Through this site, I’ve funded 11 years of full-time travel and gained a book deal for my travel memoir, along with a big New york city agent. I’ve been featured in large publications, like the Wall Street Journal, the Independent, and the BBC. I’ve been interviewed on the radio in front of an audience of 1. 6 million 베트남 KTV listeners. And I make a comfortable six figures each year in entirely passive income, meaning the money comes in whether I’m working or not. (In 2023, I average about three hours a day of work).
And yet, before starting Never ending Footsteps, I had zero writing experience, had no idea how to run a website, didn’t really know what a blog was, and had never heard of WordPress.
I didn’t even own a camera.
I’d just graduated from college with a physics degree and was fully intending to throw myself into a career in particle physics — that is, after i took a year-long round-the-world trip.
Guys, I’ve now been travelling full-time for over eleven. freaking. years. That’s 11 years of travel paid for entirely through this travel blog. I want to cry when i think about it.
But you know what? Success to me isn’t just about the money, the book deal, and the media mentions.
Running Never ending Footsteps has led to life-changing friendships with some of the most fascinating and inspirational people I’ve ever met. It’s taught me dozens of new skills and taken me to over a hundred countries. I even found my boyfriend of ten years through this travel blog!
So yeah, I’d say starting a travel blog was the best decision I’ve made.
There are approximately seventeen bajillion articles describing how to start a travel blog in 2023, so i hesitated throwing my take into the mix for many years because of it. After reading several of these articles and cringing my way through them, though, I couldn’t hold back. So much of the information was outdated and wrong! And so, I want to write an article about how you can actually start a travel blog.
I want to show that you can build a six figure business without selling out. That you can be unconventional and embrace your weirdness and find a community of people who love you — without going broke.
You don’t need to do what everyone else is doing — in fact, I recommend actively avoiding it. In a space as crowded as the travel blogging world, you need to stand out and that’s why my guide is the one you should follow. It’s one that’s based around what will give you the best chances of success in the present day.
And how do i know it works? Because I’ve been mentoring around a dozen brand new travel bloggers over the past two years, helping them get set up and find financial success in lighting-fast time. I know what works in 2023 because I’ve been successful at starting in 2023.
COMING UP WITH A NAME FOR YOUR TRAVEL BLOG
Finding the perfect name feels as though it should be one of the most challenging aspects of starting a travel blog. In reality, though, as long as your chosen site name isn’t offensive, you’ll be all good.
When you’re focusing on building passive income (money you make while you’re not actively working), the name of your site becomes way less important. Within a year of starting your travel blog, ninety percent of your site’s visitors are going to come from Google (not social media), and in this situation, the name of your site doesn’t matter.
Think about it: when you’re searching online for travel tips — maybe googling “things to do in Paris” — how much attention do you give to the names of the travel blogs you end up visiting? You probably don’t even notice it until you’re actually on the site! That’s why your blog name is less important than you think. If you can rank in Google (don’t worry — I’ll teach you how to do that! ), you can easily make money from that traffic. And the name of your blog? It could be anything and you would still be pulling in that income.
With that being said, here’s what I recommend keeping in mind:
Find a way to stand out: Names like Nomadic [name], Adventurous [name], Backpacking [name], [name]’s Travels, and Wandering [name]have all been done to death, so if you go down that route, know that your site is going to be fairly generic. That’s not necessarily a bad thing! But if you’re hoping for name recognition in the travel blogging world, it’s a good idea to think of something more original.
What about your name?: If in doubt, register your own name as the name of your travel blog! Why not? You’re never going to grow out of it, it’s an accurate representation of who you are, and it makes branding a hell of a lot easier.
Don’t forget to take a long-term view: Don’t call your blog Travel For a Year if your trip has the potential to last longer; don’t call yourself The Thirty-Year-Old Traveller for the same reason. Likewise, My African Adventures is going to lead to you feeling as though you can’t venture outside of the continent. Having a travel style in the blog name — like Backpacking James or Ruth Loves Luxury Travel could cause problems down the line if you decide, for example, you no longer want to stay in dorms every night.
Keep it classy: If you’re hoping to eventually end up taking press trips or working with companies in any capacity, think about how you’ll feel when handing over your business card or pitching for a trip. “Hey, I run the successful travel blog, “Sex, Drugs, and Travel” won’t necessarily make for the best first impression — although it would probably get me to subscribe, haha. Imagine introducing your site to the CEO of a tour company to see if it feels right. Imagine being ten years older than you are now — will the name hold up when you’re 40, 50, or 60?
Make the name as easy as possible to remember: I’d avoid a site name that contains more than around five words, and I’d also recommend against using hyphens, because they make it tricky to describe your site address to people. Imagine being on a podcast and having to say, “my site is travel hyphen like hyphen a hyphen local, ” or, “my site is Travel Like a Local with hyphens in-between every word. ” Most bloggers I know with hyphens in their url have come to loathe it.
Similarly, long, complicated words can make it tough for people who may not know how to spell them off the top of their heads. The word peripatetic describes a person who moves from place to place — sounds like a great word to include in your travel blog name, right? Now imagine how much of the general public can spell the word correctly first time, let alone know what it means!
Keep in mind that not everybody uses American English or Commonwealth English — if you’re Canadian and call your blog something like My Favourite Places or The Bold Traveller, not everybody will spell those words in the same way, so may not be able to find your site.
Make sure the. com domain name is available: It’s not that important, but people are so used to websites ending with. com they’ll probably forget any other domain extension. If my domain name was neverendingfootsteps. co. uk, for example, I bet half the people would automatically type. com and struggle to find my blog!
Check out the social media options before buying the domain: Before purchasing your domain, make sure that the name of your site is available on every social media network you can think of. It’s not the end of the world if your chosen site name is too long for a username, though, because you can modify it slightly. I’m NEFootsteps on everything but Facebook, for example. And if you’re really in love with your blog name, just use your actual name for social media — lots of bloggers do that.
Think of puns and quotes: If you’re really struggling, I suggest finding a long list of travel quotes and seeing if any of them resonate. Do you have a favourite inspirational saying that you can work into a blog post name? Can you think of a play on words with your name to twist it into a travel-themed phrase? How about your favourite songs? Are there any lyrics that resonate with your current mindset?