More broke Youtuber guides! Here’s a short blurb on creating thumbnails and channel art, although for the most part you’re just going to be tapping into your creative side and using a little common sense.
Now of course you have free reign over your channel art and custom thumbnails (don’t even let default thumbnails be an option - ALWAYS go with custom thumbnails), but there are certainly a few things you want to keep in mind before diving in like Trey Songz.
Let’s talk about channel art first. This is the first thing that’s going to catch someone’s eye when they visit your channel, and absolutely HAS to capture the viewers attention. First impressions, as we all know, can make or break you.. and the general Internet population has the attention span of LOOK CUTE SQUIRRELS!! ← See what I mean? It is also the best representation of the overall style/feel of your channel, aside from a channel trailer. These are all just things to keep in mind, you’re going to have to just dig deep yourself and capture the image that you feel best represents you/your channel.
Attempt to make it as professional looking as possible, don’t settle for copy/pasted images from the web or Comic Sans font. www.cooltext.com (http://www.cooltext.com/) is a great tool for finding vibrant/eye popping fonts that you can use freely. You’re definitely going to want the channel name, and I recommend adding a subtext that includes either what you’re going to be covering on your channel, or your upload schedule - something informative. Don’t make the viewer guess what the channel “Frogbuttz” is all about - show them.
Make sure to preview your image via YouTube and verify it will be readable on Desktop and mobile alike, as they’re almost split 50/50 where others watch their YouTubez.
2560 x 1440 is the standard YouTube banner size, definitely set your image to that image size or it will look “off.”
Now for thumbnails, 1280 x 720 is the preferred image size. Thumbnails are VERY important to gaining a view or two on your video. Again, it has to be eye appealing, and although slightly informative is helpful, it is a little more difficult to capture on such a small image. Here are just a few general guidelines I like to follow when creating thumbnails..
* Keep it simple. These images are going to be fairly small, so you don’t want to aim too big and end up with a Where’s Waldo of a thumbnail that the average viewer can’t decipher.
* Be weary of color selection. You’ll have to be your own judge of this, but you don’t want to create images that are too busy, too bright, TOO colorful (yes, very possible). This goes along with keeping it simple. Stick to one side of the spectrum - warm colors/cool colors. And I recommend softer images over sharp, although I’m not sure what the general consensus is. I just see softer images as more popular and frequently used (thanks Instagram).
*Consider using text, although it’s not completely necessary. If you do, keep it short - a general indication of what the video entails (DIY end table, Fall Make-up tutorial) and also still keep that color selection in mind. You won’t want to throw up some text that's unreadable here either, or anywhere for that matter
Outside of that, it’s all you kids. Utilize the apps we talked about before (GIMP/Sumo Paint) and go to town. I’m more than happy to answer any further questions via Twitter as always! @d00ditsjeremy
