I've yet to start my own channel but I watch other YouTubers for inspiration. Two YouTubers I watch are Antlerboylive and FlygonHG both are nuzlocke YouTubers but for some reason while FlygonHG has a sponsor every video, only Antlerboylives most recent upload had one. He had a sponsor every video a year ago but not now.

With near identical channels including upload times, view counts, subs, video thumbnails, titles and more I'm very confused by this and am wondering why.

The only difference is Antlerboylive isn't as jokey and more is just explains his thought process but surely that doesn't make him unsponsor worthy. For context both get around 200k views a video so they aren't small YouTubers who get no views.

Just curious to everyone who when you create your video and want more exposure to that video. How do you go about sharing your social media. For example I post my video link to several groups in FB, with the link, upload the thumbnail , description and do a few hashtags? does this sound correct? what other methods do you all use and has worked for you? thanks just curious

Your thumbnail can make or break your video's performance. It’s the first thing viewers notice, and it needs to stand out on every screen — mobile, tablet, and desktop. But optimizing for one screen doesn't always mean success on others.

In this post, I’ll break down actionable tips to ensure your thumbnails look stunning across all devices and help you maximize clicks and engagement.

📱 Why Screen-Specific Thumbnail Optimization Matters

YouTube thumbnails appear differently depending on the device:

• Mobile: Thumbnails are small. Text-heavy designs look cluttered and unreadable.
• Tablet: Slightly bigger, but clarity is still critical.
• Desktop: Thumbnails are larger but face heavy competition from other high-quality designs.

Optimizing for each screen ensures you don’t lose viewers simply because your thumbnail wasn’t readable or eye-catching.

🔑 Key Tips to Optimize Your Thumbnails

1. Focus on Readability
   • Mobile: Use bold fonts and minimal text. Keep it concise.
   • Tablet: Keep it simple — avoid overly fancy fonts.
   • Desktop: You can afford slightly smaller text here, but don’t overcrowd the design.
2. Contrast is King High contrast between text and background makes your thumbnail pop — especially on smaller screens.
3. Face & Emotion Thumbnails with human faces (and strong emotions) attract attention universally. Make sure the face isn’t cropped awkwardly on any screen.
4. Bright Colors Work Use bold, contrasting colors that grab attention. Always test how they look on mobile vs. desktop.
5. Don’t Overload the Design Avoid cramming in too many details — they get lost on smaller screens. Keep it clean, focused, and impactful.

🧪 Test Your Thumbnails Across Devices

You need to test your thumbnails to see how they perform across screens.

👉 Here’s a tool I use: Preview Test Thumbnails
It allows you to preview your thumbnails on different YouTube pages and devices:

• Feed page, Recommendations, Search results
• Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop views

With just a few clicks, you can identify design issues and fix them before your video goes live.

🚀 Pro Tips for Each Device

• Mobile:
  • Make sure the main subject (like a face) is large enough to stand out.
  • Tiny text will blur. Avoid it.
• Tablet:
  • Use the slightly larger space wisely, but maintain clarity.
• Desktop:
  • You can showcase a bit more detail, but don’t overcrowd the design.

Final Thoughts

Creating a great thumbnail is both an art and a science. By optimizing for every screen and testing your design, you’ll improve your chances of catching the viewer’s eye and boosting your video’s performance.

TL;DR: Test your thumbnails across screens. Keep them clean, readable, and bold. Tools like Preview Test Thumbnails can make it easy.

If you have any other tips, drop it below 👇

This is a terrible, if not horrible idea, they already have an AI problem on their platform, accounts creating slop and proudly advertising "Automated Revenue" on Instagram, but even if you leave it Turned Off (which is the Default), someone else can steal your videos and then force it to be used in said AI anyway, regardless of the original Uploader's consent.

I tried reporting guys like these, I've witnessed a normal uploader getting his content stolen by NINE accounts by the same Botnet, and TeamYouTube deemed it as "Free Speech" when I reported it, so who are they kidding this AI crap benefits? Give Odysee a shot please, YT is a dumpster fire.

Shoutout to the "other Subreddit" for not wanting a legitimate discussion about this.

Hi, I have a channel that I am marketing via Google Ads. It is a little over a year old. About 10000 subscribers. But very little engagement. I mainly targeted english language in all my ads. In stats I see US is tiny tiny percent, majority is India. Also it is often the case that when there is channel engagement it is just strange symbols.

So this got me wondering if Google is actually using shady practices behind the scenes. That is, they take customer's money and buy meaningless subscribers for them (indeed like some of those buy subscriber services some of which actually are run out of India). Could this really be something going on behind the scenes?

The other thing I was thinking is my geographic location is currently Russia. Could Google in the modern trend of big business trying to be political voices and social activists be skewing my engagement away from US visitors on some basis based on my geo location?

Anyway, trying to get to bottom of this and figure out why my particular channel would have almost no engagement in the US.

thanks

YouTube updated their shorts to let them be up to 3 minutes long, and I was so happy cuz it meant that I could just post to TikTok and Shorts with the same video. However, I've noticed that Shorts over a minute (even as little as 1:01) perform way worse than shorts that are 59 seconds. My shorts were generally getting 1-3 thousands views in the first few days, but when I switched to longer I started getting maybe 500 at the most. Has anyone else tried longer shorts? I think I'll need to go back to editing two versions for TT and YTS.

I am trying to find shortcuts for youtube studio, but youtube studio help iniy points shortcuts for the regular youtube. I wanted to update several titles of some videos and I was thinking it will help a lot if there were shortcuts to trigger the edit title and description option. Many thanks for reading!

I was brainstorming ideas and something hit me, content creation is a full time job, why is there no tool to automate the business side of content creation so that creators can focus on improving the actual content quality.

A service which analyses your niche, subscribers/viewers, ecosystem, and from this, does outreach to potential sponsors, collaborations that are mutually beneficial, topic suggestions, etc.. basically a tool to automate the business/marketing side of content creation?

I'm building a translation/localization SAAS that takes video then outputs a version with your own voice speaking another language with the correct lip movement.

I'm trying to stand out with my offering so a cool feature I was thinking of adding is automatic localization with your content, so for example if you're talking about a famous singer in a general manner, "I wish I could sing like Adele" but you want to translate it for the Chinese population, it would convert to "I wish I could sing like G.E.M. (famous Chinese female singer)".

This would ensure your relatability and connection with your viewers is portrayed as you intend and not obstructed by a cultural gap.

Would this be an innovative feature to add? It feels like the one missing aspect in translation services, sure you can translate the words but the cultural gap still leaves a missing link between the intended meaning,

I have an old youtube channel (now used just for watching) i used to upload some drawings and attempts of animating, now i just uploaded a video tutorial on how i made a mrbeast thumbnail, and im starting to think is it better to abandon the old channel and start a new one or just keep this one? Which one would be better for the algorithm

Hello, I have an educational channel regarding ancient history. I can see a variety of CC languages being generated by users and am considering adding audio tracks in other languages.

I narrate my videos myself. Although I could probably get by recording French myself, my Spanish would not fly and I’d also like to add languages I don’t speak at all, mainly Korean and Japanese. I haven’t had a conversation in French in decades though and would also have to match the length of my narration. It seems like a lot of work for very little benefit.

I see a bunch of AI dubbing tools online for reasonable prices, but I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them.

Ideally, I’d like to be able to feed it a bunch of my videos to clone my voice, and be able to just feed it my next video raw, and have software transcribe, translate, dub with the correct timing, and just spit out a pack of audio files in whatever languages I request.

I'm fairly new to YouTube and I approached an online game retailer to see whether they'd be interested with an affiliate plan. They said they would be their requirements seem a bit OTT! They said:

Prepare your channel:

• Put our logo in your channel's banner
• Put your affiliate link in the descriptions, in the links section at the top right, and in the "About" section
• Invite viewers in your next videos to click on the link in the description
• Announce our partnership on your social media

I've see plenty of YouTubers mention their sponsors and mention affiliates but I've never heard of them requesting to be front and centre on the channel's banner. Is that normal? I've never seen anyone with that on YouTube.

Had a decently successful 25k subscriber channel where I would trade stocks live. I didn’t survive the previous bear market and my channel fizzled out and so did my passion for stock trading. Haven’t uploaded in a few years at this point but want to break into the camping niche.

I’ve built out a truck that can easily be used to do stealth camping and adventure videos. I know that I would enjoy making these videos a lot more even if the success isn’t as easy as riding the current stock/crypto hype.

I am a bit worried that subscriber decline will outpace subscriber growth because it’s a complete 180. Is it recommended to start fresh from scratch or utilize what I already built?

It's only verified on another account, which I verified years ago. It is verified on the Google account but not on YouTube, which is very annoying. I've tried to verify it many many times on the new account but it keeps saying that there was a problem sending the verification code to my phone number. I contacted YouTube support on Twitter, but they didn't help in any way, so I figured that I should try my luck here.

Putting it simply, I just want to know how I can 'copy/fair use' a TV show, and recreate it in a way. It's pretty much the same concept, just a small change on the title, and a different situation.

I'm not going to say my idea exactly, and it's probably going to end up on YouTube by someone else before I get the chance. I'd just really like to give this a try.

As I mentioned though, I so far have the name tweaked a little, the concept is the same, but the situation is different. A way to describe it would be Crystal Maze, but called Blinded Maze. Contestants would have to be blind folded while doing an obstacle course.

That isn't the idea I have, I'm just trying to put what I do have into an understandable perspective, as I'm very bad with wording things.

An example I'm going towards is the Sidemen doing The Chase or something like that. They did the game show, but kept saying 'not The Chase', as to make sure they don't get into a situation of strikes/getting sued.

Sorry for the lame question and stuff, I did have a look, but Google was determined to not answer my question, not that I know how to word it properly.

Thank you in advance.

So I streamed an episode of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle a few days ago and there were no issues. But I went to my profile tonight and noticed there were visual copyright claims on my video. The three claims were all in German and I tried watching the video for any reason for the claims, but they don’t make sense. Is there a way to dispute this?

The claims:

1.) Indiana Jones und das Geheimnis des Schwungholens

2.) Indiana Jones und die Camera Obscura

3.) Ich bin ein eiliger Mann Gottes

Hey everyone, I’ve been researching AdSense and YouTube policies, and I’m stuck on a question. If an AdSense account was linked to a YouTube channel that got terminated, can it still be used on a new channel without issues?

I’m curious if YouTube flags AdSense accounts tied to terminated channels or if there’s a way to safely reuse them. I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if anyone has been in a similar situation. Thanks for the help!

I need help please!!!

I have been doing YouTube for over 8 years and only have 400 subscribers...

When I started, I was young and only made basic gaming videos, but for the last 3/4 years, I have developed my content creation skills to the point I make excellent quality music and editing videos, but I see no real return for hours spent - it's rather demoralising.

What can I do to increase my following? I can't seem to get it right :/

Thank you in advance!

Hey Creators and thumbnail designers, I built a chrome extension which let you preview and analyse your video thumbnail in YouTube's UI before publishing video live.

You can make sure your thumbnail looks good for all the screens.

You can make sure your thumbnail is readable and hero in foreground is visible across devices.

You can preview test your thumbnail against every YouTube UI, like YouTube's Home page, Recommendation side panel, search page etc

Link: https://preview-test-thumbnails.vercel.app/extension

Huge thanks to its initial users who have a lots of feedback while I was building it.

Can you guys quickly try it out?? and let me know your feedback/review on chrome extension page

Again lots of thanks. It's my first ever product :)

Hey guys, I've been doing YouTube for 4 months now and am just a little over 3K subs. Doing this has been so fulfilling, but I have a fear that if this YouTube stuff doesn't work out, then it may do more harm than good for me in that I might be ruining my digital footprint considering the kind of content I make. I'm scared I might mess up my future employment opportunities. For context, I do a comedy interview show, but I often make out of pocket/inappropriate jokes and curse a lot. Has anyone else dealt with these worries? If so, do you think this is a justified concern and how would you recommend proceeding?

is it a bad idea to use Youtube ads for promoting your videos? i tried it and got tons of subscribers but I'm wondering if I should continue promoting? is it a bad idea to use Youtube ads for promoting your videos? i tried it and got tones of subscribers but I'm wondering if I should continue promoting?

I'm an 18 year old video editor from the Philippines. I use Davinci Resolve and After Effects as my main tools. I mainly do gaming videos but I'm looking to do more IRL stuff too cause I don't have much to show in my portfolio for it. I don't have any issues editing videos in English since I can write and understand it really well. My minimum rate is $7 per minute of the final video but will be adjusted based on the style. Check out my work and leave a DM if you have any task fit for me. Thanks!

Video Editing Portfolios: (Ran out of storage)

• https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PYFDLdKwqaRE_Va0VMzBhKpOMd1gzAAe?usp=sharing
• https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VTXTthZw6clHnb6F31XGv7m_c8Lt-Ka4?usp=sharing

Pretty much the title. Epidemic Sound has an insane library and I love it, but unfortunately I don't have the 70 or so Euros at my disposal at this moment. What happens if I just use the music? It is perfectly fine for me if all my videos are just demonetized until I get a licence, but if it's something more severe, I'll avoid it. Thanks in advance.

If I go the brand partnerships route, I would be making content I use to that got more views, but was deemed “harmful” (probably not ad friendly) it’s the same content I do for TikTok. But if I go the Adsense route my content would be more cookie cutter and not have as many views. I did wipe most of my more “not ad friendly content” from my channel. But I find that people that post similar videos do not use adsense I think?

I'm looking for hyper-realistic AI avatars currently available on the market. Cost isn't a concern. I've tried hiring models before, but delays in delivery and limited availability are constant issues. On average, I spend about $300 per month, and I'd prefer to put that toward an AI subscription that works on demand. I only need English support. Am I chasing a unicorn that doesn’t exist?

Hey, Batmanultra7 here. I've been doing YouTube since like 2016ish, I do videos about arts and media and how it impacts us, don't know if this breaks the self promotion role, but I just wanted to introduce myself and get acquainted with the rest of the creators on here, so hi, how's it going? Where are you at in your YouTube journey?

I have a hit and miss youtube channel. Most videos get 1 - 5k views. Some rare standouts get >20k. My two best videos have >200k. While the algorithm isnt really consistant for me in nearly all ways (i dont think it is for many), both my best videos notably have an average view duration just creeping above 50%, wheras most of my channels videos are looking at 45 - 50%. I have an Outro of 10 - 20 seconds depending on the length of the video. Should i remove it to optimise avd (only like <20% watch it)? Thinking about it now, the answer is pretty obvious, but i think its worth getting some input

Hi everyone, I have a YouTube channel that focuses primarily on Shorts, and I recently received a notification from YouTube congratulating me on a new achievement: "4,000 hours of watch time." The message mentioned that I’ve found my groove and that people are loving my content, which is great!

However, when I check the "Earn" tab, it only shows 78 hours of watch time. This seems confusing because my Shorts get around 2-3k views per day, and all my videos are public.

Could someone help clarify these stats? Why is there such a big difference between the watch time achievement YouTube highlights and the watch time shown in the Earn tab? Does it have something to do with Shorts watch time not fully counting towards monetization requirements?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

I had created a channel 8 years ago and posted “how to”s. This was when I was a teenager and now I’d like to take the channel down, or at least the content. Unfortunately I made this with a new email specifically for the account and have since lost that email. I’ve tried using the channel recovery but all my passwords are not working. Has anyone had this issue before? I haven’t found a way to be able to contact Youtube about it and their help center was a dead end. I issued a privacy complaint hoping it’d get flagged or I’d get an email response I’d be able to reply to, but no luck.

I recently had a coach from VidIQ, his name is Anthony, but he said he was not allowed to share his last name. I want to seek him out as he told me he had 3 channels with over 100k subscribers but he wasn't allowed to share it with me. Anyone know who he is please?

I have his pic saved but it won't let me post it here. I can try again in the comments.