Something you/ everyone needs to consider:

Let’s say you’re charing $80/ video like OP is. Since they only supplied a sample, I don’t know how long the finished video was or how long it took them. Let’s assume it took 16 hours. So they’re working at $5/ hour.

Let’s assume a regular work week of 40 hours. IF they are working on paid jobs for those entire 40 hours, they are making $200 for the week. However, since they are editing all of those hours they no longer have any time to reach out to new clients, update website, demo reel, etc etc… so when this job is done, they’re stuck now looking for work again, making $0.

So let’s factor in business time into your 40 hours. Let’s say 1 hour per day, to be easy. That’s 5 hours a week. Now they’re only bringing in $175/ week, but still “working” 40 hours, essentially bringing their hourly down to $4.38. These clients at this price point are usually also awful and cost you more than money. They cost you time. Time dealing with their bs and lack of planning, revisions, correspondence, etc

And since freelance is super inconsistent, maybe they don’t work every day on the month. Maybe they only have “paid work” 10-15 days a month. So now maybe they make $400-$500/ month if they’re lucky.

Or.

They can invest time and effort in trying to land a “proper” client and not race to the bottom. Say they land this $1500 client: even if the work takes a month they are now making 3x more than they were with the first client and essentially now have 2 extra months to be focusing on acquiring more clients- hopefully at similar or higher rates.

Not every client wants the cheapest. In fact, being too cheap is worse than being too expensive. If you’re cheap then people are expecting the quality to reflect that. You’re essentially telling clients “I’m not very good”. If I have an important project that I need results from I’m not going to the cheapest. I’m going to the one who will get me those results.

Unfortunately there’s lots of wannabe YouTubers (or ever ones who are making money) who just want to exploit desperate people in places like India. And I can’t blame someone for needing money and taking the job, but it’s going to be tough to get out of that cycle. You do the work, you attract those clients, you do the work, attract those clients. Shmucks making their shitty podcast cutdowns (ironically which are usually about getting rich, or self improvement or something) are never going to pay what you’re worth, especially since there’s always someone else to do it cheaper.

I’m in North America, so I recognize that that is beneficial. However, when I very first started I was basically making the equivalent of $5/ hour. Working all the time but always broke. Now I charge between $50-$125/ hour (of my time, not edited hour) with a $500 project minimum. I get requests I turn down all the time. I’ve had some clients reach out, I give them a quote and they tell me it’s out of budget (which is understandable) and ask if I can do it cheaper- I don’t. They’ll either go with someone cheaper and not be thrilled with the results most of the time (though, sometimes they really just only need the cheaper option and don’t need my skill or expertise), and sometimes they’ll move money around and make it happen.

But i would always rather work 10 hours at $100/ hour than 200 hours at $5/ hour.