Claim Domain Name & Social Media Handles & Google Products

It’s day nine and ten of the free travel blogging course based on my 2021 E-book entitled 30 Days to Launch a Travel Blogging or Writing Career. This episode shares how Claim a Domain Name & Social Media Handles as well as securing your Gmail and Google accounts such as analytics and search console. Follow this series to create the habits to be a successful travel writer or blogger!

This podcast and series publishes on the 2nd Wednesday of every month and is designed to help you build a travel blog your readers love as well as help you achieve your goals as a travel writer or blogger.

Claim Domain Name & Social Media Handles

Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. I may make a small commission from these links if you order something at no additional cost to you.

Make sure to listen to the full podcast, so you can hear the next steps in launching a travel blogging website.

This series is here to help you launch a successful travel blogging career and create the habits to be a successful travel writer or blogger.

30 Days to Launch a Travel Blogging or Writing Career E-book Day 9 & 10

Today’s topic is focused on How to Claim a Domain Name, Social Media Handles, Gmail, and sign up for Google Analytics and Search Console.

Download the FREE PDF worksheet for day 8 before you read on!

Claim Domain Name

Let’s jump into todays lesson that focuses on the proper launch of a website, securing your social accounts and Gmail.

You have done the hard work in days 1-8 by setting goals, finding a niche, finding & understanding who your competitors are, finding your ideal reader, documenting passwords, creating 50 article ideas, writing your tag line, and creating a keyword library, honing in on your audience and writing a paragraph to explain your blog focus also known as a mission statement.

The steps and tasks for today are only meant to be done when you are READY!

If you haven’t found a blog name you are happy with head back to Day 6 and start the process over. If you are a member of the Travel Writer’s Academy, head to our Facebook group and ask for guidance!
Your blog name is your business name. So, this is a big decision.

1. Claim Your Domain & URL

When you are ready, claim your URL — which means buying the domain. I have my sites hosted with SiteGround and that is who I currently recommend for your domain purchase and hosting. Thre are a lot of other hosts out there, but I’ve had a great experience with Siteground and have three websites with them.

Head to SiteGround.com and head to “Domain Names” in the footer to see if your domain name is available. In the search bar type you’re URL (www.yourblog.com) to see if it is available for purchase.
I know you just spent a lot of time thinking up a great name, but it has to be available to use it. I strongly recommend getting a .com and not a .net or other extension.

Again, in the end this is a personal decision.

There are several more steps to launching a website that need to be put into place, including choosing a theme, navigation, site map (structure of pages on site), and much more. I do recommend your site be built with WordPress, and here is a step by step resource for starting a website on WordPress.

Claim Social Media Handles

2. Claim Your Place in Social

Only after you have secured a domain (this means purchased it), it’s time to claim your social domains. Don’t jump the gun and create your accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc if you don’t have a domain. It will most likely lead to double work. Who has time for that!

Once your domain is purchased, then (and only then) create your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube Accounts. You do NOT need to start posting on all the platforms (in fact don’t! We’ll get to that shortly!), but you do want to secure your blog name. Please be as consistent as possible.

The only two that might be more difficult are Instagram (30 characters) and Twitter (50 characters) because they have character limitations. I had to work around this as well. If you can’t use your full name on these
platforms, make sure they are the same on both.

Even if you think you may never use Youtube or any other social platform, claim it! It’s better to have it and not use it than to want to use it and not have the name available.

3. Social Media Bio

Using your mission statement (the paragraph you created about your blog) hone it into a great bio. I think a great bio also includes a few personal hobbies or a glimpse into you as a person. A few examples of bio’s I really like:

Already have a website? Take a look at your bio. Does it need an update? Is it consistent across all platforms? Did you write a paragraph to explain your blog focus from day 4? If not, take time to do this and then take a new look at your bio.

Use this check-off list I’ve created & which you can download from today’s shownotes to keep track of your social platforms. I encourage you to sign up for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest as well as Youtube. But, in the end choose other social platforms based on your audience/demographics.

Claim Gmail & Google Properties

Moving into day 10, which really goes hand in hand with day 9 is focused on Getting Your Google Accounts set up.

A single username and password gets you into everything Google.
https://accounts.google.com/signup
A few specific Google accounts you need to set up in tandem with your website include

1. Create a dedicated Gmail email account for your travel writing

How: Use above link or head to http://www.gmail.com/ and follow instructions.

Why: Let me count the reasons!

Gmail is associated with Google.
Google owns Youtube
Google Adsense
Google Adwords
Google Analytics (to track traffic on your website)
Google Calendar and Documents
For a full list of Google Products: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products

2. Create a Google Drive Account

How: Head to https://www.google.com/drive/ and sign up.
Why: Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service created by Google. It allows users to store files in the cloud, share files, and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with collaborators. You can access it from desktop and your phone.

3. Create Google Alerts

How: Head to https://www.google.com/alerts
As long as your Google account is set up you can add any alerts you want.
Why: Alerts is a service that allows you to get alerts for search words including your own name! So, if nothing else, make sure to set up an alert for your name. If you have a blog, set up an alert for your blog name. You can also set up alerts for specific stories you are researching or anything you want to be notified about as it pertains to your travel writing.

4. Create a Search Console Account

How: Head to https://search.google.com/search-console/about
Why: It’s a way to monitor, maintain, fix issues, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.

Your additional homework is to use the same download worksheet to keep your Google information.

Hope you enjoyed today’s lesson. And if you have listened to all the episodes in this series, you are officially ⅓ of the way through the ebook!

We’ve covered setting goals, finding a niche, finding & understanding who your competitors are, finding your ideal reader, documenting passwords, creating 50 blog ideas, writing your tag line, creating a keyword library, and claiming your website URL. That is impressive and if you have done all these tasks you should feel very proud of yourself. Whether you did it in the last month or a year ago, this is a big accomplishment and you should celebrate what you have accomplished.

Where are you in the overall process of the tutorial? What questions do you have?
Have you gotten stuck on a certain task?

Do you feel like you are creating a good foundation to be a successful blogger?

If you are in the travel Writer’s academy, please head to our secret facebook group and check in.

Btw, if you Don’t want to wait that long or want the entire ebook at your finger tips to work through at your own pace? This totally revised ebook for 2021 comes with 30 days of tutorial and a pdf worksheet for every day is only $49. That is a seriously good deal! Just head to BITW and click on the products tab in the upper navigation.

Hope you are having a great day, a great week and a great month and until next time.

Break Into Travel Writing Freebies

I want to make sure you are aware of a few freebies offered to this audience. These great resources for your travel writing and travel blogging journey.

The Friday Funday email This email goes out every Friday and is filled with media trip opportunities, paying freelance gigs, travel blogging courses, affiliate opportunities, and more! This email is geared towards sharing opportunities for travel, earning income, and finding great travel blogging and travel writing opportunities! Sign up for this free newsletter.
Do you know about the Travel Writers Evergreen Thread group on Facebook? If you are interested in getting your articles shared and eyeballs on your website these are fun fun threads with a great community of travel bloggers & writers. If I am speaking greek to you and you don’t know what Facebook theads are, I have a video tutorial explaining how to use the group — but it’s truly very simple. If you had to Travel Writer Evergreen Threads on Facebook, you can request to join, or head to the shownotes page for todays episode, #182 and I have a link to the group.

Of course, if you are new to this podcast, and looking for a community of travel bloggers and writers, a place where you can ask all your questions about this creative world, connect with others who are taking the steps to become a content creator, please join us in the Travel writers Academy. It’s currently just $120 for a lifetime membership.

This is a one-time fee to jump into the Academy for a lifetime membership!

Here’s a breakdown of what you get as a member of the Academy…

Over 24 travel blogging courses.
Secret Facebook group.
Bonus podcast recordings with blogging tips for community members only!
30 Days to Become a Travel Writer e-book.
Friday Funday media trips and paying gigs archive.

Have you downloaded the FREE PDF worksheet for day 9 & 10?

I hope you enjoyed this show and day 9 & 10 of 30 Days to Launch a Travel Blogging or Writing Career series.

About The 30 Days to Launch a Travel Blogging Series

This is part of a podcast series that airs on the first Wednesday of each month, where I share tips from my newly revised (for 2021) Ebook entitled 30 Days to Launch a Travel Blogging or Writing Career.

The 30-day foundation course lays the groundwork needed to launch a travel blogging or travel writing career from the launch of your website to landing media trips or creating your own paid-for solo travel!

Each of the tips from the Ebook, are short and come with a worksheet. In fact, make sure to click here for the pdf worksheet from today’s lesson.

Day 1: Knowing Your Why and Your Goal
Listen to the Podcast | Day 1 Blog Post
Homework Day 1: Download the PDF!

Day 2: Defining Your Travel Website Niche
Listen to the Podcast | Day 2 Blog Post
Homework Day 2: Download the PDF!

Day 3: Define & Find Your Competitors
Listen to the Podcast | Day 3 Blog Post
Homework Day 3: Download the PDF!

Day 4: Find Your Ideal Reader and Audience
Listen to the Podcast | Day 4 Blog Post
Homework Day 4: Download the PDF!

Day 5: 5 Ways to Brainstorm 50 Blog Post Ideas
Listen to the Podcast | Day 5 Blog Post
Homework Day 5: Download the PDF!

Day 6: How to Choose a Blog Names & Tag Lines
Listen to the Podcast | Day 6 Blog Post
Homework Day 6: Download the PDF!

Day 7: How to Create a Keyword Library for a Website
Listen to the Podcast | Day 7 Blog Post
Homework Day 7: Download the PDF!

Day 8: How to Organize Passwords
Listen to the Podcast | Day 8 Blog Post
Homework Day 8: Download the PDF!

Get All 30 Days Now! Purchase the Ebook for only $49
About Break Into Travel Writing: Learn everything you need to launch your travel writing career at BreakIntoTravelWriting.com; a podcast and website designed to help you build a travel blog your readers love as well as help you achieve your goals as a travel writer or blogger.

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