WISEGUY WANDERINGS 9!
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SINCE LAST TIME …
Wow it’s been a crazy time on the YouTube channel. On July 2 I announced that we’re moving to 3 videos per week (with help from Curt Rierson), we created a membership option, introduced my Google Maps page with links to all the videos I’ve done across the country, and released some new merchandise!
And today I’m about to head to the airport and fly to Alaska! (more about that below)
JUNE RECAP – WHAT A MONTH!
June 2024 was without a doubt the biggest month in the history of the YouTube channel. There were over 750k views and 3,477 new subscribers – just incredible. There were also 417k unique viewers to the channel, which means a lot of new people are finding these videos.
Why did this happen in June? I think it was a combination of 4 things:
1) The 10 Smallest Towns in Florida video that I released 4 months ago finally found it’s audience. Sometimes these videos take a while to flourish, and this was a “new” state for me to explore this year. It had over 130k views in June and has continued to do well in the first week of July.
2) My series on No Man’s Land has done very well. I thought it might connect with the audience, but you never know until you put it out there. The 4 videos from that area got 118k views in June. The first video where I did the hike to Black Mesa and told the history of No Man’s Land had 61k itself.
3) Dead Malls. This was totally surprising. I did two videos about dead malls in Wichita and Hutchinson, KS. This just goes to show that trying something different can pay off. So far, those two videos have combined for 126k views. I enjoyed making them so now I’m keeping an eye out for new places. In fact several people suggested Salina, KS, in the comments and I stopped by there on the way home from a trip. While it looks like it’s headed towards dead mall status, it just didn’t seem like it was there yet, so I decided not to film it.
4) The power of the rabbit hole. Have you ever gone down a YouTube rabbit hole and ended up watching more videos that you ever imagined? I’ve found that when new people find this channel (and like it), they end up watching several other videos right away. I noticed all of a sudden videos I released 3 to 6 months ago started getting thousands of views. Many of the Florida videos, that previously had not received very many views, started doing well. Same with other geographical areas relating to Oklahoma and especially Tennessee and Alabama.
After all of that, the channel now has 29,000 subscribers and has hit over 6 million views – wow! Thank you to everyone - from the people who have been here since 2020 to the newbies just finding the channel recently. Your support is incredibly appreciated!
THE NEW STUFF
Above I mentioned all the new stuff on the channel beginning July 2. How’s that going so far you might ask? Let’s take them one at a time:
1) 3 videos per week. This is something I talked with Curt about for a long time, and it’s exciting that it’s now coming to fruition. We want to be clear that the Tuesday videos are going to be different and totally random. Usually it will be more of an interview or behind-the-scenes piece, but we’ve also got other things that don’t fit into a “box” or topic. Curt came up with a great name for it called “Off the grid”. I like that a lot. Most of my travel videos are from off the grid places, but Tuesday is going to be off the grid from that :) We’re taking a bit of a chance by doing this, because the YouTube algorithm will have no clue what to do with these videos, but now that we have a larger audience I’m less concerned about the algorithm and more concerned with doing things that both myself and you might enjoy. The overwhelming response from the people that matter (you) has been very positive, so I hope you enjoy the “Off the grid” Tuesday videos!
2) Memberships. I’m very excited that we’ve had 22 people become members in the first 4 days of offering memberships either on Patreon or YouTube. What this does is help the channel have a base of financial support that doesn’t depend on how many views each video gets (which is normally how income happens). June was a great month, but it’s likely there will be down times too, so having that support is really terrific and helps me travel to more interesting places. And for those who are members of the top 2 tiers, they are going to receive a lot of cool behind-the-scenes videos and other goodies. I think it’ll be a lot of fun for those who are interested and able to become members. Thank you so much!
3) Google Map. This is something I have been working on for months, and I was very excited to get it done and share it with you. And from the response it has been worth it. This little map has received over 2,000 views since I put it up Tuesday. Hopefully it will help many have their own little adventures, and I look forward to adding to it over and over again!
4) New merchandise. As I mentioned in the video, I worked with a former athlete of mine Nerea (Mimi) Quiros on these. She came up with the initial Travel with a Wiseguy design, which I really loved. She came up with these two new designs for ghost towns and the death-go-rounds. The ghost town items are a no brainer, since it has been a huge part of the channel since the beginning. But the death-go-round idea cracks me up. I started including the old playground equipment found in many small towns in the outtakes of several videos and the comments from you have been hilarious! This is the “inside joke” of the channel, so if you see anyone with a death-go-round t-shirt you’ll know where it came from :) Merchandise sales have always been slow, but we understand because the items are priced so high. Unfortunately with a print-on-demand company it is what it is. For example for a $25 t-shirt we make about $5. We could charge more, but I think $25 is plenty expensive. And we didn’t start this part of the channel to make a bunch of money anyways. Hopefully you like the new designs, and we’ll continue to add more as time goes!
OFF TO ALASKA!
In my last newsletter I talked about some of my plans while in Alaska from July 6-17. I’m hoping I can pull these off, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’m flying into Fairbanks tonight, which is currently dealing with a bunch of wildfires in the area. I’ve been following it closely and I think the worst happened last week. But there are still many fires as we speak. I think wildfires are fairly common in Alaska, but obviously it’s a cause for concern. Monday I’m planning to drive from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay (at the top of the state), and the early parts of the drive go right through where some of the biggest fires have been. Fingers crossed. The second part of my trip is visiting the smallest incorporated town in the state – Kupreanof. It has been very difficult getting in touch with anyone from there, but I did finally get a message back from the city clerk saying I am welcome to visit. That’s good, but I still have no idea how I’m going to actually get to the town, which is across a body of water from the city of Petersburg. I have a feeling it will all get worked out as I have probably spoken to a dozen people in Petersburg who are trying to help me :) The final part of the trip will be driving from Fairbanks over to Dawson City, Canada. I’ll be staying a night in Chicken (yes that’s an actual town) and driving along the Top-of-the-World Highway. Needless to say, I’m really excited to get on this plane and get the trip started!
Q&A
Q: What is your rule of thumb on driving your own vehicle versus renting a vehicle? Obviously, when you fly you have to rent a car. But what about your road trips when you’re driving out from Wichita? - Jan
A: I have a 2012 Ford Fusion, so I don’t take it on any trips where I feel like I’m going to be on some serious backroads - which is most trips :) So unless it’s more of a local area or if I know I’m going to be on paved roads the whole time, I usually rent. Fortunately YouTube has allowed me to afford it lately. My next significant purchase, however, is going to be something like a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Because when I do something like a 2 week-long trip, it can get pretty expensive to rent a quality SUV.
If you have anything you want to know, send to jwise@goshockers.com and I’ll try to answer them next time!
FOR THE DIEHARDS
I’ve finished editing some videos that I will post while I’m in Alaska. There will be 3 videos about Lane County, Kansas – the third least populated county in the state. I also have a “small town, USA” video about Blue Rapids, KS, coming out in 2 weeks, as well as a ghost town video from that same area. For the new Tuesday videos, I interviewed Olympian Paula Garcia (who I used to coach) recently and you’ll see that this week. I’m also going to re-release my Route 66 trip from 2020 in its entirety with a new introduction. I got this advice from Traveling Robert, who releases his road trips by section and then does a “movie” so to speak afterwards, because often people like to watch it that way. After all those videos I’ll start releasing stuff from this Alaska trip beginning July 25!
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
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 (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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