How To Start a Travel Blog: The Complete Tutorial (2023)

Some start a travel blog website because they’re retired and wish to make the most out of their golden years. Others have a serious case of wanderlust — compelling them to develop plans that’ll make travel a sustainable lifestyle for them.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that you really want to travel.

If, however, you’re only in it for the money, then travel blogging definitely isn’t for you.

Unlike other niches like marketing, food, and fashion, travel blogging requires commitment. How else will you provide readers with quality, travel-related content if you hate the outdoors?

Being passionate about travel will breed high-quality, engaging posts that will build a loyal readership. If you’re not thrilled with the thought of travel, then you can’t be in this niche. Click to Tweet

Put simply, you must be genuinely in love with travel in order to grow and prosper in this sphere.

Benefits of being a travel blogger

Other than being a passionate traveler, here are a few more reasons why you should become a travel blogger:

Immerse yourself in different cultures — Traveling to other countries is the way to truly appreciate what the world has to offer. It’s totally incomparable to just reading about foreign cultures in a book, online post, or another person’s Instagram account.
Promoting a cause — A lot of travel bloggers promote volunteerism and responsible tourism. Some of them also travel to raise awareness on issues that affect their destinations.
Meet new people — There’s nothing like traveling abroad to diversify your personal and professional networks. The bigger your network, the more life-enriching opportunities you’ll find — be it with other people or international brands.
Generate income — When I said don’t do it for the money, I’m not saying there aren’t big bucks to be made. In fact, I’ll show you some of the ways to make money travel blogging in this post.
Build your own brand — Regardless of niche, blogging is a surefire way to build your authority. This will open the doors to bigger things, like writing books, becoming a brand ambassador, and being an inspiration.

Feeling motivated yet?

Don’t get too excited — you still have mountains of work ahead of you.

How to Create a Travel Blog: Building Your Site

Creating your travel blog encompasses several steps. This includes coming up with a blog name, registering your domain, and building your first web page.

Step 1: Think of an awesome travel blog name

Before you worry about learning how to start writing a travel blog, you must first give it a suitable name.

This process can be broken down into three steps:

Read How to Discover Travel Blog Name Ideas for a detailed guide.

Here’s a simplified breakdown of the steps you need to take:

Brainstorming possible names with keywords

A great way to discover potential keywords that align with your travel blog’s brand is to write a mission statement.

Simply write up to two sentences that describe your blog’s content, your readers, and how they will benefit. When done, you can wrap it up by writing a short introduction of yourself.

There are no strict rules for this. To give you an idea, take a look at this simple statement from The Blonde Abroad:

Disregarding the blog’s name, you can see that The Blonde Abroad’s mission statement contains a fistful of keywords. Not only did the site mention who the blog is for, it also clearly defines what its content is about.

There are several more ways to obtain additional keywords for the purpose of blog name selection:

Looking for catchy synonyms on Google
Checking Google Autocomplete suggestions
Using a tool like SEMrush to find keyword variations
Using AnswerThePublic to find questions people are asking

For even more keywords, look at the infographic below.

Once you have a decent pool of keywords to work with, try combining them to find something that clicks.

Let’s say you’re interested in the name “Solo Nomad Travels.”

The next step is to check if it’s available as a domain name.

Checking the name’s availability as a domain name

Domain registration and hosting services like NameCheap and GoDaddy can help you with this. Just use the domain feature baked into these sites to validate their availability.

As a bonus, they’ll also provide you with potential domain alternatives.

If the domain you want is available, consider registering it immediately.

Domain registration is, after all, incredibly cheap. As you can see in the screenshot above, NameCheap lets you own the domain name for as little as $8.88 per year.

Here are a few reminders before you buy a travel blog domain name:

If possible, go for the “.com” TLD or domain extension
Keep your domain name short at three words or approximately 12 characters tops
Pick a brandable domain name over keyword-stuffed one

Hosting your travel blog domain

Once you’ve finalized your domain name and registered it accordingly, it’s time to get it hosted.

This should be a fairly straightforward process. All you need to do is look for a reliable hosting service provider and follow the steps they’ll show you.

While budget companies like NameCheap are great for domain registrations, people are having issues with their hosting service.

That’s why budget domain registration services are best paired with a different web host.

The question is, how exactly can you point your domain to your web hosting account?

Don’t worry — it’s not that hard.

Let me walk you through the steps.

Step 2: Pointing your domain name to a different host

First things first, you need to create an account on a reputable hosting service provider.

If we’re talking about reliability, affordability, and ease of use, one of my top recommendations would be SiteGround.

Go ahead and check out their site to see their selection of affordable web hosting solutions.

Let me lay down the reasons why SiteGround is a great hosting service provider.

Great customer support — Your web hosting’s performance is one of the things you have no control over as a blogger. That’s why it’s important to pick a host with great customer support and communicates well, like SiteGround.
Easy website migration — In case you’re moving your domain from or to SiteGround, rest assured that the migration process will be easy-peasy.
Reliable uptime — In web hosting, “uptime” refers to the time when your domain and web assets are online. SiteGround is proven and tested to have an average uptime of 99.99 percent.
SG Optimizer Plugin — The SG Optimizer Plugin is specifically designed to help WordPress users achieve maximum performance. It utilizes a variety of optimization techniques like caching, image optimization, frontend optimization, and more.

Seriously — don’t take my word for it.

I dare you to search the web for SiteGround reviews. Chances are, you’ll get a barrage of reviews with four to five stars.

With all that said, I used SiteGround’s interface to show you how to use different domain registrars and hosting services.

Updating your domain’s name servers using SiteGround’s values

To point your registered domain to a SiteGround hosting account, an easy way is to change your domain’s name servers.

Put simply, name servers are part of a Domain Name System or DNS. A DNS functions like a database that contains a list of devices with attached IP addresses.

Just a fair warning before you begin.

While it only takes minutes to point your domain to your host, it may take days before your changes apply. This is called “DNS propagation.”

To find the correct values for your SiteGround hosting account, head to your cPanel, and look under “Account Information.”

Your account’s name server details should be presented there.

Copy these values or keep this tab open for now. The next step is to plug in your name server values to your domain registrar.

For the sake of this guide, let’s say you registered your domain on GoDaddy.

You can change your domain’s name servers by first heading to the “Domain Manager.”

Just click ‘Manage Domains’ in the “Quick Links” panel of your account.

GoDaddy should take you to your “My Domains” page, which is basically a list of all your registered domains.

Look for the domain that you want to point to SiteGround and click the “Ellipsis” button next to it. From there, click on ‘Manage DNS.’

This should bring up the “Domain Management” page, which has a comprehensive list of your DNS details.

What you need to do is scroll down and look for the “Nameservers” panel.

Click the ‘Change’ button right next to “Use default nameservers.”

At first, GoDaddy will remind you of the risks and disadvantages of connecting your domain to a different site. Read it as you wish, then click ‘Enter my own nameservers (advanced)’ to proceed.

On the next page, simply enter the name server details from your SiteGround hosting account. Click ‘Save’ to finish the job.

Remember that, if you don’t use GoDaddy, then the steps above aren’t applicable to you.

Each domain registrar has different interfaces and navigation systems. If you’re having a hard time looking for your domain’s name server settings, contact your registrar’s customer support.

Furthermore, it may take 24 to 48 hours for the domain propagation period to complete. While you wait, contact your registrar and web host to verify if you properly set up your domain.

On your SiteGround account’s homepage, look for the panel “Transfer Your Domains” and click the link below.

Step 3: Installing WordPress

Now that your domain is hosted and ready, the next step is to install WordPress. It’s a Content Management System or CMS that essentially provides you with a visual interface for website creation.

Here’s the cool part: most web hosting services have adopted WordPress into their ecosystem.

This is mostly due to WordPress’s popularity for bloggers, businesses, and professionals alike.

For instance, SiteGround has an easy WordPress “autoinstaller” that can set up your site in seconds. This tool can be accessed from the control panel under the “Autoinstallers” section.

Take note that the same tool can be launched by clicking ‘WordPress Installer’ under “WordPress Tools.”

From WordPress Installer’s main page, click ‘Install’ to initialize the software setup application.

Be sure to install an updated version of WordPress by selecting the most recent version. To do this, click the drop-down menu next to “Choose the version you want to install.”

The highest number should denote the latest WordPress update.

Under the “Choose Installation URL,” select the domain you want to build your travel blog on. I also recommend using an “https” protocol, which stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.”

This protocol utilizes a Transport Layer Security or TLS to encrypt communications conducted through your website.

The rest of the WordPress setup settings are fairly self-explanatory.

For example, under the “Admin Account” section, you can create your primary admin account. You just need to input details such as your administrator username, password, and email address.

WordPress Installation Admin Account Setup

It’s also worth noting that hosts like SiteGround offer additional installation options. For instance, you may choose to install the Loginizer plugin, which limits invalid login attempts.

This is a great countermeasure to brute force attacks.

These add-ons vary from host to host. Just remember that these plugins are completely optional — you won’t miss out a lot by choosing not to install them.

Once you’re happy with your WordPress installation settings, click ‘Install’ at the bottom of the page.

Congratulations — your WordPress travel blog should now be up and running!

You’re now ready to build your travel blog website.

Best WordPress Themes for Travel Blogs

Installing WordPress is just one of the steps in learning how to start a travel blog website.

You should also learn how to choose a great theme, which plugins to use, how to publish content, and more.

The first item on that list is pretty easy to do.

Step 1: Logging in to your WordPress admin account

After installation, log in to your WordPress dashboard by accessing the installation URL. By default, this is simply your domain plus “wp-admin” attached to the end.

Let’s pretend for a second that you actually bought the domain “SoloNomadTravels.com.”

After registering and hosting your domain, log in to WordPress by typing in the following address:

You can log in to your WordPress account using the admin credentials you created earlier.

Viewing the theme library

WordPress has a built-in theme library with truckloads of free themes to choose from.

To view your options, click ‘Themes’ under the ‘Appearance’ sub-menu.

WordPress comes with pre-installed themes that you can activate in a jiffy. You do, however, need to carefully consider which theme to use on your travel blog.

To add new themes, click ‘Add New.’ This will pull up WordPress’s theme library where you can find and install professional-looking in a snap.

Type in the keyword “travel” or anything related to your blog’s vision to get suitable ideas.

If you’re not in the mood to do your own digging, read 10 Best WordPress Themes for Travel Blogs here.

Step 2: Creating a child theme

Found the perfect travel blog theme?

You probably feel as ready as ever to start making customizations.

Here’s a word of advice: don’t.

Although WordPress allows you to directly edit themes right away, it’s advised that you create a “child theme” first.

Child themes work by inheriting the appearance and basic functions of a theme — also referred to as “parent theme.” They’re created to allow WordPress website owners to make heavy customizations on any theme installed.

You can definitely customize a theme to your liking without creating a child theme. However, you’ll most likely lose all your customizations once you install a theme update.

In other words, child themes separate your customizations from the essential functionalities of the parent theme.

To create a child theme, you need to access your web host’s WordPress theme directory.

Finding your WordPress website’s theme directory

Every web host should have a built-in file manager you can use for this. In GoDaddy’s case, it’s simply called the “cPanel File Manager.”

On the File Manager interface, click on the ‘public_html’ link. You can also find this in the directory tree on the left.

This should open up your website’s designated directory.

Next, click on ‘wp-content’ and open the ‘themes’ folder. You should see a list of folders — each named after one of your currently-installed themes.

Suppose you want to create a child theme for the “Twenty Nineteen” theme.

You’ll need to create a folder for that.

You can add a new folder to the current directory by clicking ‘+ Folder’ on the File Manager’s main toolbar. As for the name, it’s best to use the same name with “-child” added to the end.

In relation to the example above, you can call your child theme’s folder “twentynineteen-child.”

Creating your child theme’s style sheet

After creating your child theme’s folder, open it and create a new text file called “style.css.”

On GoDaddy’s file manager, you can add files to your website’s directory by clicking ‘+ File’ on the main toolbar.

Once the file is created, edit it using the ‘Edit’ button on the toolbar or on the right-click menu.

Since you just created this file, it should be empty once you’ve loaded up the editor.

Copy and paste the code below to continue.

/*
Theme Name: Twenty Nineteen Child
Template: twentynineteen
Theme URI: https://wordpress.org/themes/twentynineteen/
Author: the WordPress team
Author URI: https://wordpress.org/
Description: Our 2019 default theme is designed to show off the power of the block editor. 
Requires at least: WordPress 4.9.6
Version: 1.4
License: GNU General Public License v2 or later
License URI: LICENSE
Text Domain: twentynineteen-child
Tags: one-column, flexible-header, accessibility-ready, custom-colors, custom-menu, custom-logo, editor-style, featured-images, footer-widgets, rtl-language-support, sticky-post, threaded-comments, translation-ready
*/

Curious how I came up with the code?

To be perfectly clear, only two lines of that code are actually necessary for your child theme to work. I’m talking about the “Theme Name” and “Template” lines.

Important parts of a child theme style.css file

You just need to modify the “Theme Name” and “Template” lines to match your theme’s name.

If you’re bothered by it, you can simply copy information from the parent theme’s style sheet. You can find the appropriate file in the parent theme’s directory.

Some of the information you can copy into your child theme’s style sheet are:

Author
Theme URI
Author URI
Description
Version
License
Text Domain
Tags

Don’t worry about the rest of the code. WordPress should already know how the theme looks just with the theme’s name and template.

The file should now function as the child theme’s style sheet, which tells WordPress what the theme should look like.

Creating ‘functions.php’

Already saved your child theme’s “style.css” file?

Nice — that’s one out of two.

There’s one more file you need to create in your child theme’s library. This time, call it “functions.php.”

Wondering what code to copy and paste into this new file?

Here you go:

<?php
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts',
'enqueue_parent_styles' );

function enqueue_parent_styles() {
	wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', 
get_template_directory_uri().'/style.css' );
}
?>

Save the file to finish this step. Your child theme should now be ready and waiting for you in your WordPress theme library.

Just head back to ‘Themes’ under the ‘Appearance’ sub-menu. You should find it right next to the parent theme.

With your child theme highlighted, click ‘Activate’ to make sure it works. If it doesn’t, review the steps above and check if you used the right codes.

Best WordPress Plugins for Travel Blogs

A theme creates a skeleton for your WordPress website.

It becomes the foundation wherein building blocks, like your content and various site elements, can be piled up.

Since content creation takes substantially more preparations, let’s focus first on WordPress plugins.

How to install WordPress plugins

Installing plugins on your WordPress website is as easy as installing themes.

From your WordPress dashboard, expand the ‘Plugins’ sub-menu and click ‘Add New.’

To look for plugins that may prove useful to travel blogs, enter a related keyword on the search field.

A keyword like “travel” can give you a few ideas.

The must-have plugins for WordPress travel blogs

Here is a quick roundup of the top travel blog plugins I’d recommend.

Tip: you can learn more about these plugins by visiting this post[MOU3] .

Divi — A page builder that will give you full control over your website’s appearance. Its features include a drag-and-drop builder, ready-to-use layouts, advanced animations, and pre-built website elements.
Bloom — Bloom lets you create eye-catching opt-in forms that can appear as pop-ups, fly-ins, widgets, and content gates. The best part is, both Bloom and Divi come for free with an Elegant Themes membership.
Genesis Author Pro — If you use a Genesis child theme, Genesis Author Pro is an aesthetic and easy way to showcase your books. You can include details like the book’s price, editions, publishing date, ISBN, and so on.
Geo Mashup — Some travel bloggers allow their audience to browse their content using a visual, interactive map. Geo Mashup lets you pin clickable markers on maps from services like Google Maps, which take readers to specific posts.
Travelers’ Map — Travelers’ Map is a lightweight alternative to Geo Mashup. Its main advantage is more flexibility, allowing you to change the appearance of your map using OpenStreetMap tiles.
Photo Gallery by 10Web — Photo Gallery by 10Web lets you create beautiful image galleries for your travel photos with ease. It features several transition effects, different layouts, gallery grouping, Instagram integration, and eCommerce support.
Social Snap — This is my go-to plugin for leveraging the power of social media. It lets you add sharing buttons anywhere, build a floating sidebar, integrate over 30 social networks, and more.
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed — You can showcase your Instagram photos on your travel blog using Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed. It pulls posts from your Instagram account in real-time, allowing readers to view your posts as you upload them.
Smush — While photos are essential to any travel blog, they can have a negative impact on your site’s performance. The Smush plugin prevents this by compressing the file size of your images with the option to preserve quality.
WP Rocket — WP Rocket is another plugin designed to help maximize your website’s performance. Its main features include GZIP compression, browser caching, sitemap preloading, and lazy loading.
The Events Calendar — Planning to host events with your travel blog audience? The Events Calendar can help you using an interactive calendar — complete with a custom widget and Google Maps integration.
LinkWhisper — It’s recommended to build a solid internal link structure to improve your SEO and boost the discoverability of older posts. LinkWhisper can help you do this by looking for internal linking opportunities, such as unlinked related posts and “orphaned” content.

Building Your Travel Blog’s Content Strategy

Alright — you’re done with all the necessary preparations.

You have your unique domain ready and WordPress ecosystem going.

What comes next is perhaps the most important part of being a travel blogger — creating a content strategy.

Keyword research for travel blogs

When creating content for a travel blog, keyword research is the first order of business.

Keyword research makes sure you create posts that people actually want to read. More importantly, it can help you determine which content ideas can give you traffic.

You’ll understand why as you learn more about keyword research.

Using the Keyword Magic Tool

Let me get one thing straight.

It’s nigh impossible to conduct data-driven keyword research without a capable tool.

Sure, you can technically acquire potential keyword ideas with just Google. You just need to enter any relevant term and look at the Autocomplete suggestions.

Let’s give it a go with the search term “destinations in Asia.”

So, do people actually search for those keywords on Google?

You bet you can.

Can you effectively leverage those keywords to bring traffic to your travel blog?

Only a keyword research tool can answer that.

As far as this goes, my personal tool of choice for keyword research is SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.

It can be accessed from the ‘Keyword Analytics’ section of the SEMrush dashboard.

Keyword Magic Tool works by identifying keyword ideas while pulling up valuable keyword metrics. This includes each keyword’s monthly search volume, average Cost-Per-Click, and keyword difficulty rating.

Here are the suggestions you’ll obtain using “destinations in Asia” as your seed keyword:

Keyword Magic Tool Destinations in Asia Suggestions

Pretty interesting, right?

When picking a keyword for your content strategy, remember to look at the following metrics to gauge their viability:

Volume — This metric measures the average monthly number of users who search for this keyword. Personally, I prefer to target keywords with a volume of at least 100.
KD — Short for Keyword Difficulty, the KD metric gives you an idea of how competitive a keyword is. A KD of 60 to 80 means medium difficulty, which is good for new bloggers.
CPC — The metric CPC or cost-per-click reflects the average amount advertisers are willing to bid for a keyword. It can help you determine the monetization potential of any given keyword.

Keywords with higher CPC are often more competitive since brands typically care more about monetization. However, long-tail keywords can provide new bloggers with more traffic and better chances at ranking.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that contain at least three terms.

The longer they are, the less competitive they get.

Long-tail keywords also pertain to a more specific topic and target a narrower audience. That makes them perfect to be used as content ideas for your travel blog.

For example, the keyword “honeymoon destinations in Asia” is as clear-cut as you can get.

If I’m calling the shots, I’ll write a simple listicle that highlights the pros and cons of each destination. While I’m at it, I will also share some tips for travelers who wish to visit those locations.

Not finding keywords with decent traffic and reasonable keyword difficulty ratings?

Here’s a tip: don’t think too much about their average monthly traffic.

It’s okay if the keywords you find only have 100 or so monthly searches.

Remember, the goal is to target multiple related keywords in one post. If you target five low-competition keywords with 100 monthly searches each, then your content’s traffic potential is 500.

For more information on long-tail keywords, check out this guide.

Getting more content ideas with AnswerThePublic

In my own content strategy, I use a mix of keyword research tools — each with specific purposes.

The Keyword Magic Tool, for example, is my favorite for acquiring valuable keyword metrics. But content idea generation, I usually get more promising results with AnswerThePublic.

Here’s how it works.

Just like any other keyword research tool, you enter any seed keyword into the search bar.

Let’s try “honeymoon destinations” to see what the tool can do.

Upon clicking ‘Search,’ AnswerThePublic will compile a list of questions that people ask around that keyword.

The tool does this by rendering a visualization with branches for question words, like what, how, and which.

AnswerThePublic Questions Visualizations

As you can see, these questions can be refined into interesting travel blog post ideas.

Some examples are:

Which honeymoon destinations are best in India
What are great honeymoon destinations
Which honeymoon destinations are the cheapest

Other than questions, AnswerThePublic also provides phrases based on prepositions and comparisons.

Just below the first visualization, you’ll find additional ones sprinkled with more ideas.

You can switch to the “Data” mode for a more organized view of these ideas. Simply click on the ‘Data’ tab on top of the results.

Based on the results above, here are more ideas you can turn into travel blog post topics:

Honeymoon destinations you can drive to
Honeymoon destinations to visit in May
Honeymoon destinations near Bangalore
Honeymoon destinations with a baby
Honeymoon destinations with private pool

Rest assured that these ideas came from Google searches.

Users are looking for them, meaning you can write about them in your blog to capture people’s attention.

You do, however, need to run these keywords on a tool like Keyword Magic Tool. Doing so will provide you with additional data that can help you make informed decisions for your content strategy.

Take a look at metrics like average monthly volume and keyword difficulty. That’s the way to maximize the value you can get from your content creation efforts.

When you find keywords, collect them into a spreadsheet along with important metrics. You’ll need them later once you start writing your content.

Looking at your competitors for keywords

Let’s face it: keyword research can be time-consuming.

Sometimes, it’s tough to find keywords with good traffic and a suitable keyword difficulty range. You also need to think of what type of content to use when utilizing keywords in your blog.

For all those reasons, I always recommend doing competitor keyword research.

Trust me — if there’s someone who cracked the code to the keyword research puzzle, it’s your top competitor.

You should have an idea of who they are before you even decided to start your travel blog. If not, take a gander of this list of the top 52 travel bloggers on the web.

You can also quickly identify your competitors with — surprise, surprise — Google.

Just enter any of the keywords you’ve collected earlier plus the keyword “travel blog.” Google’s first page should now contain your top competitors.

When you find a potential competitor, fire up SEMrush or anything similar and run a domain analysis.

You simply have to paste their domain address and click ‘Search.’ The tool should do the rest.

Let’s pretend for a minute that While I’m Young is your top competitor.

After entering their domain address into SEMrush, the tool will generate a data-packed domain overview report.

It should look something like this:

To take a peek at your competitor’s keywords, scroll down to the “Organic Research” section.

Their top keywords, along with their keyword rankings, should be presented to you on a silver platter.

SEMrush Domain Overview Organic Research

Clicking ‘View details’ will give you a deeper look at your competitors’ keywords.

Under the ‘Positions’ tab, you’ll see the full list of your competitor’s keywords and their metrics.

There you go — a fresh batch of potential keywords for your content strategy.

The good news is, you’re free to repeat the same strategy over and over again for every competitor you find.

That translates to heaps and heaps of proven target keywords that can bring quality traffic to your travel blog.

Long story short, you’re reaping the benefits of the keyword research that your competitors did.

How crafty is that?

Apparently, there are more ways to take advantage of the research your competitors have done.

Other things to look for in your competitor’s website

Apart from keywords, you can also harvest more ideas for your content strategy from your competitor’s blog.

By this, I mean looking at certain aspects of their content and adopting them into your content strategy:

Content types — What kind of visual content does your top competitor use? If you want to outperform them, be prepared to utilize the same content types — be it videos, infographics, or slideshows.
Internal links — Give your competitor’s content a thorough read and you should find a couple of internal links to their own posts. This will help you unearth even more topic ideas you can cover in your travel blog.
Content length — There’s more than enough evidence that proves the positive effects of high word counts on SEO. Just remember that adding fluff is not the way to bolster your blog content’s average length.
Link sources — Using SEMrush or anything similar, you can also find other sites that link to your competitor’s posts. This is important if you want to employ link building strategies like the Skyscraper Technique.
Essential pages — How did your competitor create their “about,” “work with me,” and “contact” pages? Are there any other useful pages and resources you can replicate in your blog?

I’m pretty sure there are more things in your competitor’s site you can use as inspiration for your travel blog. It all depends on what you find appealing and your specific objectives at this very moment.

For example, what colors pop in your competitor’s blog? Do you like their blog post layouts, font choices, and navigation?

I’m not encouraging you to blatantly copy every single facet of your competitor’s blogging strategy.

All I’m saying is, beginners sometimes need to see how things are done in order to hatch original ideas themselves.

How to use keywords in your content

Now that you have a list of keywords in hand and some content ideas, let’s piece them together.

The first rule is to make sure your target keywords appear in the right places.

Here are the specific content elements where you should put your target keywords at least once:

Page or post title — Your blog post’s title is one of the elements that absolutely need your target keyword. It’s also the first thing your readers will see upon discovering your blog, so pay close attention when creating it.
Main headline — After users click on your post’s title, the next thing they’ll look at is the post’s main headline. Seeing a matching, keyword-optimized headline reassures them that they found the content they wanted.
Subheadings — Keywords in subheadings are also shown to improve keyword rankings. Not only that, they’ll also make your content more skimmable and readable to readers.
Main body — The main body text is where every primary and secondary keywords should appear. Several authoritative SEO brands like Yoast recommend putting them right in the introduction.
Images — To optimize images for SEO, give them keyword-optimized filenames, alt text tags, and surrounding text. This will help make your website more discoverable to people who use image search.
Link anchor texts — It doesn’t matter if you’re optimizing an internal link or a backlink from an external source. Using a keyword-optimized anchor text will help search engines understand what your post is about.
Permalink — The permalink is the URL that readers can use to access your content. You can edit this straight from WordPress’s post editor to contain your focus keyword.
Meta description — While the meta description doesn’t directly affect keyword rankings, it can increase organic click-throughs to your content. I currently use the Rank Math plugin to optimize meta descriptions here in Master Blogging.

I know — it can be tiresome to consciously think about these content components when writing blog posts. But I assure you that it becomes second nature when you’re working on your third or fourth post.

It’s all about being consistent with these keyword optimization practices.

Once you nail keyword placements, keep in mind that there are other on-page SEO strategies to remember. You can read the full guide on on-page SEO techniques right here.

How to create killer travel blog content

Just a heads up in case you’re still looking for good content ideas for your travel blog.

I compiled a grand total of 138 post title ideas for your brand-new travel blog.

Feel free to use that list to fuel your travel blog content strategy. Just remember to tweak the titles a little so you won’t have the same posts as everyone else!

Now — going back to your travel blog content creation.

It takes a lot more than just a good content idea to make the cut.

Let me break down the essential content guidelines that I abide by myself.

Create user-oriented posts

The best articles are the ones that address the readers’ pain points.

It’s true that some travel bloggers thrive by sharing posts about their personal travel experiences. But at the end of the day, they still provide value by helping readers decide which destinations are worth visiting. Click to Tweet

Think of the objectives that your audience will accomplish after they read your travel-related post. Combine these objectives with your target keywords to come up with valuable post ideas like:

Packing tips for a specific type of trip
Things to do when visiting a certain destination
How to stay safe when doing a specific outdoor activity

Use a task management app

If you really know me, you should know that I’m a big fan of productivity tools.

An important piece of my everyday writing ritual is Trello — a task management application with a lot of uses.

I use Trello to consolidate all my content plans and ideas.

There are separate lists for general reminders, topic ideas, ongoing tasks, completed tasks, and so on.

Here’s a glimpse of how busy my blogging life really is:

Trello also has a handful of useful tricks up its sleeve.

With checklists, I can track my target keywords for a specific post. I can also create deadlines to help me stay right on schedule.

Want more tips on staying productive? Read 23 Productivity Tips for Bloggers.

Take a lot of high-quality photos

In a travel blog, words can help describe the details of a story.

Photos, however, bring that story to life.

If you’re clueless on travel photography, I suggest taking up online classes. You may also bank on free YouTube tutorials on smartphone photography, which is a practical approach for beginners.

Just search “how to take travel photos smartphone” and you’ll find a long list of free tutorials.

YouTube How to Take Travel Photos with a Smartphone

To show off your travel photos, you can insert them in your articles or use a gallery plugin. You can also refer to your competitors’ posts for ideas on how to incorporate photos in your blog.

Create custom blog banners

To become an authoritative figure in any niche, a rule of thumb is to never use generic stock photos.

Use a tool like Canva to create custom blog banners to make your travel blog posts more eye-catching.

Canva is a user-friendly, drag-and-drop image editing tool with a bunch of time-saving features. For one, it has pre-made blog banner templates you can customize with text, visual elements, and image filters.

You can also use Canva to customize the travel photos you’ll upload on social media, including Pinterest and Instagram. Just be sure to use the ideal format for the specific site by selecting the suggested design dimensions.

Use automated proofreading tools

As a travel blogger, you don’t need flawless grammar and spelling to make great content.

I say that for two reasons.

First, a lot of travel bloggers use a conversational writing tone to give their content a unique flavor. This makes their travel stories more genuine, impactful, and entertaining to read.

Second, you can always rely on proofreading tools to iron out the basic grammar and spelling mistakes you’ll make.

I’ve seen a lot of tools that do a good enough job through the years. But since I’m not one who’ll settle for “good enough,” I reviewed the absolute top 4 proofreading tools right here.

My top pick would be Grammarly, which is the one I still use to this day.

What won me over to Grammarly is its speed, user interface, and customizable proofreading goals.

It lets you tailor the tool’s proofreading algorithms to suit your travel blogging style. It doesn’t matter if you wish to create humorous posts with colloquial language or strictly professional articles.

As for its actual reliability and accuracy, I think Grammarly is definitely capable of helping you create 100% polished posts.

Just bear in mind that you’re not obliged to approve all of its correction suggestions, especially those unrelated to correctness. Use your own discretion when approving suggested changes in your post to retain your personal blogging voice.

Build a resources page

Want to make it easier for readers to find your travel blog’s essential content?

Here’s a four-word piece of advice: build a resources page.

Think of it as the starting point of every new visitor who stumbles upon your page. Ask yourself, what are must-read articles that will familiarize guests with your brand?

After listing these articles down, create a page with all the necessary links. Here’s an example from Nomadic Matt:

What makes resource pages useful are the internal links that take readers to useful content.

Speaking of which, now might be a good time to plan your travel blog’s internal link structure.

Build a solid internal link structure for your travel blog

Links are internal if they point to content within the same site.

Creating resource pages with links to your own content is an example of internal linking. In addition to helping readers find the information they need, internal links are also crucial to on-page SEO.

Below are some ground rules on how to effectively create internal links in your travel blog:

Always set internal links to open in a new tab
Don’t put internal links to unrelated posts
Make sure every post is accessible within three clicks — not just with internal links, but with menus as well
Don’t put internal links on images
Avoid using too many internal links, especially ones that are too close together

To create internal links in your travel blog, start by planning the categorization of your content.

Most travel blogs create different categories for specific aspects of traveling. This includes travel equipment, destinations, packing, and budgeting.

Building internal links between posts under the same category is a surefire strategy. However, see to it that they’re created contextually — meaning they should not distract readers from the current topic.

Let me give you a real-life example right now.

For the nitty-gritty of internal linking, read this guide.

Promoting Your Travel Blog Posts

Successful travel bloggers who make thousands of dollars are expert marketers — make no mistake about it. You can’t just upload high-quality travel blog content and call it a day.

To learn how to become a travel blogger, you should also learn how to promote posts like one.

And to do that, you need to be familiar with a professional travel blogger’s go-to content promotion channels.

Build an Instagram page

For some bloggers like Melissa Hie of Girl Eat World, Instagram is one of the cornerstones for success.

Instagram is a fun and easy way to turn your travel experiences into shareable stories that people will love. You just need a modern smartphone, a destination, and the patience to diligently upload photos to your feed.

Instagram is great for travel bloggers because it basically lets you tell travel stories through your photos.

A strong caption for each image will definitely go a long way, though. So, think of something creative and use branded hashtags whenever you can.

Another advantage of using Instagram is that your followers also get to see your uploads in real time. This creates the feeling that you’re taking them along in your journey, especially if you regularly share Instagram “Stories.”

Instagram tips for travel bloggers

Create a business account for features like analytics and ads
Formulate a recognizable, travel-related hashtag for your brand
Pick a color palette or filter configuration to make your Instagram page look cohesive
Link to your travel blog in your Instagram bio

Create a YouTube channel

The biggest travel blogs use video content to maximize the engagement of their audience.

It shouldn’t be hard to see why.

When it comes to telling stories, nothing beats videos since your audience can both see and hear what’s happening.

Videos also give you the opportunity to introduce how you act in public and who you are as a person. And if you share your videos through YouTube, you can leverage the platform’s potential for brand building, traffic, and monetization.

California Through My Lens is an example of a travel blog that heavily relies on YouTube to build authority.

YouTube tips for travel bloggers

Upload everything on YouTube and embed videos in your blog
Learn about YouTube SEO with tutorials from other travel blogs like The Endless Adventure
Engage your viewers in the comments
Leave your website and other contact information on your YouTube channel page
Always promote your YouTube videos on other channels as you upload them

Promote more visuals through Pinterest

Pinterest is another image-sharing social network with tools tailored to the marketing needs of brands.

With a “Business” account, you can leverage features like real-time analytics, domain integration, and bulk pin creation.

Check out this Pinterest business page by The Blonde Abroad to see what your account can look like:

Pinterest tips for travel bloggers

Whatever you do, don’t forget to use a Pinterest business account for your travel blog
Customize your photos with a tool like Canva to add CTAs, links, and other text overlays
Link your travel blog to your Pinterest business account
Read my Pinterest traffic guide for more tips.

Build your travel blog’s community on Facebook

While the social networks above are great for sharing content, Facebook is perfect for community building.

Facebook lets you join groups, jump into conversations, and react to other people’s posts with your brand front and center. It can also serve as the central hub for your content distribution efforts — be it through videos or blog posts.

As a Facebook page owner, you can also use advanced features like “Mentorship” to build a great community. I personally use this feature on the private Master Blogging community — check it out and consider joining!

For ideas and inspiration, take a look at the Facebook page of A Dangerous Business travel blog:

Facebook A Dangerous Business Travel Blog Page

Facebook tips for travel bloggers

Join Facebook groups to connect with a wider audience and potential influencers
Create and promote CTA buttons on your Facebook page
Set up Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs to provide quick information
Create automated responses for people who contact you through Facebook Messenger
Don’t ignore comments and direct messages — Facebook isn’t the place for that

Join travel-related subreddits

Reddit is a popular network that isn’t often discussed in blogging guides and tutorials.

The main reason is that Reddit users are typically tech-savvy and can easily tell if you’re being spammy.

However, it’s still an excellent platform for raising brand awareness and forming valuable connections that can grow your travel blog. You just need to live by a few golden rules if you want positive recognition from the community.

One of these rules is to avoid mentioning your travel blog unless it naturally fits the conversation. It’s also important to join the right subreddits where your travel blog content can be appreciated.

r/SoloTravel is an example of a travel-related subreddit you can join and share travel posts on.

Reddit tips for travel bloggers

Never be overly promotional — Reddit users have a keen sense for spam
Only post travel-related content on travel-related subreddits
Prioritize adding value to conversations even if you don’t have to mention your blog
Let Reddit users naturally become interested in your blog by answering questions and providing insightful advice

Answer travel-related questions on Quora

If there’s one place you’ll find people who need your expertise, it’s a Q&A website like Quora.

Loyal Master Blogging readers will know that I already wrote a post dedicated to Quora marketing. There, I unveiled a step-by-step strategy that will help you turn questions into high-quality blog traffic.

The plan here is simple: look for relevant questions, offer solutions, and mention your blog if necessary.

Quora’s user interface should be simple enough for you to figure out how to look for questions to start with. Just enter a keyword and wait for suggestions to pop up.

If there are no suggestions right off the bat, select ‘Search: your keyword’ for a list of posted questions.

Quora tips for travel bloggers

Build a detailed bio with links to your travel blog
Create a Quora topic using your travel blog name
When answering questions, provide a lot of valuable paragraphs and slide in the link naturally
Turn questions into content ideas
Due to the number of marketers on Quora, consider using paid ads to cut through the content noise

Build an email list

As a professional blogger, you absolutely can’t forego email marketing.

Building an email list is a great way to collect and nurture potential leads. Additionally, it’ll give you a steady source of quality traffic if you do lead segmentation and content promotions right.

To create an email list, you’ll need an email marketing platform.

Popular platforms like ActiveCampaign allow you to automate emails, manage your lists, create subscription forms, and more. In simpler terms, they provide everything you need to have an email marketing campaign up and running.

For more information on ActiveCampaign along with possible alternatives, read 11 Best Email Marketing Services for Bloggers.

Email marketing tips for travel bloggers

Automate a welcome email with links to your travel blog’s top content
If you sell products, automate birthday emails that offer special discounts
To generate more subscribers, try offering an opt-in bribe like a free eBook, template, or Lightroom presets
Never use your audience’s emails to send spam
Try to use plain text emails more often since they’re proven to generate more click-throughs
If you’re sending newsletters, try to keep the word count low and include links to useful resources instead

Use Google Analytics to integrate data into your decision-making process

If you purchased a SEMrush for keyword and content research, you already have a capable analytics tool for your blog.

If not, use Google Analytics to track important website data.

Google Analytics is a free service that will equip you with tools to stay on top of your blog’s performance. It can track your traffic, bounce rate, top traffic sources, session duration, conversions, and more.

The platform can also give you a closer look at your blog audience. In the ‘Audience’ section, you can learn things like their estimated lifetime value, preferred browsing device, demographics, and interests.

For steps on how to use Google Analytics on your blog, visit this guide. I also shared a bunch of tips that will help you turn numbers into actionable plans.

Google Analytics tips for travel bloggers

Identify your top traffic sources so you can funnel all your content promotions there
Set goals to track your conversions
Find the pages that lose your audience’s interest and try to patch up their problems
Learn how to use industry benchmarks to see how your blog fares against competitors

The strategies above make up the best content promotion strategies for travel bloggers. If you’d like to try something else, refer to this list of 17 blog promotion tactics.

How to Make Money as a Travel Blogger

A lot of aspiring travel bloggers are probably looking forward to this section.

That’s completely understandable.

If you truly enjoy travel, you’ll do whatever it takes to make it a sustainable lifestyle.

There are multiple ways to make it happen.

Making money with advertisements

The easiest way to make money off of a travel blog is to show ads.

True, it may not be the most lucrative monetization strategy. Being irresponsible with ad placements can also hurt the user experience on your site.

But if you do things right, ads can provide you with enough funds to keep your blog running.

There are two ways to make money with ads on your travel blog:

Partnering with an ad network

An easy way to start making money with ads is through an ad network like Google AdSense.

The main advantage of joining an ad network are the instant connections with potential advertisers. You just need to worry about creating an account and designating ad spaces on your blog.

Networks like AdSense will do most of the work from there — supplying ads that match your content.

Selling advertising spaces directly

You can make more money with advertisements by selling ad spaces directly to other companies.

There are a few differences between this strategy and working with an advertising network.

For one, you control which brands get to advertise on your travel blog. You’re also in charge of the appearance and formats of your banner advertising spaces.

It sounds like a lot of work. But with a plugin like Advanced Ads, you can set up these ad spaces with ease.

How can you promote your advertising spaces to brands?

It’s as simple as writing an “advertise with us” or “work with us” page and mentioning your offer.

Here’s an example from Getting On Travel:

Promoting affiliate products to your readers

Full disclosure: affiliate marketing is my go-to monetization strategy for my own blog.

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing lets bloggers earn commissions by promoting another company’s products or services.

I can probably write a complete listicle that discusses everything I love about affiliate marketing. But to keep this post short, I’ll just highlight the best benefits of being an affiliate marketer.

Work with companies you love — Affiliate marketing is the best way to promote products that you’d personally vouch for. If you truly care about your readers, you’d help them acquire the tools to accomplish their goals.
Generate decent passive income — There are affiliate marketing programs for travel bloggers that offer up to 80 percent commissions. This income is passive, which means you can make money from your affiliate marketing content as long as it’s live.
Earn based on your performance — There’s a science to running affiliate marketing campaigns. You’ll be handsomely rewarded if you can zero in on factors that affect conversions and click-throughs.
Get free incentives — Apart from the commissions, being a profitable affiliate marketer in the travel niche has a few other perks. An example would be the free trips, cash bonuses, and other incentives for performing at a certain level.
Free marketing materials — Most affiliate marketing programs provide their members with free marketing materials for promotional purposes. There’s no need to spend time and money creating those materials yourself.
Low barrier to entry, high ceiling — Believe it or not, even the biggest affiliate marketing networks don’t charge their members a single cent. Other than that, you can join as many affiliate programs as you can manage to multiply your profits.
Connect with established brands in the travel industry — Being affiliated with well-known companies is good for your personal brand. Not only that, but you can also connect with like-minded people who joined the same affiliate programs.
Promote products without being too salesy — Affiliate marketing lets you hit the sweet spot between your content’s profitability and reader experience factor. Just write a product review, comparison post, or product listicle and your affiliate link should fit right in.

To get started in the affiliate marketing industry, look for programs that pique your interest in this list.

Selling digital products

If you want to make a name in the travel industry, you won’t settle with just selling another company’s products.

You need to put your thinking cap on, develop an idea, and build something to plaster your name on.

Creating digital products, be it an eBook or online course, is a great entry point for new bloggers.

eBooks, in particular, won’t cost a fortune to make. As for online courses, there are platforms like Teachable that will help you develop eLearning products from the ground up.

Selling your travel photos

Being a travel blogger obliges you to, at least, make an effort to improve your photography skills.

It’s not something every travel blogger does. But if you can consistently take professional-quality photographs, you can make money by selling them on your website.

Jonathan Look Jr. of Life Part 2 does this by allowing users to purchase photos straight from their blog.

Writing sponsored posts

Travel bloggers can also make a good sum of money by publishing sponsored posts on their blog.

This is a monetization opportunity that isn’t limited to the travel niche.

The premise is simple: you get paid for publishing content that puts another brand on a positive light. It doesn’t matter who creates the sponsored content to be published.

Some travel bloggers refuse to publish sponsored posts because they think it makes their blog disingenuous. Others, however, are more open to the idea as long as they stick to a few rules:

Mention that a post is sponsored upfront
Write the sponsored post yourself so it stays on-brand
Be honest and use real opinions — mention this to the brand sponsoring you

Getting paid to travel through press trips

Press trips allow travel bloggers to make money doing what they love.

In this arrangement, a company plans and pays for a trip to a specific location. In exchange, the travel blogger agrees to provide them with exposure, featured content, or both.

You can say that a press trip is somewhat similar to publishing a sponsored post. The main difference is, press trips actually require you to travel to the destination you’re writing about.

Sponsored posts may also cover products, services, and people — not just travel destinations.

There are two ways to get opportunities to do press trips with organizations.

If you’re already a big-shot travel blogger, watch out for proposals in your email inbox. Otherwise, your best hope is to pitch press trip proposals to organizations yourself.

Granted, cold emailing may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, there is no moving forward in the blogging industry if you don’t step out of your comfort zone. Click to Tweet

What you should remember is to put the growth of your travel blog first before cold pitches for press trips. Building an authoritative brand in the travel niche will make you more attractive to prospects, anyway.

Running social media promotion campaigns

For travel bloggers who manage to build a sizeable blog readership, establishing a social media presence should be relatively easy.

That puts you on the radar of organizations that need a hand in the tricky world of social media marketing.

Just like sponsored posts and press trips, social media promotion campaigns can start with either you or a prospective brand. When a deal is struck it usually ends with you receiving payment for certain deliverables on social media.

As for the deliverables, it can be any form of social media content promotion over a specific period of time. It could be anything from a single Instagram post to a social media takeover.

The bigger your name is on social media, the more you can charge for social media collaborations.

Taking on brand ambassadorships

You may offer both sponsored posts and managed social media campaigns as individual packages.

But what if your prospect wants to do a little bit of both?

As a brand ambassador, you can offer them regular promotions through your blog, social media, and other content distribution channels. In turn, you’ll make more money than you would if you accept sponsored post and social media campaign proposals separately.

To get the attention of brands, I advise putting together a blogging media kit. You can then mention your willingness to accept brand ambassadorships on your blog.

This is how Yulia of Miss Tourist does it:

Organizing tours and events

If travel planning is your passion, you can turn it into a money-making machine by organizing travel events.

This can be done with or without the collaboration of a local tour company.

For the DIY route, a feasible idea is to organize planned tours of your local area. That’s given you’re already settled in a region or country with well-known travel spots.

There are, of course, travel blogs that take this idea to a whole new level.

The Adventurists, for example, organize wacky outdoor activities on an international scale. For one, they host “The Mongol Rally” where participants traverse 10,000 miles of rough road in a car or bike.

It’s not exactly a monetization strategy you can plan and roll out over the weekend. But if you can grasp the logistics and execution of such events, it’ll put your travel blog on the map.

Offering content writing services

There is a clear line between publishing sponsored posts and being a content contributor for hire.

With sponsored posts, you agree to publish content you may or may have written on your own blog. As a content writer for hire, you offer your skills to produce content for another website.

Your travel blog has all you need to prove that your content writing skills are up to par. All that’s left to do is offer your content writing services in your “work with me” page.

You may also choose the type of brands you want to contribute content to. It can be an online magazine, another travel blog, a destination, and so on.

Naturally, the way you present this service is entirely up to you. It can be mentioned in a bulleted list or highlighted with a simple visual, like what A Broken Backpack does.

Attending public speaking engagements

Speaking at your first event is indeed one of the most memorable milestones in the blogging career path.

I’ve been to a few speaking engagements myself. And from my experience, being on stage for the very first time changes you.

It reminds you that, as a blogger, you are given the privilege to inspire other doers.

Remember, most if not all people who attend these events have big ideas themselves. A speaker encourages them to take action and bring about positive change to the world.

Such instances are where a successful blogger can truly find fulfillment.

If you’re interested in speaking gigs, I recommend signing up for a service like Agent.

Of course, you should also mention that you’re willing to take on public speaking engagements on your blog.

Offering consultancy services

Finally, a handful of accomplished travel bloggers offer to share experienced-based, expert insights to companies for a price.

Being a consultant in the travel industry encompasses a range of project types. This includes product development for tour companies, staff training for destinations, marketing for online travel sites, and so on.

Uncornered Market is one of the few travel blogs that can offer consultancy services for a range of areas.

Conclusion

Congratulations — you now know all about how to be a travel blogger and make money along the way.

My last piece of advice for you is to go and get started today.

Head on to a website like Bluehost, host your blog, and claim your success. Your blogging career can’t go anywhere if you don’t take the first step!

If you have questions, try searching for them in my blog. I probably already wrote a full-length guide about them.

Good luck — I’m rooting for you!

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Article by

Ankit Singla

Ankit Singla is a full-time blogger, YouTuber, author, and public speaker. He is the founder, writer, and content strategist behind Master Blogging. With over 12 years of blogging experience, he helped countless aspiring bloggers achieve their dream of building a profitable blog. Get to know him better on his about page or watch his video content on YouTube.

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Why Become a Travel Blogger?