How to Create a Travel Blog Website with Headless CMS
Green Apex Solutions Limited
360 Development Solutions | CMS | Mobile+Web app development | Frontend & backend development | UI/UX | TaaS
Did you know that one in every two travel bloggers earn an income from their blogs?
It’s true: if you’re a passionate traveler with a story to tell, investing in a travel blog can help you earn an income of $5,000!
But setting up a travel blog can be tough, especially if you want to consistently attract, maintain and nurture followers…
So, if you’re looking to curate a visually stunning travel blog that’s worthy of the stories you want to share, a generic WordPress blog might be the ideal choice.
Instead, we recommend you go for a travel blogging website built with a Headless CMS.
In this blog, we’re going to tell you exactly how it works and how you can create and scale a travel blog website in five simple steps.
Let’s dive in!
What is a Headless CMS?
First things first, just what is this Headless CMS?
A headless Content Management System is a platform that helps you build vivid websites with user-friendly features. And it works even if you don’t have technical expertise!
Very simply, a headless CMS separates your website's front end from its back end. It allows you to create omnichannel content types, so you can reach your audience wherever they might be…
For instance, once you’ve created templates for images, videos, and texts, you can deploy those templates for websites, apps, different browsers, and so on.
Headless CMS development is basically a one-stop solution for all your website development needs.
Benefits of Using a Headless CMS for Your Travel Blog
In our experience, working with a headless CMS opens up endless possibilities that can make your travel blog better, brighter and bigger than others. Here are some benefits you can expect from using a headless CMS:
1. Control Over User Experience
Unlike website builders such as Wix and Squarespace which allow to choose from ready-made templates, headless CMS platforms help you build a custom template.
It puts you in full control over the user experience, so you’re not limited by preset templates or notions of what a blog should look like. It also helps you differentiate your blog from others on the Internet.
2. Full Stack of SEO Tools
Visibility is the key to unlocking more followers for your travel blogging website. A headless CMS platform empowers you with granular SEO features, including detailed metadata fields, to help you increase your blog’s visibility across the web.
3. Scalability: Whenever You Need It
Have you heard the adage, “It’s better to have something and not need it than to need it and not have it”?
This principle is key to headless CMS platforms. They help you scale your travel blog website whenever you need it. So, scalability might not be your primary concern when you’re starting out…but whenever you do, a headless CMS will be right there for you!
4. Collaboration with Security
One way to scale your travel blog is to invite other bloggers to collaborate with you, or even pool resources for more content and visibility.
But that requires a website that lets you collaborate while also ensuring maximum security. And a headless CMS does just that: it gives you full control over the accessibility and administration of your travel blog.
We know what you’re thinking: those are definitely some great benefits to have for your travel blogging website. So, how exactly can you get started with one?
Let’s find out:
How to Create Your Own Travel Blog Website with a Headless CMS (and Scale It)
After consulting with our veteran headless CMS developers, we’ve come up with a series of five simple steps that can help you get started with your own headless CMS travel blog:
1. Choose a Headless CMS: Strapi, Prismic, Contentful
The first step to developing a headless CMS travel blog is to choose a headless CMS that works for you. While there are several options out there, these three have worked best for us:
Strapi is probably the headless CMS with the best functionalities on the market. It offers you a drag-and-drop user interface, perfect if you’re a non-technical user. It is also easily scalable and can handle a lot of traffic.
If you’re confused about which CMS to choose, we suggest you give Strapi CMS development services a shot!
Prismic is another great choice for non-technical users. It deals in content “Slices,” each slice representing a different object, such as text, images, video, etc. It’s a solid choice if you’re just starting out with a travel blog and a good alternative to Strapi.
Contentful makes our list because it gives you access to a Content Studio and a drag-and-drop editor. It also leverages AI to help you speed up content creation and deployment.
2. Create Custom Content Types
Once you’ve decided which CMS works best for you, it’s time to start working on the building blocks of your content. By this, we mean the types of content that you want to work with.
So, whether it’s images, videos or text, you can create content types that you can deploy seamlessly each time you create a new blog!
3. Work with a Content Template
Okay, so now that you’ve got the building blocks ready, the next step is to create a blog template.
It can be something like this:
Of course, you can tweak the template whenever you want, but having a template will simplify and accelerate the content creation process.
4. Choose Microservices + Plugins
Once you’re satisfied with a primary template, the last step is to choose the microservices or plugins you want to include in the blog.
A microservice is a dedicated solution for a specific functionality. For instance, it can be a payment interface, a chatbot, or user photo submission options.
Plugins are similar, but offer ready-made solutions for specific tasks, that you just have to include in your blog.
For instance, you can include a Form Fillup service so people can subscribe to your blog, etc. You can also integrate your Instagram feed so your readers can easily read about and follow your travel experience in one place!
Headless CMS platforms like Strapi offer integration with a variety of plugins and microservices you can choose from.
5. Publish and Maintain
And that’s it!
You’re all set to embark on your travel blogging journey with the same enthusiasm that you bring to your travel experiences!
In our experience, consistency is the key to a successful travel blog. It might take 3-6 months to achieve stability and dedicated followers.
The Easiest Way to Create Your Own Travel Blog Website…Work with Green Apex!
Traveling and travel blogging are two entirely different tasks…and while we know that you’ve got the traveling part covered, we’re here to help you with the latter!
As you might have noticed in our discussion of the steps required to create a travel blog website, we didn’t cover too many technical details that might come up when you’re setting up your travel blog.
That’s because, as a CMS development company, we specialize in empowering you to do what you do best, travel and write, while we take care of developing a custom website for you!
Connect with us to find out how it works, and how you can become the next big travel blogger in town!