Sunday, July 11, 2021

One year of YouTube videos, what I learned, what's next!

 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

 In terms of places that still have people living there, it is hard to pick between White Cloud and Arvonia (both in Kansas).  White Cloud, which is way up in the northeast corner of Kansas, has done a great job of maintaining a lot of the old buildings without making it "touristy" and the entire downtown in on the National Registry of Historic Places.  You can also see 4 states from atop a scenic overlook and boat down the Missouri River.  Arvonia and its 12 inhabitants have also worked hard to restore the local buildings to what they probably looked like 150 years ago.  If you stop by you might even get a personal tour of the place. --> White Cloud video  --> Arvonia 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

Route 66 News

Roberto Rossi interview (Italy)


 

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