How I Actually Make Viral Thumbnails

I made only 3 videos on this channel  and all of them got over 100,000 views believe it or not it all  comes down to these 4 steps I already explained how I use  storytelling to get more retention now it's time for step 2. . .

you ready? if no one clicks on the video they don't watch  point of the thumbnail is to create a journey from the thumbnail to even the high quality images are crucial add some intrique and make people want to know what happens next doesn't make any sense does it? we need to make better thumbnails.

. . I don't mean these guys are wrong but let's  be real you already know all these basics even if you don't they're just common sense  do you really need to be told to keep your thumbnail simple 5 different times in 5  different videos from 5 different gurus?

I guess not so here's the full guide on how to actually make a thumbnail  that gets clicks we will go from the design rules I use to thumbnail types getting inspiration  branding word choice visual effects testing and. . .

the first rule is pretty simple but it takes your  design from a mess to a piece of art just take any popular youtuber's thumbnail and and draw 4  lines like that do you see what's going on there? almost all of them even my thumbnails  follow these lines at the core well you might know the rule of thirds  from photography which basically says put the objects over these  lines to get a nice shot that's why almost every channel  has a thumbnail like this because it works so just add those lines to guide you throughout the entire design trust me it's a game changer we'll come back to the layout but before  that you need to choose a color. .

. you probably heard people talking about the color  wheel the idea is to get enough contrast in your thumbnail you should choose two opposite colors  from this circle and if you dive deeper you would see there are more techniques that's used to  get fancy combinations but here's the plot. .

. I don't use them there's a much easier way  to find a color for your thumbnail and for your entire channel so here's what I do take any  color you like as your main color I chose yellow for mine then add three more one black one  white and one in the middle you can slightly tweak these to match your main color but I like  to keep it simple and finally add another color to highlight things there we go go a color palette  that's actually useful even though my sister says it looks like a Minecraft house made from diamond  and gold I like it you can use it in your editing too but that's for another video now you might ask  wouldn't that be too repetitive if I use the same colors in all my thumbnails? that's right!

the solution is simple just change the highlight  color that way you can keep the fresh vibes while still being recognizable by your viewers it's simple just pick a basic font that isn't overused and you're good to go for those those who  are asking the fwn I use is called "eastman" and it looks pretty good all right we talked about the  rule of thirds and how to make a good layout it's nice but you can't just invent something new  in this square for every single video right? well you don't have to if you paid attention while browsing on the homepage you may already  have catched some thumbnail types that most youtubers are using shout out to this legend  for breaking them down into 21 categories but here's the best 10 that will work for 99% of  the time youtubers like Airrack and Mreast use that style all the time but even if you're  not an entertainment channel you can still use this type of thumbnail take a look at this hey what's he doing? !

dude put that chicken down! oh this is how airplane engines are tested. .

. they test it with chickens? !

see that's the target emotion of these  thumbnails just shock the viewer while scrolling on the homepage and make them clip  it's easier to say but think about what you have in your video that would shock the viewers  of course big things always get more attention don't take this out of context people are  curious to know what a $50 million house looks like or how this dude earns $900 just by  listening to music until they realize he doesn't among all those over edited and screaming  thumbnails another way to stand out is keeping it really simple just an interesting  chat from discord a chair a red button or this thing whatever this is may get more attention it's  usually just a screenshot shot from the video and a simple question that makes you curious to know  what's going on channels like DrInsanity or Zack are doing it so good that it makes it impossible  to skip if you're a small channel and a popular niche social hacking is probably the best way to  gain the first traction basically take the face of a famous person in your Niche and slap it into  your thumbnail oh the video must be about that person though otherwise it's called clickbait all  the videos you see with Mreast's face are using this strategy and it works pretty well even dream  used in his first videos so don't underestimate the power of a popular face all right let's  speed things up this is the style you see all over youtube just the creator next to something  bigger yeah the one I use in this channel basically an interesting text at the top to give  more context about the video it can be anything to compare to before and after something cheap versus  expensive iPhone versus Android fin versus AI you got the point blurring the main character or the  final result so people have to click to find out I don't know if you realize but all of those viral  thumbnails that I showed in this video and even all the ones that you saw on your homepage have  one thing in common they're not just using one of these formulas they're combining them look  at Mrhosetheboss' series where he buys every release of a tech like iPhone or Playstation I  showed you this in big numbers but if you look closer you would see that he also uses header  comparison and even social hacking formulas all at once or take a look at this chair which  types could you spot it's branded because of their logo right here it's simple because  well there's nothing else than a chair and it's using social hacking because everyone saw this  chair at least once we can even include it as a weird object if you think chairs are weird? . .

. even I used big numbers and header styles in my first video on this channel I wouldn't say it's  very creative but it worked for sure I can go on with all the thumbnails that I showed but the  idea is choose two or three styles combine them and try to stick to it for around five videos  it will make your audience understand it's your style but don't stick to it for too long  because using the same formula 100 times would probably make the viewers feel like you just keep  repeating yourself and it will lower the chances of click unless you're a reaction channel. .

. well it's one of the most popular advice that you can hear from youtube gurus just look what  other youtubers in your niche are doing and try to replicate but I completely disagree with that  and I have evidence to support my opinion take my first video as an example trying youtube shorts  is definitely not a unique video idea what about the thumbnail that style seems to work for many  people well in that case you're a smart guy just copy what works right the problem is you're not  the only one that is the worst thing to do if you see many similar thumbnails from different  channels about the same topic hopping on that train is probably not a good idea if so many  channels are already doing that it's the cliche thumbnail now and your audiences are basically  the same so there's no reason for people to click on your zero view video instead of their 100k even worse people will probably notice they're too similar and you might become just a copycat  of your competitor so what should you do then you can't reinvent the wheel for each new video right? well.

. . just kidding of course it's not really possible to do that if you're posting consistently sooner  or later you'll run out of thumbnail ideas and when that happens you should just look at channels  outside your niche for that video I went through the channels I follow in completely different  niches and came up with this thumbnail same thing applies to almost all of them so get inspiration  from the channels with different niches that will make your video stand out from the crowd because  your audience with those channels are different but it's the same with all these other channels  so when it appears alongside those yours will be much more likely to get more attention experimenting with new things is always good but just try to keep the core elements like  colors fonts and style consistent that makes your audience notice your video on the home screen  way faster and with enough time boosts the CTR this is where you got to be creative you can  use a big number if that suits your video a bold statement opposite of a common belief  or just a title that represents your video if nothing fits well leaving it blank is always  an option congratulations you just learned how to make a viral thumbnail right I don't think  so look you learned the theory which is really important but it doesn't mean anything if you  don't know how to use them most people will probably close the video at this point take all  that information and go make a thumbnail like this but if you stick around you'll learn how I turn  this into this hey Finn what do you call it?

Photoshop baby! ! PhOtOsHOp BaByYy how you say it like that.

. . with just a few simple effects and some ancient  Photoshop sorcery that I learned from this guy yeah hey everyone I'm still here here got stuck in  this timeline dude you need to work on your jokes PHOTOSHOP.

. . after choosing your concept and sketching a detailed draft on paper  open Photoshop create a new project get your lines add your character text a nice background and  other elements it already looks better than that make the text fancier by double clicking here  then change the color add inner glow outer glow and whatever this is just tweak the settings  to make the unique effect you want here are the adjustments that I usually do if you want to  get a similar style after you're happy with the look save it as a new style to use it next  time you can do that for other elements too it's the effect that I used in this thumbnail  to bend this chart you can bend anything by just clicking the corner of an image and choosing  this button now you can warp it however you want looks good but they seem too distracting  in the background let's add some blur select the image filter blur gaussian blur that might work work but we can do even better let's try again select image filter pixelate  mosaic oh we made it worse again again that's it even though these blurs might not suit this  thumbnail they work very well in some cases so it's nice to know how to use them all right let's  move on we fixed these images but the background is too shiny it's almost hard to read the text  so we need to make it darker take the brush wo wow calm down you don't have to be a Bob Ross to  use this okay just try to keep up make your brush big and soft reduce the flow to something like  5% and increase smoothing now open a new layer on top of your background and start painting  behind text character and things like that okay we're getting somewhere that background image  looks nice but I don't really like the color I said but I don't really like the color how' to  change it glad you asked select the background click image adjustments hue and saturation here  you can choose a specific color to change or tweak the entire image noise we're almost done  but I'm looking so unnatural over there I mean the text above my head is shiny there should  be some light reflections in reality right?

pick the selection tool select the thing  create a new layer take the brush make it smaller pick a nice color and brush  over where the light is coming from oh don't forget to change the layer blending  style to overlay if it doesn't work for your image try other styles and colors too  after everything's done I like to send it to my phone and play around with the colors  in Lightroom so it goes from this to this before publishing the video you need to test  how it looks on youtube homepage to do that go to thumbs up. tv add your title and thumbnail and  see if it looks good if it does you're good if not go back to the drawing board again but hopefully  it does here it is I know it's probably not the best way to make a thumbnail but that's just how  I do it at the moment it will definitely change with time but for now this is all I do and it  works for me so may work for you as well. .

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