Before I get to recapping December as well as the entire year of 2023, I’ve got a couple exciting announcements about the channel!
NEW WEBSITE
If you’re reading this then you’re on the new website. It’s not much to look at right now, but I will be working on it periodically with a lot of other stuff besides a blog. I was a web designer way back when the internet was just getting started, so I’ve always wanted to create a website and now I have an excuse.
MERCHANDISE
Another big announcement is that I finally have some Travel with a Wiseguy merchandise available! Having a full-time job has made this endeavor almost impossible, but I got some help from one of my former athletes Nerea Quiros aka Mimi :) And now we have made public the first design for t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and stickers. These are all items that have been requested in the past, so I figured I’d start there.
This is a “soft opening” so to speak, and there are plans for a lot of other non “Wiseguy” stuff like your favorite ghost towns, small town USA’s, etc. But I wanted to try this out on a smaller scale first and work out the bugs before expanding too quickly.
As with anything new, I’m sure there will be issues. And the prices are what they are because I’m going through a print-on-demand company. I’m not pricing these items to make a ton of money, but hopefully it’ll cover the expenses associated with the merchandise and website (which aren’t free haha). If you have any issues please email me directly jwise@goshockers.com.
EMAIL/NEWSLETTER
One more “new” thing to start the year is I’ll be doing a regular email/newsletter for anyone interested in more content. It’ll be a shorter version of this blog, and hopefully a little more often. I still plan to do this monthly blog as well for any non-subscribers. As being part of this email list, you’ll be the first to hear about everything to do with the YouTube channel. There is a link at the top of this page to sign up. It’s totally free :)
DECEMBER RECAP
The end of the year means two things for me. The first is our semester at Wichita State is ending, and the second is I’m going to be on the road for a couple weeks.
As I’m writing this, I’m finishing up a trip that took me from Kansas to Missouri, Illinois (very briefly), Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia (even more briefly), and Florida. The main purpose of the trip was to meet up with my family in Key West – mission accomplished. Taking the scenic route there and back, I ended up getting footage to make 15-18 videos (depends on how I end up editing them). I’ve already released two of them (US 50 through Missouri). That means I’ll be releasing videos from this trip through the middle of March while I get busy coaching during the indoor track season at Wichita State.
It was another very solid and interesting month on the channel in terms of viewership. I sound like a broken record, but trying to predict what YouTube’s algorithm likes is impossible. But it does appear I have a lot of fans from Texas, and usually when there’s a new Texas video it does well. That was the case at the beginning of the month when I published a video about King County, which is the 3rd least populated county in the US. It didn’t go as viral as last year’s Loving County video (least populated county in the US), but it did very well. And then I followed that up with three more Texas videos that did well too. I filmed those over the Thanksgiving break, and I still have four more videos from that trip I plan to release in January/February.
The US 50 videos about Missouri did well too, but since they were just released it’s too early to know how popular they’ll be. And my final video of the year recapped my favorite ghost towns of 2023. This was a fun way to end last year, so I did it again. It’s always good to reflect back from time to time, and it was very difficult to narrow this list down to 10!
The December stats on Travel with a Wiseguy were: 192k views and 615 subscribers.
That brings the grand total to: 4 million views, 19.5k subscribers! WOW!!!
For those of you who are really into the numbers, the top-5 viewed videos for the month of December were:
1. King County, Texas - 35,984 views
2. Dicken County, Texas Part 1 - 14,127 views
3. 10 Smallest Towns in Texas - 13,787 views
4. Dickens County, Texas Part 2 - 6,974 views
5. Behind-the-scenes exploring Iowa - 6,337 views
God Bless Texas :)
2023 IN REVIEW
I’m still amazed at how this channel continues to grow, and we are closing in on 20,000 subscribers. The best way for me to show this is to show how the channel has done statistically since the beginning in terms of views and subscribers.
2020 – 12,466 views … 144 subscribers
2021 – 144,303 views … 1,092 subscribers
2022 – 1,137,580 views … 7,497 subscribers
2023 – 2,693,953 views … 10,908 subscribers
I thought 2022 would be difficult to match, but as you can see, 2023 more than doubled the views and significantly increased the subscribers. I mentioned Texas earlier, and as you can see below the top two videos of the year were about Texas. But as you look further down the list, you’ll see videos from a lot of different states. There seems to be more people from all over the country finding the videos.
Top-20 videos of 2023 (views)
1. 10 Smallest Towns in Texas – 434,115
2. Loving County, TX – 353,268
3. Missouri Route 66 Ghost Towns – 154,069
4. 10 Smallest Towns Missouri – 114,165
5. 10 Smallest Towns Arkansas – 109,436
6. 10 Smallest Towns Oklahoma – 53,968
7. 10 Smallest Towns Kansas – 43,947
8. 10 Smallest Towns Nebraska – 41,369
9. King County, TX – 35,988
10. Zinc, Arkansas – 35,220
11. No Man's Land Oklahoma - 29,444
12. Oregon Trail Eastern Idaho – 29,179
13. Cairo, Illinois – 22,771
14. Oklahoma Route 66 Ghost Towns – 20,346
15. Western Oklahoma – 19,330
16. Greenwood County, KS Part 1 - 16,999
17. Route 66 Missouri - 16,823
18. Missouri Ghost Towns Part 7 - 16,613
19. Route 66 Oklahoma - 15,864
20. Linn County, KS Part 1 - 14,791
What is very interesting to me is that videos I released back in 2000 (Route 66 Missouri, Route 66 Oklahoma, Western Oklahoma) are still getting this many views! Thank you to everyone who continues to support the channel. It’s been a fun 2023 and I’m looking forward to an even better 2024!
UPCOMING JANUARY RELEASES (for the diehards)
I like to reward anyone who is interested enough to have read this far :)
Speaking of 2024, here is what I’m planning to release in the next month. As always, this is a very tentative schedule, but here’s an idea of what I have coming up …
Thu, Jan 4 – Looking ahead to 2024
Sun, Jan 7 – Christmas in Key West
Thu, Jan 11 – Kentucky Ghost Towns Part 4 (Blandville, Lovelaceville, Lowes)
Sun, Jan 14 – Tennessee State Route 13
Thu, Jan 18 – Unusual Town Names - Alabama
Sun, Jan 21 – Three Notch Road - Missouri
Thu, Jan 25 – small town, USA - Aspermont, TX
Sun, Jan 28 – Daytona Beach & Road Course Raceway
Until next time, safe travels!
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