My brother may want to do travel vlogging, so I’ve been helping him (I do work for him). I’ve been looking at popular travel vloggers and seeing what theye had in common. I’m doing it for my brother, yes, but I’m also doing it for myself. I know that blogging is dead, and, hell, even vlogging/YouTube are on their way out. It’s all about the TikToks and the Insta-worthy moments. I don’t use either of those, even though I do have an Instagram. I don’t use my Facebook any longer except to message K. Twitter is a trash fire, and I deleted my account a while ago. I check in on Bluesky once every blue moon (heh), and I find I don’t miss social media in general.
I find that Discord has replaced it, and we’ll see what happens when it goes *sigh* public. Which means it’s going to go to shit pretty soon. I mean, it’s to be expected because we can’t have nice things, and Discord was pretty nice to use.
Anyway. I have toyed with the idea of doing YouTube, knowing it probably won’t go anywhere. My YouTube channel, I mean. I am realistic that I am too old, too scatter-shot, too much of a dilettante, and just too, too much. There are many reasons I haven’t done it, but one of the main ones is that I just cannot stick to one subject. And that’s very important because the internet is broken up into many, many different niches. You succeed by finding a niche within a niche and flogging the hell out of it.
Here are some of the things I noticed that the hot travel vloggers had in common. In no particular order and just from watching on a cursory level half-a-dozen or so very popular vloggers, here are the things that they all have.
1. Cult of personality
The strongest through-thread of all these videos was the personality of each content creator. They were all distinctive and immediately recognizable, and their personality was their brand. Sure, they went to very interesting places and had really amazing experiences, but the focus is on them. When I think back to the snippets of videos I watched, I don’t remember much about the places–but I can easily recall each of their personalities.
For better and for worse.
I did not like most of them from a personal standpoint, but I could see the appeal. Most of them were very outgoing, gregarious, friendly, and bubbly (for lack of a better word). They were, for the most part, white, and good-looking. Or at least average-looking. Mostly guys, and some of them were plain-looking. The women I saw, though, were all attractive. Take that for what you will*.
2. Stay in your lane
Pick a niche and don’t stray from it. If you want to travel with your kids, for instant, in a luxe manner, then do that for every video. And be confident about it! You have to own it and not show any shame. Not that well-off people should feel shame, exactly, but let’s just say that’s not my area of interest. Nor are cruises (which is one of the videos I watched).
This is where I would have trouble. My brain goes all over the place, and I cannot for the life of me stick to one topic. Not even in a post like this. I always go all over the place, and then end up somewhere near where I want to be. Even if it takes me the whole post and then I write about the actual topic at hand for a paragraph or two.
I see connections everywhere, and I want to go off in a million different directions. At the same time. I suspect this could be part of my undiagnosed neurodivergency, which I have yet to get checked out.
3. Keep it moving. Literally and figuratively
The content creator tends to move and talk at the same time. They are rarely standing still, which I’m sure is intentional. Sometimes, they’ll do a ‘where the channel is at the moment’ video, and then they’re more stationary for that. But if they’re actually doing some traveling, then they’re always on the move.
4. Be intensely personal (sell a narrative)
This is related to the first point, but slightly different. One thing I noticed was how open the content creators appeared to be. I say appeared to be beacuse I think it’s not false, exactly, but because it doesn’t feel completely real. It’s in that limnal space where both are true–and both are not true.
I think of it as real+. Yes, the content creator probably feels whatever they are conveying in the moment by moment, but maybe not to the extent they are expressing it. Which leads me to my next point.
5. Always be aware that you’re talking to someone
The content creators have to know that they are doing this for an audience. Yes, they are speaking their hearts or whatever is on their mind, but it’s clear that most of them are aware of their audience. Many of them are benefitting directly from their fans, and that has to be in the back of their minds. They have to find a way to make each person feel as if they’ve being talked to one-on-one, but also address the group.
It’s a talent, and some people fall on one or the other side of a very thin line. You have to make it seem personal, yes, but you also have to keep it broad enough so that anyone who drops in will feel welcome. I have realized that I fall on the ‘back it up’ side of things. I don’t like it when people got too personal or act as if we’re friends (this probably fits in better with the last point, but oh well). I like it when they are informative, but not intimate. You don’t know me like that, and I don’t want you acting as if you do.
6. Have a strong hook to reel ’em in
If you have something exciting that is going to happen later in the video, you have to state it right away as a teaser. All the videos I’ve watched have done that, and while I understand why, I don’t like it personally. I know it’s so that people won’t go away thirty seconds into the video, but it feels baity to me. I know it’s supposed to be, but I don’t like it.
That’s all for today. I’ll probably write more on it tomorrow.
*I could write a treatise on the state of the internet and how women and other non-men have to fight be seen in certain areas, like traveling. And how very different the traveling videos by men are from traveling videos by women (assuming gender here). This also holds true for gaming cantent creators, but that is a whole different video for another time.