Documenting your travels by blogging is one of the best ways to not only preserve your travel memories and adventures, but it is also one of the greatest ways for your friends, family, and even wanderlusting strangers to be a part of your worldly adventures. If you are traveling long-term or plan to start, you most likely have a ton of inspiration and insight that others would love to hear about because let’s face it–traveling the world is an amazing opportunity.

So how do you start a travel blog? Well, it’s very easy actually and you can also make money off your blog–not necessarily a lot of money, but depending on how much work you put into it and the focus of your blog, you can make a bit of extra cash which I will get into as well.

The Basic Steps in Creating a Travel Blog

The first thing you need in order to start a travel blog is the desire to share information on the web, whether it is of your travel photos, advice, travel guides, tips or stories of your worldly experiences.

A quick look at each step:

• Step 1: Pick a Good Travel Blog Name
• Step 2: Purchase a Website Host
• Step 3: Install WordPress
• Step 5: Download Free Plugins
• Step 6: Write Great Content

Step 1: Pick a Good Travel Blog Name

The name of your travel blog is basically going to be your brand and will carry on through the rest of your accounts on all social medioa platforms so the more catchy and travel related it is, the better. Also you want to be proud of the name you choose because it will be harder to change it down the line once you have established the blog as your baby.

How do you pick a good name for a travel blog? A few things to consider are whether the words are SEO friendly (when people Google search the terms in your title, will the blog come up?), is the name memorable, is the name available on social media sites (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), and is it a name I can associate myself with in the long term? If you answered yes to all of these questions, then we are on a good start! Make a list of possible name and ask a few friends what they think of the ones you came up with, take some votes and choose your blog name!

Step 2: Purchase a Website Host

Purchase an online host. If you just want a blog that you only share information once in a while and not take so seriously, you can create a free blog using WordPress. I have used Blogger in the past for other projects and I have decided that it is not for me, but I know a handful of people who do use Blogger as their platform. If you end up using WordPress.com you can choose free templates to design your blog purchase a url for about $18.

I use BlueHost to host my travel blog and I have been happy with it. andbecause of my experience with Blue Host I am confident in recommending it to my readers.

I have an affiliate link for BlueHost so if you do decide to go with them, I would be grateful if you used my link: Affiliate Link! 🙂

Step 3: Install WordPress

Through BlueHost, you can install wordoress and claim the domain you want. Setting up WordPress is simple and you do not need to now any website coding.

Step 4: Pick a Template

StudioPress has a selection of beautiful customizable themes that don’t require you to know any html or css coding. They’re not free, but they usually have different promotions going on which offer templates at a discounted rate. The theme I am using for Adrift Anywhere is called Magazine Pro Theme by StudioPress. 

When you are selecting a new template, there a few things to consider:

• Is it a responsive theme? This means that the template is compatible on mobile browsers like iPads and smart phone.
• Is it easy to navigate through? You want your readers to be able to easily find articles throughout your blog.
• Does it have space for advertising?

Step 5: Download Free Plugins

WordPress has great plugins that help enhance your blogging experience without having to do any coding. From the get-go there are a few plugins you should download:

• Akismet – Blocks and filters out spam comments.
• JetPack – Monitor your website traffic and stats using this plugin which also has a phone app.
• Easy Google Fonts- Change the fonts on your site without having to deal with any coding.
• Google Analytics – Monitor your analytics.
• W3 Total Cache – Helps enhance your experience on the backend and functionality of the plugins.
• SEO by Yoast- Helps you optimize the meta date of your posts so they come up on search engines.
• Disqus- Commenting platform

Step 6: Write Great Content

Write articles on topics other readers will find valuable and inspirational. Brain storm ideas: think about what details you as a traveler had to overcome in order to make a trip possible, what do you wish you had known before you headed on your journey? There are endless amounts of aspects of traveling you can write about so don’t feel limited to a writing style that other bloggers are doing, but get inspiration from them.

There you have it–the process of creating a blog in six easy steps! If you have questions about any of these steps, feel free to ask away because I may be able to help you.

Happy travels and happy blogging!