YouTube Kids is a version of the popular video-sharing platform designed specifically for children under the age of 13.
It offers a wide range of content, from educational videos to cartoons and nursery rhymes. But one question that often comes up is whether YouTube Kids has ads, and if so, how many.
The short answer is yes, YouTube Kids does have ads, but the number and type of ads vary depending on a few factors.
First, let’s talk about the types of ads you might see on YouTube Kids. There are three main types:
Pre-roll ads: These are ads that play before a video starts.
Mid-roll ads: These are ads that play in the middle of a video.
Banner ads: These are ads that appear as a banner at the bottom of the screen while a video is playing.
Now, let’s look at the numbers. According to a study by the University of Michigan, around 95% of videos on YouTube Kids contain at least one of these types of ads. That’s a lot, and it’s worth noting that these ads aren’t always for products or services aimed at children.
In fact, a separate study by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that over 50% of ads on YouTube Kids were for food and drinks that are high in sugar, salt, or fat. This is concerning, as children are more susceptible to the influence of advertising than adults and may not fully understand the implications of what they see.
So, what can parents do to limit the impact of ads on their children when using YouTube Kids?
One option is to turn off personalized ads, which are based on the child’s browsing history and other data. This can be done in the app’s settings.
Another option is to use an ad blocker. While this isn’t a foolproof solution, it can help to reduce the number of ads that children are exposed to.
Types of ads on YouTube Kids
Type of ad
Description
Pre-roll ads
Ads that play before a video starts
Mid-roll ads
Ads that play in the middle of a video
Banner ads
Ads that appear as a banner at the bottom of the screen
Percentage of YouTube Kids videos containing ads
Type of ad
Percentage of videos with this type of ad
Pre-roll ads
78%
Mid-roll ads
10%
Banner ads
22%
YouTube Kids also has sponsored content, which is essentially a form of advertising. Sponsored content is videos that are created or paid for by a company or brand and feature products or services.
While these videos are labelled as sponsored, it can be difficult for children to differentiate between sponsored content and regular content.
According to a report by Common Sense Media, sponsored content accounts for around 7% of all videos on YouTube Kids. While this may seem like a small percentage, it’s important to note that these videos often have high production values and can be very engaging for children, making them more likely to watch and engage with the advertised products or services.
Another issue with ads on YouTube Kids is the potential for inappropriate content to be included in the ads. In 2019, YouTube came under fire after it was revealed that ads for mature-rated video games and movies were being shown to children on YouTube Kids.
The company apologized and promised to do better, but the incident highlighted the need for parents to be vigilant when it comes to their children’s online activity.
As for YouTube use and kids, here are some relevant stats:
YouTube is the most popular social media platform among US teens, with 85% of those aged 13 to 17 using the platform. (Source: Pew Research Center, 2021)
Among kids aged 8 to 12, YouTube is also the most commonly used social media platform, with 72% of them using it. (Source: Common Sense Media, 2019)
In a survey of parents of US children aged 11 and younger, 81% reported that their children watch YouTube, and 34% said their kids watch it regularly. (Source: Common Sense Media, 2020)
The most popular types of content on YouTube for kids are gaming videos, music videos, and comedy videos. (Source: Common Sense Media, 2019)
In recent years, there have been concerns about inappropriate content on YouTube targeted at children, leading to changes in the platform’s policies and increased scrutiny from regulators. (Source: CNBC, 2019)
So, what can parents do to minimize the impact of ads on their children when using YouTube Kids? Here are a few tips:
Use parental controls: YouTube Kids has a range of parental controls that allow parents to limit the content their children can access. These controls include the ability to block specific videos or channels, set a timer for how long the child can use the app, and turn off search functionality.
Monitor your child’s activity: While parental controls can be effective, they’re not foolproof. It’s important for parents to monitor their child’s activity on YouTube Kids and be aware of what they’re watching and how they’re engaging with the content.
Talk to your child about ads: Children may not fully understand the concept of advertising and how it can influence their behaviour. By talking to your child about ads and explaining how they work, you can help them to develop critical thinking skills and make more informed choices.
In conclusion, while YouTube Kids does have ads, there are steps that parents can take to minimize their impact on their children. By using parental controls, monitoring their child’s activity, and talking to them about ads, parents can help to create a safer and more positive experience for their children on YouTube Kids.
As users of the Internet, we have something of a love/hate relationship with advertisements.
Most of us understand that the blogs we read, the videos we watch, the content we consume—is made possible by the revenue generated from ads. At the same time, we see those very same ads as an inconvenience and an annoyance.
For creators of that content, it is a difficult concept to come to terms with. On the one hand, you want your viewers to watch ads on your videos. Still, it’s hard not to empathize with their desire not to be bothered by commercials for Fiverr, Monday.com, or whoever is turning the advertising firehose on your viewers lately.
In the case of YouTube, it’s not as clear cut as getting an ad view or not—YouTube often gives viewers the option to skip ads after the first few seconds. As welcome as this tool may be to viewers, it can leave YouTubers wondering if they get paid for those first few unskippable seconds.
We’re going to get into this subject in-depth, but do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads? Short answer is, no. However, the answer isn’t as clear cut as we might have liked. Generally speaking, no, YouTubers don’t get paid for skipped ads. However, there are situations in which a skipped ad will still result in some earnings for the YouTuber.
Let’s get into the details so you can understand when you are—and when you aren’t—getting paid.
YouTube’s Ad Options
Here, we are talking specifically about YouTube’s in-stream ads. These are ads that show up in your actual video, before (pre-roll), during, or at the end. There are other advertising options for YouTubers to monetise their videos, and we’ll touch on those later, but you can’t “skip” a display ad, so for now, we’re going to stick to the video ads.
YouTube has two options when it comes to in-stream advertising campaigns. The type of ad that gets shown on your video determines whether you get paid anything on skipped ads.
For YouTubers who have been around for a while, this could be considered the “traditional” YouTube advertising model. In TrueView ads, the advertiser pays per engagement.
The definition of engagement (or “completion”) is watching at least thirty seconds or interacting with the ad. If the ad is shorter than thirty seconds, then the viewer will have to watch the whole thing for it to count as an engagement.
If your viewer doesn’t meet one of these requirements, the advertiser is not charged and you, the YouTuber, don’t receive anything for the ad.
These are the ads that typically allow the viewer to skip after the first few seconds, which tends to be what happens a lot of the time. There is no CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model for these ads. As such, the number of people seeing those first few seconds of an advertisement is of no benefit to the YouTuber whose videos they are being shown on.
Should a viewer click on one of these ads, however, it is typically worth more to the YouTuber than the non-skippable bumper ads that we’re going to cover now.
Non-Skippable Bumper Ads
Like TrueView ads, these can show up before, during, or at the end of your videos. Unlike TrueView ads, these are only ever six seconds long, and cannot be skipped by the viewer.
These ads are charged (and, subsequently, paid) on a CPM basis. That means that, rather than earning you money every time a viewer clicks on the ad, they earn money for every 1,000 views they receive. Bumper ads are designed to gain exposure, rather than encourage the viewer to perform a specific action. That makes the number of people who have seen the advertisement is the more critical metric.
It is still possible for a non-skippable ad to not count, such as if a viewer hits the back button when the ad starts. But YouTube is using the industry standard of two seconds for an impression to count. That means the viewer would have to immediately leave your video for their view to not count.
Technically YouTuber’s get paid almost any time a bumper ad is played, however, these ads are unskippable. Also, as they pay per 1,000 views, the effective amount you earn for one view is tiny compared to engagement on a regular ad.
With the more traditional TrueView ads, a YouTuber will earn money if the ad is watched for at least thirty seconds, assuming the ad is longer than thirty seconds. So, a viewer can skip an ad and still count as an engagement.
For viewers that skip before those thirty seconds are up, however, no money is paid by the advertiser, and so no money is earned by the YouTuber.
Other Types of YouTube Ads
In-stream ads are not the only option for advertisers on YouTube, and, as such, not the only way YouTuber’s can earn money.
There are presently two other ways for advertisers to get their message across, so let’s take a look at them.
Non-Video Ads
Non-video ads are the ads that show up in the form of a small banner overlay in the video or a display ad in the sidebar. These ads are minimally intrusive, which is a double-edged sword in terms of viewer engagement.
On the one hand, they are less irritating to your viewers, meaning they are less likely to click away because of an ad. On the other hand, they are considerably easier to ignore, meaning there is less chance of engagement and, subsequently, less chance of revenue.
As a YouTuber, you can choose which kinds of ads you allow on your monetized videos, though not the content of those ads. So, it may be worth doing research and testing to find which ads work best for you and your audience.
Discovery Ads
Discovery ads, while they are clearly marked as an ad, show up in organic search results and watch feeds in the same style as the regular search results and recommendation videos around them.
This type of advertisement is ideally suited to YouTuber’s themselves, as it is designed to drive traffic to a particular video. The ad will show among related videos as though it were an organic result, meaning the people seeing the ad were already looking for that kind of content to being with. It is worth remembering that, as mentioned, the ads are marked as promoted content.
These ads are unobtrusive and, by their very nature, tailored towards the viewer’s interests because the viewer is already looking for the type of content being promoted in the first place.
Other Options for YouTuber’s to Earn Money
YouTube’s advertising platform has its strengths and weaknesses as a revenue source. Still, it’s not the only option for YouTuber’s to turn their channel into an income generator.
Brand Deals
For channels with enough interest, it is possible to cut out the middle man and go directly to the advertiser. Several brands have been open to making deals directly with content creators. That number continues to grow as the power of platforms like YouTube becomes increasingly evident.
With a brand deal, you will have to work out the details with the advertiser yourself, including price negotiations, but this added work comes with rewards. Namely: revenue.
The earning potential from brand deals is considerably higher than that of YouTube’s monetisation program. Of course, the barrier to entry is higher as well. You only need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours watch time to qualify for YouTube’s Partner Programme, but brands will require a considerably larger audience before they think about offering a channel a deal.
It should be noted that, if you do get a brand deal, you are required to inform YouTube via the “contains paid promotion” checkbox of your video details.
Getting started on YouTube can be hard so I wrote a deep dive step by step guide on how to start a YouTube channel on my blog – I even added pictures!
Crowd Funding
For YouTuber’s with an invested audience, crowdfunding is a great way to earn revenue from a relatively small audience. Traditional advertising does not pay very well with low viewing figures. Often earning pennies per 1,000 impressions, or more per click when only a small percentage of viewers ever click, you need a lot of views to make decent money.
With an engaged audience who like your content and are happy to send you a little cash to support you, you can earn considerably more revenue.
Crowdfunding suits smaller channels particularly well, as viewers are more likely to support a creator they feel connected with. It is easier to maintain that kind of relationship when you don’t have millions of subscribers.
Responding to every comment is feasible when you have a few thousand subscribers, but that’s not the case when you have a few million.
This dynamic extends to YouTube advertising as well. With a small, dedicated audience, you are more likely to receive ad revenue because your viewers are more likely to be interested in the ads. For larger channels with more casual viewers, this is not usually the case. It is this relationship that is why some YouTuber’s can go full time with an audience of around twenty thousand subscribers, while other YouTuber’s with ten times that amount of subscribers still have to work a regular job alongside their channel.
Affiliates
Affiliate marketing is usually thought of as a supplemental revenue source—rather than a primary earner—when talking about YouTube channels. Affiliate programmes will pay you a commission for actions carried out through your referral—a typical example of this being you sharing an Amazon affiliate link in your description. Amazon then pays you a percentage of the sale when one of your viewers buys something through that link.
Affiliate programmes are particularly useful for channels that feature products, such as unboxing videos and product or service reviews. If a viewer watches your video and decides they want to purchase the product or service being featured, they can click through your link, and you will earn a small commission.
Using affiliate marketing when it doesn’t organically tie into your content is unlikely to generate revenue, however. Worse still, it can sometimes be seen by your viewers as a cynical money grab and may turn some people off. And, on that note, always be upfront with your viewers about affiliates, brand deals, and product placements.
Most viewers won’t care if you are getting paid to talk about a product, but they will care if you aren’t honest with them about it.
Affiliate marketing has made me $1000’s over the last few years. It can be as simple as making content and picking the right links. But to help you get started I have written a Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing in this blog – It’s surprisingly simple once you get started!
Eyes on the Prize
At this point, it is worth enforcing the point that content is what matters. If you focus on making the best possible content for your audience, meeting a need they have, the opportunities to generate revenue will come.
If you are concerned over whether you earn money from skipped ads, you may not have your head in the right place for success. Many YouTubers consider the YouTube Partner Programme a poor option for revenue generation, and certainly not a good bet for your primary source of income. Obsessing on details such as whether you get paid for a few seconds of watch time on a skipped advertisement is not the best use of your mental energy.
Put that energy into your content. Find ways to expand your audience, or drill down further into your niche and become an authority. Consider other methods of monetisation when the time is right. There is no point in starting a Patreon with fifty subscribers, for example. Well, unless they are very dedicated subscribers.
YouTube monetisation has long been an unreliable source of income for its creators, with continually changing terms and multiple “adpocalypses”. The best way to approach this is not to think about it. Simply turn monetisation on when suitable, and forget about it. Focus on your content and other revenue sources. That way, any income you do make through YouTube’s Partner Programme will feel like a nice bonus.
And you won’t be caught short the next time YouTube changes their rules, and your revenue takes a hit.
Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!
2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos
I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.
When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.
Big mistake!
I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.
That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.
Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.
3. Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways
I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.
And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.
I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.
I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.
There is a multitude of ways to monetize a YouTube channel. Still, the most popular method remains YouTube’s built-in monetization features.
You will need to meet several criteria before you can monetize a channel (more on that later), but once you do, YouTube will begin showing ads on your eligible videos, and you will start earning a cut of the profits those ads generate.
There are typically a lot of questions surrounding YouTube’s Partner Program, which you have to become part of if you want to monetize your videos. Many of these questions come from the perspective of branding; a critical ingredient in any online presence.
The question of whether you have control over the ads that YouTube play place on or around your videos is a reasonable one to ask. After all, public perception is not always as nuanced as you might hope.
If an ad for something controversial is played before your video, it can negatively affect your brand. Similarly, most YouTubers aren’t exactly keen on having ads for their rivals playing on their videos, either.
So can YouTubers control which ads are shown on their videos? – The short answer is no. YouTuber’s have no control over which specific ads are shown on or with their videos. However, you can disable specific advert categories in the Google Adsense settings to eliminate some niches you might wish to avoid like Gambling, Health etc
Still, you are not entirely powerless in controlling the branding of your channel.
Let’s dig in a little deeper.
The YouTube Partner Program
Know your enemy, as they say. Before you even consider how to handle YouTube’s built-in monetization, you need to understand what is required for your channel to qualify.
It used to be the case that anyone who followed YouTube’s community guidelines could monetize their channel, but this changed in 2018 when the barrier to entry was significantly increased. The current requirements to become a YouTube partner are as follows;
Reside in a country or region where the YouTube Partner Programme is available.
Have at least 4,000 hours of valid watch time in the past 12 months.
Have at least 1,000 subscribers.
Have a linked AdSense account.
Most of these requirements are self-explanatory with the possible exception of “valid watch time”.
Watch time consists of accumulated watch time across all of your videos by any viewer. So, sixty different viewers could watch one minute of a different video each. That would count for the same amount of watch time as one viewer watching a single sixty-minute video.
The “valid” part refers mainly to the fact that, previously, YouTube’s Partner Program would factor in all views across your channel. That includes private and unlisted videos. Now, for it to be considered valid, it must be a public video.
Once you have met these criteria, and provided there are no issues with your account, you can sign up to be part of the YouTube Partner Program. And, after YouTube approves your channel (usually a few days), you can start monetizing your videos. It’s also worth noting that being accepted into the YouTube Partner Program is a channel by channel process.
If you start a second channel after being accepted to the program, you will have to go through the same process for that new channel.
What Control Do YouTubers Have Over Ads?
Firstly, it should be noted that even though your channel is part of the YouTube Partner Program at this point, any individual videos you intend to monetize must meet their own criteria before they can be monetized.
When monetizing your video, YouTube will ask you to answer a few questions about the content. They will want to know if it has any offensive language, or if it is aimed at children, as well as a host of other things.
For the most part, the answers to these questions will affect the advertising that YouTube will show on your video. In the same way that you might not want certain things advertised with your brand, advertisers often don’t want their ads displayed with certain types of content.
For some types of content, this may mean YouTube won’t show any ads at all. If your content falls into this category, you should look into other ways of monetizing your videos.
Assuming your video is eligible to be monetized and you do decide to put ads on it, the only real control you have is where and how those ads are displayed. There are several options to choose from, and you can select some or all of them. These options are;
Display Ads
Overlay Ads
Sponsored Cards
Skippable Video Ads
Non-Skippable Video Ads
The timing of the in-video ads can also be set as “Before Video”, “During Video”, and “After Video”, with the further option of manually choosing the placement of “During Video” ads.
Overlay ads are those little banner ads you sometimes see in the bottom center of the video. The ones that you can close if you like. Display ads, on the other hand, are the ads that appear above the recommended videos (typically to the side of the video you are watching).
These ads are minimally intrusive and do not stop the viewer from watching the video. That means they are less likely to cost you views, but also less likely to make as much money as the more intrusive ads.
Cards are the little boxes that pop up in the video when you click “more information”, and, as you may have guessed, sponsored cards are ads placed in those boxes.
Finally, skippable and non-skippable ads are video ads that YouTube will play at the times you have allowed. These videos interrupt or delay your viewers from seeing your content.
Because of this, there is a higher risk that they will click away if the content is not grabbing them. That being said, this kind of ad is also worth considerably more money, so it’s a trade-off you will have to weigh up for yourself.
And that, along with not monetizing your video with the YouTube Partner Programme, is the full extent of control you have over YouTube ads on your videos.
Or is it?
Paid Promotions and Product Placements
Your earning potential through YouTube is not limited to the YouTube Partner Program alone. Indeed, some YouTubers do not use the program at all, feeling that the extra revenue does not warrant the added inconvenience to their viewers.
One of the more popular methods of monetizing a YouTube channel without using YouTube’s own methods is paid promotions and product placements.
This can be handled several ways, but typically takes the form of an in-video ad that you place in the video yourself, rather than leaving it for YouTube to do automatically. For this kind of arrangement, you will have to strike up a deal with an advertiser yourself, and so it’s impossible to say what constraints you might face on the content of the ad.
However, you will be in full control of what you do and don’t show.
If an advertiser demands something you are not comfortable with on your channel, you can choose to not work with them. Just be sure agree on the content of the ads before any legal documentation is signed. Failing to do so may result in you being legally obligated to show ads you are not comfortable with.
If you do implement this kind of monetization, there is a simple checkbox you will have to tick when you upload your video. This tells YouTube (and, consequently, your viewers) that your video contains paid promotion. In most cases, this will be an unnecessary precaution, as it is often obvious that there is paid promotion in the video.
For videos with product placement, however, or where it is not immediately clear that the video contains a paid promotion, this notice will act as full disclosure to your viewers.
Whether it is necessary for your content or not, you must make sure to check this box if it applies. Not doing so would constitute a breach of YouTube’s terms if you were ever found out. In extreme cases, you could even lose your channel!
Affiliate Programmes
Affiliate program are not suitable for all types of YouTube channels, but for those they do suit, it’s an excellent way of monetizing your content. To explain how affiliate programs work, we will use Amazon as it is the most popular example of this kind of service. There are many affiliate programs to choose from, however.
To make use of Amazon’s affiliate program, you first sign up with their program. From there you can access special affiliate links to Amazon products. From a customer’s point of view, clicking an affiliate link looks no different from clicking a regular link.
The item is the same, the price is the same, and the process is the same. The difference that we’re interested in, however, is that you get a commission of any products that are bought through your affiliate link.
Now, if your channel has no relevance to anything you can buy on Amazon, then an Amazon affiliate link wouldn’t do you much good.
However, if your channel reviews things, or you do some product spotlights, or even if you have a professional setup and frequently get asked about your gear placing affiliate links to the related products in your video description can be a great way to monetize your content. It is also a great way to add a revenue source if you are already monetizing through some other means.
Leaving the Amazon example behind, there are many affiliate services, and some companies even have their own affiliate program. For instance, Udemy, an online learning platform, has its own affiliate program. There are also affiliate program related to books, entertainment, and a host of digital products.
Crowd Funding
The final alternative to monetizing your channel that we’re going to cover is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding requires you to have a somewhat invested audience but is essentially your viewers choosing to compensate you for your content.
For this to work, you would need to be providing useful content that your audience is willing to pay for. People like to watch funny animal compilations, but they are probably not going to financially support you to make them when they can get that content elsewhere.
There are a few different ways to make this option available to your viewers, the most well-known one being Patreon. With Patreon, you can set different tiers that your patrons can contribute to, with rewards for each tier.
Patreon supports recurring payments, very much like a subscription. Another similar option is Ko-Fi, which is a little better suited to smaller, one-off payments. The theme of Ko-Fi is that your supporters are buying you a cup of coffee. It may help to think of this service as more akin to a tip jar.
For eligible channels, YouTube has an in-house alternative in the form of Memberships, which works in a very similar fashion to Patreon. Using YouTube’s system has the added convenience of not requiring your viewers to leave YouTube to support you.
Of course, you will have to meet YouTube’s requirements before you can use this feature.
Conclusions
While it is unfortunately true that you cannot control the ads that YouTube displays on your videos, you are not powerless in the presentation of your brand. You can choose not to show YouTube ads on your channel, and seek alternative ways of monetizing your channel.
It’s worth noting that YouTube advertising is not the most predictable source of income. In addition to fluctuating viewing figures, the type of video you make can significantly affect your earning potential. While some YouTuber’s have made a respectable income from a relatively small number of subscribers, other YouTubers have had viral hits with millions of views that only made a few hundred dollars.
Things like the length of your video and how long viewers watch for also has a significant impact on the earning potential of any specific video.
However you plan our your monetization strategies, remember that good content should be at the core of whatever you do. You can’t control YouTube’s ads, but you can control your content. Make it count.
Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!
2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos
I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.
When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.
Big mistake!
I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.
That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.
Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.
3. Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways
I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.
And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.
I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.
I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.
