Your Opinion
Added 2025-06-23 05:52:55 +0000 UTCGuys! I'm so bad at making eye-catching thumbnails, and I'm struggling this week. The video for this weekend is "10 Strangest Newly Discovered Animal Behaviours." Do any of these thumbnails look good? Or should I go back to the drawing board? I sort of hate all of them.
Comments
I agree. I'll simplify the font and make it smaller. Also, I tried everything to make that monkey image crisper, and failed. Clearly. Because you noticed it wasn't clear. Haha
Robbie Murdoch
2025-06-23 16:12:00 +0000 UTCI kind of don't like any of them either. I think the monkey photos look a bit blurry. The clearest photo is the squirrel one. I would suggest using that one but maybe either make the words smaller or change the title to "Weird Animal Behaviours". I get that the arrows help with clicks but I also don't personally love them. If you are going to use the monkey pic, I would use the second one and reduce the size of the words, as one other person said. I also totally understand that you need to get views. Hard balance. I watch anyway.
murdochlinda@hotmail.com
2025-06-23 16:10:39 +0000 UTCI get this comment alot. And personally, I feel like there is a difference between "click bait" and "clickable." Click bait, to me, would be to use AI in the thumbnail, or lie about the content. I absolutely do not want exaggerated or misleading thumbnails. But, as I know you know, if no one clicks on my video, I don't make any money and I can't keep doing this. There have been weeks where I get only 15k views on a video I spent 30 hours producing. That makes me less than $100 for a week of work. Ideally, each video would get 50k views or more, but without a thumbnail that's eye-catching/clickable (while still being honest about the content), I can't get the views I need. So, I appreciate that you'll watch no matter what, and of course I also appreciate you wanting to hold me to a standard that speaks well of my content. But I'm realizing more and more why people make garbage content with clickbait titles, thumbnails, and no effort to produce reliable information or visuals. It works. I just need to find the right balance of building intrigue and interest through the thumbnails and titles, without lying about what I cover in the video.
Robbie Murdoch
2025-06-23 16:03:20 +0000 UTCI really dislike the clickbait culture on YouTube, with its nonsense overselling thumbnails. Honestly, I hate it. Even though I still watch such videos, I hardly ever take those creators seriously, even if the video itself is well made. Such clickbait seems like a desperate cry for attention. This is why I love your thumbnails featuring artistic drawings or pictures. They really grab my attention. However, I'm also aware of the fd-up situation on YouTube, where clicks take precedence over quality content, and wonderful creators like you have to fight for every viewer. I really don't mind if you change the thumbnails on your videos from nice artwork to overdramatised clickbait. As long as you keep producing quality content, I will always be your fan. To answer your question: Number 2 is by far the most clickbaity of them all. But you have to go all in and put a red circle around the monkey. As you said in another comment, circles and arrows attract viewers' attention — it's like a road sign on the street.
Gerhard Joller
2025-06-23 15:48:31 +0000 UTC
