Last Updated on October 27, 2025 by Christine Kaaloa

So you want to grow your travel channel on YouTube? Join the club!

With billions of people watching travel content every month, the opportunity to make money creating travel content is real, but so is the competition. Every traveler with a smartphone and a dream is out here trying to make it happen and that’s both the beauty and the beast of YouTube right now.

Here’s what I’ve learned after years of doing this YouTube thang: growing a YouTube channel isn’t about having the fanciest gear or visiting the most exotic locations. It’s about finding your voice, staying consistent and not burning out in the process. Let me walk you through what actually works in 2025, because YouTube has been changing with more tools to help creators actually succeed.

Personal YouTube Update

I burned out on YouTube and social media during COVID and again at the beginning of 2024.  It’s more like social media’s push to upload continually burned me out but editing long-format videos takes energy and investment I haven’t returned to yet. Most travel vloggers will tell you that one of the challenges of growing a travel channel is to bring their editing pace up to how fast they film adventures. I accrue a lot of footage on my journeys and they require time to dive into, organize and assemble into an engaging story.

As my travel channel still grows a passive income from YouTube videos as old as 10 years, I still work on my channel behind the scenes. I’ll write more about burnout in another post, as with growing pressures for creators to post, it takes a toll for solo creators.

I’ve tried to post some videos this year, but when freelance filming and video tech work ramped up, I had to choose the immediate paycheck over a passive one. Working as a video freelancer can pay as much as a brand campaign and I don’t have to wear multiple hats.

For now, i’m taking a sabbatical until full recovery but I still offer YouTube channel/brand audits & mentorship sessions when my schedule allows.

This post may contains affiliate links but as always, I only offer my honest opinions. 

How to grow your YouTube channel in 2025

1. Identify Your Superpower (aka Niche)

The “I just travel and vlog” era is over. You need to carve out something specific. When I started my YouTube channel, solo female travel was a very fresh territory. I was the only female travel vloggers traveling and filming travel and food guides 100% alone consistently (no friend tagalong or hidden boyfriend with a camera and let me tell you, that can change how you experience solo travel and being on-camera). But nowadays, travel on the whole is saturated and most videos are echo-chamber videos covering food hauls and top things to do. Even I’m due for a re-brand or pivot!

Think about what makes your perspective unique. Are you the budget travel guru who finds $20 flights? The luxury Latin America travel reviewer? The solo van life or RV convert? The travel hacking+ financial expert?

Pick a lane that excites you because you’ll be living in it for a while. Your niche shapes everything- your editing style, your thumbnails and even how you talk to the camera.

Tip: The more specific you get, the faster you’ll grow. “Travel vlogger” won’t cut it. “Budget conscious couple exploring Southeast Asia on $30 a day” will! Unleash your own YouTube superpower with my Branding Influence mini e-course

2. Quality beats algorithm

I know the YouTube algorithm can feel like it demands constant uploads, but here’s the reality-  pushing out mediocre eh content – like what creators do during Vlogmas  -just to “feed the algorithm” is a waste of your time and money. If you’re hiring an editor (and we’ll get to that), you’re literally throwing away cash on videos that won’t perform.

Unless you’re Casey Neistat and doing daily vlogs are your thing, stick with pacing yourself and priming your content for your audience.  Focus on making fewer videos that actually matter to your audience.

Good lighting, clear audio, and a consistent vibe go further than daily uploads of garbage. Yes, travel makes this challenging – you can’t control the weather or street noise – but do your best. Your audience will forgive imperfect conditions if your content is compelling.

Grab my YouTube Accelerator checklist and start growing your channel today!

3. Invest in Camera Equipment that fits YOU

I’m begging you- do not drop thousands on a cinema camera when you’re just starting. I see so many aspiring creators buying the same setup as someone with 500K subscribers, then getting overwhelmed and quitting within three months.

Start with your smartphone. I’m serious!  Mobile cameras in 2025 are insanely good. Then grab a cheap tripod and a basic microphone, and you’re ready to test whether you actually enjoy this work.

PS you don’t need an expensive Rode GO mic – I have one because I like options! I still prefer to my cheap $7 two-person lav mic kit with standard 3.5mm jack. It is easy, hard-lined to your camera/phone, no bluetooth pairing required! Requires an $7 adapter for iPhone. If you decide YouTube is not your jam, you are out $14 and can use this for interviews and social media videos in the future!

If you’re still filming a year from now, then upgrade and invest in a GoPro Hero or Osmo DJI pocket. Match your gear to your actual needs – a 10-22 wide-angle lens matters for landscape content but not for food close-ups.

While drone footage is certainly nice to have and viewers have wondered why I never added it to my videos, it is expensive,  cumbersome to pack, TSA/destination research is required and you need optimum film time to unpack and set up your shot. Drones are used mostly for short b-roll clips which last 6-8 seconds of wow-factor in a video and it doesn’t make much of a dent in your storyline. When you are a solo creator crossing multiple borders and through airport TSA, you have to consider if those 8 seconds are worth your energy, itinerary time and expense. But hey, that’s my two cents. You do you.

Check out my vlogging and blogging gear I use for recommendations of what works and download my camera equipment buying guide if you’re looking to do a little investing in gear.

4. Make your film setup an ally; not your enemy

Springboarding off what I mentioned earlier with film gear, set yourself up to win by choosing easy options to start. Remove any obstacles and friction from your workload so you don’t fall into procrastination or start hating your process, such that you dread doing it. Filming in the field is easy in that anywhere you talk, there is exotic background. But what happens when you come home and your background is bleh.  This is something I struggled with a lot in my own home.

Set up a simple home filming studio so you’re facing an open window or you’re not hauling out lights every time you want to record a talking-head intro. Make it easy for yourself to jump into filming. While I like changing my home background between my room and empty parks and beaches, as an actress I have an a white audition background that’s easy for me to setup and pop into to self tape my auditions for casting directors.  Check out how to set up your home vlogging studio

5. Plan trips around your content (not vice-versa)

Traditional travel bloggers took a vacation and then figured out the content. Today’s Travel YouTubers plan film trips. Once this clicked for me, everything changed. I’d take the time to meticulously plan my adventures and researching locations that would deliver visually or information-wise. I’d schedule my days around the series I was buliding on my channel. Check out my essential travel vloggers packing list

Get obsessive about your content calendar. Create a content schedule tracker or workflow manager because coming home with 200GB of footage and no organization system is a special kind of hell. You need a system for:

• Organizing footage by day/location
• Tracking which videos are in editing
• Planning titles and thumbnails
• Writing descriptions and managing upload schedules

The post-trip workflow is where most travel creators drown. Don’t be that person.

Tip: Grab my YouTube workflow manager/tracker to transform overwhelm into organization.  

Read vlogging tips from a solo female travel vlogger

6. Talk with your audiences

Responding to comments on your YouTube videos isn’t just nice- it’s essential for growing your YouTube channel. YouTube’s algorithm rewards engagement, and building community keeps people coming back. Ask questions in your videos and actually listen to what your viewers want to see.

One boundary I’ve learned: direct your audience to leave public comments instead of sliding into your social media DMs or emails. Private messages eat at your creative time and rob your community of valuable discussions. Save DMs for paying clients, Patreon members and brand deals.

YouTube Studio’s helps cut down your response time by offering canned responses for the repetitive stuff, but try to add personal touches when you can.

7. Consistency matters more than you think

Pick an upload schedule and stick to it. Once a week, twice a month… whatever you can actually sustain. Your audience needs to know when to expect content from you. I get it, life happens and burnout is always on that fine edge of your workload. Hard drives crash and maybe you’re a perfectionist in your editing. But consistency builds trust and signals to YouTube that your channel is active and worth promoting.

This means choosing a day and time to upload your youtube videos and sticking to it as much as possible. It can be challenging, especially when life, work and content pull you in different directions.  This will help your viewers know when to expect new content from you.

8. Master SEO as if your channel depends upon it

YouTube is a search engine, which means for YouTube growth and discovery, your video title and description need relevant keywords that people actually search for. In 2025, some terms are so saturated “Best Things to Do in Tokyo” that ranking is nearly impossible without massive subscriber numbers.

TubeBuddy has been my secret weapon for years. Their keyword research tools help you find searchable terms with less competition on YouTube. It lets you know what channels rank the highest for the keywords you’re searching for and lets you search for alternate keywords.

They have some AI features that you may find helpful to play with although YouTube is getting better at matching a couple of TubeBuddy’s long-standing features- like A/B title and thumbnail testing- and offering it for free. TubeBuddy still offers a lot of benefit.

TubeBuddy is always having promotional deals and they have a decent free version too that allows you to do quite a bit.

Download my YouTube Accelerator Checklist

9. Collaborate with creators in your niche

Find creators in your niche – not your direct competitors, but adjacent channels – and propose collaborations. It exposes you to their audience and them to yours. Plus, collaborating is genuinely fun. You get to talk shop, see how other creators work and maybe make a friend who understands why you’re filming your breakfast.

I’ve done several YouTube collaborations over the years and they’ve consistently brought new subscribers and sent some to my collaborators. Be genuine in your outreach and see how your channels can complement each other in a way that gets audiences to both your channels. Nobody wants to collaborate with someone who just wants to leech their audience.

Tip: YouTube has a collabs feature allowing you both to share a video on each others’ channel. This helps amplify reach as you combine and share audiences.

10. YouTube Shorts is here to stay.

Some creators have blown up exclusively on short-form content. Others ignore it completely. Here’s what I know-  YouTube is actively promoting Shorts and offering monetization for them. If you niche down your Shorts content, you can grow faster than long-form creators.

The trick catch? Shorts viewers don’t automatically convert to long-form viewers. Often, I’ve found they are distinctly different audiences with different viewing habits. The good news is that YouTube now lets you link your Shorts to your long-form videos, which can help with cross-promotion.

My strategy: create Shorts that tease or complement long-format videos, then direct viewers to the full experience. It’s not perfect, but it works.

11. Outsource editing as soon as you can afford it

I edited my own videos for years, and it nearly broke me. As a solo creator, I’m juggling filming, scripting, trip planning, sponsor pitches, social media, and audience engagement. Spending 8-60 hours a week editing a single video is not sustainable when you’ve got a full plate of content to make, schedule and figure out how to monetize. I had to outsource my editing to allow me time to work on other more important matters.

When you’re ready to hire, start with freelance platforms like Fiverr to test editors.  I’ve had success with Video Husky because they assign dedicated editors to long-term subscribers who learn your preferences. VidChops (use my referral link to get $200 off your first subscription ) is another solid option I’ve tried, although I feel like they are better with talking head videos. I’m currently testing more options — check back!

Yes, it costs money. But if you value your time, it saves you money.  Learn how I work with an outsource editor

12. Thumbnails and titles are your make or break

Wondering why no one is watching your videos? Well, your title is your sales pitch and your thumbnail is a tease of what’s to come and nobody’s clicking if either or both do not deliver.

 In the past, I’d spend time all my time on my storytelling and production, but these days, if my title and thumbnail are not keyed on my audience, I’m not getting that view.

Spend serious time on this. Your title should be clear, specific, and intriguing—no clickbait that your video can’t deliver on. Your thumbnail needs to visually communicate the video’s value and emotion. Faces with expressions perform well. Text should be minimal and readable on mobile.

Tip: Use Canva to design your work. They have YouTube thumbnail templates that make this less painful. And now with YouTube’s A/B testing, you can experiment and let data tell you what works.

13. Don’t try to be on everything

I share my videos across social media and online communities. But I have to be strategic and realistic about what I have time for.

Social media promotion is exhausting — it is constantly changing as algorithms shift and platform tools, formats and language of audience engagement changes. Each has an audience with a specific viewing habit. Instagram might favor Reels one month and carousels the next. TikTok might boost your video or bury it for no discernible reason. It’s maddening and you can accidentally sink your channel by treating social media with the workload time as your featured content.

When starting out, find your favorite platform you think most of your audiences may be on and use it as your right hand. When you get the hang of it, start testing the waters of other platforms.

Tip: Promoting your work is part of the Youtube workload. I use Metricool – it’s a good multi-platform scheduler if you’re publishing content to multiple platforms to promote your videos.

15. Grow an Email list

YouTube and social media platforms control your reach and their algorithms decide who sees your content. This means you’re renting space on someone else’s property. An email list is yours and yours alone.

Start collecting emails early. But before you think everything is gonna be easy peasy with this solution, here’s the tricky part that absolutely no one tells you – you’ve gotta get followers to open your emails. This will depend largely on whether your newsletters deliver a value your followers hope for or expect. But at least you’re not at the total mercy of Instagram deciding your post is not engaging or viral enough.

Tip: Mailerlite has a free tier to start with. Use it. I use a software called VBOUT that I bought into a while back on SumoApp so I have a free unlimited plan. But it’s quite expensive now and Mailerlite is easier to use.

Read best affiliate programs for youtube

16. Research AI Tools

AI in content creation exploded throughout 2023 and 2024 and it continues evolving in both time-saving and scary ways. Tools like TubeBuddy and VidIQ have integrated AI features for title generation, thumbnail analysis and content strategy.

TubeBuddy is my favorite tool due to its keyword search and it has an AI thumbnail analyzer I like to play with. It offers help with offering engaging title ideas too.

Meanwhile, VidIQ offers an AI coach that helps you drill down on content it feels your channel can benefit by.If you purchase a subscription, VidIQ’s AI coach will analyze your channel, suggest improvements and it will even suggest ideas and scripts for new videos. Install VidIQ toolbar for FREE. 

I recommend taking all AI software with healthy skepticism and do some thinking for yourself. Some AI responses can get generic and repetitive, even if they are meant to be customized to your channel. And remember that if AI is suggesting topics to you, it may be suggesting them to your competition.

These tools can help, especially when you’re creatively fried or buried in decision fatigue. But you’re still the creative director of your brand.

17. Use YouTube’s new tools

YouTube has been rolling out features specifically to help creators and you should use them (because I wish they had them when I started!):

Free Audio Library- YouTube now offers copyright-free music directly in YouTube Studio. Yes, it’s a lot of elevator music and it’s severely more limited than Epidemic Sound (which I still recommend for serious creators because it’s music is vetted by the staff), but it’s perfect if you’re starting out and don’t want to split revenue or risk copyright strikes. Tip: Epidemic Sound offers occasional paid campaigns to creators when you promote them through your YouTube videos. If you click on my link you get the first month free!

A/B Testing- This is huge – I wish they had this feature eons ago! You can now test different thumbnails and titles to see which performs better. Upload your video, and YouTube will show different versions to portions of your audience to measure click-through rates. This removes the guesswork from thumbnails and titles, which has always felt like a bit of a dark science.

Collab Tool- YouTube’s built-in collaboration feature makes it easier to work with other creators without complex file sharing or giving them access to your entire channel. You can grant specific permissions for specific videos.

18. Beware of chasing vanity numbers

Building a successful travel channel on YouTube takes time. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see your subscriber base growing in the first three months. You’re juggling a lot of creative departments as a YouTuber.

When I’m coaching creators or doing a YouTube channel and branding audit, I always ask my creators what their channel goals are. 90% of the time, it’s channel growth. One creator wrote that he wanted to grow to one million subscribers in a year (he was at 10,000 subscribers)! I get it.

While being able to see your milestones in a vanity number is fun, do not be misled by it.

The truth many new creators misunderstand is that your subscriber count has little to do with how much you will earn from YouTube. It doesn’t equate how many brands will want to work with you, crowdfunding support you get or how many people buy your products/services.

Having too many of the wrong audiences can backfire on you, causing more frustration. You still won’t believe me and that’s okay… we can have that discussion when you get there.

Last words on growing your YouTube channel in 2025

Growing a travel YouTube channel in 2025 is absolutely possible…

But it also requires more strategy than it did five years ago. The space is crowded, but there’s always room for a unique and genuine voice. Focus on sustainable practices that won’t burn you out, invest in quality over quantity, and build real relationships with your audience.

The journey is long, but if you’re here for the genuine love of travel and storytelling and not just free trips and brand deals, then you’ll figure it out.

Want help masterminding your YouTube monetization strategy or maybe you want eyes on your channel and feedback with a YouTube channel and branding audit.  Click on the links to learn more about growing your channel and income today! 

Read more of my travel content creator business posts