5 Tips for Starting a Successful Travel Blog

Starting a travel blog seems like a relatively easy task. You set up a website and write about your travels. However, if you are looking to make your travel blog more than just a diary of your travels and actually a blog that is successful, you will need to go a bit further. After starting my own travel blog five years ago, I have lived and learned about running a blog focused on adventure. Here are five simple tips for starting a successful travel blog.

Write Well and Write What You Know: Some of those starting a travel blog don’t place enough importance on their writing. You might think a travel blog is a means to travel the world for free. However, you must be passionate about what you are covering on your blog. You also stand a better chance of gaining traction in the industry if you focus on a set niche or area such as solo travel, budget travel or travel to a specific location. If your writing skills are lacking, you can lose credibility in the industry. It is best to have someone else read your work in this case to catch any minor errors that might distract away from your blog.

Be Social: When I started my own travel blog, I remember how overwhelming it seemed. There were so many others out there who had been in the industry for some time. In order to be successful with your travel blog, you need to get to know others in the industry and also other travelers. You should be active on social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. New travel bloggers should be cautious with their social media channels in the process. You shouldn’t use these outlets merely to promote your own work but to also promote the articles of other travelers that you enjoy reading. The travel blog community is a social one. Commenting, reading and promoting others will help your blog get noticed in the process. It is also advantageous to new travel bloggers to reply to comments that they receive on their posts. This will keep the conversation going and in turn help you develop an audience.

Approach Advertising With Caution: Many new travel bloggers jump at the opportunity to make money off of their blog. However, not all of these offers are the best for your blog. You might be offered what you think is a handsome sum for a banner ad or a text link ad. In the process, you could be signing on to advertising deals that hurt your credibility and aren’t worth the little money. Travel bloggers should form partnerships with products and services that they actually would recommend. If you are suddenly saying some travel product or service is amazing because you received it for free, your audience will have trouble respecting you and as a result head away from your site. Also, you shouldn’t merely think your blog will make money off of advertising. Your travel blog can be a means to other writing or social media gigs if you take it seriously.

Travel Often and Keep a Journal: My travel blog is always at its most active with readers when I am traveling. If you want to have a successful travel blog, you have to commit to it in the process. Even if you can’t quit your day job merely for your blog, you must find ways to travel near and far to keep readers engaged. I also strongly encourage new travel bloggers to journal every day of their travels. Even if you are just traveling for a weekend away and will write about it later, the details of your journey, the moments that will grab readers, will be at their most fresh in your mind when you are traveling. You need to actively record what you are seeing, experiencing and doing as you travel.

Be Yourself: Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but in the travel blog community, it can be your one-way ticket to nowhere. As there are so many travel blogs out there, it can be difficult to distinguish one from the next. The important thing to remember is to be yourself with how you conduct and write your blog. It can be easy to imitate the bigwig travel blogs in hopes of being successful like they are. However, you also run the risk of falling into the black hole of all of the travel blogs doing the same. Be yourself on your travel blog and avoid imitation. Brands, tourism boards and travel products won’t take notice of you if you are like all the others.