Most of us have always wanted to be a travel blogger, is a dream job; almost everyone wants to show their friends and family that they’ve been living their best life. But there’s more to blogging than just snapping some easy photos with your phone and applying a filter.
Most people would assume that a good percentage of travel blogging is going around the world and taking photos with a cheap mobile phone while placing some quotes as captions on scenic views. While traveling is an essential part of travel blogging, it is only a means to an end. When you’re setting up a blog, your blog posts will be critical for bringing in engagement to your domain.
Setting up your travel blog, especially one that will reel in money for you, will need more than just some flashy photos and motivational captions. You have to think about hosting, content management system (CMS) development, search engine optimization, and a bit of programming to get your blog in an optimal condition.
It seems like a tall list of things to do, right? Don’t worry; it’s still entirely possible. If you look past all of these fancy terms, you’ll realize that blogging is easier when you see the pattern.
Why Should You Travel Blog?
But contrary to what most people think, travel blogging is more than just placing a few drone shots and professional-crafted photos on your Instagram feed. It’s also about being able to set up the actual blog that you can call an extension of your experiences and your identity.
But in terms of business and lifestyle, what are the benefits of setting up your travel blog?
- Right Balance — Being a travel blogger means that you will need to travel to create a fair amount of content. You won’t have to be stuck in an office and work 8 hours a day while waiting for the weekend to travel.
- Engagements — Having content in the form of blog posts can help bring in more attention. Using various keywords, links, and engaging topics can bring in organic traffic into your domain. Compared to other types of content, blog posts are known for always bringing in traffic and ad revenue.
- Content Marketing — When you’re slowly building up your travel blog, you’re opening more windows for more business prospects. Content in the form of blog posts can easily convert organic engagements into leads. But other than blog posts, there is a multitude of different tactics that you can incorporate that can easily open up potential business partnerships.
- Gaining Traction — Having blog posts that have external links can help draw in more business opportunities. Most of the time, influencers, services, and online stores are actively looking for blogs that review products and produce articles about a particular industry.
Who knows? After you’ve got a fair amount of content on your travel blog, you might turn it into your very own travel magazine or travel journal. Of course, if you’re going to self-publish a book, you’ll need to find professionals you can connect with.
The Essential Steps
Thinking Long Term
First and foremost, it’s essential to think of the long-term state of your blog. That means that you’ll need to take a step back and feel a domain name that will sit with your blog for a long time. Changing your domain name can cause a bit of complication, especially when people start associating products with your domain name.
If you’re going to name your blog Adventures of a Young Millenial, what happens when you turn 50 or 60? Your brand will be the first impression people will get for your blogging business.
WordPress Makes Life Easy
Almost any blogging site wouldn’t be complete without a WordPress plugin. Most of the time, WordPress software will reside within a company’s servers. WordPress is an excellent way of posting data, regulating what other people can see, and controlling your advertisements.
WordPress has been and will always be such a hit that major news outlets and brands will use it when posting content. It’s that good!
Essential Plugins
One of the reasons why WordPress has been such a hit for many blogging sites is that it can be customized to your liking. Creating content and writing can be a tedious process. Having these plugins can help eliminate any mistakes when writing.
While some of these plugins are free, you’ll have to pay for some third-party applications or a monthly subscription to some services. Some of these plugins include:
- Akismet
- Imagify
Get a Professional Theme
How your site will look like will determine on the impression that your site will give to visitors. Most of the time, hosting sites will offer free designs. It’s okay if you want to play around initially, but if you’re planning on making money with your travel blog, having a professional system will accelerate your site’s growth.
Usually, professional themes will cost you around $50 to $100 and optimize your domain’s user interface and functionality.
If you’re very keen on every detail of your site, you might want to get professional themes customized to your liking. Sometimes, you’ll have to dabble on CSS and HTML coding for these types of sites. If you’re not familiar with coding, there are web developers that offer services from freelancing sites.
Your blog is a living and breathing extension of your personality and your experiences as a person. A part of that is putting time, effort, and energy into your blog posts. At first, it might seem a bit daunting to learn new coding languages, set up new tools, and get engagements for your blog, but it will be all worth it in the end.
