If you’re here, you’re probably thinking about starting a blog in 2026 . Whether you’re thinking of starting a blog to make money, share your travels, or augment your content creation business, you’re in the right place! From basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to how to combat the rise of AI-generated content, here’s the best tips to start a travel blog in 2026:

Isn’t the Travel Blogging Industry too Saturated?

A lot of people thinking of starting a blog to make money wonder if the travel blogging industry is too saturated too start now and succeed. The industry might be popular, but it is definitely not too late to start. When searching for travel advice on the internet, people prefer newer articles to older, meaning that there is always a chance to break in as a new writer. Additionally, picking a niche or region write about that isn’t saturated can help you differentiate yourself.

Anecdotally, in the past year or so Google has seemed to actually favor smaller blogs over larger, established blogs, meaning that it’s actually a really promising time to start a travel blog. Like every industry, the travel blogging industry is always changing. This means that there is always opportunity for savvy new writers to break in.

Hey there! This article contains affiliate links. That means if you choose to make a purchase based on a recommendation I’ve made, I make a small kickback at no additional cost to you.

How to Start a Travel Blog in 2026 for Content Creators:

From SEO, to integrating social media and blogging trends, here are the best tips to starting a travel blog in 2026.

1) Pick a narrow niche: smartest move for travel bloggers in 2026

One of the smartest moves you can make as a new blogger is picking a laser-focused and narrow niche. Do you love national parks? Focus your travel blog on visiting national parks specifically. Are you a fan of local travel? Focus your travel blog on travelling within your state or region.

The category “solo female traveler” is no longer niche enough; it’s smarter to dedicate your blog specifically to categories more specific. For example, if you were thinking of starting a blog about solo female travel, you might redirect to content pillars “northeast hiking trails”, “solo female camping”, and “best gear for women”. The overarching theme can be solo female travel, but you’ll want to make sure you have more specific content clusters or pillars backing that up.

Keep in mind: you don’t actually need to travel to start a travel blog! Some of the best travel blogs begin by focusing on local travel and branch out from there. Plus, starting local can give you a lot of opportunities to partner with smaller, local businesses.

A narrow niche is important, but don’t feel pigeonholed! For example, I write about Midwest-based hiking and adventures, but I also have high-ranking articles for travel in the West Coast and Southwest; the secret here is that I started small, focusing on Minnesota and then built up in the Midwest region. When I write about other regions like the Southwest and West Coast, I make sure I have at least three articles to write on the region and that those articles can interlink.

2) Choose 2-4 content pillars

You don’t have to pick just one narrow niche to see success! Think of your blog as a cluster of 2-4 content pillars (pick two to start and expand as you expand) and fill out your content around those pillars. I like to think of the content in my pillars as a series of inter-related resources all designed to help a specific audience.

For example, under my content pillar “Midwest”, you can find trail and outdoor travel guides to destinations within the Midwest. Under content pillar “Beginner Outdoor Guides” you can find more generalize outdoor guides.

More than four content pillars can make your blog difficult to navigate and be very difficult for you to keep up, especially as a one-man-team. Probably the best strategy for content pillars is to start with 2-3 very specific pillars (niches) such as “northeast hiking trails”, “northeast coffee & bakeries”, and “solo female camping”. Because you can create a large quantity of content on related topics, your SEO will improve as Google recognizes you as an expert on these topics. With time, you can collapse your two northeast pillars into one, “northeast travel”, and add more content pillars.

Still, the most successful blogs have a unifying idea like “travel blog”, “hiking blog” or even the vague “lifestyle blog”.

don’t be afraid to change your blog as you change:

I’ve actually converted my “Pacific Northwest” pillar to “Travel” and now have sub-categories within that pillar. I’m no longer actively blogging on Pacific Northwest Adventures and focusing on expanding other categories instead.

3) Keep it personal to combat Artificial Intelligence as a blogger in 2026

A lot of writers are very concerned about the rise of AI-written content. Bloggers who write exclusively cookie-cutter listicles absolutely have reason to worry! With the rise of AI, readers are going to seek out a more personal experience, and Google is prioritizing content clearly written by a person.

For this reason, incorporating first person personal accounts of places, including your own experiences and opinions and using first person personal pronouns in your writing is one of the best ways to prove that you, the person, write your content, not a program. With that in mind, I definitely don’t recommend using AI to write your content. In addition to being very lame, you’ll end up with a blog that looks and sounds just like everyone else’s, which will ultimately hurt your rankings and brand.

Despite the rise of AI-written content, the future of Travel Blogging in 2026 is really bright!

Try Googling “How to Start a Travel Blog in 2025.” Are a lot of the articles that pop up very similar? That’s what I experienced when researching for this article. A lot of the blog posts on the internet are variations on the same article, published over and over again.

Now Google “What to do in Olympic National Park”. Do the first few blog posts look pretty much the same? This is actually great news for aspiring travel writers! A lot of the content online is looking more and more similar. If you can write engaging and helpful articles that show your personality and clearly provide value for the reader, you’ll easily not only outcompete AI, but also a lot of other established bloggers following the same traditional formats.

4) Consider Content Type & Provide Value

When focusing in on your travel blog, consider the type of content your writing. Everything you write should have concrete value to the reader. Writing a personal essay about your experience in Glacier National Park might be more fun, but writing an article about “how to visit Glacier National Park in 48 hours” will get a lot more traction.

That said, it’s a great idea to use your personal experiences to augment an article! Information and experiences from your personal trip can fill in portions of the body text, but the core structure of your article should focus on serving the reader and acting as a resource.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write personal stories at all! There is 100% a place for those. For example, while on my WordPress site (what you’re reading) I focus on blogging to create resources and generate SEO traffic, on my Substack (email newsletter/social media platform), I tell more personal stories to a smaller community of interested and highly engaged readers. Continue reading for how to use Substack or a newsletter to augment your blog.

5) Answer reader’s questions: an easy approach to SEO for bloggers in 2026

One of the best ways to integrate powerful SEO-strategy into your website is to consider questions your ideal readers might have and answer them very directly. If you’re looking to start a travel blog in 2026 that focuses on National Parks, your readers might ask “What are the cheapest National parks to visit in 2026?”. To answer this question, you might write “14 most affordable National Parks to Visit in 2026”.

6) Consider how you might want to monetize from the beginning

There are several ways to monetize your blog, including affiliate linking, selling adspace, selling your own physical or digital products, and more. Often (but not always) affiliate linking and selling adspace require you have at least 10,000 monthly visitors to use.

If, however, you’re looking to sell your own products, you can monetize much sooner. Early on, take the time to think about the types of digital products you might want to sell, and start writing related content before you create and launch the product. This way, it will be easy to integrate links to your product into your blog post and see more immediate results.

For example, long before I started selling trail guide eBooks, I wrote blog posts about the best hiking trails in the regions I covered in the books. After publishing the ebooks, I was able to go back through blog posts that already had decent monthly traffic and add in links to my ebook series.

Learn about creating, marketing, and selling eBooks for Content Creators

Rather than integrate a shop through WordPress, I use Sellfy to sell both digital and physical products.

2026 Update on eBook Sales and monetizing:

I’m leaving the paragraphs above because I think they’re a really great example of how monetization changes as you grow as a writer/digital marketer. In 2025, I actually pivoted from selling my eBooks to offering them for free when you sign up for my email newsletter. This is because my affiliate revenue is now much higher than eBook sales (which was NOT the case until 2025) and it made a lot more sense for me to keep building my email list.

How to monetize a blog with affiliate links:

Affiliate revenue makes up probably 80% of my blog income. I joined Avantlink when I first started, but then switched to Rockporch, an affiliate aggregator and resource for outdoor content creators specifically (if you’re looking to travel or outdoor blog specifically, Rockporch is your gal).

I made the switch to Rockporch when I realized their commission rate for REI was double that of Avantlink, and I make most of my affiliate sales through REI. I implemented that in the New Year and pretty much immediately saw double the affiliate revenue of the previous month, which is a huge win.

Honestly for the first few years of blogging I didn’t think I would see any payouts from affiliate linking. My first year of affiliate linking (2022) I made less than $200 the whole year. The next year it was closer to $500 for the year, and in 2024 I made close to $3000 in affiliate revenue. After switching to Rockporch and taking the time to go through and update all my articles in winter 2025, my affiliate revenue is now closer to that monthly, so I definitely recommend taking the time to implement an affiliate linking strategy, and don’t quit if you don’t see results initially.

7) Articles should be between 1,200 and 2,500 words

In previous years, I saw that my longest articles (like this one) ranked the highest in Google. There’s still some truth to that, and I do believe that a in-depth, useful, free and long article is one of the best types of content you can put out BUT, people’s attention spans are fried in 2026. Now, the sweet spot for article length is closer to 1,200-2,500 words. People want the article to have some meat to it, but not so long that they lose interest.

That said, if you can write a 5,000 word article and keep people reading until the end, then do it. You just need to be able to find the sweet spot where valuable content meets the readers attention span.

8) It’s better to be honest than to be an expert

My most controversial blogging opinion is that it is better to be honest about your knowledge of a topic than pretend to be an expert. If you exaggerate your knowledge on a topic then get something wrong, be it recommending the wrong park pass for a trailhead or camping illegally, you immediately shatter all trust with your reader if they spot your mistake.

By researching throughly and linking to external resources (even if it’s other bloggers!) when you don’t know an answer, you build more credibility with your readers than pretending to be an expert.

9) Create your own high-quality images (one of the most important tips for starting a blog in 2026!)

If you’re looking for the single best way to stand out as a blog in 2026, start creating your own high-quality images for your travel blog. You don’t need a fancy camera to do this, the phone in your pocket is fine! Spend time mastering editing tricks in Lightroom to create beautiful images to accompany your blog.

Having excellent imagery on your blog sets you up for success in a few ways. First, most people simply skim blog posts, and beautiful photos make just as much of an impact as headings. Second, beautiful photos set you up well for potential paid blog posts. Because I loaded by blog with images I made early on, I got my first sponsored blog posts at just 2,000 monthly page views (like… for the website total). Lastly, having beautiful photos combined with great SEO can be a great lead for people looking to license photos of a specific region or scene.

Almost all of my photo licensing inquires have come in because my blog lead magazines or travel boards to my photos.

Learn tricks for editing photos in Lightroom

10) Use social media to promote your blog

A social media presence associated with your blog can go a long way. Social media can both directly and indirectly boost SEO, and active social media gives people who find your blog and like it a way to follow and keep up with you. In 2026, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok are the some of the best social media apps for travel bloggers.

Be sure to include links to your social media on your website, and ideally include an Instagram feed widget to get blog viewers onto your Instagram.

That said, if social media is too much for you right now a blog can still be totally successful and draw traffic even with no affiliated social media. Social media is just useful for branding and can help lead to a traffic bump.

Quick Tips for promoting blog posts on Social Media:

Building your social media in itself requires time and dedication– I could write a whole separate blog post on that. To oversimplify, social media success for travel bloggers depends on consistency and keeping up with trends. Here are a few quick tips to promoting your blog posts on social media:

• Post microblogs, or smaller versions of your blog post, and direct readers back to your bio link for the full article.
• Post portions of articles on Facebook, giving away enough information that the Facebook post itself is useful, but for more information readers need to click out to your website.
• Excerpt tips from your blog post as a reel or TikTok and direct viewers back to your blog for more tips
• In addition to telling readers to click your bio link for your blog posts, tell readers to google “your blog title + your blog name” to create more organic search traffic.
• Link to blog posts in your stories, and create graphics to go with your blog links in stories. Later, you can collect all of your blog posts and matching graphics in a story highlight on your profile.

Here’s an example of how I’ve adapted a blog post into a social post, and then directed people back to my blog landing page. The post got over 2,400 saves, which means people came back to reference it later, and increases awareness about my blog as a Midwest Adventure resource.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5D4SkJmnu/?img_index=1

11) Consider how your blog posts work together

Similar to thinking of your blog in terms of content pillars, it’s important to consider how your blog posts are related. One of the best things you can do before writing is brainstorm related blogs. For example, if your blog is National Parks focused and you have a trip to Olympic National Park planned, here are a few related topics you could write:

• Best Beaches in Olympic National Park
• Where to camp near Olympic National Park
• 23 Best Things to do in Olympic National Park

These three articles are all on a related topic, and you will easily be able to interlink between blogs. If you have already written about visiting Mount Rainier National park and the Oregon Coast, now you have enough to have a PNW catagory.

12) Use shorter paragraphs and focus on scanability

Attention spans are shrinking and scannable articles are now more important than ever. This means that most readers will read the headings of your blog posts, and the first sentences or paragraphs.

Readers are likely to ignore, or even leave your site if they see big blocks of text. To avoid this, keep most paragraphs 3-5 sentences and all paragraphs under six lines in length on a desktop screen (mobile will be different due to screen size). This may seem at odds with the high word count advice but it’s not; think of your content like a pyramid or big outline. The headings are the most important parts, and just by scanning the article 60% of readers will have their questions answered. The body text goes into detail and encourages readers to save your article and come back to reference it, since it is full of good information.

Don’t be afraid to use one sentence paragraphs for emphasis.

13) Use WordPress to build your blog

The best platform you can use to build your blog if you intend to make blogging a part of your business is WordPress.org. WordPress is highly customizable, sees better SEO results than other platforms, and is what most successful bloggers use. Using WordPress sets you up for long-term success. Note that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are NOT the same. You want WordPress.org.

Setting up a WordPress site can be a challenge, but there are plenty of resources online. The effort is 100% worth it.

14) Integrate in a Newsletter

One of the best ways to build a community as a blogger is to create a newsletter and build an email list. Traditionally, a newsletter is a quick, weekly update on your (the travel blogger’s) life, links to blog posts back on the website to check out and more. Often, newsletters contain affiliate links and are used to make sales.

A good way to build your newsletter and email list is to offer a free digital product in exchange for email subscription (which is what I have pivoted my eBooks toward).

15) Use Substack to build community in lieu of the traditional Newsletter

Personally, I’ve stayed away from the traditional newsletter and opted to use Substack instead. Substack is a newsletter, blog, social media hybrid. The major pro of Substack is that it allows for commenting, has a built in community on it’s own platform, and is easy to monetize through paid subscriptions.

Substack also lends to a different type of content than the traditional newsletter or blog. Longer form writing and articles thrive here, personal stories from your travels, and more. Substack is really excellent for smaller creators looking to make money creating because you don’t need very many subscribers to effectively monetize.

While a traditional newsletter may help you build a larger community, Substack will help you build a tighter one and that can ultimately be a lot more meaningful.

16) Name your blog carefully and consider personal branding

When starting your blog, it’s important consider blog name and personal branding. For example, this blog operates under the name Hello Stranger, and the Substack newsletter uses the same name. My social media and this website domain however, operate under the name I publish under.

This isn’t the best way to do things, but it works well for me as someone writing books and a social media personality. Treating my blog as a portfolio (ie myname.com instead of hellostranger.com) also allows me flexibility for future branding and to use the blog as a portfolio.

Ultimately, you’ll need to choose a blog name, and decide if you want to use that blog name as your social media name and website name or not. In general, more content creators are moving away from cutesy Instagram names (ie if I were @maddyhikes instead of @maddymarq) because it pigeonholes you into a niche and can look less professional as your business ages. For example, you might start as a blogger and content creator, but then start to work as a professional photographer. Using your name can come across as more professional if you plan on using your blog as part of social media content creation.

That said, as my blog is now, I definitely wish I had it set up more as a separate publication/project and not an extension of my portfolio with the domain name as my name. It’s also worth considering that if you plan to sell your blog/publication, you probably won’t want your image inseparable from the branding.

17) Own your domain name

Pay to own your own domain name. yourname.wordpress.com just doesn’t look professional, and it’s definitely worth a few dollars.

18) Focus on Quality AND Quantity

Beginner bloggers looking for fast success should publish as many articles as possible. For a sustainable schedule, shoot for 4-8 blog posts a month. This might seem like a lot, especially in the beginning, but one thing to keep in mind when starting any new discipline is that quantity often yields quality.

The more practice you get writing as many blog posts as possible, the more experience you get. You can always go back and rewrite your older articles (I often do).

Finding time to blog when you work full-time:

While it might be tempting to quit your day job and launch into full-time blogging, that just isn’t realistic or possible for everyone. While 4-8 posts a month is ideal, for most people it’s a lot.

When I was first starting blogging and content creation while also working a full time job, I started by setting aside two week nights a week and all day Sunday to work on blogging and content creation. For about two years I worked full-time in freelance with a lot of my focus on my blog, but now (2025) I have a remote editor job at a magazine and blog when I have time. I shoot to do 2 new blog posts a month, and update/overhaul 2 blog posts a month.

I definietly could go back to full-time if I wanted, but I found I really enjoy being part of my magazine’s team and having coworkers and group goals. If you do want to go full-time, you’ll need to consider if you even like being your own boss and a one-man-show.

19) Monitor Results & Analytics

As you begin blogging, especially if you are in your quantity to create quality phase, carefully monitor the results of your blog posts. Check and see how long it takes them to rank on Google; an easy way to see if your article is appearing on Google is to search your blog post title followed by your blog name. In the beginning, it may take a few weeks (or even months) to see your articles rank, but after you begin to regularly create content that time should decrease.

Check regularly to see where on Google your article ranks by searching the keywords you wanted to rank for, the “question” you wanted to answer, and keep track of how many posts are listed above yours. Use Google Analytics or a similar application to understand which of your articles are getting the most traction and when. You can also use tools like SEMrush to guide your SEO research.

You’ll start to notice patterns, and you can use your observations to tailor future content to reach more readers.

20) Sidebars are back IN!

For a while, the forces of the internet decided that sidebar with widgets is OUT. The sidebar is the place on this website where (if you’re reading on a desktop right now) you can find my “about me”, sign up for my newsletter prompt, an affiliate link disclosure, and some other fun embeds. The primary reason for deciding to axe the side bar was low conversion rates when it came to newsletter signups, and a general feeling that sidebars takeaway from the content itself.

For travel bloggers, I’m declaring the sidebar back IN! (I feel like with a lot of internet things you speak it and so it is true. I like sidebars so I am speaking it).

While a sidebar may not generate many actual clicks, there is always value in exposure to content. Providing a built-in “about me” feature lends a sense of authenticity to your blog, and proves that your content was written by a person. While no, my sidebar widgets don’t get tons of clicks it does seem like after scrolling past the newsletter prompt once, people are more likely to actually subscribe when they see it again at the bottom.

21) Keep your site clean

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is cluttering their website with too many ads! While ads are a great way to monetize your blog, too many ads can make your blog impossible to read, and readers are more likely to click off your page and use someone else’s blog altogether than make a purchase. Furthermore, if you operate within a small niche many blog readers are likely repeat visitors. Off-putting visitors with too many ads and pop-ups can be a big mistake.

I integrated ads through Mediavine for the first time in 2025 and have them set to medium-density. I don’t like the look of them but they do generate a fair amount of monthly income and overall are necessary at this point to help me pay myself to create content on this scale.

Journey by Mediavine will let you integrate ads to monetize your blog at around 10k monthly sessions (this is different than pageviews!), while the standard is 50k sessions. That said, I really do recommend waiting and working on your content and user experience on your website first before you integrate ads if possible. The content needs to be valuable enough and the website needs to be user-friendly enough that the reader will willingly wade through a few ads.

22) Focus on Collaboration, not Competition

While it’s important to be aware of blogs and bloggers competing with your content, you stand to gain a lot more from treating other bloggers as friends and growing together. This can look like backlinking to each other’s blogs (especially when you used their’s as a resource!), reaching out on social media, or even guest writing for each other’s websites. This is also really good for the SEO of your own article; all of my top ranking blog posts include links to competitor blogs on related topics.

23) Don’t compare your chapter one to someone else’s chapter thirty

It can be really easy to compare your blog to other writer’s. I especially struggled with this around year two of seriously blogging. I felt like I had been working really hard on my blog, and didn’t understand why it wasn’t seeing the success that some of the people I saw on the internet were experiencing.

Truth is, you never know someone else’s story. I’ve now been working in blogging and content creating for almost eight years, and it was just at year five that I started to be able to really monetize my content effectively. It doesn’t take everyone this long, and one of the reasons I’m creating resources like this is to speed up your content creation journey!

There is a process out there for everyone. Yours will look different than mine, and that’s okay. Don’t stress too much if your blog isn’t where you want it to be yet; one day it will be.

24) Compress your images and name the file before uploading

One simple tip to help you optimize for SEO on your blog is to compress all of your images. Smaller images load more quickly, and you can use a free online image compressor. (Ugh, I actually pay for this now. The blogging expenses really do add up eventually).

Another simple thing that makes a huge difference for SEO is naming your images before uploading. For example, on my desktop I named all of the images in this blog “2026 how to start a blog” before even uploading them to my website.

25) Make sure your website is compatible with mobile

A huge chunk of readers will be accessing your website from their cell phones! Make sure that your website looks good viewed on both a cellphone and desktop.

26) Regularly Update, SEO Audit, and link to new content

Your work on a blog post does not finish when you hit “publish”! One of the best things you can do to have a successful blog in 2026 is go back through your old content and update it. In general, I set aside one full day a month to comb over my old content and make sure it is up-to-date. Sometimes, I add to the content and/or work in different keywords. Always, I add relevant links in old content to newer content.

Once a year, I sit down for 2-3 days and audit my entire website. I record which articles preform the best, which are making the most sales through affiliate linking, which are generating the most Substack subscriptions, and which are generating the most leads for digital products.

In addition, I record where on Google these articles rank for desired keywords. After recording the statistics for each post with a pen and paper, I make sure each article is up-to-date. Often I will also tweak affiliate links or ads based on what has worked best across my website.

Is blogging passive income?

Blogging gets a reputation for being easy passive income, but that is just not a realistic representation of what’s happening. You’ll write your first 20 or so articles without making any money at all. Then it will be a slow trickle, and by the time you’re making enough to pay your bills you still need to keep writing and maintain existing articles. It’s never truly passive income, but it’s a very fun job, and these days I probably work just 15 or so hours a week on blogging/writing, and get to travel for work.

27) Don’t use Wix.com

Wix.com is one of the easiest ways to set up a blog, but it is one of the worst sites for creating a long term successful blog. Wix has very little flexibility when it comes to customizing your blog, and is notorious for ranking poorly in Google. Getting readers via organic search on Google is the number one way to have a successful blog, and Wix pretty much immediately sets you up for failure. Also, most people with any amount of website building experience can smell a Wix site from a mile away.

WordPress is really the most powerful tool for blogging. A WordPress site can be tricky to set up yourself, but if you’re looking to make blogging a career it is definitely worth it.

28) Be Patient: traffic takes time

Most of the blog posts you write at the beginning of your blogging career likely won’t rank for a year, or even two. The wonderful part of blogging is that you will see the results of your work for years to come! Unlike social media where the lifetime of a post is 2-3 days, when blogging the lifetime of your post can be years.

Back to the point of passive income: For me, blogging is definietly not passive income, but it’s extremely flexible, and I’m able to take large chunks of time to travel, and most of my summer completely off to run women’s trips while the blog continues to pay me throughout the summer, so long as in the winter I work hard on updates and new content. I’m writing this update from the Chicago airport right now, on my way to see friends in Berlin for the month, and didn’t have to take any time off work to do so, and that’s pretty cool/

29) Start Writing

The best thing you can do to start a blog in 2026 is just start! All writing is forward progress. Make mistakes, learn from them, troubleshoot, and try again. The sooner you start, the sooner you will see results.

Enjoy reading about how to start a travel blog in 2026? Check out these related articles to learn more about the Content Creation Industry!

• Learn how to create, market, and sell your eBooks to make money from blogging!
• Read the Lightroom editing tips Influencers won’t tell you
• Check out the article Are Influencers People? The answer may surprise you

free resources like this one are made possible by paying subscribers of the Hello Stranger Newsletter. Join the newsletter today for my Midwest Adventure updates and occasional tips and tricks for content creators (aka read my diary).

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