TurboUpload: The Ultimate Guide to Fast YouTube Video Rendering

How to Render and Upload YouTube Videos Faster?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

You’ve shot a video you’re proud of and you can’t wait to post it! But, slow down, you have to edit all your clips together first. And then you have to export your video from the editing program, which can take a while. Then you have to wait for it to upload to YouTube, and once it’s up you have to write your description, add cards, and do a handful of other things.

The period between finishing a video and actually posting it for your subscribers to see can be long and tiresome. A lot of videos have probably died in these stages because their creators ran out of energy and patience.

Don’t let this happen to your videos! Here are 4 ways you can save time and avoid headaches during post-production:

1. Create mini-projects

2. Optimize your upload speed

3. Use default descriptions and tags

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

1. Create mini-projects

When you have alarge editing project with lots of different titles, animations, clip sequences, and PIP tracks it can get hard to keep track of everything. That’s especially true if you need to go back and make changes. A change to one part of your video could affect other parts of it.

Also, the more complex your video is the longer it will take to render/export.

There is a way you can keep your project more organized, save time making minor adjustments, and speed up rendering: create sub-projects of different segments of your video and import them into your main project as their own clips.

This helps you in 3 ways:

1. If there are a lot of effects it’ll be faster to render a shorter video.

2. If you import your sequence as its own clip you won’t have to worry about adjusting little parts of it whenever you change earlier sections of your video.

3. If you do want to make adjustments to your sequence you can open up your mini-project and change it without affecting anything in your main project.

2. Optimize your upload speed

At home, your videos will upload fastest if all of your internet resources are devoted to the upload. That means you should not have any other windows open on your computer while you are uploading. You should also make sure there aren’t other devices competing for wifi like smart tvs, cell phones, or really fancy coffee makers.

If you have neighbors on the same wifi signal as you and they are online at the same time, this will slow you down too.

Because there is so much that can interfere with wifi, you might want to consider a wired Ethernet cable. Ethernet connections are faster in general, and you won’t have any problems with other devices competing for resources like you get with wifi.

If you’re doing everything you can to optimize your upload speed at home and still find that it takes an unreasonable amount of time to upload videos to YouTube, go somewhere with a better connection. Save your video to a USB drive and take it to a library or college to upload. Connections in these kinds of places tend to be very strong.

3. Use default descriptions and tags

In your Creator Studio, go to Channel > Upload defaults. Here you can write in titles, descriptions, and tags which will automatically be applied to every video you upload.

Note: in the latest YouTube Studio, the upload interface is changed but the main process is similar.

You probably have tags you use for almost every video you post. For example, if your channel is about vegan cooking then every one of your videos is probably tagged ‘vegan’, ‘food’, and ‘cooking’. If you type those tags in here then you don’t have to keep adding them to every new video, and you can still add or remove tags from individual uploads so you aren’t stuck using the exact same set of tags every time.

Similarly, you probably have some default text that goes in the description of every one of your videos (i.e. a link to your personal website or a brief introduction of yourself). If you type in a default description then that text will appear automatically in every new video description and you can just add to it when you need to for individual videos.

Using defaults might only save you a couple of minutes per video, but those minutes add up.

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

TubeBuddy is a channel management tool for YouTube. Most of its features are more geared towards very large channels or companies with a YouTube presence, but there are also features that can help small or mid-sized YouTubers save time and stay organized.

Some of these tools include templates for things like cards and end screens and bulk processing tools for when you want to change a lot of things at once. For example, if you wanted to update the links in every card in every one of your videos at once then TubeBuddy could help with that.

Some of TubeBuddy’s best features for growing channels are the tagging features. TubeBuddy will help you discover tags, suggest new tags, and even copy whole lists of tags from rival videos.

There are different levels of pricing for TubeBuddy (including a free version, although it’s very limited) and you get a discount on the Pro version if you have less than 50,000 lifetime views on your channel. It ends up being $4.50USD a month (or $3.60 USD a month if you pay for a year in advance). It’s a good investment for someone who’s starting to see some growth on YouTube, but probably not if you’re still trying to reach milestones like 500 subs or 10,000 views.

You have to work hard to get anywhere on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean you should be toiling away at tedious stuff like typing in the same tags over and over. If you have any time-saving tips then make sure to share them with everyone in the comments!

Remember that your time is valuable =)

If you are using Filmora to edit YouTube videos, you can upload the video to YouTube directly from Filmora without download it again first, which can save you time. Besides, if you don’t want the video to be public, you can change Privacy to unlisted or private in Filmora.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

You’ve shot a video you’re proud of and you can’t wait to post it! But, slow down, you have to edit all your clips together first. And then you have to export your video from the editing program, which can take a while. Then you have to wait for it to upload to YouTube, and once it’s up you have to write your description, add cards, and do a handful of other things.

The period between finishing a video and actually posting it for your subscribers to see can be long and tiresome. A lot of videos have probably died in these stages because their creators ran out of energy and patience.

Don’t let this happen to your videos! Here are 4 ways you can save time and avoid headaches during post-production:

1. Create mini-projects

2. Optimize your upload speed

3. Use default descriptions and tags

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

1. Create mini-projects

When you have alarge editing project with lots of different titles, animations, clip sequences, and PIP tracks it can get hard to keep track of everything. That’s especially true if you need to go back and make changes. A change to one part of your video could affect other parts of it.

Also, the more complex your video is the longer it will take to render/export.

There is a way you can keep your project more organized, save time making minor adjustments, and speed up rendering: create sub-projects of different segments of your video and import them into your main project as their own clips.

This helps you in 3 ways:

1. If there are a lot of effects it’ll be faster to render a shorter video.

2. If you import your sequence as its own clip you won’t have to worry about adjusting little parts of it whenever you change earlier sections of your video.

3. If you do want to make adjustments to your sequence you can open up your mini-project and change it without affecting anything in your main project.

2. Optimize your upload speed

At home, your videos will upload fastest if all of your internet resources are devoted to the upload. That means you should not have any other windows open on your computer while you are uploading. You should also make sure there aren’t other devices competing for wifi like smart tvs, cell phones, or really fancy coffee makers.

If you have neighbors on the same wifi signal as you and they are online at the same time, this will slow you down too.

Because there is so much that can interfere with wifi, you might want to consider a wired Ethernet cable. Ethernet connections are faster in general, and you won’t have any problems with other devices competing for resources like you get with wifi.

If you’re doing everything you can to optimize your upload speed at home and still find that it takes an unreasonable amount of time to upload videos to YouTube, go somewhere with a better connection. Save your video to a USB drive and take it to a library or college to upload. Connections in these kinds of places tend to be very strong.

3. Use default descriptions and tags

In your Creator Studio, go to Channel > Upload defaults. Here you can write in titles, descriptions, and tags which will automatically be applied to every video you upload.

Note: in the latest YouTube Studio, the upload interface is changed but the main process is similar.

You probably have tags you use for almost every video you post. For example, if your channel is about vegan cooking then every one of your videos is probably tagged ‘vegan’, ‘food’, and ‘cooking’. If you type those tags in here then you don’t have to keep adding them to every new video, and you can still add or remove tags from individual uploads so you aren’t stuck using the exact same set of tags every time.

Similarly, you probably have some default text that goes in the description of every one of your videos (i.e. a link to your personal website or a brief introduction of yourself). If you type in a default description then that text will appear automatically in every new video description and you can just add to it when you need to for individual videos.

Using defaults might only save you a couple of minutes per video, but those minutes add up.

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

TubeBuddy is a channel management tool for YouTube. Most of its features are more geared towards very large channels or companies with a YouTube presence, but there are also features that can help small or mid-sized YouTubers save time and stay organized.

Some of these tools include templates for things like cards and end screens and bulk processing tools for when you want to change a lot of things at once. For example, if you wanted to update the links in every card in every one of your videos at once then TubeBuddy could help with that.

Some of TubeBuddy’s best features for growing channels are the tagging features. TubeBuddy will help you discover tags, suggest new tags, and even copy whole lists of tags from rival videos.

There are different levels of pricing for TubeBuddy (including a free version, although it’s very limited) and you get a discount on the Pro version if you have less than 50,000 lifetime views on your channel. It ends up being $4.50USD a month (or $3.60 USD a month if you pay for a year in advance). It’s a good investment for someone who’s starting to see some growth on YouTube, but probably not if you’re still trying to reach milestones like 500 subs or 10,000 views.

You have to work hard to get anywhere on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean you should be toiling away at tedious stuff like typing in the same tags over and over. If you have any time-saving tips then make sure to share them with everyone in the comments!

Remember that your time is valuable =)

If you are using Filmora to edit YouTube videos, you can upload the video to YouTube directly from Filmora without download it again first, which can save you time. Besides, if you don’t want the video to be public, you can change Privacy to unlisted or private in Filmora.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

You’ve shot a video you’re proud of and you can’t wait to post it! But, slow down, you have to edit all your clips together first. And then you have to export your video from the editing program, which can take a while. Then you have to wait for it to upload to YouTube, and once it’s up you have to write your description, add cards, and do a handful of other things.

The period between finishing a video and actually posting it for your subscribers to see can be long and tiresome. A lot of videos have probably died in these stages because their creators ran out of energy and patience.

Don’t let this happen to your videos! Here are 4 ways you can save time and avoid headaches during post-production:

1. Create mini-projects

2. Optimize your upload speed

3. Use default descriptions and tags

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

1. Create mini-projects

When you have alarge editing project with lots of different titles, animations, clip sequences, and PIP tracks it can get hard to keep track of everything. That’s especially true if you need to go back and make changes. A change to one part of your video could affect other parts of it.

Also, the more complex your video is the longer it will take to render/export.

There is a way you can keep your project more organized, save time making minor adjustments, and speed up rendering: create sub-projects of different segments of your video and import them into your main project as their own clips.

This helps you in 3 ways:

1. If there are a lot of effects it’ll be faster to render a shorter video.

2. If you import your sequence as its own clip you won’t have to worry about adjusting little parts of it whenever you change earlier sections of your video.

3. If you do want to make adjustments to your sequence you can open up your mini-project and change it without affecting anything in your main project.

2. Optimize your upload speed

At home, your videos will upload fastest if all of your internet resources are devoted to the upload. That means you should not have any other windows open on your computer while you are uploading. You should also make sure there aren’t other devices competing for wifi like smart tvs, cell phones, or really fancy coffee makers.

If you have neighbors on the same wifi signal as you and they are online at the same time, this will slow you down too.

Because there is so much that can interfere with wifi, you might want to consider a wired Ethernet cable. Ethernet connections are faster in general, and you won’t have any problems with other devices competing for resources like you get with wifi.

If you’re doing everything you can to optimize your upload speed at home and still find that it takes an unreasonable amount of time to upload videos to YouTube, go somewhere with a better connection. Save your video to a USB drive and take it to a library or college to upload. Connections in these kinds of places tend to be very strong.

3. Use default descriptions and tags

In your Creator Studio, go to Channel > Upload defaults. Here you can write in titles, descriptions, and tags which will automatically be applied to every video you upload.

Note: in the latest YouTube Studio, the upload interface is changed but the main process is similar.

You probably have tags you use for almost every video you post. For example, if your channel is about vegan cooking then every one of your videos is probably tagged ‘vegan’, ‘food’, and ‘cooking’. If you type those tags in here then you don’t have to keep adding them to every new video, and you can still add or remove tags from individual uploads so you aren’t stuck using the exact same set of tags every time.

Similarly, you probably have some default text that goes in the description of every one of your videos (i.e. a link to your personal website or a brief introduction of yourself). If you type in a default description then that text will appear automatically in every new video description and you can just add to it when you need to for individual videos.

Using defaults might only save you a couple of minutes per video, but those minutes add up.

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

TubeBuddy is a channel management tool for YouTube. Most of its features are more geared towards very large channels or companies with a YouTube presence, but there are also features that can help small or mid-sized YouTubers save time and stay organized.

Some of these tools include templates for things like cards and end screens and bulk processing tools for when you want to change a lot of things at once. For example, if you wanted to update the links in every card in every one of your videos at once then TubeBuddy could help with that.

Some of TubeBuddy’s best features for growing channels are the tagging features. TubeBuddy will help you discover tags, suggest new tags, and even copy whole lists of tags from rival videos.

There are different levels of pricing for TubeBuddy (including a free version, although it’s very limited) and you get a discount on the Pro version if you have less than 50,000 lifetime views on your channel. It ends up being $4.50USD a month (or $3.60 USD a month if you pay for a year in advance). It’s a good investment for someone who’s starting to see some growth on YouTube, but probably not if you’re still trying to reach milestones like 500 subs or 10,000 views.

You have to work hard to get anywhere on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean you should be toiling away at tedious stuff like typing in the same tags over and over. If you have any time-saving tips then make sure to share them with everyone in the comments!

Remember that your time is valuable =)

If you are using Filmora to edit YouTube videos, you can upload the video to YouTube directly from Filmora without download it again first, which can save you time. Besides, if you don’t want the video to be public, you can change Privacy to unlisted or private in Filmora.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

You’ve shot a video you’re proud of and you can’t wait to post it! But, slow down, you have to edit all your clips together first. And then you have to export your video from the editing program, which can take a while. Then you have to wait for it to upload to YouTube, and once it’s up you have to write your description, add cards, and do a handful of other things.

The period between finishing a video and actually posting it for your subscribers to see can be long and tiresome. A lot of videos have probably died in these stages because their creators ran out of energy and patience.

Don’t let this happen to your videos! Here are 4 ways you can save time and avoid headaches during post-production:

1. Create mini-projects

2. Optimize your upload speed

3. Use default descriptions and tags

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

1. Create mini-projects

When you have alarge editing project with lots of different titles, animations, clip sequences, and PIP tracks it can get hard to keep track of everything. That’s especially true if you need to go back and make changes. A change to one part of your video could affect other parts of it.

Also, the more complex your video is the longer it will take to render/export.

There is a way you can keep your project more organized, save time making minor adjustments, and speed up rendering: create sub-projects of different segments of your video and import them into your main project as their own clips.

This helps you in 3 ways:

1. If there are a lot of effects it’ll be faster to render a shorter video.

2. If you import your sequence as its own clip you won’t have to worry about adjusting little parts of it whenever you change earlier sections of your video.

3. If you do want to make adjustments to your sequence you can open up your mini-project and change it without affecting anything in your main project.

2. Optimize your upload speed

At home, your videos will upload fastest if all of your internet resources are devoted to the upload. That means you should not have any other windows open on your computer while you are uploading. You should also make sure there aren’t other devices competing for wifi like smart tvs, cell phones, or really fancy coffee makers.

If you have neighbors on the same wifi signal as you and they are online at the same time, this will slow you down too.

Because there is so much that can interfere with wifi, you might want to consider a wired Ethernet cable. Ethernet connections are faster in general, and you won’t have any problems with other devices competing for resources like you get with wifi.

If you’re doing everything you can to optimize your upload speed at home and still find that it takes an unreasonable amount of time to upload videos to YouTube, go somewhere with a better connection. Save your video to a USB drive and take it to a library or college to upload. Connections in these kinds of places tend to be very strong.

3. Use default descriptions and tags

In your Creator Studio, go to Channel > Upload defaults. Here you can write in titles, descriptions, and tags which will automatically be applied to every video you upload.

Note: in the latest YouTube Studio, the upload interface is changed but the main process is similar.

You probably have tags you use for almost every video you post. For example, if your channel is about vegan cooking then every one of your videos is probably tagged ‘vegan’, ‘food’, and ‘cooking’. If you type those tags in here then you don’t have to keep adding them to every new video, and you can still add or remove tags from individual uploads so you aren’t stuck using the exact same set of tags every time.

Similarly, you probably have some default text that goes in the description of every one of your videos (i.e. a link to your personal website or a brief introduction of yourself). If you type in a default description then that text will appear automatically in every new video description and you can just add to it when you need to for individual videos.

Using defaults might only save you a couple of minutes per video, but those minutes add up.

4. TubeBuddy’s bulk features and tagging tools

TubeBuddy is a channel management tool for YouTube. Most of its features are more geared towards very large channels or companies with a YouTube presence, but there are also features that can help small or mid-sized YouTubers save time and stay organized.

Some of these tools include templates for things like cards and end screens and bulk processing tools for when you want to change a lot of things at once. For example, if you wanted to update the links in every card in every one of your videos at once then TubeBuddy could help with that.

Some of TubeBuddy’s best features for growing channels are the tagging features. TubeBuddy will help you discover tags, suggest new tags, and even copy whole lists of tags from rival videos.

There are different levels of pricing for TubeBuddy (including a free version, although it’s very limited) and you get a discount on the Pro version if you have less than 50,000 lifetime views on your channel. It ends up being $4.50USD a month (or $3.60 USD a month if you pay for a year in advance). It’s a good investment for someone who’s starting to see some growth on YouTube, but probably not if you’re still trying to reach milestones like 500 subs or 10,000 views.

You have to work hard to get anywhere on YouTube, but that doesn’t mean you should be toiling away at tedious stuff like typing in the same tags over and over. If you have any time-saving tips then make sure to share them with everyone in the comments!

Remember that your time is valuable =)

If you are using Filmora to edit YouTube videos, you can upload the video to YouTube directly from Filmora without download it again first, which can save you time. Besides, if you don’t want the video to be public, you can change Privacy to unlisted or private in Filmora.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

YouTube Visuals: Perfecting Banners and Thumbnails

How to Make YouTube Banners and Thumbnails

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The art on your YouTube channel – banners, thumbnails, icons, and watermarks – will help to determine how viewers feel about your vlog. If your art does not look like it all goes together then people will get a sloppy, amateurish, impression of your channel. However, if your different pieces of channel art all seem to complement each other and match the tone and theme of your channel then it will help viewers to have a pleasant browsing experience. They will get the impression that you take your YouTube channel seriously and that they can trust you as a source of information, comedy, or general entertainment.

How to Make YouTube Banners and Thumbnails

YouTube Banners and Thumbnails are two of the most important pieces of channel art you will need. This article will explain the best practices for both, and suggest sites where you will be able to build your own banners and thumbnails for free.

1. YouTube Banners

Quick Tips:

1. The image you upload for your YouTube banner should be 2560 x 1440px (pixels).
2. The ‘safe area’ for text, logos, and other important visual information (like faces) is 1546 x 423px.

Your banner is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about channel art. Banners are the headers that rest at the tops of channel pages on YouTube. Your banner should be 2560 x 1440 px, although not all of it will always be visible. On a desktop computer or mobile device only a 1546 x 423 px ‘safe area’ will be visible. When viewed on a TV screen your entire image will be visible. YouTube does support PNG, but if your PNG file does not upload properly (as has been the case for some YouTubers) then changing your file type to JPEG might help.

YouTube Banners are extremely important to the success of your channel. If you do not have a banner then it looks like you do not really care about your vlog. If you have a basic banner that is not at all personalized then it certainly looks like you care, but it might also look like you are new to YouTube.

The best banners are customized to reflect the kind of experience you want viewers to have on your channel. The banner of a comedic YouTube channel might use bright colors, where the banner for a gaming channel will probably use darker colors similar to the ones that are in the games the vlogger plays. Connecting your banner to the theme of your channel is part of how you define the style of your vlog. It is the difference between being a Beauty Guru and a general YouTuber who gives makeup tips sometimes.

Including a photo of yourself, or your logo if you have one, is a great way to personalize your banner.

2. YouTube Thumbnails

Quick Tips:

1. Search for your video’s topic to see the thumbnails your thumbnail will be competing against.
2. Make any text huge so people can read it on their smartphone screens.
3. Emojis, colored boarders, and graphics are all potential ways to stand out.

Thumbnails are often ignored by newer YouTubers. YouTube selects a thumbnail for every one of your videos and it is always a still image from that video. You can choose which frame you want to use and a lot of people feel like that is good enough. When you create a custom thumbnail, however, you get to not only choose your image but insert a title.

If you are choosing the images you are using for thumbnails you can make sure they are always similar frames. This will help people identify your videos quickly in searches. Using titles in your thumbnails will also help searchers identify your videos, if you always use the same title style. Another benefit of titles is that they capture the attention of people looking for your specific topic. Remember when building your thumbnails that they will appear smaller on YouTube than they probably are while you edit them. On mobile devices, they will look even smaller. So, if you are going to use text in your thumbnail, make sure it is huge.

One thumbnail taboo that you should never break is using an image that has nothing to do with your video. Using an image of a cute cat for a vlog post that has nothing to do with cats is misleading and will anger viewers. You may draw in a lot of viewers who want to see a cat video, but they will leave right away when they do not see a cat and they will never watch anything by you again.

3.Where To Create Banners and Thumbnails

There are sites online that will allow you to edit images and use them in templates for YouTube banners. You can also use these services to edit your thumbnails. Two of the most popular, free, online photo editors are PicMonkey.com and Canva.com.

Canva has templates you can use to create YouTube banners, as well as a variety of stock images you can use in combination with your own when creating channel art. It is free to edit images on Canva, but they do have some premium features which cost $1 each to access. This service has both a desktop version and an iPad app.

PicMonkey lets you import images from your computer or social media accounts, edit them, and use them in templates for YouTube banners or other kinds of social media graphics. PicMonkey is free to use, but you can only access their more advanced editing tools if you buy a paid subscription. Monthly subscriptions are $4.99 per month, and yearly subscriptions are $2.75 per month.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The art on your YouTube channel – banners, thumbnails, icons, and watermarks – will help to determine how viewers feel about your vlog. If your art does not look like it all goes together then people will get a sloppy, amateurish, impression of your channel. However, if your different pieces of channel art all seem to complement each other and match the tone and theme of your channel then it will help viewers to have a pleasant browsing experience. They will get the impression that you take your YouTube channel seriously and that they can trust you as a source of information, comedy, or general entertainment.

How to Make YouTube Banners and Thumbnails

YouTube Banners and Thumbnails are two of the most important pieces of channel art you will need. This article will explain the best practices for both, and suggest sites where you will be able to build your own banners and thumbnails for free.

1. YouTube Banners

Quick Tips:

1. The image you upload for your YouTube banner should be 2560 x 1440px (pixels).
2. The ‘safe area’ for text, logos, and other important visual information (like faces) is 1546 x 423px.

Your banner is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about channel art. Banners are the headers that rest at the tops of channel pages on YouTube. Your banner should be 2560 x 1440 px, although not all of it will always be visible. On a desktop computer or mobile device only a 1546 x 423 px ‘safe area’ will be visible. When viewed on a TV screen your entire image will be visible. YouTube does support PNG, but if your PNG file does not upload properly (as has been the case for some YouTubers) then changing your file type to JPEG might help.

YouTube Banners are extremely important to the success of your channel. If you do not have a banner then it looks like you do not really care about your vlog. If you have a basic banner that is not at all personalized then it certainly looks like you care, but it might also look like you are new to YouTube.

The best banners are customized to reflect the kind of experience you want viewers to have on your channel. The banner of a comedic YouTube channel might use bright colors, where the banner for a gaming channel will probably use darker colors similar to the ones that are in the games the vlogger plays. Connecting your banner to the theme of your channel is part of how you define the style of your vlog. It is the difference between being a Beauty Guru and a general YouTuber who gives makeup tips sometimes.

Including a photo of yourself, or your logo if you have one, is a great way to personalize your banner.

2. YouTube Thumbnails

Quick Tips:

1. Search for your video’s topic to see the thumbnails your thumbnail will be competing against.
2. Make any text huge so people can read it on their smartphone screens.
3. Emojis, colored boarders, and graphics are all potential ways to stand out.

Thumbnails are often ignored by newer YouTubers. YouTube selects a thumbnail for every one of your videos and it is always a still image from that video. You can choose which frame you want to use and a lot of people feel like that is good enough. When you create a custom thumbnail, however, you get to not only choose your image but insert a title.

If you are choosing the images you are using for thumbnails you can make sure they are always similar frames. This will help people identify your videos quickly in searches. Using titles in your thumbnails will also help searchers identify your videos, if you always use the same title style. Another benefit of titles is that they capture the attention of people looking for your specific topic. Remember when building your thumbnails that they will appear smaller on YouTube than they probably are while you edit them. On mobile devices, they will look even smaller. So, if you are going to use text in your thumbnail, make sure it is huge.

One thumbnail taboo that you should never break is using an image that has nothing to do with your video. Using an image of a cute cat for a vlog post that has nothing to do with cats is misleading and will anger viewers. You may draw in a lot of viewers who want to see a cat video, but they will leave right away when they do not see a cat and they will never watch anything by you again.

3.Where To Create Banners and Thumbnails

There are sites online that will allow you to edit images and use them in templates for YouTube banners. You can also use these services to edit your thumbnails. Two of the most popular, free, online photo editors are PicMonkey.com and Canva.com.

Canva has templates you can use to create YouTube banners, as well as a variety of stock images you can use in combination with your own when creating channel art. It is free to edit images on Canva, but they do have some premium features which cost $1 each to access. This service has both a desktop version and an iPad app.

PicMonkey lets you import images from your computer or social media accounts, edit them, and use them in templates for YouTube banners or other kinds of social media graphics. PicMonkey is free to use, but you can only access their more advanced editing tools if you buy a paid subscription. Monthly subscriptions are $4.99 per month, and yearly subscriptions are $2.75 per month.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The art on your YouTube channel – banners, thumbnails, icons, and watermarks – will help to determine how viewers feel about your vlog. If your art does not look like it all goes together then people will get a sloppy, amateurish, impression of your channel. However, if your different pieces of channel art all seem to complement each other and match the tone and theme of your channel then it will help viewers to have a pleasant browsing experience. They will get the impression that you take your YouTube channel seriously and that they can trust you as a source of information, comedy, or general entertainment.

How to Make YouTube Banners and Thumbnails

YouTube Banners and Thumbnails are two of the most important pieces of channel art you will need. This article will explain the best practices for both, and suggest sites where you will be able to build your own banners and thumbnails for free.

1. YouTube Banners

Quick Tips:

1. The image you upload for your YouTube banner should be 2560 x 1440px (pixels).
2. The ‘safe area’ for text, logos, and other important visual information (like faces) is 1546 x 423px.

Your banner is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about channel art. Banners are the headers that rest at the tops of channel pages on YouTube. Your banner should be 2560 x 1440 px, although not all of it will always be visible. On a desktop computer or mobile device only a 1546 x 423 px ‘safe area’ will be visible. When viewed on a TV screen your entire image will be visible. YouTube does support PNG, but if your PNG file does not upload properly (as has been the case for some YouTubers) then changing your file type to JPEG might help.

YouTube Banners are extremely important to the success of your channel. If you do not have a banner then it looks like you do not really care about your vlog. If you have a basic banner that is not at all personalized then it certainly looks like you care, but it might also look like you are new to YouTube.

The best banners are customized to reflect the kind of experience you want viewers to have on your channel. The banner of a comedic YouTube channel might use bright colors, where the banner for a gaming channel will probably use darker colors similar to the ones that are in the games the vlogger plays. Connecting your banner to the theme of your channel is part of how you define the style of your vlog. It is the difference between being a Beauty Guru and a general YouTuber who gives makeup tips sometimes.

Including a photo of yourself, or your logo if you have one, is a great way to personalize your banner.

2. YouTube Thumbnails

Quick Tips:

1. Search for your video’s topic to see the thumbnails your thumbnail will be competing against.
2. Make any text huge so people can read it on their smartphone screens.
3. Emojis, colored boarders, and graphics are all potential ways to stand out.

Thumbnails are often ignored by newer YouTubers. YouTube selects a thumbnail for every one of your videos and it is always a still image from that video. You can choose which frame you want to use and a lot of people feel like that is good enough. When you create a custom thumbnail, however, you get to not only choose your image but insert a title.

If you are choosing the images you are using for thumbnails you can make sure they are always similar frames. This will help people identify your videos quickly in searches. Using titles in your thumbnails will also help searchers identify your videos, if you always use the same title style. Another benefit of titles is that they capture the attention of people looking for your specific topic. Remember when building your thumbnails that they will appear smaller on YouTube than they probably are while you edit them. On mobile devices, they will look even smaller. So, if you are going to use text in your thumbnail, make sure it is huge.

One thumbnail taboo that you should never break is using an image that has nothing to do with your video. Using an image of a cute cat for a vlog post that has nothing to do with cats is misleading and will anger viewers. You may draw in a lot of viewers who want to see a cat video, but they will leave right away when they do not see a cat and they will never watch anything by you again.

3.Where To Create Banners and Thumbnails

There are sites online that will allow you to edit images and use them in templates for YouTube banners. You can also use these services to edit your thumbnails. Two of the most popular, free, online photo editors are PicMonkey.com and Canva.com.

Canva has templates you can use to create YouTube banners, as well as a variety of stock images you can use in combination with your own when creating channel art. It is free to edit images on Canva, but they do have some premium features which cost $1 each to access. This service has both a desktop version and an iPad app.

PicMonkey lets you import images from your computer or social media accounts, edit them, and use them in templates for YouTube banners or other kinds of social media graphics. PicMonkey is free to use, but you can only access their more advanced editing tools if you buy a paid subscription. Monthly subscriptions are $4.99 per month, and yearly subscriptions are $2.75 per month.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

The art on your YouTube channel – banners, thumbnails, icons, and watermarks – will help to determine how viewers feel about your vlog. If your art does not look like it all goes together then people will get a sloppy, amateurish, impression of your channel. However, if your different pieces of channel art all seem to complement each other and match the tone and theme of your channel then it will help viewers to have a pleasant browsing experience. They will get the impression that you take your YouTube channel seriously and that they can trust you as a source of information, comedy, or general entertainment.

How to Make YouTube Banners and Thumbnails

YouTube Banners and Thumbnails are two of the most important pieces of channel art you will need. This article will explain the best practices for both, and suggest sites where you will be able to build your own banners and thumbnails for free.

1. YouTube Banners

Quick Tips:

1. The image you upload for your YouTube banner should be 2560 x 1440px (pixels).
2. The ‘safe area’ for text, logos, and other important visual information (like faces) is 1546 x 423px.

Your banner is probably the first thing that comes to mind when you think about channel art. Banners are the headers that rest at the tops of channel pages on YouTube. Your banner should be 2560 x 1440 px, although not all of it will always be visible. On a desktop computer or mobile device only a 1546 x 423 px ‘safe area’ will be visible. When viewed on a TV screen your entire image will be visible. YouTube does support PNG, but if your PNG file does not upload properly (as has been the case for some YouTubers) then changing your file type to JPEG might help.

YouTube Banners are extremely important to the success of your channel. If you do not have a banner then it looks like you do not really care about your vlog. If you have a basic banner that is not at all personalized then it certainly looks like you care, but it might also look like you are new to YouTube.

The best banners are customized to reflect the kind of experience you want viewers to have on your channel. The banner of a comedic YouTube channel might use bright colors, where the banner for a gaming channel will probably use darker colors similar to the ones that are in the games the vlogger plays. Connecting your banner to the theme of your channel is part of how you define the style of your vlog. It is the difference between being a Beauty Guru and a general YouTuber who gives makeup tips sometimes.

Including a photo of yourself, or your logo if you have one, is a great way to personalize your banner.

2. YouTube Thumbnails

Quick Tips:

1. Search for your video’s topic to see the thumbnails your thumbnail will be competing against.
2. Make any text huge so people can read it on their smartphone screens.
3. Emojis, colored boarders, and graphics are all potential ways to stand out.

Thumbnails are often ignored by newer YouTubers. YouTube selects a thumbnail for every one of your videos and it is always a still image from that video. You can choose which frame you want to use and a lot of people feel like that is good enough. When you create a custom thumbnail, however, you get to not only choose your image but insert a title.

If you are choosing the images you are using for thumbnails you can make sure they are always similar frames. This will help people identify your videos quickly in searches. Using titles in your thumbnails will also help searchers identify your videos, if you always use the same title style. Another benefit of titles is that they capture the attention of people looking for your specific topic. Remember when building your thumbnails that they will appear smaller on YouTube than they probably are while you edit them. On mobile devices, they will look even smaller. So, if you are going to use text in your thumbnail, make sure it is huge.

One thumbnail taboo that you should never break is using an image that has nothing to do with your video. Using an image of a cute cat for a vlog post that has nothing to do with cats is misleading and will anger viewers. You may draw in a lot of viewers who want to see a cat video, but they will leave right away when they do not see a cat and they will never watch anything by you again.

3.Where To Create Banners and Thumbnails

There are sites online that will allow you to edit images and use them in templates for YouTube banners. You can also use these services to edit your thumbnails. Two of the most popular, free, online photo editors are PicMonkey.com and Canva.com.

Canva has templates you can use to create YouTube banners, as well as a variety of stock images you can use in combination with your own when creating channel art. It is free to edit images on Canva, but they do have some premium features which cost $1 each to access. This service has both a desktop version and an iPad app.

PicMonkey lets you import images from your computer or social media accounts, edit them, and use them in templates for YouTube banners or other kinds of social media graphics. PicMonkey is free to use, but you can only access their more advanced editing tools if you buy a paid subscription. Monthly subscriptions are $4.99 per month, and yearly subscriptions are $2.75 per month.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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