How to Earn More as a Freelance Video Editor

Earning full-time income as a freelance video editor is no joke!

You’ll have to find your niche, market yourself, communicate with clients and deliver quality that people would want to purchase again and again.

If multitasking isn’t your strong suit, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed by everything it takes to build a solid career.

In the beginning, you’ll be getting projects here and there depending on your freelance experience.

Some freelancers are fine with this phase for a few months and even years as a side hustle, but you’d want to eventually with lots of consistency increase your salary and move up in prices.

To start making enough to quit your day job, however, you need to be strategic and very focused on building a freelance career.

Boosting your income can be accomplished in a couple of ways.

Proper marketing and experience is of course crucial but you can use a few additional strategies to diversify your video editing business. 

Look for More Freelance Video Editing Jobs

Experienced freelancers know and follow a basic rule – you never put all of your eggs in the same basket.

In other words, you can’t count on a single client or a freelance platform. If something goes wrong or a site like Upwork suspends your account, you’ll be 100% left empty-handed and will have to build up a new profile somewhere else or find a new client.

So, if you’re currently only using one freelance platform to find new clients, the time has really come to look for alternatives or other opportunities.

Upwork is a great example of a website that connects freelancers to clients as mentioned. It has a huge base of potential customers that you can get in touch with by applying for various projects. But again, counting solely on Upwork can result in dry spells.

Some other great sites that allow you to look for video editing clients are:

• Fiverr: originally and as the name suggests, the platform allowed people to post five-dollar gigs. Luckily, you can now set a higher price for your services. Lots of potential clients use Fiverr to discover reliable solutions. Putting together an attractive video editing presentation can help you monetize your profile.
  
  
• Toptal: quite similar to Upwork. In order to join the talent pool, you have to apply for an account. The network is advertised as more exclusive than other freelance platforms. That’s why the people admitted to the network have to complete a somewhat more rigorous process.

Peopleperhour: a job platform that mainly focuses on the UK market. Still, many international gigs can be accessed and applied for by anyone.

Viedit: the name says it all – this is a job platform exclusively created for video production and editing.

Tongal: the final suggestion is also a video editing community. Numerous projects are posted there and you can apply as a creator to the ones that appeal to you the most.

Creating profiles on all of these places may seem time-consuming and cumbersome at first, but luckily you’ll just have to create a profile once on each site and you’ll be able to apply to jobs immediately.

You can of course focus on 1 – 2 platforms as it’s hard to be everywhere, but If your main lead channel suddenly stops performing as well as expected, you can always fall back on some of the other platforms.

Join Websites That Pay Video Editors

The internet is full of income generating opportunities for everyone especially those with a skill if you know where to look.

Apart from websites that help you connect to potential clients, there are also platforms you can use to monetize your video editing skills in other ways.

Let’s talk about the two main sites.

Mofilm is one example. Creators and editors can submit ideas and if these are considered attractive enough, brands and people will pay for the production. Anyone can pitch and win new gigs.

Uscreen gives you a chance to monetize your video editing skills in another way. It’s an on-demand solution that allows you to sell and teach your skills online.

Make Tutorials and Video Editing Professional Materials

As a video editor, you have acquired a lot of knowledge through your professional experience. That knowledge can be monetized.

Creating courses and tutorials gives you a chance to educate other professionals and earn some money this way. Besides that having a video editing course under your belt will help you build your reputation as a reliable and highly knowledgeable professional.

Creating courses is fairly easy and you can sell those via your own website.

If you don’t feel like taking on all of the course creation burden, join platforms dedicated to this. Udemy is probably the best and most popular example of such a portal.

Currently, there are over 10,000 video editing courses on Udemy. The cost of these ranges from a few bucks to over several hundred dollars (for more specialized courses that give students access to niche skills).

The key here is to do research and find out what students want to learn.

A general video editing course isn’t the best idea – there are hundreds of such courses in existence. Instead, try to come up with something a bit more specialized.

While the number of potential students is going to be smaller, these people will potentially be willing to spend more on specific knowledge.

Partner Up with Videographers and Other Creatives

Very often, clients are looking for more than one service when they get in touch with a video editor.

If you can offer comprehensive packages, you’ll get to win over a bigger number of potential customers.

Partnering up with other creatives is one of the best ways to generate more income as a freelance video editor.

You can consider collaborations with photographers, videographers, script writers, animators and so many others.

Most of them probably already have their own customer base that could be looking for services like yours. So, a partnership is going to be mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

It’s fairly easy to come up with combined service packages that cover a client’s complete range of video production needs.

Also, you can enjoy referrals and recommendations from your partners, helping you acquire new clients fairly easily.

Apart from contacting other creatives to grow your network, it may also be a good idea to get in touch with local businesses.

Venues that host parties, festivals or weddings could be interested and potential clients or even refer you to other venues.

You aren’t going to lose anything by approaching local entrepreneurs but there’s quite a lot to gain.

Increase Your Rates

Here’s one final way in which you can generate more income as a freelance video editor. It’s very important you do this as soon as possible. 

If you’re new to freelancing chances are that you’re still charging the same prices as when you started last year or two years ago.

Why? 

You’ve gained lots of experience and can probably do the job a lot quicker.

Why wait?

Many freelance video editors are afraid of increasing their rates. It’s very normal to worry about this as many would think:

That’s completely normal, but the truth is that experience costs.

A client that understands the importance of quality will be more than happy to pay more and get an excellent video.

You should of course do a bit of research before increasing your rates to find out if you are underselling your services.

There are averages in the video editing world and these vary depending on location, scope, experience, turnaround time, etc.

If your rates are much lower than the average in your location, the time has come to think about an increase.

Obviously, you should always back up a price hike with experience and excellent service.

That’s the main way to grow your income and continue to maintain a stellar reputation.

Final Thoughts

Being a freelance video editor means focusing on many aspects of the job.

Getting clients, growing your portfolio and discovering new platforms or ways to increase your income is all equally important.

Finding ways to generate more income may seem too time-consuming at first like any beginning, but you’ll have to do research and lots of marketing.

Eventually, however, the efforts will pay off and you’ll start getting recognition without needing to work as hard as in the beginning.