My time in Vietnam is complete, but the channel is still in a larval state.

 alright, well It's been some time since I tried to post anything to this blog. Honestly, I'd forgotten I'd started it for a while. The lockdown technically ended, but many things did not reopen. Most importantly to me, schools. Before I was able to restart work and get a current contract offer from the school I was planning to work for in Hanoi, the automatic visa extension program ended. That meant that I had to get out of the country quickly. In fact, I was only given a week to leave. Considering land borders were closed, flights were scarce (they had only authorized a few flights to resume service), and the distance between Vietnam and the United States, I was not able to return to the US. That wasn't what I wanted to do anyway, but any option would have been preferable to what happened, which is that I overstayed my visa. That caused me to need to get an exit visa and a Cambodian visa (the cheapest flights were to Phnom Penh) just before the Tet holiday, the Vietnamese holiday celebrating the lunar new year.

So here I sit in a hotel room in southern Vietnam, about 2 1/2 hours outside of Ho Chi Minh City. It's been a month since they announced that the automatic visa extension program was ending and I've finally gotten flight, exit visa, entry visa tomorrow I'll go to get the PCR test, which is currently required to fly because of COVID-19. That should be the last step before my flight on Saturday to Phnom Penh Cambodia.

I started this blog to talk about the YouTube Channel I started, Untethered. That now seems like a downright silly concern, not that I'm not still trying to get the channel off the ground. In fact, this whole thing has provided quite a bit of content for the show. Both in terms of things to talk about and having traveled the country in an attempt to get together all the things I need to get out of Vietnam and into Cambodia. 

But what I really meant to talk about here is the channel's progress. Since I haven't posted in a while, there's been quite a bit. Scott is now the regular co-host. We've literally had only two other people call into the show and no one with any regularity. I'm hoping friends will want to join at some point, but I'm also aware that this just isn't everybody's cup of tea. I'm just a little surprised that it isn't anybody's. 

In any case, It does lead me to think that perhaps in the future I'll be in a position to have guests on the show that Scott and I can interview and who can educate us on what we're seeing and what we're doing. I suppose, given the nature of streaming, they could be anywhere but I'd like to find people in the places where we're at who are willing to join the stream. I think that will generally require an audience before it's worth their time, though, so that will have to be a development for some time in the future.

I believe I'm getting a bit better at using social media to draw in subscribers. I've got accounts on most of the major social media sites, including TikTok, which I generally see no use for at all, but the short format videos are perfect for one thing: food. Since I lake the screen presence or culinary expertise of someone like Anthony Bourdain, the only way I can really show what I'm eating without wasting the viewer's time is to literally just show it. Tiktok also makes it easy to pair that with whatever music is topping the charts wherever I happen to be when I make the video, which takes care of two important cultural elements that I am completely unqualified to try to educate people in food and music.

The short videos have been fairly successful so far. Currently, I'm making the video on TikTok, posting it, then re-posting it on Youtube shorts. Youtube Shorts has a subscribe option on the video, which is a great way to get new subscribers to the channel, even if it doesn't do much to increase view time. I'm already up to 43 subscribers. That's a small number, but it does mean that the channel is getting some exposure that it wouldn't be getting otherwise. More importantly, I'm documenting something about my travels that I really wouldn't be able to work into a live stream without blatantly exposing my ignorance in these matters.

A friend, Russ, called into the show for today's episode and two bits of obvious, but nonetheless spot-on advice:

1. Explain to the audience what we're seeing. I've been relying heavily on a bit of research I do before the episode and hoping to remember it during the stream. The truth is: I don't think that's working. As I'm already holding the camera and shooting, navigating the real world in various ways, operating the software, and doing what I can to hold up my end of the conversation, I may not also be able to remember facts, figures, dates, etc. Given this, I've begun sending PDF fact sheets (Wikipedia printouts, if I'm being honest) along with the show invite. I was hoping Scott would download them and provide me with interesting information about what I'm seeing as we go along. I'll provide updates on that as it develops.
2. Don't giggle when I ask for money. Or subscribers, or whatnot. It's so true. I'm still in the mode of wondering why anyone would want to watch this show or support my channel and I'm certain that's not the right attitude to have. My rational mind thinks what we're doing is a good idea. At least good enough to try. But there's still the voice in my head telling me that of course, it's going to fail and that it isn't worth trying. The rational mind has won out, but the darker thoughts are always there to sabotage what I'm doing if I'm not careful. Solution: ask viewers seriously to like, subscribe, and contribute to the channel. It's not a joke, and it really helps the channel. I need to learn to convey that.

Well, honestly, there's more to say about Scott but I'm not sure I have time for it all in this week's post. He's been enormously helpful and without his contributions, there really wouldn't be a show. There's more I'd like to ask of him, but he's already been so generous with his time that I'm not sure it would be appropriate to ask at this point. Furthermore, I'll soon (hopefully) be employed with a full-time job myself, so it may not be practical for me to dedicate much more than the two hours a week it takes to do the live streams, much less anything extra. At least until we get enough subscribers/ watch time to become monetized and pursue different revenue streams.

And that's really at the crux of all my current concerns about the channel. We need to get more viewers, more subscribers, and to do that, we need to produce more and better quality content. The secret isn't secret at all, but neither is it easy.

Getting it together

 I am writing this blog alongside my YouTube channel to document the channel's progress rather than to write about all the things I've seen and done. Now that may change over time, but I want to have an outlet for the challenges of getting the channel started so that I don't spend time talking about making a Youtube channel on the channel because that's not the most exciting aspect of travel. 

But before I get into all of that, I should mention what the channel has become. Initially, I wanted to do a travel vlog On YouTube. Still, as I tried to make new videos and explored what was already out there, it became apparent that the novelty of a travel vlog has worn off, so I'm hoping for a more interesting and exciting take, which is an integral part of making a good product. That is having my friends call in while I sightsee, try new foods, and do pretty standard travel show stuff. I'm not that interesting alone. I can shoot the video and pick and organize, but I'm not very much in front of the camera.

Conversely, I'm lovely when I'm talking to friends. Also, I have pretty good taste in friends, so most people I know are pretty interesting, fun people. I'm hoping I can get my friends to call into the show that we're making. What I'm doing is more of a cross between a travel vlog and a podcast. 

So there you go. That's it. That's the premise. The channel has shifted from being a guide to travel to a video podcast. I don't think I can add value to what's out there now. There are already good guides that help you see a place and get to know a place, from the most famous tourist sites to out-of-the-way places. There are also younger, prettier vloggers out there filling the screen with their faces and creating their videos with more experience and resources than I have at my disposal. The youtube video/podcast idea is an excellent alternative to a travel vlog or online travel guide. The concept of a video podcast intrigued me and made me excited about doing this. Hopefully, I can get friends to participate. Of course, we're not experts. But, podcasts are full of ordinary people who just did their homework on the topic. They get together with a friend and chat about their chosen subject. They talk, and you listen, and the only difference in mine is that the topic is travel, so it's very visual, which is why it's on YouTube. 

 So that's the premise. I certainly hope it works out 

 I wanted to start this blog about the experience of putting together the channel because it's difficult, and I want to have an outlet to blow off steam about the problems that I'm running into without filling the channel with that because the channel is about travel not making a YouTube channel. I'll bring you guys up to speed where I'm at right now:

I've had a personal YouTube channel for about ten years. Since I have lived in Asia, it's been a way for me to communicate things back to my friends and family and sometimes show them what exciting things I saw there. I often talked to the camera Vlog style, Updating on jobs, and whatever else was going on like visas, etc. recently, I started a different channel on YouTube to create this travel guide. I  started posting some videos while we were in lockdown, so I was splicing together old videos I'd taken while living in China and traveling around Southeast Asia. I made those into videos, and the next thing I did was to take some of the videos that I've taken since I've been here in Hanoi into some quick videos, which was fun. Still, it became apparent quickly that if I had a YouTube channel, I'd have to do more than that. I made efforts at individual posting, even though much of the city was still closed at the time.

Some things are still not operating as usual because we are currently in a pandemic. Nevertheless, it became apparent quite quickly that there is a limit to what I can do to make the videos more engaging. I can learn to edit.  I can get better at audio. But standing in front of a camera is not my forte. Most vloggers stand in front of the camera and make videos that aren't exciting either. They're 20 or 25 years old, so they can't imagine anything better than them, which is fine. Still, at my age, I look at myself in front of the camera and go, " Oh yeah, that's boring. Why would anyone want to watch that?" I don't want to produce something that I would not watch. So the current challenge is just getting people signed on with this. Most people I have talked to have been pretty willing. It's just a matter of getting it together and doing it. I'm hoping that will happen this week. I got a couple of friends scheduled, and I think I got the software issues resolved, but I'm sure if I don't, that's what I'll be talking about next week. Until then, wish me luck with this insane endeavor, and thanks for reading.