I think if you consider it a "waste of your time" because nobody watches it, then maybe you should do something that you actually enjoy. People tend to like watching others do things that they actually enjoy.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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The waste of time part would be filming and producing the video.
I will enjoy the travel and activities, at least I think I will. Riding trains and walking around towns, what's not to like. But it would also get expensive quickly so if it doesn't pay for itself I wouldn't be able to justify doing it more than for a few locations.
Unless you already have a channel with high viewership, you're very unlikely to suddenly start earning money off a brand new video series that nobody's heard about.
It can take a long time to build up viewership unless your content is exceptionally compelling. Don't expect it to pay for itself right out the gate. It could take months or years before you even see a penny, or it could never happen.
I worry no one would watch it and I'm wasting my time.
Like suggested already, do it for the fun of you doing it, not for some hypothetical tap on the shoulder by an even more hypothetical viewership.
Imagine you're writing your first book. This can take years of work, literal years I mean (aka a bit longer than 'some free time' ;) and you get no certainty, none at all, that you will ever get more than a single reader (yourself). Do it because you want to do it, have as much fun as you can while doing it and, with any luck, you will get some reader/viewership. If not, you will still have a great time doing something you loved.
It can seem like the best idea in my head and to people I tell it to, but is it worth the hassle of making something of it. I have yet to have 1 person outside my friends say it sounds like something they would watch. The best anyone says is I'm sure there is someone who would watch it, but I have not met that someone, and traveling for fun and no filming would look very different from traveling for fun with filming. And if its not going to make money, at some point I will need to figure out income, I can only live for so long on my savings.
And if its not going to make money, at some point I will need to figure out income, I can only live for so long on my savings.
That's two different questions. Think about it, we all have to figure out a way to earn money, right? No matter what we like or prefer to do on the side ;)
I'll stick with my book analogy: do you think a wannabe writer has any certainty they will get any money out of sometimes the years they 'waste' writing their first book? And how much would that be? In reality, most writers don't even earn the minimal wage—not every writer is a best seller.
You would probably get train nerds watching but not many non train nerds. It might be a waste of time, but if you enjoy the process of making and releasing it then its not time wasted really.
The focus actually isn't the train, but where the train can take you. Plenty of people already make videos x number of hours on train going from city to city where they just talk about the train. This is more about all those little stops the train stops at between the cities and the potential *day trips that you could do. The long term goal would be for this to be an income source, so if I enjoy it and it doesn't work out, I guess its not wasted time, but its time and money I won't get back.
* day if there were more than one train a day.
Do you have experience in film production?
What makes people watch is not just the subject, but how the subject is presented. If you make something entertaining, informative, artistic… something that captures the audience attention, then they will watch it. And if you want a lot of audience and to have it make money, you need to know marketing.
Instead of wondering if anyone would watch your series, maybe ask yourself first who you would want to watch. Making something with a huge general appeal is more difficult than focusing on a specific audience.
Once you've determined that audience, you can ask yourself what they would really like to see in your series.
In this case, is it a documentary series for people to get to know smaller towns along the Amtrak rails? Their peculiarities, local stories, etc?
Or is it more, like you mentioned elsewhere, for people who live in the area who would actually might be interested in visiting these towns themselves? To me that would already seem to make for two completely different kinds of series. Each with their own reach and potential audience.
For myself, I live on the wrong continent, so I doubt I would watch a show if it's about travel tips. But I would love to watch something about the local culture and history of small train stop towns. As long as it is entertaining enough of course :)
You'll have to work hard at marketing your material if you want to make money off it though, there's so much content on offer already.
I'm pretty sure there is an audience for any train idea possible. Not necessarily enough to profit off of however.
There are people who do plane journeys or train journeys, or other where they simply film the getting there bit (Noel Philips, Jeb Brooks, jet lagged (sort of), etc...). I feel like there should be an audience for when you get there, but when I have asked a few places, I've mostly gotten silence, so I don't know if this is if you make it they will come, or its just not something people are interested in.
I'm confident this would find an audience, but is that enough for you? Or does it need to lead to significant income?
I would enjoy watching something like this, but I wouldn't pay to watch it when I could pay for an actual train ride.
Travel videos are expensive. Have you made entertaining videos before? Creating engaging videos requires a lot of effort. I would start by making small videos with low production cost. If you can gain a following there you'll have an easier time gauging interest and effort required to make the Amtrak videos.
Learning from the ground up. I have a budget to see if its feasible and it shouldn't be to expensive for the first trips. I'm not doing long haul business class tickets so no huge ticket costs, just hotel and food costs. I don't expect it to make money initially, but I do expect to get a sense of whether it might work in the long run.
Watch it yourself, and that last worry is instantly gone!