HOW TO FIND AN EDITOR FOR A YOUTUBE CHANNEL

At some point, many creators realize the need to hire a video editor for their YouTube channel. Perhaps you have this problem, but you do not know how to make the right choice. Or maybe you already had experience working with an editor who misunderstood the essence of editing a project and had to redo everything.

Don’t worry. The Levincast team has prepared an article on this topic. Study our recommendations and try to put them into practice. This is extremely important, as a well-chosen YouTube editor will help you get rid of routine work. It will free up time, which is much better spent promoting the channel or searching for new ideas for content.

If you do not choose your editor wisely, you will waste your money and your own time redoing the content yourself or be forced to hire another professional.

Real life example

Let’s take a closer look at this situation using the example of a blogger we will call John.
John decided to create a YouTube channel. He is still a beginner and decided to do everything himself. As a result, he spends 2 days every week to edit his videos. He does not give up and creates an optimal work routine for himself, managing to shoot and edit videos in order to upload videos consistently twice a week. One day, his videos come out of the swamp of invisibility. His first 1000 subscribers subscribe to him, and the videos begins to gain likes and 10,000 views. But right after this happens, the growth stops. As an entrepreneur, John understands that something needs to change.

Hire an editor or do it yourself?

John decides he wants to take his videos to the next level. What should John choose to do in this situation?

Editing your own videos: pros and cons

John will continue to edit his videos on his own, because hiring a video editor for YouTube is too difficult and has many pitfalls. To make his videos better, John will now have to spend 3 days a week editing videos and watching video editing tutorials.

Plus, he’ll need a powerful computer and a subscription to editing software. It sounds good if John is ready to make YouTube his full-time job, and the whole process from A to Z brings him real pleasure. But everything becomes more complicated if YouTube is not the main source of income for John, and he is forced to combine it with his full-time job.

In addition, John understands that professional editing is not everything, the content of the video is more important. He will also need more time for competitor research, brainstorming new ideas, script writing, and video production to ensure the continued success of his YouTube channel.

Hiring a specialist

John will spend a few days and some money on hiring a video editor for his YouTube channel, even though this will force him out of his comfort zone. Change is always challenging. After a number of decisions that we will describe in this article, and making a few new acquaintances, John will hire a video editor and transfer part of his work to him. Thus, he will free himself 3 days a week and spend them working on the content of his videos.

Where can I find a video editor?

Nowadays, finding a YouTube editor is not a problem. Having access to the internet is enough to do so.
There are a huge number of online exchanges, agencies, Instagram accounts, websites, and Telegram channels for finding remote work. In addition, good specialists are passed from hand to hand through word of mouth. Let’s take a closer look at these options.

Freelance exchanges

Freelance exchanges are services where customers post tasks, and freelancers complete them for money. There are many platforms like this these days; some popular ones, some little-known ones. Each freelance exchange works according to its own rules: it can have paid subscriptions, commissions for work, etc.
There are some specialized platforms. For example, an exchange of designers, translators, or programmers. There are also all-in-one platforms, on which there are specialists of a wide variety. The most popular freelance platforms right now are Upwork and Fiverr.

All you need to do is sign up, describe your project, filter by freelancer requirements relating to video creation, and give the prospective editors a style guide and examples of work you like (or don’t like). In a couple of days, you will see dozens of responses for every taste and budget.
To give you a starting point, on the freelance marketplace, Upwork, the price for a YouTube video editor ranges from $30 to $80 an hour on average. The price includes only video editing. Dozens of specialists from all over the world will respond to your request. Some editors charge on a per-hour-basis, while others want to charge a fixed fee for a complete project. You can negotiate pricing during the pre-interview stage. The best option for the first time working with an editor is to divide a large project into stages and pay separately for each milestone.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing services involve the delegation of certain functions to specialists from another company. Outsourcing work is based on one main principle – to keep for yourself what you can do better than others. External employees are given what they can do better than the customer. The main goal of outsourcing is the release of resources and the concentration of all efforts on important goals.

Outsourcing has its pros and cons. Some benefits include:

• Efficiency. Companies have highly professional employees, software, and systems that will make the work very efficient and convenient for both parties. You simply follow their developments, and do not waste time searching for your own.
• Quality. When it comes to video editing, quality and speed go up with experience because skilled editors can guess potential problems and know how to fix them without disturbing the client. Plus, you don’t have to consider many freelancers who could waste your time.
• Guarantee. Good companies value their reputation and will do everything to make the client satisfied with the work performed.
• Replacement workers. In the event that the provided editor falls ill or is forced to interrupt work for a certain time, the agency will provide you with a replacement specialist. It is clear that when hiring a freelancer, you yourself would urgently have to look for another. And this would mean restarting the process of interviewing, reviewing portfolios, test tasks, etc.

The disadvantages of outsourcing include the risk of working with an unreliable company, overstated promises, and a potentially high price.

And now, it seems, you have decided where you will look for an editor. How does one start the selection?

Editor’s portfolio. What can it tell you?

A portfolio is a demonstration of skill, taste, and style. Based on the portfolio, you can choose whether you’d like to meet with the editor, and most often, make a decision about your potential cooperation.
An experienced editor will do everything possible to make the video look holistic, dynamic, so that the footage is of the same quality. He will also make sure the music is chosen tastefully. Pay attention to titles, logos, and light correction. In general, it’s advisable to pay attention to everything. And then, most likely, at this stage you will already understand whether this is the specialist who is suitable to work with you and bring your ideas to life.

Let’s say you’ve found several professionals with great portfolios and can’t decide which one to hire. Or maybe you’ve thought that some portfolios could even be fake.
Let them complete a test task.

Test task

It’s a good idea to give the video editor a trial video to edit in order to see if you’re a good match for each other. But make sure that the terms of reference are formulated clearly, understandably, and contain examples of liked (or, conversely, disliked) videos. If you don’t quite like the result, don’t rush to say no. Talk to the video editor, give him the opportunity to explain his intentions. Perhaps in trying to show you as many skills as possible, he used too many special effects. Or he inserted the trends of the season, which he recently learned about in a course, so that you understand that he keeps up with the times.

Beginner or pro? Who to hire?

When choosing an editor, you should pay attention to his video editing skills. It is not always a disadvantage that the editor is still a novice and has only basic knowledge in the field of editing. Perhaps this is simply the best option for you. If your tasks do not include complex video editing and computer graphics creation, then by hiring an advanced editor, you make things worse for yourself and for him. For you, this is a blow to the wallet. For him, he is not being faced with anything challenging, so he may become bored. It would be good to discuss these points as well.

In addition, creating lower thirds, intros, and transitions does not always require special skills. You can find many ready-made templates on the internet, both free and those for which you need to purchase a license. Plus, a much more important point is not so much the technical skills of the video editor, but his ability to make the result ‘live’, dynamic, and capturing attention from the very beginning of the YouTube video. It will be a bonus if the video editor has experience working with the same genre of content as yours.

How much does it cost to hire someone to make YouTube videos and what does the price depend on?

Let’s first understand the issue of hiring a video editor. Our first question is: how much does it cost?
Even a video that is a couple of minutes long can have a lot of variables that affect the amount of time a hired video editor can spend working on it. Here are some of them:

• The duration of original and edited materials
• The editing / production complexity
• Whether you require motion graphics, voice overs, songwriting, or subscriptions to licensed music, sound, and graphic footage sites
• If you hired an editor on a site like Fiverr or Upwork, outsourced a video editor, or directly cooperate with a full time video editor

Let’s take a closer look at each item that forms the cost of the order.

Raw Materials

You will inevitably send your editor raw footage to make your videos.

If you’re worried that your files don’t look professional enough, don’t be. 75% of original YouTube footage looks like everyday footage, especially if it’s not a YouTube channel with talking heads. Children’s content, lifestyle vlogs, etc. all look very ordinary before being professionally edited.
Consider how many minutes of source material you provide for editing. If you send him video files that are several hours long, then previewing and preparing the files can take the video editor a whole day. This will surely raise the price.

The best option would be to send 10-15 minutes of original content to get 5-8 minutes of finished video.

The best quality for YouTube is 4K, meaning that the file resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels.

Full HD quality is also allowed, which is 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Discuss in advance with the video editor whether his computer has enough power to work with 4K resolution. Also ask if he has a high-speed internet connection to download such volumes of data. For clarity, 10 minutes of 4K resolution video takes about 3.5 GB.

Cloud storage

You can send your video files via cloud storage.

• Dropbox provides 2 GB for free. An upgraded 2 TB plan will cost $9.99 per month.
• Google Drive gives you 15 GB of storage for free, while the 100 GB plan costs $1.99 per month.
• There are also free alternatives such as DropMeFiles. File storage is limited to 50 GB, and files are only available for a maximum of 14 days.

Cloud storage is one topic worth discussing with your video editor. You should ask what service he uses in advance and indicate the retention period for the source materials in case the video editor needs to refer to them again, as well as the retention period for the finished video so that you have time to download it. We recommend agreeing upon a period of 10 to 14 days to make sure you have everything you need before the editor deletes the files.

Solid State Drives

If your YouTube videos are long and are in 4K quality, and you upload a video to YouTube daily, then it is more expedient to hire a video editor from your city to share files using a solid state drive, meaning a flash drive or hard drive.

Production complexity

The cost of YouTube editing services depends on the complexity of the production. Production is the process of creating a project. That is, giving the video its final look.
This includes:

• Video editing for YouTube: length of sources, number of shots, desired result.
• Creating visual effects: Depending on the complexity of your video, it could be necessary to add visual effects. If your video needs to be filled with visual effects and ready-made footage is indispensable, then you will have to hire a visual effects designer.
• Animated Graphics: Your video may need to add some animations or graphics. For this, you will also have to hire a separate specialist.

Partial services

‘What if I need partial YouTube video editing services?’
That is a good question. You can discuss in advance with the person you are hiring if he will:

• be able to do only a rough cut
• do the final work on the video
• add footage, transitions, intros
• add sound design
• add voice over of the video in another language

If you work with a video editing company that provides a package of different services, it will not be difficult to agree on specific services. But it will be more difficult to get a video voice over service from a freelance video editor that specializes exclusively in video editing.

Also, you do not have to hire the professional editor all year round. You can hire him from time to time to take a vacation or to focus on other temporary tasks. In this case, you need to consider the amount of content that you will transfer to video editing in advance, and that the style of work of the hired employee does not differ much from yours.

Hiring a specialist for an extended period of time

If you want to hire a video editor for a relatively long time, you will need to agree on a work schedule with him. Since for successful growth on YouTube, upload consistency is vitally important.

Work on schedule

When looking for a YouTube editor, one of the most important criteria is stability, commitment, and responsibility. It is necessary to streamline the editing process and communication with the editor. Material should be delivered at the same frequency so that there is always a planned supply of videos for posting on YouTube. The ideal option would be to discuss the work schedule in advance so the editor doesn’t stop communicating with you in order to go on a sudden vacation. If the hired specialist has experience working with YouTube channels, even small ones, then this is a huge plus, because he has an understanding of work in the long term. He knows how to meet deadlines. It is important to understand that when you work as one team towards a common goal, then success is inevitable.

Editor’s soft skills

In addition to professional skills, a video editor must have a few more skills:

Understanding the psychology of working with clients

It is good if the editor understands the meaning of the phrase ‘the client is always right’, conducts himself professionally, and is open to criticism. If the customer sends a vague technical task, then the YouTube editor should be able to ask important questions without hesitation. He should ask the client to send examples of the work they like or dislike. Then, you will surely have a healthy working relationship.

Perception of criticism

It would be a big plus if the video editor can calmly take criticism and make the necessary edits. However, a good editor is a professional in his field and he can also competently argue for each of his actions. Of course, the last word remains with the customer, and the YouTube editor must understand this.

Important points to consider when hiring an editor

There are a number of other points to consider if you are serious about hiring someone to edit your videos.

Employment contract and official documents

Want to secure your deal with a freelancer or agency? Sign a service agreement. This is a legal guarantee for both parties.
The paperwork will increase if you decide to hire a full time video editor, because you will need to register him as your employee, pay taxes on him including contributions to his pension fund. You must also take sick leave, weekends, and vacations into account.

Non-disclosure, NDAs

If you work with exclusive material, and it is important for you to prevent the leakage of trade secrets or personal data, then you will need a Non-Disclosure Agreement; known commonly as an NDA.

A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), secrecy agreement (SA), or non-disparagement agreement, is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We hope our recommendations will help you find a great YouTube editor, and that you will produce the best content possible for your subscribers. But if you do not have the time or desire to search for personnel, you can contact us.

Levincast recruits with all of the above tips in mind. Our employees are responsible, attentive, and highly professional. We do video editing, animation, visual effects, sound design, songwriting, and voice acting in multiple languages. Our team has been specializing in YouTube video creation for over 5 years.

Order from Levincast and your videos will be exactly as you intended or even better!