Previous article: http://profkranc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/youtube-consultation-advice-make-it.html
INTRODUCTION!
When you are fishing through the massive amount of videos on a Youtube search, you see so much random stuff on there that it kind of turns you off. But then you see a professional looking thumbnail attached to a video that you think this video must be good!
When you go down a Youtube search, the thing that people look at is the thumbnail. If they see something that peaks their interest, they will take their time to look at it. It is during these precious seconds you need to sell your content.
The video thumbnail is a window into what the video is, so Youtube gives you a choice of three different frames from the video to choose what will essentially be the billboard of your video trying to bring viewers in.
Now if it is the case that this frame that Youtube has picked for you isn't good enough for you to try and bring in views, then its time for a change. This is where you bring out the custom thumbnail.
If you have entered yourself into the Youtube partner program (as its kinda free to enter now), you can edit the thumbnail.
You do this by following these steps.
INSTRUCTIONS!
1. While logged in, go to your video:
You should see it in this kind of format because you are the uploader of this video.
2. Go to info and settings.
You do this by clicking to the pencil button. This button is the first on your left below the video.
You will now be on the info and settings window. This is were you can edit all the information attached to your video. This is also where you can edit you channel thumbnail. The page should look like this:
Now this video has already been edited to have a custom thumbnail, but I will guide you from here to get your custom thumbnail.
3. Click custom thumbnail.
Now if you have joined the Youtube partner program, below the three thumbnail options that Youtube has provided you there should be a button just like this:
Here is a picture of another video with this button, just in case you weren't sure, here is a highlighted screen from another video:
I don't know why I didn't just use this video before hand, but whatever. We are doing this :-D.
4. Select what you want your custom thumbnail to be.
Once you have clicked this button, it will bring up a window for you to select what you want your thumbnail to be.
Now if you can, make your thumbnail as big as you can without going past the 2MB image size mark. This is so that even if the page is stretched, your thumbnail won't lose quality.
I would advise customising your thumbnail rather than just taking a frame you like from the video. If you edit it, add titles and other special effects it will stand out more among the rest.
Here is an example:
Here is an example:
What would you rather click on? I would click on the one at the top, as it looks very professional and it seems like the guy has put quite a bit of effort into it. The more professional it looks, the more trust you will instil in the viewer that it is good and you know what you are doing. I will leave the design of your thumbnail up to you :-).
Now to see the final result:
Your video will have changed from something like this:
To this:
It seems much better and will most likely gain you more views than if you just left it to Youtube's thumbnail system.
Hope this little post helped. I think in order to make the Consultation posts easier to take in, I'm going to post them shorter like this one. So instead of just being confronted with a wall of text, you can look through it quickly with having to seep through the boring stuff.
I know its a bit of shameless self promoting, but I have some other social media pages if you want to check them out :-D
Social Networking = Procrastination. SO PROCRASTINATE WITH ME!
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/ProfKranc
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/profkranc
I'll catch you on the next post!
Oh, and by the way.......
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RANDOM VIDEO TIME!!!
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