STARTING A (SUCCESSFUL) TRAVEL BLOG
I’m often asked how to begin the blog of a travel blogger by many hopeful travel bloggers.
They’re thrilled to be paid to travel around the globe and lead an all-time, full-time life of travel.
Blogging about travel is an excellent option for going on a full-time trip; the blog has been around for a decade. But blogging about the journey isn’t as simple as it appears.
I don’t want to start your travel blogging journey with the expectation that one day after you launch your website about travel, you’ll be able to get free travel and live the life of your dreams. It took us about a year of dedication before we could take one “free” trip and three years before we could earn a full-time salary out of it.
It seemed like it would be a never-ending quest to make money through a travel blog. However, we made it there.
Some of the links we provide are affiliate links, and we earn an income from purchasing them. Be aware that we do not recommend products we don’t believe will improve your experience and bring you the success with your travel blog that you want.
Begin with a travel blog name
Perhaps the most challenging, but among the most crucial first actions to consider when considering the best way to begin your travel blog is to select the correct name.
I would suggest that you keep it brief and memorable. Your blog’s name is the name people will refer to you by and how they’ll locate you. People will forget if your name is long and difficult to remember, meaning less share and organic visitors.
It may not be the reality you are living today, but you should keep your doors open to changes and growth so that you can grow with your travel lifestyle. Rebranding can be costly and time-consuming!
We’re not too fussed about our blog’s name. It was great when we decided to go with it, but today we are not a fan of the blog word in our domain.
We’ve risen above the role of a travel blog. We consider ourselves a media empire (We’ll explain why we decided to add a blog section in the third section of this blog post, hosting the first Travel blog.)
It was the travel aspect was precisely the one we were looking for. It’s the “Y” of travel is extremely important for us!
Traveling has more significance and meaning than just ticking off bucket list items. We set out to create a blog about travel that could inspire people to develop a new way of life of travel rooted in reason and significance that can adapt to your needs as it evolves.
That’s why we didn’t use words such as backpacker (which most of us were before we first started our travel blogging) and “family travel.” Family travel is an essential aspect of our travel stories. However, we also talk about traveling as a way of life for everyone. That’s why we have broad readers, from college students and empty-nesters.
Most people refer to us as gravel and then drop the blog portion! Yay. Branding is clear and resonant.
You might want to be in a niche; this is fine, but make sure you do your study and plan exceptionally carefully.
What is hosting a blog?
Hosting blogs is the kind of facility you’d lease if you want to establish a brick-and-mortar business. Hosting providers are the tenant! You pay them monthly to rent their web space to create your blog and open the doors.
Hosting your travel-related blog is when you pay for the space needed to keep your blog’s content images, files, and other information so that when someone visits your domain name, they can browse through all your blog’s content.
I hope this makes it evident to you precisely what this means within the web and the blogging community.
We’ve had a few bad experiences with hosting companies which I will not mention in this article!
We currently use Cloudways for our cloud services, and we haven’t had a single issue with them.
You might not think about using them initially when starting your travel blog. We cost around $80 per month. It is worth considering them when your blog gets more extensive, and your hosting won’t be able to handle the more significant number of visitors and bandwidth.
For a hosting company that is affordable to begin your travel blog and one that is highly recommended, look into Siteground. I’ve since hosted three domains through SiteGround.
Their assistance has been outstanding. They’ve transferred my entire site for me, with no issues and with speed. I’m incredibly impressed and will only be using them for smaller websites.
The cost is a little higher than other companies, such as Bluehost provide, but it offers more efficient service and fewer issues; it’s an investment worth it.
Plans that include Siteground begin at $9.95 per month.
I’ve heard only people raving about Siteground.
They offer discount plans too for long-term commitments.
A tech-savvy member of my mentor group told me,
“Siteground offers the most excellent assistance. Within a few minutes, they can solve 85percent of issues and in just 15 minutes they resolve the rest 15% of problems. Review them, they’re excellent.”
Things to think about when planning a trip blog hosting
Be cautious about the dimensions of your images and the content you host. They can take up a lot of bandwidth, resulting in crashes and challenges. As your traffic continues to increase and the volume of content you host, you’ll require an even bigger plan
Select the best domain name. Choose a plan that offers free domain names, If you can. It is possible to tweak your name to find your desired domain. For instance, we initially were looking for yTravel.com; however, to secure the title, someone had put it up for sale and was looking to sell it for $30,000. We thought of adding a blog to the end of the name and got it.
You can incorporate plenty of other features into your travel blog when you host it. Most users will opt for the Domain Privacy Add-on to ensure that no one can find your personal information, like your email address, address, or phone number. I strongly recommend this. Siteground made me aware of this fact when I contacted Siteground after I began receiving more than ten phone calls each day from service-related businesses. I didn’t have domain privacy on the new site I hosted through them, which means my phone number was available for those who wanted to sell their goods! It’s worth the additional $12 a year to ward off these people.