http://www.ComboCasting.com
Have you noticed lately that some Youtube videos have these awesome thumbnail images, that show up in search results? These are called custom thumbnail images, and they are not part of the video content, like the ones that Youtube selects for you after you upload a video. These images are created for the video in a separate graphics program - like photoshop for example - and then uploaded to Youtube via the editing section in your Youtube channel manager access.
It seems though, not everyone can do this yet. One thing that you do need - is to be in good standing as Youtube channel owner. I can definitely see why Youtube would not let spammy channel owners get this kind of power, since they are likely to create some images of girls in bathing suits to attract extra attention to a non-related video.
Watch the video below to see how to create your own awesome custom thumbnail images, and you'll see why such a feature could drastically improve your click-through rate when your video shows up on a Google or Youtube search results page.
1. how to create
starring this dude.
CUSTOM
image thumbnails
for your videos.
New!
Thursday, 29 November, 12
2. Have you noticed some Youtube videos that
show up in search results that have these awesome
thumbnails?
They are not from the video, but are added by the
Youtuber, after the video is uploaded.
Thursday, 29 November, 12
3. After scanning a few of my own videos, looks like I
could really use some of those custom thumbnails.
Thursday, 29 November, 12
4. I might as well start with this video, since the
current thumbnail makes no sense at all.
Thursday, 29 November, 12
5. I made this single page using Keynote. Powerpoint
will work just as well. The key is to use over-sized
fonts so your thumbnail stands out as much as
possible on a search page.
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6. All I need to do is export that single page from
Keynote into a high quality PNG file.
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7. Now just log into your Youtube account, and select
“edit” for the video you want to have a new
thumbnail for.
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8. Look at the lame choices Youtube gave me when I
originally uploaded the video. So very lame.
Click the “Custom Thumbnail” button.
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10. Wait for it to upload to Youtube. (BTW, needs to be
under 2mb)
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11. And there it is. As far as analytics go, my money is
on the new image to have the highest click-thru
rate. ... No duh. It looks WAY better!
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13. And there it is, already showing in my video list.
This looks so much more professional than my
other thumbnails.
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14. If you create some awesome Youtube thumbnails,
please tweet them to me @ComboCasting so I can
see what ideas I can steal from you.... ;-)
Thursday, 29 November, 12
