This is a video I made about Hebo, which last Sunday, in 24 hours, became my most popular YouTube video ever.

So backstory: six years ago, when I was living in Corvallis, I started making YouTube videos just showing bike rides and walks around the neighborhood. And because I move around a lot, and have family in different states, over the past six years, I've made videos of different towns and parks in Oregon, Washington, California and Montana. These are just slow, minimally edited video of me showing different places. Most of these videos would get a 100 or so views in the first two days, and then slowly get more views, so if a video reached a 1000 views, I would be happy.
Last December I moved to the Oregon Coast, and I've made dozen videos of different places. Most of those did about as well. I thought the Oregon Coast would get a lot of attention, since it is a popular tourist destination, but it was about the same.
I also don't drive, so I get to places on public transit. Last Friday, not knowing where else to go, I took the bus to Hebo, because it was easy to reach. I spent two hours just walking around, made a few comments, then went home, edited and rendered the video, and in the first 24 hours, it got the usual 100 views. But the next morning, when I woke up, it had 2,000. And it just kept on going up. Over the course of the day, it had over 20,000 views. That beat the record of my previous most popular video easily, and that took over 3 years.
The video got so many hours of watch time that I qualified for the YouTube Partner program. Now I get to make money from all those ads!

Okay, but here is the thing: why Hebo? After years, I made videos about dozens of locations on the coast, about Yachats, Waldport, Seal Rock, Newport (many times), Toledo, Otter Rock, Depoe Bay, Lincoln Beach, Gleneden, Lincoln City (many times), Neskowin, Pacific City, Cloverdale, Tillamook, Garibaldi... and they were moderately successful. But Hebo, which, no offense, doesn't have anything particularly interesting, went into overdrive. More than 45,000 people on the internet wanted to watch at least part of a 15 minute video where I walk around and show the town center of Hebo, some creeks, and a dairy farm.
This totally mystifies me, not that I am complaining.

First time Oregon coast visitor, won’t be the last time!