Here are The 7 Extremely Easy Steps on How to Create A Travel Blog:
1. Deciding on your Niche.
Why should you do that?Think Expertise.
I’ll give you an example: If you need travel tips as a whole you would certainly go to bigger sites like TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet, right? But what if you need specific tips like “How to enjoy Paris with a shoestring budget?“… You wouldn’t find them on TA or LP, so you'll need to move on to travel blogs.
For backpacking tips, I rely a lot on Nomadic Matt.
For luxurious travel tips, I turn to World of Wanderlust.
For Solo Female Travel, I love The Blonde Abroad
For advice on Food, I read Legal Nomads.
My blog Miss Happy Feet focus mainly on my growth as a student/part-time traveler. I initially gained my first group of audiences by sharing shoestring budget travel tips to the US. As I grow up, my requirement on choosing accommodation increased and I no longer travel to tick off point of attractions. Nowadays, I focus more on travel tips I discover during my travels and interesting experiences.
2. You’ll Need A Blog Name.
Try to keep it simple,original and travel-related. Keep it under 3 words because human have short memory span and we normally couldn't handle long names.Tips on how to think of a good blog name:
1. Never include overused words like “Adventurous”, “Wander”, “Nomad” and such.
You will be overshadowed by bigger blogs such as “Adventurous Kate”, “World of Wanderlust” and “Legal Nomad”.
2. Make it timeless.
“Young and single” may be a cool name, but what if 2 years later you decide to get married?
3. Make it easy to remember.
Do not put symbols or numbers in your name, people might misspell it.
For example, your blog is L3t’s Trav3l. You know how some people like to substitute E with 3.
Never do that. Twice the readers can’t find you with "Let’s Travel", they’ll never try for the 3rd time.
4. Make sure it is available.
Check the name’s availability online by googling your blog name.
3. Purchase Your Domain and Hosting Plan
OR
Just go with the Free Sites (like me)
Any other bloggers out there would certainly advise you to go self-hosting and purchase a domain.Now, what is a domain?
It is an “address”.
And hosting?
The simplest explanation would be a space you “rent” on the internet to store all the memories (text, photos, links) you put on your blog. So just like your house, to rent it you have to pay “rental fees”, which is there is a monthly/ annual fee to continue using this domain.
As you can see my blog misshappyfeet.blogspot.com still have .blogspot.com attach to my blog name. This indicates that I am using a free platform. Apart from Blogspot, there are many other free platforms out there, the top ones would be WordPress.com and Tumblr.
I know what you are asking. Why didn’t I opt for a domain?
It is because initially I did not have any thought to earn through the blog. Writing is my passion and I intended to do it as a hobby and a way to record my travels so that when I wanna bring my parents traveling in the future, I have a reference. I never ever thought that people would come and read my blog until one day I accidentally click on my blog statistic and realized that I have at least 1000 views per day… I know! It is a small number! But if compared to my initial expectation (maybe only my mom reads my blogs and that's it), this is pure “Wow”. I might want to go self-hosting in the future, but as for now, Iet's continue to have fun on Blogspot.
So why is it so important to have your own domain?
1. To make your blog more visible on search engines like google and yahoo!
2. To look professional.
3. To ensure that you are the boss of your own website. (not WordPress, not BlogSpot.)
4. To get accurate blog statistic from Moz.
Which hosting providers to choose?
There are a lot of choices out there, you have to choose carefully. Just like when you rent a house in real life, if you get a bad host, you’ll get kicked out of the house for no good reason. A lot of my blogger friends encountered problems with hosting when their account got suspended. To avoid such problems, get a good host and don’t forget to pay the annual fees! Hosting providers highly recommended by my friends: Bluehost, Dreamhost or SiteGround.
4. Install WordPress (skip this step if you opt for the free platforms)
WordPress.org is a beginner friendly site used by most bloggers. I can’t tell you much since I am using a free site, so be sure to click on the link and check out the official site yourself!5. Design your blog!
I am using the free theme available on blogspot, nothing fancy. For customized premium themes, go to Creative Market or Theme Forest to shop for one!
Header: Include your blog name, your logo, show your personality. To make your content easily accessible, consider a drop-down menu bar!
Footer: You can do anything with the footer bar really. While I am using it for “Popular Post”, you can use it to include shortcuts to other pages like “Media coverage” or “Work with me”.
6. Create Pages For Your Blog On Social Media Channels.
I can’t stress this enough: Social Media Marketing is one of the most important elements in blogging. Since I started using My Facebook Page to promote my content, I’ve seen 100-400% increase in my blog traffic. However, my social media following list took a long time to grow since I did not promote the page to my friends and family on my personal account. But if you do, I believe you can gather at least 600 likes on the page for a start.Since I am a busy full-time student with piles of assignments, unlike other professional bloggers, I do not diversify my social media channels. I only focus on Facebook and if my mood happens to be good, I’ll update my Instagram. I seldom use Pinterest, twitter, and Youtube, although I have all of those accounts.
If you are serious about travel blogging, use them all.
7. Now It is time to start the actually writing!
Do you Want more Travel and Blogging Tips?
Thank You for Reading!
This post is based solely on my honest opinion or personal experience.
If you have a different opinion, feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below!
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