Editing may be the most crucial stage of post-production for a video creator. Your video will come out as unpolished and disengage your viewers if you can’t effortlessly blend your shots together or get your cut to land in the appropriate frame. Hence, it is imperative to have good video editing skills to make the video engaging.

However, if you’re on a tight budget, video editing software can be out of your price range. How then would a creator of videos function without editing software? Fortunately, YouTube provides a web-based video editor that is available on its platform and is completely free.

Learn how to use the built-in video editing features on YouTube in this post. Also, you will learn the recommended practises to follow while modifying your videos to keep viewers interested in viewing more.

How To Use The Video Editor On YouTube?

Even though the YouTube video editor is a very simple tool, it can still be used to cut segments from any area of your video. Continue reading to find out how to do this on the video sharing website. 

1. Log in to YouTube Studio first

First, you need to login to the YouTube Studio and then see the features.

2. Click Content in the left sidebar

Once you login, you will see the “Content” button. Go to the left sidebar and click “Content”.

3. Click the thumbnail of the video

The next step is, clicking on the “Thumbnail” of the video you want to publish on YouTube.

Although YouTube is compatible with a variety of video formats (3GPP, AVI, FLV, MOV, MPEG4, MPEGPS, WebM, and WMV), it suggests using MPEG4 or “MP4” when uploading any videos in order to maintain the best quality.

You can convert any video to MP4 if you’re currently using another format by using programmes like Veed’s video converter. By doing this, you’ll be able to publish the video to YouTube without sacrificing its quality.

4. Select Editor from the left sidebar

You will find “Editor” in the left sidebar. Click it.

5. Cut your video’s beginning or end

Select Trim, which is located directly above your timeline panel and adjacent to your video’s timer, to trim the beginning or conclusion of your video.

Your video timeline panel ought to have a blue box enclosing it on all sides. Drag them to remove any beginning or ending segments from your rough edit that you don’t want to appear in the finished, published version.

If you’re happy with the edit, click Save in the top right-hand corner after clicking Preview to see it.

6. Remove segments from your video’s centre

Choose Trim to remove a specific clip from the middle of your video. Next, click the start of the section of the clip you want to remove and select Split from the timeline panel.

Click the end of the clip you want to remove next in your timeline panel, then press Split once more.

Finally, to remove it from your movie, click and drag the blue line at the start or end of your clip to the opposite side. To see your altered video, click Preview. If you’re happy with it, click Save.

7. Include a video end screen

Click the end screen icon located at the bottom of your timeline panel to give your visitors the opportunity to watch one of your related videos, playlists, or subscribe to your channel. The icon for the end screen will be highlighted in red.

By selecting Apply template from the pop-up menu, you can upload an existing end screen template. Alternatively, you can select one of the editor’s native alternatives, such as Video, Playlist, Subscribe, Channel, or Link.

Although YouTube’s Creator Studio’s video editing feature can be useful, you might want something more powerful. Let’s discuss the best ways to explore your video editing skills which makes your video perfect for the audience.

Methods For YouTube Video Editing

While knowing how to edit videos is important, you also need to make sure that the final product you create after editing videos is one that users will find interesting. If your video editing skills work, you can definitely promote YouTube channel with ease.

Let’s talk about the guidelines to follow when editing your videos in post-production.

Make each video’s thumbnails interesting

Thumbnails are the first thing visitors see before viewing your video, giving you the opportunity to grab their attention and pique their interest.

Whether they are text-based titles or images of specific scenes from your videos, your thumbnails should be intriguing and leave viewers wanting to know more.

Tell a story

We want the videos we watch to tell a story, just like when we read a book. As a result, your videos must follow the basic rules of storytelling, including having a beginning, middle, and end.

Your tale should lead viewers through the information you are giving with them so they are not left perplexed or wondering how one clip relates to another.

In all of your videos, incorporate intriguing aspects

Additionally, telling a story, including interesting aspects in the editing process of your videos is a terrific approach to keep viewers interested.

Images, text, forms, animations, music, and entertaining transitions are just a few examples of engaging features. Because you don’t want to detract from your videos’ high-quality content, find an element that makes sense and goes with them.

Establish a foundational video editing look

Try to establish a standard editing approach that you’ll use for all of your videos is one of the finest methods to expedite your editing process and keep your audience interested.

This entails an organised method for editing your videos, as well as a preferred style for thumbnails, music, and transitions.

Every time you sit down to edit, you’ll spend less time looking for new contents, and your audience will start to identify your consistent tone.

To pull in your audience, you may, for instance, always include a little preview of the most dramatic or thrilling scene that will occur later in your videos.

Maintain this similar style throughout all of your videos to keep your viewers interested and wanting more while providing you with a consistent structure to work from.

Ensure simplicity

Although it may be tempting to go above and beyond to engage your audience, it’s important to keep things straightforward and avoid confusing them.

Unnecessary transitions, loud music, distracting pictures, and text can all work against the purpose of your video by detracting from it.

Find a careful balance between the primary video content and supporting elements.

Take some time to leave and then return

Video editing can be stressful, especially if you spend a lot of time in front of the computer. It can be helpful to take a break so you can return revitalised and prepared to make the final cut. It can become simple to doubt your effort.

You may think of it like this: if you’ve spent six hours at a desk working on a video, you’ve been entirely focused on that. Also, you can start to think that your video is poor and that you’ve hit a brick wall.

You can do final adjustments if you step away for a few hours or days. When you return, you’ll have fresh eyes and discover that your video is good; you simply need to take a break and come back fresh.

Conclusion

Editing your videos should be enjoyable, regardless of whether you use third-party software or native YouTube tools. Create a consistent editing technique, take the time to understand what works for the content you publish, and then watch the views come in.