Great, you have an interest in learning how to start a travel blog and make money.
If you create a travel blog, you’d obviously like to get paid for your efforts. It seems only fair.
The good news is that there are plenty of travel bloggers out there who earn a good living from travel blogging.
I’m talking $100,000 plus, which is not to be sneezed at, especially when you’ll be doing something you love.
The bad news is that it is a lot of hard work. It isn’t all about drinking pina colada cocktails on an exotic beach on an island paradise of your dreams while pretending to work only 4 hours a week.
Learning to start a Travel Blog
There’s a lot to learn in building a travel bog. There is also a lot more going on behind the scenes than you probably realize.
This includes obviously building your website, getting it to look and function as you wish, and the big one – writing interesting content regularly.
Even then, the work doesn’t stop. You will have to learn about SEO (search engine optimization), and you’ll have to develop your marketing skills.
Most of us with a travel blog would like at least a few people to read it, and if you want to make money from your travel blog, you’ll need to attract at least a few thousand readers every month.
Social media is something that you’ll probably need to engage in at some stage as well. This is what most of the successful travel bloggers seem to partake in.
Any time in between can then be spent traveling, which is fantastic! Traveling and thinking about travel is obviously the best part of having a travel blog.
Keep in mind that having your own travel blog will get you thinking about it constantly.
What content should you add to your travel blog, what needs fixing, and how to make money from your travel blog.
Getting paid as soon as possible for your Herculean effort is what most travel bloggers seek out to do. So at some point, you will be thinking about how to monetize a travel blog.
Welcome to the world of travel bloggers!
So how do you start one? The number one thing you can do to make money online from a travel blog is to start one right now!
Why start a travel blog?
The big reason for starting your own travel blog is that it will take you time to develop your travel blog. That’s why you should start building it today.
Building your own online empire can begin with you first learning how to start a travel blog.
Here I offer you a fast and simple guide on starting a travel blog and making money as soon as possible.
I won’t sugar coat it for you because it will be a lot of hard work. That’s why you need to start your website now, or as soon as possible. You need to take action. Just do it!
If you want freedom, money, work satisfaction, and creativity in your life, building an awesome website is the way to go.
Location independence is something most people desire. Independence from one source of income, independence from your horrible boss or a job you hate, and independence to decide when you go on vacation. You want freedom! I applaud you.
I’m not saying that you’ll become rich and famous by starting a travel blog, but if you do it right, who knows where it could lead.
One day it may even get you the keys to a brand new Ferarri. That’s pretty optimistic but never say never because that’s what dreams are made of.
Start a Travel Blog Now and Make Money ASAP
The amount of time I wasted at the start when first building Greek Gods Paradise was like chucking time in the rubbish bin. It’s time I can never get that back.
Time is money, so this guide will get you moving as fast as possible.
There’s no point in consuming too much knowledge before you begin your journey to fully understanding how to start a travel blog.
All you need is this guide. I’ll show you how to start a travel blog and make money in the simplest of ways.
It is important not to get bogged down by information overload, which happened to me.
This is a fast and simple guide to get your first professional website off the ground as soon as possible.
That way, you can start making money from your website sooner rather than later.
Follow this step-by-step guide on how to start a travel blog, and before you know it, you will have your own travel blog.
The alternative is to procrastinate and do nothing. You will start to think about it. You will read other posts on other websites about how to start a travel blog. You will over-analyze everything.
The thing is, this post teaches you everything you need to know to start a travel blog or any other kind of blog or website for that matter.
I will show you how to develop a website using the WordPress platform. This is the platform that most professional travel bloggers use.
This is a step-by-step easy to follow guide that will show you how to start a travel blog and make money from it. It will turbocharge your website development.
Taking action right now is the key to opening the door to a new online life.
The reason for starting a Travel Blog now
Because you want to and you want to make money online (like most travel bloggers).
Do you have any interest in building a website? Would you like to build a website for money, location independence, fun, freedom, making new friends, sharing knowledge, or entertaining family and friends?
If the answer is yes to any one of them, then a great way to begin is first learning how to start a travel blog using WordPress.
The most important thing you can do in building a website is to start the website now!
Don’t delay it any longer. Just do it! Like Nike would say.
As you come to each significant step in this post, take action, and do it.
The beauty of starting a travel blog by taking action with this post is that you’ll also have a great story to tell in the future.
You built your first travel blog by reading a post on Greek Gods Paradise.
Learning how to start a travel blog is not that difficult. The tough part is taking action.
Creating a travel blog will teach you everything you need to know about building a successful or terrible website. Remember, it’s all a learning experience, good or bad.
Even if you fail to make serious money with your blog, learning to build a website is still an enjoyable hobby.
Ultimately, building an awesome travel blog should allow you to make money from it.
By starting one today, you will be on the path to doing just that – making money online!
Skills gained from creating a Travel Blog
Starting a travel blog will teach you about the tech-side of creating a website, SEO (search engine optimization), how difficult writing can be, marketing, and how to improve your photography and graphic design skills.
On top of that, you will pick up everything else required to set up a website, even advanced social media skills, if you desire them.
One of the best things that will happen by creating a travel blog is that your photography skills will definitely improve.
One of the big advantages of a travel blog over other websites is that it’s generally easier to find interesting content to add to your website, and content is king on the Internet.
SEO and backlinks are the kingmakers. You learn all about it on your journey as a travel blogger.
Picking a niche – Do you need one?
As a blogger, you already have a niche, and that niche is travel.
The added beauty of a travel blog is that you can combine it with a passion of yours if you have one.
You can easily combine it with a love of food, fashion, health and fitness, technology, and many other niche interests.
The other option you have is to focus your travel blog on a favorite traveling style.
This could be budget travel, backpacker travel, glamorous travel, or adventurous travel, as some examples.
Having a niche can help your website get off the ground faster because then you’ll have a much better chance of standing out from the thousands (actually millions) of other blogs on the Internet. I hope it doesn’t scare you, but it’s the truth.
Another thing to think about is whether you’d like to target a certain tribe of people.
For instance, you may want to help out backpackers, female travelers, adventurous people, or families on a budget.
If this is the case, you’re in a much better position to gain like-minded followers, which could end up being in the thousands. I won’t suggest millions of followers because that’s a bit too optimistic.
Whatever you decide to do, your aim should be to find something that makes you stand out from the crowd.
If you’re passionate about anything, see if you can incorporate it somehow into your online persona.
Why am I trying to convince you to start a Travel Blog?
There’s a possibility that it will allow you to step on the path to financial freedom.
How great would it be to make money from your travel blog? Getting paid to do what you love is a dream job, so building a travel blog and getting paid to do it, is a dream.
A website can give you a bit of extra income, and it can also roll in the cash.
Amazon went from a humble book store to unbelievable heights. Jeff Bezos took action, and it paid off.
You could also end up making serious money if you decide to start a travel blog today.
This isn’t going to be easy but is endeavor really worthwhile if you don’t have to put any effort into it.
A popular saying with many bloggers is that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and it really is true.
I’d go even further than that by saying that building a successful travel blog is like doing a marathon every week.
This is one of the biggest reasons why you need to start a travel blog now!
It will take time to develop, and you need to give yourself at least 1 year full-time or 3 years part-time to get things going.
Build a travel blog to make money and for creativity
One of the greatest satisfactions you’ll gain by building your own website is that you did something creative yourself. It shouldn’t be all about just making money.
You created your own website. You did it! Start it off as a hobby and see where it goes.
Whatever reason you may have for wanting to build a website, you need to do it now.
That’s why you’re reading this post. You know you want to do it.
Building a website will take much longer than you think it will, so don’t delay it any longer.
Follow this step-by-step guide and do one thing at a time when I tell you to.
Then one day, you’ll see your own travel blog. Maybe it’ll be great, or maybe it will suck, but at least you gave it a go.
What is a website made of?
You can think of building a website like building a car from the ground up.
There are a few key components every website requires, just like a car.
You will need to choose some custom parts (Plugins) to make your website look and perform as you desire.
Three key things are required to get your WordPress website off the ground.
You need website hosting, a domain name, and a custom theme (highly recommended). Plus custom parts (options), known as Plugins.
The custom options are what really matter. These are referred to as Plugins.
WordPress offers a huge variety of Plugins that do just about everything you could wish for.
Here are a couple of top-rated plugins.
Yoast: It gives you feedback on how well you have set up SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on a particular page or post. All you need to do is follow Yoast’s feedback to give you a better chance of ranking highly with Google.
Google Analytics: Gives you feedback on the number of visitors to your website, which country they’re from, as well as the number of visitors to your website pages and posts.
Plugins exist for social media buttons, backup tools, email subscriber lists, and countless more plugins.
Many of them are free, but many of them also have a pro-version that unlocks a few extra features.
You may find that you end up using about 10-20 plugins when running your website. Most of them will be free.
Don’t use too many Plugins because having too many can slow your website down. Everyone wants a fast website. Using under 20 Plugins should be ok.
Choose WordPress as your Website Platform
Ideally, you should be using WordPress as your website platform when developing your travel blog. The reason for this is that the sky is the limit if you do.
Hitting a roadblock with another website development platform could turn out to be a disaster. It would waste so much time!
Choosing something else other than WordPress may have big repercussions later on. It would then mean a lot of rework, and that’s not going to make you happy.
Do you really want to reconfigure everything to WordPress at a later date?
I have read many stories about other travel bloggers who started with another blogging platform such as Blogger, for example.
In the end, most of them switched over to WordPress, with a big sigh of relief after it was finally done. It would be very wise to learn from their insights.
Other website platforms:
- Wix
- Squarespace
- Joomla
- Weebly
- Drupal
- Shopify
Trust me on this. You could go with one of these other platforms, and yes, it may be better than having no website at all. But your best option is to choose WordPress as your first website platform, especially for a Travel Blog.
If you only want to create a few pages on a website, it may be ok to use one of these other website platforms. But if you want to make money from it, don’t do it.
Shopify may suit your needs better if you want to focus primarily on building an online store.
The thing is, you can also integrate Shopify into WordPress, so starting with WordPress is still the best option.
I highly recommend using WordPress at the start of your website development journey, especially for your very first travel blog.
I’ve read hundreds of travel blogs, and nearly all of them use WordPress as their platform. You will be in great company if you choose to do the same thing.
Important Note: It can get confusing because WordPress has a free version, which means they also take care of the hosting. It’s called WordPress.com, but you shouldn’t use this one. There are many reasons why, so believe me when I tell you that you shouldn’t develop your first website using WordPress.com. You want to be self-hosted, so choose WordPress.org.
How much will it cost you to build a travel blog?
It will cost you under US$150. Many bloggers even suggest that it can be done with as little as $50, but I’ll say that under $150 is no problem at all.
The money will go towards paying for a domain name, website hosting, and a custom theme.
You can skip on the custom theme if you want to and use a free theme. That will save you a little bit of money, but I’m not going to teach you how to build a website on the bare minimum.
With $150 to spend, you’ll be able to have your website up and running for at least 1 year.
After that, you can keep it running for between $60 to $100 a year, provided traffic on your travel blog doesn’t explode.
7 Steps to creating your first Travel Blog (WordPress Website)
Building a website will take a significant amount of time, and that’s why you should start building a website as soon as you can. The sooner you do it, the better off you’ll be.
All you have to do is follow these 10 steps on how to start a travel blog:
1. Get Hosting for your Travel Blog
Most travel bloggers recommend that you first begin by thinking about your domain name (website name), but I have to disagree.
My recommendation is that you pay for website hosting right now using a company called Bluehost.
All you require at this stage is a shared hosting plan, which is the cheapest option available when it comes to website hosting.
This means that your website will be on a server that is shared by other websites.
It will cost you around $5, or under per month, so the average cost to you will be about $60 for 12 months of hosting.
The reason why you should purchase it right now is to get you moving in the direction of getting your first travel blog up and running as quickly as possible.
Plenty of website hosting providers can host your website, but the provider doesn’t really matter at this point.
Bluehost has a good reputation, and many other travel bloggers started their travel blog with them.
You can always switch to a different provider at any time if you want to, so you aren’t locked in forever.
The most important thing you can do right now is to purchase a 12-month plan as a minimum.
If you prefer, you can choose a longer plan. It sometimes works out a bit cheaper overall if you go with a longer plan.
A 12-month plan is good enough, so buy it now! Otherwise, you will procrastinate, and that could end up stalling or killing your online dreams.
Choosing the perfect website host
Purchasing website hosting is a bit like judging a beauty contest. It isn’t easy to pick the best, and even if you think you clearly did, there will be many others who disagree.
The same goes for website hosting providers. Believe me; I’m making it very easy for you.
Just purchase hosting from Bluehost. Don’t think about it. Just do it! This is your first step.
By doing this now, you will be fully committed to building your very first Travel Blog (WordPress website).
Important note: Do not bundle a domain name with your hosting plan even if you see that they offer one to you for free. You will be buying the domain name in the next step. You want to own the domain and control it through a separate company.
Buy now: BlueHost
Just do it! There is no point reading any further if you don’t buy hosting right now. This will get the wheels in motion.
2. Buy a website domain name
Great, you now have a host. What you need now is a website name, referred to as a domain name.
You may have something in mind, and you may think it’s an awesome name, but it may not be available.
Yes, someone may have beaten you to it. It could be a case of great minds thinking alike.
Don’t worry too much about it. I wanted GreekGods.com, but it was obviously taken, so I had to think about it a bit more.
What else could I add to the name? Paradise was the answer for me.
You may be ok, and your preferred domain may be available. Let’s hope that it is.
Think about your website name and whether it can be easily associate with you as a travel blogger?
Pick a website name you can grow with
I also recommend choosing a name that will allow you to grow.
For instance, teenagegirltraveler.com may sound great to someone now, but what happens when they reach the age of twenty? Do they really want to be known as a teenage girl after they’ve turned twenty?
Another issue I often see is when people use a location in their name.
It would be great to have a blog about New York and use the city’s name as part of the domain name. The problem is that it can limit you in other ways. This may outweigh any slight SEO (search engine optimization) benefits you may gain from using it in your domain.
Say you call your website EverythingNewYork.com. Your readers may get confused if you start discussing lots of other destinations down the track.
What happens if you move to another city? No one really knows what will happen in their future, so think about your website name carefully.
Sure, you can still have posts every so often talking about other places with a name like that, but why not pick a better name right from the start.
Choose a name you can grow with. It has huge advantages.
Maybe the name LeofromNewYork.com is a better option, especially if you were born in New York. That way, you can still talk lots and lots about New York City, and you can still talk about other places.
Whatever you decide to choose as a domain name, try and choose something you see yourself using twenty years down the track.
Check to see if the Social Media Handles are available.
Important note: Before you buy your domain name, you should also check to see that most of the social media handles are available. This includes handles for Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and whatever else you can think of. The main ones are the most important.
If most of them are already taken, it’s better to think of another domain name. Even if one or two of them are taken, it’s probably a safer bet to think of another name. If only one of them is taken, it may not be a big deal since all you have to do is choose a slightly different name on that social media platform.
Cost of a domain name
Now it’s time to buy your website domain name. It will cost you between $10 and $20.
You will have to renew it every year, and it will cost you about the same year in year out. You also have the option of buying it for a longer-term, which makes sense, but there’s no need to.
Buy your website domain name from namecheap.com. There are other places, but I recommend using Name Cheap to buy your domain name. It’s a very professional service.
When you buy it, make sure you have privacy protection turned on so that no one knows who the website belongs to. Otherwise, you may have people contacting you for various services that you don’t want.
Final checks before buying the domain name
Before you buy it, I want you to do a Google search using a part of your desired name. Add the word blog after it as well, to see if anything comes up in Google. If it does, then you may want to pick something else.
For instance, if you want to use the word Nomadic as part of your website name, you’ll see a popular travel blogger with the same keyword in their domain name.
It may seem as if you’re a copycat if you do the same thing, but don’t let it stop you if that’s what you really want.
Choose a name that you love.
Buy now: Namecheap
3. Reserve all of the Social Media Handles
Straight after you buy the domain name, I want you to signup for all of the social media platforms you can think of.
Ensure you sign up as a business user and use your Travel Blog name when filling in the details. It’s free to signup.
Signing up as a business will give you more options down the track. You don’t have to have a genuine business to get the business social media handles. All you need to do is use your Travel Blog name.
Sign up for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter as a minimum, even if you never plan on using any of them.
Remember, if they’re already taken, it’s probably best to think of another name unless the name is super awesome! It will get very confusing if other people are seen using the same name for another purpose.
Sign up to:
- YouTube
- Any other social media platform that you’re interested in.
4. Install WordPress
You now need to install WordPress. This is where it can get a bit technical, but your hosting company will be able to assist you if you have any difficulties.
Bluehost normally have excellent online instructions for the website owners to follow, making the process easy enough.
You can also do a Google search and follow guides from other website host providers.
5. Buy a Custom Theme
A custom theme will give your website a unique look. You may have noticed that some travel blogs look very similar to each other. That could be because they use the same custom theme.
You need to choose your own custom theme based on the style you like the most. My recommendation is to pick a popular theme with great reviews.
Once you buy a custom theme, most of them seem to be updated for life free of charge.
A custom theme is of great value when you think about it, and you can get one for under $100.
There are a wide variety of places to buy a custom theme. It’s especially important to find the right theme for you, one that you love.
The custom theme will give your website a certain look about it.
Don’t worry about it too much, though, because you can change it to another one with relative ease.
You should be able to find a great custom theme at one of these two excellent providers.
Buy at:
6. Set Up Your Website (Travel Blog)
Right at the start, you’ll have to point your website address from Name Cheap to your hosting provider, BlueHost.
Secure your site
Make sure that your website address comes up in the following way: https://GreekGodsParadise.com.
This means that your website is secure. One of the benefits is that Google will rank your website higher in search queries if your site is secure.
I started off using https://greekgodsparadise.com (missing the s) – which means I’ll have to go back and change all my posts and lots of other things at some stage – to make my website secure.
The ‘s’ you see after the ‘p’ means that a website is secure. If you’re not able to access your website with https://, then find out what you need to do to fix it. Your hosting company will be able to assist if need be.
Most host providers offer a free SSL certificate to achieve this.
Another thing, your website can appear as GreekGodsParadise.com, for example. Or it can also appear as www.GreekGodsParadise.com. I chose the first option.
You need to decide on your preference. The setup is done within your own personal control panel at Name Cheap. Have a look at other travel blogs and determine the best option for you.
One more thing, when you set up your preferred page and post address, set it up as follows: https://greekgodsparadise.com/how-to-start-a-travel-blog. You have the option to use the date in the URL address automatically, but keep it simple.
Now it’s time to get familiar with accessing WordPress and the control panel. It will take time to familiarise yourself with it.
7. Install and Set Up Your Custom Theme
Choose your colors, preferred font types, font sizes, and menu structures within your custom theme panel.
8. Set Up Your Home Page
Now it’s time to develop your first website page. Start with your home page.
Create your logo and upload it. Upload a few photos. Write something about your website. Publish it and see what it looks like.
This will get you started. You’ll learn by doing it.
9. Create content for your Travel Blog
Even if you don’t travel, you must live somewhere. Let the world know about some of the best experiences around you.
If you have traveled in the past, go through your photos and think about how you can use them to create an awesome post.
The other thing you can do is to travel somewhere interesting. That way, you will definitely have something interesting to say on your travel blog.
Check out my guide on how to climb Mount Olympus in Greece. This is a great example of an epic post.
You don’t need to put this much detail inside all of your posts, but it’s good to do every so often.
10. Make money with your Travel Blog
Making money from your travel blog will come after you’ve spent time developing content for your website.
The way you can make money is via advertising and affiliate links. If you have a large number of readers, the money will come, that’s for sure.
A good target is to have 50,000 unique visitors a month to your travel blog. It used to be 25,000 visitors a month for some great online advertising companies, but the hurdle height has been raised.
If you can meet their requirements, then you’re on your well on your way to being a successful travel blogger.
You also have the option of selling products on your website to make money.
That’s it. You’ve just learned how to start a travel blog and make money with WordPress.
Let’s go over it one more time. All you need to do to start a travel blog is to follow these ten steps.
1. Get Hosting for your Travel Blog – Buy now: BlueHost
2. Buy a website domain name – Buy now: Namecheap
3. Reserve all of the Social Media Handles
4. Install WordPress
5. Buy a Custom Theme – Buy now: Theme Forrest or StudioPress
6. Set Up Your Website (Travel Blog)
7. Install and Set Up Your Custom Theme
8. Set Up Your Home Page
9. Create content for your Travel Blog
10. Make money with your Travel Blog
Learning how to make money from a travel blog is one of the last steps, but this will never happen unless you start one first.