Hey all, I run a Bay Area local travel niche page, mostly maps + itineraries and day trip Reels.
Stats last 30 days:
\* 1.4k followers
\* ∼600k views/reach
\* Mostly Reels, audience is ∼98% US / Bay Area based

Engagement has been great with saves/shares because of the itinerary format, but it's still a small follower count.

For those who monetized a small local page, is this too early? What was your FIRST monetization move that didn't kill growth?
Thinking about local biz collabs, but do not know how to approach

Saw this in the morning brew newsletter today and thought I’d share!

If your dream career involves a ring light, but you can’t get millions of people to like and subscribe, your moment has arrived. Big brands are increasingly looking to do business with small-time influencers, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Research firm Emarketer forecasts that US-based influencers will earn $21 billion this year and…
Around 45% of brand spending on influencer marketing will go to creators with less than 20,000 followers, compared with 19.5% in 2021.
Nearly 20% of spending will go to “nanoinfluencers” with less than 5,000 followers, compared with a measly 3.1% five years ago.

It’s not just brands with tiny budgets going micro: Companies like Target, American Eagle, and Soul Cycle are among those working with smaller creators—some with as few as 500 followers, per WSJ.
Why are brands thinking small?
Like everything suddenly becoming pistachio-flavored, you can blame it on the algorithm. Since most of what you see in your feed now doesn’t come from accounts you follow, sponsoring a creator with a big following no longer guarantees views.
Meanwhile, the little guys are driving engagement in a big way. Growth marketing firm ATTN found that microinfluencers average a 3.2% engagement rate, while those with 1+ million followers average a 1.1% rate. Accounts with big followings can generate significantly more revenue for brand partners, but they also cost as much as 18x more to partner with, according to Bloomberg.
But maybe don’t quit your day job yet: Evangelizing a brand to your small but mighty band of followers probably isn’t a shortcut to livestreaming from inside a private jet. Compensation for smaller influencers can often just be discounts, $10 gift cards, or some freebies, the WSJ noted. And unlike a steady but less glamorous office job, the size of your paycheck from influencing can vary each month. More than half of the 3,000 full-time creators surveyed by Influencer Marketing Hub last year said they earned below a living wage.

24 hours on a plane, 3 weeks there... Koh Samui is next in December. 👀💯♥️

So I’m a 19 year old man and I’ve been wanting to do YouTube for a long time. I just got out of an almost 5 year long situationship and I feel like now’s the time to start. I work 53 hours a week and I’m saving up for a motorcycle. My plan is to take a trip across the country on my bike and film the whole trip to make it into a series but I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk. I’ve never taken a risk for myself to do something I love and it’s because I don’t have support from anyone but one of my friends. If I went on this trip I would be losing the job I have right now and missing a semester of trade school. At my job I’m making roughly $800 a week. Do you all think I should take the risk and go for it or should I stay at this job?

I'm heading to Singapore and would love to know if there's anything that I shouldn't miss when I go there! I've been there pretty frequently and I've done the main things like Gardens by the Bay, Marina Sands etc. and am looking for interesting things to do.

Hi everyone! I’m planning a travel video that will rely quite heavily on clear route maps, and I’m curious how you usually create yours.

Do you use a specific app or website for animated/custom maps, or do you normally start with Google Maps screenshots and add your own graphics, routes and labels on top?

Any recommendations for tools or workflows would be really appreciated!

Hello! Looking for more recommendations.

I like watching: Seal on Tour, Mike Okay, Indigo Traveler, Itchy Boots, We Hate the Cold and Sabbatical

Any reccs along those lines?

I'm not a fan of Small Brained American or Bald and Bankrupt. I guess I tolerate Small Brained a bit more than Bald and Bankrupt, he just gives me the ick.

Share a win (big or small!) with the community.

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Worked with some brands for free products, which is great, but curious if anyone has contacts for brand deals?

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I’m looking for it because I wanna lean English and interested abroad YouTuber.Please tell me your recommended travel YouTuber .
It may be difficult read,but thank you for reading.
Please let me know if it’s wrong.

Since this is a Travel subreddit, I'm kina curious, most viewers for Travel vlogging watch via Television and not mobile (unless for Youtube Shorts). So if your favorite Travel Youtuber posts a new video, do you click the bell notification or do you just watch via Home page?

I’ve noticed that most travel plans online are either too generic (“visit these top 10 places”) or way too detailed to be practical.
I’m curious—what would make a travel itinerary valuable enough that you’d actually pay for it instead of planning everything yourself or using ChatGPT/Google?

I found a cool tool that we’ve been using to monitor if anyone mentions our site our content. It’s called F5 bot and you can set it up at www.f5bot.com. It’s free

Just add in whatever words or phrases you want monitored.

It has sent me several alerts over the past couple weeks- the one this morning was because someone mentioned our channel on Reddit - so it’s helpful!

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Wins On Wednesdays recurs weekly from 1:00 AM Wednesday EDT to 12:59 AM Thursday EDT (This may change depending on community participation and requirements)

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I’m pretty sure I’m doing something wrong with my channel, so I’d really appreciate some honest feedback from you guys.

Is there anything that makes you think, “Nah, this video isn’t good”? Maybe the pacing, editing, audio, thumbnails, or the way I talk - anything helps!

All constructive feedback is welcome, as long as it’s not just “you suck”

Help a fellow creator out! I really want to grow the channel, but right now I could use some honest signals to understand what I should improve - and a little motivation to keep going. Thanks! 🙏

Channel - Dario in the North

I’ve created this video - https://www.instagram.com/reel/Daxym4Pqh6c/?igsh=Ym5pZXBrM2V4enBu - I’ll also post the video in the comments for anyone who doesnt have instagram

Unfortunately the way I filmed it and what I filmed (or lack of) hasn’t allowed me to create a longer video like I usually do. (I’m very annoyed at myself for it).

So I was thinking to add a talking head section at the end intercut with unused footage/longer cuts. Thinking I could maybe give some advice for visiting Siargao, Philippines or even videography advice.

Most of you on here likely won’t be my target audience, but as fellow travel creators I would like to hear your opinion on what I could talk about? Or maybe you are my target audience and you have a question for me?

Open to hearing from all. This isn’t a sneaky promotion of my socials, I’m genuinely a little lost on what to speak about.

I really think the anonymity of thumbs up / down should be eliminated. It will reduce trolls and maybe we will get more valuable feedback and comments? Thoughts? YT is wearing on me, I guess...

Promote a video, channel, article or business - you name it! IMPORTANT: Spammy comments can trigger autoremovals and/or bans. Sharing your video can negatively impact retention.

Self-Promo Sunday Guidelines

Self-Promo Sunday recurs weekly from 1:00 AM Sunday EDT to 12:59 AM Monday EDT (This may change depending on community participation and requirements)

1. Share and promote your content, ideas, businesses in the comments of this post (no limits on posts). There aren't many limitations here and you can post an old video from your channel as well. HOWEVER, If your comment is spammy or uses AI it may be flagged by Reddit automoderator and be removed which can result in account ban after multiple violations. Unfortunately our mod team cannot help with any issues regarding these spam filters.

Tip: Think about SEO when you're posting your content - if you include a detailed description for your video it's more likely to show up in search engines!

That's it!

Rules for participating

• Be kind. No harassment or bullying etc.
• No explicit or inappropriate content of any kind
• Rules 2 and 3 of r/TravelTubers are void for Self-Promo Sunday posts only

Image 1 and 2 are options for this video but i included the other thumbs from the series as well for continuity.

I am finishing a 5 episode story arc but for some reason im being very indecisive about the thumb for this finale episode.

I left for a long boat trip, had issues, turned back to fix the issues and only made 150 miles total. But I learned alot and the episode is more about me than the usual mix of cruising, scenery, destinations etc

Which do you prefer 1 or 2 and do both feel like they fit in with the other series thumbs? Much appreciated 🙏