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Easy way to change the thumbnail for your Youtube video?

by Menno Marketing
12 replies
A lot of times you see videos that have a thumbnail that has barely anything to do with to video but just triggers people to click on it... good to know for video marketing.

However, when I look at a uploaded video in youtube, I can choose from three thumbnails that are screenshots of the video.

How can I change that to another picture?

By some video editing perhaps...?

I know that Youtube Partners are able to do it but the rest isn't.
#change #easy #thumbnail #video #video marketing #youtube
  • Profile picture of the author webdeep
    I think the answer is...you can't...yet. I found a website that apparently asked YouTube this same question (squidoo.com/youtubeframe) and the answer they got was:

    How do I change the default thumbnail for my video?

    While we may add this feature in the future, there is currently no way to change the screen shot that we capture from your videos for thumbnails.

    What you could do in the meantime is edit the video so it is just a little bit shorter and then upload this new edited video to the site. YouTube will grab a different screen shot of the new video because the length of the video is then different.


    However, they seemed to find some other ways to do it by calculating which video frame YouTube takes for the thumbnail, and to insert the desired frame at that exact point. Sounds tricky, but doable.
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  • Profile picture of the author defaultuser
    webdeep is right.

    I finally found a video that makes sense and teaches you how to do it.

    Youtube’s Thumbnail Formula

    There ya go.

    This guy knows A LOT about video and YouTube... and no that is NOT an affiliate link of any kind.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chad Kimball
      Originally Posted by defaultuser View Post

      webdeep is right.

      I finally found a video that makes sense and teaches you how to do it.

      Youtube's Thumbnail Formula

      There ya go.

      This guy knows A LOT about video and YouTube... and no that is NOT an affiliate link of any kind.
      THANKS for the mention! (I cut my dreads off though, watching this video makes me homesick for those dreadlocks!)
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      • Profile picture of the author DonDraper
        Originally Posted by defaultuser View Post

        webdeep is right.

        I finally found a video that makes sense and teaches you how to do it.

        Youtube's Thumbnail Formula

        There ya go.

        This guy knows A LOT about video and YouTube... and no that is NOT an affiliate link of any kind.
        Originally Posted by Chad Kimball View Post

        THANKS for the mention! (I cut my dreads off though, watching this video makes me homesick for those dreadlocks!)
        So I'm assuming this still works then? Let me know, I'd rather get that confirmation before doing a lot of work to test it out.
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        • Profile picture of the author Chad Kimball
          Originally Posted by DonDraper View Post

          So I'm assuming this still works then? Let me know, I'd rather get that confirmation before doing a lot of work to test it out.
          Yes it still works.. go for it Don, let me know in this thread if you have any issues, I'll monitor this thread and jump in and help ya
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  • Profile picture of the author Menno Marketing
    Thanks for the answers, I'll try to get some editing going and see how it works out!
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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Hmmm, it used to be an image at the 50% mark in your video. I have not tested that theory lately.

    About a year ago, or so, I was doing it that way. I would insert a still image in a video at the exact center of the video and it would be one of my 3 choices for the thumbnail.

    Then the challenge was to figure out a way to make the still image in the center of my video make sense with the rest of the video. Even with a slide show style video if you suddenly go from talking about washing dogs to a girl in a bikini it does not make much sense. (Unless she is washing a dog.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Menno Marketing
      Yeah I figured it was hard to get an image right in the middle of the video, and also for Youtube to pick that exact point as a choice for your thumbnail.

      That's way I followed the method that was posted earlier from a video... add a third to the end of the video with the picture you want.

      Youtube grabs a screenshot from that last section of your video to choose as thumbnail.

      Till now it works great.

      Only downside is that your video will be slightly longer and it has a 'useless' part at the end.
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    • Profile picture of the author AdmiralGloom
      Originally Posted by Barry Unruh View Post

      Hmmm, it used to be an image at the 50% mark in your video. I have not tested that theory lately.

      About a year ago, or so, I was doing it that way. I would insert a still image in a video at the exact center of the video and it would be one of my 3 choices for the thumbnail.

      Then the challenge was to figure out a way to make the still image in the center of my video make sense with the rest of the video. Even with a slide show style video if you suddenly go from talking about washing dogs to a girl in a bikini it does not make much sense. (Unless she is washing a dog.)
      Haha! I remember running into these videos a few years back even and the relevancy of the ad to the picture is zero...and I figured the same thing, It makes me want to leave the ad even more rather than if I saw the ad as is.
      But yes I know it used to be at 50% when I did some messing around with video, its worth a shot none the less.
      Hope you figure it out, sorry I could not be more help!
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      • Profile picture of the author Menno Marketing
        Adding a third to the video actually works pretty good.

        I also tried to put a picture in the beginning of the movie, just a couple of frames. Sometimes youtube picks them to choose as a thumbnail, but not always... strange.
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  • Profile picture of the author defaultuser
    Yeah, YouTube seems to be behind on this one. Unless you are a YouTube Partner.
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    • Profile picture of the author Menno Marketing
      Does anyone know if any of the other video websites let you choose your own thumbnail?

      Like Dailymotion, Metacafe, Blip.tv etcetera...
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