How to choose and create great thumbnails ready for YouTube? The 2nd part to our thumbnail Vlogs…
Firstly let’s look at what makes a good thumbnail, firstly the purpose of a thumbnail is to not only attract someone to click your video, but they should give a clear indication of what the viewer can expect within the video. Most of the time this tends to be an impressive action shot, a relevant product shot, or of course the traditional good looking male or female. Just make sure that the image you use actually appears within the video, or the viewer may feel a little tricked.
There’s 2 ways of acquiring a thumbnail…
The first one is to actually take a still photo during filming specifically for use as a thumbnail, or if you forget (which in most cases you do) take a single frame from the video footage as a screen shot. The tip is to make sure the shot is free from motion blur and is as high res as possible.
As many views on YouTube come through the related content section, it is important for your video to stand out from the rest and correctly portray what your video is about. one of the ways to achieve this is by having your brand logo on the video. This will help viewers instantly see that you have more content and will make it much more likely that they click on your video and not one of a similar topic from another uploader.
Add text & a logo if you feel it’s appropriate…
To add text open up a program such as Photoshop, or the free equivalent called Gimpshop (gimpshop.com). Use the text tools to add a short bold title if required, and import your logo.
Remember not only will these thumbnails be very small, but they may be cropped depending on where they are displayed, so be careful not to place text or logos too close to the edge of the image, and make sure you maintain the 16×9 aspect ratio.
By following these simple guidelines YouTube channels have seen large increases in views and subscribers. could thumbnails give that extra boost to your online videos, let us know how you get on.