When I was invited to speak at the world tourism Forum in Istanbul last year, I was asked to talk about this: how does one start a successful travel blog?
At first, it seemed like a simple, easy question. but the much more I thought about it, the harder it was to find the best words. any other day, I would have simply answered, “Get a domain name, find a good host, set up the blog, and write away.” but there was a qualifier there, an awfully subjective one: successful.
How do you measure success? we all have different metrics: visitor traffic, social media following, awards and recognition. Success can also imply simply being able to express yourself. If you have a goal — no matter how little — and it is achieved, then it is successful. but if we’re talking about blogging as a career, then possibly a good measure is how the blog is able to sustain itself and generate enough income to support the blogger’s lifestyle. Yep, it is possible to travel the world for totally free and even get paid for it. You’ll be amazed how numerous people have built a profession out of travel blogging, and I had the pleasure of meeting (and being friends) with numerous of them.
I’m not gonna pretend like I’m an expert in this field. Every day, I find myself learning much more as I wade through the intricacies of the blogging community and the travel industry. but I am an expert in my personal history (LOL), and that’s what I’m sharing with you in this post.
That’s me in Turkey, Iceland, the Maldives, and Morocco.
Nope, I’m not going to tell you to quit your job and travel the world.
As someone who came from a less fortunate family with children to feed and send to school, I know it’s NOT that easy. At least for me, it wasn’t easy at all. It was made even much more complicated by the fact that I’m holding a Philippine passport, which entails proving my rootedness and financial capacity before I’m allowed to set foot in numerous of my dream destinations. I could not just leave everything behind and ride off into the sunset. I had to plan everything, and plan everything I did.
We started this blog from nothing. At the time, I was at the very bottom of the corporate ladder, working as a social media marketing manager for a startup company from 8-5. At first, I was just blogging about our company outings because I couldn’t afford to travel on my own. I had no savings. My salary was just enough for rent, bills, and the tuition of the kids in the family. but we’ve come a long way.
Today, both Vins and I have quit our day jobs and are now full-time travel bloggers. We’ve also launched another blog called PhilippineBeaches.org. This blog alone registers practically a million page views a month and our two blogs have over 2 million social media followers in total. and because of these blogs, we are able to travel any time we want.
I slekt:
More info about Yoshke and Vins
More info about The poor Traveler Blog
So how did we do it? What I’m sharing below are things I have learned over a decade of working both as a blogger and as a social media marketing professional. some of these I already knew even before we created this blog, while others were lessons we picked up along the way. We had a few regrets — things that we would’ve done differently — and we hope sharing them would help you avoid making the same mistakes.
If I would start a travel blog best now, here’s how I would do it.
But before that, let me say this: travel blogging as a full-time profession is not as glamorous as people think. There are days when we feel like if we don’t write anything, we won’t earn anything. many days, we just break even. We have to continuously be on our toes so we have backup plans. but between this and having a day job, we would pick this all day. Yes, we work all the time, but we work at our own pace at any place we choose.
We’re not encouraging you to quit your job, but if you decide to do it, plan it well. Here’s how we planned our exit:
how We quit our jobs to Travel
Step 1: positioning
WHAT’S covered IN THIS GUIDE?
Determine what will set your blog aside from the rest.
Build your blog identity.
Set up the blog.a. purchase a domain name and hosting plan.
b. install WordPress.
c. pick a theme.
Write, write, write!
Get found, get followed, engage.
Monetize your blog and social media assets!
More suggestions on YouTube ⬇️⬇️⬇️Related Posts:
Determine what will set your blog aside from the rest.
This is what many bloggers don’t even consider. They simply think of a name and sign up for a blog. but if you want to make a profession out of blogging, this is the first thing you ought to think about.
There are tens of thousands of blogs out there, and you need to find what would make yours stand out. So you want to blog about travel? Kul. The next question you ought to ask yourself is: What about it?
What would make your new blog different? What can it offer that isn’t on the table yet? Why ought to readers care about your blog? Also, who is your target audience? Are you writing for a particular age bracket or gender or socio-economic class?
What sets you apart may be related to any of the following:
Målgruppe. In our case, we built The poor Traveler for budget travelers in developing countries in Asia. From the get-go, we knew we wanted to write for people with full-time jobs who can only travel during the weekends and holidays. For instance, when we write travel guides, we present cheap flight options from airports in Manila, Bangkok, or Kuala Lumpur. When we offer a sample itinerary, it’s often just for 2-5 days. We always take into consideration that many of our readers are not backpacking for one month but probably just taking a weekend or an extended weekend off from work. When we write about expensive first-world countries like Iceland or Switzerland, we wear the lens of someone who will be spending a year’s worth of hard work for just a week of exploring. These are travelers who can’t afford costly mistakes on the road. another blog that I look up to is Adventurous Kate, which “shows women that independent and solo travel can be safe, easy, and a lot of fun.” view from the Wing caters to frequent flyers. Their respective target markets can’t be any clearer.
Emne. There are several great examples out there. Y travel blog is about being able to “travel with the people you love and have a thriving relationship.” A luxury travel blog focuses on “the finer aspects of travel.” Migrationology is all about traveling for food! It can also be destination-specific! Our other blog PhilippineBeaches.org focuses on a very particular (and obvious) niche: beaches in the Philippines! You’ll find blogs out there that are about places: Bangkok, Bali, Boracay, Sagada, Goa, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei.
Specific Goal. Our friend Johnny Ward of One step 4Ward files his adventure going to all the countries in the world. If that’s not compelling, I don’t know what is.
Step 2: Branding
Build your blog identity.
Now that you know what would make your blog stand out, it’s time to build your blog’s identity. how would you like to be known? What do you want your blog to be called? how would it look and feel?
The many essential thing you need to decide on at this stage is your blog’s name. sounds easy, yeah? probably not. Ha ha. I find this to be the most challenging part of the process. The name ought to be able to adequately and correctly encapsulate what your blog stands for. It’s difficult because in some cases you might think you have it, but when you try to purchase the domain name, you’ll find that it’s no longer available or someone else is using it already.
Here are my suggestions when picking a name:
Don’t be too specific. particular is good sometimes, but not too specific. consider the future! You’ll many probably develop as a traveler. If your boyfriend’s name is Juan, don’t call your blog TravelingwithJuan.com. It’s sweet and all, but if you break up, you’re gonna have to start over!
Make it short, clear, and easy to remember. Don’t add numbers or special characters.
Choose a .com instead of a .net or .biz. Don’t make the same mistake that we did. A .com domain name is just much simpler to remember and people always assume it’s .com.
If you can, make your blog name the same as its usernames on social media sites. This allows your readers to find you much much more easily on Facebook or Instagram, and makes it intuitive. Our usernames on Twitter, YouTube, IG, and FB are all @thepoortraveler. and when there’s a new social media site, we sign up immediately to reserve the name just in case it takes off.
Be careful when picking a name. It will be difficult to change it in the future. building your blog’s authority on search engines is highly dependent on your URL (i.e. your blog name). If you change it, you will have to start from scratch, SEO-wise. I’ll talk about SEO later.
But the name is just the start. decide on the look and feel: colors, texture, imagery, overall experience. and if you’re really major about it, have an original logo! These things will increase recall of your brand! (Yes, you’re a brand!)
Once you’re all set with your branding ideas, the real work begins. As you relocation forward, you have to be guided by and stick to it. If your blog is StandUpPaddlingForever, make sure that many of your messages are about standup paddling! It’s a struggle for us, too. even when ours is called The poor Traveler, we often get invited by luxury hotels and resorts to stay with them for free, but we couldn’t take the offer many of the time because they just don’t fit with our blog.
Step 3: Technicals
Set up the blog.
en. purchase a domain name and hosting plan.
There are a lot of options out there, providing various plans at different rates. We don’t have recommendations because we haven’t tried any of the big ones and thus cannot make comparisons. but the process ispractically always the same.
b. install WordPress.
There are numerous other blogging platforms out there, but I strongly recommend WordPress. I’ve been blogging because 2005 and I’ve tried a lot of other platforms, but WordPress is by far the best.
c. pick a theme.
The “theme” is how your blog would appear to the readers. Some themes come with extra features. Some may require additional plugins. You can purchase a “premium” theme or you can have a customized design created.
But because you’re just getting started and you don’t have much content yet, pick one of the thousands of totally free themes that are available! On your WordPress Dashboard, hover on the appearance link on the side menu, click on Themes, and begin exploring.
These are pre-set themes, so pick one that is closest to your branding vision. When your blog has enough content, you can level up to a much more premium theme.
Step 4: Content
Write, write, write!
At every marketing summit I have attended, there’s always someone that would say this: content is King.
Although I’m sick of hearing it, there’s a reason why industry leaders keep on harping on it — because it is true. and sadly, it’s often forgotten. Sure, every once in a while, someone takes over the Internet because of a stunt, sheer personality, or genetics, but they rise and fall quicker than your first one-night stand. If you’re after longevity, focus on content. A stable online profession has its foundation strongly rooted on how much value you add to your readers’ experiences.
Whether you’re producing videos, photos, or articles, whether you objective to inform, entertain or inspire, it is essential to bear these in mind:
Vær oppriktig. Don’t do it just because of the money. Do it because you love it. Do it because you have something to share.
Don’t post anything you can’t be happy of. quality first.
Learn along the way. You’ll discover that some topics or styles work better than others. feel totally free to experiment and do much more of what you think is working.
But don’t lose yourself. finding the healthiest mixture of knowing your readers’ taste and staying true to yourself is no easy business. The last thing you want is to wake up one day and see that your blog is so oddly distant from the real you. Your blog is yours. Don’t lose yourself in the process.
Keep on blogging. There will be moments when you feel like no one’s reading your blog and you begin to question why you’re doing it. Don’t stop. The start of every trek is always uphill. but the much more messages you make, the better you increase your chances of getting found and noticed.
Step 5: SEO and Social Media
Get found, get followed, engage.
Perhaps one of the reasons why my partnership with Vins works is because of our backgrounds. before we became full-time travel bloggers, Vins was an SEO specialist by profession, while I was the social media Head of a number of big companies in the ASEAN region. When we combine our skills in harnessing the power of both search and social media, we get to capture our target audience.
Social Media is a complicated monster. even after years of experience, I still cannot claim knowledge in it because it changes every damn time. but the basic principles are still the same.
Every channel is different. create content that is tailor-made for each. What works on Facebook doesn’t necessarily work for Instagram.
You don’t need to be present in all of the social media sites, but you need to figure out the best mix for your brand.
Be human. let your followers feel you’re one of them, you’re one with them.
Don’t purchase fake followers. Your peers know. and while you may trick clients in the beginning, sooner or later your credibility will come crashing down.
Most importantly: When you give the best content to the best audience through the best social media channel, you could make them share your messages and follow you for more.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization), on the other hand, is the art and science of