The true cost of "Free" YouTube videos

While many people have a great voice-over career due to YouTube tutorials, many are also not getting there because of the free tutorials.

It sounds a bit contradictory, but it is important to realize for voice-over or audio editing success.

There is nothing wrong with free YouTube tutorials, but the problem lies elsewhere. It is how we interpret things and our false belief in “Audio Magic.”

Due to the nature of how YouTube works, the lesson will always be partial. Imagine someone made a proper 3-hour-long tutorial, and no one watched it or had very few views.

Instead of making such a 3-hour complete tutorial, people make a 10-20-minute video that is rewarding for the creator.

And it creates 2 problems:

1. The knowledge and wisdom shared are always partial

2. It gives the false impression of magic which does not exist in the audio world

Let’s talk about issue no 1, the curse of partial knowledge. You already know the idiom: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

You can modify it to say, “Partial knowledge is the most costly thing in audio editing.”

Why costly? Well, if audio recording and editing is a hobby to you, the cost can be your time. But if you are doing it for future monetary gain, this cost can be too much.

In the voice-over world, it is an exponential cost. You are not getting the job because of your half-knowledge, which leads to missing bigger opportunities.

Let me share some of my experiences with my clients, who either overspend or lose opportunities because they lack proper knowledge.

1. One of my clients was not getting good enough audio and purchased iZotope RX Advanced, a $1200 audio editing software, hoping it would solve his problem. 

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The issue wasn’t with the software—it was that the problem needed to be fixed during the recording stage, not in post-production.

If the client had been fully informed, he would not have spent $1200 on a solution that did not address his issue.

2. In another instance, a client bought a $1200 Neumann TLM 103 microphone because he wanted smoother voice recordings. This microphone is fantastic, but his $300 microphone was already sufficient for his job. All he needed was proper EQ adjustments. The $1200 microphone didn’t solve the EQ problem, and he took help from an audio engineer, which he should have done before purchasing the microphone.

These examples highlight the actual cost of partial knowledge. While spending $1200 on tools or software is fine if it solves the problem, it’s a waste if you don’t know how to use it.

So, what would have solved their problems? Correct knowledge.

• With no knowledge, you may fail to take any action.

• With partial knowledge, you might take the wrong actions and fail to reach your goal.

• With the right knowledge, you’ll know exactly what to do.

Here are some examples of correct knowledge about tools and techniques:

• Audacity Macros or Adobe Audition Presets: These automate repetitive tasks like applying the same audio effects. Manually doing this a few times might be fine, but over months or years, it wastes countless hours.

• Marker or clicker technique: While recording, if you make a mistake, repeat the entire sentence instead of just the word. This creates clear markers in your audio. During editing, you can easily identify and delete mistakes without re-listening multiple times.

Without these techniques, you’d spend hours repeatedly listening and checking for errors.

Now, you might wonder: How do you acquire correct knowledge?

There are several learning processes. Some are free and take a long time, while others are paid and take a shorter time.

Such as:

1. Learn the software: Watch YouTube videos about your tools, but don’t just watch—practice what you learn to retain it. If YouTube videos / online articles are the only medium of your learning, make sure you can explain yourself what you have learned. Otherwise, there is a leak in your learning, which can cost you big time.

2. Take courses: Courses provide structured learning and consolidate all necessary information. While there are many courses, not all of them are great. My suggestion is to watch the course videos at least twice. The first time, you watch and practice. The second time, you watch again to see how much information you missed. If watching the lectures a second time doesn’t reveal anything new, that course is not up to the mark.

3. Join training programs: Unlike courses, training involves active participation. Look for training programs that give you some sort of feedback. Many group coaching does not offer any feedback and are no better than on-demand videos. But if you get special access to the person carrying the coaching, that is something different. I have several such programs, and you can check:

   • Voice Over Assignments

   • Audiobook Narration Assignments

4. 1-on-1 coaching: This can be a bit expensive, but it is the best option regardless of your current stage. If you are a beginner, you will get off the ground easily and will save months of learning. If you are intermediate, you will become an expert. If you were getting jobs now and then, you would get the chance to choose which work you would do and which you would not. In fact, several of my premium consultant participants have enrolled in consulting more than once because of the growth they experienced after each round.

   • Learn more on Premium Consulting

Correct knowledge isn’t just about saving money; it’s about saving time and achieving better results.

If you have any queries, don't hesitate to get in touch with me at [email protected]