1000 subscribers on youtube worldwide walkers

In the past year, Glenn and I have been traveling the world while filming our every step. And a few days ago, we reached 1000 subscribers on YouTube with our travel vlogs! So I thought, this must be celebrated with a blog post.

1000 subscribers on YouTube is a big milestone for many reasons! And it’s often the first goal that most channels are aiming for.

In this blog post, I want to share why 1000 subscribers on YouTube is a big milestone, then I’ll show you exactly how long it took for us to get there with the statistics behind our channel, and in the end I’ll share some advice for the future youtubers.

So let’s get started! Here is our Journey to 1000 Subscribers on YouTube.


About our YouTube channel

Before our round-the-world-trip, Glenn and I decided to start our YouTube channel Worldwide Walkers, where we upload travel vlogs about the countries we’ve been to. We like to film everywhere we go, so we can show people what full-time traveling is really like.

Our first aim with the channel was to make informative travel vlogs, but being the big children we are, the vlogs often turn into to some sort of entertainment rather than something useful… So if you’re new to our channel, don’t expect to learn a lot while watching our vlogs, but you might have a good time!

We started the channel without knowing anything about YouTube and branding. I’m sure that if we did it again today, we would have done it differently. But here we are!


Why celebrate 1000 subscribers on YouTube?

You reached 1000 subscribers on YouTube, so what? It’s just a number.

That’s when you’re wrong!

It’s not just any number, it’s a specific amount of people who’ve shown interest in you and what you do. There are many reasons why you should celebrate if you reach the 1K subs milestone.

Also if you’ve stumbled into this blog post, and you’re thinking, “what’s a subscriber?”, then I’ll explain shortly. If you have a login for YouTube, and you like a channel, then you should click the red button that says, “subscribe” (it’s of course free!). This means you’re following the channel, just like following a page on Facebook or a person on Instagram. If you like a YouTube channel, always subscribe because it’s a great way to show your support.

So now there is no confusion, let’s get started with why 1000 subscribers on YouTube is something that calls for celebration!

1. The first official milestone on YouTube

Reaching 1000 Subscribers is the first official milestone. YouTube even sends you a congratulations email with an iconic GIF! So make sure to check your e-mail when you hit 1K subs on YouTube.

Here is a screenshot of the GIF:

1000 Subscribers on YouTube GIF

I agree, it’s totally BANANAS!

2. The community tab unlocks

When you reach 1000 subscribers on YouTube, the Community Tab will be enabled. The community tab makes it possible for you to engage with your audience without posting a video.

In the community tab, you can share a video, poll, image, or just do a bit of writing. It’s a way to connect directly with your community.

Here is a “behind the scenes” screenshot from the community tab in our YouTube channel:

YouTube enables the community tab after hitting 1000 subscribers. You can see a screenshot of the tab here.

It can take some time before YouTube enables the community tab, so be patient! It took about a week before our showed up on our YouTube channel.

3. 1000 subscribers + 4000 watch hours = monetization on YouTube

In order to get monetized and get accepted into Youtube’s Partner Program you need to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours. Once you get accepted you can earn money from Google Adsense.

Therefore, it’s such a big milestone to hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube! It actually mean that you’re one step closer to get paid for the blood, sweat, and tears you pour into uploading videos. Okay… maybe not blood, but there are definitely sweat and tears along the way. Trust me, managing a YouTube channel can be frustrating at times.

Beneath is a screenshot from our YouTube channel just before we hit the 1000 subscribers milestone. As you can see, we had more than enough watch hours to get monetized, but we’ve had a hard time gaining subscribers.

screenshot from our youtube channel, just before we hit 1000 subscribers.

4. Being acknowledged and building an audience

For each travel vlog we upload, we put many hours and often several days into making them.

So getting to 1000 subscribers is a huge milestone for us. It means that we are actually growing a community and some people care about watching our vlogs. Thank you! All your support really keeps us going.

Reaching 1000 subscribers on YouTube is an acknowledgement, and it means that you are doing something right for some people.


The Statistics Behind Our 1000 Subscribers on YouTube

Now that you know why this milestone is important to us, I will share the numbers behind our 1000 subscribers on YouTube.

Just remember that all channels are different, so if you are thinking about starting a YouTube channel you might reach this goal faster or slower. It all depends on your dedication, the quality of your content and whether the YouTube algorithm fairies are on your side.

Beneath, you’ll see a screenshot from our YouTube channel, it shows the timeline from when we began the channel to when we reached 1k subs.

1000 subscribers on youtube statistics including views, watch time, and subs

Our first-ever video upload was on July 12 2019, and we reached 1000 subscribers on July 10 2020. So it basically took us one year and 54 travel vlogs to reach this milestone.

As you can see, our total views within this period is 197.100+ which isn’t bad at all for a small channel like us.

I mentioned before that in order to get monetized on YouTube, you need 4000 watch hours as an addition to your 1000 subscribers. Luckily, we already have 10.400 hours of watch time within this year, so we are ready for monetization.

Did some travel vlogs make a significant impact on our statistics? YES! Our Japan travel vlogs are still going strong. They definitely made the most views, watch time and subscribers from any country we’ve been to so far. Our most popular travel vlogs are still the Shinkansen in Japan and Walking with deer in Nara.


Our goals after 1000 subscribers on YouTube

Our first goal is to finish our round-the-world-series. We are SO behind on editing that we still have travel vlogs from New Zealand, Chile and Bolivia that we haven’t shown you yet. So first up, we need to finish those! (Update 2022: Finally done)

While we keep uploading these travel vlogs, we hope that our community will continue to grow. It really does mean a lot to us that we are gaining a follower base. Knowing that someone likes what we are doing keeps us motivated. So we want to grow our channel even more.

The end goal, would be to make money from YouTube so we can buy new camera equipment, and get paid while traveling would be the DREAM. However, we are still very far away from this goal.

What we’ve learned so far from the income we get is that YouTube should only be a side hustle. You definitely don’t want to rely your income on the peanuts you earn from Google Adsense with 1000 subscribers. Now it’s said. We see these big travel bloggers, who make a living from their YouTube channel, but reality is that it’s very hard to get there.

So getting paid from YouTube while traveling is faaaar out in the future, but we feel like 1000 subscribers is a small step in the right direction.

Filming a travel vlog for YouTube
Glenn is always behind the camera! Filming a travel vlog in Chile for our YouTube channel

Advice to start a YouTube channel today

DO IT!

But…

You have to accept the fact that it takes time. Like I just said, people look at amazing vloggers like Kara and Nate and think why not do it too? I don’t think anyone can comprehend how much work there is for big vloggers like them!

So if you dream about getting to that point, then you need to work really hard and have a great deal of patience.

An important advice is to really think about branding before you get started. We didn’t do this, and we jumped straight into travel vlogging, which is such a saturated market on YouTube. Please think out of the box when you start a YouTube channel.

You also need to upload consistently in order to grow, and if you want to upload quality content then expect to put many days into making each video. It’s really hard work! It took us more than a year just to get to 1000 subscribers on YouTube.

Also remember that you need to allow yourself to grow on YouTube, not everything has to be perfect in the beginning. I felt like it was the most awkward thing to tell my friends and family that I started a YouTube channel, and I didn’t like being filmed. Our first travel vlogs sucks because I didn’t know what to say to the camera. But I learned along the way, and Glenn’s filming- and editing skills get better by the day.

We all have to start somewhere, without ever trying, you will never know if you make it.


I hope you enjoyed this blog post about making it to 1000 subscribers on YouTube. As you can see from our statistics, it can take a looong time. But if you brand yourself better than we did, and you upload consistently, then you might do great!

Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions in the comments. Thanks for reading!

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7 Comments

  1. It’s very intimidating, especially in the beginning. It’s really hard to put a lot of effort into making vlogs and then nobody watches them… But if you keep uploading and creating content, then people will eventually start following you and watch your stuff 🙂 Go for it!

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