What’s a plugin? It’s basically a piece of software like an app you would have on your phone and will help improve the functionality, customization and security of your blog. We’re only going to install a few to start with to help us build our pages a little easier but first we need to deactivate and delete the ones that come pre-installed.

Go to your left side menu and click plugins > installed plugins.

Check them all and in the dropdown click on deactivate and then click the apply button.

Select them all one more time and then in the dropdown click delete and then click apply. A popup will say are you sure? Click yes.

Now we’re going to add a plugin, just one. As we build out our site we will add more but for now go to plugins > add new and we’re going to search for a plugin called Elementor Page Builder by Elementor.com. It has over 5,000,000 installations and is ranked as one of the top page builder plugins out there!

Click on install now and it will automatically install the page builder. Once installed you will want to click on activate as shown below.

That’s it! You can use this same process to install any plugins you may need for your site functionality and design help. A good security plugin and an SEO plugin are highly recommended. We’ll install them at a later date. Our next step is to install a WordPress theme.

Install a Theme

Here’s another one of those there are thousands of choices… Themes… A theme is basically a professionally designed template that will help with the design of your blog and allow you to customize the appearance.

A few worth mentioning are Astra, Hello Elementor, Sinatra and Ocean WP. We use Hello Elementor and Astra for most of the sites we build.

On your dashboard navigate to appearance > themes , click on add new.

In the search box type in Astra. This is one of the best free themes out there and also has a paid upgrade for even more options. Right now we will just use the free version of Astra.

Once it loads up from the search, click on install and then activate.

Once it is activated we can delete the other themes, they will no longer be necessary. Go to appearance > themes and click on theme details of each of the themes (except Astra) then delete. A popup will say are you sure? Click OK. Delete all the themes that are there except for Astra.

That’s all for this step, we have successfully installed a theme and deleted the unnecessary ones.

Step 1 : Purchase Hosting and Domain Name

Hosting is important because… well, without hosting your website or blog wouldn’t be viewable to anybody. There are numerous hosting companies out there and one day we’ll make a complete list but since this is probably your first blog let’s keep it simple and economical.

A good company to use for your blog’s web hosting is HostGator . They have a good track record for uptime, have great customer support and have been around for a long time, not to mention they are very affordable.

Click the Get Started button and then select the buy now on the hatchling plan package. You can upgrade to the baby plan if you are going to build more than one website if you choose.

Step 2: Get a Domain Name

Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember, it could even be your own name if you wanted. If you are stuck picking out a name, there are a few blog name generators out there that can help jog your brain a little.

Once you have your blog name picked out we need to see if it’s available and purchase it. A domain name is generally around $15 a year. We have used GoDaddy.com, Namecheap.com and HostGator.com for domain names in the past. Currently we rely on HostGator for all of our domain name and web hosting needs. They have never let us down.

Once you have picked out your domain name you want to enter it in the field shown above. If it is not available (which happens sometimes) it will say unavailable and you will unfortunately have to pick something different 

Choose your hosting package next, it should already be selected from the first step but if you change your mind and want to do a different plan you can do this now. Keep in mind that the longer billing cycle you choose, the better price you will get!

You now will have the option of choosing if you want domain privacy protection. This will keep your information private and we highly recommend it. If you choose to not purchase it, be prepared to get a ton of spam emails from people trying to offer you website building services and apps. It’s very annoying !

Next you will want to setup your account details. We are using HostGator in this example because we have used them for years without any issues. You’ll be asked to enter your email, a password and a security pin.

Enter all of your billing information. You can pay for the domain name and hosting services with a credit card or through PayPal.

The next section will be for adding additional services. We choose not to select any extras at this time because we can do all of this on our own without buying them, however, if you want to purchase any of the additional services it is entirely up to you.

Review your order details, check the box that you agree to all the terms and conditions and then click checkout now.

Step 3: Install WordPress

Installing WordPress through HostGator is easy, from your HostGator customer dashboard you just click on Install WordPress.

Choose your installation URL. If this is your first time, it should already be in there. Leave the directory field BLANK (this is important!)

Choose the version you want to install. It should already be on the latest version so if you click the dropdown it should be the top choice.

Enter your site name and site description (we can also add or change these later so it’s not super important)

Under the admin account enter a username and password. It would probably be a good idea to write these down somewhere because you will need them to log into the backend of your new website!

Change the admin email to an email that you can check. You can change this in your WordPress dashboard later if needed.

Select your language.

Skip over the select plugins, advanced options or the select themes sections, we’re going to add this stuff in manually in a later step.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click install

It should only take a few minutes to install WordPress.

You should now see a screen like the one below that says Congratulations, the software was successfully installed.

There will be two web addresses shown, one is your main site’s web address and the other one is the important one, your website’s administration URL. It should be whatever your website’s name is /wp-admin.

You may want to bookmark this as it is the address you will need to log into your WordPress dashboard to make all the changes to your site and to upload and add all of your content, so it’s kind of a big deal!

Click on the administrative URL and it should take you to the WordPress Dashboard! Awesome job!

*Note – sometimes you will get an error screen that says site not secure or site not found. If this happens, it means that your website hasn’t fully propagated through the internet yet. Wait about 15 minutes or so and click on your administrative URL again. On a rare occasion, this could take up to 24 hours but from our experience it either works immediately or within 10-20 minutes.

If you are looking for a way to change your username in WordPress but find that when you try you get the message that a username cannot be changed, there is a quick solution.

From your WordPress dashboard, head to users then add new. Enter the new username that you want to use and enter an email address, first and last name and website if you wish to add that also.

Enter a password and change your role to the appropriate setting.

*If you are trying to use the same email address, it won’t let you. If you are using a gmail account the workaround is to just add +wordpress. Example – yourname@gmail.com change to yourname+wordpress@gmail.com. It will still go to yourname@gmail.com.

After you have completed this step, log out of WordPress and then log back in with your new username.

Go to your original username and click delete. You will then be asked what you want to do with the content created by the original username. Select attribute all content to your new username and then click confirm deletion.

You can now go back to your new username and change your email address from yourname+wordpress@gmail.com to yourname@gmail.com. You will be sent an email to confirm this change. This step must be completed and you are all set with your new WordPress username!

Hopefully this tutorial helped you change your username in WordPress. If you would like to receive our latest tips, consider subscribing to our weekly newsletter below

Did you know 33% of US travelers turn to travel blogs for traveling advice?

Did you know at the time of this article 2022, according to what was shown on ziprecruiter.com, the AVERAGE travel blogger salary is $63,173 a year?

Those are just a couple of fun facts but the question is How do you make a travel blog?

In this article we’re going to take you from start to finish on everything you need to get one started. 

Speaking of getting started, let’s get on with it.

The Only 3 Things You’ll Need To Create a Kickin’ Travel Blog

Besides the awesome videos and sweet photographs you’re going to be taking, here are the 3 things for your travel blog you’re going to need to make it happen.

• A Domain Name – this is what people will type into their web browser to find your travel blog, brainstorm for a name. You want to pick something memorable, creative and unique!
• Web Hosting – this is where all of your articles, images, videos and well, basically everything for your blog are stored.
• About an Hour – this is a rough guestimate but following the steps below, there shouldn’t be any reason to not get one all set up in 30 minutes to an hour.

Here’s the step-by-step:

The video below will take you from an idea to a brand new travel blog in about an hour!.

Step 1 : Purchase Hosting and Domain Name

Hosting is important because… well, without hosting your travel blog wouldn’t be viewable to anybody. There are numerous hosting companies out there and one day we’ll make a complete list but since this is probably your first blog let’s keep it simple and economical.

A good company to use for your travel blog’s web hosting is HostGator . They have a good track record for uptime, have great customer support and have been around for a long time, not to mention they are very affordable.

Click the Get Started button and then select the buy now on the hatchling plan package. You can upgrade to the baby plan if you are going to build more than one website if you choose.

Step 2: Get a Domain Name

Your domain name should be simple and easy to remember, it could even be your own name if you wanted. If you are stuck picking out a name, there are a few blog name generators out there that can help jog your brain a little.

Once you have your blog name picked out we need to see if it’s available and purchase it. A domain name is generally around $15 a year. We have used GoDaddy.com, Namecheap.com and HostGator.com for domain names in the past. Currently we rely on HostGator for all of our domain name and web hosting needs. They have never let us down.

Once you have picked out your domain name you want to enter it in the field shown above. If it is not available (which happens sometimes) it will say unavailable and you will unfortunately have to pick something different

Choose your hosting package next, it should already be selected from the first step but if you change your mind and want to do a different plan you can do this now. Keep in mind that the longer billing cycle you choose, the better price you will get!

You now will have the option of choosing if you want domain privacy protection. This will keep your information private and we highly recommend it. If you choose to not purchase it, be prepared to get a ton of spam emails from people trying to offer you website building services and apps. It’s very annoying !

Next you will want to setup your account details. We are using HostGator in this example because we have used them for years without any issues. You’ll be asked to enter your email, a password and a security pin.

Enter all of your billing information. You can pay for the domain name and hosting services with a credit card or through PayPal.

The next section will be for adding additional services. We choose not to select any extras at this time because we can do all of this on our own without buying them, however, if you want to purchase any of the additional services it is entirely up to you.

Review your order details, check the box that you agree to all the terms and conditions and then click checkout now.

Step 3: Install WordPress

Installing WordPress through HostGator is easy, from your HostGator customer dashboard you just click on Install WordPress.

Choose your installation URL. If this is your first time, it should already be in there. Leave the directory field BLANK (this is important!)

Choose the version you want to install. It should already be on the latest version so if you click the dropdown it should be the top choice.

Enter your site name and site description (we can also add or change these later so it’s not super important)

Under the admin account enter a username and password. It would probably be a good idea to write these down somewhere because you will need them to log into the backend of your new website!

Change the admin email to an email that you can check. You can change this in your WordPress dashboard later if needed.

Select your language.

Skip over the select plugins, advanced options or the select themes sections, we’re going to add this stuff in manually in a later step.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click install

It should only take a few minutes to install WordPress.

You should now see a screen like the one below that says Congratulations, the software was successfully installed.

There will be two web addresses shown, one is your main site’s web address and the other one is the important one, your website’s administration URL. It should be whatever your website’s name is /wp-admin.

You may want to bookmark this as it is the address you will need to log into your WordPress dashboard to make all the changes to your site and to upload and add all of your content, so it’s kind of a big deal!

Click on the administrative URL and it should take you to the WordPress Dashboard! Awesome job!

*Note – sometimes you will get an error screen that says site not secure or site not found. If this happens, it means that your website hasn’t fully propagated through the internet yet. Wait about 15 minutes or so and click on your administrative URL again. On a rare occasion, this could take up to 24 hours but from our experience it either works immediately or within 10-20 minutes.

Step 4: Configure Your Travel Blog Settings

There are only a few important settings just starting out that we will need to be concerned with, mostly your blog title and description, a few discussion settings and your link structure. Don’t worry, it’s not confusing and only takes a few minutes.

Let’s double check and/or change our site title, tagline and admin email address by going to the left hand menu in your WordPress dashboard and clicking Settings > General

Set your site title and tagline if it isn’t already populated, make sure your WordPress and site address URL’s are the same then check your admin email address. This is the email address that you will receive notifications at if something goes wrong with your site.

Leave the membership registration unchecked, new user default role to subscriber and set your site language to whatever is needed, we use English.

Set your timezone, we use Detroit as we are in the eastern timezone.

Set how you want your time and date displayed. This is all personal preference and we just leave it how it comes.

We leave the rest of the settings alone and go to the bottom of the page and click save changes.

Next we’ll change the discussion settings so click on settings > discussion on the left toolbar of your dashboard.

Uncheck the top two settings and scroll down to the bottom and click save changes.

Lastly we’ll change our permalink structure to postname so click on settings > permalinks

Click the circle next to postname and click save changes at the bottom of the screen.

That’s all for the settings for now. We can always come back and modify them later. The reading and writing settings we can leave alone until we have uploaded some content so we’ll change them later.

Step 5: Install Plugins

What’s a plugin? It’s basically a piece of software like an app you would have on your phone and will help improve the functionality, customization and security of your travel blog. We’re only going to install a few to start with to help us build our pages a little easier but first we need to deactivate and delete the ones that come pre-installed.

Go to your left side menu and click plugins > installed plugins.

Check them all and in the dropdown click on deactivate and then click the apply button.

Select them all one more time and then in the dropdown click delete and then click apply. A popup will say are you sure? Click yes.

Now we’re going to add a plugin, just one. As we build out our site we will add more but for now go to plugins > add new and we’re going to search for a plugin called Elementor Page Builder by Elementor.com. It has over 5,000,000 installations and is ranked as one of the top page builder plugins out there!

Click on install now and it will automatically install the page builder. Once installed you will want to click on activate as shown below.

That’s it! You can use this same process to install any plugins you may need for your site functionality and design help. A good security plugin and an SEO plugin are highly recommended. We’ll install them at a later date. Our next step is to install a WordPress theme.

Step 6: Install a Theme

Here’s another one of those there are thousands of choices… Themes… A theme is basically a professionally designed template that will help with the design of your travel blog and allow you to customize the appearance.

A few worth mentioning are Astra, Hello Elementor, Sinatra and Ocean WP. We use Hello Elementor and Astra for most of the sites we build.

On your dashboard navigate to appearance > themes , click on add new.

In the search box type in Astra. This is one of the best free themes out there and also has a paid upgrade for even more options. Right now we will just use the free version of Astra.

Once it loads up from the search, click on install and then activate.

Once it is activated we can delete the other themes, they will no longer be necessary. Go to appearance > themes and click on theme details of each of the themes (except Astra) then delete. A popup will say are you sure? Click OK. Delete all the themes that are there except for Astra.

That’s all for this step, we have successfully installed a theme and deleted the unnecessary ones. On to step 7 which is adding pages.

Step 7: Adding Pages to Your WordPress Blog

This is my favorite part, actually creating the stuff that your viewers will see. Adding pages, images and content.

What pages should my blog have? A good start would be the following:

• About
• Contact
• Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Start Here or Home Page
• 404 Page
• Blog
• Gallery

From your dashboard on the left go to pages > add new.

You can also access the menu in the top toolbar. Hover over the +New and select page.

Your new page will appear where you can add your title, all of your content, images, videos, etc.

Set visibility, template, permalinks and maybe add a featured image. Choose whether to allow comments and set page attributes if needed.

You can now choose to save it as a draft or publish it. If you choose publish your new page will be live for all the world to see

Repeat this process for each page you want to create. At minimum you should probably at least have a Home Page, Blog Page, an About Page and a Contact Page. This will get you started, remember you can always add more pages in the future!

Check out the complete video at the top of this article for the nuts and bolts of designing all the pages we created for this travel blog. You’ll want to add your logo and site favicon to the header also!

We also need to tell WordPress to display the home page we created as the front page.

Go to your dashboard and on the left go to settings > reading. Where it says your homepage displays change this to a static page and then in the dropdown select the page called Home.

The next setting is to tell WordPress to display all of our blog posts on the blog page. From the same settings page, select Blog in the dropdown next to Posts Page.

You can change the amount of posts that show up in your blog or feed. We normally just leave this on the default 10 posts.

For the each post in feed section we normally change this from show full post to show excerpt.

Don’t forget to save your changes!

Now your site will show the home page as the page that shows up when someone types in your web address in their browser and when they click on the blog page it will show all of your latest blog posts!

Step 8: Final Adjustments to Your Travel Blog

Once everything is setup it’s time to check to make sure your blog looks great on all devices it can be shown on. In the video tutorial above we show you how to do this page by page.

This may mean that you might have to make some tweaks to the design, especially for mobile view. This is the last step and hopefully you didn’t run into any issues. Most of the time to fix anything that looks off is as simple as changing mobile text size or adding padding to your columns.

Wrapping Up

That wraps up our guide on How to Start a Travel Blog. We’d love to see your creation! If you have any questions on making a travel blog, let us know in the comments below or send us a quick message here.

Check out our resources page for the tools that you will need mentioned in this article.

Adding Pages to Your WordPress Blog

This is my favorite part, actually creating the stuff that your viewers will see. Adding pages, images and content.

What pages should my blog have? A good start would be the following:

• About
• Contact
• Disclaimer
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Start Here or Home Page
• 404 Page
• Blog
• Gallery

From your dashboard go to pages, then click add new.

You can also access the menu in the top toolbar. Hover over the +New and select page.

Your new page will appear where you can add your title, all of your content, images, videos, etc.

Set visibility, template, permalinks and maybe add a featured image. Choose whether to allow comments and set page attributes if needed.

You can now choose to save it as a draft or publish it.

We will show you step by step, how to create a photography website using WordPress and Elementor page builder.

The site we are building in this tutorial uses WordPress, Elementor page builder(FREE version) and the Astra WordPress Theme

Ready to get started?

Even for a beginner this will only take about an hour to two hours of time. (even if you type as slow as I do lol)

What Do I Need To Build A Photography Website?

You’re going to need the following three things to get this thing going:

• A domain name (this will be what people type in to reach your website) like photodabbler.com. Kind of think of it like the address at your house.
• WordPress Hosting – this is what you need to store all of your files, images, articles about your photography business, etc. (This is kind of like, well, your house. It’s where everything for your website lives).
• About an Hour to two hours of your time

How Much Does A Photography Website Cost?

Costs can vary, depending on what you want. You could pay a designer a few thousand dollars to build one for you. If you’re doing it yourself you can definitely get a website up and running for a minimal cost.

Here’s a quick look at the do it yourself route cost:

Domain Name – $10 – $20 a year (depends on the company you use, we use HostGator)

Hosting – $4 – $10 a month (this could be more if you get better and better hosting plans and more traffic to your site) but this is just an example of a fresh site on an economical hosting plan.

Elementor Page Builder License – $49 for one site for one year – You can use my affiliate referral link here (only if you want to, my commission will go towards a coffee most likely!) This site is built with the FREE version of the Elementor page builder but upgrading to the Pro version will let you get some other features that will help you build an even more fantabulous design!

So you’re looking at $60 – $100 per year.

Grab a beverage and hit play on the video below

Resources in this Video

I used the following resources to make the photography website in the tutorial. These are companies that I have used for years and I highly recommend to use. The links below will get you to their sites. (and yes, these are affiliate links so if you use the links I do receive a small commission and I truly thank you if you do but you don’t have to)

Images – Envato Elements

Domain Name & Hosting – HostGator

Elementor Page Builder – Elementor

Theme – Astra

If you need help building a site or want us to do it for you, contact us here

In this guide we are going to show you how to get a complete motorsports website up and running for a very minimal cost and it will only take about an hour.

You’re not going to have to learn any special code, you’re not going to have to fork out hundreds or thousands of dollars either.

What Do I Need To Build This Motorsports Website?

You’re going to need the following three things to get this thing going:

• A domain name (this will be what people type in to reach your website) like billybobracing.com. Kind of think of it like the address at your house.
• WordPress Hosting – this is what you need to store all of your files, images, articles about your race team, etc. (This is kind of like, well, your house. It’s where everything for your website lives).
• About an Hour of your time

How Much Does A Motorsports Website Cost?

Costs can vary, depending on what you want. You could pay a designer a few thousand smackers to have one built for you. If you’re doing it yourself you can definitely get a website up and running for a minimal cost.

Here’s a quick look at the do it yourself route cost:

Domain Name – $10 – $20 a year

Hosting – $4 – $10 a month (this could be more if you get better and better hosting plans and more traffic to your site) but this is just an example of a fresh site on an economical hosting plan.

So you’re looking at $60 – $140 per year. Not bad!

Start Your Engines!

Ok, maybe not start your engines, how about let’s just get started building this thing already…

Step 1. Setup a Domain Name & Get Web Hosting

There are many places you can purchase a domain name from and some may be a little less than others just like some will be a little bit more. We have used hostgator.com for years for not only our domain names but also our hosting plans.

Watch the video below to learn how to set-up a domain name and get your web hosting.

Referral link to get discounted domain name & hosting plan – https://resourcefulnetwork.com/hostgator

Note: If you purchase hosting using our referral link, then we will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. You don’t have to use our link but we would appreciate it if you did. We use that commission to support our small coffee addiction.

Step 2. Install WordPress, Plugins, Theme and Adjust WordPress Settings

Next step is to install WordPress and a couple plugins. We’ll then install a new theme to work with and adjust a few of the WordPress settings to our liking.

Follow along in the video below to complete Step 2

Step 3. Adding a Customized Front Page, Contact and About Us Page

Step 3 we’ll show you how to add a few pages which will lead us into Step 4 of modifying and designing the pages using the Elementor page builder.

Follow along with the video below to add your own pages.

Step 4. Modifying Pages, Adding a Menu, Logo and Checking Responsive Mode

This will be the last part to finishing a motorsports website. In this step, we will modify the home page and the other remaining pages.

We go over adding a menu and fixing the header to show it. I do a make shift logo in Canva, not a good effort(for the sake of time only) but if you need a sweet logo done, shoot me a message on our contact page and we can discuss!

I did show how to set up a Google Calendar and embed it on the Schedule page which is a really easy way to show your racing schedule.

Lastly we go over checking out the whole motorsports website in responsive mode since 50 ish percent of people will see it on their phone or tablet.

This is a lengthy 50 minute video for this step but it will get you to an end point(well close to an end because there will always be something more to do to it in the future).

Here it is – you may want to grab a beverage while you perform the steps in this video

We hope this guide helped you learn how to make your motorsports website without hiring a web designer or spending a bunch of money. If you have any questions you can always leave a comment below or contact us

You can view the example site by clicking here