Are you itching to document your globetrotting adventures as a travel blogger, but are you too overwhelmed to take the plunge? Then you’ve come to the right place. Below, you’ll find some of the most important things to do and consider to start travel blogging on your own terms.

Find Your Unique Focus

First and foremost, you’ll need to figure out what kind of blogger you wish to be. This may sound like a way too open question for a beginner – but on the contrary, it actually requires you to get specific about the content you’ll create.

Let’s go through an example: Say you’re a young woman who prefers to travel alone. In this case, there are many female solo travelers of a similar age to you out there – or younger girls aspiring to do what you’re doing. These people are always looking for resources through which to share solo traveling experiences and be inspired. So why not be that resource?

Alternatively, if you have a particular interest – like movies and TV, music, fitness, horse riding, etc. – many like-minded people would love traveling advice based on their passions. Write guides with interest-specific places to visit in different cities and countries, document your experiences – or whatever else you know your niche would love to inspire their own nerdy journeys.

Create a Recognizable Brand

Once you have your focus, it’s time to create a brand for yourself. Finding a blog name is a great place to start. This shouldn’t be too hard, considering that you know exactly what kind of content you’ll be posting. If you need ideas for your own travel blog’s name, a generator can give you some options once you’ve fed it with a few relevant keywords – but again, this might not even be necessary.

When naming a travel blog, it’s best to keep it simple. Of course, alliterations, metaphors, puns and rhythmic sounds are always great. But above all, make sure to use keywords related to your subject matter. Women looking for solo female travel tips, for instance, will typically search for “female solo travel”, “woman traveling alone”, etc. Make sure to hit some of these words in your title and copy to pop up on their Google searches.

Besides your title, you also need to create a visually inviting website. What this process looks like for you comes down to your own skills as well as your budget for hiring others to help you. If you’re a decent coder or are fine with using a template on a website builder like Wix or Squarespace, you’ll probably be fine on your own. But if you have the money, a freelance developer and/or graphic designer will be able to create a website that is way more polished and customized to your identity.

Stay True to Yourself

Lastly, an ultra short tip if you’re in it for the long haul: Change up your content every now and then to make sure it’s still reflective of who you are. Say, for instance, that you started as a solo traveler going to remote, inaccessible locations. If you find a partner you’d love to start a family with, don’t down-prioritize your dreams and force yourself to keep taking trips that fit your concept.

Instead, adjust your travel plans and content to fit this new phase of your life and be honest with your readers. Sure, you might lose some of them because of this. But since they’ll probably be of a similar age to you, many of them might be going through the exact same thing and be able to relate – and even if that’s not the case, they’ll probably still prefer this to you burning out trying to be someone you’re not anymore.