Explore the urban wilderness of Los Angeles with Hike-LosAngeles.com
Among the many projects I have going on is a website featuring hiking trails in the Los Angeles area called appropriately enough Hike-LosAngeles.com. There are now over 30 hikes on the site and about 1,500 visitors each week. As websites go, 1500 may not sound like a lot, but considering I haven’t been putting much time into lately as I have been busy with another site, TheScreenwritersJourney.com, I have to say I am fairly pleased with the response.
This site began as a hobby project for me and a way to build up some copywriting samples as well as putting my production experience, namely editing, to use. It also allows me to practice my videography and photo skills. When I began The Screenwriter’s Journey site last September, Hike Los Angeles took a back seat. At the time it was only getting about 200 hits a week at most, sometimes less. I recently checked the analytics and was surprised to see people have been discovering the site on their own and I regularly see around 1500 people a week. If I spend some more time on it, I could probably bump that figure up . . . and maybe do some advertising and get a revenue stream going. Hmm.
So I recently took some time from my writing projects and headed back to the woods, the Angeles National Forest to be specific, and paid a visit to Switzer Falls, a historic former resort area that features a shorter two-tiered fall and a larger 50’ fall that can be reached on a relatively easy 2-mile hike with some gorgeous views of the interior San Gabriel Mountains. The above video is the result of that hike. It includes some great visuals shot with a simple Canon T3i with Magic Lantern software installed, historic information, a good-looking host (ha!) and some excellent video editing. It makes a nice example of a travelogue type video that I can use as a demo as well as providing a virtual hike experience for Angelenos looking to discover the wilderness in their own backyard.
UPDATE: April 7, 2018
The Switzer Falls video has received over 3,200 views on its YouTube host site plus an additional 4,300 views on the Hike-LosAngeles Facebook page with a reach of well over 10,000 people. The website is now closing in on 3000 visitors a week. Not too shabby for a site that plays second fiddle to The Screenwriter’s Journey. Maybe I need to pay more attention to this site!
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