Every minute, 300 hours of video are posted on YouTube. Sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have changed the way people consume video content. Further, these sites have given normal people the opportunity to be significant players in the video entertainment industry. Professionals skilled at video editing have a unique chance to be part of this revolution.

The number of people making money on YouTube is phenomenal. There are script writers who help both YouTube creators and advertisers. Advertisers drive traffic from YouTube to their landing pages to drive sales. There are also video editors who help creators with no tech skills spruce up their content. To make a play for the money the YouTube economy offers, you too can become a video editor.

How to Learn Video Editing

The beauty of working as video editor is that you won’t need any special certification or college degree to be hired. As long as your skills are up to par, you can always find gigs. This reality makes it possible for any motivated person with enough aptitude to become a decent video editor to find gainful employment.

You can learn video editing from the comfort of your own home. All you need is a computer with the necessary tools and an internet connection to access tutorials. You can use both free and premium tools.

To save time and develop sound fundamentals, you want to take lessons from a proven professional video editor in a structured manner. For this reason, look for step-by-step tutorials on YouTube or Udemy. Udemy is actually the better option as you can find a range of courses on various video editing skills.

One major disadvantage of learning online is that you won’t get as much feedback on your progress as you would in a traditional classroom environment. This problem can be circumvented by having someone more experienced than you review your work. There are forums and groups for pretty much every interest on the internet. You won’t lack an audience that can tell you what they think of your work if you look hard enough.

Landing Gigs

After building your skills to a level where people can actually pay for them, start reaching out to potential clients to land paying gigs. You will be working as any other freelancer on the internet and your portfolio and salesmanship will be huge factors in determining how many clients you gain and how much money you earn.

To start, you can reach out to mid-tier YouTubers with subscribers in the tens of thousands range. YouTubers who upload videos to promote their offline businesses usually lack the technical skills to edit their own videos. If they do have the skills, they may still outsource the work as they will probably have higher yield activities that they should be giving their time to.

Alternatively, you can join a freelancing job board such as UpWork and Freelancer.com to pitch clients. These sites have a consistent stream of qualified prospects looking for people to hire. Selling them on your services won’t be hard as they shall have already made up their mind that they want to hire a video editor. Your only job, therefore, is to convince them that you are the best hire out of the video editors sending them proposals.

Don’t forget to create your own website to build your own personal brand and credibility and to also promote your work. A website gives you premium real estate to display work samples, testimonials, and details about additional services you offer.