How to Become a Travel Vlogger

So you want to be a travel vlogger, ay? I’m not surprised. I mean, who wouldn’t want to travel to exotic destinations, vlog their adventures and have millions of viewers wanderlust over their travels. It sounds like a dream life, but don’t be fooled, travel vlogging is hard work!

The good news is, you don’t have to quit your job and sell all your possessions like we did in order to become a travel vlogger. Don’t get me wrong, minimalism is amazing and a worthy pursuit, but it’s not required in order to live a life of travel.

So where the heck do you even start? What if you have a full time job? What gear do you need?

Incorporate travel into your life

When people talk about “travel”, they are usually referring to expensive excursions thousands of miles away from your home. But there’s no rule that says you have to go far away from your home in order to travel.

The first step to a successful travel vlog is finding ways to travel, even to places that are close to home. You can visit parks, check out art galleries, take a train to a nearby city or drive to a neighboring state for a weekend excursion. Just make sure you’re getting out there! The audience wants to see a great story and you don’t have to travel thousands of miles to tell it.

Since most of us don’t have an unlimited budget, it’s important to keep your travels and activities cheap. Search Google for free things to do in your area or check our Groupon for cheap deals on fun activities.

Just start filming

Any time a vlogger asks us where they should start, we always say the same thing: just start filming. It doesn’t matter if you’re hanging around your house talking about your upcoming travel plans or bringing the camera along while you visit a park with your family. The only way to learn how to vlog is to start making mistakes so you can learn from them. And the only way to do that is to pop the camera out and start filming.

Trust me, once you overcome this initial hurdle, vlogging will become easier and easier. Eventually it will be second nature! So grab the camera, get out of the house and start creating videos you crazy creative creature!

It’s not about the gear

Vlogging is about 10% equipment and 90% story. Don’t waste your money o expensive cameras and audio equipment. If people end up watching your vlog, it will be because of the great story you’re telling and the creative ways you tell it, not because your video was shot in 4k.

Here’s a simple little camera that is great for a beginner vlogger. If you can’t afford to buy a new camera, you can just use your smartphone. The cameras on modern smartphones rival most entry level cameras anyways!

The worst thing you can do is sink a bunch of money into this new hobby only to find out it isn’t for you. Don’t make that mistake! Once you’ve built up some momentum and have gotten the hang of vlogging, having nicer equipment can give the vlog a polished feeling and make it feel more solid. But don’t jump the gun. Better equipment will only make your vlog marginally better. It’s the story that counts!

We started vlogging on a used Canon G7X, then eventually upgraded to a Sony a6000, which we also bought used. Check out one of our recent vlogs to get an idea of the quality you can produce with it:

UPDATE: We recently upgraded to a (used) Sony a7ii, which we love! Here's a vlog we shot using it:

Don’t do it for the money

Because there is no money. Period. Not for the foreseeable future anyways. It will take a crap ton of blood, sweat, tears and time (a whole lotta time) before you develop a large enough audience to make a decent profit. Even with 100,000 video views, you’ll only make an estimated $100-$300 profit. Getting the picture?

Start your travel vlog because you’re passionate about travel and want to inspire others to travel more. Try to have fun with it. If you’re not having fun, then vlogging might not be for you! Maybe try golf?

Connect with other travelers

The best thing you can do as a beginner travel vlogger is to connect with other travelers. Meeting other like minded people, whether online or in person, will help you feel like you’re not alone in this travel game. They can also be a great source of inspiration and drive you to keep traveling yourself!

Instagram and Twitter are great resources for connecting with other travelers. We’ve already met so many great people through these networks! We also make a point to interact with other YouTubers who have travel focused channels. It’s like having a bit of a support group and is a great way to find other YouTubers to collaborate with. Speaking of collaborating, it’s a hugely effective way to grow your subscribers. Keep in mind, though, that this usually only works with channels that have similar subscriber counts as yours.

Conclusion

Hopefully these tips help you get off on the right foot with your travel vlog. The most important thing of all, though, is to make sure you have passion. If you’re not passionate about travel, it will show through in your videos and you’ll likely not be able to keep up with vlogging anyways because you’ll get burnt out.

But if you think travel vlogging might be your calling, don’t be afraid to get out there and start filming. The first step is just turning the camera on and heading out on an adventure! Don’t wait until tomorrow, start vlogging right now!

Thanks a lot for reading. I really hope it was helpful! Make sure to reach out in the comments section if you have any questions! And if you’d like to check out our vlog, head over to our YouTube Channel. We’re currently traveling the world and vlogging all of our adventures. We’d love for you to come along with us!

Thanks for reading!