11. Editing and Enhancing Your Videos

Few videos are YouTube-ready out of the box, even those produced by professionals. No, you probably want to cut out the boring parts, trim the whole thing down to no more than two or three minutes (less is probably better), and convert the video to a YouTube-friendly file. You might even want to add titles, onscreen graphics, scene transitions, and other special effects.

Does that sound like a lot of work? It doesn’t have to be—assuming that you have a well-powered personal computer and the right video-editing software.

Choosing a Video-Editing Program

In the not-so-distant past, if you wanted to edit a video, you had to use an expensive dedicated video-editing console, such as the ones found in local ...

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