A Train Riding Hobo Explains How He Grew To 50K Subs

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YouTube is one of the only businesses you can start with almost no money, but there’s a catch: you are the product. That idea gets real fast when our guest Daniel, the creator behind American Hobo Train Riding, explains how he built a channel around freight train riding and life without a permanent home, and why the “raw” version of a story often beats polished production.

We get into what a hobo actually is, where the culture and terminology come from, and the everyday logistics viewers always wonder about but creators rarely explain. Daniel also shares the backstory that shaped his approach: years of travel, seven years sober, learning content creation the hard way on a first channel in Southeast Asia, and what it felt like to realize the YouTube algorithm can lock you into a lane early. Then we break down what changed when he returned to the US and relaunched with clearer positioning, longer videos, and a style that feels like you’re right there on the rails.

If you care about YouTube growth, niche selection, and sustainable creator workflows, you’ll love the tactical details: filming with rugged action gear, editing on a phone, keeping uploads manageable, and choosing tools that avoid monthly subscriptions. We also talk honestly about monetization, audience expectations, and the fine line of YouTube safety policies when content is risky, plus Daniel’s long-term plan to save income and eventually build a legal home base near the railroad.

Subscribe for more creator conversations, share this with a friend who loves YouTube strategy or travel storytelling, and leave a review if you want more guests like Daniel. What part of his approach would you copy first?

Transcript

Welcome And YouTube As A Business

SPEAKER_02 0:00

YouTube is an opportunity for people that have zero to no money to invest in a business, to start a business, but you are the product. A vagabond, uh, a traveler. He gives up that that security, you know, that roof above his head and stuff, but he gains his freedom. Jealousy is the killer of joy, but jealousy can also, if there's just a little bit, can be a motivator. It's a calculated mess. People are feigned to see me on a train.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast that will go all around the world and even in the woods to bring you the best creators we possibly can. Of course, I'm Travis here as always, and I got an incredibly special guest today. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, for the second time on this podcast, we have a homeless YouTuber, which is amazing, incredible, that it's a thing. I'm here with the American hobo himself. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

How are you doing, Travis? It's nice. I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

It's a pleasure to be here, man. It really is a pleasure to be here. If you're new here, we do this all the time. We talk to new content creators or up-and-coming or even established content creators to help you understand how to grow on YouTube. And uh, I'm going to call you Daniel because you're not just the American Hobo. We want to talk about a lot of different things about your journey. But before we get into that, just tell us about your current channel, like what kind of content it is so people can get caught up.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Okay, my current channel is train riding, the hobo thing. That's hence in the name. American Hobo is a tradition that's been around for a long time. It's never died off. A lot of people didn't they're like, oh, I didn't know that was still a thing. Well, it never died off. It just kind of is underground. So yeah, and so I I'm uh I picked up the mantle after we had some um some YouTube deaths in the in the uh in this genre of of uh YouTube hoboing. And uh uh the main ones, the pioneers that started all off was Stobe died first about nine years ago, and then uh about two years ago we had uh passing of hobo shoestrings. So, you know, and it there's other ones out there. There's you know, Gravedigger and different channels, it's just uh I'm kind of joining in that that tradition and keeping it alive.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

So that's amazing. But I think I want to I want for people who are like, well, wait a minute, well, how is he home? For people listening to audio only podcasts, I want you to understand that uh I'm in the studio, right? Daniel's out, and you see a forest behind him, which is amaz. I think this is the best background of any uh podcast interview I've ever done. He's literally outside, which is amazing because it's some people think, oh, is he actually homeless? Is he actually yes? Let's talk about that first, and then we're gonna start about we'll we'll talk about your first YouTube channel before that, but I I just want to get people caught up. Calling you homeless is not an insult, is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 2:40

No, no, not at all, because it's it's it's a common terminology. I mean, it is what it is, you know. Um, there's other terminologies, but basically you get down to it. It's either you have a home or you don't have a home. Right, right. I don't have a home.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

So what is a but what's a hobo for people who don't know?

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Uh hobo is basically

What A Hobo Really Means

SPEAKER_02 3:00

a person that uh writes trains. And uh um it it's been around for a while. Uh hobo itself, actually, um, we know of the image of the hobo coming from the uh Dust Bowl days and the Great Depression and the whole grapes of wrath type thing, you know. If you ever read the book or seen the movie, uh that's where we get the image now. But uh the mythology is that it even stems farther back into the Civil War days. And after the Civil War, uh people were going back home, and the way they get they got back home was to hop on the freight liners and stuff like this and travel back. And that's where the name homeward bound comes from. Ho for homeward and bound bow. So you got the hobo. And within that mythology, there's actually even people that uh say that they go as far as that there was like a permission slip that was written to the soldiers as they were going. So if they were caught on on the train by the bull, we call the uh security officer or the police officer, actually. Um, they are real police uh that keeps you off the train, the bull. And it's kind of like going into a yard with a bull, you know, like be careful, don't get the horns.

unknown 4:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

So this is I mean, there's so much about this. I mean, I could we could literally talk about this for two hours just because it's such a fascinating thing. It's a lifestyle that is not for everyone. Um, obviously, I think there's a part of it that's romanticized of like, what if I just didn't have to worry about my mortgage and all these weird bills and stuff? I could just live a life on the trails and on the rails, and and it sounds romantic, but by the same token, there's some very common things you have to deal with, like going to the bathroom, like these really common things.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Oh no, that's one of the most common questions that I get on my channel. It's like, because there's literally there's stretches of like uh two days on the train, and they're like, How do you go to the bathroom? But you get it so often you're like, no, I don't want to. So there's an upcoming video that's titled, I hope it doesn't put anybody off. It says pooping on the train. Oh, I love it. Because I answer that question. That way I I have to keep it in the title, otherwise, people won't know where the video is on. So it's called Pooping and the Train. It'll be in one of the upcoming videos.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

I love that. But let's talk a little bit about your YouTube journey, and then we'll get more into like your day-to-day. Um this is not your first channel. Now, this channel right now is blowing up, which is one of the reasons why I I, you know, I came across you. Um, you've only been like on this channel, and we'll talk about the first channel in a minute, uh, is a little bit over three months old. It already has almost 50,000 subscribers. You got like almost four million views. You're averaging like 30 to 50 to sometimes 100,000 views per video. It's crazy you're growing up. These are not YouTube shorts I'm talking about. These are long form videos. You also have shorts, but these are long form videos. But this is not your first channel, and I think that's important for people to understand. It wasn't like you just came into this, knew exactly what to do, and now you're blowing up. You had a previous example uh channel. Talk to us about that channel, the the struggles you had with it, what you learned from it. Although tell us all about

From Tent Life To World Travel

SPEAKER_00 6:05

that.

SPEAKER_02 6:05

Okay, well, a lot of that started actually right where I'm at right now. It's Cleveland, Tennessee. I had to come back over here because um my bank card was um expiring, and I was actually over in Southeast Asia at the time. So, you know, I know a lot of people are like, you know, homeless, and in Southeast Asia, financially it makes sense. Once you're uh you take, you know, once you accomplish getting across the sea, everything just drops and your your quality of life goes up because the amount of your money like is four times as much. It's four X what it used to be. So um, so you you do see a lot of retirees and stuff running over there because what they make in their retirement a thousand dollars is now like instead of a thousand dollars a month, it's like a thousand dollars a week, you know, it's four X. So um But I lived in a tent here in Cleveland, Tennessee, and um for like two and a half years during the COVID thing, no one really wanted to go back to work after they got the first initial check. And they knew I was homeless here at the pilot, and because I was always charging up my my battery bank for my my tent. And um I was doing the whole church thing here in Cleveland, and uh so I was staying in one place, and they offered me work, and I was like, sure, why not? So I just took the amount of money that I was making, um, you know, that I would be paying in like rent, and I just stuck that in my savings. And because it was kind of a scary time, and I didn't have like everybody's like beans and rice, you know, stack it to the rafters, and I'm like, I don't own rafters, you know. So I was like, I better start saving up for because I can live in a tent anywhere, but the thing is, do I own that land? So I was like, I better save up for like a one-acre property or something, put like a tough shed on it, off-grid tuf shed, you know, start so I started saving for that. But when it got came down to it, where I had enough of a nest egg to actually start looking at a property, I was like, I'm gonna at least go to you know see the Bible land, and you know, so I went over to Israel slash Palestine over there. And uh I actually I landed there and after two months, that's when the whole October 7th thing happened. So everybody was like, you know, trying to get out. I ended up staying because I still had a month left, but uh because all the tourist took off, you know, and um so yeah, that's how I ended up over there. And um so it was from there, but I noticed even in a spot like Israel or in Greece or stuff where these are the more expensive places, I would still go into get the grocery store and come out with for twenty bucks a full bag of groceries. You know, I was like, wow, you know, instead of five dollars an item, you're getting quite a bit. So that's how I ended up uh over there. And um uh yeah, and then it was just like I was kind of just you know, I went to Morocco, went to all the different stuff. That was first affordable country, but then I went to Spain because of the Camino Santiago trail. I saw the movie The Way, which was a beautiful movie, man. It was a great movie. I was like, oh, there's a trail. So I did the the Camino Santiago. I first started, it was like over 200 pounds, asthma. You can still hear that in some my videos. People like, what's wrong with your lungs? 30 years of drinking and smoking cigarettes is what happened. Um seven years sober now, though. So you know I'm good with that. Uh yeah, so I did the Santiago Trail, and that's where I first started doing like um what would you say, goal-oriented travels, you know. And there's a goal, you know, when you set your mind to something, it's it's crazy what you can start. And uh so I did uh several Santiago trails, you know, all the way down to the coast and all the way back, and I did the fishermen and I loved it. And uh yeah, so I did the Francis, I did all the way across from France, all the way across Spain, all the way to the coast and back to Santiago. And I found out about another trail, which was called uh the Komodo Koto Trail in Japan. It's the only two World uh UNESCO World Heritage Trails. So if you do both of them and you show UNESCO that you did both of them, you become what's called a dual pilgrim. So I spent the money out of my savings to go ahead and fly all the way across the country from Spain to Japan, just so I could walk across Japan on those trails. So I did that, became a dual pilgrim, uh, got the certificate and everything for it. And um, yeah, but then then my bank account was gone dwindling because they're more expensive countries. And I went to Southeast Asia to try and recoup some of that loss. So, which, you know, Southeast Asia, you go like eight dollars for a nice hotel room in Vietnam. If you're in Indonesia, it's like $1.30 for a meal at a restaurant. You know, it's like it's really, really affordable all all the way through there. And once your visa expires in one spot, you can go over to the next country. But that's where I started YouTube, Vietnam. And uh it was like I've never done the bicycle thing. So I was like, I'll just go buy a hundred dollar bicycle or eighty dollar bicycle, right? And just do the cheap bicycle thing. If I can't do it, I can give it to a kid and say, here's a new bicycle for you. You know, most people that do bicycle tours, expensive bicycles, they have to ship it everywhere because it costs them $3,000. Me, I can leave it on the side of the road.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

So what type of content was it that you were making at that point?

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Uh oh, it was the bicycle. So, yeah, so it was just my camera on my phone. Uh you know, a lot of people use um YouTube just as a storage unit for like uh you know, private, and they just you know, they put their travel videos and stuff like that. Um and it's just for themselves, and I was doing the same thing. So I actually had a name that was just Daniel Sawyer, and uh, and then when I started, I was like, well, I gotta name my channel something else, and that's where American Hobo came from because I was like, Well, I'm American, and before, you know, you know, before I jumped off the trains, I used to just stumble onto the trains and stumble off of it really drunk, and I'm surprised that I, you know, I'm still in one piece because I was a heavy drinker back there, and that's you know, and but I didn't do that for like seven years. So I but I always missed it, you know. Once it's in your blood, it's like something you, you know, so it's like you can see in my old videos in Southeast Asia, I talk about wanting to get back to the trains a lot, but um, yeah, so that's how the whole American hobo name came about, and that's what my first channel's called too.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

You said you struggled with it. What were the what were the problems? Were you getting good views? Like what were you what were you finding out about being on YouTube uh in that way?

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Uh it's a struggle just to do one. Um but yeah, because the quality when you your first channels um your first channel is just gonna be your first channel. You know, you don't you can't expect a lot because that's your learning process. And the algorithm is not gonna like you at all because your your content's not gonna be good. And that's how it was. So for the first, and you only have a little a little window to impress that algorithm before it sticks you in a box and says, okay, you're over here, right? And it's hard to get out of that box after you're in it, you know. So it's like, and trust me, uh vidIQ and Think Media were the ones that were always in my ear. Um, that's how I know about you. And that was like, you know what? I have to do Travis, I have to do because it just you were a big influence, uh, just the the uh interviews that you did and stuff. I know. Sucking up a little, but no, no, it's true.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Like one of the things you talked to me about when before we were setting this up was that you got to see the Nomad Push, the other uh interview I did with a homeless YouTuber. Um tell me where were you in your YouTube journey when you when you watched that? Were you uh uploading in Vietnam? Like, where were you? What was that going on?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

So Vietnam was I started like the first few months in Vietnam uh just using my camera phone, which was a really crappy camera phone. I didn't even have a bicycle mount on my handle, so I just had to stop my bicycle, film a little, keep going, stop, film a little. And I was trying to keep all my videos like 15, 20 minutes. That's where I thought the um attention span was. Uh-huh. And uh, but eventually I ended up getting um so uh the whole thing about being homeless is is uh you're able to once you know this lifestyle, like uh because I'm by choice, not uh don't get me wrong. I've been in the work world. I just decided that out of the two, you know, it's like in the work world, you have a a kind of an illusion of uh security. You you but you have to work for that. You have to get up, go to work, and you'd be so lucky if you get a job that you like, even if it's a job that you like to start with, after three years, like when I was in Vegas working in the casinos, after three years, I didn't like my job anymore. You know, I but I initially did. But now you that's all you know, and it's hard to break away from that. Where a vagabond, uh a traveler, um is he gives up that that security, you know, that roof above his head and stuff, but he gains his freedom. Um but you have to get your bumps and your bruises, and you got to learn the hard way with hyperthermias and different things like this, and but each time you get a little stronger and you you learn through knowledge, you're like, oh yeah, I've been this weather's bad, but I've been in worse, you know, and you know you're gonna pull through it, and there's that comfort because you know you've gone you know rougher and and you know how to avoid these things in the future. So, but once you learn that that mindset, that that that I guess you could call it a skill, but it's more of a mindset, you can find that homelessness anywhere in the world, you know, and that's all I did. So, you know, if I couldn't find a spot for less than $10 a night, I slept in a you know, in a hammock, you know, uh with under a tarp. Um I ate cheap, I slept cheap, you know, uh, and uh, you know, even though Southeast Asia is already cheap enough, um, sorry, I think I went on a ramble somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Yeah, what was your question again? Yeah, but so when you when you heard the podcast episode with Nomad Push, where were you in your YouTube journey? And did that encourage you to know that like someone who was homeless also was having a lot of success?

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yeah, okay, so I think I already stepped up my game on my camera, right? So I already learned it from other people that were watching my channel. So I remember when I first got like 60 subscribers. I was like, oh, 60 subscribers, you know. And so I was like, and I got monetized, believe it or not, fairly quick. So I know they say that monetization is like, I think they say 8%, right? Of all channel of channels, but uh, but uh is that all channels? Because most people only open a channel so that they can make comments in the comment section. So a lot of channels are not real channels. I think it's a lot easier than eight percent um if you're focused, if you're focused on the subject. And me riding a bicycle through Southeast Asia is pretty self-explanatory. Yeah, it's pretty, yeah. You know, so uh someone told me about um uh Nomad Push because he was very popular. And uh I didn't even realize until you did the interview that he also had a first channel where he skateboarded through Japan and you know, you know, so and he then he got super successful. I think uh someone with a big channel kind of introduced him or something, and um so yeah, it's it YouTube is an opportunity for people that have zero to no money to invest in a business to start a business, but you are the product, so things like faceless channels just don't work. Um, you know, shorts don't even really work, uh I in my opinion. You know, unless you're able to get a banger uh viral every single time, it's hard to make money on shorts. So long format, I I settled on long format maybe a half an hour, but I I creep over that all the time, you know. And trying to cut everything because sometimes I'm on a train and it's just beautiful country I'm going to. I mean, really beautiful. So my my goal is a half an hour video, but a lot of times it goes over. So um, yeah, Nomad Push is one of the people that you know this is he is the product, and he's uh actually he's very entertaining. Uh yeah. And so, but before I learned about him, I had there's certain people that are content creators and they can see because I was doing a daily vlog. So every single day I was on my my bicycle filming, editing at the end of the day and getting it out that night, and trying to upload in Southeast Asia where the the Wi-Fi is very spotty, is hard. Some of the uploads took you know overnight and into the next day, you know?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

And uh yeah, so but I had someone like um, so there's Doug from there's a channel called uh Planet Doug. He stepped up. He has um, you know, I think he's around 30,000 subscribers. He he but his view, I think, viewing around 2,000 pretty steady on the views and stuff, but he stepped up and right off the bat just kind of like took me under his wing and just started, you know, anything any questions I had, you know. So there are those people out there. And if you're lucky enough, if you're starting a channel, they see that you're putting in a lot of effort, they might step up and say, hey, any questions or anything? So yeah, Doug, thank you, brother. He's a like early times, uh, yeah. Uh he was a great, great,

First Channel Mistakes And Algorithm Reset

SPEAKER_02 20:00

great um influence and just you know, helping me out on my first channel.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Let's talk about the transition between that one and the one you're on now. So you had this other channel that did okay, right? Like it was it was pretty performant, but um you eventually came back to America. Talk about that and when you decided to start this channel and why this channel versus just keeping it on the other channel.

SPEAKER_02 20:21

On the first channel, I struggled through because of the algorithm pretty well just already put me in a box. And it took me a long time to get a thousand subscribers. Uh, I think I came over here with 5,000, but that was over a year and a half of filming every single day. Five countries, I rode my bicycle through five countries Vietnam, uh, Cambodia, uh Thailand, uh Malaysia, did the full circle, and then um uh Indonesia, almost all the major islands of Indonesia, um, before I had to come back because my bank card was expiring and I had to get back because I needed a new bank card. So when I came back, I knew if I was coming back, I was gonna hop on the trains again. Um this time sober, you know, uh a lot safer that way. Uh but um but get good at something I was never good at, you know, because you know, when you don't care which way you're going and all that, you can just stumble on, stumble up. So I started the new channel, which is still called American Hobo, but I put train writing at the the end because um uh I took a lot of notes, you know, um on my first channel. And jealousy is the killer of joy, but jealousy can also, if there's just a little bit, can be a motivator. And I would see other channels like uh blow up, like uh the one at the time is um it was uh homeless Kiwi in London. That guy just came up and to me it blew up. You know, he started and he was already over five thousand subscribers, then ten thousand subscribers all within weeks. And his editing was Terrible at first, right? He's gotten a lot, he came a long way. But I was taking notes that the raw format, there's a large, large, large audience for the raw raw format. The less you put in, the more people like to see that that just raw realness. And so I cut back a lot of the the things that I was doing to just more of a straightforward raw format. And also like um I learned from another bicycler that was ahead of me, his Let's Go Cycling. Well, he didn't put any description into any of his videos, you know. He didn't put anything in, you know, very basic on the thumbnails and stuff, but it was right in his his name of his channel, Let's Go Cycling. The algorithm knew what his channel was about from the title of his name. So that's why I put train writing in it. American Hobo train writing. I only put like links to like Stowed the Hobos channel and Shoestring's channel because they're the pioneers that came before me, and they're the pioneers of the YouTube world. Uh, you know, uh God bless their souls. Um, you know, both of them passed on, like I said. And that's all the algorithm had for me. You know, so they went by the title, and it I pushed out my material to all the people that were old, Stobe and uh Shoestring. So my whole audience are people that used to watch shoestring. And uh, so that's where why I mention Shoestring a lot is because that's where my audience is. And I want to, and I'm a fan of, you know, I'm a fan too. It's just uh I you know it's something we can all relate to. Um, but coming back there, the algorithm just blew up. So it fed that, and people coming forward going, oh, I didn't know this was still a thing, or um and um and the algorithm just really liked me this time around, you know.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

And I didn't how long did it take for that first video to start getting views or the first couple of years?

SPEAKER_02 24:01

I was monetized in like two weeks, I think. Yeah, you were monetized in two weeks. But the thing is, so I did have my Southeast Asia fans, right? But they, you know, they're my Southeast Asia fans, you know. They're actually mostly Malaysian and Indonesian. Um, but I was able to transport some of those guys over, but uh maybe only like 300. Uh, but um I got was able to take everything I learned from that channel and bring it over. So I waited till I had five videos, right? And it was funny because I struggled getting off. I I struggled with just even catching the first train, you know, and hitchhiking up to Flagstaff and stuff, right? So I was like, I better get a train riding video pretty soon because I had five videos. It wasn't until I think the sixth video when I actually caught one, but I put out the five videos of me just going all around uh Arizona trying to hitchhike things, but I made it interesting because it was still a homeless person camping under a tarp. And uh so I yeah, like so I put out the five videos all at once. So I opened my channel like that was that was your guys' recommendation on your channels, and and so I took what I learned from you guys and everything and brought it over. But I'm trying to also not fall into the cookie cutter uh creator type, you know, because we're all following the same, you know, we're all following the same advice on making thumbnails. So if you notice, I don't use thumbnails. Uh I don't use words, I don't, and but that's calculated because um uh sabbatical. I'm not sure if you know the channel called Sabbatical, very, very big. Uh oh, look into him. He's a great uh he's 500,000, you know, views. Uh he's he's 750,000 subscribers. Uh he's uh awesome, but he doesn't use thumbnails. He just doesn't. His his face is his you know his you know, his product. So people realize it because that one non-thumbnail is what they're called, right? Stands out because it's the only one like it. Everybody's got the same three letters or less, you know, using the same color scheme, you know, the same, you know, you know, expression. And like the surprise, the angry, you know. Uh I did all that too on my first champ. But uh I went a different direction. I just tried to go more raw and um, you know, no thumbnails, and it it cuts back. You know, I don't have to spend three to five hours on a thumbnail now. Uh I don't put a lot of thought into my titles, you know. Um and my hat right here is my signature for my thumbnail.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Because I learned that from Let's Go Cycling. He had one of those conical hats, and you could tell it was his video just because he was on a bicycle with a conical hat with his dreadlocks. And I'm like, yeah, I gotta do the same. And uh so I try and remember to wear this in each one of my thumbnails, but you know, that way if you're scanning through, you can pick up one of my uh you know it's my thumbnail.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

So um so what now when you say you you don't use thumbnails, do you mean you let YouTube automatically choose it, or you're just saying that you don't use the traditional type of thumbnail where you just take a screenshot or something? Because all of your thumbnails that are on your channel are interesting, they're visually interesting, uh, which makes them more clickable or at least stop the scroll. Um so what do you mean when you say no thumbnail?

SPEAKER_02 27:26

Do you just mean Okay, uh well, you know if you let YouTube pick it, it's pixelated, like hard pixelated. And some actually that can work too. Uh actually I did do one or two that way, but using more than one platform, I want to make sure that the titles are the same. Like so uh like if you're doing Rumble, you want to use the same one. If you let so I don't like the pixelization necessarily, and I have done thumbnails in the past, so I'm uh there's one or two that I've actually had to cut out of myself. Um, you know, and uh so I'm not saying I put zero effort, you know. Sometimes I feel like doing it, but most of them are just like I I go through and like the what the thumbnail that got a lot of people was uh corrugated dreams, right? People that's where I'm in the corrugated pipe.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

It's an amazing picture. I what a thumbnail that is so cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Yeah, that that was just me pulling it off of Google. The uh like uh uh you know, like Google Photos, you know, you just extract it. That was me reaching for my camera. I slept in that corrugated pipe that night, and I was like, hey, that's a good shot. So I'm just looking for something on the videos that look pretty halfway decent.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

But they're just coming off. Um you're doing a great job with it, and all the thumbnails, they're very simple, but sometimes simple is all you need to convey what's in the video and why you should watch it.

SPEAKER_02 28:51

Yeah, it is yeah, simple is usually sometimes the best because everybody's following the same format, you know, and uh, you know, it's like well, even Mr. Beast, you know, well, simple, like they say what, how many elements or less on a thumbnail? Uh five or less elements? Yeah, usually. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So even that shows that you should go simpler, too busy, you know, and then it's it's hard on the eyes. But um I I took, like I said, from sabbatical, I took the uh the uh idea just pull one shot out somewhere in the video and don't really do anything to it. Now one or two of them I've changed, but like Corrugated Dreams, just a is still a picture that I pulled out. Most all of them are just still and I might have to lighten it a little, you know, uh, but that's a button right in photos, you know. You just and it, you know, so I put a minimum amount of effort just because my first channel, I put so much effort, and you can see my my progress from really crappy, you know, excuse my language, but to better like thumbnails and editing, and but what I was doing is spending way too much time trying to choose music, so no music. Uh, you know, um just trying to stay raw like uh you know transient Kiwi was when he first started. Um, you know, and uh Yeah, so uh even though everything is calculated, you know, it it's a calculated mess.

SPEAKER_00 30:19

You know. Well, let's talk a little bit about the the logistics of what you're doing. So you have multiple cameras. I I want to hear more about the actual hardware that you're using, because one of the things I've noticed about your videos is I get to see everything that I want to see in that moment. It's like you know what people want to see, so you're showing it, which I love. Um definitely talk to us about the type of hardware you're using. And then how are you editing, what are you editing this on? And then how are you uploading it? Where are you uploading it at? Are you going to like a coffee shop? Like, how does all that work?

SPEAKER_02 30:48

When you're living out of like a backpack, you know, um you want to keep minimalistic. Uh so I'm not sure if you guys know, but in one of my episodes, I so coming back to the United States, everything was just bam, takes off. Like um, I lost contact with my family like nine years ago. You know, we had a fallout, me being the drunk that I was and stuff. I lost my family because of what I did, you know, and who I became. And and uh so I never saw them for like nine years, and all of a sudden one of my stepsisters tracked me down and said, Hey, you know, I was looking for your name under Jason because I go by my middle name and my family, but she wasn't looking for Daniel. And I thought my my my parents were dead and stuff, and uh, you know, because the house was sold in Arizona, but I was able to reunite with them and the videos uh so it's all raw and it's real because I still am falling back into even though I'm only doing videos two times a week, I it's hard to fall away from that daily vlog, you know, that because you get so used to just every day, you know. Right. Um, so I was able

Going Raw With Titles And Thumbnails

SPEAKER_02 32:00

to reunite with my sister, my brother. Uh he reunited with his kids. Um, you know, my dad, my mom, they're all living in the Oregon area. Um, well, my stepmom is my mom. Um uh so I was able to leave my pocket three camera there. And I went because I wanted so that's the one I use now, is the DJI Action 6. And I know a lot of people is like, well, you're an expensive camera for a homeless person, it's investment. Uh, because this is YouTube is my business. Yes. So this is my investment in it. And I had to make that decision even with a small audience. And uh the action the Pocket 3 is a beautiful camera, you know, it's just not a rugged camera. So the if all of Southeast Asia was using the Pocket 3, and it can take a bump and a bruise, it's just not waterproof. So this is where this comes in handy with the neck mount because I need the hands free because uh the situations I'm in. And um, yeah, and then I do have a tripod, but it's holding up my phone right now. Um, so yeah, this is the action six. This is what I actually oops. Says reconnecting here. Yeah, I can see you. I can see you. You're good. Okay. Um anyway, yeah, that's the the camera I'm using. Um, so I'm not carrying around a laptop and stuff. Uh I tried that once when I was a homeless person, and it's completely impossible because it's got a keyboard. And if you're a coffee drinker, it's only a matter of time before you spill your coffee on it and just ruin it. And it's, you know, they're super sensitive, plus they take up room. So this is my phone. And uh, you know, you you Cap Cut is one of those um applications that stick a watermark on it if you want the free version. Yeah. And then if you are um if you do want the pro version, they charge you monthly on it, and it's a ridiculous amount a month. So there's a competitor out there who I support. I'm not I'm not sponsored by them, but it's called U Cut. And I like the U Cut because UCut will give you, like, if you want to just do the free version, they give you like 80% of the app for free, and they won't put a watermark on it. So all your videos are watermark free. Um, and if you there's a tool on the free version that you don't they don't have, well, you can just watch a commercial and they'll give it to you, you know. And I think technically you could get the pro version just by watching enough commercials, but if you want to buy the buy the pro version, it's only 40 bucks. It's $39.99 for a lifetime guarantee, and they update their music and stuff like this. So it's like it's a one-time payment. Uh, and as a homeless person, a hobo or whatever, you can't do monthly payments. You just can't, right? You know, no, uh you have to because the whole the only way to live this lifestyle is if you're bill-free. You can't you can't live this lifestyle and have any bills. Now they say, what about a phone bill? Yeah, I I just paid up for the whole year on US Mobile because they're true unlimited. So, you know, and if you pay for the whole year, you get it for like $25 a month and non-throttle, full unlimited. I know I'm dropping a lot of names, but trust me, I'm not sponsored by any of these.

SPEAKER_00 35:26

No, that's good. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

These are the things you have to learn as you go along. You know, it's it's like, yeah, well, how do I do this? How do because YouTube requires uploading and a lot of it. Yep. And I'm not doing 4K anymore. Like I used to try and upload 4K videos uh in Southeast Asia. I just do 1080 now. Um, no music, no, you know, so uh my editing uh has been reduced in time, but it still takes a lot of time. It really does, you know, if you're picky, you know, there's parts that you have to edit out. And so I use the UCut app. And but that does require a better camera or a phone. It just does with a better processor. Because I try to get the cheaper the cheaper Samsung and the the it was funny because the first phone I had, the rugged phone, had a good processor in it. I just didn't realize it until I tried to get the cheaper version of um Samsung and then like the A series, yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. The A something and and yeah, so I ended up having to get the S25. Crazy, I don't like uh but you have to have a good phone and a good camera, and then your business is set. So, but you don't need to start a YouTube channel, you can just start it with your phone. Because your first channel is all about learning. And then when you you want to take it serious, reset the algorithm and start a new channel, you know, because if you're not doing good in the first three months, then you know it'd be but you'd be learning. Yes, uh yeah, you're already locked into a box and you know it's the algorithm's the big mystery. We're all taking guesses at how it works, but you know you know um but yeah, so yeah, it's it's I I super, super surprised within this last month to just you know getting here, uh reuniting with my family, uh having a channel just blow up, you know, like crazy. Like over in, you know, I think in Southeast Asia, I was only averaging four dollars per thousand views. So uh I think one because of the um the advertisers are down there probably don't pay as much. But two, I was already kind of locked in the box, and you know how that is. It's it's like you know, you can be anywhere from $4,000 or $4 per thousand views all the way up to $36 per thousand views, you know. It just depends on how popular. And then that fluctuates back and forth because most of the times I think that's done on a bidding system, you know, yes where people bid on their advertisement block and uh trying to, you know, so um so like I I Well, so for you, your your overhead for all of this is very, very low, obviously, right?

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Like everything you do is just it's mostly food at this point. Um so now you're actually getting money from uh YouTube in a way uh in a really good month, it could set you up for a year or maybe even longer of being able to just live this lifestyle. Would you say that that's accurate?

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, it basically um so it's a double-edged sword. Uh YouTube can pay you enough where you're no longer you can go in and just uh you can get an RV, you can get a van, but the thing is people are pain to see me on a train. And you know, and it's like so I could just start going to hotels, but then I'll lose my audience. So then I lose my income, and then I'll be right back to step, you know, uh, you know, yeah, you know, step one again, you know, like homeless again, you know. So it's one of those things, it's like, so what do you do? Well, me just put I'm planning ahead, and any now, it's not just YouTube, it it's uh going from Southeast Asia, which is um a non-tipping um society, you know, uh, to United States where we're so ingrained that we have to tip for everything that I had my PayPal blow up too. So most of my cameras, even in Southeast Asia though, um, you know, it was because of people donating money that I was able to buy the Pocket 3. And I was fully, I mean, all this is on videos too. I mean, you can see that I thank everybody, and uh, you know, but over here, you know, it's

Filming And Editing From A Backpack

SPEAKER_02 39:50

like PayPal and YouTube, all that money is uh just plan ahead. It's gonna go into the bank account, and I'm just gonna keep saving, and maybe in a few years I'll have enough to actually a small little like property and just put like a tiny house on it, you know, and then just like offer it tiny house, something that's legal and legit, and just some where I can travel if I ever get sick or if I get hurt. Uh, one thing about shoestring is he was uh he was constantly fighting uh ailments, you know. He was sick a lot, and you know, he got hurt a lot too. He had his um he got hit by a car, broke his arm, and you know, this was uh had his hand run over by the train and you know lost his fingers. Oh my god. This is all since he started his YouTube uh career, but he had a center hub that he could come back to, and that's kind of what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna keep living the way I have always lived because I'm comfortable living this way. But anything I do make through donations and stuff, that's all going into the bank account, guys. So like when this is no longer, because this is not forever, you know, this this YouTube thing is just temporary. In a few months, it could be over, you know. Um you could yeah. I mean, because I'm I'm you know, I'm walking a nice little fine line is this is tolerated, this type of material is tolerated. Uh, but it YouTube has got to worry about their um their advertisers. And uh, you know, and so it's like sometimes I've had one or two videos, uh one video they say, hey, can you correct this? Right? It's a little too dangerous. And I was like, Yeah, no problem. I had to cut out a section of it and uh big section of it, and then uh YouTube was good with it. Last one, they're like, no, it's just we we we can't show this one on. But I understand because one thing as a as a content creator, yeah, or I just like to say YouTuber. Uh youtuber is like once you upload it to YouTube and you know, uh it's theirs. You know, it's like you're selling something to them, right? And if they say, hey, cut this up and you know, cut it up. Yeah, I know it's like, but it's my artistic, eh? It's also they buy it. If they're gonna pay you for it, it's theirs, you know. And you can put it on other platforms. You can put you can get it. I got a T7 drive, so I do actually have a T7 shield. Um, and I put my videos on that. Yeah, that's just like uh yeah, uh solid state drive. Um filling that up. Um so if I ever need to access something again, I can.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

But so what look so talk to me about because some people don't know, and again, you're gonna the people will end up watching this this podcast and go, oh, let me see more about this content, and don't know what kind of more recently has been happening. So while your channel is only about four months old, you're finding that the content you're making, which is fascinating. I've watched so many videos, and some of the best and most interesting parts were how you were getting on and off trains, but that causes a problem on YouTube, right? So talk to us about what happened the first time you got like an alert from YouTube, what it was they were concerned about, and how you kind of got around and what you're doing moving forward to get around.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Um, I'm trying to work with YouTube. Well, of course, I'm you working with YouTube anytime, but uh a lot of times they don't even know uh uh the reason why uh something gets flagged because it's just ran through software. So the software, so it could be anything from me transplaining my what I'm doing too much, you know. Um so you know, there's so it could be the actual getting on, getting off, it could be anything. I don't think they necessarily know, but um I'm not gonna I'm not saying they're you know, it's so it's like they if you say what what exactly is it, they don't really yeah. I don't think they even can say it's this right here, you know. But when uh the the um when the software grabs it, it says this section, usually, you know, and you just cut this out. But you cut it out and then it's like, yeah, it's still not acceptable, and you're like, Oh.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

But you know Well, give me an example of when that happened. When when was what was a video that happened that said this part needs to come out? What was

SPEAKER_02 44:00

the uh that was um the video uh uh the calm before the storm and that was just i called it the calm before the storm because i got caught in a storm on that one had to get under my my uh you know while i was on the train had to get under the uh tarp and everything and and uh but there was a section in that where just walking the yard uh in denver and uh i had they the whole section they wanted out so i just kept the first four seconds that's the opener because they're talking about the whole thing like just like ma'am so I was like well the opening walking a yard uh a train yard just explain people for people who don't know what that means um so I was walking the yard to get onto the train and you have to find what's called a uh accept well you have to find an acceptable ride so anytime you hear something like suicide ride it means an unsafe ride it's like the the when they say suicide doors on a car is it's because they open up the opposite way um so uh so yeah it's it's um it's an unsafe ride where you the you usually the wheels are exposed and you know it's like you end up getting hurt that way and stuff um so you want to make sure you do it as safe as possible um actually you shouldn't do it at all you know um uh you know I mean honestly you shouldn't people get hurt all the time doing this uh it's a very fine line with YouTube um but it is there's several several channels out there uh I'll mention one of them that I find to be great film work and stuff it's just the algorithm hasn't um picked them up like they did my channel which is a shame because the it's called they're called the Yard Buzzards they got they're a great couple got a dog they've been doing this forever you know they're they ride hard they ride long it's just mine compared to doors for some reason it picked mine up I don't know um so I want to give a shout out to them of course of course I'm being a little uh but uh no that's great I have to show respect where I can and um but I love that uh yeah and there's absolutely no reason my channel is bigger but i i it's up to the audience you never know you know they people a lot of times like you know they like me rambling and you know I go off I start on one subject go a different direction and uh but walk in the yard is just like you're kind of looking for a ride that's safe you know and then when you find a ride that's safe you get on and then uh yeah and I think that YouTube didn't necessarily like the part of getting on or getting off especially getting the one that they yanked is we I was getting off on what's called the fly while the train's still moving. So that's like but it's going slow enough there's rules like if you can't count as many uh uh bolts that are holding in the tire it's going too fast but you actually you just look at it you know if it's going five miles per hour or less jump on it you know um yeah but it's really up to I don't know exactly because if you scout you know look on YouTube you will find people running and jumping onto the train room stuff but then sometimes YouTube just goes in and wipes out a whole channel.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

You know uh I think they did that to um uh yeah they've done that to several channels it's just you know it's just like how does this affect how you make content moving forward like what type of things are you trying to be more careful about now?

SPEAKER_02 47:34

Well I'm trying to because it's it's it's falling under uh too dangerous so if

Monetization And YouTube Safety Limits

SPEAKER_02 47:40

it's too dangerous I'm trying to calm it down because I personally like you know like I'm not sure if you ever seen hardcore Henry like the movie but it's basically a guy running around doing all this action stuff with just a camera strapped to his chest and that's why you know you got this and you get that that uh first person shooter type feel you know what I'm talking about like a video game feel and I love that yeah yeah go run up grab onto a train jump but I I mean I love to do all that you know but there's a fine line where YouTube says no that's just too dangerous and they you know isn't they won't keep warning you uh so it's like yeah they warn you now I don't know about this last warning because it was set for premiere they so the first one I I fixed which got rid of my warning second one didn't even show yet you know it wasn't like it was set for premiere and it was like no no it can't do this one so I had to scramble grab the next few videos in line and put them up there to make the premiere because I didn't want to upset the algorithm it still affected the algorithm though so I was getting up to 2,000 views per premiere it dropped down to less than a thousand so like you know like 600 now I just creeping back up to over a thousand again. So I'm earning back the I guess the trust of the algorithm I don't know but anytime YouTube if uh does something like that on your because I I post every Saturday and Tuesday at three o'clock although I change time zones all the time I just like clockwork right and uh I'm trying to have five videos to start the channel two two times a week um I'm taking that that from uh itchy boots a traveler her channel she does consistently two times a week uh same time um you know I'm trying to stay as consistent for the algorithm as possible because it likes me and uh you know and it can be screwed up you know it really can you know it's like I said uh next month I don't know if I'm gonna have this channel uh well I should I'm trying my hardest so you should yeah I shouldn't even have a warning but I'm not quite possible about that because it got yanked before even being aired but then you start going into strikes you know how that is you got three strikes are out yeah um yeah and uh so I haven't gotten my first strike yet so you know uh that's good good stuff on that let's uh let's do a couple of little little fun things before we start to wrap up uh give me some of the terminology that you use during your episodes uh some people might pop in after this episode and go oh this this is interesting let me watch some of his videos use a lot of different terminology that may not be uh obvious to people um tell us some different terminology that you use okay uh the one I said about suicide ride a lot of people say hey what is that it's just like a suicide door it means unsafe ride that's all it means you'll hear a lot of uh the travelers return uh refer to other homeless people as either home bums or home guards uh home guard and a home bum is the same thing it's just uh one's a little more harsh because uh hobos do not like to be uh referred to as bums because they're not there's uh you go into an area and it's all trashed that's usually uh from a person staying there for a long time and it's in the hobo code yes there's hobo codes that you pick up your your garbage after you leave so you know you to you try and stay clean if you can right but your main thing is you keep to hop out locations you keep your camps clean you you know pack it in pack it out is what we used to say yeah um so we get blamed for it anyway we like to distinguish the difference so um hobo used to mean traveling um a person that travels and works a tramp uh means uh a person that travels on the train uh but doesn't work now those are interchangeable now so tramps are going by hobo now and then what's called a homebum a homebum is a person that doesn't work and doesn't travel so you'll hear that terminology uh catching on the fly means uh getting off on the fly usually means um while it's moving uh hot shots and z trains are the fast moving IMs which are intro mode uh module trains um uh those are the fastest ones the highest priority because they have you know different priorities and Z is like the highest um uh there's trying to think of what other terminology what what's the the like when you're trying to like a cash out or something I think I forget what it's called or like um different areas where you're about to jump on or jump off of the case. Oh catching out oh yeah yeah yeah I guess yeah sometimes these terminologies I uh yeah catching out means to uh leave you know a catch out would be like a location that's safe enough where the bull won't find you and stuff like that. That's yeah it's called catching out that's you're catching your ride out of out of uh wherever you're at um flying a sign is uh usually what people do for money while they're traveling um sometimes day labor works good too uh flying a sign is where you're standing on the corner with your cardboard that says traveler anything helps or whatever um uh but YouTube actually is becoming the new era of flying a sign too though you know it's it's uh YouTube you know it's funny because it's a good genre people like watching homeless people uh probably because we're all afraid that you're gonna end up in the same way or you know it's borderline bushcraft survival it's a way of traveling around there's a nostalgic feel of the guy especially on the rails you know um because it is you know it's it's something that we all remember as kids we wanted to dress up as a hobo for like you know for Halloween so I think it's just a mixture of all this this perfect storm of uh you know um you know it's just you know so YouTube's paying these people that are there's some people that are not real homeless people too now there are people getting out there acting like they're homeless just so that they can get an audience and uh really you kind of need to be homeless before you're able to say that guy's not homeless.

SPEAKER_00 54:08

You know right yeah you know yeah um two two last things um I noticed that like you go from different parts of the country but I can never really tell why you've decided to go a particular place. Is there like a plan like I'm gonna go to maybe Cincinnati for a week or then I need to go to New York like why do you choose to go to a different place?

SPEAKER_02 54:27

Well um so there's what's called snowbirding right you want to go to the northern states during the summer and the southern states during the winter right um that way you're always in the cool section

Rail Slang Maps And Snowbirding

SPEAKER_02 54:40

but um my real goal is just to get good at something I was never really good at and this time I'm really paying attention to the lines that I'm on there's an app called Rail Guide. There's actually two there's also the open railway uh map and that's for universal all countries. So if you're over in Indonesia that's one you'll be using but right here in Northern America there's one called um uh Rail Guide and it's great because you can see in real time where you're at a little dot on the map and which rail you're on and who owns it BNSF Uh Union Pacific uh you know uh but um that's basically my atlas back in the days we carried around an atlas in our backpack and that's how we you know that's how we hitch a hike around the United States now you can do it all digitally Google Maps is great for satellite views there's uh the new hobo has everything from radios uh if you guys don't know this is the uh Unidin uh BC125AT if you guys ever need to know want to go listen to the railroad people or whatever uh you can open the bank number five and it's just it's pre-programmed so this is like the basic one for rail fans and stuff and a rail fan is just a person that loves to go out and stare at the uh at the uh trains they don't necessarily care for the hobos some do uh the one but some of them will call the cops on them so you never quite know it's too bad too because rail fans are like super smart when it comes to the railroad and I could talk to them forever. And there's unfortunately not all of them like uh people jumping on their trains.

SPEAKER_00 56:19

Yeah of course of course of course so um finally how long do you think you want to do this? We did I'm glad that you covered like at some point you'd like to get your own place because as you get older like this becomes more and more dangerous. Like every year that goes by becomes a little bit more dangerous for you as you get older. Like how much longer do you think you could do this?

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Oh you couldn't do it until you don't have legs and arms anywhere uh really well uh right now I'm 51 right so and um uh give another shout out to shoestring showed that he was in very bad health and he was doing it and he was planning on just riding until he couldn't ride anymore and so he wrote all the way up to the end um honestly if you're able to get out of bed and walk out the door you should be able to get you know I mean so how long am I gonna do this until I can't do it anymore honestly um you know I'm keep doing the YouTube thing until I can't do it anymore. Even when I if you know I do pretty good for a few you know a year or so save up for a property that's just gonna be a center hub. So when I buy a piece of property it's gonna have the railroad running right through it. So I have a spot to when you get older you do want to think of maybe a small little spot that you can rest and recoup, you know, especially if you don't have family you know and but it's really really hard when you don't have money. And uh so I'm taking advantage of the fact that YouTube is but is YouTube still temporary.

SPEAKER_00 57:47

So while this is going on yeah I'm not touching that that's going you know because I I'm not gonna have this forever and uh hopefully by that time you know I I have uh enough money for a small little property with an off-grid you know with a nice little railroad passing right through it with an outhouse I can't pay for so American Hobo can't pay for American Hobo train riding uh Daniel I can't thank you so I I just thank you for taking the time with us today if you're interested in seeing more about Daniel I'm pretty sure you want to see this now if you haven't heard of Daniel before you definitely want to see it there'll be links in the description if you listen

Meetup Details And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 58:30

to an audio only podcast there'll be links in the show notes to get you over to check out American Hobo train riding Daniel thank you so much for joining us no problem I'm super excited to see what else you're going to do.

SPEAKER_02 58:40

Gravit one thing if anybody does want to meet meet up with me uh August 13th through 16th uh they have a Brit Hobo days and so Brit Iowa they do every year they do a national like uh uh it's a hobo convention so I'll be there uh anybody that would like to actually meet up it's really cool guys go to Brit Iowa uh August 13th through 16th I'll be there um and I can meet any of my fans and stuff there and uh yeah so I'd love to meet everyone yeah it's funny because it's like how else would anyone ever meet you because it's you don't know where you're gonna be necessarily that's great that you're actually going to be somewhere where people can check you out for sure.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Well Daniel thank you so much for joining us today. If you if you love Daniel's stuff like I said there'll be links in the description and we'll see y'all in the next one.