How Long Does It Take To Create A YouTube Video?
Research shows an average of 7 hours for every 1–5 minutes of video uploaded to YouTube!
Whatever type of YouTuber you are, you know that creating a YouTube video takes time, dedication, and persistent effort. We delved into the depths of what it takes to create a YouTube video through a Rizzle prompt and some Reddit research. This article summarizes our findings.
Sources
We used two primary sources to study the process of creating a YouTube video. Other sources that were secondary are not reported here.
- Rizzle responses to the prompt “How long does it take for you to make a YouTube video?”
- A Reddit thread on “How long does it take you to create one video?”
Types Of YouTubers
There are many ways to classify YouTubers. Based on experience and scale, we may have:
- NewTubers, who are new to YouTube
- SmallTubers, who generally have a small subscriber base and are not eligible for monetization yet.
- Pro YouTubers, who know the ins and outs of making YouTube videos.
Contrary to intuition, the more pro you become on YouTube, the more time you spend making a video!
Based on genre, there are many types of YouTubers, from beauty to gaming to booktubers to DIY to fashion to tech and more.
The Many Steps Of Making A YouTube Video
Making a YouTube video generally comprises several steps. Depending on the type of video, some creators may choose to skip certain steps.
- Research, which involves really understanding the area in which the video belongs, collecting facts, and statistics.
- Scripting, which involves coming up with a script for a target video duration that is likely to be captive for the audience.
- Filming or Recording, which is the actual step of recording all the video clips that will be used as input to the editing process. Most YouTubers tend to use professional cameras to record.
- Editing, which is the step of removing unwanted video elements, adding effects, and creating cool transitions within the video. Often, this step involves adding intro and outro elements to the video as well. Most YouTubers use professional editing tools such as Adobe or iMovie tools for editing.
- Audio mixing, which is the step of adding background music or sound effects and choosing to create different blends of foreground and background audio.
- Thumbnail creation, which is the step of creating a catchy thumbnail which is likely to stand out amongst a plethora of YouTube videos in search results to increase the chances of a given video being watched. This will often involve Photoshop or some such tool to create appealing thumbnails.
- SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, which is the step of finding the right keywords to include as metadata along with the video so that the video can be discovered amongst millions of videos in a similar genre and can rise up in search results.
Making a YouTube video is often a 5–7 step process for most creators, depending on what they choose to skip.
The Time Factor
So, with all that information, how long does it really take to make a YouTube video, from conception to upload?
In our own surveys and research, the answer varied quite a bit.
The reported range for the time taken to make a YouTube video was from 2 to 300 hours! The average time reported was around 7 hours for 1–5 minutes of video!
Gamers and casual vloggers fell in the lower bound and often did not do scripting or heavy editing.
Tech and history video creators reported taking much more scripting and research time to collect the raw information for the videos.
The more subscribers the creator had, the longer it took to create a video. This is because the creators felt compelled to offer better experiences to a committed subscriber base. Our guess is that this falls back down or tapers off at some level, once the creators have a streamlined process.
Many YouTubers referred to upload times being the longest. This is either the result of long videos or a poor network connection or both.
For perfectionists, editing took days to weeks of intermittent activity. Those who carefully edited their videos reported removing pauses in their speech and background noise to improve the quality of the video.
Conclusion
It takes time, patience, and persistence to become a great YouTuber. If you are passionate about content creation, persistence is your friend!
If you are not ready for the whole process yet, or just want something between YouTube videos that is easier, Rizzle might be for you! Share some quick thoughts, mini vlogs, or opinions straight from your phone.
