This week we’re talking about blogging. It seems like more and more people are deciding to travel, and keep a blog while they do it. Blogs are an amazing way to capture your travels, not only for yourself, but also for your family and friends back home.
Some of the most common questions that we get are how do I get started? What platform do I use? And, how do I buy a domain?
This post will walk you through our top 5 resources for creating an awesome (and affordable) blog, why we use them and how you can get started right now!
1. WordPress
WordPress is just one of the many platforms that you can use to build a blog or website (SquareSpace and Wix are 2 other popular ones). We prefer WordPress because it is comprehensive, professional looking and it’s FREE!
There are SO many beautiful themes that work on WordPress, and it’s easy to make a basic blog look like a professional website.
Although the learning curve is a bit higher with WordPress, there are a ton of great YouTube tutorials out there that can help you troubleshoot your way through WordPress. Plus, once you’ve spent a couple of hours using WordPress, you’ll find that it’s actually not that hard to use.
Note: make sure you use wordpress.org and NOT wordpress.com!
2. Bluehost*
Bluehost is our go to for buying domains. It only costs about $3/month to get started with your domain (less than a latte), and you can purchase it for up to 3 years at a time.
We prefer Bluehost to it’s competitor GoDaddy, because it also provides you with the hosting portion of running your blog, not just the domain itself, and Bluehost has really, really awesome customer service. Once you purchase your domain, if you have any questions at all, they will be able to help you out!
The reason why we believe it’s important to get a domain in the first place is because it is much more professional to have your own website than to have a .wordpress.com website. If you decide you want to monetize your blog at some point, you’ll be really happy you purchased your domain!
3. Canva
Canva is our favorite tool for editing photos, creating graphics (like the one you see below) and upping our graphic design game in general.
One of the keys to a successful blog or website (other than great content) is that it is aesthetically pleasing. If you aren’t a graphic designer, Canva can really help you create beautiful graphics and take your website aesthetics up a notch.
4. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media scheduling tool. One of the best ways to grow your blog is by sharing it with the people in your life on your social media. If you are really looking to build a business with your blog, you probably want to create separate social media accounts for this, but for now, you can schedule your blog posts to your personal Facebook page, Instagram account and whatever other social media accounts you use.
We love to create social media specific graphics via Canva and then share them to social media using Hootsuite!
5. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a FREE email newsletter service that allows you to send out emails to your audience. Once you’ve built your blog, you should add a subscribe option somewhere on your website so that people can give you their email addresses and learn more about what you offer.
You can choose the frequency of these emails – once a month, one a week, or maybe even daily. Whatever you choose, this is a great way to get to know your audience and share your blog posts with them via email. People will often forget to check out blogs, even the ones they love, but having a reminder on social media and in their inbox will encourage them to keep reading and keep engaging.
Now that you know our top 5 resources for our blog, go out there and create an awesome blog! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
*This goes to our Bluehost affiliate link, which means that if you sign up through us, we get a small kickback. You get a better deal using this link, so we think it’s a pretty fair win-win! Enjoy!
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