Took me 18 months to realize my thumbnail strategy was backwards

I kept making these super detailed thumbnails with lots of text and arrows. Then I watched a breakdown from a gamer who just uses one face and one word and gets 10x the clicks. It hit me that I was trying to show people everything instead of making them curious enough to click. Anyone else have that moment where you realized less really is more with your thumbnails?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_harris15d ago

18 months to learn a programming language" is kind of a stretch, most people can get the basics of Python or JavaScript down in a few months if they actually stick with it. But yeah, the thumbnail thing is wild. I had the same wake-up call when I realized my busy thumbnails were basically screaming "don't click me.

diana2015d ago

Wait, you spent 18 months on that?

nguyen.tara15d ago

18 months is what it takes to learn the average new programming language to a professional level. So either that project was basically rewriting an entire app from scratch, or someone was getting paid to watch YouTube tutorials.