If you are a travel enthusiast like me, posting travel videos on YouTube has probably crossed your mind many times. But starting a YouTube channel for a travel vlog is not a challenge. The tricky part is creating and maintaining your channel.
The number of active users on YouTube is projected to reach 3 billion by 2025. With the numbers increasing daily, YouTube is the perfect social media platform to display your travel vlogs in front of the world. But considering the huge opportunity it offers, competition is also increasing at an alarming rate.
With so many creators and unlimited hours of content available, you can lose your audience in a jiffy. Therefore, you need to have some tricks up your sleeves to grow your travel YouTube channel and give audiences a compelling reason to stay on your page. If you are a travel video creator on YouTube, I have some valuable insights to offer you.
1. Understand the different types of travel videos
Before you start your YouTube channel, you must decide which type of travel videos you wish to create. The truth is sticking to a particular type of video will make it easier for you to manage your channel. Let’s quickly recap the different types of travel videos you can choose to make.
Travel vlogs
This video equivalent of a travel blog is my personal favourite. Travel vlogs are immensely personal and can contain hard-to-find details about the destination being covered.
Travel vlogs are meant to be natural, so you don’t have to feel pressured into making them perfect.
You can film a travel vlog all by yourself in the selfie style. Use a selfie stick and your phone to share your travel experience with the world. Did you know that more than 38% of women between 16 to 24 years of age watch vlogs on YouTube?
Travel guide videos
A travel guide video to a destination would be named something like “Guide to Visiting Rajasthan” or “25 Things to Do in South Korea”. These aren’t mere personal updates about your trip; these videos contain all the information people need to know before visiting a particular place.
A travel guide video educated the viewer on everything from how to reach and where to stay, to what to eat. You will need sufficient planning to shoot and edit these video guides. But I can assure you that these videos can bring tremendous results.
Niche videos
When you choose to make niche videos, you will make your point of focus more specific. I feel making travel videos focused on food is a brilliant niche. You can explore the local cuisines of different places and tell your audience about them. When you choose a niche you are passionate about, your video content quality will improve.
2. Develop a proper script
You might not need a proper script while working on a travel vlog. But all other travel videos require you to develop an appropriate script. This will help you work systematically as you know what to do and when.
You must focus on understanding what your audience wants to see to develop a script that works. Define the target audience of your travel videos and determine the topics they find interesting. You can even get someone to offer their feedback on your video’s script. A script coverage, or honest feedback on your travel video script, will help you figure out the areas of your videos in which you can improve.
Consider the channel Hopscotch The Globe on YouTube. They consider couples with kids as their target audience. The creators make videos that aim to make travelling with kids a piece of cake. They have figured out that their viewers want helpful tips when travelling with young children. Kristen and Siya are encouraging all parents with a newborn to take that long-awaited trip.
3. Set realistic goals
I’ve realised that when you have a purpose behind creating your travel video, it will be more exciting and engaging. Aiming for specific achievements will help you attract a larger audience. Moreover, a concrete vision will also help you plan your content in an organised manner.
You will find it easier to connect with your audience once you have a realistic goal. Once you achieve your first goal, you can work hard to earn your next goal.
Talking about goal-oriented travel videos, let’s look at Kara and Nate. The travelling couple had the goal of visiting 100 countries by 2020, which they accomplished. They had a strict schedule to follow, with six videos to be published every week. They needed to plan a lot to reach their goal and maintain their upload schedule. While planning their trips, they included time for editing and uploading their videos.
However, while setting a goal, you must remember to keep it realistic. For instance, travelling to 50 countries in a month or reaching 1 million subscribers within two weeks is quite unrealistic.
4. Optimise your travel videos
If you wish to grow your audience base, you must leverage the power of YouTube search engine optimisation (SEO). Here are a few things you need to do to optimise your travel videos:
- Keyword research: You must look for keywords to help you reach your target audience. Use words or phrases with a high search rate as your main keywords.
- Title: You must optimise your video title with appropriate keywords. Try placing the keywords at the beginning of the title. Keep in mind the title should sound sensible and catchy.
- Description: YouTube lets you add a description of your videos. For every 100 words in a video description, try to add keywords. I suggest 300 to 500 words as the perfect length for your video description.
- Thumbnail: The thumbnail of your video is what people first see and they immediately develop an impression. Whether or not a viewer will click on your video depends on your thumbnail. But don’t resort to adding a deceiving thumbnail to attract more viewers.
- Subtitles: I feel that creating subtitles or closed captions is the best way to optimise travel videos. It might be a time-consuming task, but it will pay off. It’s also important to use a YouTube video editor if you’re not too familiar with video editing but still want a fire video to post on your channel.
- Video Editing: Editing a video in a creative way can boost your “average watch duration”. You can use Pre-made templates from a YouTube Video Editor to make your video look appealing and that would eventually help you in SEO and Ranking.
5. Interact with your audience and other creators
The comments section of your YouTube travel channel is the place where you can interact with your audience. When they leave comments saying why they love your videos, reply to them by conveying your appreciation and clearing any doubts they have. The comments section can sometimes be toxic, with lots of criticism and unfiltered hatred. But it would help if you learn to view negative comments as constructive criticism and use them to create even better videos.
It will also help if you communicate with other creators in the YouTube community. Leave comments on their posts, and they will return the favour. You will find several other wanderlust souls on YouTube who share your passion for travelling the world and creating video footage of their journey. You can collaborate with these creators to get their dedicated fanbase to watch your videos and hopefully gain more subscribers.
Ending note
Internet users are currently becoming more attracted to viewing travel videos on YouTube. Dive into this opportunity to create an ever-growing YouTube channel with eye-catching travel videos. If you have a travel channel and wish to tap into the right audience, these tips and tricks can be the best resources for you.