How I Taught My Cat to Love Traveling

My friends joke that my cat has more frequent flyer miles than they do—and they might be right. Jetson, my three-year-old tabby, does not meow or wail when we sit at airports or on airplanes. He doesn't claw to get out of his carrier or resist being put back in when I have to take him out. Seatmates on flights often comment that they didn’t even realize they were sitting next to a cat, only noticing the carrier when the flight arrives and everyone gathers their belongings to leave. Jetson is a good traveler, for a cat, but it wasn’t always this way.

I fell for him over Facebook when I saw a photo of two curious eyes surrounded by a fluff of black and gray stripes, posted by a friend, who had rescued this orphaned kitten and nursed him to health. I could provide him with the loving, forever home he needed to grow into a smart and healthy cat, but a distance of over 500 miles separated me from my new fuzzy friend in Michigan. In order for Jetson to become a city kitty in New York with me, he’d have to be comfortable taking airplane flights.

Jetson may have flown thousands of miles with me in peace, but that’s not to say he doesn’t get anxious at times. From his carrier underneath the airplane seat in front of me, Jetson often looks up. I return his stare, soften my expression with a small smile, and calmly reply in the same way I do any other time we’re out and about—with a simple “you’re okay." It helps people a lot, too.

How to Start a Travel Blog?

The first thing you need to realize is that it’s still NOT TOO LATE TO START your own blog.

While there are many bloggers and influencers on the market, there is only a handful of them who are worth recommending and doing their job professionally. I personally saw some bloggers rising out of nowhere and beating the already established people in terms of traffic, audience engagement and beautiful photos. As long as you’re determined and willing to work hard, you could be the next blogging star!

If you ever want to take your blogging adventures to the next level – make money, change a design, anything, you shouldn’t start your blog on WordPress. A few years ago one could slowly transition into professional blogger and learn as they go. But in 2019, the only way to ‘make it’ in the blogging world is starting the right way from the start.

Find a Good Blog Name

Finding a great name for your blog might be a challenge, so take your time. It’s VERY important. This is how you’re going to recognized, remembered and it cannot be changed later. Your blog should be telling your readers what is it all about.

Set up Your Social Media Channels

At least half of the blogging success nowadays is your social media channels. After you’ve chosen a name for your blog and checked if the domain name is available (more about it below), you should go ahead and secure your social media handles.

Can I Start a Blog for Free?

Those of you who want to start a simple blog for friends and family can do it for free at WordPress.com.

Choose the Right Theme to Design Your Blog

Once your blog is finally live, it won’t look good right away until you redesign it. You can hire a designer/developer on Upwork who can install everything on your blog quickly if you’re too scared to do it yourself.

Voila! Start writing!

That’s basically it! You can now start writing, starting from your ‘About’ page which will be the most viewed page of your blog. Don’t give up if your blog won’t have that many visitors straight away. It takes months to develop an audience and you should focus on getting noticed first. Reach out to other travel bloggers and online magazines and ask to write a guest post or take part in collaborative articles on other blogs.