How to Start a Travel Blog in 10 ‘Easy’ Steps

Some people start blogging to become world famous travel bloggers whose readers hang on every word and have Lonely Planet, Expedia and Simon Reeve knocking their door down to work with them. Others just want a creative outlet to write about their adventures and post their pictures. There are many reasons to start but wherever you see yourself on the spectrum of travel bloggers the most important thing is to have a travel blog to be proud of.

I’ve boiled down the many, many steps of travel blogging to just ten to follow in order to start you off on your travel blogging journey.

1. Start writing

Travel Blogger High

The writing is the bare bones on any travel blog that everything else hangs on. Before you even start setting up your blog I’d advise you to write a few blog posts just in Word so you have some material to play with when it comes to the design. This can also help you to start to get a feel for your writing and maybe even refine what part of travel in particular you want to write about and to find a niche.

Read: What to Write About and How to Write About It

2. Buy your domain and theme

Next up is your domain name. The pre writing stage should have given you more of an idea of what to name your blog. Claim all the social media handles, whether you plan to use them immediately or not, and purchase your domain name for at least two years. Then you can start looking at themes to use. WordPress comes with some great free ones that you can use to start off. Once you learn a bit more about design it can be worth investing in a paid one from sites like themeforest (like this one) or Woo Themes. I’d keep things as cheap as possible to start though and save your pennies.

Read: How to Choose a Travel Blog Domain Name

3. Keep writing

Travel blogger high

One of the biggest blockades to a successful travel blog is mind block. It’s a good idea to get in the rhythm of writing as much as possible – I do it every day, whether I publish it or not. As you’re starting out make use of the ‘notes’ section on your phone and write down your favourite ideas to come back to in the future or find another way to store your thoughts as you go. Make sure you schedule time into every day to work on your craft, as much as you can.

If you start to doubt yourself, or find the inspiration, check out these affirmations for writers to get you in the flow.

top UK travel bloggers

4. Learn to take great photos

Photography is one of the most important aspects of a travel blog. Stunning photography can keep your audience coming back and engaged just for that purpose. Create your own style so your photos are instantly recognisable and learn how to edit them well too. If you need some help developing your own style, be sure to check out some guides online. For example, this guide to photo background blurring can teach you how to create fuzzy backdrops that help bring more focus to things in the foreground.

5. Spend as long promoting as you do on the words

10 steps to a travel blog to be proud of

If no one knows your amazingly helpful and beautiful content is there how can they read it? And if they can’t read it how can your visitor numbers improve? You need to invest time and energy into marketing your posts to get them in front of the right people.

6. Start thinking about what you want from your travel blog

If you haven’t thought about it already, now’s the time to start thinking about how your travel blog will improve your life. Do you want a creative outlet? A place to do what you want? Or do you want press trips, money, speaking gigs, a new career or a way to meet people? Draw up a plan of what you want your blog to do for you, and how you can get to that point.

 Read: How to Be a Successful Travel Blogger

 Read: 7 Ways I Make Money From Travel Blogging

Read: What’s a Travel Blogger Got to Do to Get a Press Trip Around Here?

Read: I Want to Be a Full Time Travel Blogger, But…

7. Start to network

10 steps to being a travel blogger

Networking is one of the most important things to do in any business. No man is an island, you need to find some countries to feed off.

Read: How to Make Friends with Travel Bloggers and Why

8. Stay innovative

Travel bloggers have been around for a few years. From Nomadic Matt who’s been around since 2008 and has millions of views, to me at who started in 2012 and has thousands of views, to someone who set up just last week and has their mum and Grandpa loving their work.

It’s still so young, yet, so many things have already been done it’s a challenge to stay innovative and interesting. Thousands of blogs are set up worldwide every week, how are you going to make yours stand out?

Whether it’s where you go, what you do, how you do it or the way you record it, try to think differently from the estimated xx travel bloggers out there.

9. Stay confident and take a break

How to be an amazing travel blogger

There’s going to be peaks and troughs when it comes to travel blogging. You need to stay confident in yourself and your work, and keep going when time gets tough. You also need to know when to take a break. Many of the travel bloggers with large audiences have posts about blogger burn out. It may sound ridiculous to hear, particularly if you’re reading this on your lunch break with a pile of work on your desk and a night of blogging to look forward to so you can see your friends at the weekend, but full time bloggers can collapse under the stress of it all too. If only because of the pressure they put on themselves.

Read: How to Overcome the Self Doubt that Will Ruin Your Travel Blogging

10. Keep going!

Refer back to 1 and 3. Maintaining a travel blog requires dedication and hard work but if you have the determination you can create a travel blog you’re proud of and have fun along the way!

Read: 32 Professional Travel Blogger Secrets I’ll Let You in On

VickyFlipFlopTravels

How to be a travel blogger

Check out the latest on Instagram @VickyFlipFlop

More on travel blogging

https://vickyflipfloptravels.com/press-trip-experiences/

11 Comments

  1. Hi Vicky!
    I’ve been wanting to start a blog for so long, and am completely and utterly shattered to pieces at just putting together the actual website. I cannot for the life of me get passed that step and figure it out. It reduces me to tears every time. You mentioned WordPress.. has anyone managed anything with the .com one.. or are we talking about the dreaded .org one for the mega educated people? I am so stuck and just want to get passed this huge impossible mountain in front of me so I can get to it!

  2. Great post with some top tips! Thanks so sharing, this will really help me with my content writing and travel dreams 🙂

  3. Really amazing post! I keep referring to your blog for inspiration during my travel planning. Quitting my job and going travelling around Asia for 6 weeks and then got a work visa for perth and hoping to work and save and do more travelling. I was thinking of maybe starting a blog but I don’t know if my writing is good enough. This has provided me with some inspiration and I might give it a go 🙂 thank you for all your posts!

    1. Ah that’s great to hear Megan, thank you for letting me know and I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog. If you want to start one you definitely should. Your writing will get better as you go if that’s something you’re worried about. Or you could sign up to a course like the Matador U programme to improve. I’d recommend you just get started, it’s the first step!

  4. Great helpful tips and encouragement here, especially about the need to just keep writing! I’m currently posting twice a week, which is the maximum I can really do with balancing a full-time job as well. What do you recommend for beginner bloggers? Do you recall how much you posted at the start? Thanks 🙂

    1. Hi Steph, my advice on this is always to post when you have something to say. There’s no point trying to stick to a tough schedule if it ruins the fun in travel blogging. Just go with what feels natural.

  5. You’ve got it in a nutshell, Vicky 🙂 It is hard work, no doubt. But in order to be a blogger in the long run, you need to have the passion. Then you need to add in hard work and keep going at it.

    Thanks for sharing this!

  6. I agree with Alexandria that promoting is the hard part. A lot of the time, I feel like I’m Tweeting into the void. I love writing even if few people are noticing, but I know I have to keep at it long term if I want more readers.

    If it gets Simon Reeve knocking on my door, I’ll have to make an effort…! 😉

  7. I think that promoting can sometimes be the most discouraging and can sometimes lead to loss of inspiration. I’ll definitely have to check out all of your resources.

    1. I’d agree with that. I find I have to make a real effort to make sure my work gets out there – but it’s the only way to get it to catch on!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *