Tag Archives: YouTube

Great News for Returning Citizens


Walking out prison doors after an extended period poses many challenges, including the need to find employment and health insurance. Many states may offer programs to help returning citizens but some of the assistance is minimal.

Disclaimer: The following is not a suggestion to buy or purchase any product or service, even though I am an affiliate marketer. Always to your due diligence before buying or selling anything online. In the following paragraphs I mention Parks Insurance, which I did search online for any customer reviews, as I hope you will do. Most reviews were positive but I did find one negative review that did not go into much detail. ALWAYS be cautious about providing personal information without ensuring that it is safe.

In this blog I am happy to share an excerpt from the FairShake.net newsletter about FREE INSURANCE for returning citizens and their family members in all fifty states and US Territories. If interested, please contact Park Insurance Agency linked below to apply or to send the information to anyone you may know who is in prison or their family members, once you verify the service by searching for Customer Reviews.


SUE K. @ FAIRSHAKE.NET

Sue K owns FairShake.net and provides valuable information for the incarcerated and their families that she sends out in newsletters to select prisoner who sign up, and posts on the website. Here is some spectacular news that she reported in her most recent newsletter that I suggest you read in full at https://www.fairshake.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/FS-News-Philophobia.pdf

FREE INSURANCE!

“One year ago I reported on an opportunity for all returning citizens to receive free insurance. It was a new program, and I had no testimonies to share. Today I’m happy to report that it is available in every state! Parks Insurance Agency offers many benefits including zero-cost health plans, free physicals, prescription coverage for new and prior medications, access to recovery treatment, mental health counseling, doctor and hospital visits, and all pre-existing health conditions will be covered (i.e., asthma, diabetes, cancer, etc.). The benefits also extend to household family members upon your release. For more information contact: Parks Insurance Agency,153 S. Oakland Ave, Rock Hill SC29730 Phone:866-932-7200. Your supporters can find out more here: https://parksinsured.com/

Please check out this blog and sign up to subscribe to my YouTube channels to help support this website. Thank you!

My YouTube Best Performers

My YouTube Best Performers from two channels may be surprising. From my personal perspective, I am disappointed that I have not be able to create a video that exceeds my first accidental short on @WayneTDowdy, with 7,541 views as I type:



However, on my other channel, @straightfromthepen, this one is running close to its views, following with at the time of this writing, 6,652 views:

Please show your love by subscribing to my channels and clicking the notification bell to receive my latest post, and to help the YouTube algorithm like me better. 🙂

Thank you. Feel free to post comments to let me know what you would like to see more of on this channel and my YouTube channels.

WALMART Videos

Shopping at Walmart is a great place for me to make YouTube videos. Two of these three on @straightfromthepen did really well, but neither can compete with the first short I did on @WayneTDowdy, SHORT SHORTS IN WALMART

COULDN’T STAND THE PAIN

This is my answer to one of the comments received:
“Thanks for the comment. Because of the individual prices of the fruit and quantity one would have to purchase, he or she would actually need more money to buy the items necessary (grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cantaloupe, and apples).
“My point is that with so many Americans struggling with paying for the rising food costs, and Walmart ‘s gross profit margin rising each year ($147.57 BILLION reported 01/31/2023, which was an increase of 2.65 percent over 2022’s record $143.75 BILLION), rather than to prey off of their customers with inflated prices, sell food at a lower cost. Thanks again for the comment.” [See below for supporting data.]

TOO EXPENSIVE (originally posted as TOO MUCH FOR TOO LITTLE)

This is the first Short video I did in response to the high prices in stores that many Americans are struggling to pay. I began getting more views with these type of posts beginning with this one:

LOW-COST FOOD?

Maybe this is the niche I need to pursue. Then again, maybe it will be one of the niches I use on my way to becoming a YouTube Star. Whatever the case may be, I am still searching for the video to make that will top the success of Short Shorts in Walmart.

Thanks for helping me achieve that dream by liking and subscribing to my YouTube channels.

Supporting Data Walmart Gross Yearly Profit

“Walmart’s 2021 gross yearly profit increased 7.3% from the previous year to $138.84 billion. In 2022, the company’s profits rose by 3.54% to hit $143.75 billion, while annual gross profit for the year ended January 31, 2023, was $147.57 billion, a 2.65% rise from 2022.” BusinessMarketAnalyst.com

Searching for Audience

What Do You Want to See?

On YouTube and any other form of social media or writing-related content, the content provider must find an audience to become successful. YouTube offers analytical features for creators to use to determine the content viewers and subscribers like.

Thus comes the title, “Search for Audience” for this short blog post with an embedded YouTube Short (content less than 60-seconds). If you have a preference for the YouTube or blog content on StraightfromthePen, please do not hesitate to express your opinion. (If you DO NOT want any comment or feedback posted publicly, let me know and I won’t approve it for posting on here.)

Please Like, Subscribe, and Share. https://www.youtube.com/@straightfromthepen/about

Express any opinion in the Comment section. Thank you!

YouTube Success

WORKING ON BECOMING YOUTUBE STAR https://www.youtube.com/@WayneTDowdy3

In the last twenty-eight days, according to the average YOUTUBE SUCCESS rate for new YouTubers, I am beginning to shine, but am still a work-in-process.

I listened to one YouTuber who now earns a six-digit income, who said it took one year to get the first 100 Watch Hours. I feel blessed to have over 100 in the last 28-days on my main channel (@WayneTDowdy).

A.I. Bing Doesn’t Communicate Well

To verify the above statement about “average YOUTUBE SUCCESS rate for new YouTubers,” I decide to use some artificial intelligence to get an actual number, but I didn’t find what I wanted. Here is what BING says:

My Question: average time for new YouTubers to get 100 watch hours
Sent message. average time for new YouTubers to get 100 watch hours
Searching for: average time for new YouTubers to get 100 watch hours

Searching for: average time for new YouTubers to get 100 watch hours

Generating answers for you…

Hello, this is Bing. I searched the web for your query and found some relevant information.

According to one source1, to apply to the YouTube Partner Program, you’ll need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of Watch Time on your channel. And even then, you need to set up an AdSense account and accept all of YouTube’s terms and conditions to move forward with the application.

Another source2 suggests that choosing a topic for your channel that is not too broad or too narrow, creating engaging content, optimizing your videos for SEO, and collaborating with other creators are some of the strategies that can help you grow your YouTube channel.

A third source3 states that the ideal watch time can vary due to a range of factors like the content type and video length. In general, they take 50-60% as a benchmark. If you get an Average View Duration of 70-80%, the video is performing well.

A fourth source4 provides some mathematical examples of how to reach the 240,000 minutes of Watch Time needed for monetization. For instance, they say that you could make 240 videos at 10 minutes long, with each getting 100 views.

I hope this information helps you with your YouTube goals.

  1. vidiq.com
  2. freecodecamp.org
  3. blusteak.com
  4. zachsnyderproductions.medium.com

At any rate, I feel I am off to a great start. One thing that caught my attention on my channel is that the listed start date is October 31, 2011, which is one of the years I was in federal prison. One of my loved ones must have used YouTube on my behalf and created the channel on that date. February 6, 2023 was the date of the first video posted (private).

@STRAIGHTFROMTHEPEN

In closing, I hope you will bless me by Liking, Subscribing, and Sharing my YouTube channels to help grow the channels, and in doing so, know that you are appreciated and are contributing to a worthy cause. Thank you!

Final Post on Former Site

Earlier today I posted this on https://straightfromthepen.wordpress.com as YouTube Star to notify everyone of the closure of that particular link, in hope of having more to come over to this website and to follow me on YouTube:

“The time has come for this particular website to end as hosted on WordPress.com. Find me on this YouTube channel and at https://straightfromthepen.com for more coverage about my Life After Release and other issues that related to recidivism, or Life Inside and Out on Quora.com. Check out my profile page Wayne T. Dowdy. See you on the other side of the digital world, StraightfromthePen. Thanks for viewing my posts all of these years if you decide not to follow me on YouTube and Beyond.”


Please Like and Subscribe to my YouTube channel, StraightfromthePen.

Life After Release-11(b)

Note: Life After Release-11 first posted on straightfromthepen.wordpress.com


Easter Morning 2023: Happy Easter to those who celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

I’m sticking with the Happy New Year content below that my procrastination and busy schedule did not produce on the planned timeline. I’ve since migrated the content of this website from WordPress.com to FastComet.com for hosting. That project is still a work in progress, as my use of WordPress.org on FastComet.com requires more work and technical knowledge than I have in a sense.

But I live and learn and continue to be grateful for the life I have and my God-given ability to continue to do things that my background would seem to make impossible (never having used a cellphone or personally accessing the Internet until 08/28/2018 (I was online before then with a little help from my friends)).


Though this may appear to be late, it’s not because I began working on this blog before the New Year began, so …. it is timely to me because it is still the New Year and the thought remains the same. 🙂

And a Happy New Year 2023 it shall be and continue all throughout the year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023!

My Life After Release continues to be different than I imagined before I left the United States Federal Bureau of Prison on August 28, 2018, thirty-years and ten days after my arrest. But I remain grateful because I am blessed on many levels in the areas that count the most: mind, body, and spirit.

On this First Day of 2023, I spun my wheels experimenting on how to export this website to another hosting service I use: FastComet.com. Because I have produced so much content since I began in March 2015, I have a massive amount of media and text to move, some of which I may choose to leave behind as I move on to better terms and conditions than what I pay for on WordPress.com for their premium package. [https://straightfromthepen.com is now hosted by FastComet.com]

The good thing in this change for my Life After Release in 2023, is that FastComet provides me with prompt and efficient service to resolve issues I often encounter because of my lack of technical knowledge [FastComet support team did migrate this website with my assistance at dealing with an inexperienced support technician of to whom I suggested to that he learn about the “exporting” function].

Changes

Though everything may not be perfect in the World of Wayne, I still have all body parts intact and in good working order: maybe not in the same capacity as when younger but all do function and serve their purpose.

Age has had its effect on me but with my history I see each day as a gift, regardless of what I experience. The changes have been an upgrade for me on most levels; especially, when considering where I began in April of 1995 to learn how to live without the use of drugs and alcohol.


One of the new skills I learned that I otherwise would not have if not for using WordPress.com with some of the features provided through the Premium package I had, is the ability to use Spotify to turn some of my blogs into podcasts, another one of my many experiments with technology.

Podcasts on Spotify | STRAIGHT FROM THE PEN

And of greater significance, is for God using me in ways I never imagined. This embedded YouTube video from A Steadfast Journey with the spectacular, Dr. Micshell Milsap, is the second of three appearances that I have had on her television show. In Revising a Life-10, I include the link for the first time I appeared. The second filming may be seen here


My life after release since the last time I posted in this series, is too complicated to continue in this post, but if you want to learn more you can check out my interviews on the YouTube channel for StraightfromthePen.

YouTube and More

Shooting for Stars

Somewhere in the horizon, I see a star that I am shooting for that I know I can reach if I stay focused and do not stop trying to succeed.

Is this the beginning of stardom, StraightfromthePen on YouTube? Maybe, once I learn more about how to use YouTube, and find a house to create a physical YouTube Studio inside of so that I can really focus on what I am doing. At this juncture I am in a learning curve and an experimental stage to learn what works and what does not.

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Updated 07/24/2023: Please Like, Subscribe, and Share both channels I now have: WayneTDowdy and StraightfromthePen. Thank you!