Wade Merrill

Veteran-framed home security and preparedness for people living alone

People who live alone, mostly older adults and women, and relatives who worry about them; also preparedness-minded viewers, veterans and military-surplus shoppers (inferred from titles, descriptions and the about text; no audience statistics).

• Realistic avatar
• A photorealistic middle-aged man with short greying hair and stubble, shown head-and-shoulders to waist-up in an olive field shirt or grey top and a knit beanie or a black or khaki cap, often pointing at the camera with a stern look; the banner places him at a workbench in a garage with tools on a pegboard.

A numbered countdown (3–20 items) of habits, signs, gear or stranger questions, told as a Marine veteran's warning or checklist: each item gets a reason and a cheap fix, often tied to a manual, statute or agency data; the paid manual is pitched in the description's first line.

• Signs and habits that tell burglars you live alone
• Door, phone and street scripts for strangers' questions
• Blackout, cold-weather and pantry preparedness
• Veteran gear and money: surplus, car kit, discounts
• Veteran habits and field-manual rules
• Everyday self-defense for seniors (the cane)

• [N] Things Veterans [Keep/Buy] [Where] That Civilians [Think Are Pointless/Walk Right Past]
• [N] Signs That Tell Burglars You Live Alone (A Marine's [Checklist/Warning])
• [N] Questions a Stranger Asks at Your Door Before He Robs You (Never Answer Them)
• [N] Habits Marine Veterans Rely On So [Burglars Never Touch Their House]

The same man in a beanie or cap, stern or pointing at the camera, beside a staged scene (porch, street, tactical team, store aisle, surplus store); a short bold-caps caption (2–5 words on 8 of 10) in white, yellow or red, some with a red arrow or X.

• 3 uploads titled '11 Things Veterans [verb]…' hold over 80% of the listed views (298,410; 17,598; 5,790)
• A veteran angle in 14 of 17 titles (Marine, Army or Veteran), matching the banner line about what the service taught and the about text
• Burglar and stranger-question videos beat the median: 33,224 and 13,705 views on two of them, against a median of 2,290 across 17 uploads
• The same pitch in 17 of 17 descriptions: the first line points to the $17 'Hold the House' PDF manual (price shown in 15 of 17)
• High output: 17 uploads in about 6 weeks (roughly 3 a week) and 3,340 subscribers by Oct 8