How to Pick a Travel Blog Name

Picking a travel blog name can be very difficult. A quick google search gave me advice such as don’t pick an overused word such as ‘Adventures’ or ‘Nomad’. Don’t use dashes, misspell words, use numbers, or pick a name that is too long. Avoid names focused on one location or one point in time. And I was supposed to use all this advice and pick a name that no one else had yet? Where did I even begin? I had a list of what not to-do’s instead of to-dos. I am going to walk you through my journey of picking a travel blog name in hopes it helps inspire your own inner creativity. I want to show you a way to come up with your own unique name rather than just what not to do.

The start

The first thing I did was made a list of what I wanted my blog to be about. Of course I wanted my blog to be about travel, but take it a step further. Create a business plan. Create a brand. I thought of my Marketing class in college where we learned about the importance of branding. The name, logo, values, mission statement, purpose, positioning, all of this matters to your site identity. After all, your travel blog is a travel business. You need to go about creating an identity as you would a business.

Defining what is unique about your travel blog

The key to a successful business is offering a product or service that is unique. The end user cannot get the same product or service elsewhere. There are thousands of travel blogs on the internet so you need to think about how you will stand out. How your unique perspective on life adds value to the end user. You need to evaluate your strengths.

Example: I believe my strength to be the fact that I balance multiple aspects of my life. I have always been good at prioritizing and making what I want happen, actually happen. I can’t tell you how many of my friends said “I will move out of state for college”, “I will definitely go skydiving with you, that sounds so fun!”, “We WILL take a trip to Europe, we have to!” and then low and behold they don’t follow through. But I always did. I moved out of state for college. I went skydiving. I studied abroad in Europe. I got my dream job.

I balance a job that I enjoy and see a successful future ahead with, financial stability, studying for the GMAT, traveling, running, playing with my dog, being a good girlfriend, having time for what I love like going to the beach, AND having a social life with friends. I don’t think there’s enough of these blogs. There are a lot of blogs on quitting your job and traveling, but I believe I am able to inspire a life of achieving all your dreams, not just one. So define how you are unique! I know this seems irrelevant to creating a travel blog name, but trust me defining your brand will help you establish a name and more than that, an identity.

Audience

Decide who your audience is. Travel is a very broad term. What kind of travel do you do? Who else enjoys similar travel styles?

Example: I am young, adventurous, and outdoorsy. My target audience is of similar nature. I am not targeting those who visit big, metropolitan cities or like expensive, fancy resorts. I focus on beach vacation and being by any body of water.

Values

What do you value? What values do you want to insinuate on your readers?

Example: I value motivation and happiness. I believe everything in life is up to motivation. Look up some Ted Talks on motivation, there have been many studies on how motivation works. Intrinsic motivation is proven to provide better results than traditional motivators such as a bonus. Motivation is the key to a succes. I define success as having lived a happy life and followed my dreams. I want to promote and inspire people to be happy, providing proper motivation along the way.

Purpose

Define the purpose of your blog. Most likely the purpose is to give travel advice. Define it further. Define what your reader will gain by reading your blog.

Example: My purpose is three-fold. I want to inspire people to travel, I want to provide all necessary logistics, and give example itineraries. I want end to end user experience in inspiration to planning a trip. In between trips, I want to give lifestyle advice that goes along with my core values of motivation and happiness.

Creating a travel blog name

Now is the time to be creative. You’ve defined every aspect of your business from how you will be unique or add value, what purpose or product are you providing, who is going to read your blog, and what values you want your blog to uphold.

Brainstorm

Brainstorm a travel blog name that somehow incorporates one or more aspects above. Unfortunately this is where your own creativity must take place. I cannot create a blog name for you. I am not a creative person and by following the above steps I was able to come up with a name within an hour. For me this was no small feet.

How I brainstormed my travel blog name

I started trying to map my name to anything related to travel. Lost in the stars? Taken. Lost in the skies? Taken. This went on. All taken. I hadn’t defined my business enough. New plan.

I took the above steps. I stared brainstorming again. Something about happiness? Happiness…what? Something about inspiration? Inspired traveler? No. Inspired _____? Table it.

Well what makes me happy? What inspires me? The ocean. I love the gentle crashing of waves. This sound connects me to something bigger than myself that I just cannot describe. It is like trying to describe how looking at the stars and smiling at the moon makes you feel. It creates some innate lust for life.

This is where I had an ah-ha! moment. Something clicked inside me. In grade school, everyone had the task of looking up the meaning behind their name. Mine always resonated with me because it was so perfect it felt fake. Marissa in Latin means of the sea!

That’s it!! Hold on. Of the sea? Taken. I love the saying pursuit of happiness. What about pursuit of the sea. Back into the business mindset, I thought Sea Pursuit was cleaner. None of the filler words in the middle. Just two solid words. The domain was free!!!

Yes!!! The more I thought about it the more I fell in love. Not everyone would understand, but to me the travel blog name has so many meanings.

Maris ~ of the sea

My name in Latin means of the sea.

Pursuit of the Sea ~ Pursuit of Marissa

So saying pursuit of the sea, or sea pursuit, is like saying I’m on the pursuit of Marissa if you replace the Latin meaning of my name with my name.

Pursuit of Marissa ~ Pursuit of Myself

This is to say I’m on the pursuit of myself.

Pursuit of Myself ~ Pursuit of Happiness

To pursue myself, or who I am, is to pursue my own happiness. To pursue my passions. To pursue my inspirations.

Pursuit of Happiness ~ Pursuit of the Sea

What makes me happy and inspires me is the ocean or the sea. To pursue happiness for me is to pursue the sea. The name just came full circle and even if no one else cared my mind is blown with my own creativity!!

Creativity

In close, just be creative! Define your business brand and use that knowledge to brainstorm! There is no how-to guide from there. Hopefully I have set you up with the tools to successfully brainstorm and open your mind to creativity. As a bonus, this time you spent defining your travel blog will aide you in writing your blog! You will have a clear tone, topic, audience, and theme because you took the time to define key terms related to your brand.