The joy of YouTube is that you can create content about anything you feel passionate about, however silly the subject matter – Zoe Sugg
It may be hard to believe now, but there was a time when YouTube didn’t exist and when the idea of a site designed and made, to share videos that anyone could film wasn’t just the idle fantasy of daydreamers, it was almost like the plot from an old old science fiction novel.
As hard as it is for the generations who have grown up in YouTube’s shadow, nourished by the unending stream of content that’s uploaded to the site to imagine life without it, it’s almost as difficult for those who sought their own entertainment before YouTube became an all-encompassing global brand, to believe how quickly YouTube has become a part of the everyday world.
What Is YouTube?
Created by three former PayPal employees in two thousand and five, in the last decade and a half YouTube has grown beyond the wildest dreams of its founders and the expectations of the shrewdest of investors.
It was the tiny tech start-up that proved the adage about mighty planet conquering digital oaks springing up from the humblest of beginnings.
While it’s original premise, to act as a platform that anyone could use to upload and share videos to for free was noble and soon found favor with hundreds of thousands of fans who used it as a way to share their lives, ideas, and creativity with like-minded souls everywhere, it soon, as all things that find a populist niche do, began to drift away from its initial credo as the eye-watering profits that it generated began to roll in.
It wasn’t long before other long-standing entertainment corporations slowly began to understand the relevance and appeal of YouTube and made it a central hub for their businesses.
Record labels used it to launch and host their artist’s videos, film and television production studios uploaded the trailers of their upcoming attractions so they could find their audience, millions of social media users evolved with it to use it as a way to instigate and maintain incredibly rewarding new careers and YouTube itself morphed into an entity that created its own programming, shows, and content.
YouTube finally came of age and became the platform that we know today. But who controls and refines YouTube’s content? And, given the vast swathes of money that YouTube creates, how much do they get paid to make sure that everything we see, and hear, on YouTube conforms to its rigorous broadcast and production standards?
YouTube Editors – Who They Are And How Much Do They Make
While it may sound like an incredibly specific, compartmentalized role, the job of a YouTube editor isn’t just an in-house role.
Broadly speaking, there are three different types of YouTube editors, and if we’re going to talk about how much a YouTube Editor makes, we’re going to need to look at all three and determine how much each is paid for their specific variation of the role.
YouTube Editors
Everything you watch on YouTube, from the slickest of marketing videos to the trailers for the latest must-see blockbusters all the way through to the most amateur of smart-phone uploads is subject to the platform’s strict copyright and content regulations.
To ensure that their code of conduct is adhered to, YouTube employs its own, in house editorial staff to monitor, edit, and make sure that each and every video conforms to YouTube policy.
However, that’s just one part of the demanding role, as YouTube editors also create unique content for the platform, place and edit advertising, and are responsible for the thousands of other, behind the scenes tasks that are involved in the production, and upload of, unique YouTube content.
According to the latest survey commissioned by Indeed, YouTube editors, dependent on seniority and specialization, make anywhere between $18.5 and $25 dollars per hour in a salaried position but it’s not unheard of some editors making up to $50 or even higher per hour.
It may not sound like the sort of the stage shattering wage that you’d expect someone in the entertainment industry to earn, but as far as corporate IT pay scales go, it’s up there with the best of them.
It’s a job that attracts the best in their field, and when added to the benefits and bonuses that are part of the standard YouTube contract, the pay is actually pretty good. And it’s also a great way to earn a living.
Freelance YouTube Editors
One of YouTube’s most popular features is its user-based channels. Anyone can create their own channel and use it to upload their own content and build an audience that, if it becomes large enough, attracts advertisers and adverts which in turn can lead to the owner of the said channel making a profit.
Monetization, as it’s more commonly know, is one of the side effects of the popularity of social media and has created more millionaires in the last decade than Hollywood’s power-house film industry has.
The better the content a channel has, the more likely it is to attract an audience, and the bigger the audience it has, the more likely it is to make a profit. But the only way to ensure that a channel’s content is consistently good is by employing the services of a great editor.
And of the owner of the channel can’t edit their own videos, then more often than not they employ the services of a freelance video editor to do it for them.
How much freelance editors earn is entirely dependent on their previous body of work, their ability, and how in-demand they are. Unlike in house editors, they usually charge a fixed hourly rate but are also open to negotiating fixed prices for repeat work.
As a rule of thumb, a good freelance editor who is used to working on YouTube friendly videos can cost anywhere between $50 and $100 dollars an hour. That may sound like all the money in the world, but freelancing lacks the security and guaranteed income of an in house position.
I did work or did some work for 2 or 3 YouTubers, one of which was actually fairly popular (she had a bit more than 2 Million subscribers at that point). I wanted to see how do they work and test out the field. I didn’t particularly enjoyed it, especially because a lot of YouTubers want’s you to imitate their style (some are actually extremely strict about it) so there is not much creative work left for you to do. Still, it paid good and was quite constant work.
It’s nice work, and even nicer money, if you can get it, but their wage is entirely dependent on being able to get that work. If they’re good, they’ll get paid and if they’re not, they won’t.
I’m My Own Editor – The YouTuber
Another of the phenomena associated with YouTube is the surprising rise of the YouTuber.
Someone once said that “YouTube isn’t a job”, but given how successful some of the people whose job it is to just film, and upload, videos of themselves to YouTube have been, and continue to be, we’d beg to differ. YouTube most definitely is a job, and it’s a job that I would chew my right arm to have, and be good at.
YouTubers tend to edit their own videos as they know what their audience wants and expects, and so edit accordingly. And how much money they make, depends entirely on how good they are at being “YouTubers”.
The better their videos are, the more money they make and in order for their videos to be good, they need to be well-edited. How much do YouTubers make? Honestly? The sky is the limit. The best make millions, while the others, who maybe aren’t quite as good at being YouTubers, make less than minimum wage.
But how much they make is entirely dependent on more than a little luck and the YouTubers being fortunate enough to find their audience. Sometimes though, even the best YouTuber editors can’t find their crowd. That, as an aged impresario once said, is showbusiness.
In Conclusion
So how much does a YouTube editor make? That depends entirely on the nature of their editorial role and who they work for. If they work for YouTube, they’ll have a guaranteed middle-tier income for as long as they turn up, punch their time card, and do their job.
If they work for themselves and fate smiles on them, they can make more than enough to live in Beverley Hills and drive a Bentley. It’s all, just like life is, about the terms and conditions.
