If you love to travel, you may have thought about starting a travel blog. After all, it’s a great way to document or share your adventures and experiences with the potential for some extra income on the side – if not your main hustle – so you can finally fund your travels in a consistent manner. (Travel Blogging for Beginners) Travel blogging has been my main profession for about 10 years now and it’s a rewarding profession as it gives me the freedom to work anytime and anywhere while enjoying one of my most important passions (and obviously travel). Moreover, I learned how to start this profitable business myself from the ground up, which means that you can easily follow in my footsteps. … However, it is of course useful to note that in order to create a successful travel blog, there are a lot of things you need to take care of – but don’t worry because this post will help you as I list the most important things you need in order to get started the right way. Essentials of Travel Blogging for Beginners » Strong conviction and drive Here’s the truth that travel blogging shouldn’t have: most people fail at it. The number of reasons is huge for this to happen, but the main one is… they got impatient because they thought it would make money fast, and they didn’t anticipate the amount of work required to run a travel blog well. You don’t need to invest money in blogging in essence, you should consider travel blogging as a business because it will take time, it will be something you will need to work on, and it will involve some small investment in the beginning. So, early on now, you should manage your expectations and decide if travel blogging is really something for you and your interests. You should definitely not do this on a whim because you found it “trendy” at the moment, or you’ve been swept away by some sexy influencer who bragged about how they easily made six figures in a few weeks through their blog. Such cases may be true but are extremely rare. Travel blogging is now a saturated industry after all… but of course, with all that said, if you do things right, you can still thrive easily. In fact, success can still be achieved overnight. It’s still the same, however, in order to manage your expectations from the get-go on a beginner travel blog, expect the process to be slow (but quite rewarding in the long run). Just have the right posture and outward appearance and you’ll be off to a good start! »A fast and lightweight laptop Technically you can use your computer but with your specialty you will need a portable device also known as a laptop that you can bring anywhere, especially while you are traveling. But the good news is that blogging won’t use a huge amount of system memory, so you don’t really need the fancy types – however, that doesn’t mean you should buy almost anything. First things first, make sure it has enough storage and RAM (basically, the more RAM, the faster your computer will run because the last thing you need is a device that will still crash or lag). If you don’t have the budget for a laptop with plenty of storage, invest in hard drives in the meantime. In fact, even if your laptop has a huge storage space, you’ll still need to invest in hard drives to back up your files. If you don’t want that extra volume though, you can invest in cloud backup software such as Dropbox, Google Drive or Box.. In the same line of thought, it is also important to have Tenants Insurance because it will cover your belongings even while you are abroad – This includes your laptop and phone. Secondly, the laptop should be light. With these two factors combined, it’s no wonder so many travel bloggers love Macbooks, Chromebooks, and similar laptops. Personally, I use a Macbook Pro, but a Macbook Air can really work for you (I only need the Pro version because I regularly edit videos for vlogging needs). If you are thinking of using your mobile only for blogging, it will be very difficult, so I suggest the next best thing (if you can’t invest in a laptop yet) is to get a tablet with a good keyboard to add. But make sure you are aware of the limitations of tablets in terms of creativity; Additionally, most tablets are designed for media consumption rather than productivity. » A camera for portraits Considering how good phone cameras are nowadays, you don’t need to buy a bulky DSLR with different lenses. Many bloggers also don’t like to carry a huge camera on their travels, especially in destinations where petty crime poses a big risk. But beyond that reason, there’s the fact that you’re still in the beginning, so a DSLR is an investment you can make later — for now, your phone’s camera will do the trick. Either way, you can always be content with a good phone if you know the tips and tricks for taking quality mobile photos. Travel blogging is very visual, so be sure to edit your photos well with either Photoshop or Lightroom. For a more beginner-friendly platform, consider using Canva. If you want free images (essentially, free images that you can use commercially) check out websites like Pixabay and Unsplash. …of course, if you have the money to spare, by all means invest in a good quality camera! If you want something a little less bulky, mirrorless cameras like the Fujifilm X-T4, Olympus Mark IV or Nikon Z FC are a favorite among bloggers; Other than that, the top full frames are Sony A7, Nikon Z6 or Canon EOS R10. » Best Blogging Platform, Hosting, and Domain Many new travel bloggers start out with blogs on free sites like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress.com with their domain names (or website names) that have .wordpress, .wix, .squarespace added, etc attached at the end. In theory…this is fine if you simply want to do travel blogging for beginners in the field of entertainment; But if you are really planning to create a travel blog that you want to stick with or will be established as your own brand that can eventually make you money, then it is very important to invest in a paid hosting that includes a custom domain name that leads to a website with a beautiful look or logo and that works with components appropriate additional. “Wait a minute – what are those words? Hosting? Specialization? Theme? Plugins? What?!” I know these don’t make sense to you as a newbie, so if you want to be directed right, I suggest you read my blog post below. I have explained all these terms in detail step by step, so don’t worry. Related reading: How to start a travel blog from Scratch Rest assured, they can all be set up for $3 a month and I’m sure this is a doable small investment you can make! » Content Writing, SEO, Online Marketing, Social Media Knowledge If you already know these skills, this is for you! But that doesn’t mean you should stop learning, okay? Keep learning (if not re-learning) as much as you can to stay up to date with the latest travel blogging tips and tricks. Hubspot’s blog, for example, is always a great resource and they have regular newsletters that you can subscribe to. On the other hand, if you have no experience with any of these, don’t panic! I also had no idea about such things, but I learned it all for free just by consuming as much information as I could. I’ve browsed countless articles, videos, and courses for years – and since then, as well as today, my travel blog posts are constantly appearing on the first page of Google searches for certain topics and keywords. You may be wondering if you need to take a paid blogging course, but if you ask me, most of the blogging courses I’ve come across have information already available on the internet at no cost – just search and search! Plus, I’m not bragging, but my post on how to set up a blog already contains all the information you need and that’s for free. So thinking about it, the only course I’d suggest you pay for is about SEO and social media marketing because that’s a pretty broad topic that needs to be covered in detail. It’s helpful to note that these skills can’t live without others (after all, what good is the content you write if you don’t promote it well via social media, email marketing, etc.?) so don’t skip any of them. » Networking Skills Once you have achieved all the other necessary things in this post about travel blogging for beginners, it helps to also focus on networking aka connecting with the right people. It is really essential to stay in touch with those associated with your niche and these are… fellow travel bloggers: especially for those who are also starting at the same time you are starting, it can be a fruitful relationship in which you both can grow by sharing information and ideas with each other . You can even trade any relevant contacts for project collaboration or press trip pitches. Some travel blogger groups that can help you achieve this can be found here. PR Agencies/People: Find the best PR or Marketing firms in your area but also in the international arena. Once you get traction for your blog, you should create a media group and let them know the existence of your blog/brand so they can include you in their group of bloggers who will regularly suggest them to their clients. It doesn’t hurt to go directly to the companies you want to partner with by emailing them directly. Other than that, there are travel events like TBEX where you can participate as a travel blogger so you can connect with relevant marketing staff. • • • Overall, I hope the above tips on essential or necessary tasks in travel jotting for beginners will help you start your journey soon! All of this can be a challenge, but back to the first must-do, stay convinced and driven because persistence and consistency are key to making it happen in the travel blogging world. For more blogging tips, don’t forget to check out here. Did you see my latest blog?
