How to start a travel blog and get paid to see the world

The bloggers behind seven popular travel blogs share their personal insights and tips on how to start a travel blog.

Their stories and experiences showcase the path you can follow in order to become a successful travel blogger too. I hope their words inspire you. The post is long and full of practical advice so let’s get started.

How to start a travel blog today

When asked about their biggest mistakes, three of our features influencers mentioned not starting earlier.

EB: Not starting a travel blog earlier in my travels.

I’ve been traveling for 12 years but have only had the blog for 2 years. It would have been excellent to have been writing and interacting with the community from the beginning!

DH: Our biggest mistake was to not start sooner! When we first started traveling, we wish we had known that there was this big, crazy, travel blogging world out there, and to make a real ‘go’ of our travel blog right from the start.

SC: Our biggest mistake has probably been not starting sooner. I know, that’s a stupid thing to say because it’s never too late to start.

This is a tough question though. It is really hard for me to think about life and business in terms of mistakes. I like to look at things as a learning experience rather than a mistake, otherwise I might drive myself mad.

BL: In our first year we weren’t focused, had no clue what we were doing on social media, and weren’t even on WordPress. In some ways, our relaunch when we moved to WordPress was like starting all over again.

WordPress, one of the best blog platforms, is very intuitive and easy to use. More than 75 million of bloggers and brands use it to create beautiful blogs and blogs.

WordPress is open-source and free to use. You do need a domain name (address people will type to get access to your site) and space on a server (computer that delivers your content when requested by a visitor) to make your site accessible on the Internet.

WordPress hosting provider that I use and recommend

My site is reader-supported. If you make a purchase using my link, I earn a commission at not additional cost to you. This helps keep my site advertising free.

There are so many capable and affordable WordPress web hosting providers. I recommend GreenGeeks. I pay them to host my site and they have everything you need for a great WordPress user experience:

GreenGeeks is an independent company based in Los Angeles, California. They are specialized in WordPress hosting with more than 10 years of experience, more than 40,000 customers and are home to more than 500,000 sites.

You get a free domain name, fast loading site, automatic updates, automatic backup and top security. There’s a 99.9% uptime guarantee. They also have a 30-day money-back guarantee just in case.

Unlike most providers, their servers are environmentally friendly and your site will be 100% carbon neutral. They use energy-efficient hardware and purchase wind energy credits for 3 times the amount of energy they consume.

They provide 24/7/365 customer support via chat, email and phone. I’ve never had to call, but I’ve emailed and chatted multiple times. They’re fast, responsive and unlike some other providers I’ve dealt with actually solve any issues.

11 steps to register your domain name and install WordPress

It will take you 10 minutes to get your WordPress site up and running. Here are the step by step instructions:

Step 1: Visit GreenGeeks and choose your plan. I pay for the Pro plan at $5.95/month as I run more than one site. The Lite plan at $2.95/month is the best value for those with one site only. Click the big green “Get Started” button.

Step 2: Now you need to register your domain name or transfer an existing domain name. GreenGeeks provides you with your chosen domain name for free. Type your domain name and click on the “Check Availability” button.

Step 3: Fill in all your details in “Account Information“.

Step 4: In “Package Information” you see the summary of your chosen plan. To get the best value monthly price you need to sign up for 3 years.

3 years of hosting on the Lite plan is billed $106.20 total. If you wish to purchase one year only, the total price will be $59.40.

You can choose your “Server Location“. Options are the United States, Canada and Europe. Pick the one closest to where the majority of your target audience is.

“Coupon Code” with the highest value is automatically applied. You always get the best possible deal so no need to take any action.

“Domain WHOIS Privacy” at $9.95/year is selected by default but it’s possible to deselect it if you wish.

Every domain name registered has a publicly viewable database which includes the contact info of the domain name owner. This option protects your personal information with an anonymous registration.

Step 5: Fill in your credit card details and click on the “Create Account & Get Started” button. Then wait for an email with your GreenGeeks account login details.

Step 6: Log in to your GreenGeeks account and click the “CPANEL” button. Search for “Soft” in the top box to locate the “Softaculous Apps Installer“. This is an easy way to install WordPress.

Step 7: Click on WordPress and on the next page click on the “Install Now” button.

Step 8: In “Site Settings” type your Site Name and Site Description. You don’t want your site to be “my WordPress blog” or “just another WordPress site”.

That doesn’t tell your visitor much about what you care about. Fill in your title in “Site Name” and explain what your site is about in the “Description”.

Don’t worry about making this perfect as you can change it at any time in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 9: In “Admin Account” select a new personal username and a strong password. These will be the login details you will use to enter your WordPress dashboard.

Don’t use the default admin username as it makes you a target of brute force attacks. Create a new and unique username for yourself.

Step 10: Click on “Advanced Options” and choose to Auto Upgrade WordPress to “Any latest version available”. Auto upgrade plugins and themes too. Set “Automated backups” to “Once a week”. These are the best practices to secure your WordPress site.

Step 11: Now you can “Select Theme” that you like. By default, you’ll get the great and modern looking Twenty Twenty theme.

You can change to a different theme with one click in your WordPress dashboard at any later stage so don’t worry about making a perfect choice now.

Click “Install” and wait until your site has been set up. You can now log in on yourname.com/wp-admin/ with your WordPress username and password.

Why did you start a travel blog in the first place?

Earl Baron (EB) of Wandering Earl: I wanted to know if the experiences I was having during my travels would be of interest to anyone else. And so I figured that a blog would be the best platform for me to test that idea out.

My biggest success has been starting a travel blog that has become my main business. A business that can support my current lifestyle of constant world travel.

Matthew Kepnes (MK) of Nomadic Matt: I started my travel blog as a way to create an online resume for writing.

I wanted to write guidebooks for Lonely Planet. I figured if I had a blog with posts as well as some writing on other sites then it would have been easier for me to do so.

My biggest success as a blogger came when I got a book deal from Penguin Books to turn my ebook into a print edition book.

Dalene & Peter Heck (DH) of Hecktic Travels: When we first started our travels, we fired up a Blogspot page to keep our family and friends informed on our whereabouts and activities.

We stumbled upon the vast community of travel writers online and realized that we could perhaps take our blog to the next level and even make some income off of it.

We then bought our own domain, focused more heavily on providing quality content, and began to engage in social media.

Take a close look at Blogger vs WordPress question.

Andrea Spirov (AS) of Inspiring Travellers: When my husband and I decided to take a year off for a sabbatical I thought it might be nice to start writing about our experiences.

Originally I wanted to interview other travelers, in particular, those that we would meet in hostels who were doing really interesting things while on the road.

But eventually we also decided to write about our own experiences and the blog just evolved from there.

Our biggest success has been the steady increase in traffic over the last two years.

We also meet a lot of fascinating people through our blog. I consider that to be as much of a success as any numbers or advertising revenue that we generate.

Cameron & Nicole Wears (CW) of Traveling Canucks: We started our travel blog before embarking on an around the world adventure. Originally the page was designed to update family and friends and to share our travel stories.

As our travels continued, we found that our readership was growing. People were actually interested in our adventures, stories, and photos. This inspired us to take our travel blogging seriously and write for a much wider audience.

You always want more page views, followers and advertising dollars – it’s never enough! We love to travel, so a big success for us has been attending press trips to fantastic destinations.

We’ll always remember the first time we were offered an “all-expenses-paid trip” to the Dominican Republic in exchange for some posts and social media-loving. We had one of those “we finally made it” moments.

Christy Woodrow & Scott Calafiore (SC) of Ordinary Traveler: We wanted to share our stories with family and friends while we were away.

It also seemed like a great way to keep track of our photos since photography is a huge part of not only our personal lives but our professional lives as well.

I would say that our biggest success is the relationships that we have formed with other content creators.

This may not be a success to some people, but for us, it is extremely empowering to meet other people who have the same passion and drive as we do.

I won’t lie though, seeing our monthly reader numbers grow gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling and makes me feel successful as well.

Mary Gabbett & Bret Love (BL) of Green Global Travel: We’re insatiably curious about traveling to new places, meeting new people, seeking out new experiences and new ideas. We love sharing those things with other people in a way that will hopefully inform and inspire them to travel.

Our biggest success has been in getting big-name companies to approach us before we really even knew what we were doing as afar as running a blog.

Several companies approached us about working together back when we were barely getting 10,000 page views a month.

Working with such high-caliber companies DEFINITELY elevated our profile considerably.

Come up with a special content angle

AS: The biggest mistake has been not having a more well-defined niche. I think those blogs that have one tend to have a lot more success than general interest sites in a genre.

DH: Be yourself. In the beginning, we struggled a bit with what kind of blog we were and what we wanted to write. A few months in we found our groove and our voice and have stuck with it.

There’s no point trying to “force” a certain kind of style onto yourself, it will show in the writing and will more easily wear you down. Do what you love and the rewards will come.

AS: Find your voice and don’t try to copy what others have done – you are what will engage readers and keep them coming back. People tend to follow personalities that they can relate to.

How to make your travel blog design pretty

MK: I think it was failing to recognize how important design is to a blog. I had a bad design in the beginning.

Moreover, I also didn’t make it easy for people to be able to sign up for my blog. I think that lost me a lot of readers and now I can’t help but stress the importance of design to people.

CW: Pay attention to the details. Don’t add too much sizzle that will slow down your page and frustrate your readers. Be clear with your message. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your blog design.

See also: How To Design A Blog.



Be prepared to put in the hours to make your travel blog a success

EB: These days, I spend about 30 hours per week working on my blog. That involves writing posts, adding new pages, promoting content on social media platforms and general maintenance of the blog.

MK: I spend all of waking time blogging if I am not doing anything else. After years of doing this, my blog is a full-time business and like any business, it takes up most of my time.

I have people working for me now – I have a part-time assistant, PR agent, and designer.

I spend my days writing posts, networking with other authors, writing articles for other sites, answering email, and overseeing a few other sites. It’s very time-consuming.

DH: Between the two of us, we spend about 40 to 50 hours a week total.

We each have our responsibilities: I do the writing, keep up on Twitter and Facebook, as well as handling all our ‘business’. Pete does most of the photography, all photo editing and handles Pinterest. We have outsourced our technical support as neither of us are WordPress gurus.

AS: On average I spend at least 40 hours a week on the blog – it’s a full-time job.

Researching and writing take up the vast majority of my time with social media at a close second. Other tasks include responding to queries via email, including advertisers, advertisement maintenance (renewals, billing, updates, etc.).

I also correspond with contributors and deal with the technical aspects of the blog.

CW: About 25 hours per week. I spend time editing and tagging photos, which is very tedious and time-consuming.

Tasks include responding to comments, answering emails, and sharing our articles through social media. I also spend a lot of time sharing other travel bloggers’ work.

Every day I leave about 10 comments on travel blogs and I promote articles from travel bloggers through social media – what goes around comes around!

SC: I would say at least 15-20 hours a week on the actual blog, but starting out we probably spent more like 30-40 hours a week getting things set up.

The most time-consuming tasks are writing, editing photos and uploading them to our blog.

These are daily tasks, otherwise, we can easily get behind on our posting schedule. Lately, we have spent a good deal of time optimizing old posts to rank better in search results and staying on top of social media.

BL: Between the two of us, I’d say we average well over 40 hours a week, usually working on it at least 4-5 hours a day.

Tasks include writing, assigning and editing stories; editing photos and video (learn how to make a vlog); reaching out to potential advertisers and PR representatives; managing our team of interns; doing copious social media tasks; strategizing ideas for business growth; and then, of course, there’s the actual travel itself. We stay very, very busy!

How to get traffic and build an audience for your travel blog

EB: Create high-quality content. No matter how well you do with SEO, no matter how attractive your blog or how catchy the titles of your posts, or even how visible you are on Twitter and Facebook, it means nothing if you don’t create content that is useful to your readers.

MK: Market outside your niche. Find similar topics and guest post on those blogs. You can always market in your own niche but finding success outside your niche will lead to the greatest audience growth.

I always post on lifehacking and finance blogs because their audiences and missions align well with my budget travel tips. There is a lot of overlap.

DH: Do lots of guest posts. And I mean, LOTS, especially at the start. Right now we try to keep it to one guest post a month to control our workload, but we did many more in the beginning to reach a wider audience.

Also, and this should go without saying, focus on producing high-quality content. You want readers to come back and to also tell their friends about it.

The success we are most proud of is building the great fan base we have.

We love the interaction we see on our Facebook page and the great comments and emails we get every day. That is the number one thing that keeps us going!

AS: Building consistent, quality content is the best way for how to start a blog. Networking and promotion on social media are also very important, but if you don’t have great content, no one will care. Start networking and spend a lot of time on it.

We regularly guest post and give interviews. We belong to a variety of online groups and forums for meeting other bloggers.

You also need to be creative to think of new ways to promote yourself, with cross-promotion in other niches being a very important way to expand your reach.

And don’t underestimate search, which can bring you significant amounts of traffic if you pay attention to SEO best practices for WordPress blogs.

CW: If you want people to share your story, make it memorable and provide value. I’m embarrassed by some posts that we published years ago. The writing was sloppy and disorganized.

We focused on quantity, not quality – big mistake. But that’s just a part of the creative process. Another mistake was ignoring the importance of SEO tactics. If you want to increase traffic and readership, search engines need to find your work.

Dedicate more time to social media. You can have the best content on the planet, but if nobody knows about it then you’re not going to get the recognition you deserve.

Be everywhere. Join networking groups and connect with other bloggers. Leave comments and share their posts. Engage with your readers and followers. Respond to comments and emails. Be helpful and give before taking. Your time will come, but you have to earn it first.

SC: Network. Relationships are key. Start out by helping other bloggers and most of them will be happy to return the favor by sharing your articles, commenting or offering guest posts on their blog.

Guest posts are a great way to get your content in front of a different audience.

It’s also important to stick with it, even through the tough times. Keep putting out great content while sharing it through all of your social media channels and eventually the readers will come.

BL: The brief version is to blaze your own trail, focus on killer content, set concrete (and attainable) business goals, work social media like a beast, treat others the way you want to be treated, and try not to focus too much on stats or monetization, especially for the first year.

It takes a lot of time, patience, energy and talent to figure out how to start a travel blog.

What is your best lesson for beginners?

EB: Growing an engaged audience takes time, but in the end, as long as you stay focused and are willing to constantly learn, you will succeed.

Those who don’t achieve their goals are generally those who eventually give up because they haven’t seen the results they were hoping for.

Stick with it, push through the tough times and suddenly, one day, progress will be made and all of your efforts will have paid off.

MK: Learn WordPress HTML code. You don’t need to be a master at building websites or anything like that. Being able to understand how your website works and how everything under the hood fits together will make your life a lot easier when there is a small problem that needs to be fixed, when you want to change a font color, or when you want to expand your blog.

Knowing how your blog functions will make your life a lot easier.

CW: Don’t underestimate the time commitment that is required. Stick with it! There will be weeks where it feels like nobody cares about your blog. Stay the course. It takes time. Be patient.

SC: To start a travel blog is not a cakewalk, but if you are aware of this, hopefully, you won’t get discouraged as easily.

There will be plenty of times where you will consider giving up. The web is full of all different types of people. Some people will lift you up and others will try to tear you down.

Do your best not to let the haters get to you. Learning how to separate constructive criticism from negativity is extremely important.

BL: The sooner you treat your blog like a business, the faster it will grow.

If I’d known how quickly we could grow this business by giving it everything we had, I’d have done it right from the get-go! Also? Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.