read more... When considering the cost (Investment) you’ve got to take into consideration four core things: Your time, equipment, postproduction, distribution.
If you’re the one creating the content, then yes, it will cost you your time. And that’s a high value asset, I know. Which is one more reason you need to do this right from the beginning.
In terms of equipment, all you really need now is a smartphone and a quality mic ($100-$200). Price can be driven up or down based on what you would like to add or upgrade here of course. Add on equipment could include any of the following: Lighting, stands, additional cameras, additional mics, etc. Pricing can range from $100 to thousands of dollars depending on the quality of equipment you go with. But again, these are necessarily required to get started.
Postproduction/editing can either be done by hiring a professional editor or doing it yourself. If you hire an editor, it could be anywhere from $8-50/hr. depending on where you source from and how good they are. If you do it yourself, we would recommend a software like Descript, which is around $20-$30/month and uses AI to help edit your videos more efficiency. If you hired a Content Director, they use tools like this and do all of this for you. A highly skilled editor would use professional editing software and do this for you as well.
Once the video is ready you will either need to distribute the videos yourself (0 cost) or have someone else do it. In many cases, the same person who edits the video, will also distribute it (In the case of a Content Director). A skilled content director is typically in the range of $4,000-$8,000/month. (See below for a breakdown in what they do vs a pure editor.)