How-To: Steps for Getting Started as a New Travel Content Creator

As more and more people discover the ability to travel full-time and become travel content creators, I've come to realize that a lot of people don't know where to start in their content creation journey.

With a background and career in marketing, I thought I'd share a getting started strategy you can use.

First, start with your goals. What is it that you actually want to do and achieve with your travel content. It varies for everyone, but your goal could be:

• inspire more people to become full-time travelers / or solo travelers
• educate people about the best destinations to visit
• earn passive income or active income to pay for your travels (and living expenses in general)
• create a community of fellow travelers
• and many more...

You could have a combination of these, you could choose one of these, or you may have an entirely different goal. But this is your friendly marketing reminder to keep your goal in mind with everything you do.

Once you have determined your goals, next is to create your strategy to achieve them. Your strategy will be dependent on your goal, but I thought I'd share some insight into a general strategy that you can tailor to your unique experience.

Here's what I recommend as a getting started strategy for new travel content creators:

Before I share the steps of the getting started strategy, let's talk about timing of the steps. I recommend spending at least one month per step before moving to the next. Give yourself time to create content for each step and get into a solid rhythm of planning and creating, because as you move to the next step, you will have to spread your time between more and more things to do and create.

And one final note, you can actually go ahead with creating all the accounts upfront, but focus on starting content creation one month at a time.

With that said, here are the steps I recommend to get started as a travel content creator.

Step 1 - Create your travel website and blog

Your website and blog can be a key part of your content strategy. Not everyone uses one, and many people start with social media, but I recommend starting with creating your blog or website because:

• it has long-term value - it gives a central place for you to publicly house information that you want people to come to and read
• it takes time to gain traffic - it's not a "create it and they will come" kinda deal. It takes time and effort to really gain traction and start generating visitors, so the sooner you create it, the better results it will provide
• you control the narrative - your website and blog can and will be whatever you want it to be. You control what you put onto it for the world to see and how you want to phrase it

Want some proof? I created my website in November 2023, and it's slowly starting to gain some traction. Here's my Google Search Console performance as of May 13, 2024. You can see impressions are starting to trend upward.

Step 2 - Create your travel Pinterest account

While many people go straight into creating Instagram or TikTok accounts, I recommend starting with Pinterest. Pinterest has some key benefits as to why start it first, such as: 

• you can use links right away - unlike TikTok, where you have to gain 1,000 followers first, you can actually use links in every post from the beginning, with the goal of people being able to click directly through where you want them to go
• it's a combination of social media and a search engine - people use Pinterest like a search engine (think Google and Bing) but information is shared in a social media format. A lot of people go to Pinterest to search for travel inspiration, so they will be searching for the content you are putting out
• it has long-term value - both Instagram and TikTok have relatively short-term value. Pretty much after a few days of posting something there, it's lost its traction in the algorithm and really doesn't get shown to people anymore. That's not the case with Pinterest. It holds a lot longer-term value and will continually come up for new Pinterest searches

Once you get into a good rhythm with posting on Pinterest, you'll see monthly views and impressions go up and keeping gaining momentum with less effort. With a great strategy plus some time and effort, Pinterest can be very valuable to your travel content creation strategy.

NOTE: Steps 3 and 4 can be done interchangeably, but I am going to share them in the order I recommend. It just depends which you want to focus on first.

Step 3 - Create your travel Instagram account

As one of the most widely used social media platforms, Instagram is a great place for travel creators to share their content. People in general go onto Instagram to endlessly scroll through pictures and videos of beautiful places and to get travel inspiration for their own adventures.

Adding Instagram to your travel content creation strategy is beneficial because:

• your audience is on Instagram - no matter what travel niche you choose, your target audience is on Instagram. You just need to decide on your niche and create content that provides them value
• it allows you to create an engaged travel community - you will be able to connect with many other like-minded people who are doing the same thing you do

Step 4 - Create your travel TikTok account

TikTok really came in and disrupted the social media space, and in doing so, became a great place to share travel content on social media. It has encouraged so many people to be more vocal and talk on camera on social media, which makes it a great place to share your travel experiences and advice.

It makes another great place to build a travel community, especially since it's a little easier to gain followers fast.

Once you define your goals as a travel content creator, this is a good starting point to get you going on your creator journey. If you try this, let me know how it goes.

Plus, as you're getting started on your travel content creator journey, here's a few reminders: 

• don't compare what you're doing to what others are doing, and especially don't change your strategy because of what you see others doing
• it's not a race to grow; put out content that will attract the right people, and your accounts will naturally grow with the right people
• more followers doesn't mean more loyal followers
• create repeatable processes that will make it easy for you to manage and scale
• don't be hard on yourself; at the end of the day, you should enjoy what you're doing!

Happy creating!