How to Start A Travel Blog And Make Money With It

Okay let’s get your new travel blog started so you can start sharing your content and your amazing travel photos.

>> Read My Step-by-Step Guide to Starting A Self-Hosted Blog <<

Steps to Start A Travel Blog

Every new blogger will be required to set up the proper foundation for their blog. It doesn’t matter which blog niche you are entering. If you’re starting your blog on a self-hosted WordPress blog, you will follow these 3 steps before you can start blogging.

#1 Choose and Buy A Domain Name

Once you have decided that you’re ready to jump into blogging, it’s time to find the right domain. Your domain (also referred to as a URL) is going to the address of your new blog.

Whenever someone visits your blog, they will type in your domain name to read your articles. Head on over to NameCheap and find the right domain for your blog.

Make sure that your domain name is easy to remember. I recommend registering a .com or .net extension for your blog. (personally, I am a huge fan of the .com extension.)

Once you’ve purchased your domain, it’s time to go to step 2.

#2 Sign Up for Your Hosting Account

Now that you are the proud owner of a travel domain, it is time to buy your hosting. Your hosting is vital if you want people to be able to access your new blog online.

There are tons of reputable hosting services I personally use and recommend SiteGround. I’ve been hosting this blog with them for over a year.

If you do decide to use them for your hosting service, try to sign up for more than a year upfront. You will save more money up front if you buy more than a year of hosting. When I signed up, I paid for 3 years in advance.

You can sign up with them through this link here.

Once you get your login details from your hosting account, go to step 3 so we can install WordPress.

#3 Install WordPress Software

Now you’re ready to set up WordPress on your hosting account. I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial that will help you get WordPress installed on your new SiteGround account.

If you are the type of person who wants to set up WordPress manually, here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to install WordPress.Congratulations, you have just set up your new blog.

Now it’s time to start adding themes and plugins to help you get started.

WordPress Themes and Plugins for Travel Bloggers

One of the great things about using a self-hosted blog is that there are literally tons of themes and plugins that you can use to make your blog unique.

I am going to share some themes that I found online while looking for some travel WordPress themes. Don’t spend too much time trying to find a theme for your blog.

When you first start a blog, the most important thing is to focus on writing amazing content that helps your readers. As long as you find a theme that looks good and is mobile friendly, you are good to go.

Here are some themes that I found online that will make your travel blog look amazing. I’ve personally never used any of these themes so make sure that you do your due diligence before you buy any of them.

Your Journey
Price: $43
ThemeForest

This theme is awesome for showing off your stories and travel pics. You’ll have access to over a dozen widgets that will make it extremely easy to integrate social media with your blog. You’ll be able to integrate your Facebook and Twitter profiles to help you showcase your latest blog posts.

WP World Traveler
Price: $39
ThemeForest

Even if you’re not a designer, you’re going to love this theme. The WP World Traveler theme features a custom theme administration panel that makes it easy to edit virtually every part of the home page. The theme has a built-in feature that will automatically resize your new uploaded images. It also comes with a built-in Flickr widget.

There is absolutely no shortage of WordPress themes for travel bloggers. You can head to Google and type in “travel themes for bloggers” with the quotations and you will get a ton more themes you can choose from.

Don’t Spend Too Much Time On Choosing A Theme

It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with all the different themes you can choose from. I’ve personally had some of my freelance clients spend months trying to find the right theme.

If you’re setting up your blog in hopes of making money online. You need to get your blog set up today. Remember, you can always change your theme later if you are truly unhappy with your theme.

WordPress Plugins for Travel Bloggers

Plugins are a dime a dozen and you can literally spend hours searching for that right plugin. Only use the plugins that provide you the functionality that you’re looking for to run your blog. If you’re not using the plugin, make sure that you delete it.

Here are some plugins that I think will benefit any blogger regardless of your niche.

Akismet – This plugin helps blog spam comments on your blog. If your blog is anything like mine, you are going to eventually start getting hundreds of spam comments. While this plugin won’t blog 100% of the spam comments. It has helped save me countless hours deleting spam comments from my blog.

Yoast SEO – As a blogger, you’re going to need to familiarize yourself with SEO. Take the time to read anything and everything that you can about properly optimizing your blog posts so they can start ranking in the search engines. When I started learning about SEO, I started with this beginner’s guide.

Once you get done with that, I recommend signing up for the Amazon Kindle and start reading anything and everything that you can about SEO. Oh and don’t forget to spend some time on the Backlinko website.

Short Pixel – I personally love this plugin because it’s the only plugin that I have found that actually optimizes my images. I used to use WP Smush, but after comparing the two plugins.

I am sticking with the Short Pixel plugin. It is a paid plugin, but you can sign up to get 100 free credits to test it out.

Social Warfare Plugin – This is the same exact plugin I use for my social sharing plugin. I tried several different plugins before finding this one. This one is awesome and makes it easy to get other people to share your content. The best part is that it has a built-in call to actions via in-post click to tweets, popular widgets posts and etc.

Blogging Tips for Travel Bloggers

Now that you have some plugins and are ready to move forward here are some tips that will help you get started creating amazing content and building your audience online.

Related: How Much Do Travel Bloggers Make

Set Up A Realistic Blogging Schedule

One of the biggest mistakes that most new bloggers make is they try to post content every day. There’s nothing wrong with publishing new content on a regular basis. However, you need to keep in mind that you still have other blogging tasks that you need to do.

If you’re constantly publishing new content every day, then you’re not going to have enough time for the promotion side of things.

Know Your Readers

Who are you speaking to? Taking the time to find out who you’re avatar will be the difference between helping the right people or helping no one. Remember, your blog is not for everyone.

Start Promoting Your New Blog

At the beginning of your blogging journey, you will want to spend more time promoting your content. Choose a few traffic methods that will help you get your blog in front of your readers.

Blog promotion can be extremely confusing, especially, if you have never done any type of online marketing.

Learning how to grow your blog can be a challenge. Most of us tend to flail around trying several different methods to see what works.

Spend a few weeks implementing a couple of traffic methods. Then start paying attention to your Google Analytic stats and see what is working. If something is not working, then drop it and try something else.

Related: How to Use Pinterest for Business

The only way that you will learn how to grow your blog is to keep testing things and see what actually gives you the best results.

Network With Other Bloggers

As a blogger, it is so easy to avoid reaching out to other bloggers. We get caught up in our daily blogging tasks, before you know the day is over.

Blogging is tough and no one understands this more than other bloggers. Don’t be shy, start reaching out and making connections.

Who knows maybe that blogger may ask you to guest post on their blog? When you get your own product, they may even tweet it out for you?

Don’t go into the relationship expecting anything in return. Be genuine and build real online friendships without any strings attached.

Let’s Meet Some Travel Bloggers

Speaking of meeting other travel bloggers, I’ve decided to compile a list of travel bloggers that you can start reaching out to. Start by commenting on their blog and sharing their posts.

After doing this for a couple of months, I have no doubt you will not have any issues reaching out to them to start building those vital online friendships. Not to mention, these bloggers will help inspire you and motivate to keep blogging when things get tough.

Blogging From Paradise: My friend Ryan Biddulph who shares his amazing travel stories of him and Kellie. His blog is dedicated to teaching you how to blog smarter. He has written over 126 bite-sized eBooks on Amazon that will help you learn how to build a successful blog.

Cheapest Destinations Blog: Who doesn’t love saving money when they travel? Tim Leffel is the mastermind behind this blog. His blog will show you how to travel to some amazing destinations without going broke. Spend time on his blog if you want to make the most of your travel budget.

Nerd Nomads: This blog is run by Maria & Espen two Norwegian explorers. This is a great inspirational blog where you can find travel tips and inspiration to help you fulfill your travel dreams.

Travel Mommas: Colleen Lanin is the Travel Mama and is the founder/editor in chief of the site. Colleen was invited to the White Host as one of the 100 most influential travel bloggers and her stories have been featured on the “Today” show and other top publications.

When you first look at these blogs, you’re probably going to be intimidated by how big they are and how much they have accomplished.

The most important thing to remember is that they all started from scratch like you and I. The difference is that they have been blogging longer than you.

So whatever you do, don’t compare your results to them. Otherwise, you’re just setting yourself up for failure.

Final Take Away

Starting your blog is half the battle. I don’t care what anyone tells you, it takes a long time to grow a blog. Ask any of these bloggers and I am sure that they have amazing stories of perseverance that will blow your mind.

Chances are some of them struggled with failure. Yet they didn’t let that stop them. They knew exactly why they wanted to create a successful blog and they kept persevering even when things looked like they weren’t going to get any better.

Blogging is hard work. Heck, I’ve failed several times online and yet here I am with a new blog helping you start, grow and monetize your own blog.

Now that I’ve been working with WordPress for over 8 years, I felt it was time to start sharing my knowledge with you. My goal is that you can take my tutorials and advice and run with it.

I’ve even written a Kindle eBook:

It will help you get familiar with WordPress so you don’t spend hours trying to figure everything out on your own. My WordPress clients pay me a lot of money for this information.

As long as you treat your blog like a business, I have no doubt that you will start to see it grow. As long as you don’t start your blog with unrealistic expectations, you will be fine.

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Are you considering starting a travel blog? Let me know if this article has helped understand what it takes to learn how to start a travel blog. I’d love to hear what you have to say.