How to Start a Successful Travel Blog in 2020 From Scratch

How to start a Travel Blog?

Not a single day has gone by since last 2 years when I haven't  been requested to answer this question - How to start a Travel Blog - on Quora , on Facebook Messenger &/or on my mail. While I tried to answer in brief individually many times but going by the shear frequency of this particular query being raised , I finally decided to write a detailed and comprehensive Blog to answer the subject question as well as the related matters.

But before jumping on our main subject ,  it is very important to understand what exactly works and what doesn't in the world of  Travel Blogging . So lets try to understand the basics first :

Who Should start a Travel Blog ?

The real voyage of discovery consist not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes

The Quote above perfectly summarizes the difference between a tourist & a traveller. While a tourist's wanderlust will urge him/her to always look out for new places , a traveller would rather be happy exploring the unexplored sides of a place which he/she might have visited quiet a few times.

And if you can honestly see yourself in the latter category i.e. as an ardent traveller and you have a knack of telling stories , then you are a perfect candidate to start a Travel Blog and that exactly answers who should start a Travel Blog .

How Things actually work in Travel Blogging Sector 

To understand the nitty grittes of Travel Blogging community , it would be useful to split this discussion primarily under two heads :

• Why & which Travel Blogs fail ?
• Key to a successful Travel Blog

Just to reinforce & emphasize on what I have mentioned so far I would like to put across a statement in a very simple language -  Please start a Travel Blog only if you are really an ardent traveller & an equally passionate writer and not  just because you have heard or read about perks of Travel Blogging and you too want your share of publicity . Sorry guys, such expectations will only bring disappointment for you because it doesn't work like that . More on it later in this write up under the head - Key to a successful Travel Blog but lets first learn what causes the painful closure of once promising Travel Blogs.

Reasons of failure of a Travel Blog

After having seen & observed a lot of Travels blogs in last few years that became redundant after initial rise  ,  I could finally figure out some of the most common reasons for a Travel Blog to fail .

What really happens is that  after going through picturesque posts on instagram or other social media platforms and / or after reading about various lucrative perks associated with Travel Blogging like mutlti-digit earnings of popular Travel Bloggers, their life-style, their  fully sponsored lavish vacations to some of the most exotic places ,etc etc. , many a times a traveller/tourist or even a routine person starts thinking that hey ! Why shouldn't I give it a try ,for who doesn't crave for such a profession where you will live a luxurious life & will rather get paid for it and so , they start their own Travel Blog without making any efforts whatsoever to first learn some basics of  blogging .

What they conveniently forget or choose to ignore is the years of consistent efforts & hardwork that these immensely popular travel bloggers have put into their work while publishing hundreds of posts /articles before finally getting noticed in a big way . Anyone who is planning to start a Travel blog must understand these two very fundamental things that rule the Creative World of Travel Blogging -

1. If you don't have that in-built passion for Travel , no matter how hard you try, you just won't survive because the same will get reflected in your articles. Words don't lie and readers today are smart enough to read in between the lines which easily give them a clear idea of your intentions  . So if the very reason why you want to start travel blogging is money / perks & not your urge for globetrotting , disaster is on the cards my friend.
2. Every traveller is not necessarily a good writer or an engaging storyteller or a professional photographer and in the present times where there are thousands of excellent travel story writers and lakhs of above average Travel Bloggers out there , if you are not good at expressing yourself in writing or otherwise, you will really find it very difficult to make both ends meet . That's simply because to keep your followers engaged & hooked to your blog , you will need to continuously create good content & publish informative & useful travel write ups months after months .Now if you are not good at writing or if you don't really love to write then once the  temporary excitement lasting first 2-3 months recedes, there is every probability that you will give up writing any further and hence the Blog eventually collapses .

Factors that ensure the success of a Travel Blog

While the definition of a successful Travel Blog is very relative but generally by a successful travel blog we mean a Blog which is popular & happening in true sense. A successful Travel Blog is one which is generating a good revenue while creating some truly useful & high on information Travel write -ups thereby creating a win-win situation for both the readers and as well as for the founders.

Now coming to our subject , well "Content is the king" - Please mark my words , among the sole & whole things on which success of your Travel Blog depends, Content is right there at the top . No matter what you do , how aggressively you promote  your Travel site , how many agencies you hire to work on your site's SEO (Search Engine Optimization) , how many backlinks you create - all these will work if & only if you keep on publishing original , unique , interesting ,informative and plagiarism free Travel articles on your website .

Just check any of the Top 50 Travel Blogs of World / Asia / India . You will find that while interfaces are quiet different , but each of them is loaded with really high on content Travel write-ups.

Besides the content though ,there are a number of other factors too that may help a Travel Blog on its way to success .  If I have to single out 02 of such Critical factors , then they would be

1. Proper Marketing  & promotion of website/Blog posts.
2. Updating & making the Blog site robust from SEO point of view

You will learn about both of them gradually as you continue blogging . For now, it's time to get back to basics :

How exactly to start a Travel Blog ?

For my to-be Blogger friends who have to start everything from the scratch and those who want to learn the a,b,c of starting a blog ( Travel or otherwise ) , another article of mine published earlier may really prove to be very useful . I am saying this based on the feedback that I received for the this particular article the link of which has been mentioned below :

Blog writing – The Dilemma of a beginner and how to actually get started !

But as a ready reference , I would strongly suggest Beginners to follow the steps mentioned below in the same order to increase the chances of success of their Travel Blogs :

• Choose a suitable platform  & suitable domain name for your blog.
• Start with a free account for first 03 months during which focus on learning how things work on your platform & developing high quality content.
• Learn the art of promoting your content aggressively & unapologetically on Social Media. Don't waste your energy by posting your post's URL randomly anywhere, it won't yield results. Rather , see what your article is about ,select the forums/groups accordingly where that article will find relevance and then promote it wisely .
• If things go as planned , switch to a paid account on same platform ,retaining same domain so that work you did in last 03 months don't go waste as far as Domain Authority & other parameters of  your blog is concerned .
• Since a paid account comes with additional features, so give yourself sometime to get acquainted to them while continuing publishing & then promoting fresh content that your Blog site has to offer.
• After about 4- 5 months into Travel blogging, following above steps religiously , get ready to work on technical aspects of website side by side . Start reading ,learning& understanding clearly in detail about fundamentals like SEO, Domain Authority, Page Authority,Moz Rank , Alexa Rank , Social Reach , Back-links ,Bounce rate  difference between do-follow & no-follow links, how google indexes your site etc.
• Once you clearly understand the mechanics of backlinks/do-follow/no-follow links , you may start accepting guest posts as well as submitting your posts for guest postings to gain quality backlinks.
• Start looking for Travel Campaigns / Digital Marketing Campaigns offered by good brands/established names , apply for them & follow up . ( How to get good campaigns / revenue generating offers is itself a huge subject for which I will probably write on in future but only  if my readers want me to )
• Be a smart learner , learn from the mistakes of others . {For instance , have a look at mistakes that I committed so as to avoid the same  : Why all the hell broke loose as I switched from a free to a paid Blog domain ? }
• Keep Blogging , keep learning , Keep revamping  & updating your website .

Conclusion & a word for my readers 

I hope you found the article useful as I have specially penned it with all my heart & experience to help many who just want a little knowledge & who knows, they might end up as the most sought after Travel Bloggers. Please share your feedback in the comment section below and / or at insideoutwithrahulyuvi@gmail and let me know what else you want me to write on .

You may like to read my Travel blogs here : Exclusive Travel Blogs @ Inside Out with Rahul Yuvi

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Namaste & Take Care !