adsense plugin, too, as it makes placing the ad code anywhere on your site straightforward. Experiment with different placements, too.

You should be able to make as much as $1 per 1,000 visitors to your site if you have enough placements, and while that won’t sound like much, once you reach 25,000 visitors a month, you can leave Adsense, join Mediavine and start making 10x more money with advertising. There are plenty of new travel bloggers who manage to reach 50,000 page views a month in under a year — with Mediavine, that means making around $750 a month in ad revenue, which is enough to live off in cheaper countries like Vietnam.

Amazon:  If you want to get started with affiliate marketing (and you definitely should — I make those annual six figures from affiliate marketing alone!)  Amazon Associates is best for beginners. Any time you mention a product on your site, you can search for the product through Amazon Associates, and then use that link in your post. Whenever your readers click on that link and choose to buy anything, you’ll receive a commission on that sale. Packing lists, in-depth reviews, and gift guides are great for monetising through Amazon, so get started with those.

I have packing lists on my site that make me over $300 per post each month, so if you can write a detailed packing list and get it ranking first in Google, that’s a great way to make money before you have a huge audience. Write three of them? Well, now you’ve got $1,000 coming in each and every month.

Other affiliate programs:  As long as you don’t go overboard and stuff every single paragraph with a ton of affiliate links (which can always be tempting!), there’s no reason why you can’t join other affiliate programs, too. Some popular ones that I use and recommend include Booking.com for linking to accommodation I’ve stayed in, GetYourGuide for recommending tours and Skyscanner for whenever I talk about finding inexpensive flights.

That way, when you write a detailed travel guide for a place, you can recommend the hotel you stayed in, share how you found cheap flights, and recommend that your readers make the most of their time by taking tours. Then, of course, you can make money whenever somebody clicks those links and follows your recommendation.

I have a single post on my site that brings in $1,500 a month in Booking.com commissions alone, so you can see how lucrative affiliate marketing can really be.

Most important of all: I use every single one of these companies and have done since the very first day I started travelling. If you hate Skyscanner and never use them, for example, you shouldn’t recommend them to your readers just so you can make money from them. You’ve got to be ethical!

The best thing about affiliates is that you can start making money from day one. If you start your travel blog off by writing a travel guide to Athens and find that it makes its way to the first page of Google within the next month or so, you can add affiliate links to that post and you will make a decent amount of money from it — even though your overall blog doesn’t get that much traffic.

That’s all I’d focus on right now. I’d steer away from monetising your social media, trying to get comped travel, and running branded content posts/sponsored posts in the early stages, if not forever, because they’re most likely to annoy your readers.

How Much Does it Cost to Start a Travel Blog?

Now that I’ve covered how to make money with your site, let’s take a look at the upfront costs you can expect to pay to keep a blog running. Here are several options:

You want to run a blog to keep friends and family informed of your travels: free

If your aim is to keep a record of your travels for your friends to follow along with and you have no desire to turn it into a business, there’s no need to make an investment up front. Instead, I recommend heading to WordPress.com (rather than .org) and setting up your site through there. You won’t have to pay for hosting and you’ll have access to free themes to use on your travel blog.

You want to start a professional travel blog but don’t have much money to do so: $109

There are definitely ways that you can cut corners without sacrificing the overall quality of your travel blog.

I’ve yet to come across a popular travel blog that wasn’t self-hosted, so that’s an essential. When it comes to a theme, having a slick and modern one will create a better first impression, so I think that’s important, too. Opt for a ThemeForest theme in this case, for around $50, and you’ll be well on your way to building a wonderful travel blog.

For your logo, go for Canva if you’re trying to save money. They have some pretty impressive banner designs that won’t cost you a cent to use, and you can hire a professional designer further down the line as you find success. Skip everything else that’s paid at this point — you can invest in those later on once you start making money with your site.

If you’re tight on money, then, you’ll find you’ll pay $59 for your Bluehost hosting , $50 up-front for a professional theme, and that’s it!

You’re determined to build a successful, lucrative travel blog as quickly as possible: $150 up-front

If you’ve got money to spend and you’re ready to dedicate as much as you can to getting your travel blog off the ground, you’ll be looking at large up-front costs. You’ll also likely start making money within your first year of blogging, if not sooner.

You’ll cover the basics with a Bluehost hosting plan for three years ($100), and then splurge on a ThemeForest theme for around $50.

You’re me: $330 a month

Ha! I’m including me in this list because you’re most likely curious to know how much you’ll be looking at spending on a site once you’re successful. Here’s how my main monthly expenses break down:

• I pay $35 a month to host my site with Cloudways . As my site has grown, I’ve tried a variety of hosts over the years, sometimes paying as much as $300 a month in an attempt to make my site the fastest on the internet. In the end, I settled on Cloudways, as it offers an excellent balance of speed and price.
• I spend $100 a month for SEMRush . This is an SEO tool that allows you to see which keywords your site is ranking for in Google, determine which articles are best for you to write next, analyse your competitors’ websites, learn which sites have linked to yours, track brand mentions online, and all kinds of other useful stuff. It’s pricey, but I easily make that money back every year from the information it provides me with, so consider it an essential. You can check it out with a two week trial through this link .
• I spend $700 a year for newsletter services with  ConvertKit .
• I spend $600 a year to schedule pins on Pinterest with  Tailwind .
• I pay $400 a year for accounting software with  Xero .
• I pay $250 a year to host my travel photos online with  Crashplan .

It sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that I make well over $10,000 a month from my travel blog, so they’re all expenses that I can justify.

Is It Too Late to Start a Travel Blog in 2024?

I receive a lot of emails and comments from readers who are concerned it’s too late to start travel blogging. Is it? Nope! Hell no. Seriously — it’s not too late.

And the pandemic? It caused a lot of travel bloggers to give up. While the travel blogging world used to be super-crowded, it’s now thinned out over the past year, as bloggers who were reliant on press trips began to run out of money. And now that the world is starting to return to normal, those of us who focused on passive income are doing better than ever, with less competition than before.

It’s a great time to start.

And you know what? There are so many more opportunities for income than there used to be. When I started out, there were only a handful of travel bloggers who made $1,000 a month, and they were the people who had been blogging for several years. These days, there are several hundred travel bloggers who are pulling in six figures each and every year.

In Facebook groups, I see new bloggers sharing how they managed to reach six figures in just a year or two of blogging — something that used to take the original travel bloggers four or five years to manage.

If I were to start my travel blog today, I’d be able to reach my current income within two years. So don’t be dissuaded by the sheer number of travel bloggers on the internet today — focus on generating traffic then monetising your audience, and you’ll be doing well in no time at all!

Now Get Blogging!

I have one final suggestion, and that’s to take a look through the comments of this article below. I now have almost a thousand comments on this article from people asking questions and looking for advice. My answers will likely be useful as you start your travel blogging journey, and feel free to ask for any clarification in the comments, too!

And most of all, good luck! I promise you can do it :-)

693 Comments

So this is actually only the second blog post I’ve read about how to start a travel blog, but I must say that I like yours the best. Mostly because you mention a little a bit about what you’re paying up front when you sign up for Bluehost. I’m sure if I started a live chat with them I could’ve discovered it on my own, but sometimes I have a little aversion to social interaction lol being an introvert sucks … anyways … I just wanted to thank you for helping me understand why I was so confused when I tried to start my website and it was declined due to insufficient funds lol being a food runner/expeditor does’t pay much lol

I really liked this post a lot and just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated all the information and time you put into it. I didn’t even know about logos and that was awesome that you shared that because the first blog post I read just mentioned “good content”.

I am saving this for future reference and thank you greatly for the inspiration your blog has given me. Keep on doing you =) You’re doing GREAT!

Thank you so much for your kind words, Eden!

Before I put this guide together, I spent several weeks looking at similar posts by other travel bloggers to make sure that I could fill in any gaps they’d left. I found the majority of them didn’t include as much information as I would have liked to have seen when I first started out, so I’m thrilled to hear that my article was helpful for you :-)

Hi Lauren, I’m a new travel blogger based in Nigeria and I decided to start my travel blogging with touring round my state in Nigeria. I’m really having a hard time thinking about if this is really best for me but I know I have a strong passion for going places. And I can’t explore other continents because I’m underage and my college won’t allow me to. I have already created my word press account and uploaded my first about post. But I need advice on how to move on and I am using the WordPress free plan for a start. What kind of advice can you give to me please ?

Start by writing about the places you’ve already been to in Nigeria, and focus on building up your social media following. You can still find success by writing detailed guides to destinations you’ve already visited.

Hey, I stumbled on your blog while looking for ways to work since I’m laid off from my job as a cook due to the pandemic. I was bouncing around an idea regarding a travel blog revolving around virtual vacations since no one is allowed to go anywhere. All you really find is dry how to dos on the subject. I thought about how get the most out of it on a budget. Now I think I really want to try it. Just because you are stuck at home doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy the world. I was hoping you’d have a little advice for me.

But do you think most bloggers set out with the intention of creating the kind of blog that can be monetized?

For me it’s been an evolutionary process – I started out on Google’s blogger in 2013 just as a way of keeping memoir for myself really, as well as a postcard substitute for friends and family. Then once my content grew I got frustrated with blogger’s limitations and moved to wordpress.com, then to wordpress.org hosted as part of my husband’s business website, and only to wordpress.org/Bluehost last month with a free theme from Catchthemes.

All I’ve paid for so far is Bluehost. The next step might be the paid-for version of my theme, but I think it’s unnecessary spend any money AT ALL until you know you’re going to stick with blogging – it’s easy enough to import existing content into a wordpress blog, so doesn’t it make more sense to create some content first and see if you enjoy the process? After all, a monetized blog seems take an awful lot of time and effort and probably isn’t for everyone – I still haven’t decided whether the monetized part is something I want to pursue.

It’s tough. I think more new travel bloggers are setting out with the intention of making money purely because there’s so much inspiration out there to quit your job and try it, and it makes it look easy.

There are pros and cons to investing in your site when you first start out. Like you say: you might end up giving it a go and then discover you don’t actually enjoy the writing and you’d much rather travel without the commitment. But at the same time, if you don’t take the time to build a slick blog that looks professional it’s going to be incredibly hard to build any kind of audience, which could discourage you from continuing, because it seems so much harder than it should be.

I’ve only just started and I’ve read quite a few “How to start a travel blog” posts – but I particularly like what you say towards the end about doing things differently. That was initial gut feeling, finding a USP rather than trying to compete in an overcrowded space, until I started reading about having to blog prolifically to start with etc. I like your approach better. You’re also the only person who specifically mentioned getting a logo – something that I’d only had loose ideas about, but will definitely go about getting this now. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Thanks so much, Maki! I actually wrote about this recently: Everyone Said I Was Doing it Wrong . I find that a lot of bloggers recommend doing the same things to find success and, while clearly they have worked for them, I’ve found success through doing things differently to everyone else. Standing out from the crowd is so important!

Thanks for this list! I can vouch for Fiverr. Found a great graphic artist who did my logo. She runs a legit design house with other artists working for her, so it might be better to find a user with an extensive portfolio and lots of positive reviews.

Oh, that’s good to hear! Thanks for the tip :-)

Wow wow wow, firstly, well done on your achievement!! Secondly, thank you for sharing these steps as many do not go into so much detail. Greatly appreciated. I’m in Cape Town, South Africa, recently retired and have always been interested in writing about our travels. We’ve done numerous motorcycle tours and I would usually do a short reflection of it. Friends have been pushing me to write more. ..I’ve recently posted 2 recent day trips on Facebook (Colleen Arendse-Stain), and being reminded again to start a book or a blog….now that I have more free time, I would like to give it a go. Thank you for the advice and inspiration… When will you visit Cape Town???

Best of luck with getting it all set up, Colleen! And I looooove Cape Town :-)

What if you are unsure what your niche is? I want my blog to encompass all aspects of my traveling life whether it’s the how to’s, budgeting, disasters on the road, travel hacking, etc. I’m concerned that by doing everything I’ll slip through the cracks and won’t be noticed.

I’d recommend focusing on one angle and tying everything else into that. For example, you could make budget travel your main focus, but still write about everything else. Travel disasters could be tied into traveling on a budget if you have mishaps in hostels, for example. Travel hacking could have a budget focus, so it isn’t all about getting as many credit cards as possible. How to travel on a budget… you get the idea. After you choose a niche that doesn’t have to be your sole, sole focus — you just want people to be able to say, “Oh, Mike? He’s that guy that writes about…”

My focus is being a walking disaster, but that isn’t all I write about! I’d probably only end up posting every few months if that was the case. I still write resource-y posts and guides to cities and posts about anxiety, but I’ll throw in a mention of a misadventure I had every now and then.

Hi Lauren –

Your blog is awesome and is set up so beautifully!! I’m working on setting one up and am trying to add a “Where I’ve Been Map” that I can link things to. I’ve been looking at maps on a few different travel blogs and yours is the closest to what I’m looking for.

Any tips for creating a map with countries colored in that can be linked to certain posts? Most of the sites I’ve found either share only a map with filled in countries OR a Google map with pins that can be moved around.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks :)

Hi Alison. Yep! I use a plugin called interactive world maps for mine. I highly recommend it as it’s easy to use, looks great, and is very customisable! :-)

Lauren, is it possible to move from my existing WordPress address to this host and get the .com address? I don’t want to start from scratch after all this time, and I’m generally happy with my existing blog on WordPress, but I know I will have to start paying for it soon. Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

Yep! You just need to transfer your site from wordpress.com to wordpress.org. When you log into your dashboard, navigate to tools and click export -> all content. Once you’ve done that, sign up for hosting and install WordPress using the directions I included in this post. Once that’s sorted, you can log in, head to tools -> import -> WordPress, and upload the exported file from your wordpress.com site. Let me know if you need any help! :-)

Are there any free themes? Could I possibly bring in my own theme designed by a graphic designer ? To sign up for wordpress do I have to use WordPress themes ?

Hi Marcy. Yep, just google free WordPress themes and a ton will come up. You can also hire a graphic designer to help you out with your site — I’d recommend this as you’d likely end up with a more professional looking theme. Yep, you need to use WordPress-specific themes for WordPress.

Let me know if I can help with anything else!

All good stuff! After building over 100 WordPress sites I would highly recommend using good security plugins, WP is easy to hack.

-Bulletproof security -Wordfence

Awesome! Thanks so much, Jane! I’ll get on that now :-)

Hi Lauren, I’m in the process of switching my WordPress blog over to a website and your post is the most helpful I’ve found so far. I had a few questions, but they’ve mostly been answered already in the comments :-) Jane’s tip sounds good about redirecting the admin login to avoid hackers, but what does this mean? How do I do it? I’d be really grateful if you or Jane could explain. I’m sure I could google it, but you make everything sound so clear and easy to follow :-)

Yep, it’s super-easy to do. Download this plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-wp-security/ and you can change the url of the admin area, and add a load of extra security features to your site, too :-)

I’m surprised you didn’t mention joining travel blog success like all the other bloggers do – which is impressive! I love how you personality just shows through your delicate writing!

I started blogging about my travel experience recently as well, but I am a photographer and I have my name as the domain for my portfolio site – so I just built a blog page on top of what I already have – I’m still debating if I should just create a separate domain for blogging or just keep it as is..

I like to do things differently :-) Honestly, I think Travel Blog Success is overpriced and unnecessary. I’ve never joined so I can’t speak from experience, but I’ve been just fine without it.

hi lauren! nice article as usual! I wanted to know if the plugins are hard to use with wordpress? What do you think of squarespace?

Plugins are super-easy to use. Just search for them in the the plugins section of your WordPress dashboard and hit install. The settings for them are easy to understand, as well.

Never used Squarespace or subscribed to a site that uses it. I don’t like many of the templates and there aren’t many options for customisation.

Glad you found it helpful, Kate! Digg Digg works fine for me, so you shouldn’t have a problem with it — maybe try again? I’ve never used Genesis, so I’m afraid I can’t help with that. My theme is called Presso and I bought it from Themeforest.

Hi Lauren Thank you for sharing your tips on this post I found it really helpful :-) I am currently travelling and about to launch my own blog, more to share my experiences than to make a living out of it but obviously still want it to be unique and interesting. I read your book “How NotTo Travel The World” whilst I was travelling around India and loved it ❤️ It’s good to know I’m not the only one who makes travelling mistakes and gets into the odd disaster…. Haha st least we will both have entertaing stories to tell! xxx

Thanks so much, Jayne! I’m delighted to hear you enjoyed my book, and no, you’re definitely not the only one to have disasters :-) Best of luck with your blog!

Thanks, Lauren. I’ve read a gazillion “how to set up a travel blog” posts and even attended webinars but this is the first time I think I could actually do it. I started writing a weekly travel column for the newspapers 10 years ago but shied away from blogging because I’m technically challenged. Thanks for your confidence boosting “how to start a successful travel blog” post.

Happy travels.

That’s amazing to hear, Helga! I’m so happy to hear my post could fill you with the confidence to give it a try :-) Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing when I first started, but you pick it up pretty quickly :-)

Hi Lauren Just finished your book and reading through this blog! My husband and I plan to head out for a year of travel in a couple of years and I’d like to blog. In the meantime, I have a sort of friends and family blog about camping in Colorado. It isn’t hosted and I use free wordpress. I’d like to transform it into something lots more professional and public. So, my question is–should I just scratch it and start over? Sounds like it is hard to move content and change a name? Because I’m giving tips on where to camp I think I may need to re-visit some of the older locations anyway. Will it actually disappear so that people will only find the new one? Finally, about how long did it take before your blog began earning an income? What exactly did you do–seek out advertisers? Or did they find you? Thanks!

Hi Stephanie!

What you could do is set up a new blog, then export all of your content from your wordpress.com site to your new one. There’s literally an export and import button on both WordPress versions, so it should be super-quick and easy. You could either redirect your old site to the new one, or just delete the old one if it doesn’t receive much traffic.

I started earning money from my site three months after starting it, and was making enough to live off of after around a year. Advertisers found me for the most part, but one thing you could do is create a Facebook group or small community of travel bloggers who started their sites at the same time as you, and share contacts with each other there.

Hope that helps!

I have been following your blog for so long now and it has helped me so much with my travels so I first just want to say thank you!! I’ve just started my own blog so my family/friends can keep up to date with what I’m doing etc, I originally didn’t set it up to make it into a business or to make money but I can’t help but notice how many people are making a living from blogging. My main question would be when and how did you know when to turn it from a hobby into a priority? For me I don’t want to spend money on a domain/Wordpress.org etc if it’s only ever going to be a hobby but I also know I can’t get anywhere without if that makes sense, sorry to ramble on I just don’t know what to do and after reading this post I thought it might be best to ask you the expert hehe! xx

Roughly how much a year do you think you’d spend on expenses for your blog? Preferably in NZD or something I can convert just so I have an idea ?

These days I’d estimate I spend around 2000 USD a year. I use WP Engine as my hosting company and pay around $70 a month for them. They’re one of the best hosting options there, but pretty expensive and completely unnecessary for a new blogger. I pay around $120 a year each for social media scheduling with Coschedule and Pinterest scheduling with Tailwind. Maybe around $50 a year for new plugins for my site. $600 a year for my newsletter service with ConvertKit. That’s probably about it.

During my first year of running this blog, I think I probably only spent around $50 a year. I paid for hosting and that was about it.

Hi Lauren! I am just starting out trying to create a travel blog too and I’m really struggling with making my site look the way I imagine. I’ve purchased a theme and it’s “installed” but doesnt seem to resemble what I purchased. I am not well versed in graphic design but I like to consider myself computer savvy. Can you suggest or recommend a good resource/s for setting up the themes and basically making my sight look like I imagine? Also a good place to create a banner? or is that what you mean by a logo? I’ve been considering travel blog success but I just dont know that I’m ready or willing to invest in it yet.Thank you so much for your help!

Your theme will usually have installation instructions that run through how to set it up and get everything looking how you want it to. Otherwise, using the theme options page on your WordPress dashboard is where you need to be. That’s where you’ll make all of the changes to your site’s appearance.

Yep, you can have a banner made through the same sites I recommend for a logo.

You probably won’t recognise my name, but I’ve tweeted you a couple times :) anyway, I just wanted to ask, what is a logo? I’ve never heard of that before. I seem to be having some issues with my domain name registering, but once its sorted, (fingers crossed it will be.) I’ll be moving on to personalising my blog. how do you pick a theme? There seems to be thousands of them! As someone who doesn’t have a clue or anyone to ask, I feel like i need to be walkeeen at this for 2 days and I’ve still not got my blog! Please help!d through by baby steps! I’ve already been derailed twice, please help! haha hope alls well! Eilidh

Oh, by logo, I mean the banner up at the top of every page. The Never Ending Footsteps part is the logo. It’a way to help brand your site and inject some personality to it, rather than having some plain, boring text as the site title.

When it comes to picking a theme, it took me about a week to find one that I like. I went to Themeforest and sorted the WordPress themes by popularity. From there, I went down the list until I found one that I liked. Honestly, it all comes down to what features you’re looking for and what style works for you. Take a look at the live preview of each site and see if anything clicks. Most of the themes are very customisable, so it’d be hard to go wrong!

Great tips, wish I would’ve had this post when I started. I’m glad you mention how much work it is behind the scenes as many people just think is taking photos and publishing then online. My biggest challenge has been seo, I actually invested in a professional to help me out. Looking forward to your posts.

Thanks so much, Sanket! I’m so happy to hear you found the post useful :-) It definitely takes a lot of work to build a successful site, which is why it can sometimes be a little frustrating when people assume you’re on a permanent vacation!

That’s a good tip about investing in someone to help you out if you’re not so great at a certain skill. I know that I tried to do everything when I first started out to the detriment of my site!

Hi Lauren, I’ve been following Dave since 2012-ish and then you soon after – you’ve both been so incredibly helpful with all my travel planning. Loved your book too! I’m looking to start monetising my blog but I’m currently using blogger – I want to transfer everything so I can have my own .com name… can you do this with a blogger page or do I need to start again and copy paste the content across? I’m just worried about losing any follows! Thanks :)

Hi Clare! :-) You can keep your current Blogger site and just get a custom domain for it. Info here: https://support.google.com/blogger/troubleshooter/1233381?hl=en#ts=1734115

Great advice :)

I have a question around how your blog became successful – was there one particular moment or incident which turned your blog into a profession? There are so many travel blogs out there so im just wondering how you go about getting “discovered” – how did your readers find you?

Thanks Megan

There wasn’t really a particular moment when things skyrocketed — I definitely noticed a huge jump in engagement and follower numbers once I started embracing my disastrous side :-) but much of my growth has been pretty organic. If you were to look at my traffic numbers, it would be something like 5,000 visitors per month on average for the first six months, 10,000 visitors per month for the next six months and so on, so I’ve always had steady growth rather than one big moment when things rapidly expanded.

But that’s talking about audience size, which is different to turning my blog into a profession. For me, I didn’t think of my blog as my *job* until I’d been running it for around nine months (and travelling for three of them). By that point, I was making enough income to live in Southeast Asia, and was starting to become more well-known in the travel blogging world. It was at that point when I realised, hey, I don’t actually have to go home after a year :-)

And as for how my readers found me, I can actually answer this quite accurately as I recently ran a reader survey and asked exactly that question! To quote from that post :

“35% of you found me through Googling something random and 30% discovered me through another travel blog. On the lower-but-heartwarming end of the spectrum, 5% found me through a friend’s recommendations, 8 responders know me in real life (hi!), and 5 of you even found the site through buying How Not to Travel the World first.”

Hi Lauren! I’m in my last year of high school and your blog has definitely inspired me to chase my travelling dreams :) Was just wondering though, is a web blog essential/necessary in funding your travels or could your travels be funded from other things? What else could provide as a main resource for funding travel?

Saf – the way from Australia :)

Hi Saf! Nope, it’s definitely not essential. There are so many ways you could fund travel that don’t involve opening a laptop — teaching English, working as a surf instructor or divemaster, working on a cruise ship, running tours, working in hostels, working in bars… And for something online based, it could be doing your current job remotely if you don’t need to be in the office, working as a graphic designer or computer programmer or an app developer or a translator or a freelance writer or editor, or an SEO specialist or a social media marketer, or selling things you’ve made on Etsy or elsewhere, or self-publishing books on Amazon. The possibilities are endless! :-)

Thanks Lauren, for creating another master class post. I am bookmarking the post because in near future, I am going to make a travel related blog. Such instruction can make my work easier.

That’s so kind of you to say! Glad you found it useful :-)

Just wanted to say thank you Lauren, some fantastic tips in here. Nearly finished your book now, it’s brilliant. Never read a book that’s kept my attention and interest like yours does. You should be so very proud of yourself for such great writing. Best wishes and safe (as it gets with you!!) travels! Richard – BeyondTheVan.

Thank you so much, Richard! Your comment truly means the world to me :-)

This was really helpful, thanks so much. I still have a lot to figure out, but you’ve given me a good start.

No problem! Happy to help :-)

You’ve mentioned in your post and a few of the comments that you would suggest starting a FB page with other bloggers who are starting out around the same time as you. Do you have any tips/suggestions/advice on how to find people just starting? All the bloggers I follow online are already established.

Thanks so much :)

Hey, Renata! I answered this a couple of comments down :-)

My mother brought me a copy of your book home from work one day last year, and it had me cracking up thinking about how similar we are in terms of unlucky things seeming to gravitate to us no matter where we go. I got head butted on a subway in Shanghai by a man applying eye drops, for example..

Currently in the process of (trying) to set up my blog for my upcoming travels, and this post is doing wonders, so thanks so much!

Oh, that means the absolute world to me to hear, Jack! And oh my god, I laughed so hard at the image of you being headbutted, haha. Feel free to drop me an email if you get stuck when setting up your site! :-)

Thanks for the informative post! I’m also in the process of starting my own spiritual travel blog and was wondering…how did you find other bloggers who were new to start a Facebook group? I agree with Renata in her comment above; all the bloggers I see on social media are well established and not beginners like me.

Thanks, Christine

Hi Christine,

Twitter chats could be a good place for starting to get to know other bloggers, like #TTOT. Also, searching for hashtags like #rtwsoon for people who are about to head out on a rtw trip, or #rtwnow. Or googling travel blog 2016 “first post” or “my itinerary” or “travel plans” or something like that should bring up recent posts from new blogs. There are also a ton of Facebook groups, like the Travel Bloggers group, and lots of others for newbies as well. Just have a search for “Travel bloggers”. Finally, you could look for other travel bloggers who are commenting on blog posts.

I forged most of my friendships through Twitter, because it’s more conversational and you’re not like, “hey! *Facebook friend request even though you have no idea who I am*!”

great Article about starting a travel bog. After I had finished it, it was clear to me that you have written more or less about “professional” travel blogs. I have also started my own blog. But it is primary used to keep my family and friends up to date. So i choose one of the easy to use platforms. In my case: http://www.traveloca.com . I think it was a good decision as long as I don’t have such a popular travel blog. :) I am a real non technically-minded blogger and until my blog gets not hundreds or thousands of visitor per day, I think such a platform makes much easier. :)

Hi Maria! Yep, this is a guide to starting a successful travel blog, so a lot of my tips are based around how to give yourself the best opportunity possible of making it. If your blog is for friends and family, there’s no need to spend money on hosting and themes and stuff :-)

Yep, perhaps it gets more popular in time. Than I can think about such a “professional” blog but up to now it is enough :) What I could do so far is following some of your tips from step eight.

Yes! And I’m planning to update this article over the next week or so to include money making tips and a few other bits and bobs :-)

Oooooo!! Excited to read that update, as your clarity, illumination, and support is always appreciated ;). Thank you for everything you do!

Thanks for the tips, Lauren!

No problem!

Thanks for this! Lot’s of great tips for us lil guys starting out.

You’re welcome! :-D

Hi Lauren! Just stumbled upon this post on google – very helpful article! I’ve been blogging for about 6 months and most of my viewers come from Quora. Do you have any tips on similar sites to gain more visitors? Would really appreciate any advice :) Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much, Maria! I don’t focus too much on traffic generations on sites like that, purely because it takes a lot of time and effort and I’m not sure how sustainable the traffic is. For example, I used to get quite a bit of traffic from the TripAdvisor forums to my Maldives posts (it was in my top 10 referrers), but I just checked, and six months later, I get two visits a month. I’ve seen things like this happen over and over, so it’s not something I personally focus on. But if Quora works for you, then that’s great, and there’s no reason to stop working on it! :-)

One thing I would suggest is to focus on guest posting. Pitch articles for huge sites that are relevant to what you write about (for example, I could pitch a writing site about how I got a book deal, or an anxiety site about how travel helps my anxiety, or a personal development site on how travel changed my life, or a women’s site about how I met my boyfriend on the road). It’ll bring new people to your site, benefit your blog by giving you a link back (and therefore helping increase your search traffic), and it forces you to practice writing for a different audience!

This is my first time visiting your blog and first off, it’s fucking awesome. As I’m sure most of your followers are, I’m a travel nut (currently writing this while in Vienna, Austria) and want nothing more than to be able to travel for the rest of my life. I’m currently a junior German and Communication Studies double-major and would love to be able to travel after I graduate and share my experiences with others. I found this article really helpful! I did have a few questions for you though. 1) How exactly did you gain all of your followers? 2) How do you use your blog to pay for your trips? Obviously, money plays an important role in travel.

If you could give me any tips I would really, really appreciate it! (:

Awww, thank you so much, Jacqueline! I really appreciate it! :-)

1) Honestly, it all happened organically. Remember that I’ve been doing this for six years now, so that’s a lot of time for people to find me and decide to follow along on my travels. I just shared my travels here on my site and linked out to my social media pages on the site, I shared photos of my travels and little updates on Facebook and Twitter, and somehow people found me. I realise that isn’t very helpful, but I really didn’t do anything beyond share what I was doing. I didn’t buy any followers, or take part in reciprocal liking, or anything like that really. I’d imagine the vast majority of my followers stumbled upon my site in Google and decided to follow me then.

2) I have an entire post dedicated to how I fund my travels here: https://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/how-to-fund-travel-blog/ These days, I make money through advertising (small banner ads in the sidebar and through ads on my Youtube channel), affiliate sales (this post is an example: if you decided to set up your site using Bluehost by following my link, I’d receive a small percentage of the sale), freelance writing (I write regularly for About Student Travel and Too Many Adapters, and occasionally write pieces every so often for other websites and magazines), and book royalties from my memoir. I think that’s about it.

There are a few things other travel bloggers do to make money that I don’t: taking press trips and charging a day rate (or taking press trips for free in order to save on travel expenses), selling ebooks or courses, doing social media marketing for other companies, selling photos online, working with brands on sponsored posts, placing ads on social media, selling ad space to other travel bloggers, using something like Patreon, where their readers help support them, or reader donations… there are lots of ways you can make money through travel blogging!

Thanks, Karen! :-)

No problem! Glad it helped :-)

I’m SO glad that you said not to spend money on Travel Blog Success! I feel like everyone just recommends it so that they can get money from the affiliate links…

Yeah. A lot of travel bloggers make it sound as if you’ll never be successful unless you join. Not true!

can you recommend a good (free) travel theme by WordPress. I’ll be traveling by bike with daily entries and lots of pictures…thanks!

The problem with free themes is that more often than not they contain malware and dodgy links, which will do nothing but penalise your site — that’s why people give them away for free, because they know they can add, for example, links to cheap viagra, etc from your site and cash in from that. It’s for that reason that I recommend going with a paid one.

If you don’t have the cash to spend, use one of the themes WordPress recommends in the themes section of your site. I haven’t used any of them, so don’t have any personal recommendations.

thanks Lauren, all good points! I’m not looking to monetize my blog and mostly want it for friends and family to be able to access to follow my travels but maybe there are other issues too that could effect my site negatively by going with the free stuff. Tim

Ah, just use one of the WordPress ones you’ll find in your backend then.

Hi Lauren, This is amazing! Probably the most comprehensive guide I’ve read so far. I am new to travel blogging and i’m looking at monetizing my blog too. I have used wordpress.com before, but the features are so limited which is why I’m shifting to wordpress.org, I want to take blogging seriously but i’m quite confuse about hosting. Thank you so much, the step by step guide for BlueHost is a big help for me!

Thanks so much, Lhea! I’m so happy to hear that :-) Let me know if you have any questions at any point!

This might be a bit of a naive question, but in terms of theme and logo, do you have to go through a professional graphic designer or can you just sort of put something together yourself? I would love to design my logo myself :)

No, you don’t have to go through a professional! If you can do it yourself, you totally should :-)

Lauren, thank you! One of my aims for 2017 was to start a travel blog and now that the year is half-way through, I’m starting to realise I need to get ON THIS right now. Thank you so much for your helpful blog article — it’s inspiring, easy to understand, and packed full of useful information. Can I ask what some of your favourite travel blogs are? I love yours (obviously) but I’d love to discover other authentic travellers out there to inspire me on my own travel blog journey.

Thanks again!

I’m so happy you wrote this post, Lauren! I’m a longtime reader of your site and have been inspired by how much travel has helped you to grow. I’m setting out for my own soul searching experience in July and this has convinced me to take the leap and try travel blogging for myself to see how it goes.

That’s amazing, Edna. I’m touched to hear my story could inspire you <3 Best of luck with your blog and let me know if I can help out with anything if you get stuck along the way.

Who do you use for hosting your travel blog? Is it still Bluehost or somebody different? I read in another blog post of yours that you changed hosting company a few years ago and experienced a rise in traffic from search engines. Would you not then recommend starting with a more expensive host to give yourself the best chance of success?

Would there be much interest in retirement travel as a niche do you think? My children have flown the nest, my husband has died and I want to start traveling and showing other older women that it’s never too late to see the world. Is there any chance I can find an audience at my age? Travel blogging seems to be focused so much on younger women in their 20s.

This has been so helpful, thank you. Can I ask if these are the exact steps you followed when you started your blog or like are these things that you learned along the way? You are obviously successful and I was wondering if you made it by doing this exactly or doing some things differently. I hope this makes sense!

Can I be cheeky and ask which banner design you like most for a logo in Canvaa? Theres so many to choose from and I want one that will make me stand out.

This was just what I needed to give me a kick up the butt and convince me to start my travel blog! Time to start brainstorming names…

Yay! I’m happy to hear that, Loretta! Best of luck :-)

Hi Lauren. This was an amazing post! It not only inspired me to start my own blog but also to follow the exact steps you’ve laid out on your post. It was very helpful. Thank you. I have one question though. At the bottom of your blog, it says ‘Copyright Lauren………’. How do I do that on my blog using Word Press. Currently it says ‘Proudly powered by Word Press…..’ and the theme I use. Can I edit this?

Yes! If you go to Appearance -> Editor and find your footer.php file, you should be able to edit it in there. If not, most themes will have something in the theme options section of the WordPress dashboard where you can change it.

This is the most detailed post I found on starting a travel blog so I have to say thanks to you for that Lauren. My one question to you: would you recommend making your own logo in Photoshop or Canva when you’re starting out?

I’d go for Canva if you don’t have experience with graphic design yet. It’ll be much easier than trying to teach yourself Photoshop from scratch.

You don’t have to answer this but how much money do you make through this travel blog?

Thank you SO much for this Lauren! A treasure trove of information for new bloggers :o)

Happy you found it so helpful! Thanks! :-)

Apologises if you’ve answered this in another comment, but how long did it take before you started making money? How soon do you think a new travel blogger can start making money, realistically? How long to make their first penny and how long before they make $1000 a month, then $2000, etc. What are the best types of income for new travel bloggers to chase?

Hi Lauren. Why do you recommend Bluehost over Hostgator, etc? Who do you use for hosting your travel blog?

Thank you a lot for this Lauren! You made an overwhelming task sound manageable. No easy feat when you’re as scared of technology as me!

Oh, that’s incredible! Thanks so much for the huge compliment, Gemma!

I am about to embark on a 3 month trip backpacking SE Asia with my fiance, I have thought a lot about blogging…. but don’t want to start while I’m there. This will be a big first for both of us and we don’t want to worry about bringing our laptops as we are unsure what the trip will bring and don’t want to risk losing or breaking it. Have you or any bloggers you know started blogging after your trip as more of a reflection on the events rather than staying current with your posts?

Great , These are amazing tips for start travel blogs and these are very effective tips.

i wanted to tell you i found this incredibly informative and helpful. i want to share the kind of unconventional trips my brothers and i go on and you have given me a great starting point. once i get things up and running i’ll be sure to send you a link :)

happy travels to you.

So happy to hear that! And yep, I’d love to see how it looks when you’ve got it all set up :-)

This gave me the boost of confidence I needed. For about 2 years now, I’ve wanted to travel and be able to share it with other people. I’ve looked into doing a vlog as well, but have been to scared of failure. Thank you so much for posting this and making it easier for me finally start doing what I’ve been meaning to for years!

Thank you so much! I’m thrilled to hear I could make it easier for you :-) Good luck!

Hey Lauren!

I just wanted to leave you a little comment to let you know that I read your book and it inspired me to try start blogging. So much so I even referenced you in my first post! My blog is more as a pass time and fun than as a way to try make any money down the road but it was something I’d never really considered until I’d read your book. Your initial experience of travelling alone was also a comfort as my own first week travelling never exactly went to plan either! I just posted a blog piece about it (I came from the UK to Melbourne) and it made me remember all the things that happened during that week that I’d forgotten about. But writing it also made me realise how far I’ve come in 10 months.

So thanks again :D

So sorry to bother you if this has been asked before but, what is the difference between using Bluehost and transferring my current content over and simply purchasing a upgrade on WordPress for my blog?

Thanks so much lady!

Brydie Spark

I am just starting out with a travel blog and this article was really helpful! It looks like a daunting task to start a successful blog and monetize it but your words make it look do-able so thanks for that :)

Amazing! I’m so happy to hear that, Marium! :-)

Hi Lauren! Just wanted to say what an amazing blog this is; it’s really helped me with a lot of my travels around India and the Middle East. I’ve only just started my travel/self growth blog and I’m feeling so overwhelmed about trying to get more readers and how to do this? You mentioned getting in touch with other travel bloggers in the beginning stages but I’m not sure how to do this!? Thanks so much, love, Sophia

you are fantastic! Great (and super helpful) article. Thank you for helping out us aspiring travel bloggers

Thank you! I’m glad you found it helpful :-)

Your article is very powerful, I take your advice seriously while preparing to start my own travel blog.

Good luck! :-)

Hi Lauren, thanks for this very informative post! I usually don’t comment on things I read but this made an impression on me. I also have a question for you. Your disclaimer states that the income produced helps reduce the cost of running the site but is that all one can expect from following your advice is to supplement your travel budget or are you able to travel full time from the revenue of your site?

Hi Michael! Thank you so much — I’m pleased to hear that :-)

Oh, I should probably make my disclaimer clearer — I’ll go update it now. I was referring to the income from this specific post helping to reduce the running costs. I’ve more than funded over five years of full-time travel through Never Ending Footsteps.

Thanks for the Tips :-) this is very informative for me.After reading this I follow all the steps to start my Travel Blog I am very thankful to you Lauren.

Happy travel & All the best

Thank you! Same to you :-)

Hi Lauren, i almost never comment on blogs but this is a must! I stumbled on your blog while doing a research on how to start a Travel blog and your steps are very simple, informative and really helpful. Thank you!!

Hope i can come back to give you a feedback when i eventually start mine.

Thank you and All the best with everything :)

Thank you so much! Definitely let me know when your blog is all set up and I’ll be happy to give you some feedback :-)

Hi Lauren, I always follow your blogs and really they are inspiring for me!! I have read this blog on starting a travel blog and i found that your way is very simple, i really like it!! i just want to ask few questions:

1- I didn’t get about how toe use of skimlinks. i am little confused about it. 2- Please tell me how can i use youtube for earning money if i start travel blog.

Thank you for sharing such blogs

Ah, thank you so much! :-)

1) They have instructions for how to set up Skimlinks on the site: https://skimlinks.com/getting-started — you basically copy and paste a line of code onto your site, and then Skimlinks will take words from your articles, check to see if there are affiliate programs for these products or services, and add a link for you if there is. Once it’s installed on your site, you can just forget about it and it does all of the hard work for you.

As an example: if in a blog post, I wrote: “I decided to buy the Canon 550D camera this month and I’m loving the photos I’ve been getting from it!” Skimlinks would detect that Canon 550D was the name of a product and insert an affiliate link to the Canon website or Amazon, and then if anyone clicks that link and buys a product, you get a percentage of the sale.

2) I probably make around $10 a month from Youtube, so I’m not really the person to be asking! I don’t actively film videos on my channel, so it’s not a source of income I pursue. A good way to start is by putting Adsense ads on your videos through the Youtube Partner Program.

Hi Lauren ,

I came across your blog today and its seriously a very inspiring one….I have been searching for some sources which help me in setting up a travel blog….i found yours very helpful and informative….

Thank u so much and all the best for your future endeavours….

Just a small question. What camera do you use, as your photos are always so colorful! Thanks so much for this useful guide Lauren :)

I use the Sony A7ii :-)

Thank you sooooo much for this guide Lauren!! I’ve just taken the plunge and got a Bluehost account, found a theme and I’m now starting to think about content. I know you say that your traffic and success hasn’t been affected by how much you post, but do you have a number of posts per week that you’d recommend for someone starting out? As much as possible? Once a week?

I’d love to see a more advanced guide about how you made it as a travel blogger after you’ve set everything up. This is so useful for new bloggers so it would be awesome to see a similar guide for more intermediate bloggers too.

Oooh, that’s a great idea! I’ll put some ideas together and see what I can do :-)

We are just starting off with out blog and this article was incredibly helpful! I have followed your steps to start our site but am confused when asked to connect to a wordpress.com account for the JetPack in order to download some of the plug-ins you mentioned. I wasn’t sure I should connect since I read in your comments that WordPress.org vs WordPress.com is very different.

You definitely don’t need to use Jetpack to download any of the plugins I recommend. I still use all of them and I’ve never used Jetpack. Feel free to drop me an email with more details if you’re still having problems and I’ll see if I can help out :-)

Hi Lauren! wHat do you recommend writing about if you’ve just started your blog but haven’t started traveling yet? I feel like i’ve run out of ideas after my first few articles (travel plans for my rtw trip, why I want to travel, and a past trip). Thanks for the helpful article.

Hi! ? I want to say that this post has been really helpful, especially the tip about the business plan because most blogs will advise to wait. It helps the reader to think long term and I really like the part when you say you said you were a bit of a contrarian. Haha!

I want to know about w h a t should be the first posts. I mean there are the technical parts of building a blog, the installation of plugins and all such things but I was hoping to find an article about what should be my first posts… when I start a travel blog from scratch what do I actually do and where do I go and what do I write about? The truth is that I am only beginning to s e t o u t to travel and wanted to blog about it but don’t know where to start in the “travelling” part, and I have received help about the “blogging” part. Do i just go to a place and talk about it? Wouldn’t that be boring?

Do you have an article somewhere in this blog about the blog post ideas I am looking for? I’ll be really glad to read them! Your blog inspires me ?

I was wondering what Hosting actually was. You mention it confused you too so I’m relieved to know I’m not alone and I get it’s basically paying for your website address but is that it or does that pay for access to plugins etc?

Right, so hosting is basically paying for the server (computer space) that your website lives on. The advantage to going self-hosted rather than using wordpress.com or blogspot.com is that your site will typically be faster, you have access to support if anything goes wrong with your site, and you’re paying for the flexibility and freedom to do whatever you want with it. Blogspot/Wordpress.com, etc restrict you in terms of what themes you can use, what plugins you can install, how much you can monetise your site…

thank you for these tips. I purchased the host on bluehost and I am looking at themes. The one I want cost $59 do you recommend paying the $49 for the install theme.

No, don’t pay to install the theme. You literally just download the files, log into WordPress, and click on Plugins -> Add New and upload the theme file you just downloaded. It’s really easy to do and you definitely don’t need to pay someone to do it for you :-)

This was really helpful, thanks so much. I still have a lot to figure out, like my blog name, but you’ve given me a good start. so thanks for sharing this information…Such a great Resource and the best guide on starting a travel blog Ive read so far.

Thank you! Best of luck with your blog! :-)

Great blog i love it has a lot of great information and i like how you kept it real about you don’t necessarily have to buy the travel bloggers program. I started my blog back like 2 months before i took off to my journey to Southeast Asia for three months in August. I’ve been doing a few posting every now and then just been trying to come up with a few different ideas to get more traffic and start earning some income i really don’t care how much I start earning in the beginning just as long as I’m making some type of income it would make me feel that I’ve started somewhere

Take A looking at my travel blog and let me know what you think or what would you recommend me changing

My main topic is A African/Haitian Nomad thats on a journey to see the world on a budget learn about new cultures and there history. I’m planning for my next journey going away for 7 months to 1yr to Africa in the next few months

I also want to thank you for this post. I am new to the world of blogging and your article was very helpful. Any suggested beginner user guides to WordPress? I find getting accustomed to the dashboard a little overwhelming!

Oooh, that’s a good question! I had a look around and this site has a ton of information on getting started and understanding what everything in the dashboard does: http://easywpguide.com/wordpress-manual/dashboard/dashboard-menu-options/

Hi Lauren. Thank you for providing such a different point of view to starting a travel blog. You’re right – so many are the same! I found this post a couple of days ago but have come back now before I take the plunge tomorrow and start setting up – I think I’ve decided on thetransientexplorer.com as a name. Maybe without the ‘the’… My problem is I like to make sure everything is perfect when actually I need to make a leap – kinda like travelling I guess!

One thing I have noticed is BlueHost is promoted by most bloggers. I used to have little websites years ago and I’m guessing things have changed, but I once got charged $100 for a data spike so I get a bit nervous, especially of a non-UK company. Because BlueHost are often mentioned I think I’ll follow your advice and use them.

I look forward to coming back to your blog and checking out some more posts.

Just wanted to say that I’ve spent all day researching how to start my travel blog and your guide was easily the most comprehensible and easy to follow. I now feel like I’ve got a good chance at making my travel blog a success. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Anna! :-)

Thank you so much for informing about Skimlinks, will definitely try that.

No problem! Hope it works out for you :-) It makes affiliate earning so easy.

Thanks so much for this post! It has made a huge difference for me. :)

I’m so happy to hear that, Ryan! :-)

I wanted a tip on if i am starting and i want to approach a company to affiliate should i go directly and tell my plan, or i do some stuff build the website and then go for it?

You’ll want to build the website first, so that you can show the company where their affiliate links will be placed. For the most part, though, you won’t ever directly approach a company and pitch to affiliate for them — they’ll either already have an affiliate program you can apply for or won’t offer one at all.

Hope that helps! :-)

Hi Lauren. Long time reader of your site here. Do you have any tips for how to inject more personality into your posts? I’m a big fan of your blog because reading it feels like I’m sitting down with a friend over a cup of tea and hearing about their travel stories. I’d love for my blog to have the same kind of feel. Thanks so much Lauren!

One thing that helps me is to write in a similar way to how I speak. You could just record a few minutes of you talking about a trip you took, then replay it, and transcribe what you said. It’ll eventually become second nature to write in this style, so you won’t need to keep recording your voice. Also, reading, reading, reading. Read lots of books and article from writers with big personalities and study how they get their point across and the types of words they use.

Wow Lauren, you’re truly INSPIRATIONAL. I live to TRAVEL and this post has given me the mojo to start my own blog which I had been procrastinatng for so long. Thank you so much.

Wow, thank you so much for the compliment! :-)

Thanks so much for writing about this! A travel blog of my own is slowly forming in my mind.

Did you ever take lessons for journalism/ writing to feel confident about your writing style? Or did you intuitively post articles? (if that makes sense).

Thankyou again!

I didn’t. I found the best way to improve my writing was to read and write as much as possible. Something as simple as sitting down every day and forcing yourself to write 1000 words, whether you publish them or not, can do wonders for your writing ability. Practice, practice, practice! Even now, whenever I look back at blog posts I wrote a year ago, I want to make edits and spot dozens of ways to improve them. It shows me that I’m constantly developing as a writer and improving the more I write.

Incredible Post!! You have done an amazing job. Worth reading this entire article for travel bloggers who are about to start their travel blog. Keep it Up!! Thanks :)

Thank you! :-)

Hi, Lauren!

I got to thank you for writing this article. I’ve been researching stuffs on how to start a travel blog and I find yours very inspiring. I want to restart blogging with a new perspective but felt pressured since most of the bloggers I knew are following some kind of patterns like writing articles in exchange for freebies and with that I felt really pressured. Coz I don’t like I’ll be good at it. After reading this post, I felt at ease. I realized I don’t really have to do what everyone else is doing. Thank you for making me realize that! Now, I’m still brainstorming for a blog name. ?

You definitely don’t, Charlyn. If something doesn’t make you feel comfortable, you can find a different way to fund your travels. It’s totally nerve-wracking at first, but I feel nothing but relief when I think about how I didn’t go down the route. And honestly, from what I’ve heard, most readers of travel blogs find the freebies the most irritating aspect of sites, so if you do something different, you’ll most likely attract readers because of it.

Good luck in your search for a name!

Hi, I have a question. So how we make the money from the blog? Just by clicking on the travel link we share? Thanks for the reply.

There are so many ways to make money from a travel blog. I’ve listed the ways I recommend at the end of this article. I’d suggest going for advertising through Adsense and affiliate links to start with. In both cases, you’ll make money if one of your readers clicks either an ad or an affiliate link that’s in your post.

How is this different from the bajillion other “how to start a travel blog” posts? How is this unconventional?

The. Exact. Same. Stuff. Infact, it is the same as the bajillion “how to start a blog” post. Not even “travel blog”, just “blog”.

Just a post for you to insert affliate links.

Unfortunately, as soon as my post started to rank in Google, other travel bloggers began to copy the stuff I’d shared in this post, so I’ll take your point on board that it’s not as original as it could be/used to be. And on top of that, I guess my opinions on certain things changed, like travel blogging courses. To be fair, though, in the introduction I say:

“You don’t need to do what everyone else is doing — in fact, I recommend actively avoiding it.

I’ve never joined Travel Blog Success and won’t tell you that you should; I think it’s expensive and unnecessary. I’ve had a strict no press trips or sponsored travel policy for three years and counting, preferring to make my blog a success so that I can just afford to go wherever I want, rather than traveling on someone else’s dime. I write about how not to travel the world and don’t try to pretend to be a travel expert. I’ve never had a regular posting schedule. I’ve done everything differently and that’s what’s helped me to stand out from the crowd.”

And I don’t think this post deviates from that message. I still recommend to do all of those things and that’s unconventional advice in travel blogging, where people will say: “have a regular posting schedule! Write detailed resources! Don’t inject too much personality into your posts! Be an expert!”

And yes, there are affiliate links in this post, because as much as I’d love to offer I’ve everything I’ve learned over the past six years of blogging for free (and this post actually does if people don’t click my links), I do still have to eat. And I do believe the things I’ve learned have value.

It’s good work by you! Very interesting blog and article! I want ask you about some themes, what i want to use in my website(blog). I consider these: Divi, Monsteroid, Avada, maybe X-theme. Have you seen or work with anyone of them? I also found information about them on https://www.templatemonster.com/blog/avada-5-0-vs-monstroid-2/ it’s Avada 5.0 vs. Monstroid 2 they are all good i think. So what can you advise to choose?

I actually used to run this site on Avada! I really liked it, but it was super, super bloated. It offers so many features and customisation options that it slows down your site and makes your pages enormous in size. I’m not sure about the other themes you mentioned as I haven’t used them, and I’m currently offline and using data in Namibia so can’t check them out right now.

thank you Lauren this article has made up my mind to start a blog. I love technology , however I am an older learner :) I will be travelling solo to Italy Paris & Barcelona later in the year. Art is my passion as culture and history is what I love so much. An old friend and I travelled for 4 weeks around Turkey a few years ago although I made a beautiful photography book through Blurb I did not keep a blog and now wish I had. I did keep a journal. However, this time I think a blog will keep my family & friends up to date but importantly I will be able to share my daily adventures and cultivate lasting memories. I will start thinking of a name first..that will take me a while. Thanks again

Hi Heather! Best of luck with coming up with a name and getting started with your blog. I’m so glad I started mine so that now I have such a detailed record of my travels.

This is quite informative. I like it. I have done a lot of content for clients in the Travel niche and find this topic interesting. I, however, wish to start my blog because I equally love traveling and talking about the best travel destinations. Do you think this is the right blog for me to start? All in all, your content is quite useful. At least I have some points to get me started if I settle for this. Very rich content.

I think travel blogging would be perfect for you as you already have experience writing travel-related posts and it obviously hasn’t put you off writing even more :-). That’s a good thing, because a lot of people start travel blogging thinking it’s going to be their path to riches, but find after just a few months that they don’t enjoy it and they’re not making enough money to make it worth it. So having a passion for writing and travel is helpful when it comes to starting :-)

Thank you, for this blog! It’s gonna help me a lot :)

Hi Lauren, I quite enjoyed your website, and have caught myself glued to your past blogs for several weeks now. Being 30 now, I finally caught the travel bug five years ago, and have since been to almost 20 countries, and will be going to Morocco, Spain & South of France (2nd time to France) in May. I’m sorry to hear you did not enjoy Bratislava. My fiance is from Slovakia, and we go to Bratislava yearly. If you ever make it back there again, I highly recommend checking out some wineries located on medieval castle grounds outside of the city. Especially in Spring, it can be simply bliss! Currently living on the West Coast of Canada, getting anywhere (Europe, Asia, Africa) is not only expensive, but the fights are at minimum 9 hours. I do have a full time career, however I am in the early stages of starting my blog, and have years of photos and written material to start with. How do you suggest someone with a full-time career, and say only 3-4 weeks a year to travel, successfully launch their blog? Thanking you in Advance Kyle

Thank you so much for this post. Incredibly informative. Thanks to the post, I was able to setup my blog quite seamlessly and also made a few edits to the original theme (I’m a developer so I found some of the PHP debugging, files stuff fun – so geeky haha!) I’m three posts old right now and have so much motivation to write more posts. I want to go back and share details from previous trips and start a series on specific themes. Too many ideas.

I love the point about letting your personality shine through – that helps me write more naturally and in a conversational tone. I’m no expert but my experience and stories make me who I am. Right now I am focusing on the look/feel/layout and content. I’ve only added a few links to resources using the Amazing Affiliate program (was so easy to setup) but waiting to get more readers to see where it all leads.

Hi Sonya! That’s so wonderful to hear :-) And it’s such a great sign that you’re full of motivation from the very start, as that’s usually when people will realise it’s tougher than they thought and give up. So, yay! Best of luck with your site — I’m heading over there to check it out now :-)

Thank you lauren! I am following your steps and excited to start my travel blog but I am stuck at finding a theme. Are there any elegant themese themes you would choose now? I don’t like the Cherry Truffle one you spoke about in your post.

Definitely Divi theme! It’s super slick and modern.

I’ve spend some time reading different travel blog posts and I’ve found that I have enjoyed yours the best. I like how your off the beaten path and not like the typical travel bloggers. I started to read some of your very first blogs and found them very inspiring, but I also can connect in some ways with how you think. Most days I wake up and ask myself what the heck am I doing with my life because most of the time I feel incomplete. Something is always missing. I’ve always enjoyed traveling and its always something I’ve dreamed of and being 24, almost 25. I’m tired of waiting because honestly I don’t know what I’m waiting for.. So I guess my main question is how did you choose a topic to stick with? I know my interests in animals will always have a pull on me when I travel. There’s so many beautiful creatures out there and I feel like I could take it with me in the future as well. Is that something that could last?

Hey Rebecca! Your comment definite resonates with me. I felt very similar to how you do before I started travelling, and seeing the world has helped me feel more fulfilled and happy in life. I also struggled with feeling as though I was just waiting and waiting when all I wanted to do was leave immediately — I decided to travel after I graduated and man, that was a long five years of studying and attempting to focus on work when all I wanted to do was be somewhere else!

Anyway, it took me a few months to figure out what topic I wanted to focus on. At first, my site was pretty generic and I was trying to write helpful guides and short stories about my experiences. It wasn’t until I’d been travelling for a few months that I started to figure out who I was as a traveller and what my future was likely to hold. That was when I made the decision to brand myself as an unlucky traveller, so it wasn’t something I started out with from day one. I think that having a focus on animals as you travel would be a great niche, though! You could write about animal charities you encounter around the world and how to ethically volunteer with wildlife as you travel. I think it’d work really well and obviously wouldn’t be something you would grow out of either. I like it!

I have read this post and comments. I like that you are so natural and easy to communicate with. I have been travelling for many years now and would like to start a travel blog and hopefully monetise from it.. i dont want it to be too complicating, just fun and easy to start with.

Please assist me

Hi Faiekha! Thanks so much for saying that :-) Starting a travel blog can be tricky and time-consuming when you start out, but it becomes much easier the longer you do it. I recommend starting out by following the steps in this post and then you’ll be in a great position for running a successful travel blog.

I go travelling in a couple of weeks time for a year around Asia and Australia and I have been debating starting a blog for a while – this post has encouraged me to definitely start one, thank you.

One question I do have though, is what device do you use to blog on? I’m not taking a MacBook or laptop and was wondering if it is even possible me to run a successful blog from just an iPhone?

Thanks for your help! Ellie

I travel with a Macbook Pro and do recommend taking a laptop if you’re aiming to blog on the road. I don’t know of any successful blogger who doesn’t use one. Typing out a 2000+ world blog post sounds like it would be an awful and slow experience on an iPhone! Plus there’s stuff like editing photos, fixing site code, email management, etc that would be much trickier to do on a phone. It’s not impossible, but I’d imagine it’d take five times longer to do anything, which would leave you with no time to actually see the places you’re in. When my laptop broke, I attempted to run my site from a tablet and lasted four days before I’d discovered a bunch of tasks I couldn’t complete without one.

I will say, though, that if it’ll be a blog to keep friends and family up to date with what you’re doing, you’d probably be fine with a phone, as you wouldn’t need to worry too much about editing, post formatting, marketing, etc. If you’re hoping to one day make money from your site, you have to treat it like a business and that means using a laptop.

This is simply my treasure!! It’s been like a month that I’m reading this wonderful article and following it step by step, word by word. The result is the birth of my first travel blog. I’m sure many people would be inspired as I was to do great job! Thank you so much

I’m so happy to hear that, Marc! Next up, I’d recommend creating an awesome About page so your readers can learn more about you and your travels :-)

Hey thank you this really helped me towards starting my own blog! I appreciate your advice!

HI Lauren !. i really want to do this travel and blogging things, but i do not own a camera yet im still a student and budget limited person. I just want to make my own Money first without using my parents. Do you have any ideas how to earn Money first? im starting my first ever blog soon. So do you mind lending you genius way of thinkings ? please !

Do you have a phone with a camera? If not, you can take photos from Flickr’s creative commons section — as long as you attribute the photographer, you can use them on your blog for free. It might be worth looking into freelance writing at http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com while you wait for your blog to become profitable.

Thank you Lauren.Great tips and inspiring!

Glad you found it useful, Steve!

You’re my travel blogging hero! I love that you’ve managed to do all of this WITHOUT selling out like other travel bloggers. You’re an inspiration Lauren and I hope you don’t ever give up or stop blogging. You do more than you realise.

Awww, thank you so much! That means a lot and I so appreciate that comment, Patrick! Sometimes it feels as though I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face when I take a stand against all of the sponsored stuff, but hearing from readers like you make me feel as though it’s all worthwhile.

Lauren! Thank you for this helpful guide. I’ve been going back and forth about starting a travel blog for my upcoming trip for months now but your post is what’s convinced me to take the plunge. I’ve thought of a name, signed up for WordPress and Bluehost and now I have to start looking for a theme. With any luck I should be up and running by the end of the next week! Do you mind if I send you an email at that point to gain your feedback on how I’m doing so far?

Of course! Just drop me a message through my contact form and I’d be happy to help :-)

Hi Lauren, Your blogs and especially this post are tremendously inspiring. I have been meaning to start my own blog for such a long time. I even started 2 anonymous blogs, but could never gather courage to continue them. Now that I am highly motivated, I finally want to start blogging from scratch with my name (finally) but not limiting it to just travel at the moment. I would love to publish some of my poetry and short stories too. Still innumerable apprehensions and inhibitions are not leaving me alone. I am more concerned about if I am making any sense for the readers, if they would like me, what if I become a butt of jokes, etc. Since I am relating more to your blog posts after going through many, I would be grateful if you could shed some light on me for fighting all unnecessary doubts and worries

Love, A Young Aspiring Blogger

Hey Devika!

I share your fears, and actually I still experience them now from time to time.

I just keep in mind that you can’t please everyone and not everyone is going to love what you put out into the world. But that’s okay, because you don’t know who they are and their opinion of you doesn’t matter. And a bonus: if you do receive hurtful comments, it gives you a thicker skin and helps you deal with it better, which is always good :-).

For the most part, though, there aren’t many travel bloggers that receive a lot of hate, and those that do, get it for a reason — they’re racist or offensive or rude, etc — so it’s really not something you need to worry about. For example, fter doing this for six years and building up a reasonable sized audience, I still only receive a negative comment maybe once every three months, if that. And I can be pretty polarising, as I focus on a lot of negatives when I travel, which can sometimes rub people up the wrong way!

Hope that helps ease your fears. I promise that the longer you do it, the easier it gets, and you’ll see that nobody is laughing at you and your readers love and appreciate you :-)

Just to say thanks for the tips. I’ve been travelling for 3 years now but I’ve only just realised the potential of blog writing. I’ve got a lot to catch up on. Thanks for the tips. Good luck in the future travels

There’s so much potential! Best of luck with everything and let me know if I can help out with anything at all! :-)

I just started my own blog on Squarespace and found it frustrating to use compared to my past WordPress. Do you know anyone that uses Squarespace or does everyone use wordpress?

Thank you, Jess

Hi Jessica! I don’t know of anyone who uses Squarespace — everyone I know uses WordPress.

Thank you for this Lauren! I have a question for you if it’s not too personal. How much time would you estimate you need to spend per week to build a successful travel blog? How many hours did you spend when you first started and how much do you work on your blog now?

That’s a good question! I’ll answer the easy part first: right now, I spend about 20 hours a week total working, whether that’s on my site or freelancing or whatever.

When I first started out, I probably worked around 20 hours a week, then when I decided to turn my travel blog into a business, I slowed down my movement and worked harder. For example: four months into my travels, I decided to go to Chiang Mai and spent six months living there and working on my site. There, I probably spent around 40-60 hours a week on my site. Then once I started travelling faster it was more like 10-20 hours a week. It really did depend on what I had going on in my life at that time.

So as for how many hours I think you need to put in at the start, the simple answer is as many as possible. I think it depends on your situation, though. If you have a full-time job, or you’re currently travelling quickly, you’re not going to be able to put 40 hours a week into your site. And that’s okay. Just try to hit a minimum of 20 hours and you should be good.

Do you sell text links as advertising on your site? What are your thoughts on it? How much should you charge per link?

Ah, that’s a controversial topic! For anyone else who is reading: selling text links is a way to make money with a travel blog, but is very risky to do so. Basically a company pays you to place a link to their site in one of your posts. That link helps them to rank higher in Google, but it’s also against Google’s terms of service, which means that if they catch you, they’ll penalise your site and you could lose all of your search traffic overnight.

I sold text links on my site for several years, and it was an easy way to make money, but I don’t recommend doing it. I feel that the risks are too great with something like this, and it’s much better to focus on building a business instead. Work on creating the best resource on the internet for a particular subject, have Google send you a ton of traffic, and place affiliate links for companies you use and love in your post to make money from that traffic. It’s a much more legitimate way to make money and there isn’t that risk that your business will be destroyed overnight without warning.

But having said that, obviously I can’t judge anyone who decides to sell links after I did it for several years, so if you want to go ahead with it, a typical price is around $200 per link.

There are a whole bunch of “how to start a travel blog” entries out there, but this was one of the more comprehensive and clear examples, so it was the one I used to set up my new blog. Thanks for writing it.

Ah, thanks so much, Andrew! That means a lot :-)

I’ve spent all weekend searching for tips on starting a blog (food not travel though) and I just wanted to let you know that yours was most helpful. I followed your guide step by step and it was so much easier than I expected it to be. Now I feel ready to start writing my first blog posts and hopefully to build a successful brand. Thank you for all you do, Lauren!

Thank you for commenting, Chaaru! I’m so happy to hear you found my guide to be helpful :-)

This is definitely a must read post for someone starting up their own blog. Thanks for sharing the plugins info, very useful to me considering there are tons of plugins out there.

I have a question on Fiverr and 99designs. 99designs’ pricing looks pretty steep to me so I’m more keen to try Fiverr. But it would be great to know which one would you recommend in terms of quality of work and results?

It really does depend on what type of look you’re going for with your site — some of the artists offer watercolour styles, and some are more modern… and having not used Fiverr myself, I don’t have any personal recommendations based on experience. I wouldn’t want to recommend something I haven’t personally used. But play around with the site, check out the design examples and reviews of anyone you’re considering, and if you find something similar to what you’re looking for, it should turn out well :-)

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve set my blog up using your advice and I found it very easy to follow. All I need to do know is find a theme and then I’ll be ready to start writing!

Wow, thanks so much, Malik! Best of luck in finding the perfect theme :-)

I’ve been considering starting a travel blog for a while now. I currently work full time in Texas and have been saving up some money to travel full time (for at least a year, hopefully more) . I estimate that within the next 1-2 years, I’ll be able to take a hiatus from my work and start my “gap year” of sorts.

I have traveled to Central America several times, Asia once, and typically take at least 2 trips out of the country per year. I do take alot of weekend trips around the state and nearby states.

My question is, would it be reasonable to start a blog now? I would write about my past experiences traveling (not sure if this is a good strategy, or if it’s better to blog while actually there). I would also write about travels within the US and my international trips (about twice a year). Would it be worth using these past experiences and occasional trips?

Yep, definitely start your blog now. Writing about your past experiences is a great way to get the hang of blogging, and figuring out how WordPress works, etc. When I first started my site, I only wrote about past travels, and it worked well for me!

This article helped me a lot! Thank you for being so honest and open about your success. Have a lovely day,

Great read. Very helpful for the beginner like myself that’s interested in starting a blog. Love the insight on how much it costs. Thank you

No problem! Glad you found it helpful :-)

Yo Lauren! I have maybe an interesting question for you. What are five things that you feel you did wrong when starting out with travel blogging? What mistakes have you made and what regrets do you have?

I love this question, Aman! In fact, I loved it so much that I wrote an entire blog post about it: https://www.neverendingfootsteps.com/travel-blogging-mistakes hope you enjoy the read!

Hi Lauren. I’ve been using your guide to set up my site and so far its going really well, thank you so much for all of the detail you’ve put into this. My question for you is what should I look to include in my blog’s sidebar?

Take a look at mine for what I recommend. I always think you should have a short about section at the very top, along with a photo of yourself. As for everything else, it’s not as important. I’ve gone for some social media links, a sign-up form, and a list of my currently trending posts for any new readers.

Great Work! I glad to thank you for guiding me, actually I’ll be staring my travel blog and your article is very helpful for me.

Happy to hear it, Ana! Let me know if I can help with anything as you get your blog set up :-)

Hey Lauren. I’ve been working on my own travel blog for a year now and I wanted to ask how long it took for you to see this success. At the moment I receive only 1000 visitors a month and I’m feeling demotivated. I’ve done everything you list in this post but I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere. Any tips? (I’m too shy to share the link to my blog!)

I was receiving 1,000 visitors a month just under six months after staring my blog. How long have you been running yours for? And honestly, your reluctance is probably holding you back. If you’re too shy to share the link to your site, how are you attempting to build traffic to it?

thank you for this helpful guide… the best one i have found on starting a travel blog… now to sign up for bluehost. My husband and i are going to travel in our retirement and want to write about how to save money while doing it… best wishes.

Best of luck, Joan! :-)

Fantastic post, Lauren! You covered everything I needed to know and I’m convinced to try my hand at this travel blogging thing! Wish me luck!

Good luck! Let me know if I can help out with anything at all! :-)

This is hands down the best guide I’ve seen for starting a travel blog on the internet. I can’t imagine how long it took to put all of this together, so thank you, thank you for doing so!

Wow! Thank you so much for that enormous compliment! :-)

Hey Lauren. What do you suggest doing if you can’t afford to pay for a premium theme? Are there any free themes out there that you would recommend? Thanx

Yeah, I would recommend looking through the themes that WordPress offers (click on appearance/themes/add new/popular) and see if any of those work for you. I recommend not just googling “wordpress free themes” as these are often full of dodgy links and are rarely updated, leading to google penalties and an increased chance of being hacked.

So Bluehost has terrible reviews. Why do you still continue to recommend them?

Eh, search for any hosting company’s reviews and you’ll find terrible ones all over the internet. It’s not a Bluehost thing — check out HostGator reviews or GoDaddy reviews. It’s similar to how if you search for travel insurance companies you’re pretty likely to find nothing but awful reviews, but that doesn’t mean all travel insurance companies are evil. I recommend Bluehost based on my own experiences, and as I mentioned in the post, after trialing four companies, Bluehost gave me the best service. If you want to pay as little as possible for your hosting, I believe Bluehost is the best option out there.

Just a quick question from me, Lauren. What laptop do you use for running your blog, and is there any that you would recommend for travel? I’m about to start my big RTW trip in a couple of months and want something small, lightweight, and hopefully cheap. I have a Macbook Pro at the moment — would that be too heavy for this trip? Thank you!

I use a Macbook Pro, too, and have been happy with it. I thought about getting something smaller for travel, but I didn’t want the annoyance of having to type on a smaller keyboard, and none of the really small laptops receive amazing reviews. I’d recommend just sticking with what you have. If you find it’s really impossible to travel with, you can ship it home or sell it, and pick up another one wherever you are in the world. I bought my laptop in Mexico and my boyfriend bought his in Taiwan, so it’s easy to do while you’re overseas.

Wow! Very elaborately you have explained with apt names (of plugins or affiliates, etc) and your choices. As an absolute new comer in this field, I read few other “how to” sites. And finally I decided to stick to yours and have blindly followed your picks. Hope this will help me building a travel blogger of me :)

Thanks so much, Gargi! If you run into any roadblocks, feel free to drop me an email and I’ll do my best to help you out. I know how intimidating these early stages of building a travel blog can be :-)

I’ve been comparing your post with several others from travel bloggers, and many of the other posts suggest building an email list is something you should prioritise. Do you agree or disagree? I notice you didn’t mention it in this guide and was wondering why.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s much of a priority in the early stages of running a site. There are more important things to focus on, like generating traffic, before you worry about sending out newsletters to an audience you don’t yet have.

This is great guide to starting a travel blog I just search for that how to start a blog and found your post. Its good to have travel blog. Thanks for sharing these step by step guide. Regards Abid Masih

Hi Lauren, Just wanted to say that this is the clearest and most helpful ‘travel blog beginner’ post I’ve read so far! Really useful and love that you are honest about how much everything costs and what beginners should bother splurging on! I’m going to check out your book as well, my sister has struggled with anxiety and think it might be inspiring!

Thank you so much, Steffi!

Hi Lauren, I am just starting to build my blog and reading your article was really helpful. I am in a dilemma whether to use WIX or WordPress. I am inclined to using WIX as it make it so easy to customize the look of the blog as compared to WordPress. But i am concerned if the growth potential in terms of monetization and plugins would be limited if i were to use WIX as compared to WordPress. Appreciate your advice.

Wix will limit the amount of customisation you can do with your site, as there aren’t many themes or plugins available in comparison to WordPress, so you might struggle to get your site looking how you like. Wix is also more expensive than WordPress and the sites don’t perform as well in Google. There’s a reason why almost every top website in the world is on WordPress.

Wix is much easier to learn and use, but that’s about its only advantage. I think you’d eventually grow out of it and switch to WordPress in the end.

Looking to start a blog, I am in no position to travel at the present moment (young twins), but thought perhaps for content sake I could use my local environment, this wont simply be just photos and un-planned material.

Is this a possibility before we can actually travel?

The goal here is to eventually retire myself from my day job, which I’m sure we all want to achieve.

I have a premium theme and a web designer/word press guru for a wife so that side is no issue.

Yes! That’s definitely possible. Some of the most lucrative travel blogs are actually resource sites for a city the person lives in, rather than the nomadic, long-term travel blogs.

Dear Lauren, After reading this post several months ago, at the beginning of my trip, the thought of starting a blog has been floating about in my head. Yesterday I launched my site =) Thank you for the guide.

I may be mistaken, but I’m sure I read something about Stumble Upon on your site and how to drive traffic? Perhaps it was in a different post? Could you direct me there please?

Many thanks, Donné

Ah, that wasn’t me. StumbleUpon used to be a great traffic driver back in 2011 or so, but is pretty much dead these days. Pinterest is where it’s at now!

Thank you for sharing, the article is very detailed

No problem :-)

Hi Lauren – I absolutely love your article. I find it a refreshing approach to blogging. I have been tossing around the idea of starting a blog myself for over a year. I have finally thought of a name that I really like and it looks that no one is using it BUT a website called “uniregistry” owns it when I try to register with Bluehost. Do you know anything about buying a domain name that isn’t actually being used? I’m wondering if I can buy this at a reasonable price (which I don’t even know what a reasonable price is) and then transfer the domain over to Bluehost? I’d really appreciate any insight you may have! Thanks!

Have you looked on Uniregistry to see how much they’re charging for it? It looks like you can just type in the domain name on Uniregistry and buy it through there. So I’d take a look at that first to see what it’s for sale at. If it was me, I wouldn’t spend more than $50 at the absolute most for a domain name, and even then, it’s quite a lot when maybe a similar name would be available for free through Bluehost.

Ah, okay. Fingers crossed it works out! :-)

So I’ve come across this blog after reading tonnes (literally tonnes) of other posts on how to start a travel blog and this is by far the best one I’ve seen. Step by step with everything you need to know in one place – both the good and the bad! Excellent post! Really helpful for a beginner like myself :)

That means the world to me, Aaron! Yay! :-)

I’m glad I found this during the set up process. I’d like to get to a point where my travels are paid for! haha- probably unrealistic for a loooong while.

Don’t be so pessimistic! If you work hard and focus on building an engaged audience, you could be getting comps in under a year.

This page is awesome and really helpful. Thank you for the inspiration! I’ve started my first travel blog for my friend who is unable to make a trip we planned years ago. I was wondering if you could shed some insight on how to link interactive world maps to blog posts for each respective country. I can’t figure it out and I’d love to get it working! Did you write your own code or did you just use the interface provided. Thanks so much and happy travels.

Yep, it’s super easy. Just paste the url in the action value column.

Super detailed! I’m happy to see I have done much of what you recommend! I can’t believe you earn $6,000 a month. I’d love a post that details how your revenue has increased year over year since you started, particularity the earlier stages, and how your revenue has diversified over the years too. Great post!

I’m currently working on a post about that as we speak! :-)

Hey Lauren, I loved your blog and found out that you haven’t been to India yet. I hope you are planning to visit This Beautiful country soon and I will get the opportunity to meet you. Thanks Touseef ahmed

I’m heading there in a few months!

Hi Lauren! I aspire to travel like you! I love this post, it perfectly outlines creating a successful blog and that is my goal. I started a free WordPress blog several months ago to keep family and friends up to date on my travels, but I’ve really enjoyed it and want to pursue it on a more professional level. Is there a way to upgrade to Bluehost without losing all of the content I have already published? Do I need to just start from scratch? What would you recommend I do?

You don’t need to start from scratch! Just sign up for Bluehost, install WordPress, and then you’ll be able to click export on your WordPress.com site’s dashboard and import it on your WordPress.org site’s dashboard.

Many thanks for the great insight. As an over 50 couple who travel the world two or three times a year I am sick of wasting the knowledge and experience we have picked up along the way. So your blog and tips are now our inspiration to start and over 50s travel blog.( As so as we return from Borneo)

Many thanks again Best wishes Paul and Lorrainne

Ah, i’m so happy to hear that! And it sounds like you have lots of useful information to share. Best of luck with it! :-)

Lauren! If you will visit India, Is it possible to hangout with you?

Unfortunately not. After a few bad experiences, I no longer meet up with blog readers unless I know them well or have mutual friends.

Lauren – just reporting back. The owner of the registered domain wanted a *cough cough* cool $14000 for it!!! Needless to say…it’s not mine and nor will it be. I figured out a twist in the name and am happy with it. Now I simply need to start writing content. I have travel content over the past five years that I could cover; would you think I’d be better off starting with the first trip or the my most current trip? Thanks again for all the help – I really love this post and think it’s the best one I’ve seen.

Hi Julie, i am having the same dilemma whether to cover my travels over the past four years or to start with the latest trip. Lets connect to bounce back some ideas,

Hi Lauren, Your post is just amazingly well detailed, whenever i had any doubts i used to refer it to sail through with the doubts. Thanks for such an amazing post.

Thanks so much, Asmaan! I would recommend doing a mix of both in the beginning. Write about the most exciting trips you’ve done in the part and mix it up with some of your most recent travels.

Hi Lauren, this post has been amazing as I’m beginning stages of developing my own travel blog. I was wondering how you navigate citations for facts in a blog. Say you were talking about the history of a city, would you need to cite that in your blog or does that count as common knowledge? Any insight would be great! Thanks!

I only cite an article if I’m quoting directly from somewhere that has information you can’t find anywhere else. I’ll normally be like “Here’s a couple of paragraphs I copied and pasted from Wikipedia[link]” or something like that — it doesn’t need to be super formal with a blog.

Fantastic article, incredibly informative and sure to be very helpful to many people who read it and are wondering where to start like myself. One question I do have though, when you were first starting out, how often did you need to post and therefore travel in order to build an audience and did you need to have a fair amount of money saved up before starting the blog in order to do this?

Hey Alex! I would say at least two posts a week is a good amount. For the first six months of my blog’s life, though, I was publishing about once a week, and because I was studying, I wasn’t travelling at all. I just wrote about past trips I had taken and my upcoming travel plans. These days, I try to average two posts a week and travel for four-ish months of the year. The great thing about travel blogging is that it doesn’t require you to travel full-time in order to be successful — some of the most lucrative travel blogs are resources about the city the author lives in, for example, so they barely travel at all!

Great Post!. I was about to buy a book about this subject before i read this post. Now i feel like writing a book about this subject lol. TBH your blog is like a blogging bible to the newbie bloggers like me. I will always come back for more info. Thanks very much for sharing.

Sweet, thanks so much, Elizabeth! :-)

Just wanted to say that I love that you pay for all of your travels yourself and don’t take press trips! I have to say I was drawn into the idea of travel blogging by the thought of traveling for free but knowing there’s another way definately has me thinking. Maybe it would be even better if I paid for my own travels to go wherever I wanted rather than taking the free trips. Just gotta start making money first I guess!

Hi, thanks for the tips, but I think you should develop the monetisation part.

By the way there’s a small mistake, you wrote ‘adesense’ instead of ‘adsense’.

Thanks for the correction! To be honest, I really don’t think that there’s much more you should focus on when it comes to monetisation as a new blogger. In fact, advertising and affiliate sales are the only ways I monetise my blog right now.

What a great post! I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a travel blog, and this post broke it down so nicely into steps that I am now convinced to bite the bullet and go for it!

I studied in Europe a year and a half ago, and traveled quite a bit – I kept a blog while there, but it was mostly just to keep my friends and family back home updated on my travels. I enjoyed it so much that I want to start a more professional blog, but what do you recommend about the content – should I start when I go on my next trip in a few months, or start by writing about all the places I’ve been in the past?

Thanks so much!!

Hey Cristina! I’m so happy to hear this post could inspire you to try your hand at travel blogging :-)

As for content, I’d recommend starting as soon as you can, and writing about your previous trips. That way, you’ll have got the hang of WordPress and how publishing blog posts, etc work by the time you take your next trip. I started out by writing about previous trips I’d taken, then once I started travelling six months later, I didn’t have to worry about figuring out how blogging worked when all I wanted to do was write about how amazing everywhere had been.

I have came across many article on how to start a travel blog. But I have to admit that you have mentioned the entire process step by step but with necessary details. Your article is informative as well as inspirational.

Thank you so much :-)

That was a lot to digest, yet also great information. I have thought about starting a traveling blog, but my grammar pretty much sucks. Recommend I take classes to deal with that?

Well, your grammar wasn’t terrible in your comment :-) If you think it really needs some work, you could take some classes, but I’ve found simply writing frequently on my site has hugely improved the quality of my writing.

I have a dumb question — how do I get a photo of my face appearing when I leave a comment? Do I need to upload my photo anywhere on this page to get it to show?

That’s a Gravatar! Upload a photo here: http://gravatar.com/ and whenever you enter in your email address in a comment field of a blog, your photo will show!

I haven’t seen many questions about SEO on here, so I have some I wanted to ask you. Especially as your post about starting a travel blog ranks first in Google! You must know what you’re doing :-)

-How can you get started with SEO? -What tactics work in 2017? -Can a new travel blog rank for anything really in Google? -Guest posting a good option?

Interesting read. I actually started travel blogging in 2011, made a fair bit of money from selling text links, and was penalized by Google and lost everything overnight. I went home a few months later when I ran out of money.

Fast forward five years and I’m ready to give it another shot! How have things changed since 2011? I assume text links are a no-no? Are there any ways to start making money as soon as you start your travel blog? What the hell is a Pinterest? Haha. I can’t believe you’re still going! I remember following you from the Chinese tea scam days!

Very helpful guide thank you! Do you make much money from freelance writing or do you recommend not pursuing that path as a travel blogger?

Hmmm. I think it’s a good way to fund your travels while you’re building up traffic on your travel blog, but I think as soon as you start making money from your site, you’ll quickly move away from freelance writing. Having to constantly pitch pieces gets old quickly, and forever chasing up payments is even worse. Plus, the money is usually kind of terrible. So, yeah. Go for it in the early days, but expect that once you start making decent money from your site, you’ll likely start working on that full-time.

I’ve read through every single guide on the first page of Google and yours was easily the best Lauren! I love how much personality your writing has and unlike everyone else, I didn’t feel like you were desperately trying to sell me things.

Ah, thank you so much, Gemma! :-)

I don’t think I’ve ever sat and read an article this long from start to finish before. Great read. My question for you is: do you have any tips for building an audience over the first three months of a site’s lifetime? How do you get people to discover your travel blog when it doesn’t have an audience or much of a standing in Google yet?

Pinterest, definitely. Write posts that do well on Pinterest and teach yourself how to create beautiful pins. Join Pinterest groups and Tailwind tribes. Pinterest is one of the easiest ways to start building traffic when you don’t have an audience yet.

This was honestly the most helpful post I’ve found on how to start a travel blog. Thank you so much for sharing! Now it’s time to start working on mine.

Best of luck, Ivan! And thank you so much for the huge compliment :-)

Hello, I have started blogging myself. I am trying to find out the basic problems that my blog is having and looking for solutions. Also, I’m searching for some basic things like themes and other stuff. I have read your whole article, I am looking forward to getting a positive result after performing this myself. Can you suggest me any basic idea that I might need in the future as a new blogger? Thank you

Oh, you asked me the same question later on, so I’m already answered it below. If you have a more detailed question, I’d be happy to help out, but a request for basic ideas could mean anything!

Cheers for this. What’s your take on Travel Blog Success? I see most travel bloggers recommending that and wondered why you don’t?

I just think Superstar Blogging offers so much more value — you learn from experts in their field rather than top travel bloggers, and it focuses more on building a business than taking freebies and press trips, etc.

Plus, every single travel blogger promotes the crap out of Travel Blog Success and it annoys the hell out of me, so I don’t want to be one of them :-)

Thank you so much for your post, it is so helpful and full of useful content. We have started a blog and your tips and advice has really helped us. Thank you so much!

That’s a good idea! As I’ve said a few times in these comments, some of the most successful travel blogs are those that are about one specific location rather than dozens of countries around the world. Blogging about your local environment would be a smart thing to do :-)

Hey Lauren! Cool name ;)

You said in your post that you’re now making $7000 a month from your travel blog. If it’s not too nosey, can I ask how long it took for you to reach this ammount? I know that it didn’t take long for you to start making money, and then to make enough to live in Southeast Asia, but what about this high level of income? How long does it take for most travel bloggers to reach these levels and do you think it’s possible for anyone to get there?

Hey! I started making that much around four years after starting this site. I’d say you could reach these levels in two or three years if you focused on driving traffic through writing incredibly detailed guides to rank in Google, and pretty pins to bring traffic from Pinterest. Then kept your sole monetisation strategy to be affiliate income.

Just wanted to say thank youfor this, Lauren! I’ve been searching for months about how to build a travel blog and actually turn it into a business and your guide is the first I’ve found that actually covers this. No questions, just wanted to tall you that I really appreciate the effort you must have put into this guide.

Oh, thank you so much, Lance! Best of luck with your blog! :-)

I’ve been wanting to start a travel blog for so long. I think fear of the unknown held me back. Ok thats a lie. I know fear of failure held me back. Luckily, I am putting the pieces together slowly. In so doing i’ve been reading so many travel blog tips for beginners to saturation point. Yesterday I came across your post. I’ve never been so glad to find something that makes so much sense – and all in one place. So much useful information. I know its a long one but I’ve read it a couple of times so far lol – noting down and some! So, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to share this info and honestly so. And thank you for giving me that extra push I really needed!

PS: Im from Kenya, noticed on your interactive map you haven’t been yet, or maybe you did before blogging. In any case, Karibu sana (most welcome)!

Hello, I have researched about choosing a specific web host. I ended up having many options. Can you tell me if Bluehost is the ideal one to host my website on?

Yep, when you’re just starting out, Bluehost is the best inexpensive host.

Hello, I have started blogging myself. I am trying to find out the basic problems that my blog is having and looking for solutions. Also, I’m searching for some basic things like themes and other stuffs. I have read your whole article, I am looking forward to get a positive result after performing this myself. Can you suggest me any basic idea that I might need in the future as a new blogger? Thank you

I’d say that most of the basics are already included in the article!

Hi Lauren I tried to start my own blog on wordpress just for my Peru Trip and found even that “easy to use interface” very finicky. My photos and text didnt line up at all how I wanted them to. Secondly I did buy up a domain name and hosting through GoDaddy a few years ago and again used a free design template but again despite the ease of use found it too hard to use. I don`t have an idea in my head of how the website should look or be designed. What made me comment on your page is that you gave a lot of good start up advice but also that you mentioned you have anxiety. Other than chronicling my world travels with photos and video and having a poetry section, I was thinking of also having a section on my mental illness and links to helpful resources. I am worried bc my illness is the most stigmatizing of all of them, about using my real name and having my photos of my travels associated with my mental illness blog or section. Should I have a different blog or website for that and use a pseudonym? I currently work for the school board so that health information is a touchy subject I dont want prospective/current employers ect to know about it. I know I just read your article but I still feel lost on where to start…I write about travel, spiritual growth, mental illness, healing mental illness via shamanism and psychedelics (controversial) I write poems. How do I pick something so someone will remember me like you mentioned, oh melody…she writes about…..

Sounds like a good plan to me!

Thanks, Krishna!

Hi Lauren – the first time that I’ve been on your blog is through a Google search of how to start my own travel blog. I’m in a bit of a rut right now, with my quarter life crisis, and I want to say that traveling has been one of the most consistent and loved things that I have in my life. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, as I hope to share with my friends/family/others in the near future. This was super helpful! :-)

I’m so glad to hear that, Vickie! Best of luck as you get your own travel blog up and running :-)

Hello Dear Mam, this blog post is very useful information for the new bloggers, your blog post went to get a lot of new education after I read it, Please continue to post such an informative blog. Therefore, people like us will be motivated in real life. I’m new in this area and I’m building my website, I’m working hard on this Your blogs are very useful here and especially to this blog, which provide this point information, I have received lots of help to read this blog post, please continue to share this kind of information. Thank you.

Good luck, Nazrul!

Hi Lauran, very informative and useful post – thank you. A couple of questions: 1. How do you even go about uploading photos in to your blog posts i.e. working out what size they should be, inserting them etc? 2. How did you break through in to freelance writing? I’d say I definitely have advanced writing skills – I write at length every day in my job, I’ve got a personal blog and I write creative prose and poetry in my spare time, but I have no idea how to sell my skills online or even where to start. Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks, Hayley

I edit my photos in Photoshop and save them at 1500 px in width, then upload them to my site (just click upload on the new post screen), and resize them to 750 px in width (which is the width of the text area in my theme). I save them at double the width to start with to ensure the photos look pretty on retina screens (which have double the pixels). Always make your photos as wide as your theme will allow them, as the bigger the photos, the better your site looks.

I’m not the best person to ask about freelance writing, as it kind of just fell into my lap! I started writing here, and then once I’d built up a reasonable audience (10,000 visitors a month or so), companies began contacting me to ask if they could pay me to write for them. I’d recommend building up a portfolio on your site, then heading to https://problogger.com/jobs/ to apply for writing gigs.

I really enjoyed your blog post! It’s the third I’ve read, but I really like yours because you gave more information about advertising and plugins. I also really admire how you travel on your own salary! I do that as well, and though it’s hard, I want to keep it that way because I feel it’s more fun and freeing, and isn’t the “freeing” feeling what makes traveling so amazing?

I just purchased my domain through BlueHost and am currently working on it before launching. I’ve run into some problems with my business plan, though, because I currently became unemployed and don’t know how I can now afford to travel while I look for a new job.

What is your recommendation for content when you’ve had to put travel on pause? Has this ever happened to you?

I appreciate the help, and I definitely will begin to follow your blog!

Best Regards

Thanks so much, Karina! I definitely agree that not taking press trips makes travel feel more freeing — I can do and write about whatever I want without having to worry about pleasing a random tourism board!

As for what to write about, focus on previous trips or post travel guides for wherever you’re currently living. If you can build your site up to be an amazing resource for where you’re living, you’ll do really well in Google/find it easier to make money than trying to write about everywhere in the world. During the first six months or so of my site, I had never travelled before, so was focusing on writing about London, my upcoming trip plans, and previous trips I’d taken.

Bloody brilliant post on how to write a successful travel blog! Thank you so much Lauren! I’ve only recently heard of WordPress (very old fashioned)and affiliate marketing, AdSense, plugins and Tumblrs are all unknown territory to me… One question though, what is self hosting???!! Thanks in advance, Karen :-)

Ah, so self-hosting is basically paying for the server (computer space) that your website lives on, rather than using the free option a company like WordPress offers.

The advantage to going self-hosted (wordpress.org) rather than using wordpress.com or blogspot.com is that your site will typically be faster, you have access to support if anything goes wrong with your site, and you’re paying for the flexibility and freedom to do whatever you want with it. Blogspot/Wordpress.com, etc restrict you in terms of what themes you can use, what plugins you can install, how you can make money from your site, etc, so you’re really limited.

Wow, thank you Lauren. This really is a minefield!! I just set up a free WordPress.com site last month to write some travel blogs, and thought that was it! Do I have to set up hosting myself though if I want to add plug-ins etc? and Do I really need a ‘theme’? How do you go about adding advertising links and getting commission? Sorry for all the questions.. it’s mind boggling to me! I’ve only recently left working with domestic and sexual abuse survivors (prior to that working with offenders) and started working from home, so this is a huge learning curve for me! I learnt to type on the old fashioned typewriters years ago, so I feel like an old dinosaur! Thanks anyway, much appreciated, Karen

Hey Lauren. I’ve just recently moved to India to work as a teacher and wanted to set up a personal blog for some time. I’m so pleased I stumbled upon your blog post because it’s helped enormously! I’m really enjoying documenting my adventures and sharing it with friends and family. I’m not too bothered about boosting my popularity at this stage, but I look forward to learning more about the blogging world! Thanks again! Emily

Best of luck, Emily! :-)

Hi Lauren, I am going through this post for the 3rd time and it still amazes me about all the details. You really filled all the gaps. I have been thinking about starting my own travel blog for about 4 months, but I don’t get the courage to do so. I have only been on a single international trip. I work in a 9-6 job. So I don’t even have much of a data dos share. I am also scared about funding my site because I am new to this blog world. Can you guide me? Thanks in advance. Keep rocking.

Thank you! Honestly, you just have to take the plunge and do it. If you’d started four months ago when you first decided to do it, you would have likely started making money from your site by now! Write about the place you currently live in if you can’t travel, and make yourself known as a resource for that specific place.

I started my blog in May of this year thanks to this post! THANK YOU so much for the inspiration and also the detailed steps on actually getting started. Just made my first big affiliate sale and I am so excited!

Yay!! I’m so happy to hear that, Katie! :-)

Hi there – nice write up! I’ve set up personal websites before (for bands and music), but only recently want d to do a travel blog. I’ve experience with WordPress but one of the issues I’ve found was that while going this route means you have control over your site, you don’t always have the right suppprt if the themes and plug ins go haywire. Ive had some of my site break without being able to fix it.

So I moved over to Squarespace. 24/7 support. They work great for my music sites. But they have limited templates and themes for travel themed blogs.

Any experience or feedback on WordPress vs Squarespace?

I haven’t used Squarespace before, so I can’t comment on the differences and pros/cons, so if Squarespace works for you, stick with it. If it doesn’t, I recommend WordPress because it’s so powerful and you can do pretty much anything you need to with it. But you’re right in that the downside is not always having the best support — it’s not something that’s ever affected me, as the support for my theme/plugins has always been kickass, but it could mean you’d need to hire a tech person if your site breaks at some point. If that happens, you can usually hire someone on Fiverr for not too much money to get things working again.

Love you blog, Lauren. Any tips on authenticity as a blogger? You’re one of the few I follow who do it right and I’m eager to follow in your footsteps.

Thank you so much, Vivien! Honestly, just be yourself. Write your blog posts as though you’re telling a story to your best friend or writing in your diary, don’t filter to the point where your personality disappears, and embrace any of your quirks. Write your blog posts as you speak aloud and then edit them afterwards, and that’ll help you personality to shine through.

Amazing, amazing post! I can’t believe how much information you share. I have a question for you. How do you possible decide on the best theme for a travel blog?! There are so many incredible ones out there that I’m having problems just choosing one.

Thanks for sharing.Keep going! Its nice and informative blog.I am new to this and don’t know where to start but your post helped me giving an idea.

Best of luck, Sravani! :-)

Very nice article, can you also please share the marketing methods that you use for this blog.

Good question! Most of my success has actually come quite organically to me. Social media is a big one for me — Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have worked best — and guest posting on other sites. I should do more of the latter, actually, as that’s a great way to build your audience. But um, honestly that’s about it!

Hi Lauren! I am about to start my travel blog and I must say that your post by far is the best! I read a lot on how to start a blog but never found anything as detailed and simple as yours. You just make it look very easy. I have taken all your tips into account and hopefully will be up and running my own blog in just few weeks! Fingers crossed :) Thank you for making me believe that it is doable! :)

Ah, that’s so lovely, Arina! Let me know if I can help with anything as you get set up :-)

Thanks for this article – it had a few things in there that would never have occurred to me otherwise.

I’ve been running my blog for over 3 years about living and travelling on a boat but had never considered Yoast/WPTouch – WPTouch especially is really great.

So glad it helped you out, Matt! :-)

Hei YO! Thanks for the tips. I willing to start my own blog. I think after doing a lot of trips I want to be helpful to other people. Thanks to you now I have a clue.

On this stage, I’m trying to understand wordpress.org a little bit more. How does the advertising work with WordPress? Do they plug in their own google adds? Or what are the important points that we can hold the control of our own sites?

You have complete control of your site, and advertising is separate from WordPress. With Google ads, you’ll sign up for them and be given a code to copy and paste onto your site wherever you want the ad to show up.

You’ve done so well at carving a niche for yourself… what do you think is a good travel blogging niche that has yet to be overdone? I want to stand out from the crowd but it feels like there’s no way to do so anymore.

Oooh, good question! I think, though, that the best thing to do would be to travel and write and then wait to see what consistencies emerge from your blog posts. If you’re creating a niche just because it’s not overdone, it’s more likely you won’t feel passionate about your site and then stand less chance of finding success. I think that travel blogs focusing on a specific city or region do exceptionally well, and I also think that sustainable travel is going to be huge in the coming months and years.

hi Lauren. When do you think is the idea time to start a travel blog? I’m going to be traveling when I graduate in 2019 and I want to get a head start but is it worth starting when I won’t even be leaving for another two years? Thanks for all that you do in the travel blogging world — reading yours is always a breath of fresh air.

As soon as possible! Start writing about where you currently live, get onto social media and start building an audience, work on finding your writing voice — if you start now, you’ll be making money from your blog by the time you leave to travel! :-)

Thank you very much, excellent insights as I am just starting my blog!

Glad you found it helpful, Samantha!

This is an awesome guide! Can you explain a bit more about how to make money with affiliates? I’m not quite sure what they are or how to get started. Thanks!

Sure! So it’s like a commission. Say you want to recommend a travel product to your readers — in that case you can google [product name] affiliate, and if there’s a program, you can sign up for it. If not, you can usually find it on Amazon and use Amazon Associates to link to it. Once you’ve created an account there, you can then create a link to a product and place that link on your site. If one of your readers clicks that link and buys something, you get a commission on the sale.

Here’s an example: if I booked a hotel, I might then write a blog post about the place I visited and recommend the hotel if I liked it. In that blog post, I can add a booking.com affiliate link whenever I mention the hotel. If someone reads the post, clicks that link, and decides to book a stay at that hotel, I make a percentage of that sale. Let me know if you have any further questions!

Hi Lauren Brilliant informative site. I have just sailed up the Mozambican coast and am now in Pemba. I met many great local people all along the coast. I came across your blog whilst doing some reasearch with a view of bringing my yacht here to charter. You have now inspired me to get one of these going. I use instagram simply because its so easy to edit pics and post. If you interested instagram moveswithsail2017 . My yacht’s name is just4fun and in the next few months I intend setting up a wordpress with the same handle. Maybe ‘theadventuresofjust4fun.com Do you think this is a bit too long ? Thanx

Thanks so much! Sounds like an incredible trip — Mozambique is such a wonderful country! I think your domain name is a little too long. Maybe just4funadventures is available? Or just Moveswithsail?

Very informative! How to increase traffic on existing blog?

Updating old posts, writing guest posts for other blogs, and focusing everything you have on Pinterest!

Hey! thanks for giving motivation…..I will start my pet blog soon..one more thing wordpress is better than blogspot?

Yes, definitely go with WordPress!

More wonderfully inspirational and easy to initiate ideas! When life is busy, it’s fantastic to hear your tips and be reminded of some of the little essentials. Much needed motivation!

Hey, thanks so much, Essa! :-)

Thanks so much for giving me the guide lines for starting new blog. I just decided to learn how to create a travel blog, your article was really helpful for me.

Glad to hear it! Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions :-)

Hi, this is very useful for me. Starting, running, upgrading and maintaining a travel blog is a difficult and time-consuming activity. In the the beginning we made a blog about the trip and thought everyone will love it. Not so. Thanks for giving us some useful ways to increase the audience.

The early days are the toughest, because you’re still figuring out your voice and it’s a struggle to build your audience. But stick with it! It’s hard work but you’ll get there in the end :-)

I love this article and it honestly has given me a little extra boost to continue what I am doing!

I’m so happy to hear that, Jason!

I have to personally thank you so much for this article. I’ve had it bookmarked for the past couple of months and i used it as my bible while creating my own Travel Blog. I would revisit it every once in a while to make sure I was following through on all your valuable advise. My blog has been up for a few months now and though I don’t yet have much of an audience, I’m really glad this post gave me the inspiration I needed to get started.

I just have one question though. I’m at the stage wherein I’m trying to approach Affiliate programs such as TripAdvisor, Agoda, etc, and I find my applications rejected. When did you start applying for Affiliate programs? Was it right at the beginning? Or did you wait till you had some dedicated traffic before applying?

Thanks again for this article!

Take Care, Rohan

Really loved the way how you explained each and everything in detail and still kept it entertaining until the last line. You shared your own experience as a beginner, putting yourself in our shoes and that really gave me the idea how to start from scratch. I feel a lot more confident now and hopefully gonna start my blog asap. Thanks

Thanks so much, Salman! Best of luck :-)

Hey Lauren,

I really enjoyed reading your advises and i feel like go out there and be a blogger. Travel is my passion and o always wanted to share it with my friends and family.

I’m going to Central America soon and i’ll start taking photos and videos and share them in a blog i’ll open.

Thank you so much!

Good luck, Leo! :-)

Thank you so much for your post! It was really helpful. May I ask if the Basic plan from Bluehost was sufficient for you? It seems as though the plans have changed and that you can only get Domain Privacy through the Prime plan now. I really want to get the ball rolling on my blog, but nervous at the same time.

I think you should be able to still get it on the basic plan. This page https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/domain-privacy seems to indicate you can buy it after you’ve set everything up.

I see that! Thank you so much for your quick response.

No problem! :-)

Hi Lauren! This is an excellent guide, I’ve taken the plunge to convert my wordpress to a real blog.

I love maps so it was great to see your suggestion for the interactive world map plugin. Just to let you know that it now says “This plugin is deprecated” after installing, but it does recommend a different one to use.

Do you still use the old plugin?

Really? That’s so weird, as it says here https://codecanyon.net/item/interactive-world-maps/2874264?ref=NEFootsteps that it was last updated on the 19th September 2017 and the creator was replying to comments and answering support questions for the plugin nine hours ago. Are you sure you downloaded the right plugin, as I can’t see anywhere that it’s stopped working?

I’d ask a question in the comments section of the plugin about it or ask for a refund if it really has been depreciated. It’s unfair to get someone to pay $21 and only afterwards say that it wasn’t working and to download something else instead!

Thanks for your quick reply. Turns out it’s all in the detail ;) I searched your suggested plug-ins instead of clicking through. After a bit of playing around I could tell it definitely wasn’t the same as yours! There’s a free version with a similar name (map instead of maps).

Once I get my blog going I think this will be a great investment. Keep up the good work and happy travels!

Ah, got it! :-) Thanks so much, and good luck with getting your site off the ground!

Thanks for this great information!!

I specially found your tips very good :)

I have already started blog an running well but can you please suggest me plugins specific to travel which can help me to create a better travel blog

That’s included in the guide! :-)

I wanted to see if you could tell us about the ways of getting the blog legal with the state. And how the money you generate actually gets transferred to your (bank,PayPal) account? Or where ever it goes too. Really enjoy your blog!

Legal in what way? You’ll want to register as self-employed and get an accountant so that you can start paying taxes, but you won’t need to do this until your site starts making money because it’s a hobby up until that point. But that’s about it. Some pay me via Paypal and some via bank transfer; usually the former though.

How do I start a website that costs me nothing at all?

Use WordPress.com instead of WordPress.org, get a free theme, and you’re done :-)

This is good. My wife and I have a pretty amazing idea for a blog. Came up with the idea like 2 hours ago and this was the first thing I read. Pretty solid advice.

How can I ask you questions in the future?

Same as you’re doing right now! ;-) Leave a comment here or message me through my contact form.

Sounds good. Do you have any resources for the product review side of blogging? Like a person i should research, or a site I should visit.

Would you recommend me doing one site with different blogging types? For example, one tab is travel, one tab is product reviews, one is parenting stuff, etc…

I want to do a lot, but dont want to pay for multiple sites. Wanted to see if you have had seen anyone do that in the past.

Great step by step on starting a blog – I’m about to start mine…what do use for security of the site or are you a specific plan with bluehost that keeps everything secure?

When I was with Bluehost, I used the Word Fence plugin, but now site security is included in my package with my current host.

This information was SO helpful for me! Starting a new blog, I had no idea where to start. The process could easily be intimidating and overwhelming, but this step-by-step makes it relatively easy. I’ve come back to this post almost daily as I get going. I’m still in the early stages of travel blogging and still learning a lot, but I feel like I’m off to a good start. So thank you!!

My blog: http://www.lichenandlayovers.com

That’s so kind of you to say, Erin — thank you! Best of luck as you get everything up and running, and feel free to drop me an email if I can help with anything!

No questions, just my undying gratitude that you put this guide together. Can’t wait to get stuck in with this in 2018.

Ah, thank you so much! Glad you found it useful and best of luck!

That’s what I need! As a novice, I’m very grateful to you for your information. I’m starting my blog this weekend. I feel scared but excited! Thank you.

Best of luck, Mary! Feel free to head back and ask me any questions if you get stuck or confused :-)

Hiya Lauren,

To be honest earlier today was the first day I thought of starting a travel blog. This was very very informative and I have already favourited to save on my web-page. I had just one question – what would you suggest be the best way to get traffic to your blog?

Pinterest and Google! Focus on SEO for both :-) Oh, and guest posting for larger sites.

I found this really helpful.Thank You! I have ideas of how i want my travel blog to look like but the content is what I am worried about. Throughout my travels, i was inspired to document the most powerful moments i had with ‘strangers.’ I haven’t yet shared them with the world. For a muslim, a girl, and coming from a conservative culture, I saw the world very different when i began travelling at 20. I want to have a human-centric approach to my blog to show the beauty of people of different cultures and faith. From Asia, to Europe, to the US, Middle East and Africa, I don’t like being a tourist, I tend to dwell on immersing myself in the local life, attend events, get togethers, food stores and places of worship. And through such, I have become a better person myself. I want to share my travel expriences in a very captivating way whilst being able to break stereotypes and prejudice.

Sounds fascinating! I’d love to read your blog — let me know when you’ve set it up and I’ll offer some feedback. But don’t worry about the content, I think it sounds like a great niche for your site.

Hi Lauren. This is by far the best read about how to start a travel blog. You didn’t advertise, you smartly inform people. Thank you. ?

Thank you so much, Rachel! That means the world to me :-)

Hello Lauren,

Thanks for your effort and sharing the valuable post with us, I did a lot of research on how to start a travel blog but didn’t find the right information for a beginner. Once I read your blog and realize that you have shared the right information that I’m looking for, Keep sharing your valuable and informative content on a regular basis. Thank you once again.

Glad you found it helpful, Amy! Feel free to drop me an email with any questions if you have them :-)

What do you do about copyright on your images? I’m particularly concerned about theft of mine. I notice you don’t watermark yours – is there something you do behind the scenes to prevent your photos from being stolen from your travel blog?

Yeah, I don’t care. People will take your images whether you add a watermark or not, and the watermark makes them look ugly, so I don’t have one. It’s part of the package that comes from working online.

Nice guide. I guess the one thing that’s holding me back from starting a travel blog is the belief that it’s too late. There are so many travel bloggers out there now that it feels impossible to get your voice heard. Do you think it’s too late to make money with a travel blog now? And what tactics can I use to be discovered when there’s so much noise in this space?

No, no, no! It’s definitely not too late. I’m a part of a few Facebook groups and there are so many people who are starting to make thousands of dollars a month within a year of starting their blogs. It’s so inspiring to see and proves that there’s always space for more people in this industry. Focus on improving your photography, figuring out how to drive traffic through Pinterest, writing as many guest posts as you possibly can, and providing the most detailed resources on a topic to rank highly in Google. You can do it! :-)

Spot on with this guide! I’ve been blogging for three years and agree with everything you’ve said. Keep on being your authentic self – the internet needs more people like you!

Hey, thanks so much! :-)

i am shankar, 60 yrs male from india and have been travelling around for the past 35 years . After marriage family priorities and business life took over. In between my passion for travelling, photography & reading continued. Lot of my friends and relatives have been encouraging to put my experiences in writing and making extra buck too. Now i have been thinking seriously, why not start at this point of time and still see the world & make money too.

All i want to know from you is, is it right time to start writing blogs combined with my travels and also make some extra buck.

You insight and encouragement is going to plan my future. After going thru your writeup on travel blogging, i feel excited as to why not start off now. Your views and comments should help me in shaping my passion. Please advise. Shankar…india

The best time to start is as soon as possible! It takes a while to get everything figured out, so if you’re determined to start a travel blog at some point, start it today. Good luck! :-)

Hi Lauren! Great guide as always. I’m setting my travel blog up now by following your instructions and wanted to say thank you for the effort you put into this resource. It’s helped me no end as I’ve tried to figure out this whole blogging thing. I’m now starting to publish my first blog post and wanted to ask what you think is a good word count to be aiming for. I know your posts generally skew longer and was wondering if there’s a reason for that?

Yes! I find that the longer and more detailed my blog posts are, the easier it is for them to rank in Google. I usually publish blog posts of at least 2,000 words, but sometimes aim for as many as 4,000! Oh, and also, when I was writing my book, I got into the habit of writing 5,000 word chapters and haven’t been able to break it yet — it feels more natural to write the longer posts now, especially if it’s a narrative. Hope that helps!

you havent replied to my query sent on jan 14th 2018. awaiting ur reply soon.

hi, lauren i want little help from you, please suggest me a good and free seo optimized theme for self hosted wordpress blog.

Take a look at the options offered by WordPress in the themes section of your dashboard. They have some quite nice ones these days :-)

Hey, I found this super helpful and intriguing!

Do you think you need to be on a long travel trip in order to start a travel blog? Or (because I am little money and am still studying) can you start a travel blog with only two trips a year?

Nope, definitely not! The most successful travel bloggers are the ones that travel only a handful of times a year. When I stopped travelling full-time and found a base in Portugal to live for six months of the year, my income doubled within a year! Start by writing about where you currently live and you’ll find it far easier to make money than focusing on the entire planet — with the latter, Google won’t know what you specialise in and you’ll subsequently find it harder to rank for many terms.

Thank you for your instructions. I have thought of starting a travel blog for a while since I love to travel. I am just so busy with work, kids, and life in general. You have definitely inspired me to start it now though. I just have a few questions about the business aspect of a blog. Did you set up a corporation or any type of business account? Are your travels tax deductable even if you don’t make that much money off of it? Does every travel blogger make money? How can I keep a blog going since I can’t travel all the time because of my kids’ school schedule? Thank you in advance.

1) I didn’t set up a business until this year. For the first five years of running my travel blog, I was registered as self-employed. 2) As long as you can show a business plan that details how you were planning on making money through those travels, you should be okay. 3) No, not every travel blogger makes money. There are no guarantees. If a travel blogger didn’t go self-hosted, had ugly photos, and was a terrible writer, they’d be unlikely to find success. 4) Not being able to travel all the time is the best way to build a successful travel blog! The travel bloggers that make the most money are the ones that have a home and don’t travel frequently. You have more time to work on building an audience and can position yourself as an authority in your hometown, too!

Hi Lauren!!

I just read your article and it was worth my time.. I recently just started my blog too, which i hope to make it a travel blog rather than a travel guide, and tips blog later on when i have the resources.

And yeah, I’m now a BIG FAN..!!

Thank you! Best of luck with your travel blogging career :-)

I have some although it was a great post Can I use blogger for blogging. What is the disadvantage if any?

I wouldn’t recommend using Blogger. It has some pretty severe limitations and you’ll find it harder to build an audience on the platform.

Hey, Thank you so much for such a thorough explanation. I am a freelancer tour organizer and mostly I organize tours for groups, Currently, I am working in India and organizing tours(mostly treks) in the mountains of India. I recently thought about developing a travel blog for myself and was about to start up my own travel organizing company, this article cleared up many things which I was confused about, I was very confused about the SEO part too but I hope these steps will clear up some fog for me now!! Really appreciate it! Thank you for sharing!!

Yay! Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions or need help with anything as you get set up :-)

Really helpful post! Just have a quick question about Bluehost – If I put in my address which is in the UK, there is tax added to the total which is around $21. Does it matter if I keep the country as the US to avoid paying that tax or does it need to be your actual country? Sounds stupid but thought I’d ask!

If you have a US address you can use then yeah, I assume you can do that. Worth a try!

Please, please post an updated breakdown of how you make money with your travel blog Lauren. I’m sure many of us here would love to read it! I’m curious what sources of income you have, the percentage breakdown of these sources when it comes to your overall income, how much you make (if that’s not too personal!) and how much time you spend working on your blog at present.

You got it! It’s definitely on the list — I’ll try to get to it within a month or so.

Really useful tips! I haven’t even thought that there are so many fine points to pay attention to!

Right? It sounds overwhelming at the start, but things do start to fall into place as you work at it.

I’ve just come across your blog and I’m really enjoying reading it (currently about your trip to Maputo!). I do a bit of travel blogging on the side and enjoy doing it but find it hard to get it out to a wider audience. Have you any other suggestions?

Thanks so much, Sam! My biggest recommendation is to guest post on other sites. Not necessarily travel blogs, although somewhere like Nomadic Matt would definitely help expose your writing to a new, wider audience, but sites that are relevant to the topics you write about. As an example, I might write about travelling with anxiety on a large mental health-focused site, or how I budget for a month-long trip on a financial advice website, or what it’s like to travel as a bisexual for an LGBT magazine. Stuff like that. It’s one of the best ways to build up your audience, as not only does it bring new readers to the site, but it also gives you links that’ll help your article rank higher in Google and therefore bring more readers in that way.

I literally googled “how to start a travel blog” and this is the first site that came up. I currently enjoy traveling a lot, have started to post photos on Instagram and have become super interested in travel blogging.

Your instructions make it seem so simple! And great advice/tips!

Thanks so much, Raven! Best of luck if you decide to go ahead with travel blogging :-)

I have caught the travel bug after putting down deposits for my Round the World trip, however, this wont be until sept 2019, as we have to save enough money. I’m wanting to start a travel blog, is it too early now? I have been to many exciting places (Tanzania, Turkey, San Francisco, Zakynthos, and many beautiful places in my home country, UK) and will be going to NYC this summer.

What i’m wondering is do you reckon it is too early to get into my travel blog before my RTW trip? I am worried I dont have enough content (stories and pictures!) to keep posting regularly?

Thank you, Elle

Nope! It’s never too early — the earlier you start, the better! There’ll always be things to write about, whether it’s your previous trips, your plans for the future, where you currently live, and random pieces of travel advice and tips. The most successful travel bloggers are those that don’t travel super frequently, so don’t feel as though you need to be travelling full-time in order to build a successful travel blog :-)

I’m currently studying engineering physics in Sweden (where I’m from) and after this semester I’ve decided to take at least one year off to travel. I have always loved writing (I have been writing a diary since I was 12, and I’m now at the age of 28) and I’m also very passionate about photography. I have done some traveling before I started my studies and I have lived and worked in Spain, Australia and New Zealand. I’ve always written about my travels, but only in my diary or personal blog. I want to combine my passions (writing, photography, traveling) and turn it into a professional travel blog. My main intention is not to make money (that’s just a big plus), but to reach out to people. To share my travel experiences. I get so inspired by you and other great travel blogs out there, I want to inspire too.

Do you think I can create a successful international blog even though english isn’t my native language?

I think I’m pretty good at english, but I can’t tell if my grammar is correct at all times. I mean, spelling checks are easy, but checking entire sentences and sentence structure and all of that… it’s a bit harder. Any thoughts or tips regarding this topic? Do you think that I have to improve my english writing skills before I start blogging? Or do you think people would read anyway? And do you know of any successful blog written by someone that have another native language than english?

Thank you for this post!

Hi, i had a question about billing… does the total on blue host mean that that is the total that you pay once a year or can you pay it monthly? meaning can i pay it monthly or or does it take it out all at once? sorry very new to this and a bit confused, just want to make sure i can understand everything that im investing in.

Hi Rachel! You pay for it all up front rather than month by month.

is there a way to pay it month by month or is that the only option?

I think that’s the only option.

Lauren I love the concept of the blog. I full heartedly agree, you don’t see a lot of people blogging about the down side of traveling. I recently spent 3 weeks in Europe solo traveling, and I got a lot of compliments about how pretty the pictures were, meanwhile no one saw all the internal muck that was beginning to come up. I finally stated my blog after a year of sitting on it. Right now it’s just for fun. We’ll see where it goes. I also enjoyed reading about your Cook Island experience, as its currently on my list for travels in 2019. Cheers. Ryan

Best of luck with your blog, Ryan, and with your travels to the Cook Islands! Thanks so much for the huge compliment :-)

Thank you for this very interesting post. I’ll keep your advices in mind for my brand-new blog ;)

Thank you Lauren for sharing this great information.. you inspired me to start my own travel blog.. One question, how to get traffic with new created blog ? Thank you so much..

Best regards, Karen.

Pinterest, guest posting, and writing long and detailed travel guides to popular destinations.

Thank you so much for the great insights. I’ve been itching myself for the past month or so in trying to publish my first post. I felt the “About Me” page and first post are almost similar and based on what you suggested, it doesn’t seem too different too. So I’m a bit worried.

Also, what I am mostly worried about is if it’s too late to start up a travel blog now?

Hey! thanks for sharing information, as a beginner it will help me to learn and write my own travel blog.

Wow! Thank you for such a detailed post! My 13-year-old daughter is taking next year off to travel. We set up her website and plan to launch it in June. I’ve been looking at ways to monetize her site because I think she would feel so accomplished if she made a buck or two. We are literally starting from scratch, but she wants to makes go of travel blogging for this year. We are super excited! I’m so grateful for your post!

Hey, Thanks for sharing such awesome tips for making a travel blog.

Thankyou. This is so engagingly written. I am in Buenos Aires with a cold & just decided to explore blogging as I can’t dance at mo with this cold. And I love writing vignettes about ordinary but magical things. I’m in a cafe at this moment for my favourite coffee y medialunas ~ lol not good food for a cold but good for the soul. When i get back to my room, I’m gonna start. Thankyou for you simplicity & integrity.

Thank you for the huge compliment! :-) Best of luck with getting started, and feel free to drop me an email if you need help with anything at all :-)

Hello, Lauren! I enjoyed reading your take on starting a travel blog. You gave a lot of good information and ways to help get started. I’ve wanted to travel my whole life and now in my late 40s, I’ve finally decided to stop wasting time waiting for the travel fairy to visit me and start living my dreams. Writing, photography and travel are my passions and I’m super excited to get started putting all three of my passions to work for me instead of me working for them.

I have a bit of a different approach with my travel blog, at least I haven’t found one like it yet, and I’m looking forward to trying it on for size.

My biggest concern is getting started and actually developing the audience. Short of physically pulling up my site on random strangers phones for them to visit did not seem like such a great idea so I’m wondering what steps did you take to create a following or was it a matter of trial and error?

Thank you so much for any information you can offer to help me get started. Safe travels!

Hi Lauren i’m starting my website soon and will get blue host from your link :) I have a question. Is it a must to spend money on theme. Could i just look for free themes and still earn money through blogging?

Yep, you can use a free theme to get started! And once you start making money from your site, you can invest in a paid theme.

I’m just about to launch my website (which I’ve been avoiding for a while). I came across your article and it’s now getting me excited!

Good luck, Jesse! Let me know if I can help out with anything as you get your blog set up :-)

Yikes! I thought this was going well until… I followed all the instructions, and then when I got to the point where I wanted to log in to the admin portal of wordpress, I could not figure out my username and/or password. So I tried to get a new password, and neither my email address or what I thought was my username works. What do I do? I’m all signed up and paid up but can’t do a thing!

Hi Leanne! Try Bluehost’s live chat and they should be able to help you out: https://helpchat.bluehost.com/

Thank you so much for sharing this information. I’ve been planning to launch a travel blog myself and I guess I will bookmark this page for future reference.

Again, a great post!

Hello Lauren! thank you for your amazing blog! :) yes….you’ve heard that a million times…but still it’s true and hearing nice things about your achievements can never be too much ;)

I was really inspired by your article now to finally kick start my own blog. I have an existing webpage with squarespace.com. they are amazing. most of the plug ins that you are recommending they have built in anyway. but of course their annual service is a bit more expensive. I did some calculation and am thinking to switch to bluehost and themeforest. BUT then I realized that the plugins also have to be paid…or am i not getting it? Cause I don’t find it in your listing for the costs of starting a travel blog. hmmmm?…:) Thank you for your time and answer! Love, Sanya

Hey Sanya! No, all of the plugins listed in this post are totally free to use, apart from the Interactive World Maps one. And thank you! That means a lot to me :-)

Thanks for this post Lauren. It’s helped me so much and I’ve finally set up my own travel blog. It does take sooo much work and I feel like I could’ve done with a ‘how to use WordPress’ post before starting the process too haha!

Hi, thank you for this amazing tips. At this time I’m working as a writer, but I’ve always dream to become a travel blogger. That’s great chance to see the world and earn some money :) I’ve a few question to you. I have no idea how to create my own travel blog and how to promote it. And which camera should i purchase for my blog as a beginner blogger. I’ll be grateful to you if you answer me. Thank you for sharing this wonderful article.

How many post should I create in advance before starting a blog?

It doesn’t really matter, to be honest. I created my site first and then began writing for it. You wouldn’t need more than two or three, though.

Hi ! I had a great journey navigating through your blog, and I would like to mention that it is amazing and very relatable. But I do have a question. How exactly do you make money? I do not have an idea about running blogs but I am a travel enthusiast and want to turn travelling into a full time career. I am just not sure how to make the money required for travelling. I hope you will help me out.

For me, I make money from advertising (with Mediavine), affiliate marketing (from various companies, like Amazon, World Nomads, Booking), book royalties (from sales of my travel memoir, How Not to Travel the World), and, um, that’s about it! I used to make money from freelance writing, but eventually stopped doing that because the money was pretty bad and I didn’t enjoy the work.

Great tips! I used to have a website a few years ago and now I have stopped due to losing interest. Now after I read this, it kinda motivates and inspires me to start a travel blog. Cheers!

Sweet! Best of luck if you do decide to do so :-)

I’d like to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this.

In fact, your creative writing abilities has motivated me to get my own site now ;)

Sweet! Get on it :-)

How did you add the number of posts to the hover on the interactive map? I can’t find how to do that.

Your blog has forced me to create my own travel blog. It is not as extensive as your site. Not to mention we are coming to Portugal and the Azores based on your posts.

I do that manually every time I publish a post, or whenever I remember to update it. And don’t worry too much about your site not being so extensive — I’ve been running this blog for eight years, so I’ve had tons of time to write my blog posts! Hope you have an incredible time in Portugal. It’s such a wonderful country.

I was able to get help from the developer to figure that out. I was using tags and not categories and that was the problem. We enjoyed our trip and now looking to retire in Portugal and possibly the Azores as the destination. Although, the mainland is probably better for travel.

I found that writing posts after the fact can be difficult to remember all the info and all the odd things that happen along the way. It takes me 4-8 hours to put together the pictures and text for each day of travel. I should probably take notes along the way ;-).

Hi Lauren, Fantastic and informative post – wish I’d known this years ago when I started travelling! BTW it helped me immensely in using your step-by-step instructions to set up my own travel blog (mostly just as a memoir of my journeys, not with monetisation in mind), and I had a trial run of if during recent trek in Nepal. Any thoughts on setting up/linking to FB, Twitter, IG, etc? Seems like an additional burden to maintain the various social sites as well, but it would be nice to be able to post to IG and have it appear on blog…..

Hi Lauren, love your website and I am half way through your book, which I also love! I am a big traveller myself but mainly long weekends all over Europe and three long backpacking trips over the last ten years. I want to set up a blog to document my adventures, but down the line if I wanted to upgrade to a more professional approach would it be a relatively straight forward process of moving all the material to a paid for service? I am in two minds whether to jump in the deep end and pay for the items and services you outlined above or whether to go for more of a memoirs approach. Regards, Alan

Hi Lauren, this is so great. I have been trying to decide if i should start a travel blog. My husband and I love to travel and now we are taking our kids with us (8 and 5 both on their second pasports) I love to take photos and am not so sure about the writing. Would i set it up the same way. Does wordpress work for that or should i use something else? I am initially looking to share with friends and family but would love to be able to travel for a year with the kids but currently our jobs don’t allow it. Longest trips about 4-5 weeks Sorry for rambling. Thank you again for ao much clear information.

I’m not new to traveling, but I am new to travel blogging. I’ve been researching travel blogs for a few weeks now and just came across your page, thank you for the information and the time that you took to write this! It was very clear and helpful!

thank you very much, i have always loved travelling and always wanted to start travel blogging since the first time i left my country. i have learnt alot from your guide and from you and intend to get started right away.

My desire is to meet you one day, my home Country is Zambia in southern Africa so do swing by one day, lol.

very insightful and best regard,

Wow I just love your article here on blogging as a travel blogger! I have been in the same career for 10 years and I am ready for a change. I have been thinking of becoming a travel agent (solo on my own) for years. Do you have recommendations?

my best, Suz

Hi Laura, great info! One question I’m starting a travel blog site myself but have not published it yet, did you wait till you had several blog post before you published your site or did you just publish it once your blog site was set up?

Thanks Marc

No need to wait, just start publishing now! It’s going to take a while for people to actually find your site, so get everything up as soon as possible.

Hey Lauren ,

I wanted to start a travel blog in a local language is this a good idea to start it in a local language ? I have a passion about writing and travelling but never use blog for the same. Should I go with free or Paid in wordpress for the very first time? And is it possible that you start a free first and then convert in to paid and your blogs are available as same as before? Kindly Guide.

—Shivani

Hey! I found this information to be invaluable and very inspiring! Just like you before your blog, I’ve never written anything but I have been curious about blogging for some time now. I’ve always wanted to travel the world and experience different cultures, meet new, interesting people, eat amazing food and write about all my adventures but I always let the fear of failure deter me or I would feel so intimidated because I wouldn’t have a clue how to get started and like you I’m not technically inclined at all! This has really been a great article for me to read and I feel so excited! You make it sound so easy! Do you think incorporating spirituality or capturing culture and local destinations instead of just touristy attractions would entertain readers? Do I start my site before I go anywhere? Do I write about the places I have already been even though I don’t have all the pictures I feel I would need to make my web page more interesting or captivating (Or all the memories intact for that matter)? I would like to focus my travel blog on the people, culture, spirituality or native life, mostly (of course, also along with and all the other things people usually write about in travel blogs). Do you think that would be a good niche?

Hi Lauren, Just read your blog. This blog not only helped me a lot but also improved my knowledge of blogging too. Thank you so much for the great info and keep sharing your ideas with us so that we can explore more.

Hi Laren, I’m off to the island of Mauritius in October, where I will be staying for the next few years. In the past 6 months I have been preparing for this as I plan to create a travel photography blog before I leave the UK. I have one question to ask. Before I do, let me just say that I have a photography website that is up and running, but it does not have a blog section. So my question is: Will I be able to create a blog from the information provided above, and add it to my website or will I have to create a blog separate to the web site?

Kind regards Marc

Hi Marc! You should be able to add a blog to your website without needing to follow my instructions, as it’s likely already built into your site as a feature. Is your site running on WordPress or Squarespace or…?

Thank you so much for this post! it really encourages me to keep going on making my own travel blog as for now I have my travel videos on my youtube channel but I wanna do the next step !

Good luck! Let me know if you get stuck with any of the steps :-)

I LOVED your post. I found it incredibly helpful and inspiring. My thoughts on starting a travel blog are very new. I currently graduated University with a Photography degree and I have been saving money to travel. I spent two months in India then spent two months in Israel, now I am back in England starting my saving process again. Do you recommend I hold off getting a blog up and running until I have the funds to actually start my travels?

I recommend starting now, as the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll find success! You’ll still have plenty to write about, having spent time in India, and starting now means you’ll get the hang of how blogging actually works by the time you can afford to travel.

Hello Lauren! I have love traveling ever since I was a little girl with my family. A few years ago I started traveling on my own, and I haven’t stopped since. I’m currently an elementary school teacher and travel every break I get, but I keep wanting to blog and had no idea how to. I love writing in journals, so that’s a plus :) My question is, do you ever go back and blog about past travel experiences? Or do you focus on the present and future outings? I want to set up a Blog and your article was amazing! Any additional advice will help and thank you for being honest in this article.

Hi Lynda! Yep, I definitely do. I try to focus more on storytelling over creating a resource when I do this, as things may have changed in the time (like prices, quality of food in restaurants, etc) since I was there, but there’s no reason why you can’t blog about previous trips. It’s a great sign that you already love writing in journals :-)

This is great. I think the best way to find your travel blog is to just go out and travel. Eventually, you’ll figure out the kind of travel you want to do. Thanks for the good points here.

I do agree with that, actually. People change, and assuming you’re going to be a budget backpacker forever when you first start out could end up being disastrous if you realise you can’t stand hostels!

This is a great blog! Thank you! I have just set up a blog on WordPress and this was so helpful! I’m still creating my blog and I would like to have a hotel section and would write about the hotels I’ve stayed at.

So I need photos for my post – should I approach hotels and ask permission to use their photos? As I’m just starting out not sure if I’d be eligible to be an affiliate on booking.com but have seen that other travel bloggers must have used that as an option and it looks great but have literally written three post, so may be small fry!

You could do that but I recommend using your own photos of the hotel instead. It makes your review more personal and proves you actually stayed there :-) Definitely sign up as an affiliate now. You want to be making money from the first post you publish. If you’re going to be talking about the places you stayed in in your posts, why not add an affiliate link? You might not have an audience now, but when you do in the future, you’ll wish you’d set up all of your posts for success from day one.

Great tips, I am new here but I must say you are pretty famous! I am curious to know what your opinion would be for starter with respect to starting costs? Well I hope I am not asking a question thats already been answered but I didn’t read it yet!

There’s a whole section in the post about that :)

As many have replied – this blog is great! My husband and I love to travel. For years he has said I should create a blog. We just got back from Grand Cayman and I’m starting to think more seriously about it! My husband is OCD, analytical, guidebook and I’m more of a free spirit. Thinking about maybe posting from our 2 points of view? Haha. Coming up with a unique name and brand would probably be my biggest struggle. Thanks for your blog – it’s gotten me many things to think about!

Hi Lauren, Thank you so much for putting this guide togetherness. It’s proven to be invaluable to help me get started on my own blog, theteatimeadventurer.com. The hardest part was getting started. The content pours itself out. I know I’ll look back on my first few posts eventually and say, why did I post that. I have two questions for you; my first question is how do you figure out who to contact about adding a link to your blog to drive traffic? How established should you be post wise? I’m having trouble getting to the next step. Second, would you recommend contacting a more experienced travel blogger to read your posts to get feedback? I know it’s important to join blogging superstar, but I’m a little tight on funds right now. Hope this changes in the future. Thank you again.

Thanks for sharing an amazing guide for bloggers in the making. I am now kinda inspired to start off immediately! Good luck to you!

This article was very informative. As I am a newbie and hardly know this blogging world, you made an extra effort to write this article in very simple letters. Thank you!!

I love this post thanks a lot. I still struggle with the traffic, even though I have my blog for a long time now. But it just won’t get more :( Thanks for your advise anyway :) Greetings from Vienna!

Am I *really* the first one to notice that the math doesn’t make sense here: “You should be able to make as much as $1 per 1,000 visitors to your site if you have enough placements, and while that won’t sound like much, there are new travel bloggers who reach 50,000 page views a month in under a year — that’s $500 a month…”

$1 for 1k = $50 for 50k. Not $500 So they either had 500,000 monthly visitors or they’re earning $50 a month! ?

Ah, I forgot to clarify. Once bloggers hit 25,000 views a month, they can join Mediavine and make far more money with advertising than they will with Adsense. 50,000 page views usually equate to $500 with Mediavine, or around $50 with Adsense.

So the numbers are correct, I just forgot to mention you’d want to change ad networks once you started receiving more traffic.

Truly useful piece of information. It’s good to learn the ways to improve a blog from top bloggers.

I’m glad to hear that! Best of luck with your blogging journey :-)

Hi!. Your article was a huge inspiration for me and I just run my own travel blog. For now I am blogging in polish but maybe some time I will decide to start doing it in English even tho it’s not my first language ofc. Thank you once again!

No problem! I think it’s a good idea to blog in your native language, as there’s probably a lot less competition when it comes to travel blogging in Polish!

Just read your article but I already built my blog but in Squarespace. Maybe you can help me with some great plugins for my website?

Ah, sorry, I have no experience with Squarespace so I’d just be googling best plugins for Squarespace to answer your question.

Hi Lauren. This was a wonderful post. I know a lot of people like you said are doing travel blogs/vlogs. I still would love to do a blog with pics and Vlog about airlines. I see all the others out there. But not so much bigger guys like me, And not meaning tall. My concern starting this would be trying to get viewers and well funding to get tickets to review the airlines. I really love the step by step process you did. It is the best how to start a blog I have read yet. My goal is to do a flight a week or a flight every other week. Starting from scratch makes that hard. Just wondering you had ideas on ways to make it so even if I make no money at the start. Any help you might have would be a big help. And hope you don’t mind helping a beginner out.

Umm! I really don’t know where to start commenting, your article is so articulated I’ve got lot of good Information from it I’m amazed. So i just have one question.

I have not travel the world before, but i have travel overseas two times to Indonesia twice, and the USA once.

So my question is.

After doing a research, Is it okay to start a Travel blog that directs and inform people about places to visit, what to do when they get there, where to go, which to avoid, and stuff like that.

And all that without me being travel, I just conduct a research and inform people.

Is that okay from what you have been experienced?

Thank you so much for you very informative article! It makes me think that the dream of becoming a blogger is well within reach. My question for you is this: how important do you think it is to specialize your blog? Do you think a blog about trying out all kinds of new things might be as well-received?

Love this post, it’s the best one I’ve seen. So I’m a big traveler and one of my New Years resolutions for 2019 is to start my own travel blog. I’ve never heard about hosting before and was wondering if you think first-time bloggers should invest in this? I’m a perfectionist and the main thing holding me back from starting the blog is my hesitation about the design and layout not looking perfect but what are the benefits of hosting on Bluehost? Exactly what is hosting?

Also I’m heading to Cairo, Luxor, and Beirut in a few weeks and I want to start blogging there. Do you think that I have enough time to get this up and running?

This was such an enlightening article for me. I love traveling and have always wanted to start a blog with no clue on what to do and how to go about this, and reading your article has given me such good direction. I still have questions though and I can email you if you have some time for me pls.

Thank you! Yeah, definitely drop me an email if you’re having any problems with getting your site set up :-)

I want to start a travel blog, but I’m not a full time traveler and not sure I ever want to be. Initially I though of your first option “run a blog to keep friends and family informed of your travels” but I also want to blog about other stuff, like social problems (I work for an NGO and my line of work is International Development) and personal relatable stuff (moving on my own at 17, having married young, being vegetarian, etc). Have you found bloggers with this kind of issues and what have they opted for? How does it work for them?

i recently started my blog. after reading your awesome guide. thanks for that

Best of luck with it :-)

I honestly read everything and even keep a note of the important things. I’m planning to start a travel blog soon but wanted to be educated first of what is expected to happen. Great post!

Thanks, Keith! Best of luck with getting yours set up and running smoothly :-) You can always drop me an email if you get stuck along the way, too.

Thanks so much for you guide- super in depth and easy to read. I’m really interested in starting a travel blog and I have been for years, but my anxiety has been a huge factor in preventing me from taking the jump. I think I am finally ready to just go for it- and I’m excited! My question is, you wrote this article almost 5 years ago. How have things changed since then? Do you think it’s STILL not too late to start a travel blog?

Yep! I update this article every couple of months and added the section about whether it’s too late last year. So, this article is up-to-date already — as soon as something changes I make sure to add it here :-)

Loved your article, but Bluehost deactivated me because my government ID didn’t match my mailing address. My husband and I retired, sold our house and are full-time travelers. I can’t give them an ID that matches my mailing address because my mailing address is a mail-forwarding business, so they deactivated my account after a couple of days. Just thought you should know. I still want to set up a blog, but will have to find a different route.

Hi! Thanks for such a detailed thread! Clarified many of my doubts although I decided to use a different hosting where I had registered my domain. Thanks again!

Hi! This is a really great post about starting out in travel blogging, and I wish I had read it a year ago, when i switched from a free to a self hosted WP blog. I found the hosting /theme/plugin sections particularly helpful and would like to stress that a good security and a backup plugin are essential and I would also install Jetpack as it does a lot of essential Support and is free/good value. Living in Europe, I was not sure about Bluehost , and went with a cut-price EU provider which is Slim in Prices and customer Support but I had no major issues so far. I just get what I pay for! As a Hobbyist, I am not averse to creating some income, but I agree with you that good unbiased content is the key. It is refreshing to read a professional blogger who does not take sponsored or press trips – which, let’s face it, don’t reflect the reality of travelling! – yet still make good income from the blog. I hope you Keep the transparency, and thank you for such a detailed post!

Hi Lauren, Firstly, great post!! I read your book a couple of years ago, before properly committing myself to travel. It definitely inspired me to not be afraid of things going wrong. Now I am away, 4 months into travelling SEA, and I am definitely one for not pretending that travel is always sunshine and roses with no challenges!!

I have been very VERY slowly working towards a blog the last couple of months but am ready to get serious. I wonder how you developed a writing routine in the early days when you didn’t know what you were doing? I love to write but I’ve always been very bad when it comes to a blank canvas.

I’m so happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.

Thank you! That means a lot :-)

Starting september i’ll be going on a world trip for around 12 months, and considering to start my own blog as well, partly because of that the site I co-write for doesn’t do enough marketing or knows how to market itself and is stuck with declining page views, partly because of posts such as yours. My biggest concern however, is how do you generate enough traffic, especially when you’re just starting out with the blog. I’ve recently deleted my social media accounts as I didn’t reckon they were worth my time so I can’t rely on those, but do have some knowledge about marketing due to my studies, but little regarding SEO Do you have any advice on how to generate sufficient traffic, especially when starting up your site. And how do you write and post for the best SEO results? I understand that that’s partly traffic, but to create organic traffic you need to write in a certain way / use certain words , or am I mistaken?

For a long time, I thought about creating my blog about travels. Each year there were more trips, the photos no longer fit on the hard disk and memories began to blur. This article became an inspiration for me. The blog was created and let us see where it will lead me :) Thank you!

First off, thank you for this awesome, comprehensive how-to! It’s helping me a ton, as I’m just starting out.

I have a question: how many hours a day/week would you say it takes to connect with people on and post content to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest, in order to stay relevant?

I’m pretty averse to social media, and I’m trying to understand whether I have time to stay active and promote my blog on those platforms, all while working a full-time job and some freelance gigs.

Thanks a ton! :)

Honestly, I’m pretty averse to it too, these days. I deleted my Instagram, share my posts on Facebook and Twitter when I publish them, which takes about 5 minutes a week, and Pinterest I use Tailwind to schedule my pins to go out, so maybe five minutes a week? The longer I’ve been a travel blogger, the more I’ve realised that social media doesn’t really do much to help out your site. 85% of my readers come to my site from Google, so it started to feel like a bit of a waste of time. It’s definitely not essential to find success!

Hi Lauren, Thanks so much for this amazing information. When choosing a name for your blog, are there any problems if your name is similar to another business? I have seen several blogs with similar names. But, I wasn’t sure if it creates problems if it is similar to an unrelated business if the domain name is available.

I’d steer away from anything with an identical name, but it’s okay if it’s similar. After all, there’s a travel blog called Never Ending Voyage, and it’s never caused any problems for either us — we’ve both been very successful! If somebody registered like, neverendingfootsteps . org, yeah, that would be a problem.

Hey! I must say that your post has been the most helpful out of all the ones I’ve read. Thank you so much for doing this. I have only one big question bothering me-

When I first start broadcasting about my travel blog on all platforms of social media, and people will come to my blog to check it out, will it look good that I have only one post? Should I rather write and post 10 articles before I share it on social media? I would really like to know how to start with my blog- one article at a time or posting a few?

Hello Lauren, Thanks for the lovely post.

I am in the process of starting my blog, but I’m bogged down by bluehost and their associates.

I followed through on the process as described, but bluehost is yet to add the wordpress theme I chose to my domain name.

Contacting their customer service has been a pain in the neck: the guys on their chat seems lost all the time and take forever to respond, I called their line, I was on hold for about an hour, no one answered. Nohting has been resolved yet.

Is there any advise you can give or anyway you can help? I feel like the more bluehost lingers on this, my desire to get this blog going may wane.

Hi Uzoma! Hmmm, what do you mean that Bluehost is yet to add the WordPress theme to your domain name? If you log into your WordPress dashboard, you can add the theme to your site by clicking on appearance – themes – upload and do it all yourself without getting Bluehost involved. Themes are something that you add yourself, not something your host gets involved with. Unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying.

Feel free to drop me an email with more information if you’re still struggling! It should only take a few minutes to figure out :-)

Thanks for the reply, You are awesome. I’d be emailing you shortly.

Good Lord this was fun and exciting to read from beginning to end. I almost hate to say I’d like to start a travel blog too but yup…Two Cats Travels is weighing on my mind. Even with your detailed instructions I’m a little overwhelmed by the technology of it all… but I’ll just follow your step by step directions to see where we land. I LOVE the idea of making your first blog like a first date…more of a getting to know you moment! My husband is claustrophobic so planes are an issue so our travels have proceeded concentrically from our home in New England. We’ve made it as far as Croatia and I am so hoping for Japan someday soon…I have never written to a blog before but you really have me jazzed to turn this kernel of an idea into the whole cob as it were! Questions: Once I get this started is it to late to write about our past travels over the past 3 years if I fact check? Or does it need to be an in the moment excercise. I ask because every time we go somewhere I immediately come home an create a hardcover book as a memento for us and I love to write so they are not just pix. As a hook or unique angle I’m thinking of the old children’s phrase curiosity got the cat and satisfaction brought it back because that’s basically why we travel. Does this make sense outside my head? Anyway, thanks and happy travels! Warmly, Lori and Jim

Hi Lauren, I’ve been thinking about starting a ‘travel’ blog but am moving more toward even a ‘life/lifestyle’ blog if that’s even a thing. I love to travel but I also enjoy a lot of home design stuff and do a bit of wedding coordinating. I know this is all a bit scattered but at the same time they are all a part of my life. Any recommendations, as I am a total newbie, on where to begin figuring out my niche? there’s a lot of pieces of my life I think could be beneficial to a blog but I’m so hesitant to start and be confined by only one of these things!

Wow thanks a lot! I just lanuched my blog and this post gave me a million new ideas to think about. Thanks for spreading the love!

Hi Lauren! I have always written a personal travel journal and after several people suggesting I should write a blog – I’m seriously considering it. For now I’d love for it to be mainly for family and friends but I also want the option for it to be something more later on if I wanted it to be. Is there any themes that are free that I can choose? I can commit to $2.95 a month for hosting but nothing more at this stage as my travels at the moment are for 6 months so budget is tight. Also can you download and create an entire blog on WordPress on an iPad? Because that’s all I have with me on this big trip ?

like your website and especially your incredible story and all the tips you give here. Well done!

I am working on a website about tips and tricks for backpackers myself and have to say one tip from this post I would really like to stress is

LET YOUR PERSONALITY SHINE THROUGH!

I am getting there more and more myself. It feels more natural to write and just have a look at some other blogs. Some people flat out swear half the time – in successful blogs! So whatever your style is, write like that, write like you talk. Best advice ever!

Also, what I am always curious about is, how long it takes to make money from your blog. A lot of people give you different answers and for example you said after 3 months you started making money, but it took you about a year to live on it.

But how much time did you spend on average? I assume (and you actually mentioned it as well) you lived in cheaper countries and worked probably close to 24/7 on your blog in the beginning. I guess. So for someone who works 40h per week and works on their blog in the evenings and mostly on their days off it would obviously take a lot longer. But nevertheless, from what I read it is absolutely not unusual that it might take more than a year to make any money at all. I am not even there, but I notice how I get better at things and I’ll get there. Would just like to know what your take on this is.

Now I know it can really take quite some time, like seriously you will have to be persistent. But if you see progress and you believe in what you do, just hang in there! That would be my personal advice.

Thanks Lauren for all the useful tips and stories you share.

All the best

Hi Lauren, Thank you so much for putting this guide togetherness. It’s proven to be invaluable to help me get started on my own blog, The hardest part was getting started. The content pours itself out. I know I’ll look back on my first few posts eventually and say, why did I post that. I have two questions for you; my first question is how do you figure out who to contact about adding a link to your blog to drive traffic? How established should you be post wise?

Keep Posting, You are a Big inspiration for all of us. I have recently started my travel blog so Its cool to come across experienced bloggers like you. Cheers

Wow I am so confused… (nervous laugh)

I just purchased through your link on Bluehost today :) Thought I would support you out of all the blogposts I’ve been reading about how to start a blog. I literally have no clue what I’m doing in there, it is so much fun! And I am happy to announce that wowiwalkers.com will be up whenever I find the courage to hit “launch”.

My boyfriend and I are going for a year. Thanks for the inspiration during the years.

Hugs Cecilie.

Hi Cecilie! Ah, congratulations for taking that first step :-) It’s a great sign that you’re finding it fun, too! Best of luck as you work through those early stages and let me know when your site is live. I’d love to take a look at it :-)

Wow :) you just cleared my clouded mind thank you so much , i just bought a domain name to build travel blog and was fully confused where to start how to start , do i have to updated the blog after ever trip or i have to updated as a whole. how i am going to do it . you just showed me my way :)

Hi Lauren! Really great suggestions. We’re just starting out but took much of your advice into consideration. Thanks so much! We figure that if nothing else we’ll end up with a nice collection of our travel memories together: http://wanderinghikers.com/

By the way, I noticed you don’t have Instagram in your list of social media links. Is that not a platform you recommend using for helping build your audience? Personally, I don’t like how it limits hyperlinks to just your bio page, so it’s hard for someone to use the platform to drive traffic to a website. On the other hand, we like to make cinemagraphs and Instagram displays them quite nicely. Any thoughts?

I wanted to start a travel blog recently and I just don’t know where to start. I like backpacking in Europe, especially the Camino – Santiago de Compostela. Already been there twice and I want to start a travel blog on this particular journey. However, I just don’t know where to start from. I get all the website setup but the contents are my problem. Not sure what to start from.

Can you give any advice?

I’m planning to do another Camino sometime soon before I actually start my own website just to get more information and ideas from the travel.

That’s awesome. I’m actually going to be walking my first Camino in a couple of months! I’d suggest brainstorming which kind of posts you would have wanted to read when you were planning your Camino, or backpacking in Europe. So maybe that’s a packing list or a day-by-day itinerary or what to know before you go… or maybe it’s a narrative about how the Camino changed your life or why you decided to walk it a second time or the people you met along the way.

Whenever I’m not sure what to write about, I always think about what I would want to read on a blog. Hope that helps!

Hello Lauren, Because of your post, I started a travel blog in no time. Thank you so much, the steps was easy to follow. I have been to 25 countries and fell its the right time to start Regards, Praveen

I have been very fond of travelling over the globe and i just love to write about travelling stuff. But i am always keep on facing financial issues..i cant leave my job immediately..Is it really important to travel to a city to write a blog?Could you please advise me a way to deal with all such issues?

Thank you in advance!!

Hey, Lauren! Yours is the first article that i read when i thought of starting a travel blog and i don’t think i’m going to need to look at anything else because you have explained everything so vividly. I am not a person who travels constantly and continously. Travelling was just my hobby and i recently discovered that i want to keep doing it as my priority and want to make a living out of it by making a blog and because i don’t have enough money, i am doing some part time jobs to earn money so i can travel to different places. because obviously with so much competition out there i won’t start getting paid very soon. So, what i wanted to ask was , do i need to travel constantly and a lot to start a blog or can i have some breaks in between the travelling to earn some money?

This is brilliant, thank you so much for all of this amazing information! It has actually inspired me to go ahead with my ideas and I have started taking the initial steps to do so!

Thank you again, I look forward to following you further :-)

Hi Lauren Firstly thanks for taking the time to write in such detail about a topic which is quite daunting to someone contemplating entering the world of travel blogging, My question might be a bit stupid but I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction, I was following your step by step guide, I got the name, set up hosting, set up wordpress but I then had to leave it for a bit and when I came back to it I cant find continue from where I left off, pretty much from picking a theme onwards,,any help would be greatly apreciated

I started traveling when I was 10 in 1974 and 3 years ago began traveling again when I came to work in Iraq. My dream was to go to Maldives, I was recently divorced so I was a bit scared going by myself but I was like my bucket list will never get done if I don’t start. Thats when I found YOU ! my first alone trip was to the Maldives …. to Fulidhoo because of you! I work around so many people that travel constantly and would love to have a blog. My question is how often to start out would you need to travel? Can I continue to work and blog every trip I go on which is about 3-4 months? I would really appreciate your opinion and by the way I loved Fulidhoo and because of that trip I am fine traveling alone . Thank you! Carol

Hi, Is it sensible to start a travel blog with a best but free WordPress theme for 2-3 months or longer and then jump to a professional theme like Divi from Elegant Themes?

Yeah, you can totally start off with a free theme for a few months while you get the hang of things and start to build your audience up :-)

I am 2+ months away from 65 but still holding up on my dream of capturing the images of the world and sharing my thoughts in writing … which you made me realize is through travel blogging. I searched and met your articles. It inspired me 😊

Thank you so much. Your step by step instructions helped me understood the necessities it requires. I wish I could still fullfil this dream.

Thumbs up for Lauren!

Thanks for the great advice on this; my blog is set up and running now. Looking at starting the next step of your advice which is the monetising side. I have one question about a dedicated bank account for the blog in the early stages of setting up, and noticed you gave the following response to someone else question:

“You’ll want to register as self-employed and get an accountant so that you can start paying taxes, but you won’t need to do this until your site starts making money because it’s a hobby up until that point”.

Would you set up a dedicated business bank account for your blog and then look at taxes once revenue is coming in, or would you just use your personal account for now until it starts taking off?

Lauren, I must applaud you for this article, you are an amazing writer! Of all the guides I have read about blogging few days ago, this is the most detailed yet concise and captivating of all.

Am a novice in the blogging world with very little travelling experience, being born and brought up from a small village and poor family in Nigeria. I decided to create a travel blog about travelling , presenting poor people’s travel style and luxurious travel style, sharing mostly about people’s travel experiences in those two categories and encouraging everyone in their capacity to be involved. It is an entirely different approach to the usual travel blog and I want you to help me organise this idea to be more realistic and business savvy.

Kia Ora Lauren

I am reading this from New Zealand and I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your generosity in sharing this info. One of the best I have I read. I have just started a year long Diploma course in Travelwriting and Photography so I was really keen to see what I could do to start and take the plunge to start my blog.

Keep up the great writing and come to New Zeland sometime.

Ah, thank you so much, LJ! I actually spend a month of every year in New Zealand! My boyfriend is from Christchurch, so I’m always popping back to hang out with his family.

Hi Lauren! I’m sad to say that I’d already purchased hosting before I read your article a few months ago, so I ended up with something other than Bluehost. I didn’t understand how affiliate links work either, so I’m REALLY sorry again. But I AM considering switching hosts following a day-long site outage that my current host refuses to explain. In your experience, is it fairly easy to switch hosting plans? If I go with Bluehost I’ll sign up via your affiliate link now that I know how that works, lol.

Thanks! Andrew https://www.hikingillustrated.com

Yep, I’ve never had any problems with switching hosts, although it definitely took a little bit of googling to figure out which steps to take — if you get stuck at any point, you can always use the Bluehost live chat, if you decide to go with them, to ask for help understanding any of the steps.

Awesome, thank you so much!

Stumbled onto your blog not long ago, while looking for inspiration to start my own. I really appreciate that you’ve written this! It’s awesome! I’ve come across a little hitch, that maybe you can help me understand. While looking into wordpress, (This is before I commit to hosting and domains and all that) I noticed that to use the business option (instead of the personal) it costs around $350 a year! Yikes, wasn’t expecting that, in your blog here it never mentions anything about that. If I set up through bluehost first, and then to wordpress, like you’ve mentioned, do you not have to deal with the scary $350 for a business site set up?

Ah, you’re looking at wordpress.com — wordpress.org is what you’re looking for :-) and what this guide is for. WordPress.com hosts your site for you — so there’s no need to sign up for Bluehost — whereas WordPress.org allows you to use your own host as described in this post. You want the latter, as self-hosted sites have a lot more freedom in terms of plugins, advertising, and other stuff. WordPress.org is totally free to use, so no $350 a year — definitely don’t pay that!

Ohhhhh!!! How did I ever miss that detail. Thank you so much for clarifying that. Just downloaded it now and am officially even more lost. I guess with wordpress.com you can play around with the workings of the site before you launch it, and with wordpress.org, even to play around with it you have no choice but to pay for hosting. I wanted to play around first to see if I even have a clue how to do all of this before paying, because committing to a pay thing, and then realising I’m not smart enough to figure it out, is a very real thing. Damn!

You can play around with wordpress.com first if you like. I think the dashboards are similar, you just won’t have access to the same plugins and will be a little more limited than you would be with the .org version.

But yeah, you need a host to use wordpress.org. But honestly, WordPress is so simple to figure out that I don’t think you’ll have a problem just going with it.

Hi Lauren, thank you for your incredibly helpful post. I was wondering – once you’ve set up your hosting (for example with Bluehost) and have your website built and ready – how do you integrate the posts on your website/blog with your social media platforms such as FB/Instagram? Is there an integrated way to do this or is there lot of duplication if you want to post and establish presence on social media also (eg, do you have to post on your blog, then post on Instagram, then post on Facebook etc)?

No problem! I usually publish my blog post, tweet it out immediately after it goes live, and then share it on my Facebook page the day afterwards, and that’s it.

The more I put thought into it, the more I think I may just take the plunge and do it. I have an urge to share my travel stories and no one to share them with. This reason alone makes me think it would be worth it! Thanks so much for your replies. :)

Thank you for the informative post. I had hosted a blog around 2008-2009 but closed down after running it for a year or two, so I had some experience but needed a checklist kind of post to get started again. I’ve launched another travel blog in 2019 and I must thank you for this post as it helped me refresh everything I knew without having to go through 10 different articles :-)

Best, Tabish

Hi Lauren, thankyou for your post information, I have been thinking of starting a blog about “my family travel bucket list” I haven’t traveled outside of Australia yet but I have so many places I want to take my family, and have found that I spend alot of time researching everything about traveling with kids and family that I would like to share it with other parents out there that want to travel as well. Of course I would use reviews and do thorough research, and even have others contribute to what I am posting as well. I guess what I’m asking is, do you think this is an idea worth looking into? Thankyou.

My twin sister and I currently own and run a travel agency in addition to our full time jobs. We’ve only had the agency for about a year but so far it’s been moderately successful. We want to start getting into travel blogging as well as vlogging because we believe that it mirrors why we got into traveling and starting the travel agency. We grew up poor and never had the opportunity to travel. In college we were blessed with the opportunity to do a travel abroad program in Ghana and have been traveling ever sense. We want the blog to mirror our current and past travels as well as talk about food wine and culture shock while traveling for example when we went to China a lot of ppl wanted to take pictures with us and we did it understand why and after talking with locals we learned that there aren’t a lot of black ppl in China so that’s why they wanted to take pictures of us so we want to touch on the cultural exchanges that we do while traveling and meeting locals. I guess my question is do you think it’s a conflict of interest to have a travel blog as well as a travel agency? Do you think the viewpoints that we want to relay are different enough for us to stand out? How would you suggest dealing with two different ppl writing for the same blog bc although we are twins we have different personalities experiences and thus writing voices? We leave for a trip to Thailand and Indonesia in three weeks. Is it realistic to have a blog up and running by then or should we take pictures and write once we get back from the trip?

Hi Lauren ,Thanks for your wonderful article.I like to start a travel blog. It is 2 week still I am looking for a suitable name for my blog. Will it be ok if I use the nomber 2 instead of ‘ two’ to make the blog name shorter.Your advise is appreciated.thanks

Yep, that’s fine!

Hi Lauren, I never commented on a blog post before, but I have to say I love your post. I have been looking into starting a blog for at least a year now and all the post I have found are the same. Thank you for being different. You have inspired me to make my dream a reality. I look forward to checking out more of your post.

Hi Lauren, Your article was very helpful! When you mentioned making money off of affiliated programs such as world nomads or booking.com do you have to reach out to those companies to set something up to get commission through links in your posts or how exactly would you go about actually making money off of them?

Nope, just google “Booking affiliate program” or “World Nomads affiliate program” and sign up on their sites. Takes 2 seconds to fill in the forms and get your account set up :-)

What do you think of using content from places you have previously traveled to to kickstart your blog? Do you think it’s ok to write about trips you’ve made in the past year or only new recent trips?

Nah not necessary! I don’t do it.

Dear Lauren Good day to you.Thanks for your advise on ‘boost on Facebook’ I only recently started publishing on word press. As I am on a limited budget and zero experience on blogging I started with a personal plan. I try to install yoast SEO plugin (free version) but it is only for business plan according to word press. Is there any alternative SEO plugin or even other way to do SEO for newbies like me. This is just a temporary measure until we are financially stable.Thanks Lauren…

Ah, I see. If you’re using wordpress.com, then yeah, you won’t be able to use Yoast. That’s for people who self-host with companies like Bluehost or pay with WordPress.com.

I don’t have any personal experience with using wordpress.com, but I’d just say ignore the plugins for now. Just focus on making sure you’ve got your keywords in your blog posts and that your articles are as useful and detailed as they can possibly be — if they are, they’ll start to rank.

Hi Lauren Thanks for some great advice. I am planning a 12 month trip through Central and South America and I am looking to start a travel blog now as I plan. Some great advice for me to consider. I am clear on my usp/focus and I have experience at building wordpress sites. At the moment I’m trying to think of a good name… going to throw it out to my group of friends to see what comes up. I am quite a mature person and have travelled with a pack on my back quite extensively.. but never blogged. Going to give it a try. Cheers for the inspiration.

Hey, hi and hello!

Your blog on how to startup… well, blogs was the first one I have read and I have to admit that I got to the end and was truly stumped for questions. I mean, I DID have questions but nothing that I could not figure out and find on my own. For the most part, you cleared up all mysticism that I had found surrounding blog startups.

I am aiming to start my own travel blog within this year so I am doing the rounds right now to gather what information I can on how to do so and what I should really be looking for. I have only read a couple blogs so far and yours has pretty much delved into the waters that other sites just didn’t go into, like your own income and expenditure for instance!

But with a newfound sense of confidence, I am still going to make the leap and hopefully will have found my own little corner of the blogger world to fashion into my own!

Thank you! And Happy New Year!

hello, I was wondering if it is possible for you to switch from a personal blog to a buisness blog? I want to begin my blog soon, but do not currently have the money to begin with a buiness one? Is it easy to switch an excisting personal blog to a buisness or would you think it is better for me to wait until i do have the funds and then start from then? thankyou :)

Hi Lauren This is such great information and such a good resource for bloggers. I honestly wish that we had this information on hand when we started our blog back in 2013. Coming up with the right name was the hardest but we did get there in the end. Hosting was also hard as everyone had their own opinions what was the better. Thanks for this article.

Thank you for sharing your tips and knowledge. Starting anything new is always intimidating and can be overwhelming. It’s nice to get advice from people who actually have done it!

My family & I are very excited to evolve our travel blog!

Love this Lauren! Which subscription widget do you use? I’m stuck between feedburner vs jetpack – if either of them! Thanks

The widget in my sidebar? That’s from ConvertKit.

I used your site almost exclusively in an attempt to create a travel blog. Unfortunately, BlueHost/Word Press is one of the worst and most complex ways for someone who’s new to the game to enter the business. While they seem to have a lot of options, their tech support is $99 a month which after spending a $100 for the hosting, template, and a plug in, doubles the cost to get started.

Luckily, my husband who’s far better at this than I am is helping, but even he has been having a frustrating time sifting through unexplained menus and information with no tutorial.

I had so much planned and now I am very close to canceling my account with BlueHost/Word Press and either going with another hosting site that is much simpler OR sticking to posting YouTube Videos, Instagram, and FB posts.

Feel free to ask me any questions if you’re having problems, either here or through my contact form.

I promise it’s so easy to use once you get the hang of it and you definitely don’t need to pay for WordPress tech support!

The vast majority of the internet runs on WordPress, so it’s really worth figuring it out. Keep in mind that your host is just the space where your website lives on the internet, so all hosting services are identical. Once you’ve signed up for bluehost and installed WordPress, you’ll basically never sign into your bluehost account again. Then everything is done through your WordPress dashboard. I just thought I’d mention that, in case you’re trying to do anything on the bluehost site.

As I said, feel free to ask me any questions!

Hi Lauren! Thank you for sharing this. Such a great information specially to my fellow beginner bloggers out there! I really don’t know how to start on blogging but to be honest this blog makes me feel better and gets me go to with confidence. Thank you again!!

The article was really helpful and motivating :) good luck with your travel plans for 2020!

I’m glad to hear it! My travel plans have been cut short due to coronavirus, but that’s okay. Hopefully things get back to normal soon :-)

Hi Lauren, I wrote to you earlier on here. I’m not even a traveler, but just want to let you know: I discovered this site by googling: “Best lifestyle blog NAMES” and you were one of them! Congratulations! I’m going to follow your blog, even though I backpacked 30 years ago!!!

Thank you so much, Annien! :-)

Hello! You’re article is really helpful! I got so motivated, I got a name and logo! I want to register my domain with Bluehost, if I pick the 36-month plan, do I pay monthly or do I have to pay the 106$ once off? Thank you

I think you now have to pay upfront.

Dear Lauren, I have started my travel blog 3 months ago.I have bought my domain from word press. Unfortunately I hardly get more than 5 visitors a day and sometimes none. Recently I consulted another travel blogger he told me my travel blog confuse readers as they don’t know what I am writing about.travel blog also lacks good navigation.I have improved the navigation part but still I hardly get visitors. I also feel blue host maybe a better choice than wordpress because I have to upgrade it inorder to get stuff like SEO and Custom email. Lastly I think I have start with the wrong footing. Is it better to start all over again with blue host and a new domain.Thanks…

This is so helpful, thank you!!! I have always loved traveling but we are a young family and don’t have the means to travel as much as most but I really feel like this is what I am being called to do. I’ve travelled a lot around my state but that was years ago. Would you recommend posting about previous travels even if they were quite a while ago? And I love to budget out places that we want to go to but haven’t visited yet, would you recommend posting those ideas as well or should I just stick to something that I know? Hopefully we will start traveling more but until then I’d like to build my blog and make it successful before then. Thank you so much for your time and this post, it has been extremely helpful.

I’m sure you must get the same message often, but your site was one of the big reasons why I was able to finally make the decision to start blogging. After reading about how you were able to start traveling from a low wage job and turned it into a business, It really made me think I could achieve that too. I’ve struggled with depression and with thinking where I am is as good as my life is going to get. I’m not going to lie, it’s been really hard at times, thinking all there is to life is working to pay bills so i can live to work to pay bill, ect.

I am where you were back in 2011 and while it’s been years and, like you said, the travel blog market is really diluted now, you make it feel like it’s not to late to start living life. I’m in the process of building a site and hoping to get more of a social media presence so i can start building an audience. I’ve even planned a trip a few states away just to get out for a little bit. It’s not much, but it’s given me something to look forward to again.

Thank you so much. You have no idea how grateful i am to you.

Hey Lauren: I just ran across your site after searching @ hiking through Portugal to France which I am doing in the fall. Any advice you can give. Not sure if I’m really up for for blogging the whole time although I’m equipped to do that. Bit of a geek. Guess it would be nice if I could make some $ at it but that is very secondary. But advice would be greatly appreciated as I have never been to Spain…but I’ve been to Oklahoma.

I’m so happy to hear that!

Your article is a great help. I decided to start travel blogging and created a website using Godaddy for Domain and globehost for hosting. It was a breeze and cost me $12 to get my site up. The pandemic has made us Work from home and using the spare time for the website creation. Any suggestions on a good free theme, i have started with Writee but it has some limitations.

Happy to have found your extremely helpful article which am bookmarking for future reference.

Hi Lauren, I need your opinion if you don’t mind: I have bought my domain and built website through Dynadot. Now I learned I need wordpress. Dynadot have access to WordPress through their VPS plan ($10/month). I don’t really understand terminology like servers, plug ins etc… If you were me, would you stay with dynadot and get that plan, or move the domain to Bluehost and get WordPress through them? Thanks!

If you haven’t bought hosting through Dynadot, you can keep your domain name with them, buy hosting through Bluehost and then download WordPress through there. It’ll be cheaper that way. I bought my domain name through a random site I found when I was first starting out, so my domain name is on a different platform to my host. I’d probably do that. When you sign up for Bluehost, you can just select I already have a domain name, enter your one that you bought through Dynadot and then access WordPress through Bluehost.

Hi! I’m just starting my travel blog underthesameskye.com and trying to get to grips with this whole pinterest thing! Something noone says in their blogs regarding pinterest is – should you be pinning other peoples pins to your blogs? Or just your own when trying to grow a following? I love this post, but this is the one question I can never seem to find the answer to!

Most people recommend pinning 80% other people’s content and 20% your own. That’s what I try to do, unless I’m feeling lazy, in which case Tailwind just pins my stuff automatically for me.

Hey Lauren thanks so much for making this post it has helped me an incredible amount in getting my blog set up.

Now my main dilemma is when the best time would be to actually go all in and publish my first post…I’ve only traveled to a handful of places so I know I could probably write a few posts about where I’ve been already but I don’t want to start posting until I actually have plans to be traveling for a significant amount of time and know I will have plenty to write about, which may not be until a couple years from now. What do you recommend is the best thing to do in the meantime?

I’m a teacher, and I’ve gotten very bored with quarantine and summer. My husband and I have taken some amazing trips, and I would love to start a travel blog to document them and the ones to come. I’m basically wondering what purpose does a host serve? I would love to make a living off of a blog in the future, but I’m not about to quit my job with those dreams unless they become true. I would like to invest as little as I can in the beginning because I’m not sure of what I would even blog during the school year in between travels, so I would hate to invest and not see a return.

Hosting is basically like renting a space on the internet where your website lives. The hosting company provides the physical servers for your website to live on, maintains the software required to keep your site online, and does regular maintenance to keep your site up and running smoothly.

You can get free hosting with sites like Blogspot, but they’re very limited — you can only run certain ads, some of the ads that do run make your hosting company money as opposed to you, you can’t install many plugins, and are limited with themes. When you opt for free hosting, you have no control over your blog — it could get shut down tomorrow and you’d lose everything.

That’s why I recommend self-hosting with Bluehost, as that removes all of those limitations.

Wow, I love your set up. The info is so honest. I just recently started my own travel blog as my husband [The Big Guy] and I are looking to move abroad come first of the new 2021 yr. The pandemic put a screeching halt to our March 2020 take off date. Ha. I have been told I should not be so personal but its hard to be personable in your blog without losing your personality. You do a great job. My blog is 100% yet – still have a page or two to add & fill in, but I’m close, I think, to start thinking about affiliates soon.

Just for giggles, how much do you charge for mentoring?

Oh, I found your blog when I was looking for info on moving to Portugal, just fyi. Best, Holly

Hey Holly! Such a bummer to hear you had to postpone your trip :-( But I wholeheartedly disagree with the person who told you not to be so personal with your blog — it’s what helped me to be successful! Readers want to connect to people who are human, and the more personal you are, the more relatable people will find you :-)

My mentorship program is $300 a month if you sign up in June. Feel free to drop me an email if you’re interested!

Hi Lauren, great blog post, thanks for your work putting everything together. I was already at step 7 when finding your post, but even the things mentioned in step 8 helped me – especially the tips on HARO, Pinterest and Facebook groups.

Thanks and all the best, hope we can travel soon again. Cheers, Chris

thanku so much Lauren for giving a most valuable information about blog.Before,reading your post i m too confused about blogging but now everything is clear…Lauren, your writting way of posts was so simple and awesome.i can easily understood each and every line of your post…

There are approximately seventeen bazillion articles describing how to start a travel blog out there and few of them makes sense… I keep reading a lot of them but yours is one of the practical and useful one!! Great post…

Thank you! So, so, so many travel bloggers have ripped off this post since I wrote it, so I’m thrilled that you rate mine as more useful! :-)

Hey Lauren, Hope you are doing well. I am yet to start my travel blog and this post has been my goto place for any doubts whatsoever. I have been dwindling upon the idea of whether to publish my blog now or not. As due to covid-19, travel plans have been halted. I do have a few places that I have travelled, but I am in doubt whether this is the right time to publish or not. Would people really be interested in trips that I have taken 6 or 7 years back? Please help out here. I have already written 10 posts and just waiting for the right time to publish. Also, is it a good idea to start affiliate links right when I start or should I wait for some traffic? Thanks in advance. :)

There’s still plenty of other travel-related content you can focus on — like general travel tips. How to save up for travel, how to make friends while travelling, how to save money on flights, how to overcome jetlag, how to handle dorm rooms, how to use points and miles, how to pack for a weekend away… that’s just off the top of my head. You can also write about where you currently live, if it’s a popular tourist destination. And you can totally write about trips you took years ago, too — I’m currently writing a post about something I did eight years ago. I just don’t make recommendations in those posts because I can’t be sure of accuracy of restaurant/hotel quality.

The right time to publish is yesterday :-) The sooner you start, the sooner you build and audience, the sooner you’ll start making money. Absolutely start today. And start with affiliate links from day one, yes.

Thank you so much Lauren for the support and guidance you have provided. I finally created my blog and even published a few posts. I am a long way to get it all optimized and everything but just as you said, taking the first step was the most important. You are an awesome person and blogger. Thanks again :)

Hi Lauren, i am amazed with your website really ,, i am an Egyptian interior designer,,studied architecture and have gone only to Turkey,Istanbul couple of years ago,,i LOVE traveling and would like to link between architecture,interior design and traveling,,,um planning to travel to malaysia KL next trip,, and would like yo to advice me from where can i start. Thankyou :)

Wow, I just love your article. The info is so honest. I just recently started my own travel blog. This post will really help me to grow my blog significantly. Keep up the good work. Thanks a lot for this awesome piece of information.

Heya. This is such wonderful post and I feel very inspired! I’ve been rethinking what I’d like to do in life and Travel Blogging is something I’ve always wanted to do but have never done because I get extremely frustrated sitting down using technology. Do you ever feel like this? What would you say to someone who’s starting a travel blog with content written from years ago? Alongside new travel posts, of course. Thank you so much for your time x

Hey Lauren, Thanks so much for the great blog post! I like that everything is right here. I’ve been working by writing for a blog, but I think I might start my own blog on the side. I really love writing… Almost as much as I love traveling. Thank you for putting everything together. I know all about writing, but this will help me with setting it up to begin with. Looking forward to the end of this pandemic so we can travel again. Warm regards, Nancy A

I am so grateful that I stumbled upon this post of yours. There’s so much value in this post and I can’t thank you enough for it. I had an epiphany only yesterday that I do want to start a travel blog. I mean, I’ve always loved traveling and I’ve always thought of how I can share these travel experiences with people. Creating a blog has been going in and out of my mind for the past years but it was only yesterday that I am truly determined to get serious on it.

I can’t wait to start implementing the steps you mentioned here. It’s gotta be a tough road, but it’s a road I am willing and actually excited to pass through.

Again, thank you so much for this. I’ll be checking our your travel blogging mentorship post now. Hehe. :)

Much respect, Gielyn

Thank you for creating this guide! There was so much information in the article, and as I’ve been reading the comments, there’s been a second wealth of information there as well. I like that you really go over every single possible step a person may run into. I’m starting a new blog, and I had no idea where to start! This certainly is a big help for me! Thank you for the help!

Hi! I’m just thinking about building my own business and starting a blog. How did you learn to operate WordPress? Are there some tutorials you would recommend? Please let me know, I’m not sure if it’s going to be intuitive..

Loved this guide!

Honestly, I didn’t find WordPress too difficult to understand. You have your posts, where you write your blog posts, your pages, where you publish your static pages, your comments where you moderate comments, your categories where you categorise your posts, your menus, where you build your structure and navigation. I found it all very intuitive! I struggled more with deciphering how my themes worked, but they usually include documentation and demo content that shows you how to build up your site. If in doubt, Google your problem and you’ll probably find an answer :-) Or I can build your site for you if you’re on my mentorship program, so you don’t need to worry about it!

Helow Lauren! How are you? You absolutely great. Just like wow. Your blog content made me think about to persue blogging. What a great travel writer. Haha. Sorry i’m just amazed about your writing skills.

Quick question. Since beginner and looking forward to be your mentor and guide to start and navigate my blog, is that something about how tos? I mean for the next 3 months you will guide, navigate and teach me and for the next month i will be the one who will manage my blog? Please enlighten me lauren and have a great day.

Eleyn….

Yeah, with the mentorship, I spend each month showing you how to build up your blog to stand the absolute best chances of success — it doesn’t have to be for three months, either. Just for however long you feel you need — could be a month; could be six months.

Hi Lauren! I’m sad to say that I’d already purchased hosting before I read your article a few months ago, so I ended up with something other than Bluehost. I didn’t understand how affiliate links work either, so I’m REALLY sorry again. But I AM considering switching hosts following a day-long site outage that my current host refuses to explain. In your experience, is it fairly easy to switch hosting plans? If I go with Bluehost I’ll sign up via your affiliate link now that I know how that works, lol. Phuong http://haiphongtours.com/

Hello Lauren. My wife and I have been following you travel blog for several years. If you don’t mind, I have a few questions about your website. Do you use custom post types and taxonomies? I noticed your destination url’s are listed like “destinations/continent/country/” not the typical “category/continent/country”. Your other groupings (archive pages) such as blog, monthly-summaries, popular posts, resources, site news, what’s it like in, musings, packing, travel itineraries, travel expensise, confessions, incidents, travel plans, etc. – I figure some of these may be standard WP pages but are some of them custom taxonomies similar to the standard WP categories or tags? Thank you

That’s a setting with the Yoast plugin — you can just choose to not have category show in the url. Everything else you mentioned is a standard WordPress page.

I had been blogging for past 5 years almost (foodravel com) and yet I’m struggling to make any money. At times I feel like giving up and then I get hopes from people like you that some day I will shine. But when? Always a question.

You really make it sound so straightforward !! (I was going to say easy, but then decided that that’s SO definitely not the right word … it sure isn’t easy and you’ve probably put a lot of hard work into this) and I will definitely save this post for the future ! I’ve been thinking of a travel blog for a while, as I started traveling last year – sadly a few months before Covid-19 hit the world and after months and months of still somehow trying to get around without being unreasonable, had to just stop it all and go home. But I’m definitely planning on going again, and my next trip might bring me all the way up to Greenland, if I do it right ! So then I’ll surely have a lot to talk about … Thank you so much for all the super helpful advice, I especially love the bit about “doing things differently”. That’s what I always say – I’m terrible at posing for nice pictures, and people will more likely see dirty clothes, muddy shoes, sweaty faces and greasy hair … because well, that’s the hard reality of what will happen ! Keep going, you’re great ! X

Hi Lauren, I really enjoy your blog and following your adventures. Good luck with your move to New Zealand. I live in Charleston, SC and you should check it out once the pandemic is over. I have a technical question about your photos. Do you compress or use a compression app to make the image size smaller with the photos you use in your posts? Thanks, Luke

Thank you! I’d love to visit Charleston — it’s definitely on my list. I’d love to do a big southeast US road trip once the pandemic is over, as it’s a part of the country I really haven’t explored yet.

For photos, I compress them using Lightroom once I’ve finished editing them. I usually aim to have them between 100 and 300 kb in size when I upload.

There is so much individual and local culture in the American Southeast. You really can’t beat Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, and St Augustine. I hope to read about your travels there once the pandemic is over.

Hi Lauren :)

I’m currently following your post to help set up my first (well, second, but first official) blog.

So I’m stumped. My setup process was a little different than yours. I was never prompted to “install” WordPress. And by the look of your screenshots, it doesn’t seem like you “installed” WP either. It looks as if you were just prompted to register/sign up for an account with them to be able to use it.

I’m stumped because I didn’t have this step. Maybe it’s because I already had a blog.wordpress.com acct previously. Although, this time I’m creating a blog using a hosting account.

So my question to you is, do I need to physically go to the WP.org website and install WP there? Because that is an option and when I visit the site, it shows that I don’t yet have it installed. Or is the sign up/registration sufficient?

Thanks in advance for the help! (I’ve tried my best to find an answer to this problem, but have spent enough hours without any success, so I decided to reach out and ask :))

Hey Christina!

Feel free to drop me an email through my contact form and when I reply, you’ll be able to attach screenshots of what you’re seeing. You should be installing WordPress through Bluehost, not through WordPress.org. Does this article help you out? https://www.bluehost.com/help/article/install-wordpress?_ga=2.161335485.122244224.1609126555-2039552607.1593160949

And thanks for the reminder to update the screenshots on this post to make sure they’re current! I’ll get working on that this week :-)

Loved your article on how to set up a travel blog.

I live in Australia and am looking at going down the .com.au route instead of a .com website.

Any tips on that?

I hope 2021 treats your bustling travel life better this year.

I have a question about copyright. Do I need to apply/register for copyright, or does the content on my website automatically come under copyright? If it’s automatic, should I state it in my footer? If not automatic, how do I register?

Cheers! Lauren (Waugh)

Hi, Lauren, I have just read your article on how to begin a travel blog, with interest. You provide a host of blogger hacks with insights into the art of blogging and travelling. Out of so many principles to success the one that stands out for me is, ” don’t try to be a guidebook. Be a person. ” I used to travel for a living for the same reason you started travelling. A passion to see what was over the horizon. Then the obsession really got a grip of me for 15 years. The pictures and my diaries from that time are sadly lost or damaged beyond use. I still make notes on our travels and have started a diary again regularly. I always liked writing, and writing about where I’d been. I worked as a photographer, so my niece suggested I start a travel blog to combine the two. I spend a lot of time in Italy, sampling the food and the culture. My partner and I plan to travel more in, and out, of Italy so hopefully I will have a lot more inspiration and material to fire up my literary creativity. Thank you, Lauren for taking the time to share your knowledge and secrets with the rest of us.

Wow! I’m so happy I found your blog! You really gave me a lot of motivation to start my blog :-)

Hello, I found your post incredibly helpful! My question is a little off topic but I don’t know who else to ask.

About a year ago I decided to start a blog through bluehost and word press and had no idea what I was doing, didn’t research it and it was a total disaster. I just recently found out that I am still paying for it and I have spent hours trying to figure out how to cancel the services and subscriptions with no luck!! I have tried to contact the company but its an automated machine and when I enter the information it just hangs up on me!! Any guidance or help you can offer would be much appreciated!!

I would really like to start over with a travel blog and do this the right way! But I am worried that if I start another blog and it doesn’t work out I will be stuck in the same situation!! Thank in advance for your help!!

You can cancel your account. Just log in to your Bluehost account and click on do not renew — you won’t be charged any further payments. Instructions are here: https://www.bluehost.com/hosting/help/how-to-cancel-my-hosting-account

But beyond that, is there any reason for you to cancel this one and start another one? Can you not stick with your current one and work on that? Having an aged domain helps your site to rank in Google, so there is a benefit to keeping your current set-up.

I loved this. I see a few hundred comments above me so wonder if mine will break through. I’m in year three of travel blogging and infinitley patient that it will pay off one day. Thank you for the advice, I plan to take you up on lots of it. Just ordered some books and will go in depth on the other points. I would kind of argue your point (in that my blog is first hand experiential) that personal storytelling won’t work. Many of my comments are about how I made someone feel like they are there, or want to book a trip to go there. Just a little point that hopefully separates me to some degree. Thanks again for the insight! I’ll be following!

The problem with storytelling is that it won’t bring a large audience to your site, as storytelling posts rarely rank in Google or perform well on Pinterest — those two sources making up 95% of traffic for almost every travel blog. And the other issue is that they’re tremendously difficult to monetise with affiliates, as you’ll rarely be reaching your audience at the booking stage of their trip, which is when they’ll be looking to spend money through your recommendations. It’s not to say you can’t find success through narrative posts, but that it’s best to have plenty of resource guides on your site, too — the guides will bring people to your site and your stories are what will keep them there.

Hey Lauren I had just started blogging a few days back and was so much confused about which topic to choose. First I selected to blog about technologies and updates but laterwards I shifted my topic to travel-related. So going through the topics I got your topic about starting a travel blog, it is so knowledgeable that if a person wants to start blogging related to travel must read this topic as it has all the details from the beginning like how to buy hosting and the most important that is to choose the topic that about which topic that the want to start a blog and also telling about the theme you should use. Thanks for proving such great knowledge to people and helping me with great knowledge and excitement to focus on my blog and making it more beautiful. Thank You

I have suffered with Depression for the past few years and would love to start a travel blog, travelling is my passion and the pandemic has certainly made me realise even more how i want my life to go! I want to eventually leave the office day job behind and spend time experiencing the world with my family. Your article is inspiring and i am going to give this my best shot.

I am so glad I came across your page today – I am graduating with an engineering degree this winter and am planning to doing some traveling (mainly to Australia) for about a year!

I would love to start a travel blog, as similar to you, I’ve always loved to travel and have wanted to find a way to do it more than just a few weeks a year.

Do you think it would be possible to start a successful blog when only traveling a few months a year to start? Also, would it be worth starting it before my trip and just including stuff from around my state?

Thanks in advance and keep up the great blog!

Thank you so much for the advice ! My girlfriend and I have seriously been considering starting a travel blog and this has motivated me so much. Together we have been to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Panama so far, but we are scared that we do not have enough traveling experience to start a blog, or that we will run out of things to post before our next trip. Do you think it is still attainable ?

Absolutely! There’s hundreds of blog posts you can write just for those destinations alone

Travel Tips for Costa Rica The Best Time of Year to Visit Costa Rica How Long to Spend in Costa Rica How to Spend a Week in Costa Rica How to Spend Two Weeks in Costa Rica What to Pack for Costa Rica How Much Does it Cost to Travel in Costa Rica First Impressions of Costa Rica The Best Things to Do in Costa Rica The Best Beaches in Costa Rica Is Costa Rica Safe The Best Accommodation in Costa Rica What to East in Costa Rica

And that’s just at a country-level. You can also write a dozen posts for each of the cities/towns you visited. Do that for every destination. Write similar posts for the country you’re currently living in. Write general travel posts, about how to stay safe while travelling, how to avoid scams, how to save money while travelling, how to save money on flights, how to make friends while travelling, what’s it like in hostels, how to find the best tours, how to plan a trip from start to finish, items not to pack with you, why you want to travel, tips for travelling as a couple.

The most successful, most lucrative travel blogs are the ones that only focus on an individual country, so the fewer the destinations you concentrate on, the more successful you’ll be :-). It’s a big misconception in travel blogging: that you have to be well-travelled and a full-time traveller to find success, but the opposite is true. Even for myself, I tripled my travel blog’s income within a year of stopping my full-time travels to find a base.

So yep, 100% attainable. And there’s no way you’ll even come close to running out of things to post about.

Thank you so much Lauren. I have been so confused trying to start a travel blog! I have a library full of information on how to start a travel blog and I was still unable to start one. Your information prompted me to start now with it. Your steps are easy to follow. I like the way you justify every step you mention. Once again Thank You! You are my redeemer! Kgabo

Hello Lauren! I am also thinking about starting a travel blog to gain exposure regarding my photographs and share my travel stories with others! Do you have any general advice for me in how to approach starting the blog and how to go about gaining interest and readers? Also many of my entries to the blog will be me talking about past travels and experiences, as opposed to being currently in those places and was wondering if that is alright or if the blogging world is more so oriented to blogging about things in the present as opposed to the past?

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How to Start a Travel Blog: The Complete Guide

Many people dream about traveling the world for a living; and there are people that are actually able to do so that aren’t pilots, flight attendants, or businessmen. These people are known as travel bloggers and they get paid to visit and write about their major passion in life: travel.

Before you think it’s all a dream, it’s time to debunk a few myths and tell some truths about how to start a travel blog. 🏖

Travel Blogging Truths

Who wouldn’t want to be a travel blogger? Travel can be expensive and the idea of having someone else cover your costs is certainly enticing. But it’s not all about grabbing trips to Paris in first class. Travel blogging is just like a job .

Travel blogging isn’t easy. The fact that you’re traveling and getting paid to do so while staying in top accommodations is what most people see. They don’t realize that there are a lot of struggles that go hand-in-hand with figuring out how to start a travel blog.

Here’s what you need to know before getting started as a travel blogger:

• It’s a saturated niche. Everyone wants to ride the wave of being a travel blogger, thinking it’s all rainbows and sunshine—that by virtue of having a travel blog (and a few followers), they can request comped stays at 5-star hotels. But it’s not that easy . There are plenty of travel bloggers that spent a long time building their empire before they took off to the point where they received any special perks (or compensation).
• Many times, you’re behind your computer. Being a blogger is like having your own magazine and being the editor, photographer, writer, and stylist—all in one. Some bloggers have teams now, but in the beginning, it will be just you . Taking and editing photos and/or video, write-ups, SEO , social media scheduling: all these tasks will require a fair amount of time stuck in front of your computer.
• Writer’s block. Companies pay you for content, and to be a successful travel blogger, you have to follow deadlines like any regular job. Creating great content while at the same time, experiencing what every place has to offer isn’t easy, especially when you just want to relax and you’re on a tight deadline.
• You won’t earn a fixed income. As with freelancing in general, you’re only as good as your next project. You’ll also have to think of travel blogging as an expense at the beginning. After all, how will you start writing about places you haven’t been to? You have to invest some money to do the traveling that will serve as the subject for your content.
• If you’re a solo travel blogger, it can be lonely to go from place to place on your own. And since you aren’t in a place for too long, you’ll constantly make and break friendships and connections.
• Not knowing what’s next. Becoming a travel blogger may seem exciting at first, but you have to be constantly planning for what’s next. There may be a time where travel loses excitement or you run out of funds and you’ll need to plan accordingly.

If you just want to learn how to start a travel blog for the sake of sharing your travels, then these truths may not apply to you. Your expectations and ambitions will be based on self-fulfillment (and perhaps sharing your adventures with friends and family) more so than building a brand to appeal to sponsors.

How to Start A Travel Blog

Not scared away by the harsh truths of travel blogging? Here’s how to start a travel blog, step by step:

Choosing a Niche

There are two basic ways to get started: travel then figure out how to start a travel blog , or plan to start a travel blog then do the actual traveling . The motivation for the people in the former situation is likely just that they want an outlet to share their travels to family and friends, while the latter is more suited to those that plan to expand and monetize their travel blog in the future.

Like food blogs , travel blogs are a dime a dozen, so it’s best to start by choosing a niche (especially when you eventually want to earn from travel blogging) that will help differentiate you from the pack, since general travel blogs will usually not fare well when it comes to SEO efforts.

Travel Blogging Sub Niches

There are so many travel blog niches you can think of and fill a need for. To some, their niche comes naturally. For others, it could take a while to make a decision. Here are some questions you can ask yourself when determining a niche for your travel blog:

• Why do I want to blog?
• What am I passionate about telling or teaching to others?
• What are my skills, strengths, interests, and expertise?
• Can I write about this topic for a long time? The niche shouldn’t be too broad or too narrow.

If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some of the more popular travel niches:

• City blogging: Focused on your city (you don’t have to travel that far, and you perhaps know the topic better than most)
• Country-focused: Destinations around the country
• Area/Region: Like South America or Southeast Asia-focused
• Demographic-focused: Like travel blogs specifically targeted to Americans/American passport holders
• Budget travel
• Luxury travel
• Solo travel
• Female travel
• Traveling for work
• Adventure travel
• Family travel
• Empty nesters/traveling for seniors
• Traveling with disabilities

Or if you’re really ambitious, you can even blog about your worldwide journey, as Gary Arndt has done on Everything Everywhere . He sold his house in 2007 and has been traveling around the world ever since (over 175 countries and counting).

To be sure that someone will want to read your blog, search for your competition (to validate if there’s an existing audience for your idea). You might even want to utilize a tool like Ahrefs  or BuzzSumo to look up some of the most popular content in a niche, such as “Traveling in South America,” to get an idea of what other bloggers are writing about. Then ask yourself, can you do this better?

Alternatively, you may want to try and be the first in your niche. If you can, find a gap in the market. If you find yourself asking “Why hasn’t anybody done this?”—do it yourself!

Most bloggers market themselves as brands. Your brand is what you’re known for and known as. It’s what makes people say “That is so XX!” when they see a piece of your content.

Aspects of blog branding include:

• Your blog name and niche
• Your blog’s overall look: the theme, fonts, logo, color palette, images you use, and so on
• The voice of your writing

Coming up with your Blog Name

Your blog name is important because it’s also what your blog is known as (your brand). While you’ll be able to change many things about your blog over time, your name is something you should stick with. Give it a fair amount of thought before deciding on it.

Not sure what to call your shiny new travel blog? You might start with your own name, a play on that name, or a mix of your name and travel-related terms. A few general rules for settling on a blog name (which will also be your domain name):

• It must easy to recall and easy to spell
• It should also be not too long
• It must not contain hyphens or numbers

For more tips, you can take a look at our guide:  How to Choose a Domain Name (8 Tips to Stand Out).

Some brilliant travel blog names to look to for inspiration include Nomadic Matt , which is about a guy who travels the world, Adventurous Kate , a blog about a girl who quit her job to travel the world, and The Blonde Abroad , which is about a solo female traveller who is (you guessed it) blonde. There’s also Tanks that Get Around , a travel blog/travel tank top shop.

Setting up the Blog

A professional blog has three technical elements you’ll need to setup: domain name , blogging platform, and web host.

Choosing a Blogging Platform

There are many free blogging platforms out there, like Blogger, WordPress.com , and Tumblr. Any of these options is fine for a personal blog, but if you plan on monetizing your site, a self-hosted WordPress blog is your best bet .

The other platforms come with their own restrictions, but with a self-hosted WordPress site, you’re free to customize it completely. Self-hosted WordPress also allows you to grow and not worry about having to change platforms later if your travel blog suddenly becomes super popular. Read more about the differences between WordPress.org and WordPress.com .

WordPress powers 42.7% of the internet , is super user-friendly and has flexible customization options. It is used on many different kinds of websites , be they blogs, ecommerce sites, news portals, or business sites. Due to its open-source nature, WordPress is free to use, however creating and maintaining a site might cost you some money .

While the content management system you choose is free (assuming you choose WordPress), you’ll have to pay for your professional domain name and web hosting.

Choosing a Reliable Web Host

The web host is where you store your website’s files. Hosting plans can be as cheap as $4/month and can be upgraded to give you more storage space and bandwidth for visitors as your blog grows.

It’s important to choose a reliable and stable web host that does not have too much downtime. If you’re starting out, you might be better off with shared hosting, which means you’ll be sharing a server with other blogs. The downside is, your blog may load slower because you’re sharing resources with other websites. Also, you might have to spend more time fiddling with your site.

Application hosting , database hosting , and managed WordPress hosting through a company like Kinsta have its advantages for those interested in how to start a travel blog.

Since you’re on the go, the last thing you have time to worry about is downtime or messing around with your server. Additionally, you might not always have access to the best internet connection to fix things. Falling back on a reliable managed host might actually save you money.

You’ll also get access to a variety of tools which can make managing your site a lot easier, such as Kinsta’s custom dashboard .

A few other things to look out for when deciding on a web host:

• WordPress optimized
• Good customer support
• Automatic backups
• Ample storage space

Read more about how Kinsta is different than other hosts.

Customizing the Blog’s Look

After you’ve installed and setup the free WordPress CMS with your web host, you can focus on setting up your blog’s look and feel—an important aspect of branding.

Customizing the following will help your travel blog become your own:

• Theme: You can choose from both paid and free options . There are themes that cater specifically to travel blogs. When you’re just getting started, don’t overthink your blog’s theme. You might want to start with a free one first, because unlike your blog’s name, you can change the design later on .

To help with the process of choosing the blog’s overall look easier, you can make a branding board. A branding board includes:

• Color palette : Have a set of 2 to 3 complementing colors (anything more would be distracting).
• Fonts : 3 at most. Think one for your logo, one for headings, one for body copy.
• Images that reflect what you want your blog to evoke when visitors drop by your site.

Increase Blog Functionality with Plugins

What attracts many users to WordPress is the customizability it offers thanks to plugins, which are codes you can install to add functionality to your site. Since you’re just getting started, defer to the experts. Blogging Wizard shares some of the must-have plugins that can help with SEO, analytics, backups , safety , and speeding up your blog .

There are also some plugins to consider that were created specifically for travel blogs. These include:

You might also want to add an Instagram plugin to show off your travel photos on your blog.

You might also consider installing affiliate plugins , but we’ll talk more about that in the latter monetization section.

Content Creation

The most important part of a blog is the content. Content shouldn’t just be confined to articles (or text); it can also take the form of photos (graphics, infographics), videos, and audio ( podcast ).

Of course, you shouldn’t start with all of these different types of content at once—it can be overwhelming. Instead, you can start adding new content types as your blog starts growing and you get the hang of running it.

To get some inspiration we recommend you to take a look at these guide:

How To Be A Solo Content Marketing Ninja

How to Create Evergreen Content That Lasts (17 Tips and Tricks)With WordPress

5 Things More Important for Your Content Than Content Length

There is no right or wrong way to write. Many people adopt a journal way of writing—telling people about their day or experience, while some go for how to guide types of posts.

The best kind of blogs are the ones that deliver a mix of content types. Many people that read travel blogs are after the information you can give them about a place, while your unique voice (which adds to the branding part of the blog) is what will draw readers to you.

If you plan to travel after setting up your travel blog, you can plot out what content to write, what places to feature, what angles to write about. Ideally, you’ll have at least 15 posts ready to go before launching. This will give you time to consistently release content as you work on your next pieces, while giving readers enough content to stick around and read.

Tips to Optimize Content for SEO

There’s no hard and fast rule for content length and ranking on Google but in general, the longer, the better.

Though the in’s and out’s of proper on-page SEO are outside of the scope of this article, here are a few quick hits for setting up content for success:

• Use headings to organize your article (and to strategically make use of keywords )
• Write titles that people will pique people’s curiosity so they will share your post, but don’t be clickbaity (meaning, truly back up the article with great content). Also, write titles the way people search.
• Use keywords in URL slugs

For a more advanced study of SEO (that’s still beginner-friendly), check out our SEO checklist  and some recommended SEO plugins  you should start off.

Asher Fergusson, a successful travel blogger, and Kinsta customer said that the secret for his rapid growth in organic search rankings was to conduct a controversial research study. After having a nightmare Airbnb experience with his wife and 10-month-old son in Paris he decided to review over 1,000 horror stories to see what’s most likely to go wrong. The resulting article titled, “ Is Airbnb Safe? ” led to being featured on the front page of Reddit and was picked up by dozens of mainstream media outlets. This boosted the SEO strength of his entire website.

Photography

People are visual creatures, which is why platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are so successful and growing at a rapid pace .

Taking great photos or videos that make viewers feel like they are there or will want to be there will attract more visitors to your blog. The photos will also be used for your blog promotion; pretty photographs with catchy titles attract people on sites like the aforementioned Pinterest.

While you’re thinking about images, don’t forget to optimize your images , both for performance and for SEO . You can’t just upload full resolution photos to your blog and expect them to load fast. You’ll need a little help from an optimization tool or plugin. Name your files something meaningful (and short), as Google looks at things like these when it chooses what to index for Google image search. Which tools and how to showcase your photos you can read our guide:  8 Best WordPress Photo Gallery Plugins .

There are three main ways to promote your blog:

• Social media: The easiest way to promote your travel blog is through your own network, but social media, with hundreds of millions of monthly active users, is also known for targeted advertising, meaning that it can help your content reach the people most likely to care about it. Hand Luggage Only’s Instagram is a great example of a beautiful travel photo diary. Another awesome platform where you can promote your content is Pinterest. We wrote a detailed guide on the best Pinterest marketing tips .

• Traditional media: Getting featured on newspapers and magazines is good exposure, even for an online entity. In fact, this is how popular blogger Nomadic Matt quickly grew his following.
• Search engines: The largest potential source of traffic, but comes with a lot of competition.

Writing guest posts is another way to get backlinks to your site from more prominent travel blogs. On another note, collecting email addresses and sending out email newsletters is an effective way to get more views because it gives you a direct connection with your subscribers (unlike social networks, which may restrict reach to your existing followers).

Nomadic Matt, arguably the most popular travel blog, recognized the potential for these tactics but went in a different direction . He pitched guest blog posts to finance blogs on how to save money traveling. He guest posted on entrepreneurship podcasts to talk about how he was able to build a business from his travel blog.

These tactics set himself apart from others, and also introduced his site to multiple different audiences.

Travel Blog Monetization

There are several ways to monetize your travel blog , but when you’re starting out, it can be tough. What many travelers (or digital nomads) do to sustain their traveling lifestyle while working on the road involves accepting jobs as virtual assistants, doing freelance writing, consulting, or offering some other type of service.

Ways to Make Money from Your Travel Blog

Besides using your personal brand to get clients for services you may be interested in offering, there are many other ways to make money from your travel blog:

• Sponsored trips : Work with private companies or brands and tourism boards. Tourism boards usually want press to encourage more people to visit their country. They will usually pay for food, lodging, activities, and sometimes even airfare. Since they want resulting posts to reach a wide audience, this might only be offered to those with bigger followings. Some companies may also invite you to sponsored trips to launch their products—with everything paid for.

• Workshops : After growing a following and being recognized as an expert, you may be invited for speaking engagements or workshops that you can charge for.

Blog not making enough yet? Check out these 65+ ways to make money online on the side while you continue to grow your travel blog up to where hopefully one day it can financially support you.

This guide by Firstsiteguide includes a few more ideas if you are looking to start your travel blog.

How to Start a Travel Blog

A travel blog is a good way to document and share your love of travel, but it also brings about the potential for income. First decide whether you’ll be blogging for passion or profit, then follow these guidelines to help you with the specifics of how to start a travel blog.

What are your tips when it comes to the question of how to start a travel blog? Tweet at @Kinsta and we’ll share the best insights! Or drop them below in the comments.

Maddy Osman creates engaging content with SEO best practices for marketing thought leaders and agencies that have their hands full with clients and projects. Learn more about her process and experience on her website, The Blogsmith and read her latest articles on Twitter: @MaddyOsman .

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So glad to hear it, Laura! Best of luck on your blogging journey. :D

I’m Happy that I came across this post as I am still on my way building my site as a travel blogger. :)

Glad to hear that! Let us know how it goes :)

This is the one of the most honest and truthful post’s I had read! Thank you!

Hey, thanks for all your tips and tricks. :) Greetings from Vienna

I enter your website regularly almost every day. You have some great articles. I Love Your Suggestions. Thanks.

I just start my blog but with your tips, I can improve my blog so much. Thanks a lot for providing the information.

Very helpful article for those who are willing to write a travel blog to provide very practical help

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I haven’t seen a post as helpful as this one!!! Just need to create more content and focus on affiliate marketing now! This is something I’d like to learn more about. You made a great point! Thank you!

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How To Start a Travel Blog: From Creating a Website to Making Money

Do you love sitting on the beach and writing stories about your amazing journeys? Like the idea of sharing your travels with others?

It can be an overwhelming feeling when you know readers will love your blog posts.

Even better, if writing a travel blog generates a steady income you can use it to fund your next adventure.

It’s a dream life most of us would love to live. But is it really possible?

Yes, it’s very much achievable!

Travel blogging can take you places you love to go without worrying about getting back to work. Because this is your work!

As fun-life as it seems, it’s a serious job. Like any other business, it needs lots of work, dedication, consistency and lots of planning.

We have seen a number of travel enthusiasts using some basic business principles and chasing the dream of becoming successful travel bloggers.

Their passion gave them a life they always wanted to have – to explore the world, have fun and make money while doing it.

You could do it too.

Leave the 9-5 behind and travel for a living while writing about it. We’ll show you how.

Our guide on how to start a travel blog extends beyond building a fantastic website.

It explains the reason behind starting a travel blog, how to turn it into a business, how successful travel bloggers make it work, and how to make money out of it.

So grab a cup of coffee and relax!

By the end of this guide, you will know everything you need to know to pursue your dream career.

Step 7: Set up the necessary pages for your travel blog

Reasons to start a travel blog.

Travel blogging has become a very saturated space. Newbies are joining the industry at an ever-increasing rate believing that it is a quick rich scheme and vanish just as fast.

If the “why” for starting a travel blog is only to make quick money, then you may need to reconsider your options.

It requires a lot of work and serious dedication to make it a success. It’s not just sitting on the beach and taking selfies. It requires many, many hours of effort.

Here are some of the reasons to become a travel blogger:

1. Passion is the key

Passion and consistency should be the driving force of everything you do. If you have the passion and the urge to regularly share your travel experiences through writing, photos, and videos, you have a reason to be a travel blogger.

Another strong reason to become a travel blogger is a passion to help others have memorable journeys.

2. Be unique

There are thousands of travel blogs out there, but only a few get attention. Your blog must offer unique travel content that your audience will enjoy.

If you can find a unique voice or viewpoint or offer something other travel bloggers don’t, it should help you gain readership and make a success of your blog.

Curb Free with Cory Lee , for example, is the passionate voice of Cory who travels the world in a wheelchair.

The award-winning travel blogger has been featured on CNN, National Geographic, Los Angeles Times and several other platforms for his heroic and unstoppable journey.

He inspires others who use wheelchairs as well as those who don’t.

He provides tips on how others can fulfill their travel dreams and turn perceived weaknesses into strengths.

3. Give back to the community

Whatever you do and achieve, if you want to give back to the community and help fellow travelers to make their journeys comfortable, you should start a travel blog.

You can help solve travel problems through your tips and guides and offer actionable advice for travelers. The community doesn’t forget when you help them.

4. Support the travel industry

A flourishing travel industry can help everyone grow together. As a travel blogger, if you are willing to play a role to support whatever segment of the industry you are in, travel blogging will pay you back.

For example, one way to help the industry would be to support small tour operators through your blog. Or if you are a wildlife photographer, highlighting conservation issues or other worthy causes can help the world at large as well as your blog.

5. Business acumen

Travel blogging isn’t about publishing your experiences and waiting for people to read them. It’s a complete business that involves planning, marketing, selling, and everything businesses need.

If you can learn the ins and outs of business skills and transform your blog into a successful online travel business, you have a stronger chance of success.

6. Willing to learn

Travel is a source of learning itself. If you believe in learning new things every day, travel blogging is a great way to provide you with that knowledge.

For example, as a typical traveler, you might ask your tour guide a few simple questions about who made the Eiffel Tower and when.

But as a professional travel blogger, you will likely be much more interested in discovering local stories the world does not yet know.

7. Travel and tourism are booming

While these reasons should be compelling enough for you to become a travel blogger, there is one more reason to consider it.

The United States is among the top 5 tourist nations on earth. The country recorded 45 million tourists in 2020, ranking fourth worldwide .

In the same year, the US generated $84.21 billion in the tourism sector alone. This shows a lot of potential for anyone joining the travel and tourism industry.

In 2019, New York ranked 11th in the world for being among the top tourist destinations in the world, attracting 14 million tourists.

How to start a travel blog step by step

When we talk about travel blogging for beginners, it also includes website creation, customization, and optimization.

Here is a summary of what we will explain below, step by step:

• Select a niche for your travel blog. It’s helpful to work on a topic you are comfortable talking about
• Buying a domain is the most basic requirement for starting a travel blog
• Web hosting provides you with a space where you can build your website
• Setting up WordPress as the choice of platform is the right decision you will take for making a travel blog
• Choosing a theme is a way to give your website a look you and your readers will love
• Adding essential WordPress plugins will add the desired functionality and features to your blog

Follow this step-by-step process and you will have a solid foundation to begin your travel blog.

Step 1: Select a niche for your travel blog

Selecting a niche is the first and most important step you should take before setting up your online business. This is the reason we have put it on top of everything else on our list.

The niche is the topic your blog is about that you select to target a specific audience for your content.

For example, The Points Guys specifically blog about how travelers can best use their credit cards to get maximum reward points. Brian Kelly guides on boosting airline points, getting hotel rewards and several other hacks to tell how travelers can save cost and avail different deals.

Similarly, The Blonde Abroad is all about female solo travelers. On her blog, Kiersten (Kiki), focuses on women traveling and their fashion needs which makes her blog a go-to place for females who love adventurous lifestyles.

Similarly, Dan Flying Solo, Y Travel Blog and The Planet D are some of the top travel blogs you can find on the internet.

They all cover specific travel niches which is why they get attention from readers who like to read about those topics.

If this is the first time you are hearing about the term niche, we have a detailed guide that explains niches and how to select one.

Does it mean you should select travel as your niche?

No! We have many reasons not to select it because it is too broad and too saturated.

It would be difficult to compete with established websites that already rank higher and publish massive amounts of content.

An easy way to pick a niche is to break it down. This will give you better control over the subject and you should have less competition and more opportunities.

For example, if you select traveling solo by bicycle as your niche, you may be only targeting people who love traveling solo on their bicycles.

This might sound like creating content for a small number of people. But trust us when we say you will be the only one ranking in the search engines for any query related to this topic.

Down the road, you will be recognized as an expert on the topic and people will follow you everywhere.

Once you have a following and a solid reputation, you can always expand to include other travel niches.

Steps to select your travel niche

Selecting a niche should be easy if you follow these simple steps.

• As a travel enthusiast, make a list of your hobbies, destinations you have traveled to, and places you wish to visit
• Figure out what you enjoy most while traveling
• Find out what your social circle thinks about similar information. You may be the one who enjoys food more than visiting remote places. Or you may prefer to track or hike solo
• Find out what topics people look for that are closer to your hobbies and travel wishlist. Don’t forget to join groups and forums, read blogs and reports for similar information
• Develop a pattern showing commonalities between what people are looking for and what you can do best
• Build a list of topics, narrow it down and pick the one that matches your lifestyle
• That is your niche!

As a reference, you may find topics like solo, family, group cultural, religious, educational, eco, luxury, and so on.

As long as you’re interested in that niche and can produce quality content around it, it’s all good.

Don’t worry if you think you have no expertise in a topic. When you are a traveler, it’s easy for you to do research and gain knowledge on any travel-related topic. It will come naturally after a while.

Step 2: Buy a domain name to make your blog a brand

Once you’re done selecting a niche for your travel blog, it’s time to buy the domain name.

The importance of a good domain name

The domain name is actually your blog’s address. It is the text you type in your browser’s address bar to access the website.

It is also the name of your blog, brand or company. So coming up with a good one will need your attention and some research.

It’s critical to choose a name that is relevant to your niche and that sums up what you’re about.

A carefully chosen domain name should have the following qualities.

It should be:

• Clear and presentable
• Easy to remember
• Easy to spell
• Preferably a .com

As a general rule, if you need to spell your domain name over the phone, it doesn’t work.

Ideally, the domain name and the name of your brand must be similar or at least your brand name should be a part of it.

The Astra example

A relevant example is our own WordPress theme, Astra. Our domain name is www.wpastra.com .

It’s short, memorable and easy to spell.

To understand the logic, you can dissect our domain in two parts to notice “WP” is actually the abbreviation for WordPress and Astra is the name of our main product.

Both words hold great marketing value: WordPress is the most popular website-building platform today and Astra has become the most popular WordPress theme over the years.

So you can imagine what we did before choosing our domain name. We made sure it met all our branding needs.

We can think of a few more examples such as Google, Amazon, Best Buy and Apple. They are all simple, short, and memorable brand names and their domain names are also similar.

See if you can come up with something equally memorable.

You can break rules if you want to

A domain name can be anything as long as it doesn’t imply something different from what your niche is about.

Check out the names of some of the top travel blogs. They are all popular travel brands and they have multi-word domain names:

• Legal Nomads
• Uncornered Market
• Alex in Wanderland
• The Blonde Abroad
• View from the Wing
• Oneika the Traveller
• Never Ending Footsteps

Try not to pigeonhole yourself. Your domain name should give you room to change things a bit when you need to.

Kiersten says on her blog that if she decides to change her hair color, the name The Blonde Abroad would no longer work.

If you think you need more details on the subject, we have a detailed guide on what a domain name is and how to choose one.

How to search for a domain name

Just like you created a list to pick a niche, make a list of ideas that can define what your blog is about.

If you feel you are short of ideas, you can take help from Google search, Thesaurus.com and Relatedwords.org .

In Google search, type any word related to your niche and scroll down at the bottom to see what comes under “Related Search”.

Let’s Google “adventure travel” and see what we get.

Note down the terms that appear. Repeat the process for different words.

Next, look for related words on Thesaurus and Relatedwords .

Note down interesting terms you come across.

This will help you populate your list with some great choices.

Choose the best domain name and verify its availability from a reputable domain registrar.

We recommend NameCheap , Domain.com , SiteGround , Bluehost and HostGator .

You can register your domain for as little as $8 – $15 per year.

If your desired name is not available, keep trying different variations until you find the one you like.

In the next step, we will buy web hosting for our travel blog.

There are many web hosts that also provide domain registration services. Some of them offer free domain registration for the first year.

It’s a smart way to save money wherever possible at the start of your business.

However, we recommend you register your domain and hire web hosting from two different companies.

There are certain advantages to it such as:

1. Your web host might increase the domain renewal price which you will be forced to pay. It can appear difficult to leave a web host and transfer your domain to another registrar (it isn’t)

2. You can choose the most reliable registrar in town with an affordable plan

3. Choosing a separate company for domain registration provides you with better domain security. In case your web host comes under a severe attack, your website can run into trouble and become inaccessible. In such a situation, you can redirect your DNS entry to another web host and get your website going again with backup data.

Step 3: Set up web hosting for your travel blog

A web host is a company that provides you with space to store your website and make it accessible on the internet.

It’s a critical decision to make as your web host should offer speed, uptime, security, regular backups, timely updates and high-quality support.

You can find a web host for less than $3 a month but we suggest focusing on quality over the lowest price.

We recommend Cloudways , SiteGround, GreenGeeks and DreamHost as they are all great hosting partners.

For this tutorial, we will choose SiteGround as our web host.

SiteGround is a reliable web host for any website with managed hosting plans ideal for WordPress.

With SiteGround, you can choose the server location of your choice to target region-specific audiences.

For example, if your travel blog is mainly for the US audience, you would like to host your website on any server in the US.

Why did we choose WordPress? We will explain it shortly.

Buy web hosting

You can follow these steps to buy a hosting plan.

Select WordPress Hosting under the Hosting menu on their homepage.

Choose a plan that is affordable and offers the resources you need.

GrowBig is a wise choice for websites that need power and aim to grow. You can always upgrade your plan down the road.

Press the Get Plan button and proceed.

Enter the required information on the next screen, including payment information.

Select the duration of the hosting service and make any selections you want. If you are looking for maximum discount at the start, choose a longer duration.

Once done, press the payment button and let the system process your order.

After a successful payment, you will receive a confirmation email.

Step 4: Set up WordPress – the most popular blogging platform

WordPress is the most popular platform for any website whether a blog or an eCommerce store.

It’s powerful, flexible, and suitable for every budget and you can literally create a website for free.

It’s a huge ecosystem of free themes and plugins that help you create the most complex websites. The content management system (CMS) dominates with over 43% of websites using it on the internet.

You can set up a WordPress website in no time.

Let’s do it from inside the SiteGround dashboard.

After logging into SiteGround, go to the Websites menu and press the Add New Site icon.

Another way of doing the same action is by pressing the New Website button in the menu bar.

Select Existing Domain from the three options if you already registered a domain name.

Otherwise, select New Domain , choose your domain name and set everything up.

Press the Continue button to point the domain to the SiteGround server.

Press the Select button under the Start New Website option on the next screen. It will show WordPress as one of the choices.

Select WordPress and enter your login information for the WordPress admin area. Press the Continue button.

It will take a short while before you see the message, You Are All Set!

The wizard can redirect you to the WordPress admin through the Log In Admin button or you can type www.yoursitename.com/wp-login.php to access the admin panel.

On your way to the WordPress admin panel, you might come across a new wizard asking you to access a theme library SiteGround provides.

If you are new to building websites and don’t know what a theme is, let’s briefly discuss it here.

A theme consists of files, scripts and folders that you add to your website to customize its appearance and features.

WordPress offers a huge database of themes that you can access from the admin area. You can use SiteGround’s themes or use something else.

We recommend the latter.

Press the Exit button to cancel the wizard at this stage.

SiteGround adds certain plugins while setting up WordPress on your domain. These plugins add specific features to your website.

They also change the way the default admin panel screen appears.

We want to start from scratch and customize the website the way we want.

Therefore, once inside the WordPress admin area, we will need to remove these plugins.

Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins , select the plugin checkbox and press the Deactivate link.

Once done, press the Delete link when it appears under each plugin.

If you want to get familiar with WordPress plugins and how to install them, here is an in-depth tutorial to install a WordPress plugin .

Step 5: Choose a theme and design your travel website

WordPress comes with a default set of themes that lack a number of modern features your travel blog should have.

This is where Astra comes in.

Astra is the most popular WordPress theme in the world with over 2.7 million users.

With the help of the Astra theme and its supported plugins , you can give your site any look you want.

Astra is blazing fast, fully customizable and free to download from the website . You can also get it from the WordPress repository.

Astra is free but also has three premium versions. If you want to know more about what premium offers, check it out Astra pro here.

Let’s get back to our test website and add Astra.

Go to Themes , click Add New , and search for the Astra theme.

Press the Install button and activate it when the option appears.

Astra adds the necessary layout for running a blog. You can give your website a modern look and customize it for any niche without touching a line of code.

To do this, add the Starter Templates plugin.

Go to Plugins > Add New and search for Starter Templates .

Install and activate the plugin.

It’s Astra’s own plugin that gives you access to 240+ predesigned templates .

We will select the one that suits our travel blog’s needs.

To access the Starter Templates library go to Plugins > Installed Plugins.

Click the See Library link under Starter Templates to launch the import wizard.

With the Starter Templates library , you can choose the page builder of your choice from the WordPress block editor, Elementor, or Beaver Builder.

Select a page builder and type “Travel” to see relevant Starter Templates.

Case 1: Create a personal travel blog

For personal traveling experience, Astra theme offers several Starter Templates based on the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg).

We will select the block editor from the list and choose the Travel Blog template.

The next screen will ask you to upload a logo if you have created one.

You can use Canva to design a logo for free or use premium logo design services like LogoContest , Looka Logo Design or Logaster Logo Generator .

You can add the logo now or come back at a later time. It’s easy both ways.

Here are some interesting tutorials from Astra on adding or editing logos:

• How to add a logo, favicon and site title with Astra
• How to create a correct format SVG logo
• Now resize your logo on the fly!

Change the font on the next screen and press the Continue button.

Enter essential information on the next screen and press the Submit & Build My Website button.

You will have a beautifully designed travel blog in a few moments.

Case 2: Create a travel blog to offer professional services

Changing a template is an effortless task with the Starter Templates plugin.

There is another way to access the plugin.

Click on the Starter Templates menu item under the Appearance menu to launch the import wizard (Appearance > Starter Templates).

This time, we will choose the Elementor page builder which offers a huge variety of travel-related templates that we can choose from.

All are great designs with specific needs. We will choose the Outdoor Adventure template and continue with the wizard.

On its way to installing the new template, the wizard will ask you to delete the previously imported template and its data.

Check all of the boxes and press the Submit and Build My Website button.

As you can see, the Outdoor Adventure template lets you offer travel services.

For example, if you also plan to arrange tours and earn money from the beginning, this template is enough to give you a good start.

Step 6: Make your travel blog powerful

Creating a blog is one thing, but optimizing it requires additional features. That’s why we love WordPress for its robust ecosystem of diverse plugins.

Here are some plugins that will make your travel blog journey more enjoyable.

Ultimate Addons for Elementor

If you imported an Astra template based on Elementor, Ultimate Addons for Elementor will help.

You can use lots of widgets and sections that present travel journeys beautifully. It can show your Instagram feed and gives you a lot of control over how you want to show it.

Overall you get 40+ widgets and extensions, 100+ website templates and 200+ section blocks to power up your blog.

If you haven’t installed Spectra yet, you are missing a lot of advanced features. Spectra is a free page builder that significantly enhances the functionality of the default WordPress editor.

You can customize your website, build beautiful pages and use templates effortlessly with Spectra.

The page builder also offers over 100 prebuilt templates so you don’t need to design pages from scratch.

If you want to take the correct SEO measures from the beginning of your travel blog, Yoast SEO is your go-to plugin.

Yoast is used on over 5 million websites which shows the trust of the WordPress community in the plugin’s performance.

The plugin can improve your technical SEO right off the bat. It automatically creates an XML sitemap and lets you easily manage title, and meta description tags anywhere on your website.

When it comes to better ranking and a high click-through rate (CTR), the schema needs to be correctly handled.

You can publish different types of posts on your travel blogs such as how-tos, reviews, articles, and sell products and services.

Each post needs to have a proper schema to communicate with search engines about the nature of the post.

The plugin can implement schema markup in a few clicks without coding skills. It integrates nicely with Yoast SEO. Together, these two plugins can level up your game without any outside help.

WP Portfolio

As a travel blogger, you’ll display pictures and videos to share your journey.

WP Portfolio is a multipurpose plugin for creating picture and video libraries across your website the easy way.

You can show them anywhere with the shortcodes, change the way how they look and use tons of built-in features to improve the user experience.

SureMembers

Having a loyal community is a very effective way to monetize an online business. Travel is no exception.

You can build a travel-loving community and create a number of compelling reasons to receive payments from them. Reasons such as paid content, selling travel products and services, digital products and more.

SureMembers allows you to create content paywalls and set up secure digital downloads in no time.

With SureMembers you can create multi-level access for members to limit them to anywhere and any way you want. The plugin works perfectly with SureCart , Cartflows and Astra .

Convert Pro

Building an email list is an effective way to remind your visitors of the latest posts or travel plans you want to share through emails and newsletters.

A newsletter is a very effective way to boost readership and sales.

The WordPress plugin provides you with a drag and drop editor for creating opt-in forms that work perfectly on any device type.

Convert Pro integrates perfectly with any email marketing service provider . You can use predesigned templates to create several types of highly interactive opt-in forms.

Presto Player

If you’re a fan of sharing videos, your travel blog should provide a way to easily publish and play them.

Presto Player is a powerful choice that offers a lot of control over how visitors view and share content.

You can attach multiple video sources, show a sticky video player that draws more attention, create video chapters and generate leads via emails.

Presto Player can help you create a Call to Action (CTA) on your videos which you can use to increase user engagement.

The built-in analytics and reports module is a great way to tell how your videos are performing.

Every website requires a set of essential pages that tell people what they need to know.

Among all the essential pages a website must have are an about page, a contact page, a privacy policy and a 404 page.

You can add as many pages as you like, but these are a practical minimum.

WordPress provides an easy way to create any number of pages you want to create. However, this is not always enough.

These essential pages should be well-designed and highly interactive.

Having Astra on your website gives you a number of benefits.

Each template comes with the necessary pages and you can also access a huge library of professionally designed pages.

For example, we would like to create a new contact page.

To do this, add a web page from Pages > Add New .

Once you reach inside the page editor, press the Template Kits button located on the top bar. This will open the template library.

Each kit has multiple pages inside such as contact, about and a homepage.

You can import a complete set of pages or choose any one of them as required.

Alternatively, you can also type something in the search field to reach the desired page templates.

We will type ‘contact’.

Choose any page that suits your needs.

Press the Import “Contact” Template button.

Once imported, press the Publish button.

You can use these predesigned templates and patterns to create a number of beautiful pages this way.

Top travel blogs for inspiration

There are successful travel bloggers and there are VERY successful travel bloggers.

It’s a huge domain without boundaries, which is why we see plenty of travel bloggers making their mark.

Here is a brief list of some of the top travel bloggers who have earned a reputation, built a loyal community and who make a significant income each month.

Nomadic Matt

Matthew Kepnes is the man behind Nomadic Matt – one of the oldest blogs on travel and a true travel guru. He makes lots of money from his blog which attracts over a million visitors a month.

Over the years, Matt has successfully created multiple revenue sources for himself such as Travel Media School, content creation courses, eBooks and travel services.

His estimated yearly income is around 6 to 7 figures in USD.

Global Viewpoint

Jon is behind Global Viewpoint who started a career with a 9 to 5 job. Soon he realized he wasn’t made for a desk job and embarked on a self-growth journey.

He spent nights and weekends establishing his travel blog, and never looked back. He travels to different continents and shares travel tips, photos and videos with his audience.

On Global Viewpoint he makes over $20,000 a month and lives a dream life.

The Planet D

This amazing blog is about the adventures of Dave and Deb, a couple married for 20 years. They entered the travel space in 2007 with a motto “Adventure is for everyone”.

Since then, they have traveled to 115 countries on all 7 continents. Their blog proves that traveling is accessible to anyone, no matter age and income.

They have been featured in famous publications and made it to the Top 10 Influencers of the world list of Forbes

Their estimated income from being a travel blogger hovers around $17,000 monthly

How to promote your travel blog

Now that you have read about how to create a blog and heard a few inspiring stories about successful travel bloggers, let’s now share some tips on how you can promote your blog .

A basic rule is, you have to network, meet people out there and tell the world what you do.

Promoting a travel blog requires you to remain active and utilize certain techniques with dedication to remain in the top rankings.

Start traveling

• Start with your family and friends. They are your most effective promoters
• Use social media and talk about your experiences
• Build an email list and send people inspirational content
• Be regular and publish on a schedule

Take the following route and you will eventually have a successful blog.

For promoting your blog you need to know what’s out there.

Your personal experience matters most. You can’t promote something you know nothing about. So start traveling and gather as much information as you can.

Take photos and shoot videos to share with people later.

Write engaging content

Write content that is yours . It doesn’t matter if your mom is the only one who reads your articles.

It happens to everyone. Be persistent and share your experiences on your site.

Friends and family network is helpful

People in your close network, your family and friends, will help you to read your blogs.

Share your content with them and ask them to give feedback in comments and share it on their social networks

SEO optimize your content

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a crucial part of blog promotion. We mentioned above how Yoast can be helpful to get you started.

You can use its guidelines to optimize your blog posts to attract organic traffic.

We have a detailed guide on how to boost web traffic by optimizing your posts. It’s a helpful resource.

Use social media

Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are all effective social networks for promoting content.

We suggest avoiding posting similar content on multiple social networks. Every social networking site or app has its own recipe.

Pinterest, for example, is best for sharing photos, and Instagram is best for sharing photos and short videos.

Don’t forget to use social share buttons on your travel blog. It’s a convenient way for your readers to share content.

If you wonder which WordPress plugin is most suitable for adding social share buttons, check out this in-depth best social media plugins guide.

Run ad campaigns

You might like to run ad campaigns to promote your blog. This will give you quick results but will cost money.

Google and Facebook have ad networks that can bring you lots of traffic. Use them effectively to target the right audience for your travel blog.

If you have written a huge post on the ‘X things to do in New York’ or ‘The X best tips to travel with family’, try running a campaign to spread the word.

Ad networks are available on almost every social platform, so use them wisely.

Newsletter will bring people back

Use an opt-in plugin and ask readers nicely to subscribe. If you have what they need, they will follow.

Use these techniques to build your email list and reach your audience effectively.

If you need guidance on how to create an awesome newsletter, here is the best available guide on how to create an email newsletter with WordPress for you.

Attend events and create a network

Social networks are helpful because they allow you to get to know more people online. Equally effective is to attend seminars and other networking events where you get to meet speakers and other famous bloggers and get to learn different things.

When you are a regular at events, you are likely to run into celebrities or influencers. You can build relationships and eventually use their social following to go viral.

Travel Massive , TBEX or similar platforms can give you a great opportunity to build your network and promote your travel blog.

Join travel forums

Don’t forget to join travel forums. They are the ideal places to connect with the right audience.

Engage with the audience and provide them valuable tips. This way you will be able to establish authority and people will want to learn more about you and hopefully, your blog.

How to make money from your travel blog

By now you must have realized that starting a travel blog isn’t about making fast money.

However, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it early. There are certainly ways to speed up the process to make money with a blog .

There is no one method that works for everyone. Every successful travel blogger generates revenue based on their expertise, choices and opportunities.

Below you will find a list that will help you create your preferences to generate revenue as you grow.

Display ads

This is the most common and effective way of generating revenue from your travel blog.

You, as a publisher, can be approached by advertisers to let your audience know about their products and services. They pay you for this.

The wider your audience, the more you can charge advertisers.

You can display banner ads alongside content on your website at different spots depending on your preferences and layout.

An advertiser can contact you directly which is called a direct deal. Or you can sign up with an ad network such as Google Adsense which is the most convenient way to display ads.

Sponsored posts

Brands want to present their products and services to loyal audiences on different blogs and news websites.

Sometimes they ask publishers to review their products or sometimes it is a simple press release that they provide. Either way, brands pay bloggers for publishing content on their websites.

Sponsored posts are a viable source of revenue if you have decent traffic.

Make sure you disclose the fact it’s a sponsored post to your audience.

Not telling them about promotional content can turn into a trust issue down the road and we don’t want that!

Affiliate income

One solid income stream for travel bloggers is affiliate marketing. Bloggers can promote different travel industry products and services on their websites.

Affiliate marketing is when you put a link to their product or service in your content. When someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase, you get a commission.

You can get in touch with brands directly or join an affiliate network for access to plenty of options in one place.

One such network is Travelpayouts . You can reach out to over 100 brands such as TripAdvisor, Booking.com and others.

Membership fee

You can offer exclusivity to your audience by giving them exclusive content.

Yes, content is abundant and you can read anything anywhere. There is still room for well-researched and quality premium content though.

You can create research papers, reports, eBooks or offer travel advisories for a monthly or annual fee. Users who value such content will not hesitate to pay you a small fee in return.

Even a small but active community with a few members can help create a healthy revenue stream.

Sell products and services

You can sell anything as long as it is relevant to your blog. The coolest part about your own product is that you keep every penny.

You can sell physical or digital products. The latter can be scaled, giving you more opportunities to earn more.

For branded t-shirts or mugs, you will need to incur production costs and maintain stock. For eBooks, you can sell as many copies as you want once the book as been created.

Besides, photos, videos and trip management services are also significant revenue-generating items.

Get freelance work

Your passion can get you extra work from admirers. You never know who subscribes to your blog.

These can be from an advertising agency or a corporate client who might contact you for freelance work such as copywriting, photography, or video ads.

This could become your major revenue generator leaving behind every other income source. If you deliver them what they want, they could become your regular clients. The sky is the limit!

Arranging tours

Travelers are not only talented storytellers, but they are also capable managers.

Travel bloggers visit places and look at things in their own way. They have a perspective that is different from the usual travelers.

They can dig deep and understand things better. Their passion can take them to the most exotic places.

Why not take advantage of that extra knowledge and offer it for commercial services?

You can arrange a group, use your industry connections, and establish a reputation. Instead of offering them to the public, you can focus on a small segment.

For example high paying customers who expect comfort, luxury and something adventurous.

Alternatively, you can organize budget tours that will save your client more than they could have imagined.

How much can you earn from a travel blog?

You can earn a lot of money every month if you work hard. Travel bloggers have multiple income sources.

The fact that they are not limited to a few standard ones makes this domain more profitable.

How much you can earn depends on your blog’s traffic, marketing skills, and business acumen and above all, patience!

You can start with nothing in the beginning. Then work your way up to a few bucks until you understand how to use your travel blog to make a handsome amount of money after a while.

Here is a list of a few professional travel bloggers who declared their monthly income at different times.

This will give you some idea of how much a travel blogger can earn.

These travel bloggers have been kind enough to share their income reports with the community.

A number of bloggers are too shy to share their income. It doesn’t mean they don’t earn much money. They simply have different priorities.

FAQs on how to start a travel blog

How do you write a travel blog for beginners.

You can write a travel blog for beginners similarly to how you wrote a few essays and stories back in your school days. It shouldn’t be a huge problem. There are certain tools to help you write a travel blog that people will love.

You can use Google Docs to write your travel blog. Its built-in dictionary helps highlight typos and other errors that you can easily fix.

If you need an extra hand, Grammarly is a handy English writing tool you can use to correct grammar and style.

How do I get content for my travel blog?

You can easily get content for your travel blog by writing about things you know. The information-gathering part actually starts way before you write a travel blog.

Before visiting a place, travelers do a lot of hands-on research about their itinerary, fare, means of transportation, accommodation and what they have to do once there. It all creates a basic structure that travelers follow.

Whether you write your travel blog during the trip or after you leave, it’s easier to use the information you gathered earlier and add spice for readers.

While traveling, we suggest making text or voice notes. They will help you when you sit down to write.

Final thoughts

Travel blogging has become one of the most lucrative areas of blogging. Traveling to places, meeting people, having fun and earning at the same time sounds like a dream job.

Though every traveler would love to become a travel blogger, it takes real commitment, and many sleepless nights to build an empire!

You also need marketing and business skills to create your name in this saturated market.

A unique style, a different perspective and a passion to help the community can help you get the attention of travel lovers.

What does travel mean to you? What do you want to do when you’re a travel blogger? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.

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How to Start a Travel Blog: The 7-Step Blueprint to Success

Want to learn how to start a travel blog? I’ve been blogging for eight years and have learned a thing or two along the way. Learn how to get started now, or skip ahead and learn some more advanced techniques.

To start a travel blog is to open up a world of endless possibilities.

I made my travel blog after I had already started traveling, and it has since changed the trajectory of my life, far more than the actual travel ever did. Six years ago I never would have guessed that I’d be getting paid to travel the world, working with some of the biggest names in the travel industry, and actually making a living from my blog.

If you want to create a successful travel blog, I’ll be honest with you—it’s going to take some work. But if you’re ready to get started, and you want to make money anywhere, travel for free, and partner with big brands around the world, well, you’re in the right place. That’s my specialty.

I started travel blogging eight years ago; since then the travel blogging landscape has changed dramatically. If you can devote yourself to learning some new travel blogging skills and putting them into practice, and if you follow this step-by-step blueprint to making a travel blog, I promise you can pull it off.

Trust me—if I did it, you can too.

There are seven fundamental steps to follow when learning how to start a travel blog. It’s important to do them in order as they will all lay the foundation for building a successful blog. If you’re just learning how to start a travel blog, keep reading. If you’ve already started, skip ahead using the table of contents below.

Pick a Creative Niche and Name

Before picking the name for your new travel blog, pick your niche. Your niche is going to define what your whole travel blog is about.

Let me clarify something— travel is not a niche . Travel is a subject, but it’s not very focused. Unless you’re planning on starting the next Travel & Leisure (good luck), you’re going to want to hone in on a more narrow topic and make it the whole purpose of your blog.

Picking a Niche

So how do you pick a niche? Think small. Pick a certain aspect of travel that you love, and focus your entire blog on that. Solo travel? It’s been done. Budget travel? It’s been way overdone. Adventure travel? Done a lot. Female solo travel? It’s popular, but the market is filled and there are a lot of travel blogs that already cover these topics.

So get creative. Some of the most successful travel blogs are actually about one specific place or idea. (Yes, you heard me—travel blogs can be about a single location.)

Are you going to be an expat in Korea? Learn how to start a travel blog and then write one  just for expats traveling to Korea. Do you love scuba diving? Write your blog  only about scuba diving.

Not convinced? Here’s why:

Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond? Travel blogging is a big pond, and it’s only getting bigger. Instead of flailing for the first couple years (like many do), start blogging on the right foot. Pick your corner now and dominate it.

A targeted audience of 1,000 people who care deeply about your niche and brand is much more valuable than a general audience of 10,000 who only care a little bit.

When it comes time to sell a product or partner with a travel brand (a.k.a.  make money from your travel blog ), your niche and your targeted audience is the selling point. That’s what is going to give your blog value, and that value is what ultimately translates into dollars.

Picking a Name

Once you have a niche, the next step in learning how to start a travel blog is to pick a name. If you’re not sure what to call it, try this exercise: Write two columns on a piece of paper. In one column, write 20 synonyms for your niche. In the other, write 20 synonyms for travel. Now, sit back with a glass of wine and play mix-and-match. You’ll be surprised at how many good ideas you end up with.

With a few ideas in mind (and that’s the hardest part), it’s time to narrow it down. When you’re starting, the name of your travel blog should be unique, memorable, and easy to spell. You want a name that you can use as a brand without having to explain.

Imagine you’re on a talk show and you have 5 seconds to plug your blog—could you do it? Avoid hyphens or strange spellings—this makes your name more confusing to people when you tell them how to find you.

I picked TravelFreak because it’s short, brandable, and it’s memorable. It should mean something to you and it should bring depth to your style and your niche.

Once you’ve got a few ideas for names, let’s make sure the domain name is available. Your domain name is the address that people will type into their web browser. Use this handy tool to check if the name is already taken. If not, make sure you register it quickly!

Sign Up For Web Hosting

After you have a domain name, you’ll need web hosting. If your domain name is the address, your web host is the actual apartment that you rent.

When I was first starting travel blogging, I used Bluehost  to host my website. They’re cheap, reliable, easy to get set up with, and they have 24/7 support in case something should go wrong. To start a travel blog, it only costs $3.95/mo (and they often run specials making it even cheaper).

They’ll register your domain name and set up your web hosting for you. This is the easiest step in learning how to start a travel blog and getting it up and running!

In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t use Bluehost anymore because my website gets too much traffic. They’re perfect for starting a travel blog but not running a really big one. I spend a lot more money on monthly web hosting, but that’s also because I’m kind of a computer nerd and I like fancy things.

If you’re just learning how to start a travel blog, or if you get less than 100,000 page views per month, Bluehost is an ideal choice.

If you’re ready to get started, just click the blue button above, pick a plan, and type in the name of your blog. The Basic Plan is only $3.95/mo and it has everything you need to get started.

Next, pick your term. You’ll have to pay for at least one year up front, but the longer you sign up for, the cheaper the monthly price. If you’re ever not happy, Bluehost will send you a refund for your unused time, no questions asked. They’re pretty good like that.

Finally, choose your add-ons.  In all honesty, you don’t need any of these. You’ll definitely want a backup solution, but there are free ones on the market that are just as easy to use.

After you’ve registered with Bluehost, you should get an email with details on logging into your control panel.

Install WordPress

Now it’s time to set up WordPress!

WordPress is the software that your website will run on. It’s what actually displays the content of your travel blog, and it has a private backend where you write and publish your blog posts, upload photos, adjust the look, and change different settings. One nice thing about WordPress is that MILLIONS of people use it, and there is a huge amount of community support for it. If you Google anything about WordPress, you’ll find an answer. Plus, it was designed for blogs—it’s truly a blogging platform.

Luckily, Bluehost has a fully functional control panel which makes it a cinch to set up and install WordPress on your travel blog. Click the button that says Install WordPress from their control panel and install everything in just one click!

For more detailed instructions, follow their tutorial here .

When the install is complete, you should receive an email with all of your site login information. They’ll tell you where to go to login so you can start designing your site and publishing blog posts!

Spend some time now starting to learn WordPress. Watch some YouTube videos and read support documentation. Browse around the backend and see what’s what. The more you learn about WordPress, the better off you’ll be.

Choose a Theme

Once you’ve had a chance to look around WordPress, it’s time to design your travel blog. WordPress comes with a default theme which, especially without any blog posts, doesn’t look very good. You might be looking at an empty front page of your new blog thinking, “Oh, no. What have I done? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO NOW!?”

Don’t stress. I’m going to run you through it.

Paying for hosting is unavoidable, but luckily there are loads of free themes available. All you need to do is look through the theme repository , pick one that you like, drop it into WordPress, and voila —your new travel blog looks totally different.

If you’re just learning how to start a travel blog, and you’re on a tight budget, I definitely recommend picking a free theme. There are so many amazing options, like Whitish , Orsay , and Divogue .

If you have a bit more of a budget, my recommendation is to use  StudioPress Genesis  to style your new blog. As a former IT technician, I think it’s one of the best theme frameworks that exists.

Yes, there’s a slight learning curve, but they have great documentation, and they show you, step-by-step, how to set everything up.

Their Altitude theme is an especially good choice for a travel blog, but any of them can be adapted to fit the travel aesthetic.

Once you have your theme, just log into WordPress, go to Appearance > Themes and upload the new theme files!

Depending on the theme you chose, the documentation should lead you through the steps on how to go about customizing your travel blog further.

Install WordPress Plugins

When you’re in the process of making a travel blog, plugins are one of the most important parts. In laymen’s terms, plugins add functionality to your travel blog. WordPress has a repository of hundreds of thousands of them that let you further customize your blog and make it work and look just the way you want it to.

Plus, they’re FREE! Everybody loves free.

Despite having easy access to so many plugins, try not to go overboard. Only use the ones you need. It’s easy to add a lot of plugins for the sake of adding extra features, but each plugin you add makes your site load a little bit slower.

These are the ones (all free!) that you definitely want to install.

Akismet – Akismet usually comes preinstalled with WordPress. Don’t delete it—this works like a spam inbox for your blog by putting spam comments out of sight and out of mind.

Jetpack  – Jetpack is a single plugin with a TON of functionality. Jetpack has smaller “sub-plugins” that add various different functionalities to your travel blog. Traffic stats, beautiful photo galleries, extra sidebar widgets, and more, make this a plugin that everybody with a WordPress truly needs.

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded – When someone leaves a comment on your blog post, you receive a notification. Though it’s a bit silly, they don’t actually receive a notification when you (or anybody) replies. This plugin enables that functionality.

Sucuri – Sucuri is like antivirus software for your website. It scans and secures your website and lets you know if your site gets hacked.

TinyMCE Advanced  – The standard post editing screen is good, but it’s not good enough. TinyMCE Advanced makes WordPress look a little bit more like Microsoft Word, which means you have more control over the formatting and style of your blog posts.

WP Smush – Images take up a lot of space, and especially on a travel blog, they’re going to be the number one thing that slows down your website. This plugin makes the file sizes of your images smaller without affecting the quality of the photo.

Yoast SEO – SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a very important part of travel blogging and makes sure your articles show up in Google searches. Yoast SEO is the gold standard plugin.

Advanced WordPress Plugins I Love and Recommend

If you want to further customize your travel blog, there are some more advanced plugins you can install. Most of them are free, but a couple of them do cost a few dollars.

• Black Studio TinyMCE Widget  – Create and edit sidebar widgets using the standard WordPress visual editor.
• Cloudflare – Speed up and secure your website with fancy technology.
• Easy Social Share Buttons   ($19) – The most advanced social sharing plugin on the market.
• Google Analytics for MonsterInsights – Use Google Analytics for advanced insights into your blog traffic.
• Interactive World Maps   ($21) – Create interactive maps on your travel blog.
• Pretty Link Lite – Clean up affiliate links and track clicks on your blog.
• Q2W3 Fixed Widget – Make a widget in your sidebar appear fixed, even when you scroll.
• Relevanssi – Get more relevant search results from the WordPress search function.
• Page Builder by SiteOrigin – A drag-and-drop page builder for your blog.
• WP Retina 2x – Make your travel blog display sharp as a tack on retina displays.
• W3 Total Cache – Optimize and speed up the loading time of your site!

Begin Writing, Building Your Audience and Promoting Your Content

Your blog isn’t perfect, I know. Think of it as a work in progress. This site has been through countless iterations, and I cringe when I think of how it used to look.

Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, is famous for saying, “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.” This is sage advice to remember at all stages of making a travel blog—it’s never going to be perfect. And besides, perfection is the enemy of done .

If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late. Reid Hoffman

What to Write About

Just start writing. This is the most important part. Your blog is nothing without words, so write. Write a lot . Write like a maniac, even when you’re not traveling. In fact, write about travel especially when you’re not traveling.

Travel is a broad topic. That’s why starting blogging from scratch can feel daunting. With such a big canvas, it’s hard to know where to start painting.

So decrease the size of your canvas a little bit. You picked a niche, didn’t you? Good. This is where it starts to pay off.

When you’re writing a blog post, since you already have a niche, you know exactly the type of person that you’re writing for. You might be writing for expats traveling to Korea or for travelers who love to scuba dive.

Whenever you’re starting to write a blog post, try to answer one simple question: what value does this article provide? A three-day account of what you did is not valuable to someone else. A three day recommended itinerary, however, is very valuable! See how it’s basically the same article, but framed a little differently?

Building Your Audience

Let’s look at another example: packing lists. They’re a must when starting any travel blog, but depending on where you’re going, packing lists could have almost anything on them!

With a niche, however, you already know exactly what type of packing lists you need to create.

The fact is, even though your travel blog is all about you, in reality, your travel blog is all about the reader.

Again, what value does your blog bring?  It’s an important question to ask yourself. In order to become successful at blogging, you have to show your readers that you care about them. So give them advice. Teach them everything you know. Once they see that you care about them, they’ll start to care about you.

That’s how you build an audience.

Promoting Your Content

But you have to get your content out there first. Unfortunately, if you build it, they will not come. You have to make people come.

This is where social media channels and SEO come in handy. And since there’s a lot to learn on the topics, I recommend the following articles to help when you’re just starting travel blogging. Don’t read them all in one day, though—it will make you dizzy. Come back, read them one-by-one and digest them slowly.

Blogging Tips

• How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Bloggers   (SmartBlogger)
• 50+ Professional Bloggers Weigh In With Their Top Advice For New Bloggers   (ConvertKit)
• Here’s How To Turn Traveling The World Into Your Job  (BuzzFeed)
• Make Money Blogging: How This Blog Makes $100K per Month  (SmartBlogger)

Content Creation/Content Marketing

• 7 Steps to Reverse Engineer Enormously Popular Content   (Sumo)
• 17 Trigger Words That Work Like Cheat Codes for Getting Your Content Read   (SmartBlogger)
• A Complete Guide to Visual Content: The Science, Tools and Strategy of Creating Killer Images   (Buffer)
• The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing   (Quick Sprout)

Social Media Marketing

• Drive Massive Traffic From Facebook (For Free)   (Sumo)
• Drive Massive Traffic with Instagram Marketing   (Sumo)

Search Engine Optimization

• The Beginner’s Guide to SEO   (Moz)
• How To Do Keyword Research For SEO   (SEO Nick)
• The Noob Friendly Guide To Link Building (Ahrefs)
• Link Building: The Definitive Guide   ( Backlinko )
• An SEO Driven Approach To Content Marketing   (CoSchedule)

Grow Your Audience and Monetize

Your audience won’t grow overnight. Unless you’re a wunderkind, it’s going to take time, and you’re going to have to learn new ways to promote your content and reach new audiences.

But before growing your audience, stop and think for a minute. Ask yourself why ? Why does your audience need to grow? What direct benefit does that have to you and your blog? Are larger numbers going to make you money somehow?

Big numbers are pretty and a lot more fun to look at. And it’s (mostly) true that the more readers you have, the more brands will want to work with you. But making money from your travel blog isn’t only about working with brands. That’s one way, but it requires a lot of traffic, and it’s not really sustainable.

So, what good is an extra thousand visitors if it’s not directly making you money? This is where so many travel bloggers fail. They get stuck, sizzle out and die, disappearing into the oblivion, never to be seen again.

The problem is that they’re working tirelessly towards an intangible goal—bigger numbers—and they burn out, exhausted and broke, unsure of why their travel blog failed.

Try to think of it this way instead: If you only had 100 people coming to your website every month, how could you still make money from them?

Could you sell a product? A service? Ultimately, you need to sell something . Because that’s what a blog is—a marketing tool to help you sell. Your blog is not, in actuality, the product itself.

Taking Your Travel Blog to the Next Level

If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, there’s only one logical step forward—you need an insider’s guide to the business of starting travel blogging.

Superstar Blogging is the premier program for learning the ins and outs of running a travel blogging business, by one of the largest travel bloggers on the internet, Nomadic Matt. His website sees more than 1.5 million visitors every month and he makes a six-figure salary from blogging.

And yes, he writes about traveling on a budget 😉

My article on how to start a travel blog is only scratching the very surface—there is a lot more to learn on each of the topics I covered above, and believe me, Matt is the person you want to learn it from. I took The Business of Travel Blogging Course this year and, even as an established, “successful” blogger, he helped me come to some serious realizations about my business.

This is the course that taught me how to make real money from my travel blog.

I know—it’s not a business until you’re making money. And you might not have made any yet. But if you really do want to make money from your travel blog, you need to make a small investment.

Currently, Superstar Blogging costs just $199—an absolute steal when you think about how starting travel blogging could change the trajectory of your entire life.

Superstar Blogging has 10+ hours of expert interviews with huge names in the online marketing industry like Rand Fishkin, Derek Halpern, and Pat Flynn. It also has four blogger case studies from a selection of the largest and most successful travel blogs out there.

If you want to get serious about creating a travel blog, this is how you do it.

If you don’t want to get serious about your blog, that’s okay, too. But if you want to just figure it out on your own, take my advice— don’t . It will take you years to figure it all out. This course is a direct shortcut to everything you need to know.

I didn’t have this course when I started blogging, but I honestly wish I did. And I’m not just saying that.

Just remember, your travel blog is a direct result of the work you put into it. It’s going to take some hustle, and it’s going to take some knowledge, but you’re taking some big steps towards a very exciting future. I can promise you that.

Travel Blogging FAQs

How do i start my first travel blog.

The best way to start a travel blog is to create a WordPress.com site and just start writing. Make content and get it out there!

Do travel bloggers make money?

With time, luck, and some marketing savvy, travel bloggers can make good money.

How much does it cost to start a travel blog?

You can start a travel blog for free! There are tons of free hosting sites out there, and that’s a great way to get started.

How do I become a travel blogger?

The way to become a travel blogger is to travel, write about it, and post it online. Once you get started you can learn the skills to grow your blog.

Is travel blogging hard?

Travel blogging isn’t hard, but turning your blog into a successful money-making venture is.

Jeremy Scott Foster

Awesome! Love your blog and brand because it’s all about being free, and that’s exactly what I do over at my blog. Each tip is spot on and I dig the travel blogger network you shared with us. Having a framework, and a strong community in place, makes our jobs infinitely easier. Many bloggers have no idea how to make money online let alone making money blogging and need the instruction of pros and experienced vets to get on the blogging straight and narrow. Well done Jeremy!

I’d add to get serious about personal development. The mental game makes or breaks our money making exploits. Many travel bloggers mean well but think lack and limitation. I’m about stretching out a buck but learning how to make more money will you save money helps you enjoy your travel experience that much more. Also, you’ll never need to return home to work a job or to build up your savings again, if you develop your prosperity consciousness.

I’ve been a professional, full time traveling digital nomad for 43 months. I feel the inner game I played – meditating, getting clear, etc – has been the key to my success. I moved into prospering actions and met prospering folks and made more money and detached more from blogging outcomes by diligently working on my mindset. I got serious about doing the inner clearing and because of that my outer results fell into place quite naturally. It takes time and energy to get your mind right, but hey, I’m Blogging from Paradise so it was ALL worth it!

Jeremy, awesome dude! Looking forward to your updates and tweeting from Bali.

Thanks, Ryan! You make a good point. Personal development is a massive contributing factor. The right head-space is an absolute must for blogging! Congrats on your 43 months, and cheers to 43 more! 🙂

Great tips, but I’m wondering if the TRAVEL BLOG SUCCESS is what you personally used to become a successfully monetized and advertised blog? I assume that you didn’t just take these lessons and instantly become successful at SEO etc…Do you have any simple tips towards attracting new viewers?

Hi Adrian! Learning a new skill like SEO, like anything, takes time and practice. But there are a lot of lessons and some insanely valuable advice, tips and tricks which will help you to become a master at your craft.

Hi Jeremy, this post is very helpful and useful, very recommended to many beginners, Thanks mate

Great starting resource for new travel bloggers like myself. Thanks for taking the time to write this post and keep up the good work. One question how did you put together you sidebar banners? I have seen a lot of travel blogs switching over to this style and I like it. I was just on ytravelblog and I see they have the same style. Is is part of Sumome?

Hi Miguel! Are you talking about the four banners that scroll with the content on the sidebar? I created those banners from scratch and they scroll using a plugin called Q2W3 Fixed Widget. Hope that helps!

That was a great post, so helpful. I have been saying this to my partner for weeks! And everyone around me seems to think I am crazy for getting rid of one thing (I don’t use) a day.

It just proves once anything material things never makes us happy.

Again great post.

Sorry, I was talking about the carry on luggage post 🙂

Hey Jeremy, I stumbled across your travel blog as I was researching into my journey of the world and everything it has to offer. I was hoping you could give me some more insight on the basic necessities for traveling. What i mean whats a decent camera to start off with, and lap top. Do you use go pro to capture your travels as well?

Hey Michael! I actually just published a post on the best DSLR camera for traveling. Check it out here: https://travelfreak.com/best-dslr-camera-for-traveling-canon-eos-rebel-sl1/

Thank you, travelfreak! I opened a lil travel blog a few months ago, this article opened my eyes on that “Travel Blog Success, i will def chech it out!

I hope you like it and find as much value from it as I have!

I’m considering to get this started, as I’ve traveled to a few places and want to write about them as well. What type of companies should I try to work with in terms of marketing/promotions? What should I say to get companies to want to partner with me for advertisements/marketing?

You need to build an established brand and audience before trying to work with companies. You can’t just say magic words to “get companies to want to partner with you.” You shouldn’t be trying to dupe brands into working with you—you need to bring value to the table by providing a very real service to them.

Thanks for Travel blog step. I am flowing your 5 steps blog and It is very good. I have abide by this step and i have success. This blog has been very kind to me. I shall flow your any others blog post.

Great source of information Jeremy. This is really a big help on creating a successful travel blog. Thanks

Hosting with BlueHost, an EIG company, will more likely give you headache – not a successful blog! But I understand that they pay a really healthy affiliate commission for every sign-up you can create. I just find it a shame that travel bloggers still push them just for the money – that’s unethical. Specially since your own site in not hosted on Bluehost.

Hi Juergen, I’m sorry you had a poor experience with Bluehost. That’s never been the case for me. I’ve used Bluehost on many sites for many years and, in fact, I use them currently for a couple other sites that I run. I’ve always been transparent about my affiliate partnerships, and the fact that they pay a commission does not affect whether or not I recommend them. There are plenty of other hosting companies who pay much higher commissions, but I choose not to promote them because I don’t believe in their product.

To assume I promote a company ONLY for the commission is obnoxious and distasteful.

Personally I have always stayed away from all EIG hosts. I’m publishing online since 1997 and EIG’s business practices became common knowledge early on (at least among people who then used the internet for anything else but ‘hobby’). Currently I’m a member of enough blogging groups on FB to read at least once a week a new ‘horror story’ about EIG hosting. Things like excessive down times, Bluehost in particular having terrible support when it comes to security breaches (server getting hacked – not necessarily on the site affected by it, they just don’t know how to contain the spread of hacking attempts), HostGator having trouble with in-coming mail, resource management problems on almost all their hosts, etc.). If you’re interested in the latest downfall of a hosting company, Site5, which was bought by EIG last year, read this post https://reviewsignal.com/blog/2016/11/08/the-sinking-of-site5-tracking-eig-brands-post-acquisition/ Towards the end the author adds some interesting quotes from EIG’s own quarterly business report which highlights their internal philosophy.

I’ve really enjoyed following your blog myself! This line: “(plus I’m kind of a computer nerd and I like fancy things)” is broken up in such a way on the screen that I thought it was going to say, “Plus I’m kind of a big deal” and it made me laugh. : ) Glad you’re doing well Jeremy!

Haha you must be reading between the lines and filling in the blanks. I would totally say something like that 😉

Hope you’re doing great, Kelli!

it is really quite detailed article Jeremy. i’ve just started travel blogging, you are the one of my favourite travel blogs and hope to catch you soon 🙂 Thanks for the all tips and information it was good for me.

I’m glad it helped, Enes. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! Thanks for following 🙂

Great post and amazing tips you shared to start a travel blog. that is amazing way to make money with blog.

wow, this is one of my best articles I will ever read online about starting a travel blog, I start implementing this great tips to my blog, this article really helps, thanks for this amazing write-up.

I think this is so far the most practical guide to travel blogging I’ve come across! Thanks for sharing 🙂

I recently started a solo adventure blog and I’m loving it! Thanks for these tips! I can’t wait to check out all of these articles when I get the chance.

Wow! so beautifully explained.And your story of being a traveler and then a blogger and then finally making money out of it is awe inspiring .Certainly, it needs a lot of hard work and perseverance.Applause!

I agree these are the essential tips which can only make your blog, but the fact is you cannot achieve the success in one night. One must have to right and work for a but longer then definitely your work pays off.

I’ve just bought a new MacBook Pro and now I figured that all of my blogs’ images appear blurry on the Retina Displays 🙁

Thinking about sitting down and re-editing all of my images now… what do you do about this issue?

Also, what if in 5 years or so Apple brings out new Retina displays (like “Super Retina”), and once again these images look blurry – will you have to re-edit and re-upload once again? Would love to hear your thoughts on this Jeremy.

Cheers, Stefan

Hey Stefan! The same thing happened to me. I recommend the plugin WP Retina 2x, which is listed above under “Advanced Plugins.” Unfortunately you may have to re-upload anything that you want to appear sharp as a tack, but I’d say pick your top 5 or 10 posts, adjust them, and just focus on new posts going forward. Good luck!

Hey Jeremy,

Yes I did some research on the WP Retina 2x plugin before – but maybe it might be better to use a CDN service (faster loading times)? Like Mark Wiens is using SmugMug and it seems a better long term solution than a plugin. What’s your thoughts on this?

I read this article fully regarding the resemblance of hottest and preceding technologies, it’s awesome article.

Nice article. It has helped me get started. Thank you. I have just started a one year journey and was looking for a way to document and share my travels with family and friends more so than anything. Especially at this point. I really like your currently in section under your picture. How can I do that? I would appreciate it if you would share. Thanks a lot.

That’s a custom element I created using the [box] shortcode—check your theme documentation for further info!

can you tell us what wordpress theme you use for your blog? That would help a lot.

I’m using a heavily customized theme that’s out of date. A redesign is coming soon, though, based on the Genesis Framework!

I really appreciate you putting up this guide to help aspiring bloggers, such as myself. Thank you!

So glad it was helpful!

Thank you so much for your post, it is so helpful and full of useful content. We have started a blog and your tips and advice has really helped us. Thank you so much!!!

Nicely done you break up the content with graphics that pop and keep the reader engaged – you walk the walk

Thanks Blossom! I appreciate that!

This is really a great post and you shared amazing tips.

Thanks for the post !

Great post its really helpful for me and i will tell my friends about this blog.!

I think this is so far the most practical guide to travel blogging I’ve come across! Thanks for sharing ?

I’m so glad you enjoyed it and hope you found it helpful!

Great post Jeremy, some really helpful tips on here for anyone starting a new blog or updating an existing one. This is one of the most useful guides and advice I have seen online 🙂

Thanks, Kirsty! I’m glad it was helpful! 🙂

Thanks for sharing with us and i need to know either we can use irrelevant images in our travel blog, like images we have capture our self and thanks for sharing us such important tips with us.

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We get a lot tourist and traveling people here in Park City Utah. Thanks for sharing. Great Guide!

This blog has Some interesting valid points! I appreciate on your blog this is well written and the rest of the website is extremely good.

We want an increasing number of facilities for ourselves such as center of living a conventional life, having all the services readily available to us as well as many more.

Such valuable, real information here. Thanks!

This is truly a very good travelling blog, If you’re looking forward to start a travel blogs, this can be helpful for you to start off. Thanks for sharing !!

Hey Jeremy! Thanks for the great advice here! I’m not so sure about what my niche is yet since I’m honestly not sure what kind of traveler I am and I don’t want to pigeonhole myself into something I don’t want. What are your thoughts on a plan of throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks to then figure out what to focus on?

The whole thought of providing customers with rewards for loyalty may be going on for years. Customers will not likely send feedback until you come up with a request from your different people who’ve bought in you. If bid cost is high for a particular keyword, you just could possibly be unable to obtain the clicks you’ll need in your limited budget.

Hi Jeremy Foster

It’s a very useful article about “how to be a travel blogger”. You have provided a very brief information for a travel blogger. Thanks for sharing this article.

Nice guideline, it actually kinda works for other types of blogs too.

Absolutely! This guide to starting a travel blog could work for any kind of blog–food, lifestyle, fashion, anything!

Such a great article! Real motivator to keep going.

Cheers bro!

I’d recommend using GoDaddy instead. They have great customer support. Bluehost is cheaper however.

They might have great support, but as GoDaddy’s CEO is a known wildlife poacher, I won’t support anything they do.

Read more: https://science.time.com/2011/04/04/godaddy-ceo-on-shooting-an-elephant-im-not-sorry/

Bunch of great tips but i would recommend a different hosting provider. Just my two cents 🙂

Understood! To each their own 🙂

Thanks a lot for your advice. That just help me so much. Thanks

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How to Start a Travel Blog and Make Money: Step-by-Step Tutorial

Smitten by wanderlust? Want to see the world? Why not start a travel blog to share your experiences with others? Beyond it just plain being fun to write about your adventures, creating a travel blog might even be able to help you make enough money to fund even more fun adventures.

In this post, we’ll give you a step-by-step tutorial for everything you need to do to start a travel blog.

The 5 things you’ll need to create an awesome travel blog

Beyond your awesome writing and pictures, these are the 5 things you’ll need to build your travel blog.

• Web hosting – this is the engine that will power your travel blog and make it available to visitors around the world. (We recommend SiteGround )
• Domain name – your blog’s permanent address. For example, ours is themeisle.com .
• The free WordPress software – we highly recommend you 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 site without requiring any technical knowledge. You’ll use them to add maps of where you’ve traveled, travel galleries, and more.

Once we show you how to get those basics set up, we’ll also share some tips for how you can create content on your blog, promote it, and maybe even get some extra money online from it.

How to start a travel blog: step-by-step

Here’s your step-by-step guide to start a travel blog:

Step 1: Pick a niche

Step 2: select a domain name, step 3: purchase wordpress hosting and install wordpress, step 4: choose a travel blog theme, step 5: install helpful plugins for travel blogs, step 6: create and add content, step 7: build your blog’s audience, step 8: how to make money from your travel blog.

There’s a wide choice of travel blog niches to pick from – specific country or area, backpacking, targeted audiences, luxury travel, traveling with kids or pets, and more. Your chances of building a high traffic blog improve if you keep your focus on a few specific areas.

Go with the one you’re most passionate about because you’re in this for the long haul!

Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember.

Using a brand name in the domain may not be an option for you when you’re just starting off. So, you should do the next best thing, select a name that you can build into a brand. Something that’s short, easy to recall, and maybe a bit quirky. Keyword-based names are good too, though you’ll find that most are already taken up.

You could even use your own name if you’re going to maintain a highly personal style throughout your blog. Or, you can use part of your name in a brand – e.g. nomadicmatt.com.

We have some general tips on how to choose a domain name . And if you’re really stuck, you can try using a blog name generator to come up with some ideas.

Your hosting is important because it ensures your site loads quickly and is always available to your visitors. There are a ton of quality WordPress hosting services , but a good starting point is SiteGround .

In addition to always scoring well in our annual WordPress hosting survey, SiteGround:

• Is affordable
• Gives you a setup wizard that installs WordPress for you
• Makes it easy purchase your domain name
• Has awesome support if you ever need help

You can choose the cheapest StartUp plan to get started. Then, you just need to 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!

Your blog’s theme determines how it looks. Luckily, you’ll find a number of free and premium themes, many designed specifically for travel blogs.

When you pick an existing travel blog theme, you’ll instantly get set up with a great-looking travel blog. You don’t have to go far to find some cool themes that are good for travel sites. Themeisle offers two such themes with travel-related starter designs – Neve and Hestia . To be honest though, designs optimized for blogging will also fit most websites.

For example, the Neve theme offers some of the following features:

• Over 100 pre-built designs , including ones that are ideal for blogs and websites focused on travel.
• Compatibility with the Block Editor and also with popular page builders like Elementor.
• Lightning fast performance – consistently ranking among the fastest WordPress themes.
• Clean code designed with SEO in mind.
• Fully-responsive.

All these built-in features make it super simple to start a travel blog that will look great, and that will load quickly to keep your visitors and the search engines happy.

To install your chosen theme, visit your WordPress dashboard and click Appearance → Themes → Add New .

WordPress plugins help you add new functionality to your travel blog without requiring any technical knowledge on your part . They’re one of the things that makes WordPress so awesome. And pretty much every WordPress site makes good use of plugins.

There are some must-have plugins for all sites, including travel blogs. The most commonly used plugins span several categories, most of which are featured below.

👉 The following links will take you to dedicated articles about each topic:

• SEO plugins
• Caching plugins
• Social share button plugins
• Security plugins
• Contact form plugins
• Gutenberg block plugins

Beyond those popular choices, you’ll also want some specific travel plugins. While this can vary depending on your focus area, here are some good ideas:

• A good photo gallery plugin such as NextGEN Gallery to share your travel pictures in a gallery

Author(s): Imagely

Current Version: 3.59.2

Last Updated: April 10, 2024

nextgen-gallery.3.59.2.zip

• Plugins to help integrate with Instagram and Facebook
• Slider plugins to display amazing full-width photos
• A lightbox plugin to allow readers to view your photos in a customizable lightbox

Author(s): Archetyped

Current Version: 2.9.3

Last Updated: March 27, 2024

simple-lightbox.2.9.3.zip

• A map plugin to plot places and routes is a must-have when you want to start a travel blog. It helps to keep your readers stay engaged with you as you move from one place to another.
• Plugins like TravelPayouts help you add a travel booking capability to your blog. It helps your visitors find deals on flights and hotels to different locations while you earn a commission.

Author(s): travelpayouts

Current Version: 1.1.16

Last Updated: March 11, 2024

travelpayouts.zip

Learn how to install WordPress plugins .

Once you’ve set up your travel blog’s foundation, you’re ready to 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 button to insert images and the text editor to write and format your content:

There are a few channels you can use to grow your blog’s traffic .

With millions of active users, social media can help your content reach 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 form part of your social media strategy .

Beyond that, you should also learn about SEO and topics like keyword research .

Building an email list is another great way to grow a long-term audience.

Once your starts to get some traffic, here are some ways that you can make money from your blog :

• Affiliate marketing : You can have affiliates for almost everything – accommodation, insurance, travel gear, web hosting. Every time someone clicks on a link resulting in the purchase of an affiliate’s product, you earn a (small) commission.
• Google Adsense : Google generates ads relevant to travel on your blog. When visitors click on the offered ads, you earn revenue.
• Premium (gated) content : You can sell digital guides for the places that you’ve visited to save other travelers time.
• Add a donation button : Obviously, this can work only when you’ve built up a dedicated readership.
• Offer personalized advice : Offer travel related advice for payment of a fee, or offer personalized or guided tours of specific places, or curate travel plans.
• Sponsored posts : Travel related businesses may pay you to write about them on your blog. Just make sure to be transparent.
• Sponsored trips : Tourism boards, private companies or brands can ask you to visit their places and write about it.
• Workshops : Accept offers to conduct travel-related workshops.

Wrapping up 🏁

That wraps up our guide. If you made it this far, congratulations on creating your own travel blog!

Have any other questions about how to start a travel blog? Leave a comment and we’ll try to help out.

Themeisle Contributor

Karol Krol is a writer, content strategist, and WordPress figure-outer with over 20 years of experience rooted in website building and web technologies. With his expertise underpinned by a master's degree in computer science, he authored "WordPress Complete" - the ultimate WordPress handbook for newbies. His work has been published across numerous industry websites. He leads the editorial team at Themeisle.

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How to Start a Travel Blog: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2024

Starting a travel blog combines the excitement of sharing your adventures with some technical knowledge. If you want to document and share your journeys with the world, this guide on how to start a travel blog is for you. We’ll walk you through everything from picking out a domain name to your first blog post and how to get your stories out to eager readers. 

Whether you’re blogging to complement your business, share your experiences, or both, you’ll get practical tips to confidently enter the travel blogging scene.

Quick Guide on Starting a Travel Blog

Here’s a brief rundown of what it takes to start your travel blog on WordPress:

• Step 1 : Choose a Domain Name
• Step 2 : Pick a Web Hosting Service
• Step 3 : Install WordPress
• Step 4 : Choose a WordPress Travel Blog Theme
• Step 5 : Adjust Your Blog’s Settings
• Step 6 : Add Essential Plugins
• Step 7 : Craft Your First Blog Posts
• Step 8 : Spread the Word About Your Blog
• Step 9 : Keep Your Blog Fresh and Updated

Let’s explore these steps to ensure your travel blog sets sail smoothly.

9 Steps to Create a Travel Blog: A Detailed Guide

Creating a travel blog is an adventure in itself. Here’s how to navigate through the setup smoothly.

1. Choose a Domain Name

Choosing the right domain name for your travel blog is like picking the perfect travel companion. It should be memorable and reflect the spirit of your adventures. You want a name that is easy for your followers to remember and type, avoiding any complicated spellings that might confuse them. Generally, securing a domain name will set you back around $14.99 a year – a small price to pay for establishing your blog’s home base in the online world.

Before settling on a name, it’s wise to do some research. You can use domain registrars or web hosting services to see if your dream name is available. But it’s not just about grabbing any available name. You must ensure it doesn’t step on trademark toes or get mixed up with another site.

If you’re stuck on what to name your blog, why not try a domain name generator like DomainWheel ? These tools are a lifesaver for travel bloggers, offering creative names based on your keywords. They’re great for sparking ideas and showing you what’s available, making the process fun.

2. Pick a Web Hosting Service

Selecting the right hosting provider for your travel blog is similar to finding the perfect spot for your base camp. You want a place that’s accessible, secure, and smooth-running.

When hunting for a hosting service , prioritize uptime reliability, outstanding customer support, and WordPress-friendly features. Budgeting is crucial, too. While the allure of free hosting is strong, it often comes with restrictions. Seek plans that balance cost and key features, such as a complimentary domain name, without sacrificing quality.

It’s wise to spend time reading reviews and gathering user experiences to assess the reliability of hosting services. Look for consistent positive feedback and see how the provider resolves issues.

Providers like Siteground simplify blogging by offering domain registration and hosting services. This allows for easier management and a single point of contact for any domain or hosting issues.

3. Install WordPress

Regarding blogging platforms , what better way to launch your travel storytelling platform than WordPress? Known for its user-friendly interface and adaptable features, WordPress is the go-to for a professional travel blogger who wants to engage their readers in tales from distant lands, busy cities, and hidden gems.

Here’s a quick guide to getting WordPress up and running :

• Hop into your hosting control panel . You might find yourself in a cPanel, Plesk, or something uniquely designed by your hosting service. This is your command center, where the magic begins.

• Fill in the blanks with your site’s name, your chosen admin username, password, and email.
• Dive into the advanced options . But if you’re more of a “let’s hit the road and see where it takes us” kind of traveler, the default settings are your best bet.
• Complete the setup , and before you know it, WordPress will be ready and waiting on your domain.

• Familiarize Yourself: Upon your first login, take some time to explore the WordPress dashboard. Familiarizing yourself with the layout and the various settings will make your blogging journey smoother.

Should you hit a bump in the road, your hosting provider’s support team is like the friendly local ready to help you find your way.

4. Choose a WordPress Travel Blog Theme

Picking the suitable WordPress theme is like choosing the perfect travel companion. It sets the tone for your blog’s visual journey, ensuring that your stories are heard, felt, and experienced by your readers. A theme that balances beauty with functionality can turn travel blogs into a destination of its own.

Your readers are eager for adventure, and your blog’s design should invite them into a world of discovery. But it’s not all about looks; your blog needs to be easy for your readers to navigate and find their way around, just like a well-mapped travel guide.

If you spend your days chasing horizons and nights recounting tales of adventure, you’ll want a theme as dynamic as your travels. The Dérive theme could be just what you’re looking for.

Dérive is a travel blog theme to help you create outstanding visual stories. The theme’s flexibility makes it ideal for travel photographers, storytellers, and photojournalists who want to present their experiences online. 

Integrated with a responsive map, Dérive offers an interactive way to showcase and arrange your posts geographically. You can tell your stories worldwide with the Responsive Vector Maps plugin by adding links to a customizable world or specific country map.

Suggested Reading :

• What Is a WordPress Theme?
• WordPress Default Theme Explored
• How to Choose a WordPress Theme
• How to Install a WordPress Theme

5. Adjust Your Blog’s Settings

Tailoring your blog settings ensures your site mirrors your unique journey and meets your readers right where their desire to travel begins.

Here’s a friendly guide on making travel blogs a digital nomad’s dream:

• Crafting a Navigation Menu : A navigation menu helps readers navigate your stories and find the treasures they seek. You can create and personalize your menu by going to Appearance > Menus .
• Choosing Your Homepage View : Decide what your readers first set eyes on when they land on your blog. Will it be your latest adventures or a welcoming static page? You can set this up under Settings > Reading .
• Managing Comments : Conversations with your readers can turn them from passersby into part of your travel tribe. Under Settings > Discussion , you can decide how to manage comments. Whether it’s approving them before they go live or closing comments on posts that are a bit older, it’s about making your blog a lively and safe space for sharing travel tales.
• Permalinks Settings : Permalinks are like the GPS coordinates for your posts and pages. Under Settings > Permalinks , WordPress lets you customize these. Opt for a structure that’s easy for readers and search engines to follow, making it more straightforward for them to discover your adventures.

Each setting is crucial in how smoothly and engaging your travel blog runs.

6. Add Essential Plugins

Installing the right plugins can add new features and boost your blog’s functionality. With so many plugins available, picking those that add value to your travel blog without slowing it down is vital.

Start by identifying the features you want to bring into your blog. Whether it’s SEO optimization to increase your visibility, social media tools to share your journeys, security measures to keep your site safe, or even e-commerce solutions to sell your travel gear or ebooks, there’s a plugin for you. Each one has a setup process to get it up and running smoothly.

To help you navigate the vast options, we’ve compiled a list of indispensable plugins for a successful travel blogger. This selection spans various categories, ensuring you get access to reliable, quality plugins that are perfect for your needs.

Keeping your plugins up-to-date is a non-negotiable. Just like you wouldn’t venture into unknown territories with outdated maps, using old plugin versions can pose risks to your blog’s security and might need to work better with the latest WordPress updates.

While plugins can turn your blog into a powerhouse, packing too many into your WordPress site can slow it down, much like an overloaded backpack can slow you down on a hike. Choose wisely and stick to the essentials that genuinely enhance your travel blogging journey.

• What Are WordPress Plugins?
• How to Install a WordPress Plugin

7. Craft Your First Blog Posts

Now comes the thrilling part: writing your very first blog post. This is your stage to share those jaw-dropping experiences, hidden gems you’ve stumbled upon, and stories that made your journey unforgettable.

Here’s a little guide to help you navigate through creating and shaping your debut blog post.

• Make It Visually Appealing : The editor is your best friend here, allowing you to make your text easy to read and engaging. Break your story up with headings – it makes it easier on the eyes and helps fellow adventurers find the bits they’re most interested in. And what’s a travel story without pictures? Click Add Media to add your travel photos to your post. Feel free to use videos, quotes, and links to enrich your post.
• Preview and Go Live : Preview your post before you hit the Publish button. Make sure everything looks great and reads smoothly. Once you’re all set, press Publish to share your journey with the world.

It’s your chance to share the world through your eyes and connect with others who share your passion for exploration.

8. Spread the Word About Your Blog

The adventure begins when you start sharing your stories with a broader audience and build a community around your love for exploration. Growing a successful travel blog involves sharing your experiences and ensuring they reach fellow travel enthusiasts. 

Here’s a friendly guide on how to broaden the horizons of your travel blog:

• Make Friends with Search Engines : Fine-tuning your blog for search engines can put your travel tales on the map. It’s all about helping people find your stories while they dream of their next adventure.
• Share the Journey on Social Media Channels : Your potential followers scroll through their feeds, looking for their next travel inspiration. Use social media posts to share your adventures on the platforms where the love for travel is strong.
• Keep in Touch via Email : Gather a crew of avid readers by encouraging them to subscribe to your newsletter. It’s like sending postcards from different parts of the world directly to their inbox.
• Chat with Your Fellow Travelers : The comment section is your campfire. Engage with your readers there or on social media platforms to keep the conversation going.
• Keep the Travel Tales Coming : The world is vast, and so should be your content. Staying consistent with your posts keeps your readers hooked and returning for more.
• Map Your Journey : Use tools like Google Analytics to see which of your stories are leading the way. It helps you understand what your readers love and where your blog is headed.

Growing a travel blog is a journey filled with learning and new connections. It takes time, but with these strategies, you’re setting the course for a thriving community of travel enthusiasts eager to follow in your footsteps. Keep sharing your adventures, and watch as your travel blog becomes a guide for those seeking their next incredible journey.

WPZOOM offers specialized social media tools to enhance social media integration:

• Social Icons Widget : A simple yet powerful tool for adding social media icons to your website, linking directly to your profiles.
• Instagram Widget : This widget is perfect for restaurants wishing to showcase their culinary creations. It allows you to display your latest Instagram posts directly on your website.

9. Keep Your Blog Fresh and Updated

Running a travel blog is an exciting journey, but it’s not just about sharing your latest adventures or the hidden gems you’ve discovered. Like any good trip, it requires planning and upkeep to ensure everything runs smoothly. Here’s how you can keep your travel blog up and running while also keeping it engaging and secure.

• Stay Updated : Make sure your blog’s core system, themes, and plugins are up to date. These updates often fix bugs and improve security, making your site safer and more efficient.
• Back It Up : Think of backups as your blog’s safety net. If something goes wrong, like a technical glitch or a hacker attack, having a backup means you will keep everything you’ve worked so hard to create.
• Keep It Safe : Use strong passwords, install security plugins , and perform regular malware checks. Staying one step ahead of threats can also help you keep up with the latest security tips from the blogging community.
• Speed Things Up : No one likes waiting for a flight or a webpage to load. Check your blog’s loading times and make improvements where you can. Compressing images, using caching plugins, and considering a content delivery network can all help make your blog faster , ensuring your readers stick around to see what you’ve got to share.

Maintaining a travel blog is an ongoing adventure. Keeping everything updated, secure, and running smoothly creates a welcoming and reliable space for your stories and insights. This helps you connect with your audience and ensures your blog stands the test of time, ready for whatever new experiences come your way.

Bottom Line

You’re all set to launch and grow your travel blog, where you can share your journeys, tips, and the world’s beauty with others. Each step — from choosing the right domain and hosting to crafting captivating posts and improving your site’s visibility — is a step closer to building a blog that resonates with fellow travelers.

Remember, the secret sauce to a blog that buzzes with activity is your consistent effort, ability to adapt, and undying love for exploring the world.

Keep trying new things, soaking up knowledge, and changing things as you dive into this thrilling adventure. The travel blogging niche constantly shifts, and staying curious and flexible is your best strategy. Connect with your readers, take their advice to heart, and let your unique perspective on travel light up your blog.

And hey, don’t hesitate to just go for it. Every popular travel blog begins with a single post; yours is no different. Enjoy the ride of expressing yourself and see your own blog evolve from a simple diary to a bustling hub for wanderlust enthusiasts.

So, pack your virtual bags and set off on this blogging journey. With a bit of patience and a lot of passion, your travel blog can become a beloved stop for those dreaming of their next adventure.

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How To Start A Travel Blog And Make Money Step-By-Step

Curious about how to start a travel and make money ?

This guide can help!

There is a lot to understand when it comes to building a profitable blogging business — especially when you’re just starting out.

To help, I break things down step-by-step below. By the end of the post, you’ll understand:

• Things you need to do before launching your blog
• How to set up your website in the best possible way
• Ways to grow your website traffic and get readers to your content
• What to actually write about on your travel blog (content plan template included!)
• How to monetize your site and boost your travel blogging income

Note: This post on how to start a travel blog and make money contains affiliate links to trusted partners I think you’ll love!

Table of Contents

Free Travel Blogging Course

But first, before we dive into this in-depth guide on starting a blog and how to become a travel blogger and make money, I invite you to grab a seat in my free travel blogging course .

If you’re curious how to start a travel blog and get paid, this 4-day video course will show you step-by-step.

By the end, you’ll have a solid plan for how to create the profitable blogging business of your dreams!

Things To Do Before Setting Up Your Blog

Before you start creating content, it’s important to:

• Sort out the legal side of your blogging business
• Figure out how you’ll do your bookkeeping and accounting as a blogger

From there, you can move on to the creative side of things. One of the most important parts of understanding how to make money as a travel blogger is actually spending time solidifying your brand.

Branding your blog means you’ll know exactly who you help and how, as well as why you’re blogging and what you’re working toward.

With a solid brand, it’ll be much easier to come up with blog post ideas , social media posts, digital products to sell , and more. Plus, it’ll help you avoid writer’s block as a blogger .

Here are a few questions to get you started with branding your blog:

• Who do you want to help and how through your blog?
• What are your values? As in, how do you want to show up for people?
• Why are you blogging?
• What are your goals with your blog?
• What kinds of messaging can you use to convey your brand?

Additionally, you can grab access to my free Travel Blogger Resource Library , which features a branding workbook as well as a fun audience mad libs worksheet, among other helpful printables and tutorials that can make travel blogging for beginners easier.

How To Start A Travel Blog Step-By-Step

Step #1: choose your domain name..

My advice for new travel bloggers is to really think long and hard about this, as if you decide to change it later it will be a huge pain.

Your travel blog post ideas should fit seamlessly with your domain name and your overall brand.

A few considerations when determining your domain name:

• Do you want to have more of a personal blog or more a magazine-style blog? For instance, Jessie on a Journey vs Epicure & Culture.
• Is there a keyword you can put in the blog name to make the main topic clear? For example, Solo Female Travel Society.
• Is your blog destination based? For instance, All About NYC.

To make sure that a certain domain name is available, you can use this free tool from Bluehost :

Step #2: Choose & purchase your hosting provider.

Website hosting is one of the most important purchases you’ll make, as it can impact the speed and user experience of your website.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter how great your travel content ideas are if you have a slow site that doesn’t load for your visitors.

Moreover, you’ll want a host with great customer service to help out when you inevitably run into issues.

While I personally use and love Flywheel , I realize this can be quite pricey for newer bloggers.

If you’re just starting out and want something reliable yet budget-friendly, I suggest checking out Bluehost and Siteground .

Make sure to also consider the long-term pricing of their packages and what will best fit your budget.

Getting set up is quick and easy, too. For instance, with Bluehost you’ll simply:

• Click “Get Started” on their homepage
• Enter in your desired domain name (or enter in your existing domain if you’re moving a site over) and click “Next”
• Tip: The longer you pay for upfront typically the cheaper it’ll be annually
• Also, I personally recommend skipping any extras, as you can always use plugins, a few of which I’ll recommend below
• Create your password on the next page
• Login to Bluehost to install WordPress, which you can do by scrolling to the “MOJO Marketplace” section and choosing “One-Click Installs”
• Choose “WordPress” (unless you’re using a different content management system, which I don’t recommend) and click “Start”
• Choose your domain, then click “Check Domain” to ensure it is assigned and pointing to your account

Note that Bluehost (and most other hosts) offers extensive documentation with visuals on how to get set up quickly and correctly if you need further assistance.

Most website hosts also provide website backups. Make sure your host does — or choose a plugin or tool to do this for you.

Personally, I go an extra step and save a copy of my website backup to my computer every Friday.

Step #3: Choose your theme.

Now for the fun part!

Once you’re set up technically, it’s time to design the site that will house your incredible travel content.

I highly recommend skipping the free themes — which don’t typically offer support — and opting for a paid theme.

You can peruse the Envato Marketplace for a wide range of beautiful themes.

Personally, I use the Beaver Builder theme on Jessie on a Journey as well as X Theme on my NYC photo tour site. I love both themes and would highly recommend either of them.

Forget heavy themes with loads of bells and whistles, like moving photo slideshows on the homepage.

Usually, a simple but functional theme will be faster and offer a better user experience to visitors.

Step #4: Get set up technically for safety & speed.

Along with writing engaging blog content, one of the biggest priorities you should have when it comes to your blog is making sure it is fast.

Not only will this offer a better user experience, but it can also help your content rank higher in search engine rankings.

My absolute favorite plugin for speeding up my website is WPRocket .

As soon as I set up the plugin I saw an immediate increase in site speed.

Just a few of its many site speed enhancing features include:

• Page & browser caching
• Lazy-loading of images
• Sitemap preloading
• Database optimization
• Cloudflare compatibility

Speaking of Cloudflare , this is the second tool I highly recommend installing if you want a speedy and secure site.

The free tool helps optimize your site while also screening visitors to make sure they’re not malicious bots or something else bad.

Speaking of speed, it’s also worth it to do some research on the best laptops for blogging . A good laptop can be expensive, but it can really help increase your efficiency.

Step #5: Install additional plugins.

There is a plugin for almost every issue you run into and any adjustment you want to make to your website.

A few of my favorites include:

Grow by Mediavine. This plugin adds social sharing buttons to your travel blog posts, and also allows you to add clickable Tweets and Pinterest-optimized graphics to your content.

ConvertPlus . This is my go-to plugin for creating beautiful and highly-customizable popups, smart bars, and slide-ins that can help grow your email list and increase your blogging income .

Updraft Plus. This plugin allows you to create backups of your website.

Akismet. This plugin helps eliminate spammy comments and messages coming through your contact form.

Beaver Builder . I use this plugin to create beautiful high-converting landing and sales pages, like this one sharing about my Travel Blog Prosperity membership community .

Cookie Notice. This plugin lets people know that your blog uses cookies and lets them agree to this policy.

Schema Pro . This plugin allows you to easily add Schema Markup to your website to help improve SEO.

Step #6: Set up your analytics tracking.

To have a successful travel blog, you need to be able to monitor what is working and what isn’t.

There are two free tools I suggest setting up to track your blog’s analytics.

These include:

Google Analytics. This tool helps you learn about the demographics and behaviors of your website visitors.

Moreover, you’ll gain important insights into how people arrive to your blog and interact with your content.

Google Search Console. On the other hand, this tool helps you better understand how your content is performing in Google search results.

With this information, you can tweak your content strategy moving forward, and even edit previously published blog posts to help increase their chances of ranking in search results.

Furthermore, this tool lets you know when there are errors on your site that need to be fixed.

Step #7: Publish your important pages.

We’re almost ready to write a blog post.

Before doing that, it’s recommended to publish a few important pages, including your:

About Page . Introduce yourself to your blog visitors and let them know what they’ll get out of being a reader, including your top travel blog topic ideas and categories.

If you need help writing your about page, I’ve got a template you can use in my free blogging resource library .

Work With Me Page . This is especially helpful if you want to land paid brand collaborations .

Privacy Policy. This page spells out how you collect, use, and store the data of your website visitors and is required by law.

Website Terms & Conditions. Another legal page, though this one shares the rules that visitors must agree to in order to use your website.

Disclaimer. This legal page helps limit your liability; for instance, if you recommend a restaurant in a blog post and then someone goes and gets food poisoning they can’t hold you responsible.

If legal pages make you nervous, my friend and lawyer Lisa Fraley offers a number of plug-and-play templates on her website .

Step #8: Write your first blog post.

It’s time to put those creative storytelling skills to work and write your first blog post!

You can use this blog content planner template to get organized and create an intentional publishing schedule for your posts.

By the way, if you’re curious how to write blog articles fast , having a content plan is very helpful. You can honestly plan a year of content in one week if you understand SEO.

Additionally, this list of travel blog post ideas should keep you inspired for a while! It’s especially helpful if you’re not 100% sure what to blog about yet.

Now, as you create your content plan, I highly recommend considering what types of content can bring in profits so you can add those in.

We’ll go over that more below, but for now, check out this video on how to monetize a blog content series :

How To Promote Your Travel Blog Organically

There are many ways to increase your blog traffic without spending money on advertising, like:

Understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO) To Increase Blog Traffic

In my opinion, the best way to help your blog posts organically get found is by optimizing your content for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) .

Now, SEO starts with having a speedy site that offers a great user experience.

My secret weapon for this is WPRocket , which I discussed above. If you want a fast site I highly recommend this plugin.

Moreover, you’ll want to optimize your blog posts for specific keywords that people search — so that your posts get shown to them!

For this, I use a tool called Keysearch , which allows you to pinpoint a main keyword you can realistically rank for and optimize your content for that keyword.

Additionally, the tool shows you supporting keywords, common questions, and important sub-topics to include in your blog post to help it rank higher in search engine results.

If this sounds confusing, don’t worry, as Keysearch offers tutorials on how to best use their powerful software.

You can click here and use code “JESSIEONAJOURNEY” for 20% off!

Here is a quick Keysearch tutorial showing how I use the tool to find niche keywords I can actually rank for:

Additionally, here are few other important SEO tips:

Optimize your blog posts for long-tail keywords. These are keywords that are longer — three or more words — and more specific, which makes them easier to rank for.

For example, it’ll be easier to rank for “Best family-friendly hotels in New York City” than “NYC hotels”.

Consistently write about the same topics. This not only makes it clear to your audience what you’re an authority on, but also Google — meaning it’ll be easier to rank for them.

Interlink your content. Building backlinks — both from other sites (external backlinks) and from your other posts (internal backlinks) — is great for SEO.

In fact, building backlinks for a post can help it rank more easily. While it takes work to build backlinks from other sites, you can control your internal backlinks.

When creating your content plan, plan posts that easily link together! For instance, a blog post on the Best Hikes In Upstate New York can link to posts on the individual hikes themselves.

Update your old blog posts . Having a relevant, factual, and up-to-date website is an important part of any SEO strategy.

Build Blog Traffic Using Social Media

I know Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms can be frustrating, but it is possible to enjoy social media if you approach it the right way.

First of all, don’t try to be everywhere. Instead, focus on one platform at a time and create a repeatable strategy that works before moving on to another. For instance, if you create a TikTok for bloggers strategy or a Pinterest strategy that you can come back to every week, it’ll be an easier and more enjoyable experience.

Additionally, when choosing which platforms to be active on, consider your goals.

For instance, if you want to grow your blog traffic , a platform like Pinterest where people are actually searching for answers to their questions and then clicking away from the platform would be a great option.

Get New Readers Through Collaboration

Whether you’re a new blogger or you’ve been blogging for a while, you can work with other creators — and even affiliates and brands — to cross-promote each other’s content or products.

This allows you to gain visibility, get new blog followers , and increase your traffic.

Put together a small group of bloggers in your niche that can cross-promote each other’s content. You can have everyone join a private Facebook group where you all post new content on the wall to be shared by others.

For more ideas, check out my guide on how to grow your blog through collaboration .

Promote Your Blog At Events To Gain Visibility

Don’t forget about opportunities to promote your blog during virtual or in-person events!

For instance, if you’re speaking or hosting a presentation, create a slide that showcases a relevant opt-in freebie and a link to grab it.

This allows you to grow your email list while empowering your community. You’ll then be able to let those on your email list know when new content publishes.

By the way, this guide can help you understand how to create opt-in freebies for your blog if this concept is new to you.

Speaking of which…

Share New Content With Your Email List

Wondering what to send to your email list ?

Here’s one idea:

Make sure you let your email list know when new content publishes.

Remember, these people are your most dedicated community members; your VIPs. They gave you their digital phone number — which takes a lot more than simply hitting “like” or “follow” on social media.

When letting your email subscribers know that a new post publishes, don’t just share the title and link and call it a day.

Instead, utilize storytelling email marketing by teasing the content and sharing stories! Here are some prompts for your emails:

• Why did you write the post?
• How will reading the post benefit your community?
• Did what you share in the post have a before-and-after effect on you? What was it?

Weaving in personal stories and making the benefits of reading your blog post clear can really help increase clicks to your content!

How To Make Money Blogging

Let’s start off this section by answering the question:

How do beginner bloggers make money?

When you’re first starting out, it’s smart to focus on branding your blog , creating valuable content, getting blog followers , and overall growing your blog .

It’s also smart to map out your blogging goals and set deadlines to meet them — such as taking your blog full-time within a year or optimizing your site so that you can sell your blog for profit .

Make Money Travel Blogging With Affiliate Marketing

This all being said, one smart way to monetize your blog and get on your way to becoming a professional travel blogger is creating a smart affiliate strategy.

Choose travel blog topics that promote your favorite affiliate partners and encourage readers to purchase through your affiliate link.

A few tips for succeeding with affiliate marketing and monetizing your travel blog include:

Focus on affiliate products you already use and love.

This first step to seeing success with affiliate marketing for travel bloggers is to consider the products you already stand by. This is because the easiest products to promote will be the ones you already have experience with.

Take inventory of what products you currently use that you’d feel good about promoting — and that would benefit your audience.

This will be a great place to start when deciding what affiliate programs to join.

Join affiliate programs that have high payouts.

While Amazon is convenient because it has so many different products listed, the payout amount is very low.

I recommend instead focusing on programs that have a high payout so that it is worth your time to create content around them.

The best commissions are recurring — meaning you continue to earn an affiliate commission for as long as your referral is a paying customer of the product.

A few brands offering recurring affiliate commission include ZenMate VPN, Backblaze, and Stencil.

Share affiliate links in content that attracts buyers.

Simply sprinkling affiliate links into your content willy-nilly is not a strategy.

Instead, combine SEO with affiliate marketing and optimize your content for “buyer-intent keywords” — as in, words and phrases that people search when they have their credit card in hand ready to purchase.

For instance, you know someone searching for the “ best affordable hiking backpacks under $100 ” is looking to buy a backpack. The word “best” is a very common buyer-intent keyword to add to a search phrase to attract buyers.

Install Skimlinks. Additionally, you can use a tool like Skimlinks to automatically turn your regular links into affiliate links. This can be helpful if you want to start making money right away without implementing a complicated strategy.

By the way, installing Skimlinks is one of my favorite quick win strategies to grow your blog fast .

Want more? Check out this video:

Bonus Ideas For Monetizing Your Travel Blog

A few other ideas for how to be a travel blogger and make money include:

• Going on paid press trips
• Creating an online course using Teachable (tip: here is how to validate an online course idea before creating it)
• Writing and monetizing a blog series
• Selling digital products
• Selling services and experiences, like day tours in your home city and multi-day tours abroad
• Opening an online shop using Sellfy
• Making money with webinars
• Becoming an affiliate for Ultimate Bundles and including one of your digital products in an upcoming bundle
• Monetizing your email list using ConvertKit (30-day free trial; no credit card required!)
• Pitching a paid brand collaboration
• Creating a profitable automated email sequence
• Creating a free challenge that grows your email list and income
• Sending different types of emails focused on sales
• Running display ads with Mediavine
• Coming up with travel post ideas that promote affiliate partners offering recurring revenue
• Getting featured in the media as a freelance writer

Here are 13 ways to increase your travel blogging income .

Additionally, this video shares 14 profitable product ideas for bloggers. I highly recommend launching a product at some point in your blogging career, as doing this can really help you have more control over your earnings:

The #1 Way To Increase Your Travel Blogger Salary

If you want to earn a full-time blogger salary , here is an important note:

One of the main things that keeps travel bloggers from being profitable is not implementing revenue streams.

Please do not make the mistake of thinking that simply creating more content will lead to income. Yes, your content can be profitable — as long as you have an actual profit plan.

My suggestion:

No matter what revenue streams you choose, implement one at a time and really work to set it up for success.

It may seem daunting to, say, create an online course or an affiliate marketing content plan ; however, if you break up your revenue stream implementation into steps or milestones it will be a lot less daunting.

Give yourself time and space to test and tweak.

Check in to see what is working — and what isn’t — with your strategy so you can truly increase your travel blogger salary and experience how to earn money from a travel blog.

How To Start A Travel Blog Without Traveling

Before ending this guide on how to launch your site and how to earn money from a travel blog, I want to discuss a question that comes up often:

Is it possible to start a travel blog if you don’t travel full time — or even frequently?

The answer:

Absolutely!

Because here is the thing:

Your hometown — while it may not be a travel destination to you — can be an interesting destination for someone else.

Moreover, not all travel blog content needs to be narrative guides about your travel experiences or lists of your personal top picks from a place.

Here are a few alternative travel blog ideas:

• A travel blog where you interview other travelers
• A travel blog where you research pioneering travelers to share their stories
• A travel blog where you publish recipes from around the world

I encourage you to think outside the box and get creative with your own travel blog focus. What is ultimately important is that you’re sharing your passion in a way that helps others.

What tips would you add to this guide on how to start a travel blog and make money?

✈️ How To Start a Travel Blog That Makes Money In 2024

Starting a travel blog is an exciting way to share your travel experiences.

Not only do you get to explore the world, but you also have the opportunity to build a community of fellow travel enthusiasts — and make a substantial income while you’re at it.

At Authority Hacker, we’ve guided over 14,000 students in creating profitable blogs, many of whom are in the travel niche.

We’ve also found unlocked the secrets of turning blog visitors into cash – check out this sampling of affiliate commissions we’ve earned over the years.

To help you find similar success, we’ve distilled our expertise into this 10-step guide.

Why Start a Travel Blog

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or just setting out on your first adventure, creating a travel blog can be a fulfilling path.

For starters, the travel industry is booming right now, and starting a travel blog lets you capitalize on that popularity. More than 90% of Americans plan to travel in 2024 , and the global travel industry was estimated to rake in a whopping 7 trillion  dollars .

Travel blogging also empowers you to make a positive impact   on aspiring travelers. By sharing your experiences and insights, you can help people achieve their travel goals.  

But the best part of starting a travel blog is getting paid to travel . With just a laptop and internet access, you could grow your travel site anywhere. And with affiliate marketers in the travel niche earning an average of $13,847 per month , there’s ample opportunity to make good money.

Successful Travel Site Examples

The best way to learn how to start a travel blog is by studying other accomplished travel bloggers. Here are a few great examples:

SANspotter documents Scott Leazenby’s travel adventures, with a particular focus on airlines, airport lounges, and specific flight routes.

The Hawaii vacation Guide

The Hawaii Vacation Guide helps people make the most out of their vacation to the Hawaiian islands. They share itineraries, recommendations, reviews, and more.

SV Delos teaches aspiring sailors how to travel the world on a sailboat. They share sailing videos, safety tips, and sell their own merchandise.

How To Start a Travel Blog in 10 Steps

Here is a foolproof guide to launching a successful travel site in ten easy steps:

1 Narrow Down Your Travel Blog’s Niche

A niche is a specific, focused area within a given topic. You can cover broad niches — in this case, the travel industry — and smaller sub-niches. For example, some sub-niches in the travel space could be:

• Family Travel: Tips on traveling with small children or a growing family.
• Voluntourism:  How to volunteer your time in exchange for lodging and experiences.
• Regional Food Tourism: Food or beverage guides across different regions.
• Van Life Travel: Tips for living and traveling in a van.

At first glance, you may think it’s a good idea to keep your niche broad, but there are two big reasons you should narrow down your niche:

• It’s much easier to be seen as an expert in a smaller sub-niche than in the broader “travel” niche. Being seen as an expert can help your branding and make it easier to grow a following.
• Google rewards sites that focus on small corners of larger niches with higher search rankings.

You can widen your niche as your site grows, but starting with a narrow focus will help you grow your audience and start making money faster.

Ready to find a sub-niche? Here’s how:

First, make a list of all the potential niches you’re considering within the travel space, as well as some competing websites within those niches.

There are a few ways to do this.  One method involves searching Google for keywords related to your topic (like “family travel tips”) to find blogs specializing in that niche.

👉 Check our list of Travel Blog Examples

You can also search through blog aggregators like Detailed to find high-traffic sites within your desired sub-niche.

One of our favorite tools for finding competitors and analyzing site traffic is Ahrefs . It lets you type in a competitor’s website and click on the Organic Competitors  tab on the left sidebar.

This conveniently brings up a list of that site’s top competitors; add any that seem relevant to your list.

Once you have a list of competitors, the next step is to check the traffic volume for each competing website in the niches you’re considering to get an idea of that niche’s traffic potential.

You can check a website’s organic traffic using the Competitive Research tool on SE Ranking , which offers a free trial.

You can further narrow down your selection by using Google Trends  to compare the search traffic of each potential niche.

Choosing your niche is a big decision, and it’s important to feel confident before moving forward. But don’t dwell too long on the decision-making process — chances are, you already know which niche is calling your name the loudest.

If you still need some guidance, check out our in-depth guide to choosing a successful niche:

2 Choose a Blogging Platform

The next step in becoming a successful travel blogger is choosing a blogging platform.

Free social blogging platforms like Blogger and Medium are great for casual bloggers, but they have some major downsides if you’re serious about building a successful travel blog. They severely restrict customization, limit the types of content you can post, and significantly reduce blog monetization options .  

Instead, I recommend building your own website. Here’s why:

• You’ll have full control over your site and won’t have to adhere to strict rules and lack of customization options.
• No one can delete your content or shut down your blog.
• You’ll have the flexibility to earn money through affiliate marketing, display ads, and other revenue sources.
• You can use search engine optimization (SEO) to target specific keywords and send traffic to your blog.
• It’s easy to integrate your blog with your social media accounts.
• You can build an email list to create another traffic source and protect your blog from negative Google algorithm changes.

To build your website, I recommend using WordPress.org   (not to be confused with WordPress.com) . It’s free to use and offers complete control over your site’s design and functionality with thousands of themes and plugins.

3 Choose Your Domain Name

Your domain name is essentially your website’s address on the internet. It includes your website’s name and a domain extension.  

A good domain name is important because it builds credibility with your audience and helps them remember you.

So, what should you look out for when choosing a domain name?

• Keep it short and simple . Short domain names are easier to remember. Aim for no more than three words.
• Keep it broad and relevant. You want a domain name that is relevant to your sub-niche but allows for expansion into other areas of your broad niche later on.
• Check social media availability. If you plan on using social media, make sure the name you want is available on all platforms. You can quickly check for username availability on the most popular platforms through Brandsnag .
• Research trademarks: Avoid legal issues by ensuring your domain name isn’t trademarked through the Trademark Electronic Search System .
• Choose a .com domain: A .com domain is familiar to users and provides higher trust than other extensions. If your domain is taken, you can consider using a .com alternative  like .org, io, or .net.
• Avoid confusion: Your domain name should be easy to spell and pronounce so users can share your site via word of mouth. Also, avoid using random numbers, underscores, and dashes.

If you’re having trouble brainstorming the perfect domain name, use the free Brandsnap  tool to get AI-generated domain suggestions.

Once you’ve found the perfect domain name for your travel site, it’s time to purchase it.

I recommend using Namecheap . They offer domain names for as little as $10 per year.

4 Buy Web Hosting

The next step in becoming a travel blogger is to find and purchase web hosting.

While your domain name points users to your site, a web host stores and makes your website’s content accessible online.

Bluehost is a popular option, as it’s quite inexpensive. However, if you’re aiming for speed, reliability, and top-notch performance, SiteGround  is our recommendation.

They offer a steep discount for first-year users, making the price difference between Bluehost and SiteGround negligible.

Here are 7 easy steps to setting up web hosting through SiteGround:

Step 1: Go to SiteGround’s WordPress hosting page

Step 2: Choose the cheapest hosting plan. The StartUp plan offers more than enough features to get you going on your travel site.

Step 3: Enter your domain name and click Proceed.

Step 4: Enter your account information.

Step 5: Add payment info and choose your package length. The 12-month option generally offers the best deal.

Step 6: Skip the extra services since they are unnecessary for a new site.

Step 7: Point your domain name to SiteGround . This is done through the DNS settings on Namecheap (or wherever you purchased your domain name). If you have any issues, just contact SiteGround’s support team.

Congratulations! This wraps up the more tedious side of starting a new site.

5 Choose a Theme for Your Travel Blog

Choosing a theme is the first step in curating your site’s aesthetic.

Your theme will affect almost every aspect of your site, including user experience, mobile responsiveness, functionality, and even security. You can always change it later, but we highly recommend choosing a great theme from the beginning.

I recommend choosing a free theme that offers a premium upgrade option . Free themes are fine for starting, but they have limitations that will hamper your blog’s growth.

A “freemium” theme lets you save money at the beginning and avoid the complexities of switching themes later on.

You’ll also want your theme to be visually interesting and convey the right message to your audience. However, most themes make it easy to change colors, branding, photos, and layout, so this isn’t a huge factor.

Therefore, you should prioritize features like speed, customer support, seamless plug-in integration, and easy customization.

Our favorite free themes for new sites are Astra, Kadence, and GeneratePress. They offer premium upgrades and are remarkably fast, easy to customize, and have great support teams.

Ultra-fast and compatible with all of the most popular no-code page builders.

Versatile and highly customizable design great for many use cases.

Boasts total design freedom through an easy-to-use drag-and-drop system.

Once you’ve decided on the perfect theme for your travel blog, it’s time to install it. There are four easy steps to have your theme up and running in just a few minutes:

Step 1: Go to the WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Go to the left sidebar and select Appearance  > Themes

Step 3: Click “Add New”

Step 4: Search for the name of your chosen theme and click “Activate.”

6 Decide on Design & Branding

Design and branding will help your WordPress site stand out and provide a much-needed personal touch. This will include customizing a color palette, creating a logo, and ensuring your site has a cohesive design.

Your color palette should reflect the vibe of your travel sub-niche. For example, an eco-tourism travel blog can use earthy tones like forest green, deep brown, and muted clay to echo the natural environments that the content focuses on. Alternatively, a luxury travel blog might use a palette of rich gold, elegant black, and crisp white to evoke a sense of sophistication and opulence.

Our favorite tool for choosing harmonious and beautiful color palettes is Coolors .

Just tap the spacebar, and it’ll curate beautiful color palettes in seconds. You can save entire palettes or individual colors. Jot down the six-digit color code for each of the colors you choose.

Next, you’ll need a logo.

It’s important to create a logo that is professional, relevant to your niche, and sets the tone for what your audience can expect from your site.

Canva  makes creating a beautiful logo quick and easy. Their free tier has tons of great logo templates you can use.

From here, you can customize your logo with your site’s name, color palette, and any other necessary tweaks to reflect your brand’s image and unique personality.

7 Create Essential Pages

Next up, you’ll want to create the essential pages for your travel blog. This will help give your readers a way to contact you, learn more about you and your brand, and cover some important legal information.

Your homepage is the “home base” for your blog. It should help your audience easily navigate your site, and it’s a great place to showcase content, build trust, and reinforce your brand identity.

Your About page is where you’ll share your story and what prompted you to start a travel blog. The more personable and relatable you can make your about page, the better.

Share your background, photos, personal stories, and anything else that will instill trust in your readers.

This is one of the most important pages on any site, so it’s best to take your time to make it shine. Here are some killer about me page examples  for inspiration.

Contact Page

This is where readers and potential collaborators can directly contact you. At the least, this page should include either a contact form or your email address.

This is also a great place to include links to your social media accounts.

Privacy Policy + Terms and Conditions

Did you know that you’re legally required to outline how a website collects, uses, discloses, and manages the personal information of its users?

To comply with this, make a Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions page using PrivacyPolicies.com .

Creating a new page in WordPress only takes a couple of seconds. Just log in to your account and click Pages > Add new on the left-hand side of your dashboard .

8 Start Creating Content

Now that you’ve created your site, it’s time to start creating content.

The best way to do this is to create keyword-focused content  that people are searching for on Google. If you can rank well for search terms, you’ll get traffic that you can convert into revenue.

However, you can’t simply write about the highest-traffic keywords and expect to rank. The higher the traffic potential, the more competition from big websites. A new blog will have a hard time competing for the best terms.  

That’s why I recommend finding low-competition keywords  with decent search volume . You won’t get as much traffic as the biggest keywords, but your new travel blog actually stands a chance of ranking.

Tools like Ahrefs  make this super easy to do.

Let’s say you want to create a site that teaches people how to live in a van. If I type “van life” into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer tool, I get matching terms and topics like:

You can then use these keywords to develop article ideas that have a shot at ranking.

For example, based on the keywords above, some of your first article titles could be:

• “The 10 Best Vans For Vanlife”
• “50 Van Life Essentials You Don’t Want To Forget”
• “The Best Van Life Shower Ideas For Your Build”

Once you’ve come up with 10 article titles, it’s time to start writing the content. Here are a few tips to help you write engaging, search-optimized content for your travel blog:

• Know your audience. If you specialize in budget backpacking, you want to promote products and experiences that resonate with that purpose. You likely wouldn’t promote luxury hotel experiences or high-end gear.
• Share personal photos. You don’t need to be a professional photographer. Google loves original images, and your iPhone is more than capable of capturing quality images. Share your relevant photos that you’re proud of wherever you can.
• Stay on topic. Your readers will love to read about your adventures and stories, but remember that they clicked on your article to answer a question or find a solution. Make sure you give your readers the answers they’re looking for in an easy-to-digest way.
• Go the extra mile. People want the best tips, insider knowledge, and up-to-date information. Be sure you create quality content so your readers know they can look to you as an expert.
• Be conversational . Talk to your readers as if they’re a next-door neighbor.
• Make it scannable . Readers looking for specific answers tend to scan the page. Use headings and bold words to help your audience find information quickly, as they might click away if they can’t locate the information they need.
• Share stories. The beauty of having a travel blog is that your readers likely have a severe case of wanderlust, too. Personal stories are a great way to stoke that fire and keep your audience coming back for more.
• Travel. Visiting travel destinations allows you to share firsthand tips, photos, and insights.

Hopefully, this inspires you to create the most engaging and helpful content you can. Not only will Google reward you with front-page rankings, but it’ll keep your audience regularly coming back for more.  

9 Promote Your Travel Blog

There’s so much more to building an audience than clicking “post” and crossing your fingers. It’s important to start spreading the word about your site and getting eyes on your content.

Here are five actionable ways you can promote your site today:

• Collaborate with the community: If you’re writing in the van life niche, you can make a blog post sharing beautiful van builds or telling stories from other van lifers on social media. Be sure to send them an email and tag them in your post. They’ll likely be excited to share your article with their own followers.
• Engage in travel forums : Find Facebook groups and Reddit forums in your niche and share any of your content that can help answer a question someone may have.
• Leverage social media: Platforms like TikTok and Instagram push content to the people they think will benefit from a post. Share helpful tips and tricks, stories, and inspiration that lure readers to your site. Videos tend to outperform photos or text posts on these platforms.
• Build an email list: Offer incentives like a free travel guide or exclusive tips to prompt readers to sign up for your newsletter. Since you own your email list, it’s one of the best long-term growth strategies for any blog.
• Write guest posts: Find other websites in a similar niche and offer to write a guest post. This will encourage their audience to visit your travel blog, and backlinks can boost your SEO.

However you promote your blog, ensure you’re being helpful and not just posting your content to promote it. People don’t like spammy, unsolicited promotional tactics.

10 Monetize Your Travel Blog

There are a few ways to start making money with your blog. It will likely take several months of diligent posting, but you can make money on your WordPress blog if you stick with it.

Some of the most popular ways to monetize your travel blog are:

Affiliate Marketing

Promote other people’s products and earn a commission when someone makes a purchase.

Why It’s Great: You can earn from products your audience is interested in without having to deal with the complexity of selling your own product.

Get Started: One of the easiest ways to start affiliate marketing is through Amazon Associates , but there are plenty of travel affiliate programs  you can join to start earning money.  

Affiliate marketing is as easy as signing up, promoting products, and getting your audience to buy. Read our guide on how to start affiliate marketing  if you want to learn more.

Display Ads

Show advertisements on your blog and earn money every time your audience views or engages with an ad on your site.

Why It’s Great: As long as you drive traffic to your site, you’ll make money. Ads are a great supplement to other monetization methods and can earn a substantial amount on their own if you get enough visitors.

Get Started: The Ezoic  ad network is a good option for new blogs, as there’s no traffic minimum to sign up. However, you should switch to a better network like Mediavine (50,000 minimum monthly pageviews) or Raptive (100,000 minimum monthly pageviews) once you meet their traffic requirements.

Selling Your Own Products

Develop and sell digital or physical products your audience is interested in.

Why It’s Great: Selling products is usually much more profitable than other monetization methods. Once you’ve built up a base of income from ads and affiliate recommendations, launching a product is a great way to take your revenue to the next level.

Get Started: You can consider selling travel guides, printable maps, travel budgeting spreadsheets, photography prints, courses, and more. You can sell these directly on your website or through a third party like Etsy  or Teachable .

Sponsored Content

Partner with brands to promote their products in your blog posts or other content.

Why It’s Great: Sponsors will pay you upfront for the privilege of publishing a favorable post on your blog. They’ll often write the post for you as well, making it an easy way to earn extra cash.

Get Started: Make a “Work With Us” page on your blog that advertises you’re open to sponsored content. Share basic information about your readership, such as demographics and monthly traffic. Check out Pinch of Yum’s Sponsored Content page for more information.

Starting a travel blog is an exciting journey with real earning potential.

But let’s face it: the steps outlined in this article are just the beginning.

To truly excel and turn your blog into a profitable business, you’ll need to dive deeper.

That’s why we’ve created a free training packed with advanced strategies. You’ll learn seven key secrets that can boost your blog’s success rate by 83%.

Ready to level up your travel blogging game?

Join the free training now.

Do Travel Bloggers Get Paid?

Travel bloggers get paid quite a lot. In fact, the average travel blogger earns $13,847 per month . The most common ways to monetize your blog include affiliate marketing, display ads, and selling your own products.

How Much Does It Cost To Start a Travel Blog?

It can cost as little as $35 to start a travel blog. The only mandatory purchases are a domain name and web hosting, though expanding your blog’s functionality will add hundreds to the overall cost.  

How Do Travel Blogs Make Money?

A professional travel blogger can earn money through affiliate marketing, display ads, selling digital or physical products, and making courses for other travelers.

Who Is the Highest-Paid Travel Blogger?

Nomadic Matt is regarded as the highest-paid travel blogger, earning more than $750,000 per year . He is a New York Times best-selling author, affiliate marketer, course creator, and devout traveler.

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How to Start a Travel Blog: Travel, Create (& Get Paid!)

Back in 2017, I saved up a chunk of money, quit my job, and started traveling. I had the world at my fingertips and big, shiny plans for the future. That’s right, I was going to start a travel blog and make money while exploring the earth at my leisure!

How’d that turn out, you ask?

Well, the ‘exploring the earth at my leisure’ part was a success. Quite delightful, actually.

But the ‘starting a travel blog and making money’ part? That part was a complete disaster. I had no idea what I was doing. Noeltrain.com was defunct after a couple of weeks and I jammed my failure deep down and kept on traveling. Ah, to be a millennial.

Fast forward six months.

This time, I decided to do this doing things the right way. With a newfound sense of determination, I spent countless hours learning everything I could about the industry. Failure was not an option, and I slowly lifted my new little website off of the ground for good.

Since then, I’ve meandered the earth, sharing my best travel and hiking advice on this blog as I go. The money I earn from blogging will allow me to continue exploring for as long as I choose. Life’s been good for me lately, but it wasn’t easy getting here.

That’s why I’ve created this step-by-step guide to help you start your own travel blog. I want you to breeze past the frustrating roadblocks that I experienced getting my blog off the ground. Hell, if you keep reading, I’ll give you the tools you need to start making a full-time income.

Ready to get your travel blog started the right way?

How to Start a Travel Blog

Should You Start a Travel Blog?

• Brainstorm Your Blog’s Name
• Set up Hosting for Your Blog
• Install WordPress
• Pick a Theme for Your Blog
• Install Must-Have Plug-Ins
• Start Building Your Blog
• Set Goals for Yourself
• Create Top-Notch Content
• How to Bring Traffic to Your Travel Blog

How to Monetize Your Travel Blog

• Extra Tips & Advice

Cost of Starting a Travel Blog

• More Blogging Resources
• Successful Travel Blogs
• Final Thoughts: Starting a Travel Blog

⭑ BOOKMARK THIS GUIDE ⭑

This guide is packed with valuable information that can help you long after you’ve started your travel blogging journey, so I recommend bookmarking this page for future use.

Many of you are likely travel addicts struggling to decide if starting a travel blog is worth the time and effort. I get it. I had the same doubts for years before I pulled the trigger and started one of my own. Here’s what I can tell you about my decision:

Saving up money , quitting my exhausting job, and starting a travel blog was the single best life change I’ve ever made. I just wish I’d started earlier.

Why? Because travel blogging has been the most fulfilling journey of my life. I get paid to explore, hike, write, photograph, and help others do the same. What more could I ask for?

But for as great as it sounds, understand one thing: succeeding in the blogging industry is more challenging than meets the eye. To make a decent living, you’ll need to be extremely self-motivated, patient, and willing to invest some time and little money upfront. Sound good?

Step One: Brainstorm a Name for Your Blog

It all starts with a name.

Coming up with a name for your website name can be tough, but don’t overthink it. The name you choose for your blog is important, in that it will represent you, your brand, and your beloved blog for years to come.

(No pressure or anything.)

Here are some tips that should help you out during the process:

Be Unique (Not Cliché)

The internet is swarmed with travel blogs, so it’ll be your personal challenge to stand out from the masses. When choosing a name, avoid using clichéd words that will lump you in with the hordes of other people trying to do exactly what you’re doing.

‘Wandering’, ‘wanderlust’, ‘nomad’, ‘vagabond’, ‘adventurous’, ‘roaming’ — overused travel buzz words like these will blur the line between you and other travel bloggers.

Get creative when choosing a name, and don’t be afraid to stand out.

Pick a Name That is Easy to Remember

I recently rebranded my blog from ‘Tenacious Travel’ to ‘The Packable Life.’ While I’m fond of the old name, the truth is that it wasn’t the most memorable moniker for my blog.

‘Tenacious’ is hard for many people to spell and tons of people don’t even know what it means !  By switching to something more simple, I’ve made my blog’s name far easier to remember.

Keep it simple when choosing your blog’s name. Avoid using hard-to-remember words, hyphens, numbers, or anything else that might confuse your readers when they’re trying to remember your blog’s name.

Keep Social Media in Mind

When choosing a name for your blog, check for username availability across all social media platforms. In a perfect world, you’ll be able to lock up matching handles across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Twitter has a 15 character limit for usernames, so any blog names longer than that will have to be condensed.

My username across all social media platforms is ‘thepackablelife.’ Lucky me!

Don’t stress if you can’t secure usernames that are an exact match to your blog’s name. Just do your best to find a username that makes sense for your blog and is easy to remember.

Pick a Name That You Won’t Outgrow

Don’t paint yourself into a corner with a constricting blog name, because doing so might cramp your style down the road. Names like ‘Wandering Asia Aimlessly’, ‘ 20-Something Traveler’, or ‘The Vagabonding Vegan’ could limit your blog in the long run. Think about it.

What happens when you stop traveling Asia? How will you create honest content after you turn 30? What will you write about if you stop being a vegan? How will your readers react?

Keep the future in mind, and choose a name that will stick with you forever.

Why I Chose ‘The Packable Life’

Let’s look at the two main focuses of my blog:

• Minimalist travel
• Ultralight backpacking

Now let’s look at how ‘The Packable Life’ relates to all three:

• Minimalist travelers pack everything they need into a small bag and can travel for weeks, months, or years at a time. By promoting a ‘packable life,’ I’m relating to this mobile, minimalist lifestyle.
• Ultralight backpackers share the ‘lightweight and mobile’ approach to conquer multi-day hiking trails. Whether gear is ‘packable’ or not is paramount to the ultralight backpacking culture.

Step Two: Set Up Web Hosting

Once you’ve chosen a killer name for your website, it’s time to start building your blog from the ground up. The process all starts with web hosting.

Web hosting is the service that provides the necessary technology, storage, and support to make your website visible to the entire world.

Yeah, web hosting is super important.

You and your website need a web hosting provider that offers the following:

• Excellent uptime (your site never crashes or is offline)
• Fast servers (your pages load quickly)
• Great customer service  (fast and helpful assistance on a consistent basis)

For me (and countless other bloggers), the company that delivers on these three aspects is SiteGround .

Thanks to SiteGround , my website has 100% uptime and lightning-fast page load times. Not to mention, their impeccable customer service has bailed me out of my own silly mistakes on several occasions.

I’ll walk you through the entire process of getting your travel blog started through SiteGround , from the first step to the last. This all should take about 10 minutes and will only cost $3.95 a month through this link or the button below.

Ready? Let’s get started.

This will get the ball rolling on reserving your domain name and hosting plan through SiteGround .

This is important! Choosing this option will automatically install WordPress, the world’s best website building platform onto your blog for free. We’ll talk a lot more about WordPress later.

Since you’re starting a brand new blog and likely won’t exceed 10,000 monthly visits right away, I recommend going with the StartUp plan. If you need to upgrade to a more powerful plan in the future, it’s easy to do so.

Be sure to double-check the spelling of your domain name and stick with a ‘.com’ suffix. A web address ending in anything but ‘.com’ will be harder to remember and appear less professional.

‘Domain Privacy’ keeps your personal information private and ‘SG Site Scanner’ automatically scans your website and searches for hacking or suspicious activity. I use both on my website, but they’re not mandatory to get started. You can always upgrade later.

This will process your transaction. SiteGround has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all shared hosting plans, so if you get decide blogging isn’t your style, you can get refunded no questions asked.

That’s it! You’ve officially reserved your domain name and web hosting, and you’re well on your way to starting your travel blog. There are just a few more simple steps to get your website up and running.

Step Three: Install WordPress on Your Blog

WordPress is a free online website creation tool that is, far and away, the most popular software for building blogs worldwide. It’s so popular, in fact, that it powers 35% of websites across the entire internet .

WordPress is intuitive, well-designed, and offers countless plugins to fine-tune websites to suit the user’s needs. You don’t need any web design experience to use WordPress, either. It’s a no-brainer.

SiteGround makes it incredibly easy to install WordPress on your website. Let’s walk through it, step by step.

You should land on this screen after you’ve paid for your domain name and hosting. If you’re having trouble finding this page, simply visit your new blog’s web address.

WordPress will give you a choice of free themes (design templates) for your website. Pick any free theme for now, and I’ll walk you through how to install a professional-quality premium theme for your blog in the next section.

At this point, SiteGround will recommend certain free WordPress plugins that you can install onto your website. Plugins are meant to add features and will be helpful in tweaking certain aspects of your blog.

Add the plugins that sound useful to your website, and if they don’t work out, you can always uninstall them down the road. I’ll recommend my favorite must-have WordPress plugins for your blog very soon.

Now, SiteGround will recommend three final plugins to add to your website. Of these three, I recommend installing Yoast SEO, which I’ll talk about later. Feel free to install Google Analytics and the Grow Subscribers List plugins, as they’re highly rated as well.

Though you’re likely logged into WordPress at the moment, you’ll get logged out from time to time. To access your login screen, visit YourBlogName.com/wp-admin . From there, you can log in and will have complete access to your WordPress dashboard where you can make changes to your website.

Making Sense of Your WordPress Dashboard

Once you’re logged in, you’ll notice a nifty little menu on the left-hand side of your screen. This is your WordPress dashboard. You’ll see a bunch of different menu items that give you access to different parts of your blog. Here’s a list of the most important ones:

• Posts : create, categorize, tag, and edit all of your blog posts
• Media : access and upload images, videos, and other media
• Pages : create, categorize, tag, and edit all of your pages (pages are different than blog posts, think: home page, about me, contact, etc.)
• Comments : approve, deny, and reply to comments left on your blog posts
• Appearance : change your theme, edit code, tweak your menu bar, and add widgets to your blog
• Plugins : add and subtract certain features to your blog
• Settings : change the settings for your blog

You’re not alone if this all seems a bit confusing. Learning WordPress takes a little time, but you’ll get the hang of it soon enough. Just stick with it and get ready to learn.

Step Four: Pick a Theme

Once you’ve secured your domain and hosting and installed WordPress, you’ll need to install a theme for your blog. Themes are templates that help users tweak the design and overall appearance of their websites.

Here are a few popular options:

GeneratePress Premium

After struggling with several frustrating professional themes over the years, I finally landed on GeneratePress (and I couldn’t be happier). It has wonderful support, is easy to learn, is optimized for SEO, and is fairly priced.

Thousands upon thousands of WordPress users trust GeneratePress , and I am among them. Look no further if you’re searching for the absolute best theme on the market .

Free Themes

As you may have noticed while installing WordPress, there are numerous free themes built into your website, ready to activate.

I don’t recommend using a free theme if you eventually want to make money through your travel blog.

Free themes limit your blog’s functionality and withhold vital features in order to sway users into upgrading to the more feature-rich paid version.

Changing themes and upgrading can be a big hassle, so I recommend choosing a premium theme like GeneratePress straight from the start.

Installing Your Theme

Once you’ve chosen a theme, download it and refer to the installation instructions to upload it to your website. For most themes, this step should be fairly straightforward, but I’ll go over how to install it just in case you get tripped up.

• Download your theme’s file (usually a .zip file)
• Visit your WordPress dashboard and select Appearance > Themes
• Click the ‘Add New’ button near the top of the page
• Click the ‘Upload Theme’ button near the top of the page
• Click the ‘Choose File’ button near the middle of the page
• Locate and select your theme’s .zip file from your computer
• Click the ‘Install Now’ button near the middle of the page
• Click the ‘Activate’ button that appears when you hover over your theme

That’s it. Once you’ve installed and activated your new theme, the overall look and feel of your website will be different than before. Getting your new theme to look the way you want will take a bit of customization and patience.

Step Five: Install Must-Have Plug-Ins

Now that you’ve installed WordPress and picked out a theme, it’s time to add some essential plugins to your site. Plugins are add-ons that add helpful features and enhance the functionality of your blog. Here are the top plugins I recommend:

If you want your blog to be on the first page of Google search results, install Yoast SEO. It’s widely used by bloggers worldwide and seen as the go-to plugin for search engine optimization. Yoast SEO has helped improve my search engine presence massively.

At some point or another, bots will barrage your blog with spammy comments (and they’ll never stop). The Askimet plugin identifies these pesky comments and deletes them automatically, which is a huge time saver.

Autoptimize

Your blog should load quickly and efficiently, or else people visiting your site might get impatient and leave. Autoptimize will help streamline your blog and improve page load speeds, creating a better experience for your readers.

Grow by Mediavine

See the colorful share buttons at the top of this blog post? Those were created with the Grow by Mediavine plugin. Buttons like these give readers an easy way to share your articles with the world, which will bring more people to your site and spread your message further.

Uploading large media files to your blog is a big no-no, as they will slow down your page load speeds. The Smush plugin automatically compresses media files as you add them to your site, which will speed up your site automatically.

Contact Form 7

On your blog’s contact page, you’ll want to create a form for people to fill out and email you. Contact Form 7 is the most simple plugin for the job.

How to Add Plugins on WordPress

Installing plugins is a simple process. Here’s how:

• Find the ‘Plugins’ menu item on your WordPress dashboard and click ‘Add New.’
• Type the name of the plugin you want to download into the ‘Search plugins…’ field.
• Click the ‘Install Now’ button.
• Click the ‘Activate’ button.

Step Six: Complete the Necessary First Steps

After you’ve installed your must-have plugins, it’s time to put together the skeleton of your website. These are the steps you should take care of right away to get your blog off on the right foot.

Create an About Page

Travel is very personal, which is why readers want to know exactly who is giving them advice when they’re visiting your blog. These readers are likely to have several different questions while they’re busy browsing your content.

Who is the person behind this article? Are they qualified to give me advice? How much travel experience do they have? Can I trust them? What do they look like? Would I want to travel with them?

A solid ‘About’ page should answer all of these questions, so offer up a candid glimpse into your life. Include pictures, stories, and unique quirks about yourself. People should feel like they’ve met you once they’re done reading your ‘About’ page.

Place links to some of the best posts on your ‘About’ page, and make it clear to your readers where they should click next.

Write Your First Post

No need to stress, writing your first blog post isn’t as tough as it sounds.

Choose a memorable travel experience you’ve had, make a blog post outline, write your post, add a few pictures, and edit it. It’s that simple.

If you’re having trouble deciding on what to write about, make a short post introducing yourself and explaining why you started a blog in the first place. Tell people about the places you’ve been and where you want to travel in the future.

Email the post to family and friends and share it on social media. Ask everyone for their honest opinion. Both positive feedback and constructive criticism will stick with you and help improve your skills.

Design Your Homepage

Your blog doesn’t need to look professional right away, but it will need a decent-looking homepage at some point. Readers, for better or worse, will judge your website by its homepage, so it’s up to you to leave a good first impression.

Get a piece of paper, sketch out what your ideal homepage looks like, and use your blog’s theme to will it into existence. You’ll likely need to reference your theme’s user manual and visit its support forum to turn your sketch into reality.

Stumped on your homepage design? Visit some of your favorite blogs, check out their homepages, take notes on what you like, and start sketching your own unique design from the top down.

Set Up Email for Your Blog

Which email address looks more professional?

• [email protected]
• [email protected]

The answer here is painfully obvious. People are going to take your blog more seriously once you have an official email address attached to your site, so let’s take care of that right away.

Here’s a helpful guide on how to set up your official email address through SiteGround .

Get Your Blog a Logo

While you don’t have to create a logo for your blog right away, you’ll eventually need one. A well-designed logo will make your site stand out from the thousands of other travel blogs and will help strengthen your brand.

You have many different options when creating a logo for your site. Here are a few that I recommend:

Make Your Own Logo with Photoshop : If you use Adobe Photoshop and know the basics, creating a simple logo for your website shouldn’t take long. Browse videos and tutorials on YouTube if you need help learning how to make your own logo on Photoshop.

Cost : Adobe Photoshop is $9.95 a month

Make Your Own Logo with Snappa : Find Photoshop a little difficult to use? Then try out Snappa , an easy-to-use graphic design platform where you can edit photos, design logos, make banners, and more. Think of Snappa as a simplified Photoshop full of useful templates.

Cost : Free for basic membership – $1o a month for pro

Hire Someone to Make Your Logo on Fiverr : If you’d rather not fuss over your logo and want a professional to design it instead, go to Fiverr . There you’ll find hundreds of graphic designers who can make your logo in a flash, often at a very affordable price.

Cost: $10 and up

Install Google Analytics

Ask any successful blogger how they measure and analyze their internet traffic and they’ll all give you the same answer: Google Analytics .

Google Analytics gives you access to all sorts of helpful stats about your blog. It’ll show you how many people visit your site, what countries they’re from, what pages they’re viewing, how they found your blog, and how long their session lasts.

Consider Google Analytics a must-have tool for your website.

Did I mention it’s completely free?

Step Seven: Set Goals for Your Blog

The process of starting a travel blog from scratch can be overwhelming at times, so set some simple goals to stay focused throughout the process.

To help create these goals, ask yourself a few very important questions:

• What type of site do you want to create? (What’s your niche?)
• What type of audience do you want to reach?
• How do you plan on bringing traffic to your website?
• How will you turn that traffic into income?
• Where do you see your blog a year from now?
• How will you free up time to grow your blog?

Step Eight: Create Top-Notch Content

Finally! It’s time to start creating those lovely posts and pages that make your little website so interesting.

But I’m not here to tell you to create just any old average content. No, I’m here to inspire you to create the best possible content you can offer the world .

Because to be successful in the competitive travel blogging industry, you must crank out killer content that people love to read. You need to help, inspire, and teach your readers in the most effective way you can. That is how you succeed in this business.

• Tell a compelling story
• Use wonderful photos
• Make your content easy to navigate
• Be thorough
• Edit your writing
• Relate to your audience
• Entertain your audience
• Teach your audience
• Be yourself!

If creating content becomes overwhelming and you get stuck, visit some of the more successful blogs to gain inspiration. While enjoying their content, ask yourself a few questions.

Why do I enjoy reading this particular blogger’s content? What have they done to become so successful? What sets them apart from other travel bloggers? How do they connect with their readers?

How to Bring Traffic to Your Website

Now that I’ve preached to you about creating killer content, let’s focus on something even more difficult: getting all that content in front of an audience.

How exactly are you going to make that happen? It’s not as easy as it may seem.

Let’s go over all the strategies and tools I use to bring tens of thousands of people to my blog every single month.

Optimize Your Blog Posts Show Up on Search Engines

About 85% of this website’s traffic arrives through Google searches, and that’s not by accident.

To get this type of traffic, I utilize SEO or search engine optimization. SEO is the science of studying what keywords people search for, writing blog posts around them, and tailoring those posts to rank on Google. When people search for your given keywords, your post will eventually show up in the results, hopefully on the front page.

Showing up on Google searches isn’t always easy, but it is worth all of the effort you put in. The traffic you earn through search engines is passive, targeted, and completely free. Use SEO correctly and people will visit your blog consistently, plain and simple.

Free tools like Google Search Console , Ubersuggest , and Keyword Sh****r will help you dip your toes into the SEO world, but eventually, you’ll want to pay for a service that’ll raise your SEO chops to a professional level.

I use Semrush  for all of my SEO needs. It’s an incredibly helpful tool that helps me analyze my traffic, research keywords, and improve the SEO of my existing posts. It has been a game-changer for me and can’t recommend it enough.

Try Semrush free for 7-days .

Collect Email Addresses

As a blogger, the biggest gift a reader can give you is their email address. By trusting you with their direct line of contact, readers are giving your blog a vote of confidence and asking you to send them more quality content. Gaining new email subscribers is downright flattering.

The beauty of having subscribers is that you don’t have to worry about search engines, social media, or advertisements to reach your audience. You can contact them instantly with a click of a button and send your content straight to their inbox. That’s powerful.

I recommend using a service like ConvertKit to help automate your emails, grow your blog, and improve your traffic to your blog.

Use Social Media to Connect with Your Followers

Relying on social media for traffic can be tiresome and time-consuming, and isn’t the most sustainable method out there. To be honest, I’m not very passionate about social media for this reason alone.

So, then why the hell am I telling you to use social media?

Because social media gives you a chance to connect with your readers on a more personal level. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram allow you to join conversations, ask and answer questions, and get to know the people who support your blog.

Focus on social media to develop relationships with your audience and consider the traffic it brings as an added bonus.

Utilize Other Methods

Though SEO, social media, and email marketing should bring in the majority of your blog’s traffic, there are plenty of other ways to get people to visit your website. Here are a few:

• Paid Ads : Many bloggers spend money on ads that will get their content in front of a larger audience. Google Ads and  Facebook Ads are two of the most popular ad services in the industry.
• Referrals : Getting other websites to link to your blog can be a decent source of traffic, and will also improve your search engine presence. The more well-known the website, the better.
• Guest Posting : Writing for other blogs is a great way to get your name out there, so many bloggers create content for other websites, which brings traffic and builds their reputation.

Bringing traffic to your website is great and all, but monetizing that traffic is the key to becoming a successful full-time travel blogger. Here are a few of the popular methods that you can use to turn your passion into a profession.

Advertisements

Placing ads on your website is an easy way to earn income through your site, though you’ll need a significant amount of traffic to earn substantial money. Google Adsense and Mediavine are two of the most popular ad services among bloggers and make placing ads on your website straightforward.

Affiliate Links

When you recommend products or services through your blog, you can insert special links that earn a commission when a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. This is called affiliate marketing, and many bloggers earn the majority of their income through this method.

Here are a few of the most popular affiliate programs for bloggers:

• Booking.com
• Get Your Guide
• World Nomads

Keep in mind, it’s mandatory to disclose to your readers when your blog posts have affiliate links. Let your audience know that you’ll receive a commission when they purchase products or services through your links at no extra cost to them.

Sponsored Trips/Posts

Once your site starts seeing significant traffic, companies might be willing to collaborate with you to create a sponsored post. They may ask that you write a post on a specific topic or destination and include links and references to their product within the article. They’ll pay you, often handsomely, in return.

Be sure to put together a solid ‘ Work with Me ‘ page to attract potential partners for sponsored posts.

Freelance Writing

Many travel bloggers earn income freelance writing for other publications and often get paid well to do so. Freelance writing jobs usually pay anywhere between $.05 and $1.00 per word, though the higher paying gigs are usually reserved for writers with well-established blogs and/or impeccable portfolios.

Here are a few websites that pay travel writers

• Matador Network
• Lonely Planet
• Transitions Abroad
• Pathfinders Travel
• National Geographic Traveler
• Backpacker Magazine

Sell Your Photos

If you’re a talented photographer, you can earn money selling photos from your adventures online. Websites like Adobe Stock , Alamy , and TourPhotos are a great place to get your photos in front of a large audience and collect commissions when they’re sold. Want to sell your photos without a commission? Just advertise them on your own website.

Just keep in mind, that once you sell a photo online, it may no longer be yours to use as you please.

Sell Your Services

Once you become a successful blogger, you’ll have developed plenty of marketable skills to offer the world and yes, people are willing to pay for those skills.

Do you love to design websites? Are you an expert at SEO? Can you translate another language?

Great! Now advertise those skills through your blog’s ‘ Work with Me ‘ page and find people who need your expertise.

Through my blog, I’ve accepted work helping other bloggers with their websites, arranged SEO consulting sessions, and been paid to guide a 10-day hiking tour in South America.

Create a Product

Another great way to make money is to create a useful product and sell it to your audience. The types of products you can market on your blog are endless, so get to know your audience and create something that will improve their lives enough that they’re willing to pay for it.

Need some ideas of products to create?

• Online Courses
• Travel apps

The great thing about selling your own product is that you should receive most, if not all, of the commissions from its sales. Affiliate marketing, on the other hand, only nets a small percentage of sales.

Learn from the Best

Trying to monetize your blog all on your own can get overwhelming, which is why I recommend the Business of Blogging course offered by Nomadic Matt. His online crash course is jam-packed with helpful information on how to turn your travel blog into a money-making machine.

Additional Tips

While I could keep going on endlessly about travel blogging, I’m going to keep it short. Here are six final pieces of advice that should help you along your journey.

Make Your Travels Inspiring & Memorable

People want to be inspired by travel!

So, don’t visit the same places, do the same things, and write the same articles that thousands of other bloggers have already overdone.

Instead, take part in unique and fascinating adventures and put your own personal twist on them.

If you’re visiting Paris, ditch the Eiffel Tower, and write about the city’s most unusual and offbeat nightlife spots. Or seek out and share the city’s best hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Or write about that time you got lost and wandered into a live sermon at a historic church.

The world wants a fresh and exciting perspective, so be the one who provides it!

Help People Solve Problems

Whenever I find myself on a travel blog, it’s because I have a question and I’m searching for an answer. The same is true for billions of other internet users and will remain true for years to come.

People use the internet to solve problems and answer questions, plain and simple. 

So, share your amazing adventures with people, but also help them create a similar experience for themselves. Are you writing an article about a historic castle in Lisbon you just visited? Great! Now tell your readers how to get there.

What’s the address? Which train do they need to take to get there? Which stop should they get off? How much do the tickets cost? Where can they buy them?

Provide all the thoughtful advice possible to help them create their own wonderful experience. Be thorough, knowledgeable, and help them through the process from start to finish.

Take Good Photos and Learn How to Edit Them

If you don’t offer your readers engaging visuals, you might lose their focus (and they’ll leave your website). That’s never a good thing.

The good news is that people are more likely to stay on your blog if you provide them with enough captivating photos to complement your quality writing. Readers visit travel blogs to visualize destinations, and they’re more likely to keep reading if you give them vivid and inspiring photos.

You don’t need a $2,000 camera to take great travel photos, either. For my travel photography, I use the lightweight and packable Olympus O-MD E-M10 mirrorless camera and bring a couple of compact lenses. My camera takes much better photos than my smartphone ever could.

I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to edit all of my photos on my computer. The learning curve for these apps was a bit overwhelming at first, but I stuck with it and learned them in no time.

Don’t Become Obsessed with Social Media

When I first started my blog, I stressed out way too much about social media.

How can I get more Facebook followers? Why are people following me on Instagram and unfollowing me a couple of days later? Why isn’t anyone liking my Tweets? How the hell does Pinterest work?

Social media is disheartening sometimes, I get it. I’ve been there. But listen…

Don’t let social media stress you out!

Refuse to let it overwhelm you and take away from the time you could spend creating killer content. If you let social media distract you from your blog, then you’ll have a lesser product to offer your followers – however many or few they are.

Spend an hour a day tops on social media, and use the rest of your free time creating thoughtful content that engages your readers and helps solve their problems. When you publish quality content, your posts will rank on Google, people will share your content, and the followers will come naturally.

Find Help When You Need It

After you’ve started building your blog from the ground up, you’re going to get frustrated (and it’s probably going to happen on a regular basis for a good long while). You’ll see.

Instead of letting these growing pains discourage you, take a deep breath, and find solutions to these problems.

Bury yourself in your theme’s support forum, research ways to combat writer’s block, ask other bloggers for their best SEO methods, and never give up. The solutions to your issues are out there, and you’ll find them if you look hard enough.

Never Stop Learning

I’ve taken in an insane amount of new information in the two years since I started The Packable Life, and there’s still so much to learn. This industry is far more complex than I’d ever imagined, and it’s evolving every single day.

You’ll need to be hungry to learn and extremely self-motivated to become a successful travel blogger. Nobody is going to put together a killer travel blog for you (unless you pay them a lot of money) so it’s your responsibility to figure it out as you go.

The cost of starting a travel blog varies widely from person to person, so let me give you an idea of how much (or how little) you can expect to spend during the whole process.

You can start a blog for free on various different websites, but I don’t recommend doing so if you want your blog to earn money.

Free blogging sites are often crippled by a limited set of features and a lack of access to helpful plugins. Businesses will run pesky ads on your site that make their brand money off of your content. These platforms restrict enough features so that you’ll eventually upgrade to their paid blogging services.

Basic Setup

Based on the steps I walked you through earlier, starting a professional-looking website with the potential to make money is quite affordable. All you need to invest is $3.95 a month for a basic hosting plan from SiteGround and $50 for a premium theme. There are really no other significant starting costs.

Serious bloggers should consider these start-up costs a no-brainer, as anyone who puts their mind to it can make this money back easily.

Cost to Start a Basic Travel Blog : $50 upfront and $3.95 a month

What I Pay to Run My Blog

When I first started this site, I paid $100 for my theme and signed up for a $3.95 a month hosting plan. I’ve since upgraded my hosting plan and signed up for a number of paid plugins and apps that help me run my blog. These services include:

• $30 a month for email services with ConvertKit
• $25 a month for various WordPress plugins
• $13 a month for hosting with SiteGround
• $9 a month for photo editing with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom CC
• $5 a month for image compressing with Kraken.io
• $3 a month for VPN services with NordVPN

Cost for My Travel Blogging Setup : $100 upfront and $85 a month

What High-Earning Bloggers Pay to Run Their Sites

As your blog’s traffic and income grow, so will your monthly costs. And while the prices of many plugins, apps, and software are fixed – hosting plans and email services get more expensive as your visitors and subscribers increase.

High-earning travel bloggers with large amounts of traffic (100,000+ visitors a month) spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars a month to keep their sites up and running.

A small price to pay to live the dream and earn a living while you do it.

Blogging Resources I Recommend

Here’s a complete list of all my go-to blogging resources. These are the websites, apps, and tools that have kept me afloat as I’ve pursued my passions over the last couple of years. Without them, The Packable Life would be far more stressful to maintain.

As I mentioned earlier, I use SiteGround to provide hosting for my blog. They keep my site live 24 hours a day, use fast servers that load my pages quickly, and have incredible customer service.

Business of Blogging

If you want to learn how to blog from the best in the business, sign up for Nomadic Matt’s Business of Blogging course . I highly recommend it to beginner bloggers who want a detailed look into the business side of the travel blogging industry.

GeneratePress

Choosing an airtight theme to help your blog stand out is so very important. GeneratePress is one of the most widely trusted WordPress themes on the market, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop

I’ve edited every single photo on this website with Adobe Lightroom or Adobe Photoshop . Every. Single. One. Cropping, adjusting colors, adding text – you can do practically anything with these two apps.

Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop have a bit of a learning curve, so if that intimidates you, use a website like Snappa to edit photos, make banners, and design logos for your website.

Who needs a real-life editor? Grammarly automatically scans your content, runs a top-to-bottom report, highlights mistakes, and makes helpful suggestions to improve your writing.

Gaining email subscribers is insanely important if you want to make money from your blog. ConvertKit will help you capture email addresses and create timely targeted messages to all of your subscribers.

If you want your blog pages to load quickly, you’ll need to use optimized images sitewide. I use Kraken.io to compress my images and shrink their file size by over 80%.

Successful Travel Bloggers

Looking for a fool-proof way to become a better travel blogger that costs absolutely nothing? Here’s how:

Visit the top blogs across on the industry and spend hours surfing their websites.

By exploring the best travel blogs in the industry, you’ll notice many of the tips and tricks these bloggers have used to become so successful. Immerse yourself in your favorite blogs, take notes, and ask yourself: What can this blog teach me?

Here are a few bloggers that inspired me to start a website of my own:

Expert Vagabond

Matthew Karsten, the Expert Vagabond , is an incredible photographer who seeks out thrilling and obscure adventures – the types of trips many travelers would shy away from. He has been a huge inspiration to me and my blogging journey.

Nomadic Matt

Nomadic Matt Kepnis is a blogging powerhouse, plain and simple. In fact, he’s widely viewed across the industry as the most successful travel blogger alive. His blog is clean, thoughtful, and has an insane amount of quality content.

I highly recommend taking his Business of Blogging course .

Wandering Earl

Derek “ Wandering Earl ” Baron has been traveling non-stop since 1999, and he’s been keeping track of his adventures in an honest and refreshing way. His blog is heartfelt, personal, and completely ad-free.

Nomad Revelations

João Leitão created Nomad Revelations in 2003 as an outlet for his aimless wanderings, which have since taken him to 100+ countries. His destinations are well off the worn-down tourist path, which makes his blog a fascinating collection of adventures that take place in far-flung destinations.

The Broke Backpacker

Ready to start a travel blog (and get paid).

There you have it. I’ve given you all of very my best advice on how to start your own successful travel blog and make money with it in the future. That was a heap of information all at once, so thank you for sticking around to take it all in.

How does the thought of starting your own blog make you feel? Overwhelmed? Excited? Intimidated? Motivated? Confused? All of the above?

That’s how I felt too. I get it.

So, channel all of that chaotic energy into starting your own top-notch travel blog to share with the world today . Don’t put it off any longer. The longer you wait, the more silly excuses you’ll make.

And remember that creating a successful travel blog isn’t going to be easy. The entire process is bound to be one of the biggest learning experiences of your life. The journey will be frustrating and challenging at times, but incredibly rewarding if you’re willing to put in the work and stay the course.

Ready to take the leap and start your own successful blog today?

If so, welcome to the industry. It’s going to be a wild ride.

Last Updated on March 18, 2024

Noel Krasomil

Affiliate Disclosure : Some of the links in this post may be affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate links help support this website and keep it 100% ad-free.

How to Make Money With a Travel Blog: My 12 Top Tips in 2024

Wondering how to make money travel blogging?

As a multiple six-figure, profitable travel blogger — I made $327,270 from blogging in the first half of 202 3 🤯 — this article shows you how to make money with a travel blog, just like I do!

You’ll find 12 common ways to make money travel blogging in this article, but the top travel bloggers also think outside the box.

But, Isn’t blogging dead? That’s something I see come up a lot, and a question you may have as well.

I’m average about $55K+ per month , and I know plenty of other travel bloggers making way more — so if blogging is dead, we didn’t get the memo 🤷‍♀️ 

Now, plenty of travel bloggers don’t have a monetization plan for their blog, and therefore, don’t make money.

Unfortunately, this is the vast majority of travel bloggers.

In short, if you don’t have a plan to use proven strategies to make money blogging, you likely won’t. However, once you’re done reading this article, you will.

Ready to discover how to make money with a travel blog — just like I do!? Let’s get to it .

how to make money with a travel blog

How to make money with a travel blog: my top 12 tips.

If you’re wondering How to make money with a travel blog , there are really countless ways.

You will find some of the most common ways in this article, but there’s really no one size fits all strategy to make money blogging that will work for all bloggers.

Regardless of what income streams you pursue, know that multiple income streams are essential for success.

Below, I will show you 12 different ways to make money from a travel blog — but they by no means represent the only ways to make money blogging about travel.

How to Make Money With a Travel Blog

1. have ads on your site.

Did you notice the advertising on my site? Those ads account for about 35-45% of my income!

The coolest thing about them is they are completely passive income, meaning as I sleep, I still earn money from the ads simply being on my site.

That’s right: I do nothing, and still collect money. There’s basically no better feeling than this in the world!

🤔 How do I get ads on my site?

To put ads on your site, you need to sign on with an ad management company or ad network. With most companies, you’ll need to have enough traffic from search engines or social media platforms to qualify.

Keep in mind that getting traffic can take a lot of time — as blogging is a long game! If you want a get rich quick job, don’t pick blogging .

In your first year, you may not even show up in Google search results or get much traffic, but if you stick to it, you can make great money from ad networks.

Below, I will compare the six companies that can place ads on your site:

🏆 Best ad networks for travel bloggers

1. mediavine (my #1 choice).

Among bloggers, many consider Mediavine and AdThrive (#2 on the list) the best because they pay the most and have great customer service.

To apply for Mediavine , you need 50,000 sessions per month (50K people visiting your site in a 30 day period), which is a lot.

When you first start out travel blogging, 50,000 seems impossible. As a new blogger, I also thought it was impossible, but eventually, I got there!

Now, it was a lot of hard work, and I invested in travel blogging courses so I could get on Mediavine fast. (The best course I took was Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures — and yes, I have scaled to multiple six figures.)

On a personal note, before I was on Mediavine, I was with SHE Media, which is #3 on the list.

The month I switched, I nearly 6X’ed my ad income going from SHE Media to Mediavine . However, from what I hear, most bloggers usually double or triple their ad revenue doing the same.

🤑 How much I make on Mediavine: It varies from about $8,500-10,000 USD per month, with about 250,000 monthly page views and mostly U.S. traffic (U.S. traffic pays the most).

2. Raptive (Formerly AdThrive)

Besides Mediavine, other top-level travel blogs that make money are on AdThrive . (⚠️ Update: In 2023, AdThrive and CafeMedia merged to become Raptive .)

To apply, you’ll need 100,000 page views in a 30 day period. This means that in total, the visitors to your site have visited a total of 100,000 separate pages on your site.

Note: I have not personally used AdThrive/Raptive on any of my sites.

3. SHE Media

For bloggers with less traffic, there’s SHE Media . They say you need 20,000 monthly sessions to apply, though some bloggers get approved with less.

The thing many dislike about SHE is they require you sign a one-year contract, something no other company asks for.

🤑 How much I made on SHE Media: About $800 USD per month with 30,000 monthly page views and mostly U.S. traffic (U.S. traffic pays the most).

I was with SHE Media for about four months in late-2021.

If you read other reviews of SHE Media, you’ll see that many bloggers say their payments are pretty good, but their customer service is hit or miss.

I completely agree with the majority on this. From my personal experience, SHE wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great either.

4. Monumetric

For bloggers with less traffic, Monumetric only requires 10,000 monthly sessions. The thing many dislike about Monumetric is they require a $100 USD set up fee to put the ads on your site, something no other company asks for.

Note: I have not personally used Monumetric on this site.

Before SHE Media, I was on Ezoic . At the time, they required 10,000 monthly sessions, but now have no traffic requirement — so you can join Ezoic with basically no traffic.

Now, the more traffic you get, the more you make, so don’t expect much of a payout with low traffic.

🤑 How much I made on Ezoic: About $185 USD per month with 10,000 monthly page views and mostly U.S. traffic (U.S. traffic pays the most).

While all ads on your site will slow down your website speed, Ezoic is known as the worst with this.

They have tried to make strides in this area with their Leap tool, but if you look through travel blogging forums, you’ll see a generally anti-Ezoic sentiment.

I was on Ezoic for about four months in early-2021, and have nothing good to say about this company. They offered basically nothing in the way of service, and it took me a few weeks to figure out (on my own) how to get ads set up.

🚨 Here’s Why I don’t recommend Ezoic

To be clear: I do not recommend Ezoic, and was happy to leave them.

I had a terrible experience during my two months with Ezoic, and was happy to part ways from them. Ask around in blogging forums and you’ll soon learn Ezoic has a horrible reputation. In my opinion, they lived up to it.

However, I also understand the need for income.

Because of that alone, the best I can say is try Ezoic out for yourself and make up your own mind. Just because myself and thousands of other bloggers had a negative experience, that doesn’t mean you will.

6. Google AdSense

Like Ezoic, there is no traffic requirement with Google AdSense . From what I understand, you make a few dollars a day, at most.

If you’re considering Ezoic vs AdSense, it seems you’d definitely make more with Ezoic — though I can’t in good conscious recommend them. As mentioned above, you can always try Ezoic out for yourself and make up your own mind.

Note: I have not personally used AdSense on any of my sites.

2. Join Affiliate Marketing Programs

First off, What is affiliate marketing?

If you’ve ever recommended a product, restaurant, great book, or anything to another person, you’ve actually done affiliate marketing without knowing it.

Affiliate marketing is when I recommend hotels, tours, rental car companies, travel gear, etc., on my website. I’ll then insert what are called affiliate links that go to these products, places or services.

When someone buys anything through my affiliate link, I make affiliate sales. With my blog, I earn a small commission from these referrals and sales — but those commissions can add up.

In fact, I made more than $160K from affiliate marketing in 2022 ($163,706 to be exact) — and I can show you exactly how in my How to Find Affiliate Marketing Keywords Class .

What are the best affiliate marketing networks for travel bloggers?

Most travel bloggers are signed up with affiliate networks that make sense for their niche. However, some general categories include hotels, tours, car rentals and travel insurance.

Since my blogs are in the Mexico travel niche, I affiliate with Mexico tour companies, Mexico hotels, Mexico rental cars, Mexico travel guide books, products for traveling to Mexico, etc.

Below, you will find some of the travel brands I have affiliate partnerships with and recommend.

• Best Car Rental Affiliate: Discover Cars (They pay the most)
• Best Travel Insurance Affiliates: SafetyWing (I used to recommend World Nomads, but no longer do)
• Best Affiliate Marketing Network: Travelpayouts
• Best Hotels Affiliate: Booking.com , Expedia and Hotels.com
• Best Home Rental Affiliate: VRBO (Airbnb doesn’t have an affiliate program)
• Best Tours Affiliate: Viator and Get Your Guide
• Best Affiliate for Physical Products: Amazon, Etsy, REI (via AvantLink)

Note: There are good companies, but also plenty of affiliate schemes out there, so it’s a good idea to do your homework about any company you work with.

🤔 How much do i make with affiliate marketing?

A lot — Using a combination of the companies listed above, my affiliate income in 2022 was $163,706 .

In 2021, I made $5,217 total from affiliate income all year, so 32X more money in just one year.

I attribute a lot of my current success to working one-on-one blog coaching with Laura of Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures . But make no mistake, I am successful because I worked hard, and I worked smart.

I also teach courses on this subject, including my most popular course, How to Find Affiliate Marketing Keywords . In it, I show you how to find the keywords that made me more than $160K from affiliate marketing in 2022.

3. Sell Your Own Digital Products

With affiliate marketing, you’ll only get a commission or a percentage of the sale. When you sell your own products, you get all the profits (minus some fees).

For this reason, many bloggers create digital products like eBooks, printable travel planners, travel guides and more.

You can list the products on your website, or work on building up your email list, so you have direct access to those who have an interest in your content.

Digital products are a great way to make money as a blogger because you create them once, and sell them forever!

Many bloggers will use a site like Canva to create a digital product. There is a free version, but the paid version is well worth the $13 USD per month.

To sell the products, sites like Gumroad or ThriveCart are both great options.

4. Land Paid Press Trips

On a press trip, you’re essentially paid to travel and your travel expenses are covered! How cool, right? For many people, yes.

Personally, I find them too time consuming to arrange, and when I travel, I don’t want to work. However, many travel bloggers make money while traveling with press trips.

To secure paid press trips, you’ll contact tourism boards (sometimes called a national tourism office) or local travel-related companies.

There’s often a lot of back and forth hammering out the details, and contracts everyone will sign, before the actual trip.

🤔 How do you get press trips for travel bloggers?

Let’s say you want to get paid to travel to Morocco. You’ll first contact the Morocco tourism board, and see if they’d pay you to come to Morocco and create content for them.

If so, you’ll both come to an agreement, then you’d take the trip and blog about it afterwards.

Is it really that easy? That depends.

If you have a large social media following, high-traffic blog, or blog with a completely focused niche (if you have a Morocco blog, the Morocco tourism board is more likely to say yes), getting paid press trips is actually easy.

With a Mexico niche site, I do get tour companies and hotels that contact me for free travel — so this is just one reason to have a niche blog , which is a travel blog with just one focus.

In truth, most bloggers just starting out will get a lot more no’s than yes’s for paid trips.

5. Write Sponsored Posts

Another way you can make money travel blogging is by writing a sponsored post.

This is when a company pays you to write a review of their tour company, or a hotel review, or maybe a review of a great travel product, or even just a write up about them.

They are basically just paying you to promote them on your site, but they want it in your voice — the one that resonates with your audience.

If you think about it, no one knows better how to speak to your audience than you, so companies usually give you creative control.

You can reach out to companies yourself and offer to write a post to promote their products or services.

In some cases, they will contact you, especially if you have a Contact page or Work With Me page on your website (like this one ) that connects to your email address.

6. Sell Sponsored Links

Some companies will also pay you to put a link to their site in one of your existing posts.

Say you have a post ranking in spot #1 on Page 1 of Google titled Best shoes for travel. A shoe company might see your post, and offer you money to link to their website.

As it only takes 30 seconds to insert a link in a post, these will earn you far less than a full blog post dedicated to one specific place or thing.

How much you charge depends on a lot of factors, but you can expect $50-100 USD for a link, though some bloggers charge more.

7. Network With Other Travel Bloggers

Another one of the best ways to make money blogging, is through leads from other bloggers about paid opportunities.

This might not be a direct payout at first, but the best travel bloggers have a large network of colleagues, who will send jobs their way from time to time.

👯‍♀️ Private Facebook Groups

One benefit to all the travel blog courses I’ve taken is access to a private Facebook group.

In these, you can both ask the teacher or mentor questions you have about the course material, and also network with your fellow classmates, who just so happen to be travel bloggers!

I am in a few, and can attest that the quality of information you get in private Facebook groups for travel bloggers is much better than what you get in public groups.

People also tend to be nicer since the teacher has a presence in the group, and no one wants to get in trouble.

👯‍♂️ Best Free Facebook Groups

If you want to check out some free blogging travel groups, there’s Affiliate Marketing for Travel Bloggers , which is my group, and SEO For Travel Bloggers , which is my friend Nina Clapperton’s group.

Looking for the best SEO course for travel bloggers? Check out Nina’s SEO Roadmap , which I can’t recommend enough.

There’s also Women Travel Bloggers , Women Travel Creators and Digital Nomad Wannabe , and all five of these are some of best and most active Facebook travel blogging groups out there.

As with most Facebook groups, you’ll want to take all the info you get with a grain of salt.

✈️ Best Travel Blogging Conferences

I started this travel blog during Covid in 2020, so all blogger conferences have been on hold.

Now that the world has opened back up, I’m attending travel blog conferences like Travel Blogging Summit (where I was a speaker in 2022), TBEX (where I was a speaker in 2023), Women In Travel Summit , and TravelCon .

⚠️ Update: Sadly, TravelCon from Nomadic Matt was canceled indefinitely after the May 2022 conference.

8. Sell Your Photos

If you’re a photographer, you’re likely taking a ton of photos for your blog anyway — so this might be the easiest way to integrate more revenue streams 🤑

One easy way to sell photos online is with the FREE Sell Media   plugin, which you’ll just add to your WordPress website.

Using social media channels is another great way to get eyes on your photos, and might lead to paid jobs and even long-term partnerships.

With apps like TikTok and Instagram now paying users for content creation, this is a great way to earn additional income.

9. Monetize Your YouTube Channel or TikTok

There are many travel vloggers (video bloggers), like Hey Nadine and The Bucket List Family , who make great money off their YouTube travel videos.

To apply for the YouTube Partner Program and monetize your channel, you’ll need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year.

Note: I don’t have a YouTube channel.

10. Monetize Your Travel Podcast

This is a great option if you’re comfortable with public speaking. As someone who did have a podcast, I feel this is the biggest barrier to entry — not any technical know-how or fancy recording equipment.

I wrote a detailed guide, How to Start a Travel Podcast for Free (Like I Did) , so if you want a deep dive into this topic, you can check it out.

I had a podcast called Dream To Destination , for one year from 2020-2021. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. However, many travel podcasters make great money podcasting.

I only had the podcast as a hobby, and still made a bit of money from it.

11. Work as a VA for Other Travel Bloggers

VA stands for virtual assistant, and it means you can work virtually from anywhere.

This is a great entryway into the digital nomad lifestyle and location independence so many travel bloggers want, and add real value for you because you’re learning about blogging from a pro.

You can sign up to UpWork or Fiverr to find virtual assistant jobs with travel bloggers, or join some free Facebook blogging groups and offer your services.

As someone who’s in quite a few of these Facebook groups, I always see successful bloggers to hire a VA.

How much money you make as a VA will depend on your skillset.

If you have valuable skills other travel bloggers seek out — social media management, SEO-optimized travel writing , setting up affiliate partnerships , Google analytics, etc. — you can earn a lot of money.

12. Use Your Blog to Get Freelance Work

If you’re considering VA work or freelance writing work, your blog is a good way to showcase your unique travel writing style. This should only further motivate you to produce great content — because you can use your blog as a selling tool.

If you also make photos and videos, the blog will also seamlessly integrate your social media accounts.

A travel blogger who sees your blog, Instagram account, etc., and loves it is more likely to hire you over another candidate because they want you to do the exact same for them.

How to Make Money with a Travel Blog: FAQ

What’s the average travel blogging salary .

When it comes to making money travel blogging , there’s no average amount. It’s much like asking how much the average singer makes — obviously Adele makes much more than your local wedding singer.

Similarly, there’s no answer to how much does a travel blogger make?

There are some income reports and travel blogger salary articles out there, so we know The Blonde Abroad and One Step 4 Ward have $1 million+ per year blogs.

In 2017, Nomadic Matt was making multiple-six figures, but I assume he too has a $1 million+ travel blog these days.

By contrast, some bloggers make $0.

When I got serious about monetizing my blog, I decided I will absolutely hit seven figures one day, and I started taking steps to do so — like investing in the best travel blogging courses I could find.

I mean, if The Blonde Abroad can, so can I!

🏆 Here are My Blogging Stats

• I made $ 272,175 USD in 2022.
• I made $40,106 USD from blogging in December 2022 — $24,151 from affiliate marketing, $9,382 from ads on my site, and $6,572 selling my own products, like this Affiliate Marketing course .
• My main website (not this one) received 205,000+ page views in December 2022, and more than 2.6 million page views in 2022.
• Want to know how I did it? Join my email list where I share weekly tips on how I make such a crazy amount of money after just 2.5 years of blogging.

What’s the earning potential of travel bloggers?

This really is a better question to ask than How much do travel bloggers make? , or Do bloggers make good money?

I look at this blog (and my other blogs, Travel Mexico Solo , Travel To Merida , Travel To Oaxaca , Tulum Travel Secrets ) as small businesses, and with your own blog business, the sky’s the limit on how much you earn.

For me, I only want to work 20 hours a week. If I were working a full time 40 hour workweek, I could make a lot more money than I am right now.

In short, when you’re a small business owner (yes — bloggers are! ) you set your own ceiling on earnings.

What is a travel blog?

A travel blog is a website with information on traveling — like these, Travel Mexico Solo and Tulum Travel Secrets .

There are many niches, or sub-genres of travel blogs. Mine is focused on Mexico travel, while some travel blogs focus on Paris travel or, or camping travel, or cruises, or solo travel; the list goes on and on.

What is a travel blogger?

A travel blogger is the person who’s running the travel blog, or someone who writes travel blogs for other people’s blogs. I am actually a multiple six-figure travel blogger who makes a full time income from my blogs.

If you’re a woman, you’ll usually be called a female travel blogger; though the term male travel blogger is pretty much never used.

If you’re unsure how to be a travel blogger, it’s quite simple! In fact, all you need to do is start a travel blog website, then write some travel blog posts .

If you only want to document your travels, this will suffice; if you want to make money, consider these best travel blogging courses .

How to Start Travel Blogging

Wondering, how to become a travel blogger? The first question to consider is: Do you want to make money with your travel blog, or do you want a hobby blog?

No matter which you chose, there’s information for starting both types of blogs below.

✍️ How to start a hobby blog

You can do this by starting a new travel blog on Blogger for free right now!

All you’ll need is a travel blog name (you might also want to take the corresponding handles on any social media channels you use), and start sharing your best travel tips, epic stories and more.

Now, if you want to know How to start a travel blog and make money? , that’s a bit different.

💰 How to start a money-making blog

Like most things, there’s a right way, and a wrong way to start becoming a travel blogger .

If you want to make your own travel blog to start earning money, I highly suggest investing in a travel blogging course with step-by-step instructions, so you start it off right.

There is a system to travel blogging success, and either know the system, or you don’t.

You’re either writing SEO-optimized content with high volume, low competition keywords that will rank on Page 1 of Google, or no one will ever see your content. According to stats , only 25% of users even go to Page 2 of Google.

Through travel blogging courses , I learned that I need to write the articles you want to read, and not just the articles I want to write.

I learned how to get my content on Page 1 of Google with search engine optimization (SEO) — in fact, that’s likely how you found this article!

The way I see it, you can spend time, or you can spend money.

You can either spend your time trying to find good free content, which could take years and still not pan out, or you can pay a professional to learn what they’re doing, so you can simply replicate their success.

The best blogging course I’ve done is Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures — and I’ve been in quite a few courses .

Is it worth starting a travel blog in 2023?

As someone who makes a full-time income from my travel blog, works only about 20 hours per week, from any location on Earth I want to — FU+K YES it is!

However, setting up a WordPress blog and learning how to blog properly takes time. Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint.

My blog did nothing in year one; it was a place to hear crickets. In year two, I invested in the best travel blogging courses I could find, and made $7,762.22 dollars ($2,435.18 in December 2021).

In year three, I made $ 272,175 USD in 2022.

While my numbers may seem impressive if you’re making $0 from a blog, I’m still a small time blogger. (Ok, maybe I’m a “medium time blogger” now).

There are so many bloggers who make more than me, but since I know blogging is a marathon, not a sprint , it’s only a matter of time before I get there too.

How to start a travel blog without traveling

When we all lost the ability to travel freely in 2020, many travel bloggers still thrived. How? , you might be wondering — By blogging about where they live.

While the place you live is familiar to you, it’s a full-fledged travel destination for people who don’t live there. 

Final Thoughts: How to Make Money With a Travel Blog 2023

There are many ways to make money blogging, and the top travel bloggers are doing many of them in tandem.

The one thing to always keep in mind about travel blogging and any blogging is that it will take time to get there. 

The highest paid travel bloggers who make more than $1 million have been blogging for a decade or more before they saw numbers like that. To really make money as a travel blogger, you need to be in it for the long haul.

From my personal experience, I didn’t start seeing any income for more than one year. When money started finally coming in, it was not much — but I kept at it.

In 2022, my third year blogging, I made $ 272,175 USD . My goal for 2022 was $250,000 USD… and I surpassed it.

For the record: I’m not special! I think anyone can be a successful travel blogger, if you have a solid plan, and if you remember that blogging is a marathon; not a sprint.

Personally, I learned so much from the Scale Your Travel Blog to Six Figures course). 👩‍💻 Read my honest review of the course here .

Ready to invest in a travel blogging course? 👉 Sign up for the FREE live webinar to meet my coach Laura, who has helped me grow my blog fast!

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October 8, 2023 — blog

Travel is fun. It's even better when you share it with friends and family. But how? Social media is quick but shallow. A travel blog is different. It lets you share more. You can tell stories, show photos, and share tips. Ever wondered how to make a travel blog for friends and family? It's easy. You don’t need to be a tech guru. If you want to share your travels with loved ones, a blog is a great choice. It turns quick snaps into lasting stories. Ready to start your own travel blog? Let’s dive in!

Why Start a Travel Blog?

Traveling is fun. Sharing your travels is even better. A travel blog lets you do that and more. Here’s why you should start a travel blog for friends and family:

• Easy Updates: A blog lets you share updates easily. Learning how to make a travel blog for friends and family can bring your loved ones closer, no matter the distance.
• Digital Scrapbook: A blog is like a scrapbook. But online. It holds all your travel memories. Photos, stories, and tips, all in one place.
• No Overflow: Social media can be noisy. A blog is calm. It’s your own space. Share without flooding your friends' feeds.
• Engage Differently: Blogs are interactive. Friends and family can leave comments. They can ask questions. It’s a two-way conversation.
• Unleash Creativity: A blog lets you be creative. You can write, take photos, or make videos. It's your playground.
• Own Your Content: Social media platforms have rules. A blog is your domain. You decide how it looks and what goes on it.

Starting a travel blog is easy. It’s also rewarding. It lets you share your travels your way. And guess what? Your friends and family will love it!

Travel Blog vs Instagram

Sharing your travel stories is exciting. But where to share them? Travel blogs on your own domain and travel blogging on Instagram are popular choices. Here’s how they compare:

Travel Blog Benefits

• Detail Sharing: Blogs let you dive deep. You can share long stories, many photos, and travel tips.
• Ownership: A blog is your space. You control what's on it. It’s personal and customizable.
• Money Making: With a blog, you can earn. Ads, affiliate links, or selling products can fund your travels.
• SEO: Blogs can rank on Google. More traffic over time is a big win.

Instagram Benefits

• Quick Sharing: Instagram is quick. Share a photo, write a caption, done!
• Big Audience: Many people use Instagram. Finding and connecting with others is easy.
• High Interaction: Likes, comments, and shares are common on Instagram.

Travel Blog Downsides

• Learning: There’s a learning curve. SEO and site management take some getting used to.
• Time Needed: Blogs and building an audience need time. Writing and site updates are a commitment.

Instagram Downsides

• Short Posts: Instagram is brief. It’s great for photos, not long stories.
• No Control: Instagram sets the rules. Your profile has limits and can change.

Best of Both? TravelFeed!

TravelFeed merges the good of both worlds. It's a free travel blogging platform. It's as easy as Instagram with the depth of a blog. Share your travel stories your way. And if you want to grow, TravelFeed is ready. Upgrade anytime to get your domain and earn from your blog. It's a traveler’s dream come true!

You might hear suggestions for finding hosting companies to install WordPress, spending hours setting it up. But on TravelFeed, getting your travel blog up and ready takes just a minute. Want to know more? Check out this comparison page that explains why TravelFeed is a better choice than WordPress .

Getting Started: A Simple Guide

Creating your travel blog on TravelFeed is simple and straightforward. Here’s how you do it:

• Choosing a Catchy and Memorable Blog Name: Your blog name is important. It's the first thing people notice. Need some inspiration? TravelFeed has a cool tool to help you out. Head to TravelFeed's Travel Blog Name Ideas Generator . Type in your ideas, and get suggestions. Once you find a username you love and is available, click on "start your free travel blog".
• Registering Your Account: A quick form will pop up. Fill in your email and choose a password. Hit "sign up". Now, check your email for a confirmation link. Click it, and voila! You are on the TravelFeed dashboard. If you prefer, you can also sign up with one click using your Google or Facebook account. It’s that easy!
• Customizing Your Profile: Now, let’s make your profile shine. On the dashboard, find the sidebar. Click on "Profile". Here, you can add a bio and a display name. You can also link your social media accounts. Don’t forget to upload a profile picture!

Congratulations! You now have a TravelFeed account. Your travel blog journey has just begun. Ready to share your first story?

Crafting Your First Post: A Step-by-Step Guide

Creating captivating posts on TravelFeed is a breeze, thanks to its user-friendly editor. Here’s a step-by-step guide to crafting and publishing your first post:

Navigating to the Editor

On your TravelFeed dashboard, click on "Publish" to start a new post. You'll find yourself in the editor, all set to craft your adventure tales.

Using the Block-based Editor

• The editor is block-based, which means no HTML or coding knowledge is needed. It's designed to help you create beautiful, structured posts with ease.
• As you start typing, you’ll notice a "plus" button appearing in each new paragraph. This button can also be accessed by pressing the "tab" key. Clicking it opens a menu to insert a new block.

Exploring Block Options

There are various blocks you can use to enhance your post. Some of the options include:

• Headings : To emphasize sections of your post.
• Image : To add pictures.
• Image Gallery : To display a collection of photos.
• List : For bullet points or numbered lists.
• Table of Contents : Automatically generated based on your headings.
• Button : To create clickable buttons.
• Internal Link : To link to other sections of your post or other posts.

Embedding External Content

You can embed YouTube videos, Instagram posts, or Google Maps directly into your blog. It adds a rich, interactive experience to your posts.

In the top left of each block, right of the plus icon, you will find the tunes symbol (six dots). When you click it, you will see options for the block. For example, for a text block, you can select the text orientation (left, center, justify), for a heading you can select the heading level (how big it is) and for an image gallery, you can choose between masonry and gallery layout.

For a more in-depth tutorial on using the editor, check out this step-by-step guide provided by TravelFeed.

After mastering the basics of the block-based editor, it's time to explore the other important options on the publish page to make your post more engaging and discoverable:

Creating a Title

• Enter a catchy title for your post. Need suggestions? Click on the "AI" button next to the title field for creative ideas.

Setting Up Metadata in the Sidebar

• Upload a captivating thumbnail. If not, the first image in your post will be used.
• Pinpoint the location of your travel story either by dragging the pin on the map or using the search feature.
• Select the appropriate category based on your location.
• Tag your post with relevant keywords under "topics".
• Explore "SEO" and "Visibility" settings as you become more comfortable with blogging.

Publishing Your Post

• Click the "Publish" button at the top right, then confirm with "Publish Now".

Congratulations! You've just published your first travel blog post on TravelFeed.

Keeping the Momentum: Sharing Your Travel Tales with Friends & Family

So, you've got your first post up on TravelFeed. Exciting, right? Now, let's spread the joy of your travels with your friends and family. Here’s how you can do it:

Share Your Posts

Start by sharing your posts on the network where your friends and family are most active, it could be Facebook, Instagram, or even via email. For Instagram, you could add a link to your latest blog post to your bio and mention in your captions or stories that the link is in your bio.

On Facebook, simply share the link to your blog post on your timeline or in a post to any groups you're a part of. Encourage your friends and family to share your post to reach a wider audience.

Engage with Your Readers

When your friends or family leave comments on your blog posts, don’t forget to reply! It's just like having a chat but on your blog. It keeps the conversation flowing and makes your blog a cozy spot for catching up.

Keep Posting

The more stories you share, the more your friends and family will have to look forward to. Aim to post a new tale every week or so. Your loved ones will enjoy the regular updates from your travels, and it’s a cool way to keep your blog buzzing with new stories.

Invite Friends & Family to TravelFeed

Know folks who love to travel? Invite them to start their own TravelFeed blog. It’s a fantastic way for your circle to share their own travel stories. Plus, it’s always more fun when your friends and family join in the adventure!

Join the TravelFeed Community:

TravelFeed is more than a blogging platform; it’s a community. Step out and explore other blogs. Leave a comment or two. It’s a lovely way to learn from other travelers and make new friends.

Creating Your Personalized Blog: A Simple Step

Having a TravelFeed blog to share with your friends and family is awesome. But hey, if you're already putting in the effort to write posts, why not earn a side income from them? To do that, having your own domain is the way to go. And guess what? Transitioning to your own domain is super easy with TravelFeed. Here’s how:

Step 1: Pick Your Spot

• Head over to the “Hosting” section in your TravelFeed dashboard.
• Here, pick a free subdomain, type in a catchy title and a short description for your blog. This is your chance to give your blog a fun name that your friends and family will remember!

Step 2: Make It Yours

• Pick a color for the theme. What's your favorite color? Blue like the ocean or green like the trees? Go ahead and choose!

Step 3: Let the Magic Happen

• Once you’ve filled in the details, TravelFeed’s smart AI gets to work. In just a minute or two, a personalized blog is all set up for you. It's that quick!

Step 4: Add Your Touch

• If you like, you can use the site builder to tweak things a bit. Unlike limited or expensive themes on other platforms, with TravelFeed's site builder, you can build your blog exactly the way you want it without any coding knowledge. Move things around, change colors, or add cool widgets. Make it feel just the way you want.

And voila! Your very own travel blog is ready on a subdomain provided by TravelFeed. If you wish to have a personalized domain like yourtravelblog.com, it's a simple task. Just register your desired domain with a registrar such as Namecheap . Then, follow the easy instructions in the hosting dashboard on TravelFeed to point it to your blog.

Just like that, your travel blog will have a personal web address, making it even more unique and professional! Now, with your own domain, you're all set to explore monetizing opportunities.  Check out this comprehensive post on TravelFeed to learn how to make money with your travel blog , including a guide to affiliate marketing to boost your earnings.

Getting the Help You Need: TravelFeed Support and Community

Starting a travel blog is a thrilling journey. But hey, we all need a little help sometimes. On TravelFeed, you’re never alone. There's a bunch of friendly travelers waiting for you. Let’s dive into how you can get the help you need:

TravelFeed Help Center

Find helpful articles in the TravelFeed Help Center . From anywhere on TravelFeed,  hit Ctrl+K on Windows or ⌘K on your Mac to open the help center search. 

Reach Out to TravelFeed Support

Got a question or hit a snag? No worries! The TravelFeed support team is here to help. Just shoot us a message , and we'll get back to you with the answers you need.

Join the Discord Community

Chat with other TravelFeed bloggers on Discord! It’s a fun place to ask questions, share your blog, and learn from others. Everyone’s super friendly and ready to help.

Browse the TravelFeed Blog

Looking for tips on travel blogging or how to use TravelFeed? The TravelFeed blog is your go-to spot. It’s packed with useful guides and announcements. It’s a treasure trove of info waiting for you.

So, whenever you need a hand or just want to chat with other travel bloggers, TravelFeed has got your back. With a supportive community and loads of resources, you’re set for a smooth blogging journey. Happy blogging!

Now that you know how to make a travel blog for friends and family, it's time to start your blogging journey on TravelFeed:

Start your travel blog on TravelFeed!

How to Make Money Travel Blogging: 10 Ways I Monetized My Passion

By Will Hatton

Today, many folks dream of hitting the road and traveling the world while working remotely on their own business, as their own boss. It’s a path that has been heavily romanticized, and for good reason. To live life on your terms, choosing where you live and work from, is a truly liberating experience. But to get to this promised land is a challenge, and most folks who try to build an online business are ultimately not successful.

I'm the founder of The Broke Backpacker , one of the world’s largest travel blogs, and I'm a serial entrepreneur with over a dozen different online ventures under my belt. I started my own journey fifteen years ago while backpacking the world on a budget of just $10 a day, and since then I have learned a TON about what does and what doesn’t work when trying to build an online income.

How I became a travel blogger

Embarking on my own journey as a broke backpacker, I was hungry for both adventure and great stories. I found I had a passion for writing in-depth reports of what it was truly like to be living in a tent, hitchhiking, couch surfing, and basically living like a hippy around the world. I was passionate about the potential for personal development through challenging travel that threw me out of my comfort zone and I used this passion to build up my travel blog and to launch some other projects along the way.

Simply being on the road as a young and naive teenager without two cents to rub together presented me with numerous challenges. I took a good number of risks and made pivotal decisions that transformed this passion project of mine into a sustainable source of income. From refining my niche to leveraging productivity systems, each decision was a stepping stone toward building a sustainable and successful business.

I am sharing some of the key decisions that propelled my humble travel blog for budget backpackers into a profitable business with an audience of over 1 million users a month. So, fasten your seatbelts and join me as we explore the pivotal moments that transformed my budget travel blog into one of the internet’s best-known travel sites.

10 strategies I used to build my travel blog into a business

1. investing in a catchy domain name.

It may sound simple, but let's be honest—picking the right brand name is a pivotal decision for any business. The Broke Backpacker is a memorable name that immediately tells the audience what the site is about. It also has a personal element to it.

This not only helped me establish a strong brand identity but also attracted the right audience from the get-go: people who wanted to go backpacking, but were pretty broke.

Back in the day, 10 years ago when I first started this blog, there was hardly any content online about traveling on an extreme budget. Indeed, most travel blogs talked about traveling on a budget of $50 a day (so $1500 a month) after flights. This was way more money than I ever had access to and I’m glad, as it pushed me down a different path. Ultimately, I saw a sizable gap in the market.

By aligning my domain name with my niche, I positioned myself early on as a trusted resource in the budget travel space, drawing in readers who resonated with my content and message.

2. Embarking on crazy adventures

One of the game-changing decisions I made was to embark on extraordinary adventures that captured the attention of both readers and the media.

I explored and covered off-the-beaten-path destinations like Venezuela when not many were doing it—especially with the same level of detailed, raw coverage that I brought to the game. Some of my photos in Venezuela went viral and this was a crucial moment for me.

By undertaking epic journeys like embarking on an attempt to travel from the UK to Papua New Guinea overland, I managed to attract the attention of powerful media like the BBC and The Daily Mail , scoring the first powerful backlinks that helped ramp up The Broke Backpacker’ s value in Google’s eyes and helped me build some more monthly traffic.

I also documented my adventures on Snapchat, taking my audience with me as I hitchhiked across Iran, hiked deep into the Pakistani Himalayas, and drove a rickshaw all around India. I was raw and real in my videos, often enjoying a cheeky smoke on camera and always trying to tell it how it is.

The exposure and credibility gained through these adventures propelled my blog's visibility and opened doors to new opportunities.

3. Launching expeditions to Pakistan

Photo courtesy: Will Hatton

In 2015, I visited Pakistan for the first time. I was broke (big time) and I covered everything on my Snapchat. I was the first blogger to do this, and the first in Pakistan for a LONG time. My audience was stoked to see this misunderstood part of the world.

I went back there a second time in 2016. I turned to my audience on Snapchat and asked if folks would be interested in seeing this amazing country with me as their guide.

I put up a PayPal link to secure deposits and overnight it sold out. I suddenly had $6000 (12 x $500 deposits) in the bank, which I immediately spent on trying to grow The Broke Backpacker, reasoning that I had six months before I led the first tour and therefore time to make it back.

It was a pretty big risk but…I made it work.

4. Being authentic

Authenticity pays off, and it has been a cornerstone of my success.

I made the conscious decision to openly talk about topics that are often considered taboo, such as drug use and things that real people do in the real world. I felt like travel blogs often hid such things, and I made an effort to always be transparent.

By sharing authentic stories and vulnerabilities, I created a deeper connection with my audience. People related to the raw and unfiltered nature of my content, and this genuine approach built up a lot of trust and loyalty among my readership.

Being authentic and true to my personality allowed me to build a strong community of people who appreciated my transparency and valued the realness I brought to the table.

5. Going ALL in

I think perhaps what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who dream of working for themselves but struggle to make it work is their refusal to give up and their ability to fully commit to a project.

I spent two years in Chiang Mai working 60 to 70 hours a week. During that time, I had to put my travel goals and dreams on hold and focus solely on working tirelessly. It's ironic that in order to be successful in running a travel blog, I had to temporarily step away from the road and dedicate more time to writing posts, designing strategies, organizing standard operating procedures (SOPs), cultivating relationships, and hiring writers. There was so much involved in that stage, and I made numerous sacrifices.

I vividly remember feeling incredibly anxious and worried, often struggling financially to the point where I couldn't afford to eat or do much else. I had traded the freedom, joy, and personal development of being on the road for a desk, where I became my own boss and worked relentlessly. I faced significant internal struggles with self-belief and self-talk, constantly questioning whether all the hard work would pay off.

Throughout it all, I managed to hold on to the belief that it had to work because I had reached a point where I had no other options. I had borrowed money that I could only repay if I succeeded. The pressure on me was immense, but ultimately, it galvanized me to do whatever was necessary to achieve my goals.

6. Building an awesome team and knowing when to outsource

The Broke Backpacker is huge. It has about one million monthly visitors and 3,000 unique posts. Building a team to help me organize and think of projects and bounce ideas around has been crucial to my success.

Every cent I earned along the way, I invested in hiring and expanding my team. Now, I am proud to have an incredible team of broke backpacker adventurer folks—and let me tell you, they do a stellar job at keeping the show running.

Knowing when to outsource tasks allowed me to focus on my strengths and allocate resources effectively. By assembling a team of expert vagabonds, I enhanced the quality of my content, expanded my reach, and freed up valuable time to explore new opportunities.

With them, I’ve managed to build systems that work, develop a ton of standard operating procedures for new hires and projects, and all of that combined has been the foundational force behind the scalability and success of my blog.

Recognize the power of collaboration and the value of expertise. Hire good people, focus on honesty, work ethic, and creative flair over experience. Trust your gut, not everybody can be trusted.

7. Leveraging the power of existing traffic

Over the years, I realized my blog was bringing in considerable traffic to our affiliate partners in the gear space, so I decided to capitalize on that.

I ventured into the world of dropshipping and started designing my own lines of backpacker essentials like hammocks and quick-dry towels under the brand name Active Roots.

This strategic move not only allowed me to diversify my revenue streams but also solidified my brand presence in the travel industry. It was successful for a while until Covid started and made it impossible to sustain, as shipping costs increased by 400%. Sadly, I had to throw in the towel on that business.

But now that the storm has passed, I’m already working on an upgraded version of that business that is aligned with the evolving demands of my audience, including a new line of Broke Backpacker Basics.

8. Going physical

The online world can be very fun, and I’ve dabbled in a lot of interesting business models and creative ways of building an income. Driven by my passion for online entrepreneurship, I recently ventured into creating a physical business that catered to my audience’s evolving needs.

I am passionate about the power of online entrepreneurship to change lives and raise people out of poverty. For a long time, I had dreamed of opening a business that would act as a beacon, a hub, and a muster point for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital nomads to find their tribe, as well as sleep, eat, work, and play.

In 2022, after a few challenging years, we finally managed to open Tribal, Bali’s first custom-built co-working hostel. I’m thrilled to say that we’ve been getting great feedback, and we’re usually full.

This project allowed me to merge my love for travel, community building, and entrepreneurship. Tribal Bali became a hub for like-minded individuals, fostering collaboration and connection among digital nomads, as well as overall just being a kickass place for my nomad folks to get some work done.

9. Being disciplined

Being disciplined is a crucial skill for entrepreneurs and digital nomads to develop. Personally, I found that cultivating discipline was essential in building and managing a successful travel blog.

To achieve this, I focused on staying organized using tools like Google Calendar and Trello. I set clear goals for myself and identified the habits I needed to cultivate in order to reach those goals. I have whiteboards placed throughout my house, displaying various goals, affirmations, and reminders to keep me on track. Each evening, I review my habits and tick off the ones I successfully accomplished during the day.

I also employ a two-phone system to avoid getting too engrossed in my phone and ensure a proper winding down before sleep. The second phone is dedicated to music, audiobooks, and podcasts, devoid of any social media or communication apps. Ultimately, the key is to minimize distractions, maintain focus, and establish goals for each part of the day. I've spent the past 10 years cultivating these practices.

I've also developed a strategy to ensure that every aspect of my blog receives the attention it deserves. I break down all the necessary tasks over a three-month period and chip away at them on a weekly basis, even the ones I may not particularly enjoy. Honesty and self-awareness are important in recognizing both successes and failures.

It can be tempting to spend time on your online businesses’ social media, or endlessly designing a logo, but at the end of the day, there are essential tasks that only you can accomplish—the "big business domino" that needs to be toppled every day.

Cultivating discipline enables you to get things done, especially when faced with challenges. It helps you focus and avoid unnecessary distractions. This skill is paramount for any aspiring entrepreneur.

10. Being patient

During Covid, the site's monthly user count plummeted from 1.5 million to a mere 200,000. Travel-related search traffic took a massive hit as well. Even when looking at it from a percentage standpoint, the revenue generated from the remaining traffic wasn't as expected. While some people continued to search for travel-related terms, bookings for hostels and purchases of gear were virtually non-existent.

The entire world was in a state of anxiety and uncertainty.

In such circumstances, there was no choice but to double down and fully commit. We utilized that time to rebuild the site, making it faster, leaner, sexier, and smoother. Previously, it had become a Frankenstein-like creation, initially designed by me and later worked on by various developers who never communicated with each other.

Over a six-month period, we rebuilt it from the ground up. We also expanded our team of writers, focused on revamping different content series, and updated older posts. Fortunately, our efforts paid off, but it was undeniably a nerve-wracking experience to double down when everything seemed to be falling apart.

I firmly believe that if you aspire to succeed and create something remarkable, you have to go ALL in.

FAQs about creating a travel blog

How can i monetize my travel blog.

Display ads are a good way to start generating income, though they might deter some readers. My suggestion is to start by joining affiliate programs for brands you love and find ways to plug them as hard (and as softly) as you can.

Is travel blogger a good career?

Starting a travel blog can be an extremely rewarding career, though you really have to be passionate, patient, and persistent. With the right mindset, ahead of you await plenty of travel, income, and creative expression opportunities.

What should I include in my travel blog?

Start by asking yourself what is your speciality or travel superpower. Finding the right niche is more effective than going broad. Perhaps you know a specific destination/region better than anyone, or a style of travel. Start there, study the competition, and create something better.

About the Author

Post by: Will Hatton

Will Hatton is the man behind The Broke Backpacker travel blog. For many years, he journeyed to far-flung lands all over the world on just $10 per day. Today, his site is the ultimate resource for aspiring adventurers looking to ditch their desks and hit the road in search of raw, real, and meaningful adventures.

Company: The Broke Backpacker

Website: www.thebrokebackpacker.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram .

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How to plan your dream vacation

Sometimes you crave a vacation — but actually taking one feels out of reach. Maybe you're struggling to find the time or save up the money. Or maybe you just can't seem to launch those plans out of the group chat. Overcome that planning inertia and take the big trip of your dreams. Here's where to start your search, organize your logistics and enjoy yourself.

MARIELLE SEGARRA, HOST:

You're listening to LIFE KIT...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SEGARRA: ...From NPR.

Hey, everybody. It's Marielle. You remember the early part of the pandemic when the days of isolation stretched into months? At night, I would lay on the floor of my apartment with my eyes closed and listen to guided meditations, to try to take myself to a happier place. One time the prompt was something like, picture yourself doing something that brings you great joy. The first thing that popped into my head was an image of me wandering the cobblestone streets of some small European village, probably in France. The sun was shining, and every step I took was a feast for the eyes. Medieval houses, colorful flowers resting in vases on outdoor tables, patisseries with gorgeous pastries in the window, just waiting to be eaten.

I didn't realize until that moment just how much I missed traveling and how badly I wanted to look at something outside of my four walls or the blocks of my neighborhood. The next year, I took a three-week trip to the U.K. and France, and I ate those pastries and wandered until my feet hurt and filled a hole that had been growing inside of me.

Big trips can do that. Lale Arikoglu knows what I'm talking about. She's the articles director at Conde Nast Traveler.

LALE ARIKOGLU: On a really basic level, I think it's just being able to have a break from the crush of regular life, whether that's work or childcare or school, wherever it may be, you know, the opportunity to just take yourself out of your routine and be somewhere else and get to immerse yourself in that place to me is, like, the main draw of it.

SEGARRA: Now, when we talk about a big trip, that could mean different things depending on your travel style and your budget. You know, it might be a long road trip or an extended stay at a cottage in the woods or a multi-city tour on another continent. But it's typically something you save up for and plan months in advance. Lale has a big trip coming up. She's going to Peru.

ARIKOGLU: I've been waiting to do it for a long time. The reason to go there is for a friend's wedding. And now I'm building a trip around it, and it's going to be about ten days long with multi-stops, you know, having to choose multiple places to stay. And logistically, you know, it's actually taking some thought and some planning. One of the things that we're going to do when we're there is hike Machu Picchu. There's a group of us going. And Machu Picchu - it's a dream to see and experience.

SEGARRA: Now, it's easy to get bogged down in trip planning. And it might stop you from booking the thing entirely, but Lale says, do it. It's worth it.

On this episode of LIFE KIT, Lale shares her best tips on planning the big trip of your dreams. We'll talk about where to start your search, what logistical questions you should ask yourself and how to actually relax and enjoy yourself once you're there.

SEGARRA: Let's say I do want to take a big trip, right? I'm feeling that itch to travel, but...

ARIKOGLU: Right.

SEGARRA: ...I don't have a destination in mind yet or a duration. I'm really starting from scratch. Where does the planning start?

ARIKOGLU: When you start the planning, you've really got to think what you want to get out of the trip. You know, If you really just want to decompress and relax and rest, then you probably don't want to do some like multi-stop European city trip, right? You probably don't want to hike Machu Picchu. Perhaps it is that you're incredibly bored of your surroundings, and you need adventure and you need excitement. And therefore, you're going to be thinking of some really different destinations. It might be that you're traveling alone for the first time. You've decided to do a solo trip. You know, where is a place that might feel comfortable for you as a solo traveler, but still feels like it's taking you out of your comfort zone? So I think it's sitting with yourself and thinking, OK, what is, like, the goal here? That's takeaway one. Ask yourself what do you want to get from this? Set the mission of your trip.

It feels like another really important detail at the beginning is budget, right? Like, how much money do you realistically want to spend on this trip or can you afford to spend?

ARIKOGLU: And, you know, that's going to look different for everyone. If we're talking big trips, rarely are they spontaneous, right? You're planning for a long time. So that also allows you to save and finance for it. No, there's lots of great savings apps that can just, you know, that take a little bit of money out of your paycheck every few weeks, and you can kind of start, like, a travel fund that way. I think that's quite a nice way to do it. But I think, you know, you can do a big trip on a budget. It doesn't have to be, I think, a lavish, international trip. I mean, you know, we're going into spring and summer, there are so many incredible national parks to see, there are so many amazing, very diverse, different cities. There's, like, so much on your doorstep, so I think you can really argue, you don't have to cross continents to have a big trip. And so if that feels a more affordable way to get away for a couple of weeks, then, you know, look in your backyard.

SEGARRA: Right. I wonder, too, like, part of budget, besides money, is also time. Like, how much vacation time do you have? Do you have any tips for people who don't have that much vacation time?

ARIKOGLU: So I think if you look at the calendar and you look at where the holiday weekends fall, There are some tricks to being able to kind of, like, turn your limited number of vacation days into - kind of you can stretch it out if you bookend it with a holiday weekend or something like that. But on the flip side, it's also most expensive time to travel, right? There is an argument for choosing shoulder season, so that's not traveling to a destination when it's at its peak. And this is great for your own personal experience, but it's also in terms of helping that destination deal with overtourism, overcrowding. If we're talking about Europe, for example, the summers are getting hotter. So avoiding those really intense, hot, summer seasons can actually be really advantageous for your own travel plans.

SEGARRA: Yeah. That seems like maybe the next thing to consider as you're planning a big trip before you start looking at destinations is what time of year are you looking to travel?

ARIKOGLU: Definitely. And that's more of a luxury for some people because If you're having to navigate school holidays, then you're a little bit more limited. But again, it's sort of when you're thinking about carving out those goals and what you want to get out of the trip. Maybe it's the seasonality that's really important. Maybe it's all you want is hot weather and a beach. You know, if you're planning some summer travel, you could totally flip things on its head and go experience winter somewhere. I went to Patagonia when it was entering into their fall in Chile, and it was a really magnificent time to be there, and it was when New York City was going into spring. It felt like upside-down land to be choosing to do that, and it was so wonderful. It was great.

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think there's a lot of room for creativity there. And also, as you said, like, it opens up more possibilities if you consider going places during the shoulder season.

ARIKOGLU: And you get to be in a place and actually be in the place with the people who live there. One thing in August, if you go to Europe, everyone who lives there has, you know, gone off somewhere else on vacation to escape the heat and the tourists, and so, you know, you're in Rome with just all the other tourists and none of the Romans.

SEGARRA: All right, so takeaway two. Before you land on a destination, think about your constraints. What time of year do you plan to travel? For how long? What budget are you working with? If you're short on time, you can make use of holidays or pick a destination closer to home. If you're short on money, think creatively. You know, maybe you do a road trip through some parks or cities nearby.

SEGARRA: It seems like another thing to consider here is, how much do you like crowds? Because for me, it kind of ruins a trip or an experience if everywhere I go is super crowded. I get very overwhelmed by that and overstimulated.

ARIKOGLU: And it's also, you know, who are the crowds? Because there's been times when I've gone somewhere and I've gone and done the same bucket list site that everyone else is, and you're sort of standing there and you're thinking, What am I actually here for? Well, what is the purpose of this? What am I getting out of it? What am I giving to this destination other than just being another member of the crowd?

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think that's an important question, right? 'Cause, like, we have been talking about what are you looking to get out of it, for the most part. But there's another side to this - right? - and it's what am I giving? And also, what am I taking? Like, am I taking too much from this place?

ARIKOGLU: I think about that a lot. When you're planning, be really thoughtful about where you're spending your money. When you're choosing a hotel, is it a hotel that is locally owned? What restaurants are you booking? Where are you shopping? Where are you buying your souvenirs? You know, I think there's lots of ways to be really thoughtful about, you know, how you spend your money, and that can go into your budgeting, as well.

SEGARRA: I know there are certain places that at a certain time, at least, they said, please, tourists, like, please stop coming or stop coming during this time.

ARIKOGLU: Yeah. When a destination says that, I mean, it's something to be taken so seriously because they're usually destinations that have an infrastructure or an economy that really relies on tourism. So things have to have gotten pretty bad for a destination to say, take a beat, not right now, and listen to that, and, you know, the place will be better for it when you do go see it.

SEGARRA: I picture it as if you were, like, going to - going over, like, a friend's house uninvited, or, like, if they were like, please, today's not good. Like, our whole family's sick, like, we're all throwing up, and then you were still banging on the door, like, hey, what are you doing? Can I come stay over?

ARIKOGLU: I think that is a perfect analogy. Perfect. And no one wants to be that person.

SEGARRA: No.

ARIKOGLU: I'd hate to be that person.

SEGARRA: That'd be weird behavior.

ARIKOGLU: Yeah.

SEGARRA: Takeaway three, travel responsibly. Research the places you're interested in, and make sure they want tourists at the time you're looking to visit. When you're booking, consider putting your money toward the local economy rather than international chains. Also, learn about whatever destination you choose. Be open to the cultural practices and languages there. And be a respectful visitor.

Anything else that people would want to figure out before they start narrowing down or looking at destinations?

ARIKOGLU: I think it's also thinking about who you want to travel with. Someone can be your best friend, but they can be your worst roommate. I think travel's kind of the same, so kind of finding someone to travel with or a group of people to travel with who you're aligned with in the planning stage, rather than when you get there and then you suddenly discover you all want to do different things. So I think communicating right off the back what you all want out of the trip and what you're excited about and also being really honest with each other about finances.

If you're on a group trip, I mean, it's like splitting the bill, but a thousand times worse. And so I think if you can kind of, like, set some parameters at the start and be really honest about what you feel comfortable spending money on because inevitably, there is going to be some people on the trip who want to spend more money on some things than others.

SEGARRA: Yeah. And it seems like that conversation, there should be some form of that before you book anything.

ARIKOGLU: Yes, 100%. And, you know, I think even if you don't feel comfortable doing it, speaking up if something just feels too expensive.

SEGARRA: All right. So takeaway four, figure out who you're traveling with. You might prefer to travel alone, or if you're going with friends, partners, or family, just make sure you're on the same page about what you want from the trip - the pace, the activities and how much money you can spend.

SEGARRA: OK. So it sounds like we've given people a lot of things to consider before they choose a destination. Once they've done this soul searching, how can they start to find destinations that fit those desires and limitations?

ARIKOGLU: For me, part of the fun of travel planning is doing the research, whether it is a trusted travel publication or reading some books you love or going on to - you know, there's, like, a ton of just, like, online communities of people who love swapping travel tips and actually, I think, can be really helpful.

SEGARRA: Yeah. I think it can be helpful maybe to in the brainstorming stage to just, like, not go in too deep but just make a list of places that seem exciting to you and that might fit your parameters. Like, I have a Google Doc, and it's just, like, places that I would be really excited to go.

SEGARRA: When you are considering a destination, how helpful is social media - is - like, seeing where your friends are going or where influencers are going? Is it a good idea to follow those trends?

ARIKOGLU: I think it can be useful in picking things you want to do once you're there, particularly if it's, like, based around, like, big events or openings. You know, we have our best places to go list that runs every year. It could be, like, new train routes, new hiking routes, new museums that have opened, things that are happening in destinations centered around an anniversary. So, you know, kind of consulting those sorts of lists and rounds up as well can be very helpful. But I think, you know, going back to what we were talking about in terms of over tourism or overcrowding - you know, on social media, you will see people at the same spots time and time again. And they're usually spots where just around the corner, there's also something equally beautiful to see.

SEGARRA: Yeah. Like, I remember when Santorini was really popular. And it's like, whew - like, if you could actually see what was going on behind that photo, like, you would hate being there because it's so - it's just way too many people...

ARIKOGLU: Right. Right.

SEGARRA: ...All lining up to take a picture in - against that beautiful backdrop.

ARIKOGLU: Exactly. And, you know, it's Santorini. It's all beautiful. It's all amazing.

SEGARRA: OK. So takeaway five is to choose a destination. And cast a wide net when you're brainstorming 'cause you never know what's going to catch your eye. Also, Lale says, do your best to think outside of the current travel trends. Though you can use them for inspiration.

So once you've got a destination in mind, how can you start to sketch out the details of the trip? And I guess I should say, how much detail do you really need to figure out?

ARIKOGLU: So I was going to say, don't overschedule yourself, and don't overbook yourself. I think I've been guilty of doing that before, and then you realize that you have no downtime. It might seem like you're being really efficient, but you need a little bit of spontaneity on your trip. Don't overschedule. If there are a few key things you really want to do that you feel you will be crushed if you don't get to do it, then book it. Make sure that's arranged all in advance. So maybe it's finding one thing on each day of your trip. That's what you center your day around and you can frame your itinerary around that, but I wouldn't overschedule.

SEGARRA: Yeah. And then I think when you look at these things potentially sketched out on different days, then you say like, you know, that seems too busy. What's the most important to me here? Like, which of these activities do I want to book ahead?

ARIKOGLU: Right. You know, if you're suddenly realizing - you're like, I am cramming a lot in if I try to go to these three places, then choosing which one to let go.

SEGARRA: Yeah. 'Cause that's always a consideration, too. Like, if you're flying somewhere far, you might think, well, I'm already going to Poland, should I also do Germany?

SEGARRA: There's that impulse, you know? Or I'm going to Poland, so I want to see all of Poland. But that can make for a very frenetic kind of trip.

ARIKOGLU: And you wouldn't tell someone who was visiting America to be like, well, you've come all the way to America, so if you're going to New York, then you also need to go to New Orleans.

SEGARRA: Right, right. Exactly. That's Takeaway 6 - keep your schedule light and malleable. Lally recommends picking only one activity to do for each day of your trip and then building a flexible itinerary around those.

You know, it occurs to me that another element of a big trip when I'm going into them - I know that something's going to go awry during it.

ARIKOGLU: Always (laughter).

SEGARRA: Yeah.

SEGARRA: I remember being in Barcelona when I was in college. I went by myself for, like, a week. And I speak Spanish, but it wasn't fluent at the time. And I just got - I just missed being able to easily say what I wanted to say, and I went into, like, a Wendy's or something because I just wanted something kind of American. And I got some chicken nuggets. I couldn't think how to say nuggets in Spanish. Like, I was like, is that even a word, like, in Spanish, or did they just say nuggets? And I just broke and started speaking in English because I was trying to only speak Spanish. And I was like, I give up. Like, can I get some chicken nuggets, please?

ARIKOGLU: The true American in you comes out screaming at chicken nuggets in a foreign McDonald's.

SEGARRA: Yeah, yeah, give me my nuggies.

ARIKOGLU: (Laughter).

SEGARRA: Yeah, I just - like, sometimes you just need to go roll up into a ball and eat your chicken nuggies and be by yourself for a minute and then come back out, you know?

ARIKOGLU: Yeah. I mean, like, travel so much of the time is sort of, like, infantilizing because you're so powerless. But it's, like, the same in an airport. You're just sort of powerless at a certain extent when things go wrong. And I think my approach to it - to sort of very taxing and challenging air travel schedules, with connections and potential miss flights and lost luggage and all the things that come with that - is to sort of just give myself up to the airport gods, and just as soon as I'm, like, through TSA, just be like, what will be will be. I'll get there eventually and just, like, I'm powerless. And that's been, like, for me, quite liberating. And it also means that I'm not the person screaming at some poor gate agent when things go wrong.

SEGARRA: Yeah, it's a moment of - it's actually an opportunity for mindfulness. Like, I think that could even be helpful going into a big trip, to tell yourself, like, something is going to go wrong. Yeah, just keep that in mind.

ARIKOGLU: Oh, my God, so much of travel is about being tired and hungry.

SEGARRA: We're really selling this.

ARIKOGLU: I know.

SEGARRA: (Laughter).

ARIKOGLU: I'm like, my whole job is to travel. It's great.

SEGARRA: Isn't it terrible? Yeah.

SEGARRA: I try to remind myself, like - what is the point? - like, go back to those goals. What is the point of this? It's to have a good experience, to meet those needs, to give myself what I've been craving.

ARIKOGLU: Exactly. And I don't know. This sounds a little cheesy and a little trite, but anyone who gets to travel is really lucky. Ultimately, it's a real privilege that you get to do it. And it's such a freedom and it's such a special thing.Don't make it stressful.

SEGARRA: That's our final takeaway. Something on your trip is bound to go wrong. So once you're there, sit back and try to surrender. After all, traveling in the first place is a treat.

SEGARRA: OK, jet-setters, time for a recap. First, figure out what you want from this vacation. Decide your budget and time constraints. Commit to traveling ethically. Make sure you're aligned with the people you're traveling with. When you choose a destination, cast a wide net and have fun with the research. Don't overschedule yourself, and once you're there, relax and roll with the punches. For more LIFE KIT, check out our other episodes. We've got one on how to find cheap flights and another on how to pack your suitcase like a pro. You can find those at np.org/lifekit. And if you love LIFE KIT and you just cannot get enough, subscribe to our newsletter at np.org/lifekitnewsletter. Also, we love hearing from you, so if you have episode ideas or feedback you want to share, e-mail us at [email protected].

This episode of LIFE KIT was produced by Margaret Cirino. Our visuals editor is Beck Harlan and our digital editor is Malaka Gharib. Meghan Keane is our supervising editor and Beth Donovan is our executive producer. Our production team also includes Andee Tagle, Clare Marie Schneider and Sylvie Douglis. Engineering support comes from Robert Rodriguez. I'm Marielle Segarra. Thanks for listening.

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