How to Start a Travel Blog in 2024

So, you want to start a travel blog?

Welcome!

I remember the feeling of excitement, anticipation, and fear when I started my blog back in 2014. I was in college, completely unqualified to run a travel blog (I had barely left the Midwest), and had no idea what I was doing. My family was poor as shit, my mom was in and out of jail, and I spent most weekends sleeping in my car in random beach towns across Michigan. But alas, we're going to say I was ~manifesting~ for the future, and hey! It worked out. 45 countries and 49 states later, I've been running this blog for over a decade, and man, if only 20-year-old Shalee knew what was coming.

Starting this blog completely changed the entire course of my life. Yes, my blog has become WAY more successful than I ever anticipated, but there is so much more that has come from it. I have gotten every job I've ever had because my blog worked as my resume. It separated me in very competitive job markets. It got me job offers straight out of college. It's got me featured in places like USA Today, Forbes, and Travel + Leisure. It is the reason I now write for many other publications every year. It's the reason I make six figures. I get job offers regularly. You want to stand out in a tough job market? Start a blog. And it doesn't even have to be your full-time gig.

My blog is also the reason I now work in digital media. Shalee Wanders is not the only thing I do. I am the digital director for Nearlywed.com. I consult with other businesses on how to grow their presence online. And I write SEO-specific articles for clients looking to increase their organic reach. I eat, sleep, and breathe digital growth.

Starting a travel blog is incredibly fun, but also a decent amount of hard work. Here are all my biggest tips on how to start a travel blog in 2024:

How to Start a Travel Blog

1. Claim your Domain

What do you want the name of your travel blog to be? It’s a simple question but one you should put a lot of thought into. After all, this name will be the title of your travel blog, your domain name, and encompass your entire brand. It might not come as a surprise when you look at my blog name, but I didn’t put much thought into it. 

I had a roommate who encouraged me to take a couple of weeks to decide on my name before launching my website, and I did not heed her advice. I don’t hate my domain name and travel blog name, but it could’ve been better. 

Before you decide on your name, you’ll want to ensure your domain is available. The easiest way to do this is through GoDaddy domain checker (https://www.godaddy.com/domains). Put your desired name/URL in the box and see if it is available to purchase through GoDaddy. 

2. Create a WordPress Website 

Many website providers offer the quickest and easiest ways to start a website. However, I do not recommend going with ‘quick and easy’ when building your travel blog. Providers like Squarespace and Wix offer a simple drag-and-drop solution to get a website up in hours, but they lack SEO (search engine optimization), customization, and quality issues.

When you start a travel blog, your main goal will probably be to have people find your articles on search engines like Google. To compete and rank in such a competitive space, you will need to run your travel blog on WordPress. When it comes down to it, WordPress is superior to any other major website platform regarding SEO benefits. 

Back in 2014, when I knew nothing about internet marketing or websites, I built my first website on WordPress. It wasn’t pretty, but at the time, it worked. As many travel blog has grown over the years, so has my website. Know that it is OK if your website is not your ‘dream site’ at first. It will get there. Give yourself time.

7. Learn Google algorithms and SEO 

Being found online is the single most important aspect of starting a travel blog. If no one finds your articles online, your traffic will never be in the place where you can make it your full-time job. Brands look at how much traffic your website gets before ever offering partnerships. If you want to start being taken seriously in the blogging world, have your first goal be 10,000 monthly visitors.

When you launch a brand new website, it typically takes Google 30-60 days to index your website and start showing it on search engines. It is going to take even longer for your blogs to start showing up on the top of search pages. Why? Because new websites have to prove themselves to the algorithms. And then once Google, Safari, and other search engines start seeing your website as relevant, trustworthy, and active, they will start ranking your content. But I will be the first one to tell you that you will likely get little to no traffic to your website for the first 3 months and hitting 10,000 may feel impossible. But trust the process and be consistent, and one day you'll notice it all start to come together.

There are also specific ways to write blogs so that Google ranks them higher on search results. I could spend HOURS discussing things like rich snippets, schema mark ups, how to write your intro/outros, how to add alt tags, keyword research, and other SEO topics. I am currently in the process of launching a course that goes over everything a new blogger would need to know. If you want to be one of my guinea pigs and get the course 50% - shoot me an email! I am currently looking for testers for summer 2024.

But do yourself a favor and watch YouTube videos, learn Google algorithms, and study SEO. This point alone will make or break your blog. Because at the end of the day, if you aren't found on Google, your blog will never take off.

4. Be Consistent & Give it Time 

Before launching your travel blog, I recommend getting at least 8-10 articles pre-written. It will allow you to schedule a couple of blogs per month while working on new content. Having these blogs queued up takes off a lot of the initial pressure to produce content when you launch. 

This is the kind of industry where you have to prove yourself first. There will be a lot of work without a lot of reward in the beginning. Many people start travel blogs, but most fall off within the first year. 

And I get it; when I started my travel blog, I went YEARS with small partnerships here and there but didn’t make any money. I always loved writing and blogging, but sometimes it can feel like you’re working part-time for little to no pay. 

Dive in with the expectation that you will make no money and get no partnerships for the first 12 months. Really, this time is spent building your portfolio (aka your website). Brands want to work with travel bloggers who have proved they mean business, and it’s a big risk for them to spend money on someone with no organic search traffic who could be in that large percentage of people who fall off during the first year of blogging. 

5. Don’t Get Greedy 

When I started my travel blog back in 2014, I had no idea that ‘traveling blogging’ was a career. The job title ‘content creator’ wasn’t even created yet. If you start the travel blog with the sole intent to make money, become an influencer, and partner with the best hotels around the world, it’s best to take a step back. Every successful travel blogger I know started their blog for passion, not money or followers. 

One of the great things about a new travel blog is that you can write whatever the hell you want without anyone having a say in what it should be. Use it as your travel diary and write from the heart. 

6. Don’t Skimp on Hosting 

Many people get confused when interchanging the terms website, hosting, domains, etc. So before I get into why fast hosting is essential, here is a description of the three main pillars that go into a travel blog (or any website, really)

1. Domain - this is your URL. For example, mine is www.shaleewanders.com. 
2. Hosting - this is where your domain is hosted and has nothing to do with your website design. There will be a monthly or annual fee associated with your URL hosting. It is VERY important not to let this expire because your entire website will disappear the moment it does. You will also have to pay for an SSL certificate which secures your website and gives it the https://. 
3. Website Platform - This is your WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, etc., which will also have an annual fee attached to it. There are free versions available, but NONE of them will give you the customization or optimization you will need to run a successful blog. 

Now, your hosting mainly determines where all your website files are kept and what kind of server your URL is hosted on. The type of server on your hosting directly impacts the speed of your website. And it’s 2022, which means if your website doesn’t fully load within seconds, people will not stick around. 

I didn’t have disposable income when I began Shalee Wanders. I attended community college and worked two jobs to fund my local travels. The start-up costs of a website scared the living shit out of me. I ultimately went with a cheaper hosting platform, which caused more time and money than it was ever worth years later to move my website to a faster server. Save yourself the headache, and sign up with a hosting company that provides quality, such as GoDaddy or Bluehost. 

7. Develop Your Brand & Niche

Once you have decided on your travel blog name, it’s time to focus on branding. Ask yourself these questions: 

• What kind of travel blog will you be? 
• What is your niche? 
• What color scheme do you want to use? 
• What do you want your logo to look like?

Travel blogging is a tough market to break into, and one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when trying to break into the industry is not deciding on a niche. What kind of travelers are you? Budget? Luxury? Adventure? Family? Figure out your focus to start. There will be plenty of time to expand into additional realms later. If you’re just a general ‘travel blog,’ there are a million other general ‘travel blogs.’ Give readers a reason to stick around on yours. 

When I first started my travel blog, it was mainly a Michigan travel blog as I couldn't afford to travel much further. I became one of the top resources for travel in Michigan and gave me a foundation to expand my blog worldwide after a few years. If I started competing with other worldwide travel blogs right away, I'm sure I ever would've made it. Niches are so important!