{"id":2283,"date":"2023-05-11T08:49:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T08:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boostyourblog.com\/?p=2283"},"modified":"2023-10-16T16:37:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T16:37:56","slug":"how-to-start-a-travel-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boostyourblog.com\/how-to-start-a-travel-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Start A Travel Blog (Properly!) In 10 Minutes – A Beginner’s Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thinking of starting a travel blog? Here I\u2019ll be sharing with you my best tips that will help you get started \u2014 and avoid the biggest mistake you can possibly make in your initial blog setup.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

But wait… who am I to tell you about travel blogging?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, at Indie Traveller<\/a> I’ve been doing it for over 10 years! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started blogging just for fun, but things kind of escalated. After just two years I became a full-time professional travel blogger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one thing I regret from my early blogging days is that I hadn’t taken the setup process seriously<\/strong>. I didn’t consider the possibility I might want to make money with it later, and so I ended up with a technical mess that could have been avoided easily. This guide is about not making the same mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Firstly, I didn’t start my blog on WordPress, which was highly unwise as it’s the most common blogging system. Even worse, I set it up on a crappy free hosting service (which is definitely a bad idea). Embarrassingly, I also didn’t start my blog on my own domain (more about that later).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I definitely paid the price when my blog started taking off. Literally, in fact, because migrating my blog over to WordPress and a proper hosting service cost me over $2000 in billing from a technical expert who had to help me do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let’s do this better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By taking just 10-15 minutes you can set things up properly right away. This will make the blog way <\/em>easier to update, easier for people to find, and will let you earn money from it in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if you’re going to blog just for fun, these steps will be highly worth doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While you can certainly use free blogging services for a travel blog, this tutorial will show you why spending just $3 per month on a proper setup can be hugely beneficial down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s go!<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTable Of Contents\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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  1. Why you shouldn't wait to launch your blog<\/a>
  2. The best blog platform to use<\/a>
  3. Step-by-step: setting up your travel blog<\/a>
  4. Why you 100% need a domain name<\/a>
  5. How to choose a name for your travel blog<\/a>
  6. Okay… what's next?<\/a><\/ol>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\n\n

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    Why you shouldn’t wait to launch your blog<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    First things first: my advice to new bloggers is to have a live (publically accessible) blog ASAP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Even if you don’t think you have enough content yet, it’s better to just put what you have live where it’s visible and indexable by Google. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You’re honestly not going to have much (or any) traffic in the first months anyway, but it’s worth launching quickly for an important technical reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The longer your blog and domain name exist, the better it is for the algorithms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Most blogs don\u2019t get that much traffic in at least their first 6 to 12 months, but that\u2019s because they\u2019re still in Google\u2019s so-called \u2018sandbox\u2019. This is a period during which Google is still watching your site but not yet ranking it much. A lot of people don’t know about the sandbox and get frustrated, but it’s really there to avoid spam sites and such from getting into Google too easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Until Google trusts your site, you\u2019ll basically be put in a waiting room. So launching your blog early means you\u2019ll get out of the sandbox sooner \u2014 which is when many more people can discover your blog and you can start growing your audience<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is why just having your site and domain up with a couple of articles is hugely valuable in getting to that point. Since most people come to blogs via search engines, this is really fundamental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I made the mistake of holding off for six months, just creating content while I was travelling, but not putting it out there yet. That basically delayed everything by half a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you have a domain name it also accrues a metric called \u201cdomain authority\u201d the longer it is live, giving you more chance for your articles to be recognized by search engines. More on this later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The best blog platform to use<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Even if you just want to blog for fun, it’s important to future-proof<\/strong> it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s wise to ensure the foundations of your blog are solid. That way you can monetize or develop your blog later without any major headaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For this reason, I do not <\/strong>recommend using free services like Medium.com or other such social blogging platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why? You simply won\u2019t control your own content. For example, on Medium you have to give a perpetual (i.e. unlimited) license for the content. They will, in a sense, own your work. You also can\u2019t monetize it, and the platforms can change the rules at any time. Not good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Also, avoid<\/strong> Squarespace or Wix<\/strong>. I know, they\u2019re sponsoring just about every podcast or YouTube channel these days, which makes it seem like they’re the best thing since sliced potatoes. Honestly, they are pretty easy site builders that are good for making a portfolio site or, say, promoting a small business like a restaurant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But they\u2019re terrible for a content-driven travel blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The software that basically 95%+ of bloggers use is WordPress<\/strong>. It\u2019s simply the <\/em>blogging platform. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can expand it with thousands of useful plugins and themes, many of them completely free. If you want to use external services in the future, such as for a mailing list, you can be almost 100% sure it\u2019ll work with WordPress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s key to have your own installation of WordPress on your own site<\/strong> (this is called \u201cself-hosted WordPress\u201d). This ensures you can do anything you want in the future, such as including advertising or sponsorship, without any terms & conditions ever stopping you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Coincidentally, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing in this tutorial!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Note: if you get only the cloud version of WordPress at WordPress.org, you can’t monetize anything on your blog (you’re forced to only ever show WordPress ads).<\/em> That’s why I’ll be showing how to set up the self-hosted WordPress, which lets you do anything you want.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step-by-step: setting up your travel blog<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Alright, here we go… I promise this will be easy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 1. Sign up for a hosting plan<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    First, we need some space on the internet to put your blog. A hosting company takes care of serving your pages to users. If you’re starting out, I recommend using the budget-friendly yet capable Bluehost<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Having your own hosted space lets you do whatever you want<\/em>. A paid host doesn\u2019t care if you put ads on your blog, or customize it with plugins, or anything like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    It\u2019s kind of like having your own plot of land on the internet. <\/strong>You can build your own house on it. And then you can add more rooms later, or even tear it down and build a bigger more awesome house on top of the original foundation. You can\u2019t do that with just a rental space (like some of those free blogging platforms).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are many different hosting companies, but I like to recommend Bluehost<\/a>, with which I have an affiliate partnership. Bluehost is what I used myself when I started my first blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you use my link to sign up, you get a special offer<\/a> of just $2.95 a month<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During the signup process you can choose a free domain name. Think of a name that isn\u2019t taken yet and that reflects the themes or the travel style you most want to write about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you’re not sure about the name yet, you can skip this step for now and decide later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    In most cases, there\u2019s no need to bother with their premium plans; if you just sign up for their basic plan<\/a>, it\u2019ll be good enough for a brand-new blog. You\u2019ll get 10 GB of storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited email addresses, and so on. If you need more you can always upgrade in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bluehost also gives you your own domain name for free (well, for the first year at least).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 2. Install WordPress<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    All signed up? Great!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now that you have a hosting account, let\u2019s install WordPress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    After signing up at Bluehost you\u2019ll end up in your account\u2019s control panel. Here, simply select \u2018My Sites\u2019 and click \u2018Create Site\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Give your site a name, and in the next step, select your domain name. You can just leave the field where it says Directory empty. Then press \u201cinstall\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The set-up might take about 5 minutes \u2014 time to make yourself a cup of tea or tell a good travel story to your cat. Come back to your computer and WordPress should be all set up now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Step 3. Sign in to your blog!<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Okay, there isn\u2019t really a step 3<\/strong>. You\u2019re basically finished now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The technical side of starting a travel blog really isn\u2019t so complicated. There are just a few tweaks you might want to make at this point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Go to www.yourdomainnamehere<\/strong>.com\/wp-admin\/<\/em> and lo and behold, your WordPress admin awaits you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Go to Appearance > Themes<\/em> if you want to change the visual look of your blog. There are lots of nice free themes to choose from. Don\u2019t worry, you can still easily change this later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You might also want to go to Settings > General<\/em> and change the name and the tagline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Another small thing I recommend is going to Settings > Permalink<\/em> and selecting the option \u201cPost name\u201d if it isn\u2019t already. This ensures the internet addresses for your posts will look nice and clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ta-da, your travel blog is now ready!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Later, you\u2019ll probably want to add an About and Contact page, or enhance your WordPress install with some extra plugins. But those are later steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Rest assured, by having a self-hosted WordPress installation, your blog is now future-proof and can be expanded and even monetized in the future. And you’ll be totally in control of your own site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Want to give your travel blog a flying start? <\/em><\/strong>Then check out my video with the 3 most important beginner tips:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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