Whether you’re thinking about putting your home on the market among the Albany houses for sale, or anywhere else, and heading out on the road permanently with the hopes of earning money by creating a successful travel blog, or you just want a place to document your occasional travels online, you’ll need to know how to start.
According to travel blog statistics, 94 percent of travel blogs sell advertising, but to earn money, you’ll need to get lots of views. Fortunately, a third of U.S. travelers turn to travel blogs for planning advice today, you’ll just need to get a good chunk of that audience. These tips can help you do just that.
Know That a Successful Blog Takes Lots of Time and Effort
Blogging isn’t easy – you can’t just write occasionally and expect to earn money. If you’re hoping to create a profitable travel blog or even use it to support your travels, it’s going to require a ton of time and effort. If you don’t have a lot of extra time right now, you might want to wait until you do.
Choose Your Website Name Carefully
Once you’ve decided to go for it, you’ll need to decide on a name for your website (a domain name), which can be one of the most challenging aspects. Some of the critical factors to consider including having a name that will last, which means you don’t want to date it by choosing anything related to your age because it will quickly become irrelevant. If you’re planning to spend six months in Costa Rica, New Zealand, or anywhere else, don’t make that country part of the name unless you’re sure you won’t be spending time in another destination that you’ll want to write about in the future. Aim for something that describes what you do as much as possible, without copying anyone else. Short and memorable is the key – write everything down and play with various combinations of words.
Find a Host and Pick a Plan
The host is where your site will live, such as GoDaddy, BlueHost, and HostGator. Website hosting services are like a plot of land where your website will sit. They’re kind of like a landlord that puts up your site and keeps it running so that people will be able to access and view your blog posts when they type in the URL. Set up for most is quick and easy. It’s usually best to choose the cheapest plan and then upgrade later if you need to.
Learn How to Use WordPress
You’ll need to install and understand how to use WordPress as it’s the industry standard for blogging platforms. Fortunately, there are plenty of tutorials online that can teach you what you need to know. In fact, WordPress itself has a library with a ton of free lessons. It’s an open-source, free publishing application, content management system, and blogging tool that makes it easy for people to blog. After you’ve installed it, you can set up your website.
Set Up a Schedule and Be Consistent
Unless you want blogging to become your full-time job, with your travels taking the backseat, set a realistic schedule, and then be consistent. The most important thing is to give your viewers a constant drip feed of content. While you’re traveling, you might spend a morning writing content and then sightsee in the afternoon. If you prefer doing a lot of writing in one long sitting, schedule out bulk written posts rather than publishing them all at once.
