One thing I can't stand about YouTube advice is when the person giving it isn't actually doing it themselves. So I'm documenting my full process here, from ideation to upload, on one of my own channels. No cherry-picked results. Whatever happens, you'll see it. The video: "Every Update Pokopia Needs" or something close to it. Day 1 takeaways: Found a thumbnail style I want to model. Here's what's working in the reference I found: - Big bold text, branded to the game's visual style - Outer glow on the main font - 6-panel grid layout that pulls the eye inward - Strong contrast throughout - Game title visible in each panel Still have some design decisions to make but the direction is clear. The title is strong, though I won't have part 1 or again anywhere in mine. Tomorrow: drafting my version of the thumbnail and title. If I can do it, so can you! Feel free to do this challenge with me. One week from today we'll have a full video, and we can look at our results together

statistically not every video you post can be a winner. It just doesn't work out like that. What I've found is that you have to kind of shrug off the "L"s and press onward. I WILL say - when looking at your analytics, I find it paints a better picture of do's or don'ts when you can measure say, 10 videos at a time as opposed to 1-2, but here's a quick glance at one of my channels. I want to be open about my processes: I fail. I fail a lot. But that also means that I'm getting more reps in each time. I had a video do 40k views this month, and 2 out of my last 3 were under 1k. The video I just posted is doing well, and will probably continue to do well, but if I had stopped after 2 bad performing videos I wouldn't have made the 3rd* *when I started, it took more than 30 videos to crack 700 views. You all are doing better than me, the views will come. It takes time

Here's a channel that I think is doing a lot of things right, and is 'relatively' new. thumbnails, titles, on point. It's not crazy retention editing (though it is very professional and they probably do have a team) but the ideas are fantastic. If you want help connecting the ideas of this channel to your niche, just lemme know in the comments.

Alright - Here's 3 thumbnail/title combos, don't look the videos up. Just rank them in which you think they got the views with 1 being the most popular and 3 being the least. Same creator, same niche.

Same creator. Same format (roughly). Same topics (roughly) The channel is Incinematic. They make short essay videos breaking down film tropes and cinematography techniques: things like over the shoulder shots, specific camera angles, tools directors use. Started 2 years ago. Now at 61k subscribers with several videos crossing 1 million views. But not every video hits. Some sit at 8-9k views while others reach 3-10 million. I'm going to share a mix of their latest and popular videos. Before I give you my takeaway, I want to hear yours first. Look at the thumbnails and tell me: what do you think separates the ones that took off from the ones that didn't? Drop your answer below and I'll share what I noticed after a few responses.