You have traveled across the globe and you want to share your stories with the world? Why not do it with a travel blog? Here, we will uncover six tips you need to know to successfully start a travel blog. By the end of this article, you will learn the ins and outs of creating a travel blog that is not only informative and functional but also appealing to the eye.
Why You Should Start a Travel Blog?
With all the popular social media platforms flooding the internet, a blog might not be your first choice. What most people don’t know is that a blog offers plenty of opportunities that you cannot find on social media platforms, particularly in the tourism industry.
Here’s why you should consider starting a travel blog:
- Complete content control – in terms of content and rules, there’s no one to stop you but your own imagination.
- Reach a wider audience – people can view your content without the need to have an account on a particular platform.
- Multi-purpose – from sharing stories about your journey to selling merch, a blog can cater to all of your needs.
- Profitable – even if you don’t sell merch, there are a ton of ways to monetize your blog.
6 Steps to Start a Successful Travel Blog
Now that you know the benefits of having a blog, here are some of the key essentials on how to start one.
1. Choose the Right Blog Name
Despite sounding like a simple decision, choosing the right name to represent your blog can have a huge difference in the long run. From a business perspective, a catchy and memorable blog name can create a strong first impression and build your brand’s credibility. From a technical standpoint, adapting it to your domain name can affect the blog’s performance in search engine result pages or SERPs.
2. Pick Your Niche
One of the most common blogging mistakes is not choosing your niche from the beginning. Contrary to popular belief, covering a broad range of content makes it harder to maintain your audience and produce regular content.
Focus on a specific niche you’re most confident to share your thoughts about. Hotel reviews, food tourism, travel journal – there are plenty of subtopics that you can explore freely. By picking a specific niche, you get to improve your content quality and workflow as well as create a close-knit community with a similar mindset.
3. Choose the Right Blogging Platform
Similar to social media, there are plenty of blogging platforms to choose from. Therefore, you need to consider your blogging purpose, level of expertise, and budget when picking one.
In short, it’s best to do a bit of research and choose the platform that best suits your needs.
4. Create for Your Audience
You might have heard of SEO as the key tool to increase your blog’s SERP ranking. While this is true, you should avoid keyword stuffing at all costs. Not only does this practice affect your SEO negatively, but it also makes your content completely unreadable.
Rather than focusing on what keywords you should use, make content that caters to your audience as the consumer. Above all else, create written material you can be proud of!
5. Use the Right Tools
While the goal of blogging is to share your stories, you can go the extra mile and provide excellent customer service. Depending on the platform, you can equip yourself with add-on tools to expand the blog’s functionality. Maps, merchandise store, image gallery, membership system – get creative with your blog and content!
6. Promote, Promote, Promote!
Like any other business, the success of your travel blog depends on how well you market it. Be it through social media platforms or word of mouth, it’s essential to let other people know of what you have in store. If you have a budget to spare, you can dabble with paid marketing like referral programs and paid advertising. Your content deserves recognition!
That’s a Wrap!
There’s no denying that maintaining a travel blog requires hard work and dedication. Despite that, many people have found success in this industry and even made a living out of it. So, are you up for the challenge?