How to Start a Travel Blog – Finally! 

“We are travel bloggers!

“This is something we rarely say out loud, it sounds self-proclaimed and uncomfortable! BUT WHY? We have a travel blog, we blog on travel, we ARE travel bloggers.

One of the reasons it feels awkward is because unlike most titles they are given to us (through university, companies etc), the title ‘travel blogger’ is one we create for ourselves. For the longest time we wanted to start a blog but were too intimidated – being 100% “non-IT people”.

Anyway, we LOVE being travel bloggers and we wish we started earlier !! We know there’s an overwhelming amount of info on how to begin – but here’s our tips from a very simple perspective (lament terms only)!

*Friendly tip to couples – if you’re starting a couple blog together, split up the work and take lots of breaks – the initial setting up of the blog is pretty boring !!

How to Start a Travel Blog

Decide who you are

Find your name! This is important!

Some say choose a domain name that immediately describes what it is that you are about.
For example, we are “The Married Wanderers” – a married couple with traveling wanderlust.
Other examples: @howfarfromhome @gettingstamped @budgetbackpacker

Others say the complete opposite – choose a name that stands out.
For example: @saltinourhair @goatsontheroad – we’ve never forgotten these names !!

Claim your name
Go on all the social media platforms and claim your name so long. Also keep the length of your name in mind – we are @themarriedwanderers everywhere except Twitter (where we’re @themarriedwndrs). It’s so much better to be within the character limit so you can have the same handle on all platforms. 

Think ahead
Calling yourself @solodame or @beachwanderer limits you to one style or niche that you may grow out of. Try think of a name that will remain relevant (just incase you blow up and do this indefinitely).

Do the tedious admin stuff

We recommend using WordPress as it’s so universally understood and the support team is massive. The sites that are very easy in the beginning may limit you later.

Host your site
We recommend getting BlueHost – again it’s widely favored and trusted! Also make sure you have a self-hosted WordPress account by installing the free WordPress Software so you can be www.themarriedwanderers.com instead of www.themarriedwanderers.wordpress.com.

Get a basic blog going

You’ve done all the admin and you have an official blog! YAY!! But it’s empty?

Start doing the basics – make an ‘About Us’ Page, a Contact Page with a Contact Form plugin, some main Menus and Categories such as “Destinations” or “Africa Travel” or however you are planning to segment your blog.

Turn it in to something beautiful

Before you launch – make it pretty! And by pretty we mean, make sure it’s not cluttered (white space is key), make sure it navigates logically, ensure the colors and vibe of who you are is set…

Choose a Theme
Now that you have some basic information and widgets, you can test out a few themes and see which works best. Make sure the theme is responsive (i.e. just as attractive on mobile). The free themes are great, but the Paid Themes are definitely better (our theme is called ‘Mulberry’).

Install Plugins
Add in some basic and useful widgets and plugins (things cool blogs have), like:
A Signup Page, Social Media Follow Icons, an SEO plugin to rank your content and blog higher on Google, Security and Protection plugins.. and the list continues. 

These are some of the plugins we currently use:

Get it SEEN

You’ve added your social media links to the blog, you’ve added an email subscribe widget or pop-up to start building your future database for email campaigns. Now show it to the world.

Blogging is great – but people dont happen upon blogs easily, you find blogs on social sites. So make a social profile for your blog everywhere. Post blog posts on Pinterest and Bloglovin to get it seen. You can even try register your blog on Blogarama and BlogCatalog for extra exposure.

The most NB Step

Just start! It doesn’t need to be the most attractive, professional blog in the entire world. Accept that, or you’ll be “setting it up” for years and getting so overwhelmed that you’ll never end up actually blogging. Our blog is so far from what we want it to be it’s scary but the important thing, is it’s there – we are blogging and we are learning every month. So just start, the rest will happen in time.

Great guides on how to start your travel blog – by people who are actually killing it:

These are our favourite ‘How to start a travel blog’ Guides from a few of our travel inspirations:

This infographic is pretty much everything you need to know

Now book your first trip as a travel blogger with Travelstart and let the journey begin! We recommend an African adventure with us down South with cheap flights to Johannesburg (because South Africa should really be on your bucketlist)!

Visit our blog for some travel inspiration –  The Married Wanderers