When I first conceived the idea of showcasing my writing on an international stage (read: just blogging for me and my friends), I didn’t really know where to start. A quick google showed a plethora of peeps with good ideas, and others who just needed to stop talking!
I’m always interested in where people’s brains go when they do something like start up a blog, or plan a travel itinerary. If you are too, here’s some hindsight that I can share, because as you know hindsight is 20/20!
The interweb mavens offer a variety of insights into how to create a successful travel blog. Of course, there are also the naysayers, one of my favourites being in a Quora thread where the question was asked “What are some good travel blog names?” The response – “If you can’t work that out yourself, maybe you’re not made to be a blogger or website owner!” I just love the enthusiasm of internet trolls.
I quickly discovered that curating a name for my blog was no easy feat! There are a bazillion websites that give you collectively, millions of “catchy” travel blog name ideas and when you occasionally stumble upon something moderately interesting, someone else already has it. Pro Tip: Have Crazy Domains open in another tab so you can quickly check if the name you are about to fall deeply in love with is gone.
The enlightened ones said to name your blog so the reader knows it’s about travel, but to avoid cliché words like traveller, nomadic, wanderer, adventurous, voyage. (sigh) Always go with .com (yep, mortal sin #1 in my domain name), don’t add numbers (sin #2) or dashes and check the socials (this is all so angsty) as you don’t want to purchase a domain name only to find you need to add a hyphen or underscore in your socials user name (D’oh! sin #3.)
Make sure your domain name reflects your blog niche they said, don’t pigeonhole yourself into a name that you may outgrow they said, ensure the blog name is easy to spell they said. Factor in keywords (this involves a deep dive into SEO world) and use the following as a rule of thumb to come up with a descriptive name for your blog – Your target audience > Keyword > Niche (I need a nap!)
So basically, an overload of information, some of it useful, but after months of pondering, still no name. Well, there were names marinating, but you know how it goes…you know when you know. And then, I was thinking about the blog I was going to write, about how to plan a travel itinerary, and asking the question – What type of traveller are you? Do you plan your travel movements within an inch of their lives, or do you jab your finger on a map, buy a ticket to the destination you pointed to, and when you arrive, say “Where to from here?” Mic drop! And the rest is history, along with the breaking of at least 3 commandments of the naming conventions of blogs – meh!
Brush hands together and smug smile – hard bit CRUSHED!
