One of the Best Investments I Made as a Youtuber
I didn’t believe Ali Abdaal when he mentioned to us, “If you enjoying now, you won’t later... You’ll want to hire an editor. My regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.” After a year of being on Youtube and burning out from lack of rest, improper pacing and falling behind on consistent weekly uploads [on Mondays anyway], I decided that I would try investing in an editor via Vidchops.
If you’re not sure about whether or not you should invest in an editor, here are some things I’d like to address.
“I don’t feel comfortable showing another person my mistakes through the edit.” You shouldn’t need to feel this way. This is what editors are for, they know how to make us look great even if it took us the n’th try to actually get our lines right. You can delegate this. They are there for you.
“I fear that editor won’t be able to deliver on my style.” It’s a good thing that there are other people who are better at things than we are. I used to think that I had a unique style of editing. That’s partly true, but the other half of the truth is that my style can also be copied and even improved on. My editor showed me that. My editor edits my Youtube videos better than me. I however still prefer to edit my cinematic style vlogs hehe.
“I don’t have enough money to pay an editor.” As Ali Abdaal said, “If you work a professional job, you can afford to pay an editor.” When he said this, I believe he was referring to rates of editors that had a rate of at least $10 per hour. I’m paying $50-$75 per video for the subscription service I use, Vidchops. As a nurse, I need to pick up 16 hours overtime for the month, which for me, in outpatient dialysis, is usually 2 extra shifts a month. 16 hours of nurse work to pay for 8-12 videos that may take as long as 4-6 hours per edit (32 hours-72 hours total) is way worth it if I compare 16 hours of work of a nurse vs 32-72 potential hours editing. The value is there, just remember I have to also maximize the time not spent editing and use it for everything else in my process prior to editing.
“It’s a hassle to find an editor.” You can find editors through Upwork, Fiverrr, or sign up for a subscription service like Vidchops. Upwork could probably be the cheapest way to go, but I decided to go with Vidchops because I didn’t want to spend too much time hiring “cheap” at $10 per hour and end up spending more time trying to train someone to edit my videos. Through Vidchops, I work with someone who is already proficient in editing, and I have a guarantee for a 48 hour turn around time. It’s so satisfying to receive an email at work saying that my video is finished. It brings joy.
I despised the feeling of “living from video to video,” and always feeling like I was behind. After my first month of having an editor, I was able to focus more on content planning, spend more time on filming (my favorite part), and even relax. I’m currently 3 weeks ahead on my weekly upload schedule and not even burnt out. If some kind of emergency happened, I would be covered for up to 2 weeks before I’d have to start working on the next video. Editing is one of my biggest obstacles and causes of my resistance to create - it’s was the bottleneck of my operations.
Is having an editor practical for you? I would recommend that you know how to edit so you know how to communicate your vision to your editor in addition to sending them reference videos of creators you admire or even your own videos. If it really isn’t within your financial means, please do consider it. When you’ve been editing videos a long time like I have, you don’t want to edit your talking heads for long, searching for B-roll, adding every piece of text, and all on your off day when you could be enjoying time with family instead.
If you’re ready to delegate your editing and really focus on the main meat of your content creation, check out Vidchops and get $200 off your first month for the Unlimited Package.
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