# About Aghosh Babu

> Aghosh Babu is a WordPress developer who has built 200+ blogs since 2004, including for travel bloggers. Here's who he is, how this site is funded, and how to get free help.

- Author: Aghosh Babu
- Published: 2026-09-29
- Updated: 2026-09-29
- Canonical: https://startyourowntravelblog.com/about/

I’m Aghosh Babu. I build websites for a living, I’ve built well over 200 of them since 2004, and a big chunk of those were blogs. This site is the guide I wish I could hand every person who emails me asking “how do I start a travel blog?”

## The short version

I’m from Kerala, in the south of India. I started freelancing as a web developer at 14, in 2004, because a stranger on a message board helped me set up my first WordPress site and I got hooked. Twenty-odd years later I run [Matsio](https://matsio.com), a small web studio, and I still build and fix WordPress sites every single week.

Along the way I’ve worked with a lot of bloggers, including [Johnny Ward](https://onestep4ward.com), who went from broke English teacher to millionaire travel blogger. Watching what actually works on the inside of successful blogs, and what quietly kills the ones that fail, is where most of the advice on this site comes from.

## What this site is (and isn’t)

It’s one long, honest [step-by-step guide to starting a travel blog](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/), plus a set of deeper guides on the bits people get stuck on: [picking a name](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/travel-blog-name-ideas/), [choosing hosting](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/best-hosting-for-travel-blogs/), [installing WordPress](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/install-wordpress-on-bluehost/), [writing the first post](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/how-to-write-your-first-travel-blog-post/), [getting readers](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/how-to-grow-a-travel-blog-audience/) and [making money](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/how-do-travel-blogs-make-money/).

It is not a course, there’s no upsell funnel, and I’m not going to tell you that you’ll be earning six figures by Christmas. Most travel blogs take a year or more to make real money. The ones that get there are the ones that actually start, and then keep going.

## How this site makes money

Two ways, both out in the open. When I recommend hosting I link to Bluehost with an affiliate link: you pay the same, I get a commission. And if you’d rather not do the setup yourself, you can [hire me to build the blog for you](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/contact/) for a flat $100 fee (plus your own hosting). That’s it. Full details on the [disclosure page](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/affiliate-disclosure/).

## Free help, seriously

If you follow the guide and get stuck at any step, [send me a message](https://startyourowntravelblog.com/contact/) with the exact step and what you see on screen. I answer these myself, in order, for free. Someone did it for me in 2004 and I’ve never forgotten it.

You can also find me on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/aghoshb/).