How To Edit Videos For Youtube as Beginner in 2025 (Step By Step)
B2
so after editing hundreds of videos for
my own channel and my client's channels
as well and getting hundreds of
thousands of subscribers and tens of
millions of views on YouTube I have been
able to boil down my entire editing
formula and process into 10 simple steps
that you can follow as well as a
complete beginner now I remember when I
was making my first YouTube videos it
was a very stressful and painful
experience because I had zero clue about
what the process is that I should
actually follow how to use the certain
editing softwares and so on so I really
hope that this video is going to be able
to give you some guidance that you need
to be able to turn your raw file that
you have just recorded into a ready to
publish Masterpiece that's going to get
you thousands of views and subscribers
and all the success that you create so
without any further Ado let's jump right
into the first step of editing your
YouTube
video so step number one is organization
so what you want to do after you got
your raw files from your camera or for
your phone is to actually create a
folder on your computer I usually like
to name it the name of the video and
also uh the date that it was recorded on
and then within that folder you want to
create more subfolders which are going
to contain all your files this is
important so that if you ever need to
access the project again you will have
all your files in one place and it's
just a very good habit as well to stay
organized then step number two is to
actually start a new project with the
right uh settings so you want to make
sure that the project settings actually
match what you have shot your video in
so uh whether it was done on your you
know phone or on your camera just make
sure that your project settings are
actually going to be matching ideally
both the resolution and also the frame
rate of whatever you have used to record
a video and then once you have done that
you can actually go ahead and import all
your files into your editing software so
that they are ready to be assembled
now step number three is putting
everything that you have onto your
timeline and then cutting out all the
fluff this is very important that you
are very critical with what you leave in
the video and what you don't because a
good editor is not necessarily someone
who knows you know all the most fancy
effects and all of that stuff it's
someone who knows what to keep in the
video and what can be left out you want
to make sure that again anything that
you are repeating too many times or that
can be boring to the viewer are ideally
cut out and try to get down the length
of the video to as little as possible
while still getting all the information
or entertainment across to the
viewer step number four is adding some
music to your video this is a very
important step because you know
background music it really adds a lot to
how the video feels as a whole it adds a
lot to the pacing so it is a crucial
step and you want to use this to your
advantage and that actually brings us
the sponsor of this video epidemic sound
epidemic sound is a restriction free
music platform where you can get all of
your sound effects from and also all of
your music from for your videos now the
reason why this is important is because
if you are not using restriction free
music in your videos then you are not
only going to get demonetized but
sometimes your videos can also get
flagged or even taken down on YouTube I
have been using epidemic sound for over
5 years at this point for pretty much
all of my personal projects and client
projects as well well and I can always
find the music there which really just
fits the vibe that I'm trying to create
in my videos they have a huge catalog of
different songs they have over 40,000
sound effects and over 990,000 songs
which is insane and they keep adding new
songs and sound effects to it every
single week it's neatly organized into
different playlists and folders and you
can also use their Advanced searched
options uh they also have an AI feature
now which is in their Premiere Pro
plugin which can literally analyze your
clip give you song suggestions based on
that so they have a really amazing
software and platform and if you want to
you can actually try it out for a 7-Day
free trial in the description below so
again thank you emics for sponsoring
this video and let's get back into it
now a couple things to keep in mind when
it comes to using music in your videos
is you want to make sure that it is not
too loud one of the most distracting
things can be if your song is just super
loud and it's overpowering your voice
and also try to avoid songs with uh
vocals in it because that can also be
distracting if you're talking to the
camera and the viewer can also hear some
singing in the
background now step number five is
adding supplemental elements to your
videos so this can be things like b-roll
to kind of show the thing that you are
talking about on the screen and you can
get these from different royaltyfree uh
stock footage websites or even YouTube
you can also use texts to explain what
you are doing better right so you can
pop up little text effects here and
there um you can even add some captions
throughout some parts of the video to
just really again emphasize the things
that you are saying or you can even pop
up images to explain it icons whatever
it is right you want to add these little
extra things to just make your video
that much more engaging but keep in mind
that the goal of b-roll and you know all
of these different things is not
necessarily just to make your video look
better the main purpose is to get the
story and the content across to the
viewer better so you should only include
something in my opinion if it's actually
going to enhance the viewing experience
by either again getting the story across
better or making the video more
entertaining while still getting the
point across I see a lot of people who
just add in a bunch of effects here and
there they zoom in zoom out do all of
this crazy stuff when they really
shouldn't be at that part of the video
so that's something to keep in mind
sometimes less is more I know it's
exciting when you start learning all of
these effects cuz you just want to use
them all of the time but try to only use
them when it really adds to your story
and doesn't take away from
it step number six is adding sound
effects to your video now the reason why
this is so important is because if you
already added some Boll Clips to your
video some text popups maybe some
transitions even or different effects if
you add some sound effects to go with it
it's going to make your video just feel
that much more rich and uh more alive
right so if you you know let's say I pop
up a b-roll clip right now of a
fireplace you know that if you just look
at it yeah you can get the point I'm
talking about fireplace but if I add
some sound effects to it as well now you
can feel how much more alive that feels
make sure that you are using some sound
effects and again you can use epidemic
sound like I've been using and they have
an incredible library of sound
effects then step number seven is color
correcting and color grading color
correcting is when you just really get
your video to look like how it should in
terms of its exposure contrast and all
of that uh that really only applies if
you have used like a flat picture Pro
file to shoot your video or whatever
ideally you know if you're a beginner
you probably shouldn't really be using
those just use uh you know the regular
settings of your camera and as long as
it's exposed well so your video is not
Overexposed or underexposed it should be
fine and then the color grading part is
where you can really get a bit more
creative so color grading is you know a
technique uh used in films and even
YouTube videos to make the viewer feel
some type of way so color grading can
almost be looked at like using different
filters on Instagram obviously this is
like a very dumb down way to say it and
probably someone who's like a
professional editor would hate me for
saying this but again make sure that
it's just a very small amount you don't
want to have too strong of color grading
in your video cuz again that can just
look a bit tacky and just overdone you
know that you have done just the right
amount of color grading when the viewer
doesn't really notice it that you have
color grading on the video unless they
specifically look for it cuz that means
that it's a nice and natural look and
you're all good to
go then step number eight is watching
your video back and looking for any
mistakes now this is a crucial part as
well there's nothing more embarrassing
than uploading a video and then later on
realizing that you have left in a bunch
of mistakes maybe some offline media
screens maybe you left in some mistakes
you forgot to cut out cuz again it can
be very embarrassing and just ruin an
overall professional
video then step number nine is go
through a pre- exporting checklist now
I'm going to leave a pre- exporting
checklist for you in the description of
this video so basically with that you
are going to be able to just look at
some of the most common mistakes that
beginner editors make and kind of like
check them off make sure you haven't
made any of those in your video just so
you can be you know rest assured that
your video is destined to do as well as
it can possibly
do and then step number 10 is actually
exporting your project so this is also
an important part you want to make sure
you are using the right formatting for
your exports you're using the right
resolution and the right frame rate so
I've already covered this in a previous
video of mine so I'm going to leave that
in the description of this video you can
also find a bunch of tutorials on how to
export your videos in whatever editing
software that you're using personally so
that shouldn't really be that hard to
figure out but it's something you still
want to pay attention to so that's it
these are the 10 steps I go through to
edit my YouTube videos and edit videos
for my clients as well so just to recap
everything first organization second
starting a new project and importing all
the footage in there third adding it to
the timeline cutting out all sort of
mistakes pauses just trimming the fat
step number four adding music to the
video step number five adding any
supplemental elements to your video to
tell your story better step number six
adding sound effects to your video step
number seven color grading and color
correcting if needed step number eight
watching back your video for any
mistakes step number nine going through
a pre-export editing checklist to make
sure you haven't made any of the most
common mistakes and step number 10
exporting your video with the right
settings if you have done all 10 of
these you have a pretty good chance that
you have made an almost perfect edit now
obviously there's always room for
improvement you can always become a
better editor uh and I'm still nowhere
near perfect editor right I have such a
long way to go to improve and get better
as well if you want to learn more about
video editing check out my Academy video
editors that I owe in the description
and if you want to make money from
editing videos for other people then
check out our coaching company grow
creatives other than that I really hope
you enjoy this video and you got some
value from it and I will see you in the
next one
