Editing Hacks YouTubers Use To Hook You

Hey whānau! (Māori word for extended family)

This weekend, I found myself watching a video on Film Booths’ channel called something like, “All the biggest creators use these editing hacks”.

I found my brain was highly alert, and I was hanging on to every word he said. I could also feel my body was anxious, and it felt like life and death that I had to watch the entire video.

What if I missed some crucial tip? What if my channel didn’t grow as a result? What if he finally said the one thing that makes my channel go viral?

This feeling was familiar. I’d experienced it numerous times. I’m certain I’ve watch close to 1,000 “YouTube Growth” videos.

I know you know the pain. Of watching a growth video, trying the hack, and then having yet another video flop. I both desperately wanted to learn but felt hopeless that anything would actually work. The pain of failing over and over again is what drove my anxiety.

But this time I experienced something different…

Actually, Screw Editing Hacks

About 3 minutes into the video, my brain decided the video wasn’t worth my time. My brain said, “Nah Daniella, this is BS. You know better now – this stuff is the cherry on top. You know what really matters.” And boom! My body relaxed.

My brain was confident. There was no doubt. My brain knew that the only thing that truly matters in the travel vlogging sector is STORY.

But it’s Hard

A few-years-ago-Daniella would have gotten frustrated if someone said that to me. To struggle to understand storytelling feels so demeaning. Little children tell stories. Stories are all around us. Why am I struggling so hard to grasp storytelling?!?

My natural reaction for years was to scoff at the advice and go back to the easy route: believing I just needed to study harder, try harder, and be better.

But I’ve since learned that that reaction is 100% based on the fact that love was given to me in my childhood when I was learning and achieving. So, my “safe space” is to turn towards the studying that gives me seemingly easy and quick wins. Storytelling is 100% not easy.

The first step to recovery: BELIEVING storytelling is the only place your attention needs to go. And ridding yourself of all thoughts that you are “not studying hard enough”, that you are “not trying enough,” that you are “not editing enough, filming good enough, pretty enough,” or simply, that you “are not enough”.

Then, I want you to try three things the next time you watch a good episode on YouTube that captures your attention:

1. Ask yourself, what goal has the YouTuber set out for this episode? (Is it a big goal? It is tangible or abstract? Does it relate to their overarching channel goal? If so, in what ways throughout the video do they connect back to their overarching channel goal? Did they make it clear why the goal matters? Do you have an understanding of how hard it will be to achieve the goal? If so, how?)
2. How is each scene building up to achieving or not achieving the goal? (Do they show anything unrelated to the goal? If so, how long does it last? How quickly does it link back to the goal? How long into the episode until they achieve or don’t achieve the goal? How quickly do they wrap up the episode after achieving the goal?)
3. Does the thumbnail and promise tie into the goal of the video? (If so, how? If it doesn’t, how did they transition?)

As you can probably gather by the questions, having a solid and interesting goal is the crux of good storytelling. I can’t tell you how many times I am helping a client with a video, and I can already tell its doomed because the video goal is boring, intangible, or unrelated to their overarching goal. And in their head, they are telling themselves they aren’t enough in all the various ways. And then that idea is reinforced by a badly performing video.

But you don’t have to experience that same pain. Study how the best YouTubers use video goals to craft compelling stories and then try it yourself. I know you go this!

Stay curious & KEEP GOING!