Where can I start my YouTube thumbnail career?
To help digital artists launch their YouTube thumbnail career, we asked digital content creators and video experts this question for their best advice. From researching and practicing regularly to finding big channels with poor thumbnail quality, there are several easy ways to become a successful Youtube thumbnail creator.
Here are 8 easy ways to launch your thumbnail making career for YouTube:
- Research and Practice Regularly
- Register With a Robust Professional Profile
- Learn Photoshop
- Online Classes/tutorials
- Reach Out to Content Creators You Enjoy
- Try A Freelance Design Career
- Learn Through Experimentation
- Find a Big Channel that Doesn’t Have Good Thumbnails
Research and Practice Regularly
By far the best way for someone to pursue a career in YouTube thumbnail creation successfully is to make sure to do a ton of research on the website and to practice your editing skills. When it comes to YouTube thumbnails, it generally isn’t a complicated process. One of the easiest, but most important, methods to start thumbnail creation is doing research on popular youtuber videos and their thumbnails! By studying and taking notes on how certain thumbnails are created, colored, structured, and posted, it can give you a great idea on how to start your own for your specific YouTube content. Making sure to practice your content creation and graphic design skills is also key as you should always create new, entertaining, eye catching thumbnails that can fit the message of what your video will be about and compel people to click and watch.
James Burati, 1-800-PackRat
Register With a Robust Professional Profile
Register for an account on a site like Fiverr or GraphicRiver, or contact a freelance graphic designer. By getting your profile and work out there, you will start to receive requests from people who need custom thumbnails made for their YouTube channels.
Matthew Ramirez, Rephrasely
Learn Photoshop
The first step to pursuing a career in YouTube thumbnail creation is to learn some graphic design skills. Subscribing to the Adobe Creative Cloud provides access to PhotoShop, which is the industry standard when it comes to design software. From there, do some research. Look at videos that attracted lots of views, and notice if they used a clean image or something a little more busy. Also, you need to make sure your image settings are correct before you export the file so that it will look decent on a 72-inch flat screen television. Look at YouTube’s sizing standards, and make your thumbnails the maximum size allowed.
Rachel Blank, Allara
Online Classes/tutorials
There are many online resources which provide tutorials on how to create YouTube thumbnails. Take advantage of these as you may learn some new tips and tricks, even if you already have some prior experience with creating YouTube thumbnails. Many of these tutorials are free and many of them are available on YouTube itself!
Matt Miller, Embroker
Reach Out to Content Creators You Enjoy
Reach out to channels you enjoy which aren’t taking advantage of effective thumbnail design. Much of building a career requires building up a portfolio, so there’s an added benefit to you even if you aren’t charging your clients. I recommend doing a few thumbnails for a month or so, then moving to a paid rate after. With a large-enough portfolio you can comfortably apply to more established creator positions, or you can continue freelancing.
Daniel Osman, Balance Homes
Try A Freelance Design Career
Youtube thumbnail creation is a specialized skill that can be the doorway to a flexible career in freelance design. While there are many Youtube creators, with a wide array of talents, not all of them have the skill for creating an alluring Youtube thumbnail–though they all would benefit from one. You don’t necessarily have to work with large corporations to find a good wage–many independent creators make a good deal of money through their Youtube videos, and they want professional-looking content.
Daniel Sathyanesan, Winden
Learn Through Experimentation
Practice by looking into as many thumbnail creation tools as possible such as Canva or Pxlr, and learn how to draft thumbnails by experimenting with those tools. Through this experimentation you will start to get a sense of which tools you prefer, which techniques work the best and what your particular thumbnail creation style is. Sometimes learning through doing is the most effective method.
Drew Sherman, RPM
Find a Big Channel that Doesn’t Have Good Thumbnails
Find a channel that you like that regularly posts videos so they have a need, reach out to them, and offer them a free thumbnail for a popular video.
From there you can either ask for a shout out for your service, or offer to keep making thumbnails for them for a fee; if they agree to that, ask if it is ok to add them to your portfolio. Do this enough times and you will get a reputation and clients. Also leverage freelance marketplaces like Legiit, Fiverr, and Upwork.
Chris Walker, Legiit Online Marketplace Inc.
