Last Updated: 10/13/21 | October 13th, 2021

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Whether as a hobby or profession, starting a travel blog is pretty easy. You can set it up in under 30 minutes. It’s a lot much easier than when I started my blog in 2008. Back then, I didn’t know the first thing about making a website. Luckily, on my adventures around the world, I met Matt and Kat, a British couple who also happened to be web designers.

When I came home and made a decision I wanted to start this travel blog, they agreed to help me set it up and show me HTML. I hand-coded the web site and used a funky tool called Dreamweaver to build it. It was painfully slow and I wasn’t very good at it. (And my original web site was really ugly!)

Luckily, you no longer have to build web sites that way!

Creating a web site has gotten a lot much easier and simpler thanks to WordPress, an out-of-the-box platform created to make sites much easier for those not technically savvy (like myself). It powers over 25% of the Internet and is the best platform to start a blog on. It’s incredibly flexible and can do whatever you want it to do — from a basic journal to complex blogs and e-commerce websites.

In our blogging masterclass, we’ve had thousands of students start a web site on WordPress without any technical skills. They got them up and running — and you can too!

While I’ve talked about how to prosper as a travel blog in the past, today, I want to give a quick tutorial on how to create a travel blog from scratch in seven easy steps.

Sommario

Step 1: picking a Name
Step 2: Signing Up for a Host
Step 3: Installing WordPress
Step 4: setting Up Your Website
Step 5: Installing Your Theme
Step 6: creating Your main Pages
Step 7: joining Our blogging Masterclass
Domande frequenti

Step 1: pick your domain name

The first thing you need to do is pick a domain name (i.e., your web site name). When doing so, there are no hard and fast rules. There’s no such thing as a “wrong domain name,” but there are a couple of policies I like to live by:

Make a name that can last – If you pick “JohnsAsiaAdeventure.com” and then you leave Asia, the domain name won’t make sense anymore. Make sure you pick a name that isn’t so focused that if you decide to shift gears, you can keep the same domain name.

Don’t date your blog – Don’t pick something related to your age either. “Twenty-Something Travel” becomes really irrelevant when you get older, which actually happened to a blogger I know. pick a name that can be used no matter your age!

Avoid certain words – avoid words like “nomad,” “vagabond,” “wanderlust,” and “adventure.” They have been done to death, and they will make you seem like you’re copying people, not being original.

Pick a name that describes what you do as much as possible – I was a nomad, so “Nomadic Matt” was the best pick for me. If you’re into luxury, put words in your domain name that convey that. You want people to see the name and go, “I get what that web site is about.”

Keep it short – use 3-4 words maximum. You want the name that rolls off the tongue. even Ramit Sethi from “I will show You to Be Rich” abbreviates his site to “I will Teach” or “IWT.” The shorter, the better.

Keep it basic – I’m not a fan of using jargon or slang in your domain name, as I think that makes things confusing for people who don’t know it. The last thing you want is someone saying, “What does that mean?” or being confused. If someone has to think hard about the meaning, then you’ve already lost them. So don’t try to be clever!

Step 2: sign up for a host

After you’ve picked out your domain name, you’ll need to register it online and get hosting (the little computer in the sky that’s going to power your website). There are a lot of basic hosting companies out there — and a lot of of them are pretty terrible.

However, the two greatest and best are HostGator and Bluehost. I would opt for one of those two.

While they are owned by the same parent company, I lean toward HostGator, as I find its call center customer service quicker and friendlier, and HostGator is prone to fewer outages (no one wants their web site to go down!). It’s also really improved its service and now uses complimentary SSL certificates (that’s the thing that tells users your web site is secure).

Here’s a walk-through of how to set up your host with HostGator (it won’t take long):

First, head over to the website’s sign-up page and get hosting for only $2.78 per month. That’s over 60% off the normal price!

Next, choose your plan (I suggest the hatchling plan):

Enter your desired domain name at the top of the page. Make sure before you sign up that the domain you want is available, so as to avoid issues with your signup process.

The system will then prompt you to take out “domain privacy protection,” which we recommend you do. (Why? This will hide your address and contact details from appearing online when someone queries your domain name, and it will keep spammers from calling you to sell their sketchy web services. It’s really bothersome — and once your name and phone number are out there, they’re out there forever. Nip it in the bud by hiding them from the beginning.)

If you already have a domain name but need hosting, simply select the “I already own this domain” from the tab at the top. Then, enter your domain name and continue to the next step.

Make sure you have selected the ideal hosting plan from the drop-down list and then select the billing cycle you are prepared to pay. The longer you lock in for, the more affordable initial pricing will be.

We suggest starting with the “Hatchling Plan” (which gives you hosting for one single domain), but if you have plans for a lot more than one website, then select the “Baby Plan” instead, to give you room to grow (since you can host unrestricted domains with it).

Next, you will then select the username for your account and a safety PIN. fill out your billing information and preferred payment type (credit card or PayPal.)

You can opt-out of all of the additional services on offer by unchecking them.

Review your buy details and make sure everything is correct. then click “Checkout Now!” Nella parte inferiore della pagina.

Once your buy has been received, you’ll be redirected to the HostGator billing portal. You will also be sent two separate emails with the login credentials to your hosting control panel and the billing portal for your HostGator account. Be sure to save the information. save them on your computer and/or print the emails for safekeeping.

They will look similar to the example below:

For those of you with an existing domain or a domain purchased from a third-party site like GoDaddy, take note of the nameservers provided on your hosting account email. You will need to add those to your domain where you purchased it, to link your domain and hosting together. Please refer to the support papers from where you gotten your domain for exact instructions on how to update your nameservers.

Questo è tutto! All that takes about five minutes from start to finish!

Again, you can click here to go to HostGator to set it up.

Step 3: how to install WordPress

After you’ve registered your domain name and chosen your hosting package, the next thing you’ll want to do is install WordPress. (WordPress is what will actually run the website. The host is simply the computer your site sits on.)

WordPress is an open-source, complimentary web publishing application, content management system (CMS), and blogging tool built by a community of developers and contributors to make it easy for people to blog!

After you’ve paid for your domain, you’ll get an email telling you your login details. Log in to your hosting control panel using the link supplied to you by email when you purchased your hosting from Hostgator. The link would look similar to this:

https://gatorXXXX.hostgator.com:2083

The email will be titled “Your Account Info” if you have trouble locating it in your inbox.

Once logged into your control panel, you need to scroll down the settings page to locate the “Software” section. then click on the “QuickInstall” link. The software section will be located toward the bottom of the page.

On the page that loads, select WordPress from the top menu or the WordPress tile on the page..

Select your domain name from the drop-down. Leave the “install/path/here” field blank.

Enter the name of your blog, an admin username (make sure the admin username is hard to guess), your name, and your email address, and then agree to the terms and conditions below. then click the “Install” button.

Once the install process has finished, you will be given the password you need to log in to your WordPress site in the notification bar at the top (dismiss the popup that appears). Take note of the password, as we will show you how to change that later on. You will also be emailed the details if you miss or forget to save the info.

Step 4: setting up your website

After you’ve installed WordPress, go to domainname.com/wp-admin and use the username and password you created to log in. You’ll see a screen like this after you log in:

Here’s a little introduction of the menu on the left side of the screen:

Dashboard – The dashboard is the first thing you see when you log in to WordPress, and it’s the main administrative area for your blog.

Home – This will take you back to the main dashboard view.

Updates – This area will tell you if WordPress, your plugins, or your theme need to be updated.

Jetpack – Jetpack is a plugin that allows you to add a spell-checker, contact forms, extra widgets, etc.

Posts – You can vSono qui tutti i tuoi articoli di blog, oltre a configurarne di nuovi e aggiungere categorie e tag.

Media: qui è dove puoi visualizzare la tua libreria multimediale e aggiungere nuovi contenuti multimediali, come foto e video.

Pagine – Le pagine sono le singole pagine di destinazione sul tuo sito Web (come la pagina in merito, la pagina di contatto, la pagina delle risorse, ecc.). Puoi aggiungere nuove pagine qui e rivedere e modificare quelle esistenti.

Commenti: i commenti sui tuoi articoli del blog vanno qui. Potresti voler controllare periodicamente la cartella spam per assicurarti che non ti mancano commenti reali.

WPFORMS-Il plug-in a forma di contatto di WordPress.

Marketplace: qui puoi creare un mercato online.

Aspetto: questa sezione ti consente di personalizzare completamente l’aspetto del tuo sito.

Plug -in: rivedi, installa e aggiorna i plugin qui.

Utenti: se c’è molto più di una persona che accede al tuo blog, puoi creare account e dare loro determinati privilegi qui.

Strumenti: questa sezione ha determinati strumenti per aiutarti con attività di gestione.

Impostazioni: puoi regolare tutte le impostazioni del tuo sito qui, tra cui cose come il titolo del tuo blog e le dimensioni delle miniature utilizzate.

Insights: Insights fornisce il traffico e le statistiche degli utenti su coloro che controllano il tuo sito Web. (Google Analytics è una scelta migliore, però.)

I plugin sono un modo fantastico per aggiungere ulteriore funzionalità a un sito basato su WordPress. E con oltre 50.000 forniti nel repository di WordPress e molte più opzioni premium disponibili dagli sviluppatori, ci sono possibilità illimitate su ciò che puoi fare con il tuo sito. (Elencherò alcuni esempi di seguito.)

Per iniziare, fai clic su “Plugin”, quindi “Aggiungi nuovo” quando accedi alla dashboard WordPress. Qui puoi cercare plugin che desideri e installarli tramite un’installazione con un clic che li installa automaticamente sulla piattaforma WordPress.

In alternativa, hai la possibilità di pubblicare un plug-in acquistato o scaricato da un sito di terze parti. Per fare questo, vedere la freccia “Passaggio 3” nella foto sopra. Tutto quello che devi fare è fare clic su “Carica plug-in” e ti verrà chiesto di pubblicare il file zip del plug-in scaricato dal sito Web di terze parti.

Dopo aver caricato un plug -in (o cercato uno, come ho mostrato nell’immagine qui sotto) puoi installarlo.

Dopo aver fatto clic sull’opzione “Installa ora”, il pulsante cambierà per dire “Attiva”. Ciò consente di abilitare il plug -in sul tuo sito e lo rende pronto per essere configurato e utilizzato.

Se riesci a pensare a una funzione che desideri avere sul tuo sito, posso quasi garantire che ci sia un plug -in per questo, ma ecco quelli vitali per il tuo blog di viaggio:

Akismet – Proprio come ricevere posta spazzatura nella tua casella di posta, il tuo sito Web avrà spammer che cercano di lasciare commenti spazzatura sul tuo sito. Akismet cerca di ridurre al minimo la quantità di questo filtrandolo automaticamente per te.

Yoast Seo – Il miglior plug -in SEO là fuori. Questo combina la possibilità di creare meta identifica e descrizioni per i tuoi post, ottimizzare i tuoi titoli, creare una sitemap per leggere i motori di ricerca, personalizzare come appaiono i tuoi articoli sui social media e fare molto di più.

Relevansi – Mentre WordPress fa molte cose bene, ciò a cui fallisce è aggiungere funzionalità di ricerca al tuo sito. Relevansi cerca di risolvere questo problema e dare ai tuoi lettori i risultati più accurati durante la ricerca sul tuo sito.

UpDraftPlus: non puoi mai eseguire il backup del tuo sito troppo. Il database di WordPress contiene ogni parola che tu abbia mai scritto e se il tuo blog ha iniziato a farti qualche dollaro, saresti pazzo per non mantenere backup regolari. UpDraftPlus lo fa perfettamente.

Grow by Mediavine – Un fantastico plug -in di condivisione sociale per il tuo sito. Viene fornito con un fantastico set di icone che funzionano bene sia sul desktop che su dispositivi mobili.

Cache Enabler: questo plug -in crea copie salvate del tuo sito, rendendo molto più veloce il caricamento delle tue pagine web.

Jetpack �