Source:etramping.com

7 Key Steps To Take When Starting a New Travel Blog

Although it seems difficult and complex, designing a travel blog can, in fact, be quite simple. And, if you are thinking about creating one that you’ll use for writing about your adventures, you might find the step-by-step guide below quite useful. Let’s take a closer look at the steps that you should take when starting a new travel blog:

Step 01: Choose a Suitable Name

Source:curiositytravels.org

Naturally, the very first step that you should take is choosing a suitable name for your blog. The title must be moderately short, simple to memorize, write & type, and something that will stick in people’s minds. You should also avoid adding numbers or hyphens to the name, especially since you won’t want to explain what it means.

You should also try to bypass using terms that are similar and overused in the entire blogging world. Yeah, you can choose something similar to “Wandering Steven” or “Wanderlust Anna”, but, you should be aware that it won’t stand out from the crowd and that they might already be used by other people. Hence, choosing something that is unique.

Step 02: Pick a Website Building Platform

Source:gretathemes.com

The next thing that you should choose is a website building platform. This platform allows people to develop a site, insert the content they produced such as pictures, videos, articles, and so on. Naturally, there is a wide range of free platforms that you choose to utilize, but consider choosing the most love, used, and popular options, WordPress.

WordPress is not a platform that can enable you to simply drag & drop things, yet, it is quite user-friendly and it doesn’t require coding. It is also customizable, meaning that you have the opportunity of optimizing its speed in order to rank higher when using some SEO strategies. Additionally, there are various free themes and if you want to see a few of them, check out CanyonThemes.com.

Step 03: Get The Add-Ons You Need

Source:blog.mozilla.org

The add-ons you choose to install will be extremely helpful for you and your travel site. Basically, the ones you choose will add extra traits to the blog. Most of the ones you’ll find are free, however, there are some a bit more advanced ones, that might require you to pay a small fee. When it comes to the things you can choose, it will entirely rely on you and your needs.

For instance, Akismet will shield your pages from bots and spammers that leave random comments, Yoast SEO can help you optimize your article, while WP Rocker speeds up your blog, which means that it will perform better. These are only some of the hundreds you can get, hence, do some digging before you install them.

Step 04: You’ll Want to Make an Online Character

Once you get it up and running, the next thing you should do is to create an “About Me Page”. Trust me, this will be one of the most visited categories on the blog, especially since individuals will want to know more about who you are, the story you can tell, and an explanation of why they might want to continue tracking your adventures.

A thing worth mentioning is that you should also create social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even YouTube. This can allow you to reach more people, hence, expanding your loyal audience. And, it’ll also make it simpler for people to distribute the things you post to your blog.

Step 05: Compose The First Article

Source:mappingmegan.com

Once you understand and do the aforementioned steps, it is time to start writing high-quality content. When starting out, one of the best things you can do is to publish at least two to three articles every week. But, there is one key thing that you should always remember and follow – QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY.

This is why you must give yourself enough time to create perfect and useful posts that will have a major impact on your audience. You’ll definitely want your content to inspire people, but, they also need to contain useful tips that people can utilize when they are traveling.

When starting out, you can choose to, for example, tell people more about yourself. Or, you can share your packing strategy, your research on a specific country or place, as well as what your travel essentials are. Additionally, you can share what your all-time favorite place is, give interesting advice on what people can do when they travel, show some incredible photographs, and so on.

Whatever you choose to write about, it can allow you to figure out and comprehend how WordPress works, including how to publish photographs, how the header works, and all the other important details and formatting that is required when publishing on this website.

Step 06: Consistency is The Key to Success

As mentioned earlier, you should post at least two or three articles per week, but, some people can also choose to share daily – especially if they have traveled a lot in recent years. All in all, you should try to be as realistic as you can, especially when it comes to what you can manage to do. Being consistent will build a stronger relationship with your followers as well, which is something a lot of people strive to do.

Step 07: Consider Creating an Email List

Source:paprikaads.com

When starting out, one of the most important things that you should not skip is building an email list. Now, you might be questioning – why must I do this early on? Well, by doing this, you’ll be able to connect with your readers better, and you can have a strategy for reminding them that you are still there.

It is relatively cheap to build your email list and the only thing it will require is patience and time. There are various tools that you can use for creating an email list, hence, make sure that you utilize them. This will allow you to notify your readers about new posts and adventures.

Conclusion

By following the tips mentioned in the article above, you’ll be able to make the entire process of starting and creating a travel blog easier, cheaper, less time consuming, as well as less stressful for yourself. So, now that you know what you should do, do not waste any more time. Instead, start from the first step in this article, which is to choose a name for your site!

Peter is a freelance writer with more than eight years of experience covering topics in politics. He was one of the guys that were here when the foreignspolicyi.org started.