First off, kudos to you for posting an unedited video. That takes a lot of guts.
I think the most important thing for you is to decide what you want. I can appreciate that you don't have the time and/or the money for professional instruction. That just means you will have to be more selective about what you choose to focus on. You can't work on everything, so try to work on just what you can.
The two biggest flaws I see in your video are (1) inconsistent stroke and (2) inconsistent pre-shot routine.
1. On some shots, you are hesitating on your follow-through. It's as if you're stopping the cue before you make contact with the cue ball. Compare your stroke at 5:15 to your stroke at 2:21. 5:15 is a good stroke. You accelerate through the ball confidently, and you made a difficult pot. I'll bet it felt good at the time as well. At 2:21, you look hesitant, and the result showed that. Try to remember the feeling of the 5:15 stroke and repeat that as much as you can.
As Fran said, it is sometimes difficult to hit a soft shot with a good stroke. What helps me is to stroke at the same speed as usual but envision a shorter pendulum. You still want to accelerate through the cue ball, except your stroke is only, say, 2 inches of backstroke and 2 inches of follow through, instead of 6 inches back and 6 inches forward. That way you still deliver a good stroke but it delivers much less momentum to the cue ball.
2. Your pre-shot routine is mixed. Sometimes you stand back from the table, and sometimes you just drop down. Here is an article from Bob Jewett describing a generic pre-shot routine that may be helpful: http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2000-08.pdf
Related to this, you almost never study the cut angle. You look at the shot from behind the cue ball, but on anything but the simplest shots you should walk around the table and study the path from the object ball into the pocket. Look at 2:21 again. You have a tricky combination with zero margin for error, but you only looked at it from the cue ball's position before shooting. In a serious game, every single top player will walk around to the head of the table, line up the 8 into the pocket, then line up where the 6 has to hit the 8 in order to define the precise contact point. From where you are, all you can do is guess. That added level of precision is necessary for you to improve.
Those are the two biggest issues, I think. You can improve on fundamentals, position play, etc., etc., but all that comes with time. The Dr. Dave link provided earlier is a great resource, and I am a big fan of Max Eberle's DVDs on fundamentals. But if you don't have time to work on everything at once, I'd focus on these two first.
I think the most important thing for you is to decide what you want. I can appreciate that you don't have the time and/or the money for professional instruction. That just means you will have to be more selective about what you choose to focus on. You can't work on everything, so try to work on just what you can.
The two biggest flaws I see in your video are (1) inconsistent stroke and (2) inconsistent pre-shot routine.
1. On some shots, you are hesitating on your follow-through. It's as if you're stopping the cue before you make contact with the cue ball. Compare your stroke at 5:15 to your stroke at 2:21. 5:15 is a good stroke. You accelerate through the ball confidently, and you made a difficult pot. I'll bet it felt good at the time as well. At 2:21, you look hesitant, and the result showed that. Try to remember the feeling of the 5:15 stroke and repeat that as much as you can.
As Fran said, it is sometimes difficult to hit a soft shot with a good stroke. What helps me is to stroke at the same speed as usual but envision a shorter pendulum. You still want to accelerate through the cue ball, except your stroke is only, say, 2 inches of backstroke and 2 inches of follow through, instead of 6 inches back and 6 inches forward. That way you still deliver a good stroke but it delivers much less momentum to the cue ball.
2. Your pre-shot routine is mixed. Sometimes you stand back from the table, and sometimes you just drop down. Here is an article from Bob Jewett describing a generic pre-shot routine that may be helpful: http://www.sfbilliards.com/articles/2000-08.pdf
Related to this, you almost never study the cut angle. You look at the shot from behind the cue ball, but on anything but the simplest shots you should walk around the table and study the path from the object ball into the pocket. Look at 2:21 again. You have a tricky combination with zero margin for error, but you only looked at it from the cue ball's position before shooting. In a serious game, every single top player will walk around to the head of the table, line up the 8 into the pocket, then line up where the 6 has to hit the 8 in order to define the precise contact point. From where you are, all you can do is guess. That added level of precision is necessary for you to improve.
Those are the two biggest issues, I think. You can improve on fundamentals, position play, etc., etc., but all that comes with time. The Dr. Dave link provided earlier is a great resource, and I am a big fan of Max Eberle's DVDs on fundamentals. But if you don't have time to work on everything at once, I'd focus on these two first.