Transcripts
1. Introduction: Creating a successful YouTube
channel is far from easy, regardless of what you hear. It takes a lot of time, it takes a lot of effort. And most importantly, you need
to know what you're doing. It's not just simply
a matter of aploding a video and hoping
things work out. Hi, my name is Juan ti. I'm a CEO, entrepreneur, educator and
accounting creator and an owner of a successful
YouTube channel, which has generated
over 300,000 reviews, and it's growing per minute. In this current powerful course, I'm going to teach you some of the tactics and
strategies that I use within my business within my channel that will help you. Take your YouTube channel to
a different level and which I'm going to teach you how to
combine the power of Canva, the power of C GPT, to create powerful
YouTube thumbnails, which will help your
videos stand out. These tactics, these
strategies are very rare. Many things I'm going
to be sharing with you on this current course
are not talked about. It includes a lot of scientific, practical applications that will ensure every single time you
create a YouTube thumbnail. It's a successful one, leaving the guess work out of the equation, which
is often the case. We tend to create
YouTube thumbnails and we hope that
things work out. Well, there's a lot more to it, which will help increase
those chances and make things work in
your favor the same way it worked in my
favor when it comes to my channel and growing
my YouTube channel. In this current course, I will take you behind the scenes. Yes, you've heard me
right. I'm going to show you the back end of my channel. Which is quite rare for many YouTube content
creators to do in the first place to show you how it looks like
from the back end. What makes a video
successful compared to a poor performing
video solely based on the effectiveness
of the thumbnail. So what are we waiting for? Let's get it started.
2. Your Project: Project for the current
course revolves around creating a YouTube
thumbnail, which is clear. Catchy, professional
and organize. In order to make sure that you create a powerful
YouTube thumbnail, make sure that you go
through the lectures in sequence covering
the practical examples, taking a look at the
back end of my channel where you get to
see the impact of a powerful YouTube thumbnail
with regards to not so well properly done
YouTube thumbnail, such that you get some
inspiration to draw from to help you apply
the key best practices, which I'm going to
be teaching you at this current course to achieve the core objectives and the project requirements in terms of creating a
YouTube thumbnail, which is catchy, clear, professional and
organized. Okay.
3. A tour in Canva: Welcome to the first lecture
in which we are going to have a basic preview on Canva. If it's the first time
that you are actually learning about Canva
or dealing with Canva, it's a very powerful tool to help you come up with
graphics designs, various designs for
various applications, whether for marketing, whether
for social media posts. So we are going to have a bit of walk through to have an
idea about what is Canva, how to go about the basic
application for Canva, at the same time to understand
how things look like on the Canva website for
the ease of navigation, making sure that we are
building a solid foundation. In case you have no idea what is Canva and how to use
it in the first place. So over here, first of all, we do have the website,
which is canva.com. On the left hand side, You do have your
account details. At the same time, you do have your saved projects,
any previous templates. If you have saved any
brand related items, you're going to be
finding them over here, in addition to any
installed applications. So the left hand side displays mainly the generic categories or filing of your dashboard. Now, if we take a look at
the top side over here, we are able to realize that we have various categories
for various elements. If we go to the
design spotlight, notice at the first column, we have visual documents, the second column
photos and videos, the second column, printouts, and the third column marketing. So for the visual documents, this includes documentations,
presentations, whiteboards, graphs and charts, photos and videos, you get
a video editor, YouTube video editor,
you get photo editor, photo colleges,
background remover. Now, some of these options
they're free to use, and some of them
required to upgrade to Canva the pro version,
the premium version. You do have printout, such as business cards, invitations, T shirts, is, calendars, and for marketing
materials such as posters, flyers, and the list goes on. So you get the idea behind how these items have been
classified on Canva, and following which we do have various applications for
business, for education, and for the plans and pricing, in case you would
like to upgrade for the current
demonstration that we have, the free version is
more than enough. So once we have concluded understanding the top
navigation items, we are able to better
understand how to transition from one
part to the other. Now, if we go and
scroll downwards, you notice that we have
a small menu over here. This menu includes key items that many users have been using, which are quite famous to use. Some of them have been
recommended for you based on the way you
have been using ama, then you have documentations,
whiteboards, presentations, social media, videos, and
websites. Click More. It will provide you with some
additional useful elements that you might find helpful,
for example, infographics, desktop pale papers, graphs, and these are additional
elements that you might find useful based on
the use of Canva. If you have been using it
for a certain category or a certain application, you'll find these recommendations
to pop up. For you. Now for our case, since we are going
to be using Canva to craft and design
YouTube thumbnails, we can just simply go
to the search over here and we are going to type
what we are looking for. Keeping in mind, you can
just manually navigate, like Gorda social media, and then you can see we have a different bar over
here. Display menu bar. We got popular Instagram,
Facebook, and Lincoln. These are the elements
which have been used quite heavily by
other users lately. And you can just keep
on navigating until we find the YouTube
thumbnail over here. We do have other elements. We do have the YouTube intro. We got animated social media. Take a look at this. We
got a YouTube banner. So so it has multiple
applications, and we will be covering all of these various
unique applications in the upcoming courses. But for the current course, like I've mentioned,
we are building it one level at a time. And we are learning about a walk through generically for Canva, then focusing and
narrowing things down to our core application
in the current course, which is the YouTube
thumbnail design. So once we click over here, we are going to
transition to a canvas. So by default, it's
preset to include the dimensions and the pixels in terms of the length and
the width for a Canva. And if you notice over
here, On the left side, you do have various templates
that you could choose from to help you hit
the ground running. So let's say for example,
I click this one. By default, I'll be
able to start by using this template to help me design my
YouTube thumbnail. Keeping in mind,
here's a pro tip. Whenever you click on
one of these thumbnails, the display on the
left side will be refreshed to include
more similar thumbnails. Let's take a look at
this. Here we go. Take a look at the left side. It has been shuffled
again to provide me with something quite similar to what I've been choosing
in the first place. So this is a great way
for you to keep on trying things that
you might find helpful and keep an eye on
the left hand side till you spot the one that you truly like to help you build upon
it from the beginning. Now, on the left hand side, if you notice over here, we have a column which includes the
current design template. These are some elements that
we can use in our design. Text that could be added, the brand images and fonts, any uploads that you
could add from your side, whether an image or a
picture or an audio. Would you like to
manually draw as well. You could use these options, any prior projects,
and any applications. Like I've mentioned,
Canva is very powerful, and it has a lot
of utilizations, which we will be covering in a series of various
applications. But for the sake of
the current course, we need to focus on the
tools which are going to serve us to create a
powerful YouTube thumbnails. So at this current stage, you do have a basic
understanding of the Canva navigation, and how could we utilize
it to provide us with the foundational block
of the first layer, let's say, the initial block for creating a YouTube thumbnu.
4. ChatGPT Incorporation for Youtube Success: Welcome back. Now, on
this current lesson, we are going to
have a briefing and overview on CT GPT by Open AI. Now, most probably you
are familiar with C GPT. But like we have mentioned, the course is designed to include the beginners
from the beginning, support them with the
foundational knowledge, provide them with the steps that they need to take in order to have a successful
experience within the course. So if you are
familiar with C GPT, you can just simply
browse and freshen up this current using this
current lecture before transitioning to the actual
application in terms of creating a YouTube thumbnail, using Canva and Cha GPT. But if this is the first time
you learned about Cha GPT. Cha GPT is an LLP artificial
intelligence model, which is natural language
processing model. You can just simply go to
Google and type in Cha GPT, Open AI to land at
the following page. Now, at the top left over here, this is where you click on it to start a chat with Cha GPT. At the bottom, you do
have the message window where you type what
we call as prompt. Now, a prompt has
multiple approaches, prompt engineering
best practices, which require
attention by itself. But like I've mentioned,
we're keeping it basic at this current
stage in which we are going to utilize the basic
approach to prompt design, prompt engineering to help us craft powerful
YouTube thumbnails. Now, if you're
familiar with C GPT, most probably you're wondering, how could I use it actually
to come up with a thumbnails. We're going to be dealing
with this at a later stage. But for you to get an idea, you have the ability to prime C GPT to actually act like
a professional Tuber. What does that mean? Let's
consider the funk prop. Act as if you are a
professional tuber. Planning to create Let's go for the word design to
design a Tube thumbnail. Okay. Let's consider a
cooking channel for a cooking channel in
which the dish is pizza, for example. Now,
take a look at this. So I have primed CGPT to act as if it's
a professional Tuber, which is a very powerful
technique in order to help provide some context for CG GPT to provide me with
the best results possible. And let's see, you'll get
some inspiration from this, but we are going to save
the actual practicality to once we cover the key core elements in
the current course. But if you're able to connect the dots, now this is great, you'll be able to apply
this quite easily as we transition through
the course when we learn about the essentials
of a YouTube thumbnail, graphic design elements, the graphic design
tactics and techniques, and the tools that we
need to use before we actually utilize the power of C GPT to optimize our thumbnail. Now, let's take a
look at the result. So the title, the ultimate
pizza perfection, mouthwatering, homemade recipe. This acts by itself
as a good title to. But like I mentioned, we're
focusing on the thumbnails. Now, let's take a look at
this thumbnail design. Here we go. Eye
catching pizza shot. The focal point of the thumb
name will be a close up shot of freshly baked cheesy pizza
with tantalizing toppings. So it's giving me some
guidance. What do I need? An eye catching pizza shot, chef's hand alongside
the pizza incorporate an image of a chef's hand perhaps stretching or
garnishing the dough. So it gives you
some imagination. It gives you some context. It gives you some
visualization for you to be able to draw some
inspiration from. But this is not the
limited application. Actually, we can
utilize it even better. Vibrant background. Use a background that
contrast well with the pizza, perhaps a kitchen, setting
atic wooden table. The background should
complement the colors of the pizza and help it pop. Text overlay, Overlay bold attention grabic
text on the thumbnail, include the title of the video. So if you are someone who is actually starting with YouTube and you have no idea how to
create a YouTube thumbnail. Now you do have an idea
how you could utilize Cat GPT to provide you with
some inspiration or guidance. Now, take a look at this
icons and moss even though I don't recommend using icons
and moss on a thumbnail, but it depends on the
channel that you have a hat. Call to action, for
example, watch now, learn the recipe,
subscribe, whatever it is. But we have to be careful. We do not want to make our
thumbnail congested as we're going to be learning
in the upcoming lectures. Incorporate branding,
and it gives you a recommendation by
combining these elements, the thumbnail will effectively
capture viewers attention and entice them to click
on the video to discover. Focus on the word entice
them. Here we go. Attention and entice. It's acting as if it's a
professional YouTuber, right? So, you understand now that
we could utilize Chat GPT in a way which facilitates the process of creating
a YouTube thumbnail. So we had an idea,
a walk through. A very brief
introduction on Canva, and how are we going
to be using it to start building our
YouTube thumbnail. Then we're having a bit of
a walk through on CT GPT, and how could we use
artificial intelligence to aid and guide
the design process. So these are the two main tools that we're going to
be using to help us craft catchy, powerful
YouTube thumbnails. Now at this current stage, we are ready to dive into the technical aspects of creating a powerful
YouTube thumbnail.
5. Youtube and The Role of Thumbnails in Marketing: Me the following lecture
in which we are going to understand why YouTube
thumbnails are very important, especially when it
comes to marketing. YouTube is a very
powerful marketing tool when you know how to use it. Thumb nails, first of all, they are designed
to grab attention. When you are utilizing
marketing tactics, thumbnails should be designed
to grab attention in order to make sure you're applying marketing
strategies properly. They should convey
your brand image. When you are designing
a YouTube thumbnail, it should grab attention. It should possess to a certain
point a brand identity, whether the color,
whether the logo, whether the persona
or the character. All of these are
considered to be important elements within
the marketing practice. They should help you
get impressions. And once we say by what do
you mean by impressions? Think about the word impression
in English language. When you leave an impression, when you are remembered
for something. So once you have a YouTube
thumbnail which pops, hence, you're going to be
leaving an impression. This will help you
promote your content. The whole purpose of creating a YouTube thumbnail in
the first place is, first of all, to
get some attention, convey your brand image. Get some impressions in which you are getting what
we call as eyeballs. People are noticing your video. Then they will click on your video to
promote your content. Now, this is a thumbnail, for example, and this
is another thumbnail. Both of these thumbnails
are very powerful. First of all, they look
sleek, clean and crisp. They are attention
grabbing. This is one. They convey a
certain brand image. They leave an impression
and they promote content. Now, let's examine
them together. At this current stage,
you're understanding or reviewing thumbnails from
a different perspective. It's not just simply an image that you stick on your video, and that's it, and let's
hope things work out. Unfortunately, I
made that mistake at the beginning of my channel. But over time, you
tend to realize it's a very powerful packaging
mechanism that you need to learn and master in order to ensure your success
on the platform. If I take a look at
this current thumbnail. You notice over here, I
have a clear impression, global business expansion taking your business beyond borders, right? It's attention grabbing. It has bold text. It has a character
being present. It includes branding. It promotes a call
to action, right? And this will help
me get a click. Now, this is a congested. This is the maxim
we should go in terms of providing all
of these elements. Now, take a look at more
simpler thumb nail. For example, this is attention grabbing. You
do have a character. You do have bold words with some font colors,
profitable trading strategy. So it grabs the attention. It does not provide any
brand logo or company name, but the color scheme could itself be a part of
the brand imaging. It gets some impressions. You'll notice this once
it pops on the screen. Hence, once you click on it, you'll be able to
view the video, which is under that
thumbnail, let's say. So a YouTube thumbnail is like the icing on
top of the cake. It's the cover.
It's the wrapping, which wraps your video content, and it's the first thing
that's displayed on YouTube. It's not your complete video. You could have the
perfect content, the greatest content,
very well made, very, very well edited video. But if it does not grab the
attention of the viewer, it does not include some
sort of brand identity, like it's a solid thumbnail. It does not get any impressions. And what we mean by impressions, it's not displayed to people. People are not noticing
it. Then your content will not be promoted. And once you're able
to nail all of these, the attention, brand image,
and the impressions, your content will start to surface even more and
more as we are going to see in this current
course as you optimize the click through rate of your YouTube thumbnail. So this lecture is
there to help you understand that thumbnails are more than just a random image. It's a marketing mechanism. It's a marketing tool, which acts as the rapper
on top of your video. And underneath that wrapper, you do have your video. If your video is very
powerful and great, but you do have a poor rapper, no one is going to be
actually tempted to watch it to take a look at
what's inside that package. You get the idea. So hopefully,
at this current stage, you have developed the awareness to understand the importance of thumbnails and why we should be taking them quite
seriously. Okay.
6. How Youtube CTR Works: Welcome back. So we've
understood the importance of a thumb nail as part of our marketing efforts
to market our video. But how is this reflected on
the platform or tube itself. This is where we
have a term which is called the clickthrough rate, or often you see it as the CTR. When I take you at the
back end of my channel, you will see how
does it look like and how it affects the
growth of the channel. So make sure that you're
watching every single lecture, you're learning every single
bit of this current course. As towards the end
of the course, we are going to the
back end of my channel where we are going to
see behind the scenes, what is happening
in the channel. What makes one video
successful and what makes a video both of these videos are going to
be as part of my channel. So stay tuned to that. So first of all, a CTR is
a metric that measures the percentage of viewers who clicked on a video after
seeing its thumbnail or link. Concentrate on the word
thumbnail or link. So once you display
the video link or the video thumbnail
and someone sees it, and they click on it. That's considered as part
of the click through rate. And how is that calculated? It's calculated by dividing
the number of clicks, by the number of impressions. What does the word
impressions mean? It means that times the
thumbnail was displayed. So if you have 1,000 people
watching your video or 1,000 people have noticed
your video or your video has been
displayed 1,000 times, This will count as
1,000 impressions. And then when I have a certain
number of click on it, I will take the number
of clicks divided by 1,000 and multiply it by
100 to get a percentage. So it's quite straightforward. Not everyone is going to
be clicking on your video. Some people will see it.
Some people will ignore it. Let's say out of 1,000 people, if you managed to get
100 to click on it, that's perfectly powerful,
as we are going to see, what is the optimal
rage to aim for. A higher click through rate indicates that a higher
percentage of people who see the thumb nail or link are interested
enough to click on it, which generally suggests
that the thumb nail and title are effective in
attracting viewers. And this is where the
magic starts to happen. Like I've mentioned,
I'm going to walk you through at the back
end of my own channel, where you are going to see
that even though two videos, they have great content, one of them failed miserably while the other one
is a huge success. Simply due to this fact, when you have a higher
click through rate, it means people are choosing
to watch that video. And once they choose
to watch that video, it means it sends a signal to the YouTube algorithm that this is a video which
is getting attention. And what does the algorithm
do in this current case? It starts to promote it
to even more people, and more people start to see it, and more people start
to click on it. And it's a very, very powerful growth cycle. So, what do you aim for? First of all, it depends
on the industry, educational channels, gaming
channels, cooking channels. All of them, they have
different click through rates. But in order to have a
successful YouTube thumbnail, this is what I would like to
call as the golden range. I've noticed that
videos on my channel, if they are 5-15%
click through rate, they will grow tremendously. If you are on the top end, you got a video with a 15% click through rate.
Mark my words. That video will grow, and you could thank me later by noticing
that the things I'm going to teach you in
this current course will surely help you get
towards the upper end. If not, at least you'll be more than 5% because there have been many mistakes that
I've done over the years, and I'm going to help
you skip those mistakes. So make sure that you watch the course all the way
till the end until we transition behind the
scenes to see what's happening behind a
successful YouTube channel.
7. Youtube Thumbnail Dimensions and Requirements : Now, in order to
make sure that we're creating successful
YouTube thumbnails, we need to understand
some technicalities. First of all, we need to
learn about the dimensions. The recommended size for
a YouTube thumbnail is 1,280 multiply by 720 pixels. This should be the
maximum dimensions in which you have clear crispy
looking YouTube thumbnail. Take a look at the
image over here. These are the actual sizes, 1,280 pixels length, multiply
by 720 pixels width. Now, if you notice, we do
have over here the minimum. This is minimum 360, and here you got
a minimum of 640. Why is there a minimum? Simply because of the mobile applications or
the mobile phones? So in order to make sure that your YouTube thumbnail
looks perfect in every single device to have sharp and clear images
on every single device. We need to make sure that
the maximum is 1,280 by 7720 and the minimum
is 640 by 360. So when you are creating
a YouTube thumbnail, Go for 1,280 by 720, and that makes sure that
it looks good on desktop, it looks great on mobile
phone applications. But if you go for
the minimum ends, it means you're covering
the mobile device users, and it will not look
that great on a desktop. So we need to get the
dimensions right. This will be automatically done. You can do it manually once
you transition to Camva, but this could be
automatically done once we select a template
for YouTube. But it's important that
you know this because if you're using a different
device, using a different tool, different software, you to keep the technical elements
into consideration. The second important
element that we need to keep in mind is
the aspect ratio. The ideal aspect
ratio is 16 by nine. What does the word
aspect ratio mean? Simply put, we said that the longest length is
1,280 pixels, right? And the width should be 720 pixels for a
YouTube thumbnail. The aspect ratio is the division of the longest side divided
by the shortest side. So 1280/720. Here we go over here.
1,280 divide by 720. If you crunch these
numbers on the calculator, you get a ratio of. It means it's a comparison
16 to nine because once we divide 1,280 by 720,
and we simplify it. It means we have 16/9. So this one we mean by
the word aspect ratio. Why is this important? Because YouTube video players They are designed with this
ratio into consideration. That way, when you are
creating a YouTube thumbnail, you make sure that it fits
the video player properly. There are no glitches,
there are no issues. There are no
compatibility problems. Now, let's take a look at
the acceptable file format. This is very, very important
because often we do have individuals who design a
perfect YouTube thumbnail, but it's in the
wrong file format. That way, you're not able
to upload it on YouTube, you're not able to use it.
It's a complete waste of time. So, the acceptable file formats
for YouTube thumbnails, they are JPEG, PNG, or GIF or BMP files. Now, Ask, as we go about Canva, you'll notice that
we are going to be selecting either one of them, and it depends on the
quality that we have, whether you go for JPEG or PNG. But when it comes to
the compatibility, you can include GIFs
and BMP as well. These are compatible
with Tube players. Keeping in mind
that the file size should not be more than two M B, either for JPEG PNG, BMP, BMP or GIF. The YouTube thumbnail
size, once you uploaded, including all the graphics and
the design elements should always fall less than two M Bs.
8. The First Powerful Graphic Design Principle: Welcome to one of the
most important lectures that you need to
learn about when it comes to graphic design, especially for
YouTube thumbnails. And it's often overlooked or you barely hear
anyone talk about it. When you are creating
a YouTube thumbnail, it's not just simply a
matter of guesswork. Let's see how things look together and publish
it, and that's it. On the bank end, there's
a technical approach, something scientific,
which relates to human psychology and the
way we relate to visuals. This is what we call
as the rule of thirds. Let's walk through this
description together. It involves dividing
an image into three by three grid resulting
in nine equal parts. So here, let's say
I do have an image. Consider this to be
a Tube thumbnail. So what I'm going to do is
I'm going to split my image into rectangles where I
have a vertical line. Here we go, equally spaced. I'm going to do the same thing
for the horizontal lines. Here we go. Such that I end up having nine rectangles or squares depending
on the size. So one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine. So simply put, you have
a grid, one, two, three, simply you split your vertical side into
three columns one, two, three, we're
having four lines, one, two, three, and four. And the same thing for
the horizontal direction. One, two, three, and four, you split them into equal squares that way you
end up having nine squares. Now, you might be wondering,
what's the purpose of this? Let's take a look
at the description. The key elements for focal points of the
composition are then placed along these lines or at their intersections rather
than in the center. This technique guides the
viewer's eye and creates a more dynamic and engaging
visual experience. See these figures
over here, 41%. 20%, 14% and 25%.
What are those? When we are presenting an image, a random image, and someone
is taking a look at it. If we do have something placed, this is what we call as
a hot spot, the one red. If something is
placed over here, 41% of the users or viewers
will focus on this one first. Whatever it is, this will be the first thing to
grab their attention. Then we have 25% of the users are going
to spot this item first. Then we have 20% are
going to spot this item, and 14% are going to
spot this item first. So how does this help us? It means when we are
creating any visual, a YouTube thumbnail
in this current case, and we slice it using
the rule of thirds, as I'm going to show
you how you could actually apply this when
we're dealing with Camva. The intersections of
the vertical lines on the horizontal lines, they give us what we call
as the hot spots, one, two, three, and four.
We got four of them. Any item placed at this hot spot has 41% chance of
being viewed first. Over here, 25%, over here, 20%, over here, 14%. It doesn't mean you have to put everything into a single
hot spot on the contrary. The whole purpose of this
is to guide you where to place the elements
that you would like to focus some attention on. Either you could just
simply place an item here, another one here, here and here. And as you go along
the vertical line, you are still within the area of attention along
the vertical line. So the closer you are, to these spots on an image. The closer you get to them, The higher the chance
of whatever item that you place over
there to grab attention. So you notice how powerful
this is because instead of placing items randomly on
a thumbnail or an image, we are approaching
it with strategy. We are being strategic. We are selecting spots, which we know based on scientific evidence
would get impressions. Now, let's take a look how does this actually look
like in reality?
9. Example of the First Graphic Design Principal : We're going to have a practical
example to understand the rule of thirds. In front of us, we do have
an actual YouTube thumbnail. Now, from a first glance, this looks like a typical
YouTube thumbnail. But since we have learned
the rule of thirds, now we are equipped with powerful graphic
design methodology to help us figure out why
this is considered to be a powerful
YouTube thumbnail. So if you notice, I've split the thumbnail into equal
rectangles by having one, two vertical lines and one, two horizontal lines,
such that I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
perfect rectangles. Now, I'm going to label
the hot spots one. Two. Three and four. Now, everything
makes sense, right? What's the first thing
that got your attention? Most probably the
character over here, because it's quite close to
the first hot spot, correct? What's next? What got your attention? Most probably it's
the laptop over here, because it's close to
the second hot spot. What's the third thing
that got your attention? It could be either the text over here or the text over here. Now, why this one
could come first, because of the font
and the background, which might affect
the impression. So these elements have
been carefully placed around the hotspots to
draw the attention. Keeping in mind, you
do not have to place it exactly on the hot spot. Like we have mentioned,
the closer you are to it, the more attention or impression you will
leave on the viewer. So it's about trial and
error and experimenting with the best optimized
version of a thumbnail that will draw attention
in the best way possible. Now, let's take a look
at another example to help you get things better. Here we go. Take a look
at this thumb nail. Now, pause for a
second. Observe. What's the first thing
that got your attention? Now, let's mark the hot spots. Here we go. We got
one over here. This is the second one. Third, and fourth. Now, most probably
the first thing that got your attention is the text over here because it's literally placed as close as
possible to the hot spot. The second thing could be not
this part, but this part. Why? Because if you notice the character has
covered two hot spots. The top and the bottom. This is a smart usage of
the rule of third in which you actually have an object
cover two hot spots. That way it's getting, let's consider to be double
the attention. If I take this character
and put it over here, it will cover this
part and this part. And this is the same approach which has been done over here. The text literally passes
through the first hot spot, and it's as close as possible
to the second hot spot, leaving the watch
now icon close to this corner over here to
get some partial attention. But keeping in mind,
this is a pro type. When you are placing
the elements. It's not about placing the elements exactly
on the hot spot. You need to be as
close as possible, right, as close as possible. And one way to be as close
as possible is literally by aligning the important
elements on the vertical line. The same way over here. By aligning them on
the vertical line, you are getting as much exposure to those elements as possible. Either you place them on the
left side or the right side. You need to
experiment with that. But based on the rule of thirds, we notice that 41% top left, then we got about
25% bottom left, then less and less
at the right side. So if I were to
redesign this again, I would take this character, put it on the left side, put
the text on the right side, and see how things
would work out. So now you're equipped
with one powerful tool, which is the rule of thirds. Now, if we recap
the rule of thirds, we split any image
or thumbnail into equal nine rectangles by
having vertical lines, horizontal lines, and the
areas of intersections for these lines are considered
to be the hot spots. These are the areas which get the most attention based on the breakdown
that we have seen. 41% of users focus here first, 25% here, 20% then 14%. And most probably now you're surprised because you've never
heard about this, right? Often, when you're
watching a video about creating a
YouTube thumbnail, simply, you've got general
guidelines, guesswork mainly. But this is quite technical. This is based on the human
back end of visualization. How do we see things? What draws our attention. And you can test yourself. If you take any image, just be mindful of
what has gotten your attention first from
that image or a poster or YouTube thumbnail
and you notice that actually this applies.
It works great. Now, this is one
tool that you could use a graphic design
tool that you could use to help you design and craft
powerful YouTube thumbnails. But there's one
more rule that we could add to our
tools kit. Okay.
10. The Second Powerful Graphic Design Principle: Welcome back. And here's another powerful graphic
design tool that you could use to help you properly
craft YouTube thumbnails. This is what we call as
the center placement. Take a look at the
image over here. What's the first thing that gets your attention. Most probably. The center piece, the ornament. Hence the naming
center placement. Center placement is a
compositional technique in graphic design
and visual arts, where the main subject
or focal point is positioned in the exact center
of the frame or canvas. In our case, our
YouTube thumbnail. This approach creates a sense
of symmetry, imbalance, often leading to a strong, stable and straightforward
visual impact. It's true. Whenever you have an image with an object placed
exactly in the center, it's the first thing that
gets your attention. Now, we place the element in the center y to just
simply convey simplicity, nothing complicated
formality and emphasis on this center element, drawing immediate attention to the central placement
and making it the dominant feature
of the design. This is very powerful if you would like to keep
things them simple, you're drawing attention to a certain character,
product, object, whatever it is, you keep it exactly placed
at that center, and then you have elements on the left side and the right
side to balance it out. What do I mean by
balancing it out? You need to make sure that the elements on the left side, Here. And here, they are
not quite different. Why? Because think
about it this way. If all of these three
elements are different, what will get your attention
first? No idea, right? But if this one and this one, they are similar to each other. By default, our brain is automatically drawn to
the center element. Why? Because subconsciously, you are filtering the visuals. Since things look similar, there's less cognitive
load on your brain. Hence, you're going to
get distracted from it, and you're going to focus
on the odd one out, which is the centerpiece. Let's take a look another
example. Here we go. Take a look at
this. Now, this is an example from gaming channel. This is a YouTube thumbnail. We've split the
thumbnail in half, here we go here and here, such that this is the
focal point, the center. This is a smart placement,
like we have mentioned, the objects which are aligned on the vertical line get as
much attention as possible. So we have the character
positioned exactly on the center of the thumbnail. At the back of the character, we have bold graphics
with glow effects. And then at the bottom, we have another graphic
fonts with glow effects. That way, we are getting as much attention as
possible to everything. The character, the fonts, and the event is live streaming. But it could be a bit congested, so you have to be careful when you are going through this. Take a look at this example, which is from a V
log tube thumbnail, a YouTube channel.
This is a thumbnail. Like we have
mentioned, when we are placing the elements
in the middle, we are drawing attention
to those elements. What's the first thing that gets your attention is the text. Daily V log. Why?
Because it's following a center placement
mechanism where we actually placing the text
exactly at the center. And as we go through
the vertical line, this is what gets our attention
as well a day in my life. So basically, the closer
we are to the center, along the vertical line,
the more attention it gets. Now, you need to examine these parts to actually see
what's happening, right? Nothing clicks
from the first go. You need to take a look at this. You've got some slippers here. You've got some vases,
you've got some flowers. But what got your attention
at the beginning? Simply the text. Not the image. Why? Because of the placement. It's not always the image, what gets the attention. This is a big misconception. Sometimes the text
if placed properly, draws attention way more
compared to an image. But the smart approach over here was the
even distribution. We placed it symmetrically, the same size from
here and here. That way, our brains assumes that Nothing important here,
nothing important here. This is what matters.
You get the idea. So this is the power of center placement.
Now, guess what? You are equipped
with scientific, technical graphic design
mechanisms which allow you to craft and design
visual representations to captivate and draw attention. And how is this useful? Because we're going to apply to crafting powerful
YouTube thumbnails. Let's see how. Okay.
11. Removing Image Background Easily: Come back. Now, we're uploading YouTube thumbnails and you're
designing Tube thumbnails. Often, you need to place your own image as the character
on the thumbnail, right? Whether it's a visual, whether you are present
on the thumbnail. But often the background needs to be removed in
order to actually have be present on that thumbnail and to tinker
with the background effects, the visuals, the elements, the colors, as you please. As we are going to be applying this once we
transition to Canva. So, this current lesson
is a very helpful tip. I wish I was informed
about long time ago, because it took me
a lot of effort, a lot of programs and
software to actually just simply remove
the background and have my image ready to be placed on the
thumbnail with ease. On CamvaP you could upload the image as is and click
on remove background. It will do the job for you. But if you are using one of the Apple
products or Mac book, I do have a quick easy
tool that you can use. Let's say you open
the image right now. And then once you go to the
display menu, Click on tools. And then once the tools drop
down menu is displayed, scroll all the way
down to the feature, which says, remove background. Now, take a look what's
happening over here, right? Notice, it's highlighting
the elements which will be removed. It's actually tracing the
presence of a character, and it will eliminate the
back end or the background. Here we go. Click
on it. Convert. And here we go. Now, you do have the actual image to be used on top of the thumbnails that
you would like to design. The same case applies to various characters,
various features. If you'd like to remove
a certain element, you can just simply use
this powerful hack. And now you're ready to
just simply save the image, and we'll upload
it to Canva to use it as part of the
design process. And I I truly hope that you find this hack or tip very helpful, the same way to help
me save a lot of time.
12. Applying Graphic Design tactics through Canva: Welcome back. So
we've learned about the Rule of Thirds and
the center placement. So how does this
work in terms of mapping it when it comes to
designing a Tube thumbnail. Now we've transitioned to Canva. Let's say you go
to Canva and you type in the search
bar thumbnails. And you do have such a display. I'm going to pick
whatever it is, whatever thumbnail, simply for the sake of
demonstration purposes. So I'm going to go for let's say the following
thumbnail about traveling. Let's click on this
Customize the thumbnail. Now. This is where we need
to pay extra attention. Now, when it comes to
designing a YouTube thumbnail. Like I've mentioned, Kanva
has very powerful thumbnails. You can use as a reference. But when it comes to
personalizing it, making it your own in terms
of your channel branding, adding your own visuals, you being present as the main channel author counting creator on
the channel itself, you need to tailor it a bit. Let's use another thumb nail, which includes an actual person. Maybe you'll be able to
relate to it here you go. This is quite helpful. Now, when it comes to designing
the YouTube thumbnail, the whole purpose
of this lecture is to show you how would I map the law of Thirds or
the center placement. But using Canva tools to
provide me with some guidance, how could I figure out
what are the hotspots? What are the zones? What are
the areas? Now, concentrate. What you are going to do is
you'll go to the top menu, click on file, which
is the one over here. Here we go. Then you will
have a drop down menu. Here you have the dimensions
of the Tube thumbna which is 1,280 pixels by
720 pixels, right? Keep scrolling down. Eventually, you will
find Settings, right? Once you spot
settings, click on it. Then you will find the
following sub menu, show rulers and guides, add guys, show margins, show prim bleed, right? What we need for our purpose. We're going to
click on a guides. Here we go click on it. Now, once you click Add Guides, notice over here, I
have vertical columns. Now, this is where we get smart. We're going to click
three by three grid. This one over here. Click on it. Then, click Add
Guides. Here we go. Now, if you'd notice, click on Lock, the guides, they are not perfectly aligned. Yes, I do have a
similar representation which will help get the
job done, by the way. Why? Because you're able to
see the hot spots, correct? You're able to see
the hot spots here, here, here and here. So that way, you have
clear guidance when you are planning your thumbnail. These are the four
areas which will get the most attention, right? But let's say, I would like
it to be pinpoint specific. So what I'm going to do is, I'll go back to file settings. Now, add guides, I'm going
to click custom now. Then I'm going to
change it 6-3 columns. Here we go. And three
rows, and no gaps. Just zero. Zero, zero, zero, click a guides. Here we go. Look
what happens now. Now we have a perfect layout
for our rule of thirds, where we have the
hot spots over here, one, two, three and four. Right? Excellent. So hopefully, you're linking
things in your mind. Like I mentioned, my
courses are crafted based on educational strategies,
best teaching methodologies. You're not just simply
watching lectures. You're actually learning as you watch So at this current stage, we've learned about the rule of thirds, the center placement, which transition to Canva, where we have a
sample a thumbnail. Now, we're mapping the
grid on Canva to apply the concept of the
law of thirds or rule of thirds and the
center placement. So by simply going to this
option over here, file. You click on it?
Settings. Add guides. Either three by three or custom, it's up to you
whatever you prefer, you'll be able to
get this, right? Now, let's say, I would like to have the center placement. I'll go to custom again. I'm going to have one
column one row add guide. Okay? So I think I removed it. Let's go again. Here we go. Settings, Add guides,
one column, one row, but it vanished why because I have zero gap and zero margin. So what I'm going to do is, let me try to add two columns. Here we go. Yes. We got
a column over here. I'm going to add two rows. Why do you add two?
Because simply I removed the gap between them. If I keep them as one,
they are going to be overlapping on top of each other and they're
going to vanish. Here we go. Now, this way, I have my center placement? This is the area of focus. So now, when you are approaching the design of YouTube
thumbnail on Canva, you are being strategic. We are not just simply
picking random elements, picking random things on the screen and moving
them here and there. No. We just simply
pick any template. We go to file, go to the grid, set the grid based on
our own preference. Are we going for
the rule of thirds or the center placement, right? Then we start to tinker with it. Now, at this current lecture, I wanted to just simply
highlight how we transition from the
rule of thirds to Canva and how could we actually apply the grids that
we are going to be utilizing to build
our YouTube thumbnail. In the upcoming lectures, I'm going to walk you through
some important elements, Canva tools that
you need to have in order to help you take your design practice
to a different level.
13. The First Powerful Canva Graphic Design Tool: Now, in this current lecture, I'm going to dedicate
some attention to important useful
elements that you could use within your design approach. You could incorporate them
within your thumbnail designs. Think about them as resources
as helpful options to help you think outside the
box and get some inspiration. Now, first of all, I'm going
to start off with an element that I would like
to call frames. So how does that look
like? First of all, we go to elements over here. Then type the word frames. Now, from the word from the way it implies, it's
an actual frame. Click C A. Now,
this is basically a frame where you get to
place an image inside of it. Let's say, for example, I'm going to use this frame. I'm going to drag it
and drop it over here. Now, you might be wondering, what is the purpose
of such a frame? Now, the options
are quite endless. Now, if I would like to add something inside of this frame, let's say I would go to
either uploads in case you've uploaded your own images
or your own elements, or I can just
simply go to Canva, and browse some of the photos. How about, let's say, since this thumbnail
is road to business. How about dollar? How about $1 sign? Here we go. Now, I'm going to drag this
and place it over here. Here we go. Look at this. Now, I could place the
element over here, for example, get some
attention to it, or I could delete
the subscriber, keeping in mind that this is considered to be a focal point, and I'm going to
place it over here. Here we go. See what's
happening over here. So simply by adding a frame, I'm able to actually take any image and place
it into this frame. Let's try something
else for you to see the options that you have
for the various frames. I'm going to change
the frame. I'm going to go to elements again. Here we go. Frames. Now,
this is in the photo. I'm going to go to A,
then see all. Here we go. Now, let's pick the following mobile
phone frame. Here we go. Here we go. And I'm going to remove the
character from over here. Following the rule of thirds. These are considered
to be hot spots. So I'm going to increase
the size over here and place the phone over here. And then I'm going
to go to photos. And then let's pick
something which is related to business. How about success, for example. Let's add it over here. And
then I can move the image. Here we go. You
increase the size. And you can drag the image. See what happened over here. So by adding frames, you are able to actually get your creativity the way
you would like it to. Like you have endless options,
endless possibilities, where we can just simply
add any frame that you would like and place
any image in it. Let me give you some another
source of inspiration. How about graph? Here we go. Now, for a graph, here we go, we have an endless
list of options. If I take this, and
place it over here, and then drag this backwards. Look how catchy it looks, right? Look how catchy, it looks. I'm going to place it at the
middle over here. Lovely. Now, if I change the
color of the text, it will automatically recommend the colors which are
present inside the photo. This is a very powerful
tool in Camva. Take a look at the photo colors, and you can just
simply select them. Now we have completely changed the vibe of this. Here we go. So I'm going to click at
this artwork and then pick a color from the photo
and here you go. Removing the branding, removing the branding,
removing the branding. And what I'm going
to do right now, I'm going to draw this
to the focal point and place this at the
other focal point and increase the size. So we were able to shift a complete thumbnail from one thing to another
by adding frames. We place an image, then we map the colors from the image to other
elements, and here we go. Sky is the limit. So in this current lecture,
we have learned about the element of frames
and how we could use it. Just simply go to elements, type the word frames. And pick whatever frame
meets your requirement, and then you could either upload your own images or utilize the photos present on cava
and add them to your frames. Now we are ready to transition to the second key
important tool.
14. The Second Powerful Canva Graphic Design Tool: Now, in order to add
some life to an image, for example, we need to have reality effects
such as shadows. So I'm going to build on wherever we have left off
from the previous lecture. Let's say I'm going to click on the following image over here. Here we go. Now, when I'm
dealing with various elements, let me revert this back
to its initial state. That way we are dealing with the same template for
the sake of simplicity. So if I'm going to click
on the following image, this is a character, right? So I'm going to shrink it down a bit for you to see the effect. Go to top left corner over here. We have what we call
as added image. Click on it. Now, once you
click on the added image tab, you do have a list of possible
effects, Magic studio. Some of them, they are
for the pro version, filters where you
can just simply change the color
scheme of the image. Some effects, including
blurring certain elements. Now we're going to
focus on the shadows. You click on the
shadows. Here we go. So once you click
on the shadows, you do have different options
to impose a certain shadow. Take a look at this. I'm
going to click drop. Look what happens over here. You have the shadow
element at the back end. Let's reverse this.
It's gone. Here we go. Nothing. But add drop. Now it looks like as
if the character is actually in three D
to a certain points, actually popping
from the screen. So this is a very
powerful adjustment that you could add to your images to give them
that real kind of effect. Now, this is not just it, right? One approach is by
adding shadows. Let's take it one level further.
15. The Third Powerful Canva Graphic Design tool: Welcome back. So we've
seen how we could incorporate some shadows
into our images? What if we could do
something a bit more? Here we go. Click
on shadows again. Now we're going to learn
about the outline. If I click on this, notice
what happened over here. The image has a certain outline. If I scroll down, I could increase or decrease
the size of the outline. This is as big as it gets. Now, if we minimize it, it adds some pleasant effect. Then I could change the color. How about we go for
white color over here? And then the intensity is basically how
transparent it is. It's up to you to get
creative and tinker with it. Let's go for the
maximum intensity. Look how lovely it
is right now, right? So we completely
altered the nature of the image by adding
glow outline elements. Do you think are we
done? Of course not. We got one more tip and
trick up in our sleeve, which will help you
add to your tools box of various tips and tricks
to alter your design, your graphic design elements when crafting
YouTube thumbnails.
16. The Fourth Powerful Canva Graphic Design tool: Welcome back. So we've learned
how to create shadows, how to add frames, how
to add some outlines. Is there something else
that we could tinker with to create powerful
YouTube thumbnails? Of course. We could either
add angles in which you tilt the shadow
of the object. Here we go. Or page lift, where you go above the shadow, or you curve it, we
could curve the shadow, and this is one of my
favorite, which is the glow. Here you go. This
is the glow effect. Now notice the halo
around the character. I could increase the size
or decrease the size. Now, this looks
quite professional. How about the blur
amount? How blur it is. Here we go. This
seems quite nice. Now I'm going to expand a bit. Keeping in mind my rule of
thirds to get some attention. Not overcrowding it. Now, I'm showing you how I
would go about the process. That way you are actually learning the tips and
tools and tricks. At the same time, you
see how I would go about the process to draw
some inspiration from. Now, these minor adjustments literally altered the
entire thumbnail. It looks way better now, right? Now, we're not done with
the approach to shadows. Let's take a look at the
color of the shadow. What if I would like to have different colors here you go. It's not just simply
having a white shadow, you can go green to match
the template that you have. Now, take a look at this.
Now, this could be you. You could just simply
swap this with your own image and
apply the same effects. Keeping in mind,
I'm going to walk you through a
practical example or I'm going to design my own
thumbnail for my own channel, and I'm going to walk you
through the steps rather than just simply using a
standardized template. But like I've mentioned, this is for you to draw some
inspiration from. To get the idea about what are the tools that I'm
going to be using, the tools I'm using, and in combination
with graphical design, tactics and strategies,
such as the rule of Thirds and center placement. Now, let's say I would like to apply center
placement over here. So what I'm going to
do is I'm going to move the character to
the actual center. Here we go. How about? I'm going to put the text
over here. Let's remove this. Keeping in mind, the rule of center placement emphasizes
keeping things simple, right? We need to keep
things quite simple. So what I'm going
to do right now, I'm going to decrease
the text size. Here we go. Swapping it a bit. Decrease the text size. Then I'm going to
go to the effects. Then I'm going to
curve the text. And then I'm going to go for
the placements. Here we go. Position. Now I get
to arrange the order. Do I want the text first
or the character first? I'm going to say
push it backwards. Here we go. The text went all the way to
the back of the image. You can see it at the back.
But it's not satisfactory. I'm going to push the image at the back here we go.
Look at this now. It looks way different. Now, I'm going to change the
position slightly a bit. Take the text to the top. See the difference. With
a couple of clicks, we have shifted from one approach to a completely
different approach. Now, let me show you
how I could tinker with the text again.
Click on effects. You can just simply
none. Background, and you could add some background
to the text if you prefer. Now, sky is the limit. So when it comes to that,
you are able to actually tinker with the tinker with the images to meet your
own design requirements. At this current
stage, the purpose of this lecture was to show you the glow effect where
you go to the image. Click on shadow, click on Glow, and you're able to increase
and decrease the size of the background glow to
map your requirements. You've learned about
frames, shadows, glow, adding some
angled outlines. All of these things are very, very powerful to help you draw some inspiration
and get creative. But are we done? Of course not. We've got more things in our tools box that
will surely help you elevate your
design skills when it comes to creating powerful
YouTube thumbnks. Let's go next.
17. Using Artificial Intelligence through Canva: Welcome back. Now, in
this current lesson, I'm going to show you a
very rare and powerful tool that not many
professionals know about, which will combine the power of artificial intelligence chat GPT through Canva to
actually transform an image. How? Let's take a look at this. I've eliminated everything from this current template leaving
the character in place, and I'm going to show
you how I could alter an image through Canva using the power of
artificial intelligence. So I'm going to double
click on the image. It says Added image. Here we go. I'm going to click Added image. Then I'm going to look for this, which is Magic edit. Here we go. Once you spot it, here is Magic edit, click on it. Now, what's happening over here, I have a prompt window where
I'm going to add some text, and this text will be translated
to effects on an image. How? Let's take a look at the display board to
understand it works. Select area to edit. Either I click on it, or with a brush I highlighted. I'm going to go for
a click because I have a single object,
which is a character. I'm going to click on this. This is what I would like
to highlight or edit. Now, what do I like to change? Here we go. This is
where you get creative. I'm going to say, change
the suit color to let's say bright red and add some glasses which are
unique and catchy, including A stylish hat. Okay. As random as that
sounds. Let's see. Here we go. Okay. Now, you
might be surprised, does this actually
exist? Well, it does. And like I've mentioned, I'm
teaching you practical stuff that you could use that you
will not find elsewhere. These things are not just
simply randomly provided. These are actually
practical insights that could apply to your own craft. Now, if you notice over here, it did not apply the
same way I liked it. So what I'm going
to do, here we go. It gives you
options, by the way. But it doesn't match
my requirements. Let's say if I click on
this, see what happened. I shifted the suit color, but did not add the hat
did not add the image. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to change
the suit color to bright red and leave it as
is, and generate again. Here we go. Obviously, this requires back and
forth trial and error, the same way you're crafting a prompt that wait till you
get the result that you want. Here we go. Way better, right? Now,
this one got a white shirt, this one, got a red shirt. Here we go. Let's
go for this color, seems quite original done. And here we go. See what
happened over here. That way, now you're able to actually take a ready
made template from Canva and fine tune it and tweak it to map
your own requirement. Not just that. You're able
to take your own image, and then you click on ditage. You go for the magic
edit and you could just simply add whatever stuff
you would like to add. How about let's say add sun
glasses. Here we go, no. Add glasses. Please select the area. I need to select an
area. Here we go. Click. Yes. Add glasses. Here you go and generate. Now, we're waiting for
the song glasses to pop. Well, it seems that for this prompt is not able to get
those song glasses, right? Maybe the image is not tailor
made to adopt these things. Now, what if I just simply
try something else? How about add a tie a blue tie? Okay. Let's edit this again. Click on Edit image, Magic Edit. Click. So we're going to select the character
again and add a blue tie. There we go. Generate. Now, I'm walking
you the steps of back and forth
communication with artificial intelligence to get
the results that you want. You could get this
from the first time, depending on the
image, by the way. If it's something which
could be changed easily, then it will give you
a better results. Now notice over here, it added a blue tie it altered the
quality of the image. So it doesn't get the requirements that
I was looking for. For that specific prompt. But this varies
from case to case, from example to example. But now you're able to
see how powerful it is to utilize artificial
intelligence within Canva to alter the image, which is considered to
be the magic edit tool.
18. Step by Step Youtube Thumbnail Graphic Design Practical Example: Welcome to the following
lecture in which we are going to have a practical
example where we are going to utilize the
tools that I've taught you so far in terms of Canva, and how are we going to have a practical thumbnail design where I'm going to walk
you through the steps in terms of how would I go about the process of
crafting thumbnail, implementing some of the tactics in terms of graphic design, the rule of thirds,
center replacement, some of the Canva tools such
as frames, shadows and glow, keeping in mind your feet
to experiment with all of the elements that you have learned in this
current course. So in front of us, I'm going
to pick a random template, and we're going to kick start the process from the beginning. Let's say I select the
following template over here. Here we go. Okay. Then I'm going
to go to uploads. I have uploaded the photo
after removing the background. Feel free to revert to that
lecture where you learn how to remove the
background from a photo. So I'm going to delete the
current visual element, including the shadow as well, and I'm going to add the photo. Let's see how does
that look like. Here we go. Okay. I'm going
to increase the size. Now, as you have noticed, if you are following
just simply guesswork, you're going to be allocating things based on how you
think they look best, right? But we've learned the strategy. So I'm going to go to file. I'm going to go to settings, add guides three by three. No Customize. Here we go. Zero. And zero. For the gaps and add guides. Here we go. Unlock All
guides are locked. I'm going to go through
this again. Here we go. Add guides. Then I'm going for custom then number
of fros and columns. We need three and three. Here we go. Now for the gaps, keep it at zero, guides. Here we go. Excellent.
So now we do have the law of thirds
or rule of thirds. Feel free to utilize the center placement as
well. It's up to you. But for the sake of convenience, we need to make sure that
everything is quite aligned. So over here, we do have the first attention hot spot
or impression hot spot. This is the second
impression hot spot. This is the third and
this is the fourth. So if you notice now,
we're approaching things with a
technical approach, not just simply guessing things. So, if I would like to place the current visual
elements, let's say, I'm going to create this
thumbnail to my channel, my other channel,
which will be mainly focusing on fat
loss, for example. Okay. So if I'm going to
craft such a thumbnail and the process for the thumbnail creation
would be as follows. So I'm going to focus on these two attention
hot spots over here. And as you can see, by default, I have placed the
image on top of them. Now, I could go for
these hot spots. However, keeping in mind, since the image is pointing
in a certain direction, then in this current
case, I have to allocate the image on this location. Keeping in mind, like
we have mentioned, if you place the image
along the vertical line, this is basically where you
have the highest possibility for attention or impressions similarly from
this side as well. Now, I'm going to go about
this following two approaches. Let's take a look at this.
So I'm going to increase the size. Here we go. I'm going to delete
all of these elements. I'm not going to have
it quite congested. So I'm going to place it exactly as it is
keeping in mind, any features that you place on the cross marks are going to be as close as possible to the attention grabbing
hot spots, this and this. The closer you are to them, the more emphasize
going to be on them. So's place it over
here. Here we go. Okay. Now, let's play
with the text a bit. So I'm going to move the text. I'm going to position
this at the back. Okay. Now, let me
move the text a bit. I'm going to leave this
x mark to the side. I'm going to move the text
up along the vertical line. The label over here. Here we go. And over
here. Five pounds Per month. For
example? Here we go. So based on the
current placement, if I place this over
here and per month, I'm going to move this
to the bottom per month. There we go. Now, increase
the size of this a bit. Notice now all of a sudden,
it grabs attention. What do you notice? What's the first thing
that pops in front of you? Is this as weird as that is. This part, the circle with P R p. This is where you
get the attention. Keeping in mind, like
we have mentioned, about 41% of viewers viewed
this for the first time. Most probably as you are taking a look at the
screen right now. This is what got your
attention, correct? So see how powerful this is? Rather than just
simply approaching things with guesswork. So let's say I need to add some visuals to
captivate the attention. I'm going to put this over here. Let me decrease the size of bit. Here we go. And let me duplicate this and
see how does that look like. Here we go. Now it's getting more
attention, right? Let's tinker with
the image a bit. I'm going to edit image, and I'm going to apply
a bit of shadows. Here we go. Let's
have some outline. Now, this is the bigger size, this is the average size. Let's go for something which might fit with the
scheme, how about wed. Okay. Here we go. Seems quite okay, right? Now, let's increase
the size of bit. Okay. How about we experiment with glow effects to
get some practice. I think the glow
effect works better. Let's increase the
size of the image. Okay. And let's remove
these extra labels. Now, I think the best
option would be in this current case would be actually to go for the outline. It looks more professional. So I'm going to leave this part over here and this
part over here. Now, this will do.
This will get the job done using this approach for
the following thumbnail. I could reduce the size
a bit and place it over here and increase the size
of five pounds. Okay. We go and get it closer to
the attention hot spot. That way, I'm able to draw
some attention to it. Keeping in mind,
these small tweaks, they make a lot of difference. Look at this now. Five pounds per month, having a basic outline,
a basic background. Simply by placing the
elements correctly, I was able to actually create a captivating YouTube thumbnail. Let's edit the image. How about we add some shadows? How about this? I look at this. Now I'm going to add
drop shadow. Here we go. You can see the effect over here and I'm going to increase or decrease
the blur amount, how about we keep it this way. Here we're going to
add some effect. Let's take a look at the angle. How over here. This looks good. Distance
I can go as far, keep it as close. Now the intensity, the square intense and that
sense here you go. Now, these are
different variations. Obviously, you could
experiment with when it comes to crafting a powerful
Tube thumbnail. Now, I'm going to take
it one level further, okay So we are able
to see that by simply placing elements properly using the low of thirds
or rule of thirds, I'm able to get some attention. I'm able to tinker
with some elements, such as placing the characters, placing the words, the
fonts, and proper locations, which get attention here, here, and placing the visuals along the vertical lines to
direct the attention, these things work best. Let's go for an
additional approach where I'm going to
utilize the magic tool, keeping in mind that this is simply for
demonstration purposes. So what I'm going
to do right now, I'm going to use the
magic tool to help me make sure that all the
visuals are quite aligned. How about if I go for
this to add image, magic edit, I taught you
how to do it, right? So I'm going to go for click. And I'm going to just simply mark the suit over
here the image and change the jacket
color to dark red. Let's see how does that work.
Now, we need to edit this, here we go and generate. So I'm incorporating artificial
intelligence through Canva in order to
edit the visuals. Let's see how does that work. Now, it did not take into
account the part of the jacket. It just simply tried to impose some elements to
it, but it did not work. Let's try to revert
this. Here you go. I'm going to highlight this
now in a different way. Let's go to cancel, and I'm going to go for
the brush option. You have to tinker with this. Now with the brush option, I'm not going to select
the entire image. I'm going to just simply
select certain key elements. I'm going to clear this,
go for the brush to just simply pick the elements
that I would like to alter. Keeping in mind, I'm
walking you through the steps early life. The same errors that I might be getting that you
might experience, the same approach
that I'm following that you should be
following as well to help you get the same results as transparently as possible. So by selecting these
areas, the areas over here. So what I'm going
to do right now, I'm going to change the
jacket color to red. Let's remove the word dark
red in case you got confused, I'm going to go for generate. Let's see how does that work. So either you select the
entire image or you can go for the brush option to select key
areas, and it should work. Here we go. Yes. Now, because I've selected the brush option, I was able to get
different layouts. This is dark red.
This is bright red. I even altered the
cut off the blazer. How about this? Here we go. Done. Take a look at
this, right? Impressive. Now I was able to actually alter the jacket to match the fonts, keeping in mind that
we need to have a consistent brand
and consistent images which align with our brand. That way, at this current stage, you have a clear
idea how I could incorporate various elements to help levitate the quality
of my Tube thumbnail. And I'm going to take
it one level further. I'm going to add frames. Here we go. To show you
how I could go about this. And I'm going to add
the frame somewhere. If you put it over
here, you're not going to get some
attention, right? So I'm going to alter the thumbnail to include some
of these elements, right? I'm going to get it as close as possible to the hot spots. So this area seems
quite okay, right? So let's go for an
image that I could use to place within the frame. Let's go for a guarantee. Here we go. Let's
take a look at this. Okay. Which one would fit
my requirement? How about? We need to have a guarantee
that we could use, which would make it
pop or stand out, and I can just simply
throw it into that frame. How about let go for This one. Here we go. Take a
look at this. Right. So I was able to
add the guarantee. Keeping in mind, this
is a pro version image in case you could just simply experiment with
any with any image, but simply for the
sake of demonstration, this is a pro image we
need to upgrade to get it. So I could place this
within a frame over here, for example, or at the bottom, it will not be possible
to place it over here. It's useless. So I'm
going to keep it as close as possible over here. Now, I'm going to take
it one level further. I'm going to push it backwards. Here we go. To make sure it doesn't
obscure the visual here we go. So when I'm taking
a look at this, now, it might be
a bit congested, but keeping in mind, it simply for demonstration purposes, what gets your attention first? Obviously, the text,
this part gets your attention as soon as
you look at the image, this whole area, right? This is what we're
trying to achieve. Then this part over here gets your attention next or could be the
other way I wound. Simply by following
the rule of thirds, you were able to I
was able to create a very powerful YouTube thumbnail with
fraction of a time, making sure that it actually gets impressions and it's quite appealing such that
you will be able to draw the attention
of your audience. Now, this is a very
straightforward example for the application. Keeping in mind, I'm going
to walk you through at the back end of my
YouTube channel where we get to see the effect of powerful thumbnails in
terms of chow growth.
19. Combining Canva and ChatGPT for Youtube Thumbnail Design: Now, before we get to
the actual back end of the channel where we get to see the impact of YouTube
thumbnails on shallow growth, I'm going to walk you
through how could you utilize Chad GPT to actually assess and draw some guidance when it comes to implementing
your YouTube thumbnail. Keeping in mind the
previous example, we have seen or went through together
through various steps, implementing the rule of thirds, various visuals, graphic design, and modifying the image with artificial
intelligence, Now, I'm going to add some guidance from artificial
intelligence to make sure actually I managed to hit home
run with these placements. So I'm going to go
for the funk prompt, act as if you are a
professional YouTube and your channel and
the channel, let's say, The channel is about
fitness and fat loss, where the thumbnail includes
an image of demain. Presenter and some texts
where the video is about losing body fat boy pounds per month, suggest ways to create a
catchy YouTube thumbnail. That gets a high click through
rate and estimate the CTR. Now, what I'm doing here is, I'm just simply priming
CT GPT to act as if it's a professional UTuber which is like me in
this current case. So I'm going to direct
it to a fitness channel. Fitness and fat loss. Here we go you need to fix
this fat loss. Here we go. Fat loss, where the thumbnail includes an image of
the main presenter, which is me and some texts where the video is
about losing body fat or body pounds per
month body fat pounds. Per month. Suggest
ways to create a catch a YouTube thumbnail that gets a high click through rate and estimate the click
through rate percentage. See how compact this
prompt is. Let's see. Okay, here's the suggestion for catch YouTube thumbnail for fitness and flows channel focus on losing body pounds per month. Bright and eye catching colors. We've actually done this with
the red colors over here. Use Varin bright blue, green or red to grab
viewers attention as the scroll through Tube. Check. Clear and bold text,
include large, easy to read text
that highlights the main benefit or
promise of the video, loose body fat pounds per month or transform
your body fast. Okay. So we've added this through five pounds
per month guarantee. Okay. Check before
and after images, show a compelling
before and after image of someone who
has successfully lost body fat and make sure
that the difference is noticeable and inspiring.
This is very powerful. We could just simply go for the center placement
where I'm going to have, let's say, me over here. Five pounds heavier than me over here, five
pounds lighter, properly placed at both ends of the thumbnail to the
left and to the right. Just simply to have some balance and keep the text
in the middle for center placement to draw some attention to it.
That's possible as well. But for the rule of thirds in this current case, I'm
not going to go for this. Main presenter's image feature an image of the main
presenter in the thumbnail to add a personal
touch and establish a connection with the
viewers. Here we go. Present. Icons or symbols, incorporate icons or
symbols related to fitness and fat law,
such as a scale, measuring tape or
healthy food items to visually communicate
the topic of the video. This is a good idea.
So instead of going for the word guaranteed, for example, I'm going to add, let's say, an image for a scale. Let's see this. Okay. So I'm going to position
this to the top. Actually, instead of tinkering with this, I'm going to delete. Then I'm going to
go for elements. How about we go for scale
photos and here we go. Let's see. Okay, so I'm going to add the
image temporarily, simply to fit it inside
the frame here we go. Now, sometimes since the
placement could vary, I need to push this backward just to make sure this is
the first thing that I get. Here we go. Look at this. Well, it's a good
recommendation. Quite catchy. Requires a bit of adjustment, but gets the job done. Okay? It's quite good. Not bad. Then a call
to action includes subtle call to actions
such as Watch now or join the Fas challenge to
encourage viewers to click. Engaging facial express and use an image of the
main prisoner with a confident and engaging
facial expression to evoke curiosity and interest. Done. Now, I'm going to add
the CTA click to action, just simply to have the
viewers click on a thumb nail, but sometimes it's not
necessary to do so. You can just simply add
five pounds per month, and you can just simply add
watch now or watch now. But due to the size
of the current funds, we need to have a
professional guess. We're not going to go
for the watch now label. We can just simply leave
it for the title, right? They should work hand in hand. Now, by combining these elements into visually
appealing thumbnail, you can expect to achieve a
high click through rate of around 105 to 10%. Good. Which is a good range. Like I mentioned, five to
15% is a powerful range. However, the actual click
through rate could vary depending on factors such as
your audience demographics, video title, and competition
in the fitness nice. Regularly testing and refining
your thumbnails based on viewers engagement
can help optimize your click through rate over
time. That is very true. Because sometimes
you could applod a very wicked YouTube thumbnail. Yeah, due to large competition, you might not get
the attention that you need on the video, or based on the video title, it should complement
the YouTube thumbnail. This is a subject for
a different course where they should work hand in hand in order to
complement each other. You could have a great
powerful YouTube thumbnail, but the title is not that good. The video will not
perform well overall. So this is how we could
use Chad GPT with Canva in order to
increase the chances of having a successful
YouTube thumbnail design.
20. Behind the Scenes of my Youtube Channel Part 1: Welcome to this lecture in which I'm going to walk you through the back end of my
YouTube channel, literally, you get to see
how a good thumb nail tends to impact the
growth of the channel. Now, this is one of many high performing
videos on my channel. I'm going to walk you
through the impact of a thumbnail in terms
of the channel growth. If you take a look over here, This is the actual thumb nail. This is related to
interview practice. Ready for your interview. Take a look at the placements. We got me over here. If you split the thumbnail
based on the rule of thirds, we got one. You got two. You got three and you got four. Roughly, you notice in
this current thumbnail, I managed to occupy all
of the hot zones with visual elements
without making it too complicated or too crowded, where I have been placing the image over here to cover
the first two hot spots, then text at the top, and you do have
the dollar sign at the bottom close enough
to the lower left corner. That way, I'm able to get attention within the
YouTube thumbnail based on actual practical
graphic design approach. I just simply guess. Right? How does this
affect the chattel. First of all, this is
where you have what we call as the impressions, which is how many times
this video has been shown. As we can see, it's
85.7 k. It means 85.7 multiplied by 1,000, right? Yes, it's 85.7 k. So you need to add
a couple zero. So if I'm going to actually get quite
technical with this. So one, two, it means we
have 85,700 impressions, just simply from
this video alone. It has a click through
rate of 10.6%, which is on the upper end. Like I've mentioned, aim to have a click through rate 5-15%. 10% is very powerful. Take a look at this, how
it affects the views. Now we have impressions, 85,700 impressions, which were translated to about
11,100 views. Now this is about 5,800
views more than usual, as you can see, the growth
pattern for this video. It's growing
exponentially over time. Like I mentioned, the
things I'm teaching you, they work, they're practical, as always, the way I
approach teaching and passing on information is
as transparent as possible. Okay. So you are going to see the exponential
growth as a result of this video being displayed over and over again with
high click through rates. Let's see how does this
translate, click over here. Notice at the beginning of
the life cycle of the video, just simply bouncing
back and forth until the YouTube algorithm kept
on passing it to people, they actually clicked on it, and you notice the click through rate started to stabilize, goes up and down up and down, up and down, between
upper ranges of 12%, then goes back to 9%. This is the average, by the way. So we're maintaining this
consistent line over time. Which reflects a solid click through rate once it's
passed on to people. And this is what you
need to achieve. Once you're able to
achieve this pattern, you will get such growth. Simply put, when people
spot your video, Click on your video.
Watch your video. This means that we are able to make sure that the
video is growing. And this is a very successful
video on my channel. I'm going to show you
the other extreme end, which is again a
video on my channel. I don't like to
showcase or reflect other people's work
and comment on it. I always highlight the positives which I had and the
negatives which I had. Since at the end of
the day, it's my work. It's my journey, and you
get to see both ends, what worked and
what did not work. So I've seen what works, based on the rules and tactics that I have taught you
in this current course. Now, let's take a look
at what doesn't work. Even though the video
I'm going to be showing you right now includes a lot
of important information, but because I failed miserably
on the thumbnail end, I didn't manage to
get the results from that specific video. So let's see how
does that look like.
21. Behind the Scenes of my Youtube Channel Part 2: Welcome back. Here's
another video, which includes a lot of
important information. Yet, it did not perform as
close to that previous video. Why are you able to
spot this by yourself? If I take a look at the impressions from the
lifetime of this video, this over 744 days. It's a couple of
years old. It was presented 12,000
times. That's it. What is the difference?
Like 12,000 times compared to
the previous video, which is about
80,000 plus, right? Even though that one is quite
younger than this video. Take a look at the
impression click through it. It's 1.2%. That was 10%. The views plummeting,
1,200 views, 1.2 k. Take a look
at the effect, 12,000 impressions, almost 1.2% who clicked on this video. This is the amount of
views that we're getting. Take a look at the trajectory
of the video over time. If you notice it's witnessing very slow
growth and stagnating. It is not able to lift off with that exponential
lovely curve that you need to see once your video
is actually successful. Let's zoom in at the
impressions, click through it. Notice the pattern. Lly people
are skipping this video. Some of them are watching,
some of them are skipping. So there's no consistency. There's no pattern in terms of views, views, views, views. It's not happening. It's
either view or no view. And this does not work in terms
of lifting your video up. So if you take a look at
the thumbnail over here, after getting quite
professional at this, it's no surprise
why it didn't work. Take a look at
this. First of all, if I applied the law of
thirds, here you go. O line, two lines,
and three lines. There you go one, two
Roughly speaking, could be somewhere over here. If you do notice, first of all, the character over here
is looking to the left. There's no engagement,
very small in size. It's not even close enough
to the actual hot spots, which are literally over here. The text is completely shifted
towards the left side, avoiding these hot spots. So the areas where
I could use to draw attention are completely
left blank, right? So the hot spots are
not addressed properly. That's why when
people look at this, nothing is quite, you know. Appealing to watch further, even though it involves a lot
of important information. So I truly hope that you're
able to see the extreme ends. What makes a very successful
video grow on YouTube, and what makes a good video in terms of content
fail on YouTube, simply by thumbnail
elements only. So if you have the packaging like we have mentioned in place, you're able to actually wrap up the video with
solid packaging. Even though some videos they do not have important
information, but the way the thumbnes are
presented are quite catchy, they would still get those
impressions and those views. I truly hope you're able
to see for yourself that what I'm teaching you
right now actually works. It's coming from experience. It's coming from
practical knowledge, nothing theoretical where it hasn't been implemented myself. And I truly hope
what I'm teaching you right now is saving
you a lot of time, a lot of effort trying to
implement things from scratch, simply apply what
I'm teaching you, and hopefully you get the results that
you're looking for.
22. Wrapping Up: Thank you for
making it this far. And I truly hope, early. I truly hope that you found some benefit in this current
course. At least 1%. If you're able to
learn something which is equivalent to 1%, it means we have
done a great work. Hopefully, the course
has helped you understand that there are
some certain approaches they need to follow in order
to increase the chances of having a successful
YouTube channel. Keeping in mind that
the best practices shared with you are based on my own experience as an entrepreneur,
as a business owner. I'm just simply passing
them on to you, saving you time,
saving you effort, which cost me a lot of years, a lot of time, a lot of hassle, a lot of struggles in order to overcome them. And
I'm helping you cross that bridge easily. It's giving you
the whole hassle. So make sure that you
follow the profile for the latest releases which will help you leverage your game, whether you're a
content creator or a business owner. Till that.
Engr. Hussein Attié, Entrepreneur I Engineer I Educator
