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I probably don't need to try to convince you very much that your video thumbnail is important.
The fact is, many people decide if they're gonna watch your video or not based on that
pretty little picture called a youtube thumbnail.
So don't you wish you could upload your own Custom YouTube Thumbnail just like the YouTube
Partners do? You need a Video Thumbnail Trick, kind of like having your own Video Thumbnails
Maker... Well right now it is possible... and we'll show you how so keep watching.
First off we need you to know that this Video Thumbnail Trick is what is called a YouTube
Hack - so its not really supposed to work like it does. But it does right now.
Chances are YouTube, will fix it eventually, and it won't work anymore...
Please don't abuse this trick by putting in totally unrelated images as Thumbnails...
if enough people do that, then YouTube will kill this trick even sooner.
Because of that, I'm leaving a space here in this video to add a special note - to tell
you what to do next in case it stops working.
Nothing there, well good, then it must still be working. Here comes an overview of the
process, what is special about this particular tutorial, and Finally, the step-by-step guide
you'll want to use to get your very own custom YouTube thumbnail. Feel free to skip ahead
if you like.
Here's the overview.
First, you make your video and add the desired thumbnail image as a still image for a long
time at the very end. Details about that come later.
Second, you upload the video to YouTube & select the 3rd Thumbnail Icon.
Third, you EDIT the video in YouTube by trimming off the extra still image from the end of
the video. Then, save it and you're done.
So what's special about this tutorial you ask?
Well... this type of Video Thumbnail hack has been around quite a while but its got
a new twist. The online editing part makes the length of the final video much more practical.
This new twist was brought to my attention by a kid on YouTube named Justin. I'll put
his Channel name and a link to his tutorial in the description text below. Check him out.
I tested Justin's and some other people's methods to make this Thumbnail Trick work
and it did pretty good overall, but it didn't work everywhere online. Some Mobile Apps for
YouTube, or social media sites just wouldn't show the proper thumbnail.
Eventually I figured out another modification which is working everywhere I could test online
including all parts of YouTube, YouTube Mobile Apps for Tablets AND all the important social
sites like GooglePlus, Facebook & Twitter.
With this extra tweak, that is why this tutorial is the one for you.
Now we get to the Step By Step Guide on how to Make your own custom youtube thumbnail.
Create your video the way you normally do but also make a still image that looks like
the thumbnail you want - like this. Add that still image to the very end of your video
and make it last a long time.
How long you ask?
Well, it should be about half the length again of your video before it was added.
So if your video without the still shot is 1 minute long, then make the still shot show
30 seconds in length - so the overall video is now 1 and a half minutes long.
You want enough of the still shot there so YouTube makes it one of your 3 Thumbnail choices.
Next on to Step 2, Upload this extra-long video to YouTube.
Once its done uploading, you go into "Info and Settings" and set the Privacy options
to be "Private" so all this messing around is not seen by everybody.
Then look down at the Thumbnail area. You'll see the middle Thumbnail is always chosen
by default. You want to choose the 3rd thumbnail. This should be your custom thumbnail image.
If you don't see it here, you did not make your still image long enough and you need
to start over.
Save your changes and go back to the Video Manager.
In the Video Manager, you should see your new thumbnail image right away, but it is
not changed yet for the video - that takes a while, but you don't need to wait to move
on.
Now on to Step 3. Editing the video Online inside YouTube.
Now comes the "Trick" or "Hack" part. Using the drop-down next to the video - choose "Enhancements".
This lets you Edit the Video online inside YouTube. What we are going to do now is Trim
off the majority of the still image at the end of the video.
Other tutorials using this technique will tell you to trim off all of the still shot,
but I found that if you leave about 1 second still there at the end, this Thumbnail Trick
works everywhere properly. If the entire still image at the end is trimmed off, then the
proper video thumbnail may not show up in certain places online.
Click the "Done" button and then click "Save" button up top. It tells you that the Trim
Edit you just made will not be seen right away. You will have to wait until it is fully
processed to see the shortened video.
You've just done the big sneaky part of the trick.
Now Step 4. Go back in and make the video Public once the editing process is finished.
Now this is Very Important, do not edit the video any more on YouTube. You can edit the
Info and Settings all you want, but don't "edit" or "Enhance" the actual video online
or you'll loose your special thumbnail image - that is part of the trick!
That should do it... congratulations, you can now make your own Custom YouTube Thumbnails.
If you have got questions, ask them in the comments below. If this helped you, please
give it a thumb's up. Good luck and have fun!