Basically, as soon as my AdSense hit the amount that I needed to hire a video editor, I used
that money to pay for a video editor.
And in this video, I'm going to share my full experience:
The good, the bad, the ugly!
Who I use for video editing and whether I would recommend it for small, new, or big
YouTubers.
My name is Morgan and I am a full-time content creator.
I quit my six-figure corporate job in the tech world.
So that way I could start my channel and I could start my own business.
I am a mom now oM three kids.
It was at the time too.
And ultimately the reason that I quit my job is because I wanted more time with my kids.
But as I started creating more and more YouTube videos, I found that editing YouTube videos
was the most timely part of the process for me.
So that's why I wanted to hire that video editor ASAP because I just didn't want to
be slaving away at a computer all day.
So I set the goal that as soon as I was monetized and making enough money to cover a video editor,
I would use that money for the video editor.
And that is exactly what I did.
So I actually used a company called Dava marketing for my YouTube videos.
They actually found me from my channel and sent me an email.
I get a ton of these unsolicited requests all the time, whether it's for product reviews
or services or video editors, all sorts of things.
And normally 99% of them, I just ignore because they're not relevant, but this one was actually
pretty good.
They had a really great pitch where they would edit your first video for free.
So you could try out their service.
And I looked at their pricing and I looked at their websites and I was actually really
impressed with the quality work that they were able to do.
They had an unlimited video package, meaning I could give them as many videos as they were
able to keep up with.
I would have a dedicated editor, which was great because I would have someone who would
be able to know my style and just replicate it video after video.
It wasn't like there was a fresh person.
Who'd have to learn my style every single time I was working with the same person.
And then for the different packages that they had, the lowest package was great for me.
It had a 48 hour or two business day turnaround time.
So I would give him a video.
And then two days later I would get my first cut and then we would do revisions from there.
And the revisions would be unlimited revisions.
And the price at the time was amazing.
It was just under $800 a month.
And at this time I was making $800 a month on YouTube.
So I felt like for that first test edit, we kept going back and forth, back and forth,
back and forth.
And I was tweaking things and I was like,
"Oh my gosh, I'm THAT customer who is never satisfied."
But they never complained.
They never said, "Hey, like let's wrap it up."
They just let me do as
many edits in that initial test phase as I wanted.
Obviously it took a long time for that first test edit, which by the way that test footage
was not,
"Hey, give us 60 seconds to edit and we'll turn it from there."
It was, "Give us a whole YouTube video and we'll edit it."
So they edited an entire video for me, no strings attached.
I then took that video and uploaded it to my channel overall.
I was really impressed.
I love the experience of editing with them.
They had a nice system where I could upload files and give feedback.
So I love the process so much that I said, great, here's my card.
When can we get started?
And we got started right away.
I was assigned a video editor who was super nice.
And I worked with him for the majority of my videos.
I'd say about 80 to 90% of my videos.
My video editor was the guy who was editing, but sometimes I think he was out of town or
on vacation or something.
And so another video editor would step in.
I technically had two editors that were assigned to me and I thought that was great because
if one was gone, the other one would know me and my style because just for a big agency
like that, you're not going to be able to always have that person there 24/7, they have
a team of editors.
And so having to it was really, really nice.
So like I said, I was on the package where I had unlimited edits and this was great because
I was doing one video a week.
And my goal was to get to two videos a week.
I wanted to have two videos on my channel.
Tuesdays and Fridays, that was going to be my optimal upload time.
And so with that, I was able to batch a whole bunch of videos, have those ready, and then
the editors would edit them.
But one of the things that I found frustrating with having an editor was just how long it
took to really explain everything that I wanted to do.
So I'd have this script and these instructions for my editor.
And I felt like as soon as I was done recording my video, I would then spend a really long
time, like an hour, typing up everything that I needed done.
Have an intro here, have this text say this, have this, do that.
And so all of those things I'd have to sit and call out.
And then on top of that, I would have to gather all of my footage.
The footage and the audio was super easy, but sometimes there'd be all these emojis
and graphics and B roll that I would have to get and I'd have to all upload those together.
So that's fine.
But sometimes it was really tedious to, okay, I need this screenshot.
So I have to go and take that screenshot.
Then I would have to go into my instruction document and put screenshot A , put right
here or whatever.
Right.
So I'd have to do that over and over and over again.
And when I was editing my videos myself, I would just upload the footage and I'd start
editing.
And then if I needed those screenshots, I'd take the screenshot, boom, boom, boom, and
put it in versus sending that stuff to an editor.
It was a longer process.
And then once everything was ready, I would send the footage off to the editor and I don't
have the fastest internet speed around.
It's pretty fast, but it's not Gigablast fast.
So it would take a few hours for the footage to upload.
So they couldn't even get started until the upload was totally complete.
So I felt like even though I was ready to get moving on the editing process, all of
these other factors took awhile, right?
And then on top of that, the editor would get it.
And I would have the 48-hour turnaround time.
So I would not even see the first cut until 48 hours versus when I would do it myself,
I would get done recording or I would sit down on an editing day.
I would just upload my footage and off I would go.
It was very speedy.
So then after a few days I would get my first version back and then the revisions would
have to happen.
And at the beginning, the revisions were a lot.
And so I would have to sit and I'd have to watch the video.
And then each little spot I have to say, "Hey, change this here.
Oh, there's a typo here.
Cut this, cut this, add this, add this."
And I'd have to go through that whole video.
Now, if it ended up being a 15 minute video, it still does take a long time.
I found it would take 45 minutes to an hour because I'd have to sit, watch, stop type,
then go back, sit, watch, stop type, sit, watch, stop type.
You get the picture.
Then I would send the video back to the editor.
It would go in his queue, he would edit it and then he would send it back.
So then hopefully there would be just one round of revision.
So that next version would be perfect and ready to go.
But typically I found that wasn't the case.
And so I would have to watch the video again, make some comments, watch the video again,
make some comments.
You get the picture again.
I found that a lot of videos took a few rounds of edits before I was really satisfied and
I wasn't trying to be super nitpicky or crazy about it.
I just wanted it to be the style that I would have done.
And have the text and images and pop outs.
And call-outs as I would in my normal videos, if you have an editor, you have to realize
that they have their timeframes, they have their SLS, and you need to respect that.
And you really can't push for them to get it done super duper fast, unless that is in
your contract.
And that is in your agreement.
So I had them for a few months and overall I was really happy.
It wasn't editing videos anymore, but still I found that revisions took a long time uploading.
My initial instructions took a long time.
And while over time they did get better at understanding my style.
I feel like it wasn't my style.
Like I watch videos back from April of last year versus October of last year.
And I'm like, "Hmm."
Even though they have animations and little fancier stuff than I did...I like my original
videos better.
But at the same time, I'm not editing my videos.
So there really was that trade off that I was doing.
Honestly, I loved the unlimited aspect of this package, but obviously the term unlimited
has a little asterisk next to it because you're only editing one video at a time.
And so when I was doing two videos a week, I don't think I really could have edited more
videos than that, just because of how long it took to do revisions and get things uploaded.
I, maybe I could have done a handful, more videos, three videos a week.
I just don't think it would have been possible because of how much back and forth there was.
So "unlimited", yes, but it was more like eight videos a month.
So I had this editor, I think I started the process in August and my first video was uploaded
in September and I kept them through January.
Now in December, I was launching a course and in January I was actually creating that
course.
And so it actually was really nice to have the video editor available because there were
some lessons in my course that I needed extra help editing those videos.
And so I was just able to send it over to them and they were able to edit those videos
for my course.
They didn't really care whether it was a video for my YouTube channel or for my course, like
whatever videos I needed they would do.
And then I had my baby in January.
So I put my subscription on pause because I wasn't making any videos.
So now that I'm back making videos, the big question is: do you still have a video editor?
And the answer is...no!
Scratch that future Morgan here with an update.
It's a yes.
So between the time that I recorded this video and now things have totally changed.
Initially I canceled my subscription and I was editing my videos myself because I had
the time, but now I've started working with a whole bunch of clients and being a working
mom of three.
I no longer have the time to work with clients and to edit my videos.
So I'm actually back working with Dava Marketing again, and they are editing my videos.
Ultimately what it came down to was I needed to be working in my zone of genius and spending
all that time, editing videos just really wasn't worth it.
Even though over time, I've gotten much faster, much better at it.
And I can do it very quickly.
And my time was worth more working with clients than editing the videos.
So it was kind of a no brainer at that point that, yes, I need my video editor back.
I didn't realize how much I loved it until it was gone.
But if you want to check out Dava Marketing, then go to Oregon, straddling.com/dava marketing.
The link is in the description box below.
And if you use code Morgan and you can get 15% off your first month, which is actually
pretty huge.
But overall I was really impressed with their service.
And I would definitely recommend checking it out, especially as you are narrowing down
options for video editors, which brings me to my next video, you're going to want to
subscribe because in my next video, I am going to be teaching my video editing process.
You guys have been asking for months for me to share my video editing process.
So I'm excited to share that with you in my next video.
So be sure to subscribe and until next time I'll see you next time.
That's not how it goes.
And with that, I'll see you next time.
Stars all aligned.
Got some, I'm not going to flip you off, but I got some lipstick on my fingernail.
That's actually a pretty few color.
It's my whole entire nail is that color now.
But overall, what was that?
If you use code Morgan Stradling, what's my code?