How I juggle being a track coach while building a YouTube channel

I’ve been super busy, so I haven’t been able to write a blog lately, so here’s the first one in a couple months …

10k subscribers

The channel has continued to grow steadily, and it cruised past 10,000 subscribers a couple weeks ago. I thought there might be a dip in growth, but it’s just been very consistent with slight ups and downs since December.

December was the best month the channel has ever had. How good was it?

In the month of December alone, Travel with a Wiseguy had 2,063 subscribers, 339,244 views, and 37,287 watch hours.

In January those numbers were slightly lower. 1,672 subscribers, 303,721 views, and 33,309 watch hours. Still really good, but not quite what December was.

I think the growth of YouTube channels vary widely depending on what kind of channel it is. Mine seems to have found an older audience that stumbles upon it gradually over time. It’s been very interesting and continues to be a humbling experience that so many people are watching me talk about these obscure places.

Recent videos and their ups and downs

Since my last blog on December 11, I’ve released 17 videos to varying levels of success. Obviously, I love when a new video finds a wide audience, but I don’t make videos trying to get views. I make videos that I personally find interesting, and I know some won’t get as many eyeballs as others – and I’m totally good with that.

The most successful video of those 17 was one I just published last week about the least populated county in the USA – Loving County, Texas. I wasn’t sure how this would do because I don’t have a large Texas following (yet). But it really caught on and got over 30,000 views in the first week (and gaining momentum every day).

Another one that did well was Missouri Ghost Towns Part 7 (around 10k views). Almost anything I put out there about Missouri does pretty well, because I’ve gained so many followers from the “Missouri Top-10 Smallest Towns” and “Missouri Route 66 Ghost Towns” videos. Those are the two most popular videos on my channel with both over 180k views.

On the other end of the spectrum are two videos, that only have around 1400 views each: “New Year’s in Luckenbach, Texas” and my walkthrough of an abandoned school in Gray Horse, Oklahoma. I thought the Luckenbach one might do better, but oh well it was still a very cool place and I had a blast that night! The school tour was an experiment where I released it on a random day without any announcements to see what would happen.

But to be honest, I had no idea if the Loving County video or Luckenbach video would be more popular. Interesting stuff.

I’m a week away from releasing my next “big video”, which will be the Top-10 Smallest Towns in Texas. The previous four versions of this (Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska) all rank in the top-5 most popular videos I have published. Will Texas follow the same pattern? I would think so. But maybe this time YouTube won’t like it. My bet is that it will do pretty well. I’m currently working on it, and I think it should be an interesting video. We’ll see what happens!

Juggling coaching track and YouTube

If you follow my YouTube channel, you might think I spend a majority of my time traveling around the country and editing videos. That’s actually the opposite of how I spend my days. I’d say 90% of my time and effort is put into my full-time job as a track and field coach at Wichita State University – where I’ve been since 2006. And from January until June it’s probably more like 98% of my time. In fact, I’m writing this as we travel back on a bus from a meet we just had in South Dakota.

For the first couple years of my channel, I tried to release one video per week. I could travel some in the summer and over the winter holidays filming for a couple weeks and have tons of footage available to edit over the course of the busy track and field months. The philosophy right now is the same, except I’m trying to do two videos per week. I’ve been able to keep up that pace since August, and we’ll see if I can keep it up until this summer.

Currently, I have shot enough video to get through about the end of March. Most of those were things I did in late December and early January when I was on vacation during the holidays. If I’m going to be able to continue with two videos per week, I’ll have to get on the road when I have a rare off weekend. Looking ahead at my schedule I do have a few of those weekends available. Being able to have a productive video shoot mainly depends on being at the mercy of mother nature. And if you’ve ever lived in Kansas in the Spring, you’ll chuckle at how unpredictable the weather can be for the next few months.

I definitely don’t want this to come off as complaining. Not at all! And keeping up with posting two videos isn’t that difficult – except for just being able to get out and shoot videos. I’ve gotten good at editing quickly and I rarely spend more than 5 hours per week on that process.

I’m very lucky to have two things (coaching and traveling) that I am able to do. There’s just not quite enough hours in the day to do both fully. So, track and field gets the nod – as that’s my full-time gig. And a great one at that!

Future videos (for the diehards)

I always like to reward anyone who is interested enough to have continued reading this far haha.

Here’s what I have coming up on the channel (subject to change of course – it always does) …

Sun, Feb 5 (today) – small town, USA – Moline, KS

Thu, Feb 9 – Arkansas Ghost Towns #2 – Rush, Newtown, McIntosh

Sun, Feb 12 – Top-10 Smallest Towns in Texas

Thu, Feb 16 – Kentucky Ghost Towns #2 - Paradise

Sun, Feb 19 – TBA

Thu, Feb 23 – Texas Ghost Towns #3 – Tarzan, Penwell, Langtry

Sun, Feb 26 – small town, USA – LaCenter, KY

Thu, Mar 2 – Nebraska Ghost Towns #5 – Venus, Wee Town, Ames

Sun, Mar 5 – small town, USA – Coldspring, TX

I’ve got some other stuff I’m thinking about, so this might change. And if I am able to get out and explore for a day or two, I might add some stuff to this as well. That’s why Feb 19 is TBA. I’m hoping to film something next weekend for that slot.

Thanks again for all the support! Hopefully this is interesting for some of you as I continue to navigate this path of growing a YouTube channel.

Until next time, safe travels!

Hitting YouTube Milestones and Upcoming Travel Plans

We’ve hit some major milestones on Travel with a Wiseguy recently …

1 million views

When 2022 started, you wouldn’t have been able to convince me this would happen by the end of the year. Here’s how the first three years of the channel have grown in terms of video views:

2020 – 26k

2021 – 131k

2022 – 890k (and growing)

There’s been a solid growth in the channel in the past month, so there’s a chance it hits 1 million by the end of the year for 2022 alone. This blows me away.

7,000 subscribers

Similar to above, here are how the subscribers have grown by year:

2020 – 146

2021 – 955

2022 – 6,050

It appears that subscribers = views, or views = subscribers (or both).

100,000 views for one video

I’ve seen a lot of YouTube channels with less success have videos go “viral”, but not be able to repeat it or sustain consistent growth. As you can see from above, the growth of this channel was very slow for a couple years, and I never had a video go viral. What did happen, however, is several videos saw increased traffic in the past 6 months, and this week I had my first video top 100,000 views. What is interesting is how others are close behind …

Top-10 Smallest Towns in Kansas – 100,299 views

Top-10 Smallest Towns in Oklahoma – 95,533 views

Top-10 Smallest Towns in Missouri – 94,316 views

Other top videos are:

Route 66 Missouri Ghost Towns – 63,263 views

Top-10 Smallest Towns in Nebraska – 44,754 views (released 4 weeks ago)

small town, USA – Galena, Missouri – 32,428 views (released last week)

Greenwood County, KS, Ghost Towns Part 1 – 20,765 views (released 6 weeks ago)

There are 13 more videos that have received between 10k-20k views.

Obviously, the Top-10 videos are the most popular (I’ve written about this previously). What is interesting beyond that is the variety of videos next on the list. I have no idea why the video about the small town of Galena (population 455) has done so well. I expected it to be like all the other videos of that type, which have received between 2k-11k views. Whenever I think I have YouTube figured out, it surprises me once again.

With all that being said, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who continues to watch these little videos. It’s very humbling to look at these numbers!

Upcoming travel plans

This week I’m headed to Denver, Colorado, for the US Track & Field Coaches Convention. I’ll be out there with other members of the Wichita State staff to talk about our sport, attend a variety of coaching seminars, and watch the presentation of the Bowerman Awards (Track and Field’s version of the Heisman Trophy). I won’t be filming any videos while I’m in Colorado, unfortunately, but it will be good to hang out with my colleagues in the track and field world.

Once I get back home from Denver, I’ll be in Wichita for a few days before driving east to Ohio for Christmas. Of course, I plan to take the scenic route along the way. My plan is to exit Kansas in the southeast corner, traverse through the southern part of Missouri, and then explore around the south and eastern parts of Kentucky. I may even dip into Virginia for a stop in one special town before heading north to Ohio. I’ll be in Ohio for several days spending the holidays with family.

Just before the new year, I’ll be flying from Ohio down to Texas where I will be trying to visit the 10 smallest towns in the state. I’m hoping to make some other interesting videos about the Lonestar State while I’m there, but it’s a huge state and I’ll be doing a massive amount of driving to get to the 10 smallest towns. Then I’ll be heading back to Wichita in early January to get ready for the indoor track and field season.

If you want to know more exact whereabouts, follow me on Instagram where I often put photos and videos on my story of where I’m currently located. My Instagram account is travel_wiseguy.

Upcoming videos (for the diehards)

Here is my tentative video release schedule for the rest of 2022 …

Sun, Dec 11 (today) – small town, USA – Fairfax, OK

Thu, Dec 15 – East Calico, AR

Sun, Dec 18 – small town, USA – Beaver City, NE

Tue, Dec 20 – Gray Horse, OK – abandoned school (this is a short 3 minute bonus video)

Thu, Dec 22 – Oklahoma Ghost Towns #7 – Sumner, Webb City, Gray Horse

Sun, Dec 25 – TBA (I’m hoping to film something next weekend in Kansas)

Thu, Dec 29 – My favorite ghost towns of 2022 (and a few from 2021)

I’ve got 4 ghost town videos I filmed previously that I’m going to release after the new year from Nebraska, Arkansas, and Missouri. And I’m still holding onto some footage from my trip to Bolivia in 2019 that I might release at some point.

Other than that, I’ll be doing a lot of filming between now and early January to be released in the first 3 months of 2023. I’ve been able to keep up the pace of 2 videos per week since August, but it takes a little more planning as compared to when I was doing one per week.

This will be my last blog post of 2022, hopefully my next one will be filled with information about cool stuff I saw in these upcoming weeks! Until then … happy travels!

Greenwood County likes the Wiseguy, and do I have a YouTube strategy?

Greenwood County likes the Wiseguy

Last month when I posted on this blog, I was about to release a couple videos of traveling all around Greenwood County, Kansas (population 6,016). That proved successful as this rural county and their ghost towns received over 35,000 views in a couple weeks.

While I continue to learn about how YouTube and its algorithm works, I never really know what will happen with a video. Generally, a lot of my followers are from Kansas, so those videos usually do well. But some of these videos are in such isolated and remote places it has to have some word of mouth for them to ultimately be successful. I received so many nice comments and emails from people who either currently live in Greenwood County, used to live there, or has family there. I think I got lucky by choosing a county that has so many ghost towns. Are there other Kansas counties that would be good to visit? I’m thinking “by county” might be a good way for some future videos.

Other videos released in the past month

I also released a couple of “small town, USA” videos from Nebraska and Iowa, and as expected they didn’t get as much traction as the earlier ones from Kansas. This doesn’t bother me (I’ll explain why below). I published a video about Nicodemus, Kansas, that I’m proud of. It’s not monetized because I used some copyrighted music, but I really loved how it complimented the last half of the video and I decided to keep it in there. It might cause me to not make a couple bucks, but at this point of my channel’s life that isn’t a priority. I received a nice message from the people who run their historic site about how thankful they were to get some positive attention for Nicodemus. Hopefully it motivates people to visit if they are ever heading out towards NW Kansas.

The longest video I released in the past month was the “Top-10 smallest towns in Nebraska”. This is the fourth video of this type I’ve released, and the first three (KS, OK, MO) are the three most popular videos on my channel. It has started out solidly and I’ve heard from a lot of appreciative Nebraskans. In terms of quality, I think it’s one of the best videos I’ve done (except for the darn audio in the final town).

Do I have a strategy for releasing videos?

As this YouTube thing is still a hobby, I don’t put a ton of thought as to how to grow the channel, but over time I have tweaked things to experiment with it. I can’t believe I now have over 6,000 subscribers and am approaching a million views since this started back in the summer of 2020. A lot of the success has been totally random, while some of it has been planned. I’d give it a 75%/25% random/planned ratio.

The first significant change I made was in the summer of 2021, where I decided to mostly focus on small towns, ghost towns, and the occasional road trip (which also focused on small towns). I noticed videos that strayed from these topics weren’t very popular (RIP slushie reviews), and my interest in the small town genre was what I wanted to focus on anyways.

The other significant “strategy” I’ve developed was totally by luck. I had released three of these “top-10 smallest towns” videos that did well, but nothing spectacular. They were all floating around 10,000 views, then they took off and one at a time got up to over 80,000 views in a couple months. The first one (Kansas) had been out for over a year before it took off. But not only did these videos go viral (at least for a small channel like mine), it raised up all the other videos that were geographically related. For example, when the Missouri top-10 video got all these views, all the Missouri ghost town videos I had previously released got way more views than normal. Same for Oklahoma and Kansas.

It makes sense now that I think about it, because why wouldn’t someone who's interested in the “popular” video click on similar ones about their home state?

So, if you’ve noticed recently, I’ve tried to release several videos about Nebraska ghost towns, small towns, and The Oregon Trail in Nebraska, as a ramp up to the Top-10 smallest towns in Nebraska video. I’m also working on a few other Nebraska ghost town videos in the coming weeks/months so there is a “library” of videos for people from the Cornhusker State. The hope is if the Top-10 video goes the same route as the previous ones that it’s a “rising tide lifts all boats” deal. It seems to already be working as the Nebraska Oregon Trail videos have become the most popular ones of that entire series.

Will it continue to work? Who knows. But it kind of makes sense, right?

Upcoming release schedule and travel plans - for the diehards

I really appreciate the growing number of people who are interested in what I’m doing, so I’m happy to share what I’ve got coming up with those who are really into it.  Here’s my plan for the next few weeks or so …

Sun, Nov 20 (tomorrow) – small town, USA – Yale, Oklahoma

Thu, Nov 24 – Wyoming Ghost Towns #2 – Miner’s Delight, Atlantic City, South Pass City

Sun, Nov 27 – small town, USA – Scribner, Nebraska

Thu, Dec 1 – Idaho Ghost Towns #2 – Chesterfield, Silver City

Sun, Dec 4 – ?????

Thu, Dec 8 – Nebraska Ghost Towns #3 – Kronborg, Nysted, Dannevirke

Sun, Dec 11 – ?????

I’ve filmed two videos for these Sunday releases that I put “?????” above, but I’m not sure if I want to publish them yet. I’m going to explore a little bit over Thanksgiving break (see below), and I might want to move something in there from where I’m going. I also have two more Nebraska ghost towns videos besides the one listed above, but I want to try and spread those out and sprinkle in other states in the coming weeks. Two other videos I’m thinking about is a “Favorite Ghost Towns of 2022” video at the end of the year (everyone loves end of year lists right?), and I’ve got footage from my 2019 trip to Bolivia that I’ve been holding onto forever. I previously released videos about Easter Island and Peru, and this would be the final video from that trip. Don’t know when I might do that one, but it’s there ready to begin editing.

I’ve got a few trips planned between now and January. The first one (later this week) is still a work in progress. I’ve been very busy with my full-time job coaching track at Wichita State, so I haven’t been able to plan much. But I’m hoping to take a few days and possibly explore into Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Not sure how much I will be able to do because I gotta get back to Wichita Saturday to see my buddy Cole Davis (Workin for the Wild on YouTube)!

I’ll be in Denver, Colorado, from Dec 12-17 for our national coaches convention. I don’t think I’ll be able to make any videos during that time, but it’ll be a nice trip.

Once I get back from Denver, I’ve got a big trip in the works. My current idea is to take a few days to drive to Ohio to see my family for the holidays. I haven’t figured out my route between Kansas and Ohio yet, but Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky are all possibilities. Once I get to Ohio I’ll be there for several days, so maybe I’ll film something while I’m “home”. I’d like to do a small town, USA video of Russellville, Ohio – the current home of my brother and where I went to junior high (the old school is still there).

Then on December 27 I’ll be flying to Houston, Texas, to spend a week exploring all around The Lone Star State. I plan to visit the smallest 10 towns and film several ghost town and small town videos along the way. Texas is a HUGE state, so we’ll see if I can get to all those places in a week. Should be fun to try!

Then I’ll be back in Wichita on January 3 to get ready for the indoor track and field season.

The best place to keep up with where I’m currently at is Instagram travel_wiseguy.

Ok I think that’s enough for now. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! Thank you for the continued support of Travel with a Wiseguy!

Wyatt Earp, small town USA, and mic problems

Here’s the latest on Travel with a Wiseguy!

We have climbed to over 5,400 subscribers and 750,000 total video views in the history of the channel. I never would’ve imagined this would grow to those numbers and I want to thank everyone for their continued support!

small town, USA

Two weeks ago, I started posting a new series of videos about small towns that aren’t ghost towns, and the response has been very good! I’ve only published two videos so far (Madison, KS, and Howard, KS) and they have received over 16,000 views already. I even got an email from the city clerk of Madison that sent her appreciation from the people of the town! People are generally proud of their small town they grew up in, and hopefully these videos continue to resonate with those communities.

You never know how a new video will go. I know that I have a pretty solid base of ghost town “fans” as well as an even larger base of viewers that watch anything I put out about Kansas. These new videos kind of combine that. I will be putting out “small town, USA” videos from other states in the coming weeks, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes (Here’s looking at you Butte, Nebraska).

Recent travels and mic problems

We just had our “Fall Break” at Wichita State, so I took a few days and traveled up to Nebraska. The goal of the trip was to visit the 10 smallest towns in the state (which I accomplished). I also visited a bunch of ghost towns and did some of the aforementioned small town, USA videos. The highlight of the trip was when I got to meet and interview Elsie Eiler, who is the only resident of Monowi, Nebraska. I rarely ask someone to do an interview and I was fortunate that she sat down with me and talked for 10-15 minutes. The bad part is for some reason the mic on my phone didn’t like something and much of the interview has a scratchy sound. I couldn’t believe it – this is basically the only interview I’ve ever done, and the mic screwed up (face palm). But I am hoping to salvage it enough to be part of the video, because she was great to chat with! I also bought a cool Monowi t-shirt from her. 😊

 Wichita’s Wild West past

1870's Wichita

Speaking of different kinds of videos, today (Sunday, October 23) I released a video about the early years of Wichita and when Wyatt Earp was roaming the streets in the 1870’s. I’ve always been fascinated with Wild West history and now that I live in Wichita I can literally walk to where a lot of those historic things happened! There aren’t many photos and videos from that time period, so much of this video is just me talking. Honestly, I hate that, but if you watch you’ll notice I try to put up what photos I could find, newspapers quotes, maps, etc. to take the focus off looking at me haha. I know some of the most famous YouTube personalities make themselves the focus of the videos (and often that is exactly what they need to do), but I hope my videos generally keep the focus on the topic I’m talking about. I just want to be a voice giving the information and showing videos I’ve made, but I have been told that it’s important to have a “connection” with the viewers (that sounds arrogant) to keep them coming back to watch more videos. I definitely never want to make this about me, because the history out there is so much more interesting!

Travel plans and future videos

While I was in Nebraska, I was able to get around to enough places to have footage for 10 future videos (see below). I have been thinking about a couple of short trips before the end of the year. I might take a day trip up to Cottonwood Falls, KS, and some interesting areas near there. Also, I might go down to Oklahoma for a day or two before the weather gets chilly. As I mentioned last month, I have a lot of ideas for late December/early January travel. Those are still up in the air. I might go to Denver for the US Track Coaches Convention in mid-December. I plan to go to Ohio for Christmas. I’d like to squeeze in a few days in Texas before returning to Wichita for track practice in early January.

If you are interested in keeping up with where I’m at, the best place to follow me is Instagram (Travel with a Wiseguy). Often, I’ll put some photos in the story of where I’m currently exploring.

Here is the tentative release schedule for the next few weeks (sometimes I change it on a whim):

Sun, Oct 23 (today) – Wichita’s Wild West Past/Wyatt Earp

Thu, Oct 27 – Greenwood County, KS, ghost towns Part 1 (14 towns and 1 bridge!)

Sun, Oct 30 – small town, USA – Butte, NE

Thu, Nov 3 – Greenwood County, KS, ghost towns Part 2 (13 more towns and 5 more bridges!)

Sun, Nov 6 – small town, USA – Hamburg, IA

Thu, Nov 10 – Nebraska Ghost Towns #2 – Amboy, Angus, Spring Ranch

Sun, Nov 13 – Top-10 Smallest Towns Nebraska

Thu, Nov 17 – Kansas Ghost Towns #15 – Nicodemus

Sun, Nov 20 – small town, USA – Scribner, NE

Thu, Nov 24 – Wyoming Ghost Towns #2 – Miner’s Delight, Atlantic City, South Pass City

Sun, Nov 27 – small town, USA – Beaver City, NE

Thu, Dec 1 – Idaho Ghost Towns #2 – Chesterfield, Silver City

That is the current plan through the end of November. It could easily change if I go for a short trip to one of the above mentioned places. I like to try and mix it up and not have to many videos from the same state all in a row.

I also have 3 Nebraska ghost town videos that I filmed and will release in December or later:

Nebraska Ghost Towns #3 – Kronborg, Nysted, Dannevirke

Nebraska Ghost Towns #4 – Sparks, Meadville, Brocksburg

Nebraska Ghost Towns #5 – Venus, Wee Town, Ames

That seems like enough for now. Thanks again to everyone for the support! Happy Travels!

 

Oregon Trail wrap-up, 6 tips for starting a YouTube channel, and a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

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.

I’m confident it’s the only series of it’s kind about The Oregon Trail on YouTube. There are plenty of videos about The Oregon Trail, but none with this kind of detail from beginning to end. I’ve received a lot of very positive comments about it, and I think it’ll live a good life on YouTube for years to come. I’ve already had several people tell me they are going to use it for their own Oregon Trail trip, whether it be the whole trail or just smaller sections.

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!

I did The Oregon Trail! And thoughts on the YouTube algorithm

It’s been a while since I have posted a travel blog, so I think it’s time for an update!

The Oregon Trail

I took a couple weeks to explore The Oregon trail in mid-July and it was as fun and educational as I had hoped! I am in the process of editing several hours of video down to an acceptable length to put on my YouTube channel. I am going to start rolling those out this week!

I’ve had a lot of people ask me what my favorite part was and what it was like. It’s really hard to pick one thing, because the totality of the experience is what really hits you. Realizing what those pioneers did over a course of 2000+ miles and 4-6 months is mind blowing. I hope I am able to give a reasonable account of the trail in the upcoming videos, because I just kept learning day after day about the places they traveled through.

I visited every possible location along the trail I could including hundreds of small towns and every historical landmark I could find. I also went off road a few times and drove as close to the original trail as I could. On three different days, I ended up having to turn around because the path I took either was a dead end or would’ve taken me into private property. One of the most treacherous drives took me deep into an Indian reservation (I had permission to drive through). When I was approached by a couple of natives who worked there, they couldn’t believe where I had gone and said I was probably the first person in a long, long time to actually drive that part of the original trail. It made sense because I encountered many animals that look at me funny and didn’t think they needed to move off the “road” haha.

Anyways, I’m hard at work combing through the footage so make sure to check out Travel with a Wiseguy for new videos each of the following 6 weeks or so.

While along the trail, I also stopped and filmed several ghost town videos in Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. I think I’ll have about 7 videos from across those states (see further below). There are SO many ghost towns along the way. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to stop and really explore all of them, but I tried to pick some really good ones for upcoming videos.

The YouTube algorithm

Hanging out in LaGrande, Idaho

While on The Oregon Trail, I was able to connect with Cole and Rachel Davis. Cole (former Friends University track coach) and Rachel (former on-air news reporter) have been living in a camper for two months and it was great to catch up with how their lives are going.

Rachel started a YouTube channel (Workin for the Wild) and has had tremendous success in a very short period of time. The number of subscribers and viewers quickly rocketed past what I have done (mostly because she’s way better at this than me haha). One of their videos went “viral” and currently has about 150,000 views in a very short period of time. That got us talking about how confusing it is to understand what the YouTube algorithm is and how it suggests videos. We all know how watching YouTube works and how there are always suggested videos based on what we’ve previously watched, but to have small channels like ours (comparatively to the huge YouTube channels out there), how do our little videos ever get suggested?

My channel had never really had that viral moment Rachel’s did. It just grew slow and steadily for the past couple of years. And then all of a sudden, this past week a video I released 8 months ago about the smallest towns in Oklahoma caught fire. It didn’t go crazy like Rachel’s video, but it’s had over 20,000 views in a few days. And the other thing is that it’s made virtually all of the other 100+ videos on my channel get significantly increased viewership as well. Obviously, we know how that works – you watch one video from a YouTube channel then if you like it you start down a rabbit hole that lasts for hours and eventually it’s 3am and you’re watching something totally unrelated to what you watched 6 hours ago!

This whole YouTube thing is a strange and interesting world. It’s fun to have another person going through a similar experience at the same time. I think Rachel’s channel will continue to explode because she’s so good at it. I can see them doing very well financially if they do it for the next few years. As for mine, we’ll see. I have a pretty niche topic of videos, but it seems a lot of people have interest and there aren’t many people doing videos like mine out there. I think there’s a fascination with our country’s history and as these small towns start to disappear, people seem to want to learn more and more about the subject.

I continue to enjoy it and it doesn’t take me away from my duties coaching track and field for Wichita State. Hopefully I can keep making interesting videos.

No Coast Film Festival

To my surprise, I had another video selected to be included in the No Coast Film Festival in Emporia, Kansas. It’s about one of the most fascinating historical events (in my opinion) in the city of Wichita. The Wichita Monrovians (the city’s premiere black baseball team of the 1920’s) played the KKK in a game. And yes, it’s as wild of a story as it sounds! Here’s the video if you are interested in what happened.

I found out about this game through a late night rabbit hole I took reading about Wichita sports history on the internet. I found out about this crazy Island Baseball Park in the middle of the Arkansas River and then how that incredible game was played there. It’s a story that has been told here and there around the city for years, but I didn’t think it ever got the attention it deserved. So, I was glad to make this video, and I’m glad it will get a wider audience being part of the film festival. I also submitted it to a bigger film festival, but I doubt it will be accepted. Usually, they don’t accept films made exclusively on an iPhone by a total amateur haha.

Upcoming video release schedule (for the diehards since you’ve read this much so far)

I filmed so much stuff on The Oregon Trail I’m kind of struggling to figure out how to release it. My original plan was to do like past road trips where I did one state at a time, but I have too much footage and some of these states would end up being like 45 minute videos. My longest video ever has been 30 minutes and I feel like that’s a lot to ask of someone to watch. I know how I get when I watch YouTube, and anything that long has to be really good.

So, here’s what I have coming up starting this week and it’s very tentative …

Mon, Aug 8 – Oregon Trail – drone footage

Thu, Aug 11 – Oregon Trail Missouri

Thur, Aug 18 – Oregon Trail Kansas 

Thur, Aug 25 – Oregon Trail Nebraska Part 1

Mon, Aug 29 – Oregon Trail Nebraska Part 2 (includes a short section of Colorado)

Thur, Sept 1 – Oregon Trail Wyoming (If I need to split it up, Wyoming Part 2 would be the following Monday)

Thur Sept 8 – Oregon Trail Idaho (same as Wyoming if I need to split Idaho into 2 videos)

Thur Sept 15 – Oregon Trail Oregon (same as Wyoming and Idaho for Part 2 if necessary)

Once I get done with The Oregon Trail series, I have these videos to publish in no particular order:

--Kansas Ghost Towns Part 12 – Morse, Bonita, Lanesfield

--Nebraska Ghost Towns Part 1 – Steele City, Belvidere, Paulina, Roscoe

--Wyoming Ghost Towns Part 1 – Miner’s Delight, Atlantic City, South Pass City

--Idaho Ghost Towns Part 1 – Chesterfield, Silver City

--Idaho Ghost Towns Part 2 – Grasmere (trying something different with this one)

--Oregon Ghost Towns Part 1 – Lime, Sumpter, Cecil, Bridal Veil

--Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska

Those are enough videos to get me to mid-November. In October I would like to return to Nebraska and do the Top-10 Smallest Towns in Nebraska, as well as get some more ghost towns from the Cornhusker State. I have several other Kansas ghost towns I want to visit when I have time too. We’ll see!

Ok that’s enough for today. Hopefully everyone has had a great summer! Happy travels!

Planning for The Oregon Trail, Friends Living on the Road, and Upcoming Videos

I’ve had a few people ask how they can support my YouTube channel financially.

Since I have a full-time job, I’m not “in need” of making money on YouTube, but I have set up an Amazon Affiliate Program account. It’s a way to help the channel make money without spending any more than you normally would.

Here’s how it works: Go to any of my videos and click on the description. It will have links to products I use to make videos. Click on any of those links (you don’t have to purchase them), and then buy any other products from Amazon. I get a small commission on whatever you buy (usually 4%). So, if you buy $100 of Amazon products, I’ll get $4 for the referral.

Please don’t feel any pressure to do this, but if you like my content and want to contribute, this would be the best way for now. In the future I may try some other ways to generate revenue, but nothing at the moment. Thank you for any support you give!

Planning for The Oregon Trail

I am planning to drive The Oregon Trail (in a car) in July. Since it’s not an actual road, it’s been a challenge to figure out exactly where the route goes. There is an official road trip route you can take, but often it stays on highways and bypasses many of the small towns I’m usually most interested in.

So, I’ve begun to map out my own route that goes as close to the original Oregon Trail as possible, passing through every little town or community along the way. I’m definitely excited to get the trip started and try to experience some of the views of nature the pioneers did.

Where exactly does The Oregon Trail go?

The Oregon Trail starts in Independence, MISSOURI (just east of Kansas City). The trip through Missouri is very short before entering Kansas south of Kansas City. In KANSAS, it goes through Lawrence and Topeka before heading north to Nebraska. Once in NEBRASKA, you’ll head northwest until you hit Kearney and I-80. You basically follow I-80 west until Ogallala before heading northwest to Scotts Bluff, which is almost to WYOMING. You continue northwest in Wyoming until you reach Casper. From there it is a west and southwest journey through very sparely populated areas for the rest of the state. From what I can see, there aren’t very many drivable roads in that area, so you have to go around where the pioneers went. The trail enters IDAHO through the southeast corner and heads northwest to Pocatello and then west to Boise near OREGON. Once in Oregon, you go straight north to Pendleton before going west to The Dalles. Here there are multiple ways to finish the trip into Oregon City.

What took the pioneers 4-6 months, I will do in 2 weeks.

I’m also planning some side trips along the way and have already spotted some potential ghost towns in each of the states. For me, one of the most enjoyable things is doing research on a bunch of possible places so I have a little knowledge before I arrive. Then once I’m there I can fully appreciate the areas a little more because of that knowledge. Should be a fun adventure!

Cole and Rachel living on the road

A couple of my friends, Cole and Rachel, recently decided to buy a camper and live on the road for the next several months. Cole used to be the head track coach at Friends University in Wichita, and we frequently chat about traveling. I’m definitely jealous! They also make YouTube videos, so make sure to check out Working for the Wild to see their adventures!

Upcoming videos

I’m almost to the end of the videos I filmed months ago. I’ve edited all but one, so that means I need to get back on the road soon! The track and field season has been very busy, and I haven’t been able to do much. That’s why I film so much in advance and release them once week at a time.

Here’s what I’ve got coming up:

June 9 – Kansas Ghost Towns #10 – Bloom, Lexington, Sitka, Englewood

June 13 – Bonus Drone Video – Wichita State University

June 16 – Red Oak II, Missouri - The town that's an incredible art project

June 23 – Missouri Ghost Towns #5 – Hematite, Goldman, Mineola

June 30 – Kansas Ghost Towns #11 – Aetna, Sun City, Lake City, Mingona

July 7 – Missouri Ghost Towns #6 – Bacon, Old Franklin, Lock Springs, Far West

That’s all of the videos I’ve filmed that haven’t been released yet. These are all tentative dates. As I film new projects, I often switch around the release dates. For example, The Missouri Ghost Towns #5 and #6 are only two weeks apart. I might put something else in there to spread out the geography.

I really enjoyed making the two Kansas Ghost Town videos. Englewood and Sun City are very interesting places to visit. And at the end of the KS GT #10 video, there is some rare bonus footage of yours truly.

I’m making a quick trip to Ohio for a family reunion in two weeks. There are a few places I’m wanting to make videos about during that trip. If so, I’ll release them in July. One other video I’m trying to do is a story about the Wichita Monrovians (black baseball team) and a game they played in 1925 against the KKK. It’s a fascinating story that happened right here in Wichita!

No matter what I do or where I go, I’m definitely looking forward to the summer and finding some interesting places I’ve never been. Hopefully you’re doing a lot of the same! Happy Travels!