RV Hall of Fame

[BBQ]

RV Hall of Fame

RV Capitol of the World - Indiana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fPvFEoAVDg

[goreds2]

Good video I have seen. Does anyone else follow the Nomadic Fanatic on Youtube? (That is who is in the video)

[wincrasher]

I used to watch him until I discovered what a scoundrel and con artist he was.

[JamesM]

I still subscribe to his channel mainly to see what places he goes to just in case I may want to visit some of the places. He does a good job with the videos but I don't care that much for him as a person. You can find a lot about him on the internet with him being arrested, changing his name and other questionable activities.

[wincrasher]

There are many more travel channels on youtube that feature better videography and the principals are actually nice people - Less Junk, More Journey, RV Love, We are the Russos, RV Geeks, Gone with the Wynns and Mortons on the Move, just to name a few. None of these people beg you for money or bombard you with their tales of woe.

[BBQ]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

I used to watch him until I discovered what a scoundrel and con artist he was.

How did he scam you?

[JamesM]

Unfortunately, the number of people using YouTube as an attempt to make money seems to be increasing along with more personal tales of woe to play on people's sympathy to solicit money. I guess it's a new form of begging for money instead of working. This is just my opinion but Nomadic Fanatic seems to fit into this category because he never mentions where all his income is coming from or what else he does except for traveling around the USA with his cat Jax along with tales of woe when his RV breaks down, video equipment gets damaged, needs new tires, transmission replaced or other fixes to his RV. Then he seems to like to mention that people sent him gifts or money to help him out.

I do like seeing videos showing places where people are traveling to in their RV, helpful tips to make things easier and minor RV problems people had and how they were solved. The RV Geeks had bats to get into their furnace and the Long Long Honeymoon people had a really bad problem with mice while at the Grand Tetons. A few other channels that I watch in addition to what Wincrasher mentioned are RVwithTito, Technomadia and David Bott. They all seem to be more into it to help people out instead of other people like Nomadic Fanatic that seem to want to use YouTube as a way to make or solicit money. There is also rollinontv that is like a TV program along with RV product advertisements that are very easy to skip watching it on YouTube if you don't want to watch the ads.

[wincrasher]

Yes, you picked up a few good ones I forgot!

Given that everyone has to make a living. Most get adsense money, Amazon links, and advertising on their blogs, along with free offers from people promoting their products or resorts. Even some, like Bott have developed their own products and promote or link to them. That's all fine and dandy, as it's normally transparent - 99% of the time they make specific disclosures of such.

What really wrankles me is the fake dramas made up to sollicit donations or sticker sales (or other sales). Guys like NF (and there are others out there) actually fake breakdowns and other woes basically on a schedule to keep the money rolling in. Many people are thankfully catching on to this.

What is more insidious is guys like Mike Wendland. He promotes Roadtrek and various products stricktly for cash. He never discloses if what he talks about is paid or something he believes in. My view is he never promotes something for free. So the average reader has no idea if he & his wife really believe in something, or only believe in collecting money. Heck, I couldn't even tell you with any certainty that he actually likes his Roadtrek! I'm sure he enjoys the $30k he gets annually from JH to promote the brand along with the other perks and free stuff.

Well that's my rant, hope you enjoyed it.

[gregmchugh]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

Yes, you picked up a few good ones I forgot!

Given that everyone has to make a living. Most get adsense money, Amazon links, and advertising on their blogs, along with free offers from people promoting their products or resorts. Even some, like Bott have developed their own products and promote or link to them. That's all fine and dandy, as it's normally transparent - 99% of the time they make specific disclosures of such.

What really wrankles me is the fake dramas made up to sollicit donations or sticker sales (or other sales). Guys like NF (and there are others out there) actually fake breakdowns and other woes basically on a schedule to keep the money rolling in. Many people are thankfully catching on to this.

What is more insidious is guys like Mike Wendland. He promotes Roadtrek and various products stricktly for cash. He never discloses if what he talks about is paid or something he believes in. My view is he never promotes something for free. So the average reader has no idea if he & his wife really believe in something, or only believe in collecting money. Heck, I couldn't even tell you with any certainty that he actually likes his Roadtrek! I'm sure he enjoys the $30k he gets annually from JH to promote the brand along with the other perks and free stuff.

Well that's my rant, hope you enjoyed it.

I realize you may not follow Mike Wendland very closely but he does make it pretty clear who his sponsors are beyond Roadtrek, every podcast includes his plugs for the paid advertisers and they are prominently shown on the description of the podcast. I suppose he could be more transparent about all his relationships but Roadtreking is clearly a business venture and Mike gets money and other types of benefits from a lot of companies that he promotes. His activities are clearly a public relations effort by and for Roadtrek, Verizon, Alde, etc.

There seems nothing very hidden about what he is doing and as with most paid advertisers and PR activities, it would be naive to expect anything but positive comments from him.