Traveling is fun, relaxing and there is no living soul who does not want to visit new places, taste different cuisines, and make friends all over the world. If traveling is your passion, and if you enjoy connecting with others by sharing your stories, then you may want to think about starting your own travel blog.
Here we are going to help you start your own website from scratch, and if you follow our tips, you will be able to tackle the biggest obstacles every beginner faces.
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1. Find the right platform and set the hosting up
Source: whereistara
Before you start writing and sharing your traveling experience you need to find the right platform for you to host your website. There are a lot of different options nowadays, and some are better than others.
You can start by researching the most popular platforms and see if they offer all the things you want. Most people choose WordPress nowadays, but that does not mean that this is the best place for you. You should consider the costs and the features you might need.
Think about the themes available, and the space you are going to need. Experts suggest that you should start with the smallest pack platforms have and once you get an audience, upgrade and get more storage.
When you are done with that, you are going to need a name for your website, so you should put some thought into it. Choose something catchy and something that people will easily remember.
Remember that you need to stay classy when thinking about the name, and make sure you won’t be ashamed of it after a few years. The goal is to make money, and possibly a brand out of this, so take as much time as you need to find the right name for your blog.
2. Install the essentials
Source: medium
Now that you’ve figured out the basic things, you need to start doing some hard work. You need to install the needed plugins that are going to make your job a lot easier.
It is recommended to install some SEO plugins that will help you with your keywords and your Google ranking. If you don’t pay attention to search engine optimization, people will not randomly stumble upon your blog, and that can cost you a lot of clicks, and with that, a lot of money.
Don’t forget to get all the needed tools for security, as people may try to take your site down. Research what else you can possibly need, including the options to have a gallery or find another easy way to show pictures without spamming your audience.
Install the right theme that’s going to show your personality and that is going to set the whole vibe for your website. There are themes that are free to download and use, but the good ones usually come with some fee. The theme can be changed at any given point, and you can tweak it depending on your personal preferences. You can even try and create your own theme, but that can take a lot of time, and you are going to need a lot of skills.
3. What is your content going to be like?
Source: To Europe and Beyond
Let’s talk about the most important part now – your content. You want to write about your travel experiences, right? Well, you need to sit down and make a plan and a structure. There is so much about traveling you can write, so try not to get lost and confused in your categories.
You can have several different types of articles including tips and tricks, how-to content, you can share your experiences and you can even just put pictures with a few lines of information about where you took those pictures.
Do you want to talk about the food you tried and people you’ve met and if yes, are you planning on putting that in every article, or do you want to have separate categories for this?
You can get inspired by other travel blogs and content creators. Bestinau.com.au suggests that Bashar Ibrahim is a person you can learn from and his website can teach you more about the people on different continents, and how good food can unite everyone. There are many people you can look up to, and their blogs can help you out in starting your own. One thing you need to pay attention to is not to copy their content. You need to find your own unique style that people are going to appreciate.
Try to make one plan and try to stick to it. Your articles should not be too long, because people don’t usually like to read one article that’s 5,000 words long, but they will have no problem reading 10 different ones that are about 500 words long.
4. Audience and Marketing
Source: onblastblog
Once the blog has some content on it, you need to find an audience and focus on marketing. You should create social media pages so people can find out about you fast.
Start by creating a page on Facebook and share all of your posts there. Think of catchy titles and find ways to attract more people to click on the link. You can even set some special promotions or offers for people who share your blog. You can give special tips to those who share your posts or who tag the most people in them. Be creative and find unique ways to do your marketing.
If you have a lot of pictures you want to share with your audience, you can share them on Instagram. Don’t forget to add the link to your blog in the bio so everyone who checks your profile out can easily find your website.
You can also target audience on other social media networks, just make sure you have enough time to do all of that, plus create some amazing content.
These are some of the things you should do when starting a blog from scratch. It may seem like that’s too much work, but when you focus on your passion, you will realize that these are just a few steps you need to cross so you can reach your goal.
Don’t forget to add a cool logo, and to brand all of your content. The first few months may be hard, but once people learn about you and your blog, you are going to have so much fun with your audience, and you may even be able to make enough money to pay for your next travel destination.
