pro youtube thumbnails, with you in them

a youtube thumbnail decides whether the right person clicks. not the title, not the first line. the picture.

founders who build in public put their episodes on youtube for a reason: the people they want, customers, investors, the next hire, search there. and the channels that get clicked all do the same thing. a face with a real expression, one big idea behind it, a few huge words. a frame of you talking at your desk, however honest, loses that fight in a feed full of them.

so on series there are now pro thumbnails. three for every episode, each one you standing in a scene drawn from what the episode is about.

your faces, made once

you do not set anything up. after your first episode on camera, underway takes clear frames of you from your own episodes and makes twelve portraits, one expression each: surprised, smiling, confident, thinking, pointing left, pointing right, frustrated, worried, celebrating, arms crossed, laughing, serious.

if one does not look like you, press not me and it is never used again. if you would rather they came from proper photos, add up to four, face on and well lit, and they are made again from those.

because every thumbnail draws on the same twelve, the person in episode 3 is the person in episode 190. a series is recognised in the grid before anyone presses play, and the face is most of that.

three ideas from the episode

every finished episode gets three by itself, a few minutes after its file is made. the director reads the episode as it was cut and writes three different ideas. each has a scene, the expression that fits the story, and at most four words a stranger would understand. it picks the best one for youtube, marked chosen for you.

an episode about a facebook ad that leads to a free signup might get a winding road at sunset with the facebook logo as the sun on the horizon and a sign that says free. an episode about two bugs found live gets the frustrated face and a different scene again. a launch gets a launch.

about a minute later the three are drawn, with you standing in each scene, lit by it, shoulders in frame, head near the top. under each is one line on who it would make click and why.

the chosen one is the episode's cover everywhere: your vault, your page and youtube, with a portrait version for instagram and tiktok. they live on the cover tab, between details and share. use this one on another makes that the cover instead. if the episode is already on youtube, put it on youtube now swaps it on the video. three more draws one more lot, once an episode. use the plain cover instead goes back to the still.

what it will never put on one

a thumbnail is packaging, not the diary. the episode itself never changes. but packaging can still lie, so the rules are in the code, not in a promise.

• a brand's logo only when you named it out loud in the episode.
• never your own product's logo. the image model has never seen it and would invent a fake one.
• no invented screens, ads, messages or reviews made to look real.
• no other people.
• nothing the episode does not deliver. the words come from what it is about.

the plain cover is still there: a real frame of you with your words. on founder it is the cover everywhere, and on series it is one press away, use the plain cover instead.

on the phone too

the same section sits on share in the app. choose your photos from the camera roll, keep your faces, make the three, use one. it is the same thumbnail whichever screen you chose it on.

faqs

start a series and film episode zero for free. start free.