Video Thumbnails

I've all but given up on YouTube's video thumbnails.

First, they're poor quality even if your video is HD.

Next, you get a choice of 3 and since I do a lot of talking head stuff, I usually get closed eyes or a weird facial expression.

Then there's the play button. It's usually over my face so you just see my eyeballs above the play.

Anyway, I've started generating my own thumbnails for the teaser post. This links to the full full post with autoplay so the video starts right away after you click my thumbnail.

I also do a CSS background color on hover to "animate" the play button when you mouse over it. Of course, that doesn't work on mobile, but I still think its an improvement over the default.

Oh yeah. The best part is it actually looks more like part of my site because I get to choose the colors.

Want to see it in action? (Always easier to show than tell, right?)

Here's my newest video blog:
http://benjaminlotter.com/parent/couch-time

I don't even have a fancy intro or the back-end done yet, but hey, it's just us here, so you get to see my half-baked goods. ;)

If anyone's interested in more detail, let me know. I have a template so it's super quick to create these thumbs and go.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Josh Rickard on December 31, 2012 at 6:20am

Ben,

Would love to hear more on this subject. As a little thing that it is it really makes a big difference if people click on your videos and how they are perceived.

Permalink Reply by Benjamin Lotter on January 2, 2013 at 5:13am

I do a lot of presentations so I think of my video thumbnail as a PowerPoint slide. You don't want the image to be too distracting. Plus the image is the book's cover as it were: you must entice them to view based on this first (the Title is a close second but as you'll see in the tip below not so much). So here's a few more tips.

Integrate your title (or a powerful keyword) into the thumbnail. This whole text in images things is not just a Pinterest / Facebook phenomenon, it's a powerful strategy. So make your thumbnail composition Pinnable and Likeable.
Zoom in. This get's rid of distracting objects on the perimeter. It also give you a chance to put the image out of center. This does 2 things for you: curiosity bleed and rule of thirds.
Use curiosity to your advantage. Make the image bleed of the slide as it were. If they can't see the whole image, their mind is more compelled to click the play button than if they have a zoomed out viewport to see everything. Yep, it's okay to cut off when composing your thumbnail.
Rule of thirds. Google the rule of thirds if you're not familiar. Basically draw a tic-tac-toe board on your image (I use an overlay in my graphic program.) Place objects along the lines (never centered --they'll get hidden under the play button anyway) or at the 4 power points which are the intersections of the grid lines. Especially combine this with #1 your text in image title.
Use color for branding. Design your own play button including the shape, gradient and color to fit your brand. If you're not good with choosing colors, don't worry; I'm not either. My secret weapon is kuler.adobe.com. You can find some existing color schemes or Create your own as I do. You can even upload a photo, grab a color from the image and create a scheme to know what text colors will go well with it (are you seeing the power of this yet?).

I hope this is helpful.

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