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Grow Your Travel YouTube: 6 Tips & Mistakes to Avoid
Updated: 4 days ago
Hey, it is Jenn here! Recently, I’ve made some big behind-the-scenes changes on our YouTube channel and it’s made a difference.
I found myself wondering why my peers who started at around roughly the same time were so much further ahead than I was on the journey, aside from the obvious, of course, such as us not posting frequently...
Think 2 month gaps here and there in-between videos and also staying based in a country for extended times all while also teaching English, which of course can be advantageous – but that also depends on the country you choose to settle in and your content!
These are my 6 TOP mistakes (there are more that we will get into in future posts) I found I was doing or NOT doing that was harming our YouTube channel, Jenn & Leon.
If you have any other suggestions, pointers, or other YouTube channel tips to help others out, please drop them in the comments below so we can help one another learn and grow!
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YouTube Travel Channel Tips
1. Start in the Capital
START IN THE CAPITAL of the country you are visiting (it’s the heartbeat and often has a larger YouTube base of watchers with a higher population).
This is something we didn’t do as we aren’t big city people, well ok, we love a good coastal city but we like more remote and rural areas like the mountains, jungles, remote islands and smaller communities (which are great for living and down time but not so great for the average travel channel and both getting and sharing great content).
Starting in the capital or larger cities, then moving to more rural, smaller areas, will hopefully have viewers following along on your journey as you explore their country.
2. Channel Description Tags
Be mindful of your CHANNEL description tags – the main meta tags for your channel (mine was set to MEXICO and every city in Mexico that we visited as that is where we started and stayed for 6 months).
This seriously impacted the tags of the channel, especially since our channel was new, so the YouTube (algorithm) isn’t sure yet where to place the videos and merely has SEO to work with.
When you optimize your channel tags, you have a much better chance of your videos being shown to the correct audience.
So many people have commented and asked why we don’t have more subscribers and views because the quality of the content is good. Which I happen to take as a compliment, especially as I now know WHY ha!
3. Consistency is Key
BE CONSISTENT!! This is truly the biggest factor as with anything. Had I adhered to this I can’t imagine where we’d be now!
Sure, videos every Sunday and Wednesday are a great target, but make sure it’s realistic. Leon and I switched to traveling at a fast pace for this summer to do some research for YouTube stats and to see what an impact more frequent posting can have.
Follow along on our journey to get more statistical information and business posts in the future.
But try your best to stick to a realistic schedule that won’t leave you frazzled and at your wit's end by the end of the day or week!
4. Post it Now!
POST FREQUENTLY!! If you have the content, PUBLISH it, and PUBLISH it OFTEN! Don’t do a ‘Jennifer’ and hold onto the videos for months due to inconsistency.
As a big user of Instagram and other short-form platforms, I know YouTube operates differently.
Each video is independent of one another, and as much as the time of day, most active user times data, etc, matters, YouTube is evergreen and will continue to show and push your videos with time.
We have many videos that performed very slowly at the beginning, and sure enough, 8 months later they rank better due to maturity and good SEO.
So, I say get those videos out there fast and furious style, especially if you are looking to be monetized because time matters.
We lost a lot of our watch time-banked hours from older but high-performing videos (on Mexico of course).
This will help you to bank those much-needed watch time hours and hopefully gain you some more subscribers along the way as well.
5. Set the Story
TELL A STORY WITH YOUR VIDEOS… like a mini movie… with hooks and humor or cliffhangers etc… honestly, this matters so much!
YouTube is no different than a movie or novel, an epic storyline with appealing main characters is the GOLDEN TICKET (YES we’ve been watching so much American Idol lately!) on attaining longer watch time on videos and also to gain active, invested subscribers.
6. Triple Your Key Words
TRIPLE YOUR KEYWORDS! Make sure you are tripling your keywords. So I thought I HAD been doing that but I hadn’t been properly.
I just thought it meant to use the phrase or word three times in general. This is not the case.
EXAMPLE keyword: MARVELOUS MEXICO should be in your title, video description, and video description tags for your videos, and if you can do this with a few keywords or phrases on the same video, EVEN BETTER!
Do you want to see the world, or become a full-time traveler?
So much time, energy and work go into a travel YouTube channel!
I mean so much time goes into travelling full-time PERIOD but with the added pressure of social media and filming and editing it takes things to an entirely different level.
Some people set out with the INTENTION of creating a business THROUGH travel, but others, like us, just truly want to see the world and figured we might as well share since we are doing it anyway.
These factors will and should be a part of your decision-making when choosing what countries to visit first and when, the pace at which you travel, and how much time you are willing to invest in your ventures.
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We have been on Social Media for a while now, on the likes of YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest.
We have a combined total of nearly 50k subscribers and followers, and we are most grateful for every one of them, and you too!
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