TraveLinkSites is stoked to pick Cailin O’Neil’s brain about her Video Blogging site Travel Yourself. Her video’s are extremely popular so make sure you check them out.
1. Could you briefly introduce yourself, your site and your why you chose to video blog?
I am a Canadian travel, food and video blogger traveling at every chance I get. When not on the road I work in Film and TV doing freelance jobs. My travel video blogging site is called www.TravelYourself.ca, a site which I created to help grow an audience behind my travel videos and social media channels. I’ve been making videos since I was a kid and I later majored in film in University. Following University I started travelling a fair bit and then I paid for a camera man to follow me around Spain in August of 2009 to film the first episode of my own travel TV show and from that making my own videos of my travels just came naturally.
Cailin by our very own Big Ben
2. Who were/are your major influences when you decided to create your own video blog?
I honestly came to this idea on my own when I decided to start making travel videos however if I were to pick one show that has inspired me most it would be the a travel show which is actually Canadian called “Departures”. It’s an awesome show and the cinematography is breathtaking. I’ve actually emailed back and forth with the Producer of the series for a couple years now, his name is Steven Bray and you can check out a recent interview I did with him on the site.
3. What are you biggest challenges with video blogging?
The biggest challenges for the way I make my travel videos is knowing when to film and when not to film. I often will have 2 or more hours of footage for a video that ends up being only 2-5 minutes. Also I want my videos and experiences to naturally happen so I try not to plan too much in advance however this of course leads to not knowing what might happen next and possibly not getting the right angle on something or missing something someone says and so on.
Cailin licking glacier in Iceland
4. The wide world of SEO, what does it mean to you? And how do you go about it?
Can I pass on this question? haha
5. Could you choose a favourite video you’ve produced? Which one has had the most viewers?
My favourite video that has been released to date is my Iceland video, which also got me into the top 11 films screened at the Nomading Film Festival in New York. http://youtu.be/
However surprisingly enough my video with the most views is one where I got my friend Candice Walsh together with my friend and Canadian celebrity / comedian / actor Mark Critch (both Newfoundlanders) and had them give the world a Newfoundland language lesson. I’m amazed at how many views this one has, especially since its 9 minutes long. http://youtu.be/
6. You’ve been featured on lots of cool TV channels, how did they approach you and what did it feel like to gain that level of attention?
It feels pretty awesome to gain that level of attention and it makes me feel like my hard efforts are finally being paid off. Most of the contact was just from people I had built up a relationship with and they realized the quality of my work or a video I did was about a topic they were interested in for a story so it just fit. Lets hope it just keeps happening more often.
she's a star!
7. What’s the best and worst place you’ve video blogged about?
I’ll mention Iceland again as being one of my favourite places that I have filmed, but filming at La Tomatina was pretty awesome and just yesterday in Sydney, Australia I was filming with Koalas and that was pretty great too. I don’t think I have a “worst” place where I have filmed however I have had difficult. In November I was in Berlin traveling and filming and the heavy history of that city somewhat made it difficult for me to make a video about it because I was worried about portraying something wrongly or missing information, so I ended up not making a video at all from my footage. Something small might come from it still though. Stay tuned.
8. We know you’re into your films. Do you have a favourite film that’s influenced your travels?
Is “the Goonies” a good answer? How about “Airplane!”? haha I don’t think there are any films that have influenced my travels however there are films that when traveling I actually find myself standing in the spots they were filmed and I think that is pretty cool. My mother actually use to work for an airline so I have been traveling all my life so if anything has influenced my travels it would be my parents taking me traveling starting at a young age.
in Copenhagen
9. Where are you now and what do you have in the pipeline?
At the moment I am in Sydney, Australia and will be here for at least the next 3 or 4 weeks before returning home again and then I’ll be off to Mexico a couple times and then Colorado and New York and anything after that has yet to be decided. I have a lot of awesome things coming down the pipeline, however to keep it exciting I can’t share the news just yet but be sure to stay updated with my site www.TravelYourself.caand follow me on twitter @travelyourself
Thanks Cailin, we’ll be watching your videos…
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