Pommie Travels

10 Tips on Starting a Travel Blog

1. Make an effort with appearance- You wouldn’t have a photo taken having rolled out of bed with your hair all over the place wearing your pyjamas with lipstick smeared over your face (or maybe you would?). So why put your travel blog on display looking like that? When people are surfing the web they see the page before they read it so if it looks good they might want to read more. If you’re serious about blogging it’s worth using Wordpress and buying a wordpress template. Have a look at themeforest for more ideas or alternatively there are some good free wordpress themes out there. If you don’t know what sort of theme to go for, simple and classic is always better. Carefully think about your header, perhaps creating a logo with photoshop and think about the colour scheme you’re going to have. Like your home, think about whether it all goes together.  It’s so easy even if you’re a beginner these days, so there’s no excuse to have a bad looking site.

   photo by websuccessdiva

2. Register a domain name- You can create a free blog on wordpress or blogger- I started off with a blogger account to practice blogging- but really if you want to be taken seriously it is best to register your own domain name.
3. Don’t overdo it with the widgets- It’s so tempting to keep adding widgets; time zones, maps, countdown clocks, visitor counters, picture galleries, widgets to showcase your friends, social networking widgets…but too many of these and your site will look cluttered. In the beginning stick to widgets that might help people navigate your blog or connect with you such as a search box, a blog archive and social networking and subscribe buttons.
4. Lay it out nicely- Try to have an ‘About Page’- I want to know about you, you’re unique story, what you’re doing and where you’re going.  Give me a picture, I might be surprised to know that the person who has just written an article about skydiving is actually a 90 year old thrill-seeking lady. Give me some interesting information about you, the real you and I don’t want to know the frilly version, I’m nosy and none of us are perfect. It’s worth having a comprehensive resources page with links to your favourite sites and blogs and a contact page so people can contact you for more information. If you’re writing a straight forward blog about your trip then why not organise it by location? If it’s more of a travel magazine with a blog as well, organise it into categories of things that you write about. Remember that as a visitor to your site I need to be able to navigate my way through your content and find what I want easily. A really good feature for any blog is to have a slider that showcases your best featured article, video or photo.
5. Content- If I’m reading your blog it’s usually because I need information about something. So write things that people might want to know about, that’s the primary purpose of a blog. For instance the other day I wanted to know how easy it is to get a visa for Indonesia, so I did a quick google search. I also wanted some tips for monetizing my blog, and google threw up a load of blogs containing such information. I might also be reading your blog if it entertains me- if it says something really funny or contains other forms of content such as photos and video content. Funny anecdotes and stories from your travels, things I can relate to, How To’s, Top Tens, things to do in certain places might interest me, but I don’t want a straight run through of “So I did this…and then I did this”. It’s difficult thinking of original content when there are so many websites out there, but if you can tell people something they don’t already know, you’re half way there.
6. Video is underused- There are so many photo blogs out there, but if you can make short videos about your travels that are really watchable and entertaining then you’ll really grab a readers attention.
7. Exchange links- If you want to increase your traffic and get more people reading your blog, perhaps look at other travel blogs out there and look at their blog rolls. Email them and ask if they’ll post a link to your blog, just remember to link to theirs first. Travel bloggers are really helpful, friendly people, we’ve all been in the same boat and we’re all curious to know the best things to do and the hostels people rate in the country we’re going to next. Participate in Travel Blog Exchange and other sites like Matador, Lonely Planet Thorntree forum and Boots N All. Leave forum posts with a link to your blog, answer people’s travel questions and leave a travel question of your own. Blog on these sites and leave a link to your blog.
8. Network- Have a ‘Share’ button on your blog posts so people can Digg It or StumbleUpon. Register on these two sites and give your blog or your post the thumbs up. Join Twitter and start Twittering about your travels and your blog, it can act as a sort of news feed for what you’re doing. There are hundreds of travellers and travel bloggers Twittering as we speak so follow them and they will follow you. Submit your blog to blog directories and search engines so that more people will find it- these include Blog Catalog, Blogged, Blogging Fusion, Blog Hub, Blog Hints, Total Blog Directory.
9. Guest bloggers, giveaways and writing content for other people- Why don’t you invite a more experienced travel blogger to write a post on your site or interview them for an article you are writing? If you have some really good content you have written, why not submit your article to a travel magazine or blog? Even if it’s not paid, usually they will do a little ‘Author bio’ box containing a link to your site, so you will get more traffic to your blog and they get to have some great content. To encourage visitors to your blog you could always have a competition giveaway- people won’t want your old smelly sock or that sleeping bag you’ve slept in for a year, but if you have something worth giving away then do it!
10. Monetizing your blog- There are different options for monetizing your travel blog- the main one people use is google ads which are free to put on your website. Google ads can be paid per click or for so many page impressions, but unless you have a lot of traffic to your site you might get paid very little. Companies also have affiliate schemes so that when someone clicks through from your site and purchases something from them, you get paid commission. If you sign up and you are accepted they supply you with html code for banner or button ads and search engines to copy and paste to your site. Pick companies that are related to travel, such as hostel websites, hotels, cheap flight websites, insurance and tour operators. Think about how you can use advertising within your posts, not just on the front page- for instance if you are reviewing a certain product, why not have an advert for it at the bottom of the page? The other option for monetizing your travel blog is to go for direct sponsorship- if you have quite a lot of blog traffic and subscribers, approach a company to see if they would like to advertise on your site. Don’t expect money to come rolling in from day one though, travel blogging takes time to build a loyal readership and get people familiar with your content.