What video to shoot for YouTube travel blogger - my conclusions
A month has passed since my post video blogger for a month. All this time I tried to shoot something, even just like that, not to post it later, but just for experience. I watched the statistics from various channels, I thought a lot about what kind of project I can do. I also read a number of interesting articles about channel promotion and how everything works there, and what topics are better to choose, what brings money or not. True, everywhere we are mainly talking about moneymaking, and now I'm more interested in author's channels, recruiting an audience for them, areas of interest, and not search traffic and impersonal channels with collections of files / jokes / accidents, instructions, reviews, etc..
My experience is not positive (rather neutral), nevertheless, I still want to publish my conclusions that I have made this month. I hope someone will find this useful, and those who are in the topic will share their thoughts in the comments. I will be glad to discuss this topic..
The content of the article
Conclusions about the video
Video as an accompaniment
The most important takeaway I have made is that it is quite easy to vidyushki to accompany the main blog post, in which text and photographs of the landmarks. I literally turned on the camera several times, showed me there are waterfalls, here is a path, here I was swimming. Then editing for 20 minutes and the video is ready for 2-3 minutes. Time costs are minimal, but this way you can better convey the atmosphere and keep the reader on the site a little longer, which is good from the point of view of search engines (theoretically). But as a separate and self-sufficient project, such videos do not roll, they are not interesting and are not very informative. Well, only maybe for those who are about to go to this place and they want to see exactly what it looks like on the video. Although, again, the texts on my blog are fuller, with prices, a map, etc..
Yes, yes, you can also make videos with information, but this is more time consuming and duplication of a text project. IMHO, you need to do either one or the other, otherwise there will be two identical blogs, only in different formats. It is better if the topics of blogs are different, more effective.
Search traffic videos
Again, theoretically, if there are 1000 of such videos, then you can count on search traffic on Youtube, but I'm not sure that there will be a lot of it. After all, short sketches will have few likes and a lot of rejections. In addition, small sights are not particularly sought after, and popular sights have great competition, since there are already a lot of videos about them, including professionally made ones, where filming is carried out from several cameras, a lot of video material is made, and then a real film is edited. Moreover, advertising in such videos is not particularly profitable. Accordingly, the question of the self-sufficiency of such an event arises again..
Thus, the same situation arises as with text content: it needs a lot, and it must at the expense of something withstand competition (for example, due to the same volume). It should be understood that such content brings very little income from contextual advertising (Adsense). Alternatively, try to make videos for a specific affiliate program, that is, sell tickets, hotels, or something else for travelers.
You need to look for your chip
The next conclusion is that I have not yet found my chip and it is not a fact that I will find it :) That's really, I turn on the camera and I don't know what to shoot, my brain is sharpened, or beautiful travel videos (like shooting a lot of material from different angles, putting music etc.), or for some informational topics (such and such a park, there is such and such, it costs so much). But this is not all that, because the task is to shoot something interesting, but not too time-consuming, well, or costly, but profitable. In addition to the trick, you need some kind of special charisma or an unusual style of storytelling. Think of Tramp Fishai, he speaks rather strangely, but it seems that many are catching on.
The search continues.
Earnings not on the video itself
Here they gave an example of a channel «On my own», who has a lot of subscribers, who is famous and popular. So, this channel (to which I, like to the moon) earn very little, and a lot of energy has been thrown on it. Nevertheless, as far as I understand, the guys make quite a profit for themselves, just not on advertising from the channel, but on direct advertisers or offering their services for shooting video. And this is a good option, and in terms of travel channels, one of the most possible. For, if you look at the TOPs, there is very little travel there, I mean with normal incomes from $ 1-2 thousand per month. The fact is that it takes hundreds of thousands of views, millions, no less, for it to make sense. Judge for yourself, conventionally, if 1000 views brings $ 1, then to earn $ 100, you need to make a video with 100 thousand views. If you release 2 videos per week, you get $ 800 per month. More or less an amount worth fluttering for.
So it's easier to have less traffic and offer services than chasing views. Everything is the same as on the sites. But the whole question is whether you are satisfied with such an income. For example, my task was initially to make money remotely and precisely on advertising, without going offline in any way and without contacting clients.
Didn't travel
The last conclusion is to try shooting in different formats and see if I like it myself and if others like it. And it may not make sense to get involved with a travel video at all. Well, it is very difficult to make money on it if you are only interested in making money on advertising (I don’t want to offer services, neither on the website, nor on the channel). Have you seen many travel channels where each video has at least 100 thousand views? I've seen few of these, in the bulk it is 1-5 thousand, no more. And in rare cases, the authors reach 10-20-30 thousand views.
Further, not every video is suitable for travel channels. For example, my video from the ascent to Rosa Peak in Krasnaya Polyana (a relatively interesting place) or a clip from two weeks of my solo trip, more or less pull for the travel channel, but there is nothing special about them. Ideally, you need, at least, to more interesting places to travel, and as a maximum to travel in some special format (not typical) and push your philosophy (like the same «Goodbye Normals»). Everything that I shoot now rolls only as an accompaniment to posts about attractions (see point 1 of this post) or, for sketches of everyday life (like my last 3 videos), but which are also only an addition to the blog.
For me it is better not to travel to shoot, at least there may be some prospects. See how they develop «beauty channels» or «I say something to the camera». The girl sits at the camera, paints herself, 10-20 minutes of time, minimum editing, and as a result we have a bunch of views and a crowd of fans, even if half of the trolls. Surely, there are similar men's channels, it's just that Daria is here with me watching videos about manicure, makeup, etc., and out of habit I immediately pay attention to the statistics.
Outcome
- High traffic (from 50-100 thousand views) and then you can earn on Adsense contextual advertising. Her envelope is low, so it needs a lot of attendance. The channel can be either author's (if it turns out to collect an audience), and impersonal (all sorts of compilations). Advertising from direct advertisers is also suitable for the author channel..
- Average traffic (5-20 thousand views) will bring a little on Adsense, but if there is a constant audience, it makes sense to look for direct advertisers, the exhaust may come out more.
- You can make video content purely for affiliate programs, then even small traffic can bring income if it is targeted. We need to test and see how this bundle works in Youtube in general, I only have experience with text.
- The bet is placed not on the amount of traffic and earnings from advertising / affiliate programs, but on the provision of services. The whole question is what services to offer. It's one thing to create websites, and another to shoot videos to order. Obviously, in the case of websites, it makes sense to do instructions on WordPress, and in the case of a video on demand, a travel channel is also suitable..
Since I already have a completely working text project, it makes no sense for me to make a video duplicate of it, the more I prefer the text format when we are talking about information or impressions about sights, and the scheme has already been perfected. To reach the same income with the same travel style and the same approach, but on a video blog, you have to try very hard. That is, if you do the same thing, but in video format, then nothing good will come of it in terms of income. Not to mention the fact that very few people will be able to work on two such projects at once. In fact, one thing is then thrown, or a blog, or a video blog. Therefore, in my opinion, most travel bloggers who are firmly entrenched in the test format will either have to score on a text blog and go completely into a video format, changing their approaches to making money, travel style, etc. or, in parallel, create a channel of another topic, not directly related to a text blog.
P.S. Anything to add? Am I wrong about something? The conclusions are simple, but maybe they will be different for someone, based on their experience. Moreover, I did not dive into the jungle of youtube promotion and Seo. As I wrote at the very beginning of the post, now I'm only interested in copyright channels, and not for traffic.