A Walk on the Wild Side YouTube channel

By Stephen Cheatley

During the pandemic restrictions of early 2020, I along with many others, was unable to do the things I had planned for the year.

It was early July and I told a photographer friend of mine that I was feeling a bit low due to not being able to get out like I had been doing the previous year 2019 when I visited Scotland, Iceland and the south coast of the UK, mostly to do astronomy photography. I’ve been an astronomer since 2010 and since travelled the world to follow my passion of photographing the night sky.

My friend said I should walk around Blackpool with my camera and do videos for YouTube. I’ve had a YouTube account since 2006 but only ever uploaded random videos, with some getting a few hundred of views at very best. 

 Taking his advice, I went out later that day and filmed my first Blackpool video using a small pocket camera which I had borrowed off my brother. I had the idea to film different sides of the town, starting with the more rundown areas to show a different side to Blackpool which many people may not have seen. I then took a walk through the old part of Blackpool which is currently being developed and finished the video on the promenade to show the sunset.

I then uploaded the video to YouTube and I was blown away by the amount of views it got in the first few hours. The video gained around 2,000 views that evening, when I would normally expect a handful. By the next evening the video had amassed over 10,000 views and my subscriber count had rocketed from 115 to over 600. I released further walk around videos over the next few weeks and my subscriber count had gone well above 1,000, and my watch hours had 

 reached 4,000, so this meant I could join the YouTube Partner Program and start earning a bit of money via the ad revenue made on my videos.

I then changed the channel into a brand account and called it A Walk on the Wild Side to represent some of the content I was creating, i.e. I would some of the rougher parts of town in an edgy style. It is this style of content which I believe caused my channel to grow very fast, as a lot of people like to see the other side of Blackpool and not just the bright lights and the Golden Mile.

My most popular videos tend to be town centre walk arounds at night and storm videos, where I put myself out there on the promenade in the wind and rain to bring the action to my viewers. My other most popular videos have been news type videos, where I would film a derelict building being demolished, such as the Ambassador Hotel in Blackpool which had to come down after suffering a fire and resulting water damage that made it unsafe.

History of Blackpool videos also do very well, where I will talk about old buildings past and present and I also learn quite a lot myself as I have to research some of these. It was videos like these which helped my channel to grow very fast, and help me to my current subscriber count a the time of writing to be 28,000. Livestream walk around videos have also been a very popular feature of my channel, where I can regularly attract 500-700 live viewers. 

I now consider the vlogging to be a part time job alongside my photography, and I aim to continue with the videos and branch out into cafe/restaurant and food reviews to appeal to a wider audience. I also have another YouTube channel dedicated to astronomy, which is called Starman. 

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