It’s the middle of September and time for an update!
Oregon Trail wrap-up
Monday (Sept 19), I’ll be releasing my final video of my summer vacation along The Oregon Trail. It was certainly an adventure I’ll never forget! Documenting and editing has been an experience as well! I traveled over 4000 miles, shot 14 hours of footage, visited 238 towns and numerous historic places. Overall, I’ll have released 11 videos (including a drone only video) that totals 3 hours and 24 minutes. It’s the biggest “project” I’ve ever done and I’m proud of it – and I’m also glad it’s complete haha.
It’s the third such series of videos I’ve done. My first documented road trip was of Route 66 in 2020, followed by US 89 in 2021. I’m not sure I’ll document a road trip every year, but it’s been a rewarding experience and I’m sure it’ll be fun to look back at each one in the future. If only I would’ve documented my road trip with Kevin Lucas from Reno to Los Angeles in 2009. Actually, come to think of it, it’s best that I didn’t document that on video haha.
Channel update and BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!
Ok it’s not that big of a deal, but I’ve set a goal to try and release two videos per week for the next year. I was able to do it for the past month with this Oregon Trail series, which were much longer videos than normal for me. My typical 5-10 minute videos are much easier to edit, so I think I can do it.
More on the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT down further, but first let me take a step back …
I’m basically finishing up year 2 of doing YouTube videos (although technically the end of July is the “anniversary”). Here are some stats as a comparison for the growth of the channel from Year 1 to Year 2 and now in the first 2 months of Year 3…
Videos released: Year 1 – 53, Year 2 – 62, Year 3 – 12 (in 2 months)
Subscribers:
Year 1 – 648, Year 2 – 1,431, Year 3 – 2,751 (in 2 months)
Views:
Year 1 – 67,539, Year 2 – 252,178, Year 3 – 354,916 (in 2 months)
As you can see “year 2” was great, but “year 3” has been incredible already. It’s like YouTube said, “well it looks like he’s going to keep doing this, so let’s go ahead and suggest his videos for a while”. 😊
Basically, what it appears has happened is YouTube decided to suggest my “Top-10 Smallest Towns” videos for about a month. Lately that momentum has declined back to what is probably a normal level, but it’s still about 5x what it was before this huge increase in traffic to my channel. It’s quite humbling that so many people are watching these videos. The comments under the videos have ranged from very positive, to extremely critical, to absolute insanity. Never a dull moment when reading through the comments each day haha.
6
tips for starting a YouTube channel
Through the first 2+ years, this is what I’ve learned about having a YouTube channel and it becoming moderately successful:
1)
Consistently publish videos on a schedule.
The hardest part for me was just getting started. But having a schedule (for me
it was every Thursday) is important and forces you to actively think about it
on a regular basis. Even if what you have is not great, go ahead and publish it
on a consistent schedule.
2)
Figure out what your channel is about.
For me, I knew I wanted it to be about traveling, but I didn’t have enough
footage or ideas at the beginning, so I was putting out all kinds of random videos.
Who can forget Wiseguy Slushie Reviews right?
It took me about 40 videos (which is the better part of a year) to realize
that small towns and ghost towns were the direction I wanted to go. It’s not as
broad of a subject as a lot of other YouTube travel channels, but there seemed
to be some interest, and it’s what I really loved doing the most. Since
figuring that out, I’ve had a much more focused series of videos being
released.
3)
Work on your craft. I’m a total amateur
at this, but my videos have gotten better since I started. I look back at some
of the first videos I did and cringe. And I know I still have a long way to go
to be considered “good” in my opinion. I lean on my friend Curt Rierson
for weekly advice since he’s an expert and I trust him completely. Every time I
finish a video, I send it to Curt for suggestions. He’s been kind enough to
watch and respond each time. So, some great advice is to find someone who knows
about this better than you and hopefully they are as gracious with their time as
Curt!
4)
Don’t be a perfectionist. I know this
will probably drive a lot of professional filmmakers crazy but having success
on YouTube is different than having success as someone who makes film for a
living. It’s important for the video to have a certain level of quality, but it’s
more important to make something interesting and unique. It also helps to make
it feel organized and logical. But don’t stay up all night making every frame
of the video perfect. Most people are sitting at home watching it on a phone,
and as soon as they lose interest, they’re going to click on the next suggested
video of squirrel ninja warriors.
5)
Be patient. As I outlined
above, my channel was in virtual obscurity for a long time. And even though it’s
not some sort of big-time channel today, it appears to have gotten over the initial
hump that most channels struggle with. I have no idea why YouTube decided to start
suggesting my videos more. I assume it’s a combination of my videos being of
decent quality and somewhat interesting. Whatever it is, thank you to everyone
for watching and thanks to YouTube for pushing the videos out there more often!
6)
Have fun! Even though this might seem like work
to others, it’s been a lot of fun for me. The Oregon Trail videos were time
consuming, but they were still a lot of fun to do because it gave me a chance
to relive the trip again. And that’s one of my favorite things about this
process. I love going out and exploring, and then putting it together in the editing
process is another great experience for the same trip.
OK, back to the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Like I mentioned above, my next plan is to release two videos a week for the next year. I’m going to publish them on Thursday and Sunday at 7am (previously I’ve done Thursday and Monday at 11am). I’m going to experiment with Sunday to see if it’s better than a weekday.
ALSO, the format is going to be ghost towns every Thursday. Let’s call it GHOST TOWN THURSDAY! Ooooooo. The Sunday videos will be everything else from Top-10’s to road trips to random historical videos like the one about The Wichita Monrovians vs the KKK. I’ve decided to do a ghost town video every week, because I noticed with publishing six consecutive weeks of The Oregon Trail that I probably lost some viewers who subscribed to the channel for ghost towns and small town content. So, in the future if I do another road trip, those videos would be released on Sunday, and I would try to do a ghost town video from along that same trip on that Thursday.
This seems like a good idea right? What do you think?
New video idea: small town, USA
When I’m out there traveling and looking for ghost towns, I often find awesome small towns that don’t qualify as ghost towns, but I’d love to do a video about them. This is where it’s great to have a friend to bounce ideas off. I’ve talked with Curt about this for a while and even tried making a test video that just didn’t feel right. Now I think I have it figured out and will be doing videos called “small town, USA”. These would be profiles of towns that are small (under 2000 population) and have historical significance. They would also be released on Sunday with other non-ghost town content. I’m excited to show you what I have in mind! If you have suggestions of great small towns that fit these criteria let me know!
No Coast Film Festival
I didn’t make a video about it like I did last year, but I was lucky enough to have a film picked to be part of Emporia’s No Coast Film Festival for the second year in a row. I didn’t spend the entire weekend at the festival, but it was good to see a lot of the same people again. It’s very cool to be part of something like this and I hope I can continue to make interesting enough videos to be considered from year to year. I always feel like an imposter at these events because there are so many talented and creative filmmakers and I’m just a track coach with an iPhone and a selfie stick.
Future videos and travel plans
I always like to hide these at the bottom as a reward for the diehards who have made it through all my ramblings to this point haha.
After I publish my final Oregon Trail video on Monday, this is my plan for the coming weeks …
Thu,
Sept 22 – Kansas Ghost Towns #12 – Morse, Bonita, Lanesfield
Sun,
Sept 25 – I’m going to do a video about a lot of the stuff in this blog
announcing the new ideas
Thu,
Sept 29 – Nebraska Ghost Towns #1 – Steele City, Belvidere, Pauline, Roscoe
Sun,
Oct 2 – Pioneer Museum in Minden, Nebraska
Thu,
Oct 6 – Grasmere, Idaho, ghost town
Sun,
Oct 9 – small town, USA – Madison, KS
Thu,
Oct 13 – Wyoming Ghost Towns #1 – Wendover, Jeffrey City, Piedmont, Sage
Sun,
Oct 16 – TBA
Thu,
Oct 20 – Oregon Ghost Towns #1 – Lime, Sumpter, Cecil, Bridal Veil
I’ve got a few more ghost towns videos filmed for after October 20 from Kansas, Wyoming, and Idaho.
On the way back from the film festival in Emporia, I explored around Greenwood County, KS. Lots of interesting places and ghost towns. I’m hoping for 3 or 4 videos from that trip. I have a few days off for Fall Break in mid-October, so I’m planning on going to Nebraska and finding the Top-10 Smallest Towns in the state. I am hoping to see some ghost towns and “small town, USA” content along the way as well.
Over the holiday season, I usually go back to Ohio. I don’t have anything planned, but I will probably take the scenic route between Kansas and Ohio again. And if I can, I’m going to try and squeeze in a trip to Texas between Christmas and early January, but that one is definitely tentative.
After that it’ll be traveling with Wichita State Track and Field for the next 5 months!
Thanks again to everyone for the support! Happy Travels!