How To Start A Blog: My First 3 Months As A Travel Blogger

It’s been just over three months since I dove into the land of wordpress and launched this little travel blog, and while I’m still pretty clueless as to what I’m doing and where this blog is heading – I am certainly happy I’m here.

Why does this blog make me happy? For starters, I’ve been able to relive some of my favorite adventures, browse through old photos, and reflect on how lucky I’ve been to see all of these beautiful places before the age of 30.

As a travel blogger, I’ve also had the opportunity to explore places I’ve never heard of, as I build lists of must-see destinations around Europe for you and as it turns out, for myself. 5 Greatest Destinations In Europe For Foodies comes to mind, as I have never traveled to a destination specifically for food in the past, and now all 5 of these places are at the top of my bucket list specifically for that reason.

In addition to reflection on the past and inspiration for the future, I’ve found joy in the present – Having a creative project to look forward to building upon each and every week has been a highlight of this year, and I can only imagine what this project will look like 12 months from now as I continue to discover what I am meant to focus on here and what larger picture is coming to fruition through this blog.

The Process Of Becoming A Blogger

If you’ve never launched a blog, something you may not realize is how time-consuming it is to navigate the blogging world as a newbie. For starters, any old Squarespace site will not do if you’re hoping to build something with longevity, which I will share more about below – But this was my first mistake, which I was luckily able to fix prior to any published content and after only a couple days of wasted time.

And that, my friends, is why I thought it would be helpful to document the process – To save you from time wasted and inspire you to start from scratch if it means building your ideal future.

Before I list out the tasks I’ve completed over my first 3 months as a travel blogger, I want to state that there are many podcasts, blogs, and youtube channels with detailed information on these topics, created by successful bloggers who know far more than I do. I will be sure to link some of my favorites at the end of this page – But for the purposes of this post, I am simply a newbie sharing my journey.

Tasks I’ve Completed In The First 3 Months Of Launching Danielle Got Lost Blog

September 30, 2024
– WORDPRESS: Created a free account on wordpress.org (NOT wordpress.com!): A content-management platform for self-hosted websites
– HOSTING: Created an account on bigscoots.com (a web-hosting company with managed wordpress hosting) and signed up for an entry-level hosting plan for $7.95/month
– DOMAIN: Purchased a domain on squarespace (prior to realizing my mistake) for $20/year; This would have been cheaper on BigScoots for $15.95/year.
– SOCIAL MEDIA: Claim @daniellegotlost on all platforms

October 1, 2024
– DESIGN PLUGIN: Used Kubio plugin to quickly design the website with only two pages – Home & Blog – The idea of this was to launch quickly and adjust later. I haven’t decided if this is the plugin I will stick with, but I am still in the “just post” phase and trying my best not to waste time on perfection.
– POSTED: Published my first blog post!

October 2, 2024
– CONSISTENT CONTENT: Began posting x2/week; Sharing itineraries, experiences, and food recommendations – Primarily in Albania since this is where I was traveling at the time.
– SEO: Signed up for a KeySearch SEO Tool trial, which I LOVED, but did not continue because I am doing my best not to spend money on this project. While the trial was active, I searched and screenshotted everything I could think of to help with future posts
– EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: This was a day of challenges, as I attempted to create a link for email subscribers using MailChimp, which I am not linking because I quickly deactivated my subscription. Later in the day, I switched to MailPoet! Although the frustration and growing pains continued for weeks, this service is what I use to this day for emails.

October 3, 2024
– FIRST SUBSCRIBER: This day I got my first email subscriber, my sister. 🙂

October 21, 2024
– AMAZON ASSOCIATE: On this day, I created an Amazon Associates Storefront, specifically so that I could link products on my Essentials For Backpacking Europe post. I was approved within 24 hours, and have not made a single penny from this, but that’s okay! I wasn’t expecting to, but am preparing for the day I will.
** Update! While double-checking this post – I realized that I’ve actually made $3.29 on Amazon! YAY!

Early November, 2024
– PINTEREST: Sometime this month, I started sharing my blog posts on Pinterest, which brought more eyes to my blog than I ever imagined I could get in the first 3 months! (Not a lot, but I was expecting zero, so this was cool!) *I don’t regret starting Pinterest early because it feels nice to have people on my page. However, ego-aside, this step could have waited as I currently do not have enough posts up to maintain the x1/day minimum that Pinterest experts recommend.

November 27, 2024
– ANALYTICS: I finally gained access to MonsterInsights! For the last few months, I’d been attempting to link my WordPress account with Google Analytics and couldn’t figure out what was blocking the link. Finally, I reached out the team at BigScoots and discovered that I was linking to an email not connected with the website, whoops. But yay!
– FIRST NEWSLETTER: This is the day I sent out my first email newsletter! I shared a little behind the scenes of my blogging journey along with links to various posts from the month. To be clear – I have a total of 4 subscribers, which are the 4 people in my life who I’ve shared this blog with. But that is what you call a community! And I am very grateful for the people who support me and all my crazy ideas.

December 31, 2024
– INSTAGRAM: One of my end of year goals was to start posting on the Danielle Got Lost Instagram, which i claimed back in September. I spent the month of December preparing 3 months worth of posts prior to beginning this new piece of the project. The reason for this? I want to continue to focus on the blog itself and not get wrapped up in social media, the engagement (or lack thereof), and/or allow my ego to get in the way of the joy this project brings me.

And that brings us to today! December 31st, 2024. <3

Today I am becoming more clear on what I wish to write about and how I can impact fellow travel and food lovers who find this blog – Speaking of which, below I will share the Analytics for my first 3 months, which is quite a vulnerable thing to do, but hopefully this will reach someone at the beginning of their blogging journey feel less alone!

Danielle Got Lost Site Analytics

January 2025

All Time Stats:
Total Page Views: 379
Total Sessions: 186
Number of Posts: 22

January Stats:
Sessions: 91
Pageviews: 192
Average Session Duration: 51 seconds
Bounce Rate: 51.6%

October 2024 – December 2024

All Time Stats:
Total Page Views: 187
Total Sessions: 95
Number of Posts: 17

December Stats:
Sessions: 26
Pageviews: 45
Average Session Duration: 20 seconds
Bounce Rate: 61.5%

Heads up, this is what you can see with the free version of MonsterInsights, and that is what I use. So… What do you think? Less or more traffic than you’d expect from a little bitty brand-new blog?

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Finally – As promised, here are the links to some of my favorite resources for new bloggers:

Podcasts:
The Ultimate Blog Podcast
The Travel Creator: Tips For Travel Influencers
Thrive Podcast For Content Creators

Blogs:
Spark Media Concepts

YouTube Channels:
Katie Steckly

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Was this helpful? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments below!

Cheers to a 2025 full of love, laughs, and community!