I feel a pic from the video is more authentic

[limpid axle]

Here are some of my thumbnails. I feel a pic from the video is more authentic and the viewer can see more what it's about and less fake? Or am I wrong on this and a bit lazy lol maybe YouTube should have a rule only thumbnails from The actual video the world would be a better place lol

[latent loom]

In my opinion, the ideal thumbnail is one that serves as an accurate but intriguing 'visual summary' of the video's content; there was in a time in Youtube's history where your thumb did have to be from the video, and generally, those thumbnails were worse than what we have now (if you ask me).

I think that being able to understand the content of a video before I watch it is more important to me than whether that thumbnail is authentic or not. Think about it, if you were browsing youtube, and you came across your own vids; would you click on them?

Consider time as a currency; viewers 'pay' with their time in order to watch your videos, and you need to convince them that they're making a worthwhile investment. A great way of doing that is by creating a compelling package; you promise to deliver something valuable in your title/thumb, and you deliver that value in the vid.

Now you could have the best content in the world, but if you can't convince people to invest their time, then they'll skip over your vid in favour of something else. If you aren't interested in growing an audience, then that's fine, but if you are, then a good thumbnail is (in my opinion) vital

Your current thumbnails are not great imo, and that's mainly because I can't really see what's going on in them. Look at 'Meet Robot Tutor Boris Episode 2' for example, I struggle to decode what's really going on there. HOWEVER, that thumbnail could be imporved very quickly if you just cropped and zoomed on the little tikes coupe/robot thing, and put an outline around the robot. That's still 'authentic', but it's also much more clear what I'm looking at. Also, you have tiny text that I can't read; if that's a subtitle from the video, then I'd crop it out, otherwise it just clutters up the image

[limpid axle]

Ohh man this is a lot of good info! Thank you! Yes I agree now that I think about it i can even spice up even the screenshots from the video. Partly im too fatigued by the end of the edit and just want to post it that I don't like to do the thumbnail/ mentally drained. Pehaps need to give it a day lol. I agree the robot one I just thought heyy people like robots, not a lot of robots that move around in peoples videos, good enough!

Do you have a youtube channel i can sub too as payment for advice lol Thank you otherwise

[silent spruce]

Thumbnails are more like packaging rather than a part of the product you actually consume, think of it that way. You need clean attractive packaging for your product to sell so id say authenticity is delivered in the video itself and the title rather than the thimbnail

Like the most attractive tent at a farmers market would get more people to queue up , and if they have the best stuff then more people will actually buy the stuff

Likewise an amazing thumbnail doesn’t guarantee success but it sure helps

You seem to do IRL content so id say get a screen grab as you said from the actual video and make the subject something interesting to look at and most importantly something that pairs with the title
Up the saturation by not a lot maybe +5 just for a bit of pop
If youd like add a face bottom left and text top left
Additional items can be placed on the right side of the screen , most popular youtubers will follow this kind of loosely as you read from left to right

Another really really effective and easy thumbnail trick for irl youtubers is making the thumbnail match up with the first scene of the video, statistically that boosts the video a lot

[limpid axle]

ohh wow thanks guys!!! This really helps!

[silent spruce]

You’re welcome dude keep up the grind!

[latent loom]

This is a really great way of phrasing it, completely agreed.

[latent loom]

thank you bro, I don't have a yt channel myself, but my day job involves working with a lot of people who do; like to help out on here when and where I can

[latent loom]

I deffo understand the perils of edit fatigue; waiting a day is always a good strat imo, you tend to pick up on errors much more effectively and it gives you time to recover (a bit) from the drain. The other solution is just to move the thumbnail creation to earlier in your production pipeline, perhaps after you have reviewed your footage, but before editing?