5 Important Tips on How to be a Travel Blogger

Many people dream about traveling around the world for a living. And, in 2021, this can be possible, even if you’re not a pilot, business person, or flight attendant.

We will talk about how to be a travel blogger and write about your biggest passion in life: traveling.  

Who wouldn’t want to be a travel blogger, right? You get to see the world and have the expensive travel costs covered by someone else.

But the truth is that it’s not all about grabbing exotic trips in first class. Travel blogging is a job. 

Everybody wants to ride the wave of being a famous travel blogger. But it isn’t all rainbows and sunshine and special perks from 5-star hotels.

It takes a lot of work and commitment to be a successful travel blogger. So, here are five tips on how to be a travel blogger:

How to be a Travel Blogger as a Career

Be realistic about the challenges 

Like it or not, the first thing you need to do if you want to have a successful blog is to understand that being a travel blogger isn’t that easy.

There are many travel blogging truths that many bloggers ignore and get disappointed and then give up. More precisely, before you start a travel blog, you should know that: 

• Travel blogging is pretty common these days- Travel blogging is a very saturated niche, meaning that there’s also a lot of competition that you need to work hard to stay ahead of. 
• You’ll spend a lot of time behind your computer- Being a travel blogger doesn’t just mean posting some spectacular selfies and photos from the places you’re visiting. You’ll also spend hours, if not days, editing photos and videos, writing, and marketing your blog. 
• You’ll experience writer’s block- Every writer, no matter the industry, experiences writer’s block. Creating excellent content all the time is hard and will make you experience some stress, especially when you’ll be on a tight deadline from the companies you’re promoting. 

You won’t earn a fixed income- Blogging, and freelancing in general, don’t offer you a fixed income the same as work with a full-time employer you have if you work a full-time job for an employer. 

Choose a niche

Once you understand the potential challenges that you may meet on the way and you’re prepared to overcome them without quitting, it is time to actually start investing time, effort, and money in your travel blog. 

The first step in that direction is to choose a travel niche. Like all types of blogs, travel blogs can focus on several diverse sub-niches, like city blogging, family travel, country-focused, adventure travel, solo traveling, luxury, or budget travel.  

You know that you want to be a travel blogger. But the question is, how to be a travel blogger in a sub-niche? Ask yourself a few questions: 

• What do you want to write about? 
• Where do you want to travel to?
• Do you want to travel alone? 
• Can I write about a single topic for a long time, or should I choose a broader niche? 

Answer all these questions and choose the niche of your blog based on your answers. 

Do a lot of branding.

Once you know exactly what you’ll be writing about and what kind of places you want to travel to, it is time to create your own brand. Most travel bloggers market themselves as brands.

You should, too, because your brand will be what people will recognize you for. 

Elements of your brand include everything from your blog name to visual elements like logo color palette, images, fonts, and so on, and the voice and unicity of your writing.

Even the greeting words you use at the beginning of your blogs can be a branding element that people will recognize you for. 

So, start by choosing a name for your blog that is easy to remember and spell. You also do not want it to be too long, and no special characters.

When choosing a logo, images, or the voice of your writing, choose something that represents you.

When selecting a color palette for your blog, use the psychology of color principles and select colors that evoke the feelings you want your readers to experience when surfing on your blog. 

Besides branding, you also need to promote your travel blog heavily. Create social media accounts or promote your blog on your personal accounts if you want and already have an established base of followers.

Create an email marketing campaign to invite people to enter your blog. In short, promote your travel blog anywhere you can, both online and offline. 

Publish top-quality content

The most important thing you need to do to have a successful travel blog is to publish quality content. Relevant, helpful, and quality content is the only way to keep your readers engaged and coming back to read more about your travel experiences and tips. 

Your content also needs to be unique. It is the only way to make a difference in a saturated niche and stay above your competitors.

For example, you can go beyond the standard travel tips all travel bloggers are sharing. Instead, you can create printable PDF travel itineraries or packing lists that your readers can download, print, and use.

Use the PDF format for such pieces of content that you share because it is the most versatile and widely accepted file format.

It can be opened on any device, keeps the formatting exactly as you see it, and with new PDF editing tools available, such as the ones from PDFChef,  you can also easily edit it. 

When creating and publishing content on your travel blog, don’t neglect optimizing it for SEO because this will improve your ranking in Google. To optimize your content: 

• Write short but interesting and eye-catching titles that people want to click on. 
• Use relevant keywords.
• Use headings to organize your blog. 
• Use keywords from your blogs in URL slugs. 

Remember that people are visual creatures.

Visual is king these days in the digital environment. If you don’t believe it, think of the fact that platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are growing in popularity at an incredibly rapid pace. 

When it comes to how to be a travel blogger, the visuals matter a lot. They help people actually see how the place they are reading about looks like.

With good resolution and audio, your readers will even feel like they are there while reading your blog. 

So, make sure that you blend plenty of visual elements in your blog and content. Invest in quality photography and videography tools to ensure quality visuals. 

Are You Ready to Get Blogging?

If, after reading this, you are still excited about starting your travel blog, then you are ready. Get to work, and maybe we will see you out there!