Travel Blog Advice

Starting a travel blog opens up a world of possibilities for sharing your adventures, experiences, and insights with a global audience. However, finding the right travel topics to write about can sometimes be challenging. Fear not! In this blog post, we’ll explore a variety of engaging travel topics that can inspire your next blog post and captivate your readers’ attention. Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or a novice explorer, these ideas will help you create compelling content that resonates with your audience.

1. Destination Guides: Unveiling Hidden Gems Share in-depth guides about your favorite destinations, highlighting not only the popular attractions but also the hidden gems, local cuisines, and cultural experiences that make each place unique. Personal anecdotes and travel tips can add a personal touch to your guides, making them more relatable and engaging.

2. Travel Photography: Capturing Moments Showcase your photography skills by sharing stunning travel photos along with the stories behind them. Write about the techniques you used, the equipment you prefer, and the challenges you faced while capturing those perfect moments. You can also create themed photo essays or share travel photography tips for aspiring photographers.

3. Culinary Adventures: Tasting the World Food is an integral part of travel experiences. Write about your culinary adventures, exploring local delicacies, street food, traditional recipes, and dining etiquette from different cultures. Include mouth-watering photos and recommendations for food enthusiasts looking to indulge in authentic flavors.

4. Solo Travel: Embracing Independence Inspire fellow solo travelers by sharing your solo travel stories. Write about the empowering experiences, challenges you overcame, and the valuable lessons you learned while exploring the world alone. Provide safety tips, packing advice, and recommendations for solo-friendly destinations.

5. Budget Travel: Traveling Smart on a Shoestring Offer practical tips and tricks for budget-conscious travelers. Share money-saving hacks, budget accommodation options, affordable activities, and transportation tips. Help your readers plan memorable trips without breaking the bank.

6. Adventure Travel: Thrills and Adrenaline If you’re an adventure seeker, share your experiences with adrenaline-pumping activities like hiking, scuba diving, skydiving, or rock climbing. Write about the thrill of the adventure, safety precautions, and the breathtaking natural landscapes you encountered along the way. Inspire your readers to step out of their comfort zones and embrace adventure.

7. Responsible Travel: Making a Positive Impact Raise awareness about responsible and sustainable travel practices. Discuss eco-friendly accommodations, ethical wildlife encounters, and community-based tourism initiatives. Encourage your readers to travel responsibly, minimize their environmental footprint, and support local communities.

8. Travel Reflections: Personal Growth and Cultural Insights Share your introspective travel experiences that led to personal growth and self-discovery. Reflect on the cultural differences you encountered, the friendships you made, and the valuable life lessons learned during your journeys. These reflective pieces can be deeply inspiring and relatable to your readers.

With these diverse travel topics, you have a wealth of inspiration to fuel your travel blog. Remember to infuse your unique perspective, experiences, and personality into your writing. Authenticity is key to connecting with your audience. So, pick a topic that resonates with you, and let your passion for travel shine through your words. Happy blogging!

Are you eager to launch your travel blog in 2024 and make your mark in the digital world of wanderlust and adventure? The journey to becoming a successful travel blogger starts long before you hit the publish button on your first post. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to prepare for a successful blog launch in 2024, with a focus on SEO strategies to ensure your blog ranks well from the start.

• Keyword Research and Selection: Before you dive into the technical aspects of blog preparation, you need to identify the keywords and topics that resonate with your niche. Use keyword research tools to find high-ranking keywords related to travel and your specific interests. Target long-tail keywords and phrases that align with your blog’s theme and audience.
• Content Strategy: A successful blog launch requires a robust content strategy. Plan a content calendar that outlines your publishing schedule for the first few months. This should include a mix of pillar content, in-depth guides, travel stories, and evergreen articles. Ensure your content aligns with the keywords you’ve selected and provides value to your readers.
• Website Setup and Design: Choose a reliable hosting provider and set up your website using a user-friendly platform like WordPress. Select a mobile-responsive theme that enhances user experience, as mobile optimization is crucial for SEO. Configure essential plugins for SEO, security, and performance optimization.
• On-Page SEO Optimization: Optimize your individual blog posts for SEO by incorporating your target keywords naturally into titles, headings, meta descriptions, and throughout the content. Use descriptive alt text for images and ensure your site has a clean and organized structure with clear navigation.
• Internal Linking: Create a web of internal links that connect related blog posts. Internal linking improves user navigation and helps search engines crawl and index your content effectively.
• Site Speed and Performance: Optimize your site’s speed and performance by compressing images, enabling browser caching, and utilizing content delivery networks (CDNs). A fast-loading site is essential for both user experience and SEO.
• Mobile Optimization: With the majority of users accessing websites on mobile devices, ensuring your blog is mobile-friendly is critical. Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites in its rankings.
• Secure Your Blog: Implement security measures to protect your blog from threats and hackers. SSL certificates not only secure your site but also boost your search engine ranking.
• Content Marketing Plan: Prepare a content marketing plan to promote your blog posts on social media, email newsletters, and other platforms. Engaging with your audience and building a community around your blog is essential for long-term success.
• Monitoring and Analytics: Set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track your blog’s performance. Monitor your keyword rankings, click-through rates, and user behavior to make data-driven improvements.
• Backlink Strategy: As part of your long-term SEO plan, consider how you will earn high-quality backlinks to your blog. Guest posting, outreach to other bloggers, and creating shareable content can help build your blog’s authority.
• Launch Promotion: Plan a promotional campaign for your blog launch. Use social media, email marketing, and even paid advertising to generate buzz and drive traffic to your site on the launch day.

Preparing for a successful blog launch in 2024 requires meticulous planning and a focus on SEO strategies. By implementing these steps and staying committed to creating valuable content, you’ll be well on your way to building a thriving travel blog that captures the hearts and imaginations of readers worldwide.

These are some of the most common travel blogging questions we’ve been asked. Here’s what we’ve learned over the past 12 years of blogging and want to share with you.

What’s your process for making content?

It depends on what kind of content it is; if I’m making a video, the answer could be go outside with my tripod, find a nice view and just start. When it comes to development, that’s a totally different process, and writing is another process. Always write things down. Set out a rough plan for the day, week, and month so you can be efficient. Again, always write down your ideas. Sometimes an idea doesn’t sound very good when you write it down, but you never know how it can manifest a couple of weeks later.

How do you make most of your money? Is it through sponsors?

There are 2 ways to go about this. 1) you have to ask yourself why would anybody want to give you money? What skills do you have, what can you offer? How can you be useful to other people? That’s the first thing you need to address. After you figure that out, there are to strategies that you can go with. One, you can find one way to make $1 million. Or, you can find a million ways to make $1.

So some people are really good at finding the one way that makes one million dollars, it’s a lot more rare. But it’s a lot easier to find a lot of ways to make money and let that accumulate. So what I would say is think of your business or finances as a table, and the more legs you have for that table to stand on, all the better. You don’t need to find just one way to make money.

If you look through my site, you can see there are lots of ways that I’m generating revenue. I would say don’t try to copy something that someone is doing specifically, but maybe look at the strategies that blogs are using and see what is working for other people and maybe what isn’t working for other people.

I highly recommend that you go through a lot of trial and error. There is one case where it doesn’t matter how talented you are or aren’t at something, and that is when hard work is involved. That’s something that’s all on you. You have no excuse not to work hard. The harder you work the more results you’re going to get, and the one thing that you can do to even the playing field, the one thing that is in your control is hard work.

What are some platforms you use to spark growth for your blog?

I started blogging more than ten years ago. And at that time, there really wasn’t Instagram so I was doing Facebook and Twitter, and now I’m doing a lot more YouTube, which is something that I did start years ago and sort of gave up on. Now, I’m really getting back into it, and I really enjoy the process of making videos. I don’t really have a good answer for this question, I don’t really have a good method to spark growth. I just keep trying to be useful and help people travel smarter. I think if I keep doing that and I keep being successful with that I can help the blog grow.

Did you attend conferences to get started? 

Yes, when I first started my blog about 10 years ago, I did attend one conference, the TBEX conference, which was nice. I met some other bloggers who I’ve kept in touch with since then. But actually since then, I haven’t really gone to any other conferences. I don’t think conferences are particularly useful and I know a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me on that. But for me, I just don’t think they’re useful for what I do. They’re great for meeting people and connecting with other people but conferences I don’t think were a big part of my blog growth.

How many hours a week do you work on your blog?

That really depends, but it’s probably a lot. I don’t know exactly, but it’s well over 40 or 50 hours.

What are the type of skills that you need to know to start a blog?

How to make a website is a good one.

What are the best/worst parts of your job?

The worst parts of the job are nothing to complain about. I can’t think of one single worst part about the job to be absolutely honest with you. It’s got normal work stresses, sometimes it’s a little busier than others, but nothing really major to complain about, which is kind of nice. I guess add that to best parts about the job.

While travel blogs are a great way to keep friends and family in the loop about your travels, and keep a running journal of your experiences, they can also be a great way to generate some extra income. Oftentimes, the more effort and focus you can put on monetizing your blog, the more it can pay off in the long run.

Produce Quality Content

The first step to starting a successful travel blog for income may seem obvious, but it’s probably the most important. Create content that shines a light on you and your unique experience. Consistency and keeping your blog active while you travel are key; setting a schedule or a blogging calendar can help with that, and even writing a few posts beforehand can work. Producing quality content on a consistent basis will draw more people to your blog and eventually bring in people who may want to potentially collaborate with your blog and bring in revenue.

Become an Expert

Like with producing quality blog content, becoming a go-to resource on a topic or place can help build your blog’s credibility. Becoming the go-to blog on a certain place or activity, for example, will mean that there will be more eyes on your blog and the expertise you provide. This is a big draw-in for companies or advertisers focusing on the same things. Remember, while success can be defined many different ways, a successful travel blog connects a wide audience of travelers who can relate to each other and form a sense of community.

Sponsored Reviews

Once you beef up the content of your site and show versatility and expertise, sponsored reviews can be a great way to bring in money and expand your reach. Many travel bloggers have success in writing paid reviews of products or services they probably would have used anyway.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate links are a form of passive income, meaning once they are set up, you don’t have to spend any time making them generate income (as opposed to writing a review, for example). Affiliate links are a popular way for companies to market their products or services, and an easy way for you to earn a commission off the links placed in your blog. The amount you can earn varies, as do the affiliate link payment structures, but these are usually discussed or predetermined by companies.

Those are only a few ways to start your travel blog for income, or to turn your current blog into a revenue stream. Remember, it takes some extra effort to combine writing and travel, and to move on to monetizing your blog. It can be slow-moving and can sometimes be tedious, but if you are consistent you can work towards generating enough extra income to spend toward more travels. Good luck!

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my list of best plugins for WordPress Blogs (8 years, to be exact!). There are a lot more plugins available now but also more time to see which are diligently maintained, reliable, and don’t impact your site speed.

This is an updated list of WordPress plugins that still work better than ever and newer tools to add to your arsenal.

Yoast SEO – Yoast SEO is a top WordPress SEO plugin, and will help your blog rank higher in search engines. It’s also helpful to remember that guest posts can actually help SEO. Yoast is pretty easy to use out of the box but can also be finely tuned if you want to make modifications to how it handles your sites SEO.

Maintenance Mode – Still a favorite, this plugin creates an “Under Construction” page for your site when you’re doing some work on it. This way, people aren’t running into an error when you’re sprucing things up. It can also be set up with links to redirect readers to everywhere else you might be found online so you don’t lose a potential subscriber.

Akismet – I recommended Akismet in 2013 and still do today. The plugin automatically checks all comments made on your site and filters the ones it suspects are spam, making it a useful tool to handle and reduce spam on your blog. Keep in mind that won’t need this plugin if you disable comments on your site. Akismet recently began charging for their plugin if you run any ads on your blog.

WhyDoWork Adsense WP In Post Ads – The WhyDoWork Adsense plugin became defunct in 2018, but there are alternatives to the plugin if you want to make some money with your travel blog. Adsense plugins provide easy ad management without complicated code. WP In Post Ads allows you to test different ad placements and see what’s making the most money.

Google Analytics – While plugins can bring increased functionality with ease to your blog in some cases, sometimes avoiding plugins increases your site’s efficiency. This is the case with Google Analytics, which I still recommend. The tool tracks and reports website traffic, which is important if you want to make adjustments and monetize on your blog.

Sucuri Security – The cost of this service has increased from $89.99 per year (in 2013) for a single site to $199.99. That price includes security monitoring, protection, and clean up if required. The plugin helps integrate the Sucuri service into your WordPress installation. You can also leverage Sucuri to protect your sites contact form from spam messages (in case you decide not to use Aksimet).

You’ll notice this is a clean, lean, and minimalist list and for good reason. Using too many plugins can slow down your blog and also increases the chances plugins will conflict with one another or your sites theme. Stick to only the plugins you find essential and let your creative work do the rest.

The travel industry took a major hit in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but things are starting to pick up again in 2021. More people have gotten a taste of the flexibility of working remotely, and a year of limited travel means that more people will be getting out as countries open up. It’s important to create a travel blog that can be successful and survive even during a time of limited travel.

Know Your Audience

Having a niche or focus is key for a successful travel blog, no matter what year it is. Writing what you know, to an audience you are familiar with (maybe they’re the same age group that you are in) will make your blog relatable and keep readers coming back to your site. Whether it’s the best travel tech, or how to travel with pets,  if 2020 taught travel bloggers anything, it’s that we’ve had to get creative with our content. Finding a theme that you can post about whether you are traveling internationally or locally will save you the stress of trying to figure things out if the world shut down again.

Network

Networking is important in most fields of work, and blogging is one of those fields. The Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) travel blogging conference usually has several conferences every year, all around the world. It’s a one-stop shop to meeting fellow bloggers face-to-face, and a great way to set up future collaboration with other travel bloggers.

Set Goals

Setting travel blogging goals is an essential way to ensure you’ll be consistent and make progress with your travel blog. Whether your aim is to continue a regular posting schedule, or have more meetups, setting realistic, attainable goals will keep you motivated.

Quality Is Key – Do Your Research!

Never sacrifice quality for quantity. Your posts should be original and interesting, and you shouldn’t aim to post everyday if the quality of articles starts to go down. Having a voice in your writing and creating consistent, structured posts will help your blog grow.

This is a guest post by Nick and Dariece, the couple behind Goats On The Road, a website designed to show others how to turn their travels into a lifestyle. Masters at making money abroad, they’ve been on the road since 2008 and have explored some of the least visited places on Earth.

We’ve all heard of the guest post and its inherent benefits and dangers, but there is a way to exponentially increase the positive affects of a guest post on your blog’s traffic. First introduced by Adam Costa of Travel Blogger Academy, this tactic single-handedly resulted in a 35% increase in traffic at Goats On The Road. After Adam Costa gave me the idea, I gave it a try, and after the amazing success I had with the strategy, I dubbed it the Guest Post Bomb and decided to start to spreading the word.

The Pitches, Strikes and Home Runs

When you’re pitching articles to new bloggers, make sure you know what kind of articles they’re looking for. You’ll have much better success if you’re an honest fan of the blogger that you’re pitching to. Explain to them why you want to write for them, why you’re perfect for them and why you like their blog. Don’t just pretend you’re a reader. If you don’t even know who the people are that your reaching out to, then why should they take the time to get to know you? You’ll limit your strike-outs and have more home runs if you connect with blogs that you already follow.

Don’t follow 20 – 40 bloggers? Better get reading! Never pitch a blogger without reading at least 5 of their most popular articles.

Photo By Saparaud via WikiMedia Commons

Be Careful!

As with every SEO and blog traffic tactic, there are pros and cons to this approach. This is a relatively new idea and you always have to be mindful when you’re testing new waters. Pointing out the pros and cons will help ensure that you’re maximizing the positive effect on your blog in the long-term, while avoiding any mistakes that could harm you down the road.

Pros (+)

+ Driving MAD traffic to your travel blog:

I know, it sounds like a lot of hype, but in my personal experience this is the single best strategy for driving huge, retain-able traffic to your travel blog. This approach is a large part of the reason that Goats On The Road has the traffic it does today, and I know that if you employ this method to your blog, you’ll have similar results.

+ Getting multiple links back to your domain to boost your authority (D.A):

Make sure that you’re linking each and every guest post back to your travel blog and not just from the dark abyss of the author’s bio! You should have one or two links in the main body of every article (depending on how many the website owner will allow) that leads back to your best blog posts. Don’t just link back to your home page. Deep links to your best posts are much more valuable.

Note: Never guest blog just to get increased PageRank and SEO results. You’re main focus should always be to write great content and have readers naturally click to your site.

+ Connecting with loads of great bloggers:

All great bloggers have made the right connections at the right times. By reaching out to so many bloggers in your niche, you’ll be forging new online friendships that could prove invaluable over time.

+ Having your name seen by hundreds, thousands or millions of new readers:

The exposure that you can harness from a GPB is only limited by your hustle, and your success in pitching big name blogs. All of those great bloggers that you’re posting for have their own loyal fans and this is your opportunity to show them that you are worth following too. Every guest post you write should be long, in-depth and captivating. This is going to increase your chances of retaining some of the traffic that will be coming your way.

+ Depending on where you write, you may be getting paid for some articles:

There are plenty of websites that will pay you for your work and many bloggers make money from freelance writing. If you can make a few hundred or a few thousand dollars while you’re doing your GPB, great, but make sure that you’re not choosing websites just because they pay. You want to be writing for top websites in your niche, not top-paying sites that don’t match your blog.

For paid freelance gigs, travel bloggers can check out this list.

+ You’re CREATING A BUZZ:

This is the #1 reason that the Guest Post Bomb so powerful. We all know the importance of social proof. Think about it, when someone is searching around their favorite travel blog, foXnoMad.com, and they see your brand there because you guest posted for Anil, then the same day they head to their favorite blog help site, TravelBlogAdvice.com, and see you there again, they’ll start to think “hey, this guy’s a pretty big deal”.

That is what is going to make people remember you. They’ll start to see you all over the place and they’ll feel like they have no choice but to follow you! How had they never heard of you before?

Cons (-):

– Matt Cutts warned that Google doesn’t like guest posts:

It’s true. Google is cracking down on spammy, link scheme-style guest posts on irrelevant sites. But that doesn’t mean that all guest posts are bad. Make sure that you’re posting original, high-quality guest posts on relevant sites and you’ll be fine. Also, as stated above, write for bloggers who you know and enjoy following.

“There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging.”

-Matt Cutts in this blog Post

– You run the risk of looking spammy:

To avoid looking like a spammer, don’t over optimize your anchor texts. Never write 40 guest posts and link them all back to your site with the exact same anchors like: “Top Holidays” or “Best Travel Blog”. If you do, you’re asking for trouble.

The key is to have a healthy link profile, with plenty of branded, soft anchors and long tail keywords, which will ensure that your site looks more natural in the eyes of the Google Gods. For every keyword anchor you have, you should also build a branded anchor (ie: “Your Brand” or “YourBrand.com”).

Another way that you may look spammy is if you make the mistake of writing the same post twice. Every single post has to be 100% original and never published anywhere else online (including on your own blog). Google penalizes sites that have duplicate content so make sure that every paragraph is new and unique.

Of course, if you’re spamming, you’ll look like a spammer. Never send out bulk, generic emails to numerous blogs, never publish half-ass posts anywhere you can and never guest blog solely for the purpose of increasing your PageRank.

– You’ll get rejected a lot:

Have thick skin and get ready to hear “no” thrown back at you a few times. If you’re pitching 20 – 40 bloggers in a month, there’s a good chance that some of your ideas won’t jive with their flow. That’s fine! Don’t let it deter you from asking big name bloggers in the industry. Just keep on trying and eventually you’ll get your name seen on some amazing sites.

I once pitched Max at GoNomad.com 4 different articles before he finally accepted one! While you should never heckle a blogger, sometimes you’ll need to try more than once to get an article accepted.

– It’s a ton of work:

There’s no doubt about it, it’s a lot of work writing 20 – 40 awesome blog posts, but it’s definitely worth it. If you’re worried about investing too much time into this approach, then start with just 10 guest posts published on the same day. You’ll see some serious traffic growth and after that, you’ll be ready to publish as many as you can to continue the progress. It is definitely a lot of work, but I can tell you from experience… it’s worth it!

How To Make The Most Of Your GPB

When you’re doing your Guest Post Bomb, you’re going to want to make sure that you’re maximizing your return in every possible way you can. What are your goals for the GPB? Is it simply to drive more traffic to your site, if so, you may want to reconsider your motives.

Traffic is great, but it should be your secondary aim. There are a few things that you should have in place to ensure that you’re converting drive-by readers into long-lasting fans and potential customers. Below are some tips to help you better capitalize on your GPB.

Have a product:

Whether it’s an e-book, a consultancy course or a T-shirt collection, have something that you’re new readers can purchase. Just make sure that you’re not too pushy in your approach. If they come to your site and a huge pop-up appears that says “BUY THIS!” they may just click away before reading anything.

Image By Maximilian Schönherr via WikiMedia Commons

Allow readers to subscribe:

Whether you have a product or not, you should always make it easy for new readers to subscribe to your blog. If you get an email address, then your newsletter will remind your new fans just how awesome your travel blog is!

Link back to your most valuable resource:

Have you written an extensive guide or a useful post that you want to have shared? Make sure that you link back to it from your guest posts. If people come to your site and immediately see solid, memorable content, then they’ll be more likely to stick around.

Pitch, Write, Publish and BOOM!

Now is the perfect time to start your Guest Post Bomb. Start pitching your favorite bloggers and top bloggers in the travel industry, then get ready to write a lot of WOW-worthy guest posts, have them all publish on the same day and BOOM! When your Guest Post Bomb explodes, you’ll see some huge traffic that won’t just disappear over time. After you’ve tried it, come back here, leave a comment and tell us how much traffic you earned! We’re sure that you’ll be happy that you read this post.

You can learn more about how Nick and Dariece turn their travels into a lifestyle on their site, Goats On The Road. They’re also full-time contributors at Credit Walk where they share their expertise of long-term travel. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube.

Some time has passed since I wrote my 13 recommended WordPress plugins for travel blogs and while I can still vouch for a few of those, in many cases it’s time for an update. WordPress itself has extended its functionality to incorporate what once required plugin support while savvy coders have expanded their plugins to encompass others. All of this means that some plugins aren’t useful or needed any more while in other cases it’s better to simply add a bit of code directly into your WordPress site itself.

• All In One SEO Pack WordPress SEO – I perform extensive SEO testing on a number of WordPress websites and since I updated this list last, the results have strongly favored WordPress SEO. Although it’s prone to conflict with other plugins you may have running and not exactly intuitive to set up, putting some effort into a careful install plus brushing up on proper configuration can markedly improve your travel blog’s search engine visibility. (Download WordPress SEO)

• Google Analytics – I can still recommend this plugin but it’s incredibly easy to simply add the Analytics code to your WordPress site. Avoiding plugins when possible makes your site more efficient plus reduces the potential for conflicts and security vulnerabilities. (Download Google Analytics)

• Google XML Sitemaps – It’s now integrated into WordPress SEO plugin, killing two birds with one plugin stone.

• Login Lockdown – I still highly recommend this plugin as one of the ways to keep your travel blog safe. (Download Login Lockdown)

• Maintenance Mode – This plugin creates a nice little ‘Under Construction’ page for your site. It’s customizable, easy to use, and should only be activated as needed. (Download Maintenance Mode)

• Spam Karma Akismet – Spam Karma is no longer updated but Akismet does a great job of replacing it. Bundled with every WordPress installation, if you’re not already using it, you can download Akismet here.

• Subscribe To Comments [Reloaded] – Picks up where the original Subscribe To Comments left off after development was abandoned. One of my favorite plugins, it emails people who leave a comment of any follow up comments on the thread or specifically to replies. It’s a great way to generate discussion and comments on your travel blog since most people who leave a comment don’t come back to look for replies. (Download Subscribe To Comments Reloaded)

• TinyMCE Advanced – Adds a number of icons to your post editing screen that were lost a many WordPress updates ago. It makes it easier to insert video, adjust pictures, and change font sizes. It’s worth mentioning however that TinyMCE Advanced tends to conflict with other plugins, when in doubt, it’s the one to check. (Download TinyMCE)

• Whydowork Adsense – If you use Google’s Adsense to make some money with your travel blog, this plugin makes it easier to put ads – or any other code for that matter – within posts. You can even configure it to show ads X number of days after a post is published or in random spots. (Download Whydowork Adsense)

• WP-ContactForm Contact Form 7 – More stable than my previous recommendation, Contact Form 7 lets you create contact pages like this and place it anywhere on your travel blog. It also comes with a built-in spam filter plus additional formatting options. (Download Contact Form 7)

• WP-DBManager – Although WordPress comes with a built in database backup utility, this plugin lets you create backups at intervals of your choice and can be configured to automatically optimize your database every month, although I would suggest activating this feature on an as-needed basis. (Download WP-DBManager)

• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) – Both Outbrain and nRelate do a better job of showing recommended posts beneath an article, although they’re not specifically sorted by relation to the topic at hand.

• Yoast Breadcrumbs – Now integrated into WordPress SEO.

• EWWW Image Optimizer – Despite hosting most of the pictures I use in posts on SmugMug, I want to make sure any images being served from my WordPress installation are as small as possible. EWWW Image Optimizer automatically does this upon upload and has several options for lossless and losely conversion. (Download EWWW Image Optimizer)

• FD Feedburner Plugin – Make sure all of your RSS subscribers are counted properly. (Download FD Feedburner Plugin)

• Sucuri Security – The service costs $89.99 per year for a single site which is a bargain considering that price includes security monitoring, protection, and clean up if required. The plugin helps integrate the Sucuri service into your WordPress installation. (Download Sucuri Security)

• W3 Total Cache – The large number of options and effectiveness of this plug are its strengths – as well as weaknesses – at the same time. The default settings should be fine for most installations but if you’re willing to get your hands a little dirty, proper configuration can dramatically improve your travel blogs performance and loading times. (Download W3 Total Cache)

Generally, I try to be relatively consistent with the plugins I use across foXnoMad, Travel Blog Advice, and my other blogs, but these aren’t all of the ones I use. The others perform site-specific functions but try to remember when it comes to plugins, less is more. A cluttered installation of plugins on your WordPress back-end can slow or shutdown pages when conflicts inevitably occur.

Many travel blog dilemmas, like forcing external links to open in new tabs, using a trailing slash for site speed and improving SEO or enabling SSL for password security can be accomplished with a few lines of code in the right place.

What are some of your favorite and go-to WordPress plugins you would add to the list above? I look forward to hearing your recommendations, in the comments below.

Over on foXnoMad from 7pm-9pm US EST today, Thursday November 7th but you can leave your questions below or directly in the chat comments here right now. In addition to writing, she’ll also answer any questions you may have on pitching stories to publishers, coming up with a good story, and breaking into the writing world. I hope you have time to take advantage of the opportunity and think you’ll find some excellent travel blog advice.

• Ask A U.S. News And World Report Associate Editor: How Can You Become A Better (Travel) Writer?