How to Write a Travel Blog (Beginners Guide)

When starting a travel blog, many people don’t know where to begin. Answering the question of “How do I write a travel blog?” is easy. You just write. The better question is “How do I write great content for a travel blog?”.

Many new bloggers may not have a lot of experience in writing, let alone travel blogging. These tips will hopefully help you not only improve your writing but more importantly, improve your travel writing.

Reading

Reading, unfortunately, has almost become a lost art in this day and age. It is, however, still one of the best ways to improve your writing. Don’t read magazines or trivial fluff, but proper writing from successful authors.

Not only will this open you up to different styles of writing, but will also show you what good writing is, the type of writing that draws you in, shares information or stories and leaves you wanting more. This is the type of writing that helps you build a successful blog.

Read popular books about traveling, whether it be a guide to a particular country or area, but ensure it is written by a reputable writer and traveler. The results of sitting down for a week or two and just reading will show in the first paragraph you write with this newfound knowledge.

Passion and Love

It is easy to get lost in the idea of free holidays and trips if you become a successful blogger, but these things should not be the driving force behind your writing. Readers can tell the difference between passion and freebie hunting.

Instead, write with vigor and show your audience that this is a real passion and the rewards you get are irrelevant. This passion will instantly show in your writing and those freebies you were dreaming about will fall in your lap.

The structure is not a rule

It is not always necessary to write a story in the regular format of opening, middle, and end. If you have a great idea for a conclusion, write it down, if you have a juicy story for the body, write it down.

This will encourage you to start developing stories that aren’t linear, you won’t feel forced to come up with some fluff for a conclusion or to fill the body, all the ideas will already be there and you can piece them together.

Motivation

Not every writer was born with this innate talent to tell stories and ensnare a reader’s senses. They were motivated and driven to be better. When reading they were dissecting what made the story or book good and then used those practices in their own writing.

You need to do the same, be driven to go out and learn as much as you can, and to make mistakes even, be motivated to learn the process and to be better. Like everything, being a good writer takes practice.

Creative juices

What inspires your writing? What do you do that just makes something in your brain go into overdrive, full of ideas?. This process is important to know, as there will be times when you are stuck with nothing and have zero inspiration.

This process doesn’t even have to be related to writing, is it watching a movie? Talking to your friends about their holiday? Whatever it may be, perfect that process, it will keep your mind running and you won’t ever be stumped for an idea.

Storytelling

With all writing, telling a story that keeps your readers involved in what you are writing is of utmost importance. You need to know how to put your experience, holiday, or product review into a story that your readers want to read. This takes time, but there are tins of classes online on how to tell a story as opposed to just writing.

Failing

The chances of your first draft being perfect are almost zero. This is not a bad thing though. You need to be ok with not getting it right the first time. Failing helps you grow and helps you see where you went wrong.

You must write the post or paragraph or even sentence as many times as you want until you get it right, don’t feel pressured to be perfect all the time. Writing is a process and no process ends after step one. (https://swagatgrocery.com/)

Knowledge is power

The one thing that will get your blog lost in the quagmire of the internet is to be like everybody else or to write about something you have barely any knowledge of. Writing what you know and writing it how you would write it is your greatest power.

There will always be a writer that knows more than you, writes better than you, and is generally just better than you. The one thing they can’t be though is you. They don’t have your imagination, or stories or way with words, use those things as much as you can.

Read it

Once you are finished with a piece, read it out loud. Hear how the sentences flow and how the ideas join together. This will give you great insight into how someone else will read it, and you will pick up on mistakes you would not have originally seen.

Outside opinion

The best way to see if your writing is good or needs improving is to have an outside source read it. In this case, someone who has no knowledge of writing or travel blogging. They will give you great feedback about how the post reads to an average Joe.

The chances of you impressing a far more experienced writer or travel blogger are slim to none, but they aren’t the majority of your audience. The average person wanting to know more about safaris in South Africa or the ski slopes in Austria, they are your audience, they need to love it.

Self-editing and critiquing

You need to start seeing where you went wrong in relation to sentence construction, grammar, and spelling. It is very easy to write a post, reread it, and then post it. But often you will spot a silly typo.

After you have written, leave your desk for a few hours, even a day or two, and then come back, with a clear mind, and reread what you have written. Get someone else to read it too, this process will help you spot mistakes.

These steps are not a fool-proof way to improve your writing, but they are definitely great steps in the write direction. Knowing how to write well is an art form, and like more artforms, it takes practice, patience, and a lot of time to get right.