I'm a video editor and I've been cutting talking-head videos, tutorials and short-form for clients for years. Most "editing tips" focus on fancy effects. In my experience the stuff that actually keeps people watching is boring and small. Here's what I check on every single video:

1. Cut in breathing pauses, never mid-sentence. If you cut in the middle of a thought, the viewer's brain notices even if they can't say why. Finish the thought, then cut.

2. Leave a few frames of air after the last word. Super tight cuts that clip the end of a word ("expect-") feel rushed and cheap. 3 to 6 frames is enough.

3. On jump cuts, keep the eyes in the same spot. If you punch in to hide a cut, reframe so the person's eyes land exactly where they were before. The viewer's eyes shouldn't have to jump. This one change makes jump cuts feel smooth instead of jarring.

4. Don't overdo the zooms. Punch-ins work because they're occasional. If every sentence zooms, nothing does.

5. Sound effects: less than you think. One well placed whoosh on a real transition beats ten random pops. If you notice the SFX, there are too many.

6. Music under montages and B-roll, not under talking. When someone explains something, music competes with their voice. Bring the music up when the talking stops.

7. B-roll without its own audio, unless the sound is the point. Random room noise from a B-roll clip is distracting.

8. Voice cleanup: don't crank noise reduction to 100. Heavy settings make voices sound robotic. Around 20 to 30 % usually removes the room without killing the voice. Then check the loudness: YouTube plays everything at about -14 LUFS, so mixing much louder doesn't make you louder, it just squashes your audio. Keep peaks under -1 dB true peak.

9. Before you export, watch it on your phone with the phone speaker. Most of your viewers will. Text that looks fine on a monitor is often too small, and music that sounds balanced on headphones often drowns the voice on a phone.

None of this is exciting, but stacked together it's the difference between "looks like a YouTuber" and "feels professional". Happy to answer questions if you're stuck on a specific edit.

I've been wanting to start a YouTube channel for a while, mainly around butchery, meat preparation, homemade sausages and cooking.

I finally said fuck it and started making videos instead of worrying about having the perfect camera setup, editing skills or knowing exactly what I'm doing.

I've uploaded my first two Shorts, and both have reached around 1.2k views. Obviously, it's very early days, and I'm not pretending that's some huge achievement, but it's encouraging to see people watching.

The funny thing is, I've spent around 20 years working as a butcher, so I'm comfortable with the meat side of things. The filming and editing, though? I basically butchered that part too. 😂 My camera angles, lighting and editing definitely need work.

I'm trying to improve with every video, especially the opening seconds and making the footage more enjoyable to watch.

For those of you who've grown a channel from scratch, what would you focus on at this stage? What mistakes did you make early on that you wish you'd avoided?

I'm looking for honest, practical advice rather than growth hacks or generic motivation. Cheers!

At least not blindly. I think a lot of people here don't take their niche into consideration enough when making videos and searching for advice. My newest video is currently sitting at 35k impressions, 2.5k engaged veiws and 118 watch hours. For reference before this video I had 5 subscribers and less then 2k total veiws. I actually disregard so much of the advice here just because it isn't made for channels like mine. I'm not trying to grow as fast as possible. I am trying to attract the correct viewers. My niche is lore and narrative deep dives on live service games. So someone with a short attention span won't want to watch anyway. So I spend practically no time editing. I am not worried about AVD for the same reason. Before this gets misunderstood I am highly critical of my work but I also know what people in my niche care about because I have been interacting with it for years.

Hello!

I started doing Youtube videos as a fun little side hobby earlier this year. I always kept the thought of making money off of Youtube on the back of my mind, but it was not something that I thought could be possible until recently.

Back in March, one of my videos popped off hard and gained 1000 views overnight and kept climbing to now a total of 41k views as of writing this. I went from roughly 25 subscribers to over 100 from just that one video. From there, I started to find my content niche and focused on making the type of videos that people would come to my channel for. I now regularly get 1k+ views on the videos where I really lock in on that niche, my most recent one coming out on Thursday and now at 4.6k views.

I am now at 342 subscribers. I got 27k views total in the past month, over 700 watch time hours, and my dreams of potentially growing further are looking bright. I try to upload at least once every week, maybe week and a half depending on how much I have to edit.

Now I want to ask other creators, how can I push for more growth? How can I get people to keep returning to my channel, subscribe, and continue watching my videos. I want to succeed, and I see a path forward for my channel, but I need some guidance on how I can lock in on that.

Thank you, any help is appreciated!

Hey friends I have had the opportunity to finally work on content after 4+ years of doing entertainment but I have encountered a problem. I have been trying to make videos and mid way through recording im like this is stupid no one is going to watch this so i go back to the drawing board. I’ve been stuck like this for a long time does anyone have any advice

im currently working on my first video and was wondering if yall have any tips or recommendations on how to make mainly the recording of the voice over easier as i keep stumbling over my words ALOT and i feel like that isnt good for the video and keep restarting. just wondering if yall have any clue how to fix this so it is then no longer a problem

Hi guys, just wanted to know how everyone else is editing their youtube shorts on mobile. I want to use the sounds that youtube offers, the free, non copyrighted ones and edit my videos to match the song. I usually edit cuts of the video to match with the beat of the song but the editing capabilities of the youtube mobile app is limited. Wanted to know how everyone else is doing it since you can't download the songs from youtube and edit it on a third party app. Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I think I've reached the point where I genuinely want to quit YouTube.

I started my gaming channel a few weeks ago because I thought it would be something fun. I've always loved gaming, and the idea of recording my experiences, editing videos, and sharing them with people sounded amazing.

And honestly, at first, it was.

But somewhere along the way, I started caring way too much about the numbers.

I constantly find myself opening YouTube Studio, checking my views, impressions, CTR, and watch time. Sometimes multiple times an hour, hoping something has changed.

And every time I see that nothing has happened, it genuinely hurts.

It's gotten to the point where it's affecting my mood, my confidence, and even how I see myself.

I know my videos aren't amazing. I'm a beginner, and I never expected to become some huge YouTuber overnight. I know there's a lot I still need to learn.

But my latest video really broke me.

I spent so many hours working on it. Recording, editing, fixing the pacing, adding subtitles, trying to make the whole thing more entertaining. I genuinely felt like I was improving and that this video was a step forward compared to my previous uploads.

I wasn't expecting thousands of views. Not even hundreds.

I just hoped it would do a little better.

It got 7 views. That's it. Seven. T_T

And I know people will say that views don't matter, that I should just enjoy the process, and that growth takes time.

And they're probably right.

But it's incredibly difficult to keep telling yourself that when you put so much effort into something and barely anyone even gets to see it.

The worst part is that I actually enjoyed making videos. I loved the creative process, figuring out how to edit, improving my commentary, and seeing everything come together.

But now, instead of feeling excited after uploading, I feel anxious. I keep checking the numbers, comparing myself to others, and wondering whether I'm simply not good enough.

Something that was supposed to be a fun hobby has turned into something that's genuinely hurting my self-esteem.

And I hate that.

I don't want to start resenting gaming or creating things just because an analytics page keeps making me feel like a failure.

So I think I'm done. At least for now.

I'm not writing this to get subscribers, views, or sympathy. I just needed to get it off my chest, because I never expected something as simple as starting a YouTube channel to affect me emotionally this much.

I have a lot more respect now for small creators who keep going for months or years without seeing much progress.

To anyone else struggling with the same thing, I genuinely hope you're handling it better than I am.

Thanks for reading. ❤️

Hi! Got a question, i just started my youtube channel called Motorsport in 30. I post only shorts abou any motorsport topic. I want to know if shorts views alone are reasonable income. Or I should say side income. Im not looking for it to be a full time job, but is it possible to lets say make 500 dollars a month from just quality shorts?

i signed up for adsense 4 days ago and it still says "we're reviewing your info". is this normal?

In the last three days i made three shorts the first one got 3478 views and 140 likes. the second one got 883 and 28 likes and the third one only got 202 views and five likes. Why? is the same format off video with a slightly increased quality each video٫ nothing changed٫ under each video I added my own comment right after posting and I used a similar amount off ashtags
Why are my views decreasing then

Hello everyone, about 4 years ago I started a YouTube channel and didn’t really take it serious until the second year where I reached 1000 subs and got monetized organically. (For context I peaked at 4145 subscribers and am currently at 3998. It’s been 2 years since promotion)

I mainly Stream gaming content on this channel and post shorts of from the LiveStreams and sometimes videos of highlights. When streaming I usually had my casual viewers pop in but eventually saw very nice traffic or randoms coming in on a very occasional basis, went from averaging 3-4 viewers to 8-10 and occasionally peaking at 20-30 concurrent viewers (Posting schedule was 1 stream a day and 2 shorts)

I stumbled upon the YouTube promotions feature and promoted 1 video and 2 Shorts while not completely understanding what the feature itself does. That brought in a little over 3000 subscribers, Subscribers that don’t comment or Engage... After this increase in views and subscribers,I noticed afterwards the activity of my channel was slightly off. My content was not getting pushed out as often anymore, only having my 3-4 casuals and not having any extra views AT ALL (usually reaching 100+ views). As per my shorts I went from seeing 3k-10k views to seeing 1k-1.4k and OCCASIONALLY some back up at 3k. I continued to push out content for about 8 months before slightly slowing down after seeing no progress and being stuck at the inflated subscriber count, not getting any type of traction back.

Ive seen plenty of threads of those who say that channels don’t return from these type of scenarios and usually should just “restart” but there’s also no actual proof that promotions “kill” your channel. it’s really demoralizing to see something you’ve built over so long go blank out of nowhere after a few promoted videos.

I love what I do and would love to continue posting and learning but I’m really just unsure if I should risk restarting and creating a new algorithm for my channel or sticking with the current channel I have even after doing the promotions on it.

What do you guys think?

So I made a channel about an year ago and just left it. Didn't upload anything, didn't even browse YouTube with that account. Then a few months ago I made one video, just as a practice run, it got like a dozen views...no big deal. Now I finally have the time to make videos, so I deleted the old video and uploaded two new videos. Got like 30 views total...that's fine too I'm just trying out different things.

But my question is will YouTube not "push" my channel or limit it in some way because of the first video not doing well + deleting said video? Does it care that it's a months old channel that's just started uploading?

Hey guys, hoping to get some insight here. I started a channel about a month ago and have been posting consistently every 5 days.

I know I'm new and I'm not supposed to be aggressively chasing views right out of the gate, but I really just want to understand how the YouTube algorithm works and figure out if what I'm seeing is normal.

My first two videos actually got a small push, over 200 impressions each with a solid CTR around 6.5% to 7%. But when I checked the analytics, almost 40% of my views are coming from "Direct or unknown." I haven't shared my links anywhere, and I don't even watch my own videos.

Even weirder, my retention graph on one of them shows a massive spike of 176% at the 30-second mark, pulling my overall average view duration up to nearly 29 minutes. It honestly feels like bot traffic or someone aggressively rewinding the intro over and over.

The main issue is that ever since that weird traffic hit those first two uploads, my 3rd, 4th, and 5th videos have completely flatlined. Virtually zero impressions. I have my 6th video scheduled for today and I'm dreading it just sitting in the void.

Did this abnormal retention and unknown traffic basically confuse the algorithm into pausing my impressions? Is this normal?

How do I get out of this flatline and get YouTube to start testing my content again?

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

So I just posted a YouTube video I spent a bit of time on called "I Tried Making Friends In Awkward Places" and I went all out on it. The first few hours the video was performing well and got ~1,000 impressions with amazing analytics but it flatlined soon after.

At what point is it just luck? I'm still working on getting better and making the best videos possible but what if I make an insanely good video and YouTube just never pushes it out? Is this possible?

I'm wondering since I want to do Pokemon videos and also other random games, if its best to make 2 channels from the start with Pokemon being its own channel and any other games to be on a varity channel from the start, either so if people subscribe because of the pokemon videos they dont unsubscribe because of other games I play or if people subscribe because of the other games but I upload more Pokemon videos frequently that they unsub because of that, or if having a Pokemon channel be PG while the varity can be not PG, with blood/gore ect

hey so i was just wondering if you all think the practice in which i do my content, as well as the two current types of videos i am making are good enough to gain some traction, even if its not overnight. the overall channel idea is gaming but for survival video games (at the moment my big three will be ark, dayz, and minecraft) but i add twists to either my own ideas, or existing ones (100days content for example) by making it harder on myself like an idiot (which keeps on theme with the name of the channel as well). i also have to stream and record all of it on xbox, so i assumed having 2 channels would be smart, one to upload the VODs from twitch, and one for the polished, edited videos that the VODs are used for. as of right now i would say the VOD channel is doing fine for how short ive started this. but im mainly asking before i dump more time then i already am into the first edited video into future videos. the two ideas i have right now are the first set of vods that are uploaded and that i am currently in the process of making into a video but its me having to survive various ark maps and beat the game within 100 days, and if i fail the next ark video is the same (most likely a different map) but with an added punishment to make it even harder on myself (although after how the first video ended i am thinking of changing it from hardcore to every death removes 5 days i have to beat the map). the 2nd idea is a Minecraft series i just finished the first stream for earlier tonight, the concept is me and a group of friends all have 7 days to somehow capture and keep control of the 'kings crown' and whomever has it after 7 real life days gets like $50. the king is tracked at all times among other rules to make this hopefully possible and fun to play/watch in execution. overall i would just like thoughts and feedback as tommorow after work/college work i plan on trying to work on these 2 projects throughout the day.

I wanna do streaming, videos about me doing dumb things, playing video games while high, etc. I think it'd be funny and I'd like to try editing. Ive seen a lot of forums talking about how you should only stick to 1 niche. But I just cant pick one!

Hi everyone, ive got a small channel focused around building ebikes, go karts, stuff like that (channel name bimjimmy).

I am consistently getting around 4k views on my last few videos, with my best ever having 23k. Im proud of these numbers, but I would like to be able to continue to grow so I can reach monetisation. I am struggling to get better than 30% AVD. All though I enjoy making the videos so I am going to keep going regardless.

Would love some advice on how people think my videos could be improved to grow my views further. Cheers

I know that’s not impressive but I posted two separate videos and the first has 50 views and the second video has 80 views in the last few days. I recorded and did very minimal editing that took about 10 minutes max for both then Hit post. I’ve never been into likes, comments or subscribing so this is all new to me. People really discourage themselves seeing low views but if I’m being honest, I’m happy about it. The two videos are long form and I expected 0 views. I just wanted to start and not overthink it. I figure the more I record and post the better I will get at editing and angles over time. I started this because for years I would say “I’m going to start a YouTube channel” but for years I never did. I had fun recording the two videos and I’m glad some people saw it. I recorded another yesterday and will post it today. I just wanted to have fun and learn as a new YouTuber.

Who else has started a new channel and is excited to just record and have fun doing it?

I'm struggling to kickstart my channel with content and looking for thoughts, opinions, guidance. I have a strong desire to share content focused around my passion DIY projects. This content would be a continuous flow of weekend work on boats, cars, dirt bikes, campers, etc. If it can break, then I'm going to be working on it.

I have lots of content I can generate with the work I do as a hobby and believe I have some good ideas. The part I struggle with the most is the commitment to keeping the camera rolling to obtain the content. I genuinely love working on projects so much that the idea of filming feels like a nuisance and all I want to do is just execute on the project itself.

Any others out there that have felt this way and were able to get past it?

PS: I have 0 film editing skills and would be operating with a cell phone, GoPro, and maybe a drone at times. The goal isn't to be an expert or professional, but to share content that others can relate to and enjoy.

Hey all

Brand new to youtube and spent weeks on my first video and uploaded it today. Seemed to be going ok at first and got nearly 20 impressions in the 2 hours but 6 hours later and not a single view or impression.

Is this normal? Since im new to this I dont exactly know what to expect or what caused the freeze

Any advice? Thanks

HEY, so I have been making mod content as there wasn't much out there for specific consoles etc , and initially it was due to me constantly annoyed no-one else made digestible and packaged videos about skyrim mods, but as its gained traction im shifting to more narrative and gameplay focused videos. From 10 minute mod breakdowns to a likely 50 minute video presenting both a written story and skyrim gameplay. Anyways all I can think about is making this video, ive worked on it for 12 hrs a day past few days, and the moment im done im excited to make the next one immediately. I understand it may not be received as well as my more niche vidoes but it has an infinitely higher ceiling, also im putting such effort in that I refuse to believe that vidoes made with passion and attention to detail wont perform as well as mod vids I threw together in a couple hours.

Job market poopy so this is my income really, and it pretty much paid my rent this month, so this is my main focus right now, especially with only 9 or so uploads that I dont think are particularly good outside serving a purpose.

Any advice from my seniors in the world of Youtube is always appreciated, particularly any on this soft transition from skyrim mods to skyrim gameplay and lore.

Thanks and good luck to anyone reading