From Zero to 30K Views: The First Month of Vanlife Voices

I'm one month into running Vanlife Voices as an independent publication, and the results have been better than expected.?

What is Vanlife Voices?

As explained in my first newsletter of 2025—Vanlife Voices is a podcast/newsletter-style content strategy featuring vanlifers worldwide. I ask vanlifers about their van conversion, journey, motivation, lifestyle, and struggles.?

I record the interviews and convert the transcripts into long-form articles published on the Vanlife Voices website, LinkedIn, and Medium. I post clips to YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Vanlifers provide images that I publish on the blog and Instagram.

To learn more about the project and content, visit vanlifevoices.com; this article focuses on the results and key takeaways from month one.

The Content Creation Process

The beauty of this strategy is how effortless it is to create and distribute content. I'm using several?AI-powered tools for processing, not creation.

Everything is original. Better yet, it's meaningful and genuine—someone's immediate face-to-face response to a question creates an authenticity you cannot get from writing.

Writing allows thinking, processing, and filtering vs. talking, where you say what's on your mind and how you feel about something. I make a point of saying as little as possible to allow that flow.?

Recording interviews

I use Zencastr to record interviews. Zencastr records separate video and audio in each participant's Chrome browser and then uploads them after the interview.

Recording locally in each browser maximizes video and audio quality. It also continues recording at that high quality, even during connectivity issues. I've had a few instances where the call dropped completely momentarily without interruption to the final format. In Google Meet or Zoom, this dropout would break the recording and adversely impact the video, audio, and transcript.

Processing the transcript

My primary focus is the transcript. I have a custom GPT trained to convert the transcript into a long-form article with precise instructions in the knowledge base:

• Only use the interviewee's response to generate the article
• Make the article engaging, but retain the interviewee's voice, tone, word choice, and cadence as much as possible.
• Must maintain accuracy. DO NOT embellish or make inferences.
• Use sections and descriptive headings to help the narrative and make the story scannable.

So far, this processing has worked exceptionally well. Every interviewee has been impressed with the results and accuracy. I've only had a few minor spelling errors.

I share the article in Google Docs for easy collaboration. I allow interviewees to edit, add, or remove as much as they like. It's their story, so I want it to represent their journey accurately.?

Creating video clips

Once I have completed the article, I process the interviewee's Zencastr video in Opus Clip. Opus Clip chops the video into bite-sized clips, perfect for Reels/Stories, YouTube Shorts, and LinkedIn videos.?

This process takes a few minutes, and the results are amazing; I rarely have to edit or trim. You typically get 10+ videos ready to go.?

I upload the Opus Clip videos to Canva, where I have a video template with outro CTA. Sometimes, I need to trim to tighten things up, but mostly, I add the video and download the final clip ready for publishing.

Growth and Results

Instagram has produced the best results, primarily from post and Reel collaborations with interviewees, racking up 30k+ views in the first month for an account with under 150 followers by January 30.

YouTube and LinkedIn have grown at a similar steady pace:

• YouTube (16 followers): 2.8k views, 36 interactions from 21 Shorts
• LinkedIn (11 followers): 949 impressions, 35 reactions from 14 posts, including four articles

YouTube and LinkedIn will take time to grow, but these early results indicate positive interest in the content.?

I'm also publishing the full articles to Medium with almost no engagement. I don't think Medium is the right platform for this type of content. I will continue publishing until Q2 2025 and reevaluate this channel.?

Website and mailing list

The website is getting steady traffic, mostly from social media, with 150 unique visitors and 549 views.

The mailing list hasn't grown much, but I haven't done anything to create a good value proposition to incentivize sign-ups. I'm working on a lead magnet, which I hope to complete by the end of Q1. The lead magnet will provide additional social content and a mailing list incentive. I also want to generate more interest from brand partners to help grow Vanlife Voices.

I will share details about creating this lead magnet using publicly available data and AI. Check out last week's article for a hint.

I'm also working on improving the weekly email newsletter. At the moment, I'm publishing each interviewee's story as a newsletter. The new format will feature enhanced lead magnet content and elements aligned with vanlifer interests.

Repurposing Content for SEO

I'm also working on an SEO strategy targeting vanlife keywords. The first piece is a mammoth 5,500+ word article on "vanlife." I combine repurposed vanlifer interviews with peer-reviewed research and reputable sources to generate highly original, engaging, SEO-optimized articles.?

I'm leveraging interviewee relationships to acquire backlinks from relevant vanlifer blogs and expect these articles to begin generating steady organic search traffic by the end of Q1. By the end of 2025, Vanlife Voices will enjoy traffic from multiple sources.?

I will have completed 50+ interviews, giving me valuable first-party data about vanlifers' lifestyles and interests worldwide. This data will help generate more unique content, including reports and statistics.

Month One: Key Takeaways

Here are some key takeaways from learning and testing in January:

• People want to share their stories. Give them a platform to speak.
• The most time-consuming part of this strategy is outreach. Lots will say no, and many more will ignore you.
• Don't worry about the content's quality; focus on the message and whether it resonates.
• Views indicate that content resonates but doesn't always translate to growth.
• Move fast and break things. Consistency is more important in the early testing phase than the content itself. Through volume and consistency, you learn and improve. Sometimes, you only reach four people, but that's four more than you had yesterday—these smaller pieces feed the whole.
• Collaboration drives success. Make sure you're adding value for the collaborator.
• Use answers from your transcripts to understand the audience and refine questions and content.

5,000+ Subscribers for The Language Doctors: A Corporate Case Study

This content strategy will work across any industry. Interviewing experts and thought leaders elevate your brand while providing a platform for these people to share their ideas.

I've just started a?Cross-Cultural Communication?trial for The Language Doctors (TLD). The content focused on companies that use interpretation, translation, and localization to achieve business goals.

The first edition featured Estonia's e-Residency and generated over 5,000 LinkedIn subscribers in its first week. TLD has published two videos on its social channels, generating higher impressions, views, and click-through rates than its usual content.

TLD is using a bi-monthly publishing strategy for this initial 3-month trial. With the company's permission, I hope to share some more feedback and analytics in the future.