Mental Health, Mindfulness and YouTube // Depression, stress, anxiety and burn out are all real things when you take on Youtube as a full time job or hobby. Try and take some time to yourself and discover a way to unwind. I personally like time to myself, or in quiet places with loved ones. So in this case I was taking a walk down my local canal with the ducks and the friendly walkers.
What do you do to battle stress, depression, anxiety or burn out?
A thumbnail is important to stand out and get noticed on YouTube. You need something eye catching but not too weird!
Once you’ve created your masterpiece its time to upload the thumbnail! Learn how to add a thumbnail to your YouTube videos using your Mobile phone (iPhone or Android device).
Download YouTube Studio App from the Google Play Store. Open the App, Click on the top left menu, choose videos, find the video you want to edit, click the pencil icon, and in the thumbnail click the thumbnail again, click change and upload your desired thumbnail image.
You’ve probably heard this phrase plenty times – “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Though these are words to live by, it is often the most neglected advice.
Every day, every minute, every second, your videos are judged by their thumbnails. In fact, video thumbnail plays a very important role in encouraging viewers to hit the PLAY button.
With so many videos on the Internet competing for attention, a video thumbnail can determine whether your video is watched or ignored, that is why use Adobe Express Thumbnail Maker.
Thumbnails are the most important aspect of any video’s release, other than the content itself. Seriously.
This is because thumbnails, in combination with titles, are often the biggest deciding factor in whether or not a person will click to watch a video.
These are insights gained from conversations with creators, reading the YouTube Playbook, and countless experiments with various design types, all while measuring the click through rates and performance of our thumbnails through YouTube’s TrueView advertising.
Add text to represent your video content
Your thumbnail should convey your viewer what they’re going to see in the video. This is why it should sync with the title, description and the content of the video.
A good tip is to include some text in your thumbnails. Platforms like Facebook have a restriction on the amount of text you can put into a video thumbnail, so keep that in mind!
In fact, you can also include some hashtags in the thumbnail. Compare the views of this Jimmy Falon video to others:
As someone who regularly watches videos on different platforms, I request you to avoid using click-bait video thumbnails. This causes a lot of annoyance to the viewer and give out a ‘cheating’ vibe. And this is not good for your brand.
In the not so distant future, platforms like YouTube and Facebook can slowly start identifying such users using machine learning, and start penalising them.
Make it visually appealing
Impress your audience at first sight. Use the right color palette, but also make sure it doesn’t end up too gaudy and bright. You can use some image editing tools like PlaceIt.
PlaceIt even has a huge gallery of templates to get you started. I have used PlaceIT for YouTube branding inspiration for years and its always a great way to research a starting design. Or you can buy templates for as little as $14.99.
Tubular Insights claim that something as simple as sharpening the edges can have also a subliminal effect on your thumbnail!
Include a human face to build an emotional connect
This usually makes people click you video because it makes them feel more connected. Once that connection is made, viewers are more likely to watch the entire video.
If possible, use a close-up shot because it helps the image stand out, irrespective of the device it is being viewed on. Look at the views on these BuzzFeed videos:
Tip: Based on what emotion your video is trying to evoke, use a face that exaggerates this emotion!
Brand your thumbnails
Given the real estate of the thumbnail, it can become difficult to add your brand’s logo. But try to include it whenever you can. This ensures your video stands out in a collection/list, and helps the viewer identify your content.
Branding and logos are essential for great thumbnails. A good logo for brand recognition helps your thumbnails stand out against other thumbnails on YouTube because it’s a clear signal to the audience that this is one of your videos.
Since your audience is easily able to identify the video as one of yours, they are more likely to click that video.
A/B Testing is the process of testing two variants of the same thing. In video marketing, this involves comparing two different versions of a particular video to gauge which one does a better job at attracting more YouTube views or engaging an audience.
Video makers need to understand that nowadays, it is no longer just about putting out great content but being able to market it effectively enough to continue organic growth over time.
On top of having great quality content, video thumbnails, tags and descriptions contribute to driving traffic as well. Oftentimes, having great content with poor video descriptions or thumbnails can spell the difference between getting more YouTube views or not, and that’s not the only factor.
Having the ability to do an A/B test on videos prior to publishing them live to check which version and setup works better for their audience is essential to success.
Sadly, YouTube does not offer a feature for A/B Testing as of yet for its videos. I use the A/B thumbnail tool from TubeBuddy to help me boost views, rank higher and improve my click-through-rate.
Why should I Carry Out YouTube A/B Thumbnail Testing?
To most marketers, video is time-consuming and expensive to produce.
Then why am I suggesting you to make multiple variants of your videos?
Because your video is useful only if people actually watch it. And honestly, video that isn’t increasing your viewer engagement is a waste of your time and money.
YouTube A/B thumbnail testing will tell you what factors in your videos influence the probability of the viewer watching the entire video. And you can then use this insight to make more videos that your viewers love!
In fact, brands carry out A/B testing video ads on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook all the time to mazimise click-through-rate and conversions – more often than you’d imagine.
How do I know whether my impressions click-through rate is high or low?
What Drives Impressions? – When you upload a video, YouTube starts surfacing it to relevant audiences. Based on many factors, our system figures out which viewers are most likely to watch your video. The system continues to surface the video to audiences as long as it remains on YouTube.
How Do I Know If My Click-Through-Rate (CTR) is High or Low – Impressions click-through rate measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing a registered impression on YouTube. Some views don’t count towards impressions, like views on external websites or from end screens. Because of this, your impressions CTR probably represents a subset of your channel’s total views.
Impressions click-through rate will vary based on the type of content, audience and where on YouTube the impression was shown. Video thumbnails are always competing against other videos on the homepage, in ‘Up Next’, in search results and more.
Half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.
New videos or channels (like those less than a week old), or videos with fewer than 100 views can see an even wider range. If a video gets a lot of impressions (such as if it appears on the Home Page), it’s natural for the CTR to be lower. Videos where most of the impressions are from sources like your channel page may have a higher rate.
Ultimately, it’s best to compare CTRs between videos over the long term and keep in mind how their traffic sources will affect their CTRs.
How To Change Channel Name on Mobile iPhone & Android // Change Name on Mobile and keep your channel name username up to date. A channel name username can help people find you and set up your brand, but if you get it wrong you might want to change it on your iphone, android smartphone.
YouTube Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint (Grow On YouTube) // To grow a youtube channel in 2019 and grow on youtube you have to understand and accept one very important fact – YouTube Is A MARATHON and NOT A SPRINT! For you to make a successful youtuber and be successful on YouTube you have to play for the long haul and the long term growth. Once you put in enough time, enough content to build a back catalog, and dedicated your time to learning how to make better videos…. only then will your channel grow.
YouTube Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint
You need to get over the numbers and you need to focus on quality content, within your set niche and pump out regular, reliable, helpful content that people search for and want to see. Once you finally commit to the long hard grind that is long term success on YouTube you will finally open your mind to the amount of work you need to put in to make it all work.
How To Make YouTube Videos // There is a lot that goes into making a YouTube video. How To Make A Video for YouTube is a skill you hone over the years that you make content and today I am here to show you how I set up my equipment, what equipment I use and how to get ready to make videos online.
Youtube Dark Theme – How To Use YouTube Dark Mode for Mobile (iPhone & Android) – Turn On Dark Mode – Desktop Dark Theme // Enable Dark Mode YouTube, black background, is a great way to freshen up your desktop and youtube mobile app. The new Youtube dark theme can be a good way to check your thumbnails pop and are eye catching. Some people call it YouTube night mode or the dark theme, the new youtube feature gives you choice and a new cool black look theme.
Instagram Removes Likes in Canada — Death Of Vanity Metrics? // Instagram to remove likes // Instagram is testing the removal of public like counts on Instagram posts in Canada. This could lead to the total removal of public likes from the Instagram platform world wide. Will other social networks follow their example?
I personally see this as a step towards a more socially responsible approach by social media companies. This will make likes private to the account holder and so would stop bullying or limit the damage that vanity metric can cause to users.
How To Add A Watermark To Your YouTube Videos (2019 tutorial) Add Your Logo To Your YouTube Videos! // The YouTube branding watermark is a great feature to add a subscribe button to your video, expand your brand and grab more subscribers. The youtube video watermark should be one of your tools to boost views and grow your audience.
Is it too late to start YouTube? In 2019 should you start a new channel? Starting a new channel on YouTube in 2019 should be less about going viral and making that YouTube money and be more focused on what you want from the platform and what you can do to add value to somebody. Are you starting a new channel to teach? Are you opening a new youtube channel to save your videos and make a diary? Are you coming to youtube to make marketing videos for your brand? As long as its not just a get rich quick scheme and there is true value behind your content for you, or your audience then its NEVER TOO LATE TO START ON YOUTUBE!
How To Feel Comfortable On Camera — Get Confident for Video // How to get comfortable // How to be more confident // And how to be good on camera, fight camera camera shyness — is a skill you have to learn over time while making videos on YouTube.
How To Turn On Off Restricted Mode on Mobile 2019 (Android & iPhone) // Restrict non kid friendly content or see what videos have been hidden form your back catalog. The YouTube Restricted Mode on Mobile is a tool that many people overlook but could be harming or helping your audience find you.
Turn On YouTube Restricted Mode for iPhone, Android and other mobile phones — This will safeguard your children from potentially harmful or sensitive content. However this can also block some content you never intended to hide such as LGBTQ YouTubers or news channels.
Turn Off YouTube Restricted Mode — Sometime the YouTube filters can be a little harsh and content maybe hidden by mistake. Turning off the YouTube Restricted Mode will open up all content, whether age-gated or not.
Increase audience retention to get more views on YouTube. If you boost video retention rates the video is more likely to be pushed out by youtube as a highly engaging video. If you can boost watch time, retention rates and session watch time youtube will see it as good content, rank it higher and suggest it to more users.
YouTube’s Audience Retention (also known as Viewer Retention) is the percentage length of your video that viewers watched. For example, if you upload a video that is exactly two minutes long and someone watched it for 30 seconds, you’d have a retention rate of 25%. If someone else watched the video for a minute and a half, he would have a retention of 75%, and the video would have an average retention rate of 50%.
Since the numbers aren’t always going to be that easy to crunch, YouTube analytics does the job for you and leaves you more time to focus on improving those numbers. It has been proven that by increasing a video’s retention rate, it ranks higher for relevant keywords on YouTube and gets suggested more often to potential viewers. Focusing on viewer retention is important for anyone looking to grow their reach on YouTube, as it is guaranteed to get you out to more people who are interested in your content.
Article 13 Explained — An Unpopular Opinion from a British Person DEEP DIVE // The suggested new eu law that could lead to a European Youtube ban on content need to be explained from the British point of view. That is why today I chat about how I feel the article 13 (article 17) affects original content and Youtube as a whole.
Article 17 (ex Art. 13) of the adopted text will force upload filters onto the Internet. The EU Member States will now have 2 years’ time to implement the Directive into their own national legislation. The fight continues, but now at national level. This copyright legislation is a Directive, which means that the EU Member States have some margin for manoeuvre at the national level with regards to how they ensure that the legislation will work in practice. Therefore, it will be important to convince national policymakers to ensure that they implement Article 17 (ex Art. 13) in the least harmful way, by ensuring the best possible protection of citizens’ fundamental rights.
YouTube Removes Mobile Live Streaming from Channels Under 1000 Subscribers // In a recent youtube update, youtube has removed live streaming for mobile users on youtube channels with less than 1000 subscribers. You can still live stream from a desktop and some mobile apps but the feature has been removed from the native youtube apps themselves.
I personally believe this is due to the recent New Zealand facebook event and this is YouTube’s way to defend themselves.
How To Trigger YouTube Growth — Snowball Effect for Views in 2019 // The YouTube Algorithm can trigger youtube channel growth and snowball your channel views, search and rankings. Grow your youtube channel but triggering the youtube snowball effect, trickle feed your videos views over time and they will rank better.
Game Of Thrones Season 8 Can GROW Your YouTube Channel FAST // Game Of Thrones returns and this viral trend could be a great way to use game of thrones final episodes to grow your channel. Wrap your niche around the hype, make related content and see how much of the viral traffic could splash your way.
Game Of Throne YouTube Video Ideas — Cosplay, Deep Dive into the science/religion of the universe, make up tutorials, gameplay, reviews, book vs tv comparison, fan fiction and more.
Game of Thrones Season 8 could teach you how to ride new trends each month, why not try this with Orange Is The New Black, iPhone Launches and Superbowl’s!
Lead With Value — Giving Away Your Business Secrets (DEEP DIVE) // Are you worried that if you give away all your tips and tricks that people wont want to use your services any more? Are you a business YouTuber trying to find new clients and worried you might be talking yourself out of a sale? If you LEAD WITH VALUE you can prove to your potential client that you are an expert in your field and win their trust.
Plus to quote Gary Vee — 99% of people wont use the information anyway — this means they learn that you know these things and then hire you to help them anyway.
Enable Dark Mode YouTube, black background, is a great way to freshen up your desktop and youtube mobile app. The new Youtube dark theme can be a good way to check your thumbnails pop and are eye catching. Some people call it YouTube night mode or the dark theme, the new youtube feature gives you choice and a new cool black look theme.
