WORDS WITH A WISEGUY 11!
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SINCE LAST TIME …
… I’ve posted a bunch of videos about Alaska. Depending on when you read this, I’ve probably posted either 9 or 10 videos about “The Last Frontier.” I have 2 more (11 in total). Tomorrow (Sunday) will be about the unusual and very remote town of Chicken, and then Curt is editing a video for Tuesday about my drive on The Top of the World Highway.
It seems as though the videos have been generally well received, although as expected none of the videos have been super popular. I’ve been doing this long enough to have a pretty good idea of how popular a video might be. And whenever I do a video (or series of videos) about a new geographical location, I know it will take a while for them to catch on.
TYPES OF VIEWERS
To continue on this topic in a different way, I feel as though there are three types of viewers of my YouTube channel.
1) Consistent and fairly loyal subscribers. If you have subscribed to this newsletter, you probably fall into this category. I am so thankful there are people who watch whatever I post, because they feel confident, they will enjoy it.
2) Viewers who watch based on their own interests. This is me for how I generally watch YouTube. I do have people I follow and watch consistently, but usually I watch any random channel if it’s a video I might like. For a channel like mine, this would mean if you’re from Missouri you’ll be way more likely to watch a video about Missouri than Alaska.
3) Viewers with no connection to my channel but watch a video that gets suggested by YouTube. I’m sure we’ve all been there before and felt like the YouTube algorithm did a good job suggesting a video from someone I’ve never seen before.
HOW DID THIS AFFECT THE SUCCESS OF A VIDEO?
YouTube makes money from you watching videos with ads on them. They share that 50/50 with the creators. So, obviously, they want to suggest videos they think will get more clicks so they will make more money. A video first gets sent out to the most loyal viewers who have notifications turned on. If the video gets viewed by that group, then its gets pushed out to other subscribers who might not be as loyal of a fan. If that is deemed successful, then it will start to suggest it to non-subscribers who may have watched some of my videos previously but don’t subscribe. And if that is successful, then YouTube will start putting it out there to see if people who aren’t familiar with the channel likes it.
Let’s take 2 different videos and compare. First let’s take my No Man’s Land Oklahoma video I published in June vs my Driving to the Arctic Circle in Alaska video I put out a few weeks ago. I published these videos at the same time (Sunday at 7am). It’s pretty much guaranteed the first 2-3 hours will have the same number of views, because there is a core of viewers who enjoy getting up and watching my videos on Sunday morning (you all are awesome). Around 10am I’ll either notice the video gets more views, the same views, or less views. The No Man’s Land video started getting way more views. The Arctic Circle video stayed about the same. So that means both videos got suggested to other subscribers and those viewers were more interested in Oklahoma than Alaska (which is predictable, because I have more Oklahoma subs). Later in the same day the No Man’s Land video got even more views, because YouTube found it to be something they could make money on, and they were right. This means it was suggested to non-subscribers. And the Alaska video just kind of stayed at a steady level of views all day, because YouTube didn’t see as much value promoting it. The real sign of how it’s going is the following day. If the video is doing well, it’ll continue that upward trajectory on Monday, or it will pretty much only get a few views here and there. This is how No Man’s Land has over 120k views and the Arctic Circle has 5k.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL
Ok you’re probably tired of me talking about this, because I’m definitely getting into the weeds. But this is why you signed up right? Haha.
Here’s the last part of the equation that takes time to sort out. Once a video has gone through the steps I described above, it goes for the rest its life getting a small amount of views. But on rare occasions a video catches fire several months after the initial publishing. Maybe a new audience finds it and starts sharing it. Maybe YouTube realizes it can be suggested to a different audience (usually geographical). Take for example my video about the 10 Smallest Towns in Florida I released in early March. It had a similar trajectory to the Arctic Ocean video, mostly because it was part of a series of Florida videos (an area I hadn’t done before). But then about 3 months, the 10 Smallest Towns of Florida video took off and is now the fourth most watched video on my channel ever. People who live in Florida started finding it, sharing it, and YouTube started recommending it more. Also, other videos from Florida started getting hits because they were being found by Floridians because of the smallest towns video. Now I have a core of fans from Florida that didn’t exist last year (I know because they ask me to come back to make more videos).
With ALL that being said, who knows what will happen with these Alaska videos. Maybe people from Alaska will eventually find them or maybe not. Either way I’m glad I went there and did them – it was a blast! And the loyal fans of this channel seemed to like them too. I will always make videos I find interesting, whether I think they will be popular or not.
MOST RECENT TRIP
After I got back from Alaska, I spent a week in Wichita before going on another trip. I flew to Minnesota and hung out with friends for 3 days in the town of Mora, then took the scenic route back to Kansas. I spent a night in Wisconsin visiting the original capital of the Wisconsin Territory. Then I spent 3 days driving all around Illinois finding the 10 smallest towns. Then I spent a couple days in Missouri and Iowa exploring some interesting places. All of these videos will start rolling out beginning this Thursday (6 videos in total).
ME, ME, ME!
Kansas! Magazine did a nice feature on the channel. Thanks to Ryan Coody for the article! I posted some screenshots of the article here, but you can also go on their website to order the magazine too.
WHAT’S NEXT?
School is starting this week at Wichita State, so I’ve been busy getting ready for that (I’m a track coach) and haven’t traveled for two weeks. But I plan to get back out on the road next weekend, likely going to Elk County, Kansas. I’m also tentatively planning to visit Texas County, Oklahoma, the following week to continue my series on the panhandle counties that were originally called No Man’s Land. Texas County is much larger in population (21k) than most places I visit, so I’m trying to figure out how to explore that one.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS!
Thanks for reading all my ramblings about how YouTube works!
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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