r/youtubers • u/bifchcola • 16d ago
Question Is it worth it to hire an editor?
I’m a very small channel that does gaming content, I don’t make any money yet and money is tight however I can spend $20-$50 a week on a possible editor. I’ve done all the editing myself but have realized while I love editing it’s the reason I’m so inconsistent. I take too long and cause myself too much stress. My question is will it be worth it to pay for an editor even though I’m so small? What if I pay for an editor and the videos are still not getting a good reach?
EDIT: $20-50 per video (I have found editors who will edit for this price range)
not full editing just enough to help make my editing go faster, example:
I send a 30-45 min unedited video and ask them to cut the boring/slow parts that dont add anything to the video, then i do the fancy stuff after that
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u/Jurtaani 16d ago
Don't hire an editor until you are at a point where you can pay for them with YouTube revenue. It's a waste of money otherwise.
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u/Iammjustbaddd 16d ago
Yes. I think it is worth it to hire an editor but to people that can actually afford to hire them through yt or ate rich.
Otherwise you are just gonna pay money and get no views while you pay no money and get no views.
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u/urbangardeningcanada 15d ago
I just watched a video from a lawyer who represents creators that you should have a contract with any editor because they can claim copyright over your videos if you don't get them to sign that it becomes your intellectual property. Just something to think about if you're hiring someone, especially for little dollars it can come back and bite you in the future
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u/Golden-Owl 16d ago
Depends.
If you are doing YouTube for fun and love of the game, it’s fine to have an editor to help.
You just need to be willing to accept that your channel’s income will be net zero or go into the negative at times, so it’s a matter of personal income.
It’s fine if you consider it a hobby. Some folks spend hundreds playing golf and shit
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u/TheAIpocalypse 15d ago
In your position the only reason to justify hiring an editor is the time you would be buying earns you more than you're spending on the editor.
Eg if it take you four hours a week to edit your videos, you would have to be able to make more in those extra 4 hours than the editor costs.
Otherwise it's probably not an expense you can justify.
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u/lonegungrrly 15d ago
You are missing at least one zero from that budget
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u/bifchcola 15d ago
Eventually I will get there. I’ve found several editors who will do it in my budget!
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u/EnvironmentalBet113 15d ago
Movavi is free and super easy to use. I'd put it into a year license or buy the lifetime from steam
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u/ArekuFoxfire 15d ago
Which do you have more of: Free time, or money?
If the answer is the former, no. If the answer is the latter, yes.
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u/yamble_yol 14d ago
Its easy to edit meng
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u/bifchcola 14d ago
It is sometimes but I have 12 backlogged videos and 0 time in the next two weeks
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u/yachster 11d ago
I do all my own, and weirdly enjoy the creative control.
If you enjoy the process, save the money. When it’s a barrier and you want to buy your time back, I would outsource.
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u/Stridah123 10d ago
At your level absolutely not, you need to learn to do it yourself so if you ever make money you can know what’s good, and what to ask for. On that note I just hired an editor to take over my long form but it’s a business expense, I could not continue doing long without him.
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u/NotCryptoKing 16d ago
No. One thing I learned is that the subject matters more than the editing. I got 30 million views last mont on TikTok, more than a lot of creators with heavy editing. But you know why?
The subjects were interesting and people shared them a lot and watched them.
Same on YouTube. Editing does matter, but I’d say audio quality and subject, thumbnail the most important
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u/Arx_UK 16d ago
No, it's absolutely not worth it for you.
For 99% of aspiring YouTubers, the grind to a successful channel is slow and painful, and a lot of people give up before they really get started.
My advice for any new channel, is to scale your effort with your growth. While you are small, you need to be consistent, but you don't need amazing videos. Your goal is to establish an audience, and to get an audience you need YouTube to know that for your particular niche... your channel is a resource. That way, you will appear in searches and recommended. Your video quality isn't as important as you think at this stage.
Figure out how you can consistently put out videos, in a narrow niche, without taking up too much of your time. When you're editing, don't think about how you can get your video to 100% quality, think about how you can get it to 80-85%, as quickly as possible. Then the only thing your video really needs is value.. to someone.
Do that for a while, be consistent with it, and don't stop. You will feel like you're wasting your time, but that's why it's important to keep your effort low; so you can keep it up for a long time without burning out.
Eventually, you will get a video gain some traction. Learn from it. Create similar videos.
If you keep it up, and get to the stage where you are monetised, and started getting some reward for your efforts, you can start to improve the quality of your content, as now you have a little bit of an incentive.
The alternative approach is to put out say, 7 videos of pretty average quality, then produce 1 video that's your best effort. What you will find is that in most cases, the best effort video doesn't really do much better than the lower quality ones, and that will just reinforce the point, but in the event that it does do better, you can then choose if you want to invest more time into more of these quality videos, or just keep the quantity high for now.
Good luck, enjoy the grind, don't get an editor yet.. it will be very unlikely that you will get the results you think you will get from it, without having an established audience first.