WORDS WITH A WISEGUY 13!
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THE PAST THREE WEEKS …
… I have been out of town twice. I went back to Elk County for a second time to finish up some filming that I am currently in the middle of releasing. And then I went up to the Manhattan/Topeka/Lawrence area for a couple days. I went to hang out with my friend Brent, who lives in Wamego, but I also decided to film three places.
The first video I shot was the West Ridge Mall in Topeka. I’ve done a few “Dead Mall” videos, and I was suggested Topeka by a lot of folks! It was very unusual. The West Ridge Mall is large, and while there were plenty of stores open, there were a bunch closed. I would put it at around 40% capacity maybe. So it’s not totally dead but heading that way. And right at the end of filming I had a security guard come up to me and tell me to stop filming. Oops. Oh well, I think it’ll make for an interesting video and the mall people might not be happy about it!
Then I decided to make a video driving from Lawrence (KU) to Manhattan (K-State) on the backroads north of I-70. I thought this might be a fun way to explore around places when you go back and forth to a sporting event between the rival schools. I found a lot of interesting places that should make for an entertaining video.
The final place I went was Lecompton – the territorial capital of Kansas before it became a state. One of my coworkers is from Lecompton so I’ve known about it for a while. I got to sit down with one of the local historians who came dressed in an 1860’s territorial outfit! I learned a lot more about the unique history of this very small town!
HOW MUCH DOES YOUTUBE PAY?
I’m not going to go into details about how much I’m making from YouTube here (that is always an awkward conversation). But I wanted to explain a little behind the scenes of how it works and why YouTube seems to be paying more money (at least to me) at this time of the year.
I get a lot of questions about what the process for making money is on YouTube. The minimum requirements are for your channel to have 1,000 subscribers and 400 watch hours. It took me over a year to reach these numbers. Then you can apply for monetization and get accepted. Once you are monetized you share the ad revenue with YouTube 50/50. And it works out to around a penny per view. It can be half that rate or double that rate depending on the video and time of year. So if you’re wondering, you can look at how many views a video has an estimate how much that particular video has made. A video with 10,000 views on my channel has made about $100.
YouTube is like any other business and generates more ad revenue at different times of the year. Right now is a particularly high rate. I’m guessing there is a lot of money going into YouTube because of the upcoming elections. The last couple months of the year are always good because of the holiday season. Put those together and right now is a very good time to have a YouTube channel.
On the other hand, when January rolls around the rate drops dramatically. Last year I saw the rate drop from about a penny per view to 0.3 of a penny per view for a couple months. That video I mentioned with 10,000 views making $100 will only make $30-$40 in January/February. A lot of creators use those early months for videos that might not be as popular, because why waste a lot of views and not make much money? Personally, I don’t think of it like that and continue to release videos as normal, but I understand the strategy.
MEMBERS ONLY ZOOM THIS WEEK
For paid members at the producer ($5) and executive producer ($10) level, I’ll be doing a live Zoom call this Friday at 7pm Central. It’s my first time doing this, and it should be fun! If anyone wants to participate, make sure to sign up before Friday!
UPCOMING TRAVEL
I’m going to Hawaii! I’ll be leaving on a family vacation for Hawaii Oct 9th and spending a week in the Aloha State. I don’t plan to do a lot of filming for YouTube, but I’m sure I’ll come back with a few videos to edit. It’ll be my 50th state. I’ll be there for my 50th birthday. Hawaii was the 50th state. And … Hawaii 5-0. It all just makes sense :)
FOR THE DIEHARDS (Spoiler alert)
For those of you who read all the way to the bottom, here are the upcoming videos on the channel for the next 3 weeks (tentative):
Tue, Oct 1: Interview – Kevin Barbaro (Actor)
Thu, Oct 3: Elk County, KS – Part 2
Sun, Oct 6: Lawrence to Manhattan on the backroads
Tue, Oct 8: Interview – Josh McNair (Through My Lens on YouTube)
Thu, Oct 10: Belmont, WI
Sun, Oct 13: Lecompton, KS
Tue, Oct 15: TBA
Thu, Oct 17: West Ridge Mall, Topeka, KS
Sun, Oct 20: Sedgwick County, KS – Part 1
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
Thanks for reading all my ramblings!
If you enjoy my channel and want to help it grow, feel free to share videos to your friends and/or family! I also have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter/X (Instagram is probably the best to follow). Oh yeah buy some merch! (but only if you want)
Thanks for all the support and we’ll see you down a backroad!
John Wise
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