Travel with a Wiseguy update
Previously, this blog was for me
to discuss track and movies, but since I have not posted in forever, I thought
I would use it to talk about my travels.
I still write a bunch about Wichita State Track and Field almost every
Sunday in a weekly newsletter (email me at jwise@goshockers.com
if you want to be added to the mailing list).
And I am still watching a lot of movies (if you are a friend on
Snapchat, you are well aware haha).
I started my YouTube travel channel one year ago. Since then, I have now uploaded 52 videos and reached my original goal of posting a video each week for a year, I figured this was a good time to talk about this “journey”.
Year one of creating a YouTube channel
The first year of creating these
videos have been 1) a lot of fun, 2) very challenging, and 3) very
rewarding. I had thought about doing
something like this for a long time, but actually committing to it was tough
because certain parts of my year are super busy. But with the encouragement and guidance of Curt
Rierson, the super talented and accomplished Emmy Award-winning producer for
WSUtv, I decided to start the channel.
I have a bit of experience with shooting and editing video from my years as a track coach and athlete (and amateur videos with the family camcorder as a kid), but this was a different endeavor. I had stockpiled some footage of my trip to South America in 2019 and I did a video about the beginning of the trip (that I never published) to see if I could pull it off. Curt was very supportive even though it is not that great of a video, and his best advice was to just keep “getting reps”. I have come a long way since and if you want to see that early unlisted video you can find it under the South America playlist on my YouTube channel. --> South America playlist
After that, I put up a short intro video and announced that I was going to try to do a weekly post of my travels. That first video got great support from friends. I picked up about 50 subscribers to the channel and at that point I felt committed. The first real video I did was of a week-long trip around the Rocky Mountains. I really did not know what I was doing in terms of filming and speaking into the camera (which was awkward). When I got home and started putting it together, I started to figure it out and got a jolt of excitement that it was not the worst video ever made. I almost exclusively used the iMovie application on my phone (which is fantastic) and found the editing process was a lot of fun. I did a couple videos on Adobe Premiere because the film was pulled off a video camera in 2019, but other than the South America videos, everything else has been done exclusively on my phone. I look back at the early videos and shake my head at the typos and other goofy things I did. But I kept getting weekly reps and started getting better at filming and editing. And more importantly, I kept forcing myself to do a video each week.
In the past year, because of Covid restrictions, I have had to stay in the USA and find new places I have never been. I did the entire Route 66 in two weeks and the videos seemed to catch on reasonably well for a new channel. It seems those videos are the ones that consistently get views each day and I have made friends from all over the world who somehow stumbled across the series. --> Route 66 playlist
Doing a video each week has
definitely been a challenge, especially with having a full-time job as a track
coach at Wichita State. The reason I
started doing the goofy slushie reviews was because I knew I would not be able
to travel enough to do a weekly video.
Those have been a lot of fun and it has been a blast showing people the
humorous side of my friends from work. I
think the slushie reviews will be retired for the time being. Maybe I will have one here and there in the
future. Sorry to the slushie diehards! --> Slushie review playlist
Statistical summary of Year 1
If you know me, you know I love
numbers. So, here are some numbers from
Year 1 of Travel with a Wiseguy (as of July 11):
623 Subscribers
64,399 Total views of the 51
videos (Avg 1,262)
7 Hours and 27 minutes of
published videos (Avg 8:45)
1,364 most views in one day – April
18, 2021 (after I posted the Joyland video)
3,394 most views in one week –
April 18-24, 2021 (Avg 485/day)
9,884 most views in one month –
April 2021 (Avg 329/day)
7,423 watch hours (amount of total
hours people have watched on the channel)
Most watched video – Route 66
Arizona, 4,024 views
Top 5 countries that have viewed
videos other than the USA: UK, Mexico, Canada, France, Netherlands
51% of views are from the 35-44
age group
63% male/37% female
$100 earned (see FAQ below)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where is the most favorite place you have ever traveled?
That is tough to answer, but I usually go with Easter Island, and that is why I did that as one of the first videos on my channel. Iceland and New Zealand were incredible too. But honestly, I have thoroughly enjoyed every country I have visited. --> Easter Island video
What international trips do you still want to do?
Basically everywhere. But if I am making a priority list it would
include: Africa, Antarctica, island
hopping through the Caribbean, Greenland, Norway/Sweden/Finland, Galapagos
Islands, Egypt, and Seychelles. The only states I have not been to in the USA
are Alaska and Hawaii (I plan to visit
those within the next 4 years).
What has been your most favorite small town you have visited in the past year?
The favorite one I visited that is
not a town anymore was Picher, Oklahoma.
There are literally zero people living there in a city that used to have
around a population of 15,000. The
feeling of wandering around a place full of buildings that is completely
deserted was very eerie to say the least.
It makes me want to visit some of the other places in the world that
have been totally abandoned. If you are
in to things like that and live close by, Picher should definitely be on your
list of places to explore. If you are
wondering why it is abandoned and did not see my video check it out here --> Picher, Oklahoma video
What is your favorite video you have created?
That is very difficult to
answer. The slushie videos are always
fun (especially the one with my brother).
The two videos I am most proud of are Picher (mentioned above) and the
Top-10 Smallest Towns in Kansas. I
wanted both of those videos to come off well to the people who are from there,
and I have received so many positive messages about them. Hopefully, they are videos that will continue
to get views from people that enjoy them.
The Route 66 trip through Arizona would be a close third.
--> Top-10 Smallest Towns in Kansas video --> Route 66 Arizona
What are some trips you are planning for in the upcoming year?
There are so many trips I want to
do but I do not have the time (or money).
Like my previous trip on Route 66, I am going to drive Route 89 from
Canada to Mexico. It will be through the
states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. National Geographic says it is the most
scenic drive in the world. I am not sure
of that, but it sounds like it could be pretty epic. I am going to continue to explore ghost towns
in Kansas, but I am planning on doing some of those type videos in other states
as well (possibly Ohio, Colorado, Oklahoma, Montana, Arizona – maybe
more). I want to document a weekend in
the Flint Hills of Kansas. I would like
to spend a couple days going to dirt track speedways and showing what it is
like behind the scenes at these local race tracks. I have an idea about a video about Wichita’s
historic Union Terminal Station. I am
hoping to visit the site of the Wichita State Football plane crash from 1970, located
in the mountains west of Denver. I
wanted to take a week-long road trip around the state of Texas going to a
different country music concert each night and visiting small towns along the
way (it does not look like that one is happening this year). I thought a video of a coach going on a
recruiting trip might be interesting to some (although there are lots of NCAA
rules you have to deal with doing a video like that). Literally, I have 20+ more ideas like this in
my head.
How much money do you make?
So far it is a grand total of $100
haha. A significantly more popular YouTuber
contacted me about using a few of my videos in one he was making. But that has been it. The way monetization works on YouTube is from
meeting 2 requirements: 1) 1000 subscribers and 2) 4000 watch hours in the past
12 months. The 4000 watch
hours happened quickly, but getting 1000 subscribers has not. I am almost two-thirds there so,
theoretically, that should happen in the next year if I keep this going. But, once you get to those requirements, you
are not going to get rich. In fact, I
have heard it is basically pocket change at first. I never intended to try and make money off
this when I started, but maybe someday it can be something to help pay for some
gas or a hotel or something. I follow
other YouTubers who talk about a variety of ways to make money, but I am not
anywhere near trying to do that since my main focus is coaching at WSU.
What advice would you give someone wanting to start their own YouTube channel?
By no means am I an expert on this
topic. But in my limited experience I
would say the most important thing is to do it for you. Do not start it with the goal of making money
because the chances are you will never make a penny. But if you do it for you, you will end up
with a bunch of fantastic memories that are there to watch whenever you want,
even if no one else is particularly interested.
The second piece of advice is what my buddy Curt told me, which was to
just keep making videos. That is the
only way you will get better. Give
yourself a deadline and force yourself to meet it each time. Other than that,
just have fun with it. Life is too
short. If you are thinking about it,
just go ahead and do it. I wish I would
have a long time ago!
What is the future of your channel?
Lately I have started visiting and
doing a lot of videos on small towns and abandoned places, and I think this is
where my channel will eventually go in the future more and more. I really enjoy getting in my car for a couple
days on the weekend and exploring these relatively unknown and rarely visited places. I still plan to do a lot of
other types of videos too, but I would imagine 50% of them will fall in the
small town/abandoned places genre. I am
excited to do some more road trip videos like I did with Route 66. I have done three videos of trips with our
track team and those are very difficult to pull off with trying to coach at the
same time. I am glad I did them, just
not sure how many more I will do in the future.
I started an Instagram account that is solely about my travels at Travel_Wiseguy. If you want to follow where I go, I will be posting there on a more frequent basis than anywhere else.
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone who has been
supportive of this endeavor during the past year. It has been a terrific distraction from a
frustrating year overall (yeah I’m talking about you Covid). Since I am still enjoying this, I plan to
continue posting weekly videos on into 2022. Hopefully, you have enjoyed
something from a few of the videos, whether it be historical facts, Shocker
Track & Field details, or what flavor of slushie is the best. Thanks again!
Below are some articles written about my channel this year.
Wichita State News - Paul Suellentrop
Roberto Rossi interview (Italy)
