UPDATE: Since this article was published, Wix has introduced a new website design platform called Wix Studio. It's much more intuitive and responsive. Check out Wix Studio Academy here.
One of the most fun aspects of building your personal travel planning agency is the initial brand design. Logos, banners, social media accounts... it is very easy to get lost in the weeds with this part of the process, but treat it as a creative outlet, always keeping in mind the feelings your brand imagery will impart on your preferred clientele.
One stop shopping with Wix
There are a thousand ways to go about creating your logo, website, marketing materials etc, but I'm going to concentrate in this article on using Wix.com, a website creation program to get a lot of this done. Wix allows you to go DIY or to hire an expert and nearly every step of the process.
Finding the right name
Most people come on board to Jess.Travel with their travel name already thought out, but if you find yourself without an idea, take your time and really make sure you like what you come up with. Run it by friends and family. Make sure it will make sense with the clients you're targeting, but also doesn't pigeon-hole you too much into something specific like just cruises or just bridal trips. Finally, make sure you. really like it, because you're going to be stuck with it for awhile.
Buying the domain on Wix
Once you've come up with business name, you'll have to go through all the beginning business processes with the government I've outlined in this previous article, but assuming that you've got what you want, you'll want to check the domain to make sure you can get something decent. Godaddy is the obvious choice, but if you're thinking about using Wix for your web development you can buy it through them as well.
Get a logo created
Wix has it's own logo maker. It'll ask you some questions relating to the business and then spit you out some ideas. I've never been overly impressed. It's about as good as Placeit.net's logo maker (outlined below), but if these won't due I might suggest, Fiverr.
FIVERR
Unless you're good at design yourself, you'll need to use a service that will help you design your logo. You can hire a freelance designer using a service like Fiverr.com. Fiverr lets you search thousands of freelancers all over the globe to find a designer that fits your style. You'll be able to see their prices right on the site. This is by far the cheapest way to get a logo, and believe me, results may vary. Our Jess.Travel logo was designed on Fiverr by the first person we sent it to. This is very rare. Although you can ask for revisions to your design, sometimes it's best to just ditch a designer that's not getting it and take your losses. Even with your inevitable losses, you'll still save a couple hundred bucks over hiring what some would call a "real logo designer." However, if you don't want to mess with it, a real graphic artist should cost you a couple hundred for your logo. You can find them on google.
PLACEIT.NET
I find this site to be all around super useful. You do so much here from creating a logo, to placing it on t-shirts, flyers, and signs, to creating incredible looking social media posts. The logo generator even has a wizard that walks you through the creation process. We mainly use it to place our logo on models, and then use those pics for marketing.
Placeit.net costs $14.99 a month, but you can cancel anytime.
ENVATO
Another great site for all things design is Envato. They also have a logo design service. Prices are a little higher that Fiverr, but this is your brand and you're worth it. Plus, this is still crazy low compared to even five years ago.
Making your website with Wix
Perhaps even more important than your logo is your website. Most of the time, this will be the first encounter with your brand your customer will have. Increasingly, the mobile version specifically has become the one to prioritize. When creating a website you can again go two ways, DIY or use a pro.
A professional web designer is a google search away. If you decided to use a branding agency at the beginning, then you'll. already have one waiting in the wings. Figure on spending $400-$1500 on a website should you hire someone.
However, the vast majority of new Jess.Travel travel planners create their website themselves. The process has gotten easier and easier, but still requires a substantial amount of time investment. Below is our recommend strategy using Wix, but feel free to use another web design tool like Wordpress or Squarespace .
I've personally used Wix.com for years to do site my own site design. It has gotten much better over time and offers hundreds of templates to choose from. I find it to be easy to use, but sometimes frustrating. Wix offers you all the bells and whistles you'll need to create a personal travel planner website, including blogging, email templates, and chat capability. Wix also has an artificial intelligence option, which will ask you questions about your business and the website will be created right before your eyes.
Wix is completely free if you don't mind their branding on your site, but I suggest paying to link it to a custom domain. This will look much more professional. You can even buy the domain and the email address right there. All these options will start to add up on your monthly cost.
Here's a four part series done by a very reputable travel source Host Agency Reviews on building a travel site with Wix. Wix actually produced a promo that shows how they can make a travel agent site in 7 minutes!