Send in your questions!
In a few weeks, I’ll be posting my 200th video on Travel with a Wiseguy, and I’ve decided to go ahead and do one of those Q&A’s. Last year, for my 100th video, I did highlights of the first 100, and I thought about doing the same for #100 through #200 but have decided to try the Q&A instead. I’m sure this won’t be the most popular video ever, but I do get lots of questions in the comments these days and if you send me some good ones, I’ll try my best to answer them in the least boring way possible :)
Send your questions to jwise@goshockers.com or on any of my social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter).
April recap – keeping busy!
The busiest months of my full-time job as a track coach at Wichita State University are always April and May. So, I’m currently right in the middle of that hectic time. I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep up the pace of two videos per week on the channel, but I think I managed to get though the toughest part. The hardest thing was just getting enough content because I’m not able to do much personal travel between January and June. But I snuck away just enough to have the videos you’ve seen (or will see) lately.
As for how the channel did in April … well not great in comparison to previous months, but like I’ve said before that doesn’t bother me. The “core” audience for the channel continues to grow and I’m sure eventually it’ll hit another spike in views/subscribers/etc.
April 2023 was the 34th month of Travel with a Wiseguy on YouTube. The first 25 months were a period of very slow growth where the BEST month had 27k views and 200 subscribers for the entire month. The past 9 months have been when the channel has been at a different level. For example, last month (April) was only the 7th best of those previous 9 in terms of views with 120k and around 600 subscribers. These YouTube channels go up and down in phases, so the worst months right now are about 5 times better than the best months a year ago. And the good months are 5 times better than that!
So, at the end of April, we had over 13,600 subscribers and 2.4 million total views. That’s a far cry away from July 2022 when those numbers were just 2,100 subscribers and 325k views.
I’m looking forward to continuing this journey and seeing where May will lead in terms of both geography and analytics! (I love both :) )
Recent travels – upcoming travels
I love visiting places like Nowhere. Even though it wasn't much of a community, it had an epic little tower and a great story as to how it got its name. The quirky nature of some of these places keep doing this channel so much fun. When I find out there is a place named something like Nowhere, I get excited just thinking about visiting - even if there is hardly anything there to see.
May will get a little more exciting as I’ll be going to Tampa, FL, for the American Athletic Conference Track & Field Championships next week. Two weeks later I’ll be in Sacramento, CA, for the NCAA Prelims. In between I’ll probably be on the road recruiting, but not sure where. Hopefully I can combine that with some small town exploring and adventure. I don’t plan to film any videos while in Florida or California – I’ll be focused on coaching.
Once June rolls around my coaching world slows down a bit. There are still some possibilities to travel for a meet or two, but mostly I’ll start doing more personal travel at that point.
Summer travel?
I’ve had a lot of people ask me where my big summer trip is going to be. I’ve only recently started thinking about it and I’ve got a couple ideas. I’m hoping next month I’ll be able to talk about it more as I’ve just had some initial thoughts. The track and field season is very time consuming and has dominated most of my mental and physical energy for the past several months. However, I’m definitely excited to get out on the open road this summer and I’m 90% confident it’ll be in the western half of the United States, with the exception of a possible trip to Ohio to see family and friends.
May video releases (for the diehards)
I always like to reward anyone who is interested enough to have continued reading this far!
Here’s what I have coming up on the channel …
Thu, May 4 – Kansas Ghost Towns #19 – Wabaunsee, Volland, Templin (released this week)
Sun,
May 7 – small town, USA – Waynoka, OK
Thu,
May 11 – Oklahoma Ghost Towns #9 – Avard, Hopeton, Capron
Sun,
May 14 – Exploring Wamego, KS, including the OZ Museum
Thu,
May 18 – Dead Woman’s Crossing – Weatherford, OK
Sun,
May 21 – small town, USA – Jet, OK
Thu,
May 25 – My 200th video – Q&A
Sun,
May 28 – small town, USA – Freedom, OK
Last month I totally changed what I had posted here, so we’ll see how this ends up.
Thanks again for all the support! Until next time, safe travels!
