Step-by-Step Instructions: Producing Alluring Video Thumbnails on YouTube

How to Make Video Thumbnails for YouTube

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The video thumbnails you use for YouTube are vital to getting views and subscribers. There are a lot of things that go into making people watch your videos, but your video thumbnail might be the most important factor.

Here are 5 easy tips for creating thumbnails that get views.

1. Have a Consistent Layout
2. Use Your Face
3. Use Graphics/Emojis That is On Topic
4. Make Your Text Huge
5. Keep It Clutter-Free!

Contest now closed.

Edit Your Videos Before Creating Video Thumbnails

1. Have a Consistent Layout

Your thumbnails all must look like part of the same set. You want viewers to recognize your videos like yours, and they are more likely to do that if you build up a standard layout that they can start associating with you.

An example of a standard layout could be you in the middle of the screen wearing an expression that matches the theme of your video, with your title written underneath your face. Every individual thumbnail would still be different, but you and the text would always be in the same spot.

2. Use Your Face

People feel automatically connected and drawn into images that make eye contact. This makes thumbnails which feature faces more click-able than thumbnails which don’t, in most genres (i.e. if you make food videos then this may not apply – featuring the food might be more important than featuring your face). Check out more tips like this here .

Also, if somebody recognizes you in your thumbnail from a previous video of yours, that will go a long way towards making them click.

3. Use Graphics/Emojis that are On Topic

Anybody can take a screenshot of themselves in their video and use it as a thumbnail. To make your thumbnails look polished, consider using small images (like emojis or hearts) to stand out. This will add color and personality to your thumbnail.

Make sure the images you choose are relevant to the topic of your video.

4. Make Your Text Huge

If you use text in your thumbnail (you don’t have to) then it should be to add context. For example, if the main image is just you smiling then you might need some text to let viewers know the video is a makeup tutorial.

Thumbnails might look large while you’re putting them together in your image editor, but when they’re displayed on YouTube they’re a lot smaller. That goes double if a viewer is watching on their phone. So, make sure that any text you use is large enough that it can be read easily on small screens.

5. Keep it Clutter-Free

It’s great to add text and emojis to your thumbnails, but you do need to be careful not to add too much. You never want your thumbnails to look cluttered. Viewers should be able to glance at your thumbnails and know exactly what kind of video to expect – that’s difficult to do if there’s too much to process.

A good rule for text is to use only 1-3 words. That way they won’t clutter your screen, and you can make them large enough to read on small-screened devices.

For even more tips on making great YouTube thumbnails, click here .

Use these tips to make video thumbnails for YouTube, and tell us what kind of results you get!

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

The video thumbnails you use for YouTube are vital to getting views and subscribers. There are a lot of things that go into making people watch your videos, but your video thumbnail might be the most important factor.

Here are 5 easy tips for creating thumbnails that get views.

1. Have a Consistent Layout
2. Use Your Face
3. Use Graphics/Emojis That is On Topic
4. Make Your Text Huge
5. Keep It Clutter-Free!

Contest now closed.

Edit Your Videos Before Creating Video Thumbnails

1. Have a Consistent Layout

Your thumbnails all must look like part of the same set. You want viewers to recognize your videos like yours, and they are more likely to do that if you build up a standard layout that they can start associating with you.

An example of a standard layout could be you in the middle of the screen wearing an expression that matches the theme of your video, with your title written underneath your face. Every individual thumbnail would still be different, but you and the text would always be in the same spot.

2. Use Your Face

People feel automatically connected and drawn into images that make eye contact. This makes thumbnails which feature faces more click-able than thumbnails which don’t, in most genres (i.e. if you make food videos then this may not apply – featuring the food might be more important than featuring your face). Check out more tips like this here .

Also, if somebody recognizes you in your thumbnail from a previous video of yours, that will go a long way towards making them click.

3. Use Graphics/Emojis that are On Topic

Anybody can take a screenshot of themselves in their video and use it as a thumbnail. To make your thumbnails look polished, consider using small images (like emojis or hearts) to stand out. This will add color and personality to your thumbnail.

Make sure the images you choose are relevant to the topic of your video.

4. Make Your Text Huge

If you use text in your thumbnail (you don’t have to) then it should be to add context. For example, if the main image is just you smiling then you might need some text to let viewers know the video is a makeup tutorial.

Thumbnails might look large while you’re putting them together in your image editor, but when they’re displayed on YouTube they’re a lot smaller. That goes double if a viewer is watching on their phone. So, make sure that any text you use is large enough that it can be read easily on small screens.

5. Keep it Clutter-Free

It’s great to add text and emojis to your thumbnails, but you do need to be careful not to add too much. You never want your thumbnails to look cluttered. Viewers should be able to glance at your thumbnails and know exactly what kind of video to expect – that’s difficult to do if there’s too much to process.

A good rule for text is to use only 1-3 words. That way they won’t clutter your screen, and you can make them large enough to read on small-screened devices.

For even more tips on making great YouTube thumbnails, click here .

Use these tips to make video thumbnails for YouTube, and tell us what kind of results you get!

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

The video thumbnails you use for YouTube are vital to getting views and subscribers. There are a lot of things that go into making people watch your videos, but your video thumbnail might be the most important factor.

Here are 5 easy tips for creating thumbnails that get views.

1. Have a Consistent Layout
2. Use Your Face
3. Use Graphics/Emojis That is On Topic
4. Make Your Text Huge
5. Keep It Clutter-Free!

Contest now closed.

Edit Your Videos Before Creating Video Thumbnails

1. Have a Consistent Layout

Your thumbnails all must look like part of the same set. You want viewers to recognize your videos like yours, and they are more likely to do that if you build up a standard layout that they can start associating with you.

An example of a standard layout could be you in the middle of the screen wearing an expression that matches the theme of your video, with your title written underneath your face. Every individual thumbnail would still be different, but you and the text would always be in the same spot.

2. Use Your Face

People feel automatically connected and drawn into images that make eye contact. This makes thumbnails which feature faces more click-able than thumbnails which don’t, in most genres (i.e. if you make food videos then this may not apply – featuring the food might be more important than featuring your face). Check out more tips like this here .

Also, if somebody recognizes you in your thumbnail from a previous video of yours, that will go a long way towards making them click.

3. Use Graphics/Emojis that are On Topic

Anybody can take a screenshot of themselves in their video and use it as a thumbnail. To make your thumbnails look polished, consider using small images (like emojis or hearts) to stand out. This will add color and personality to your thumbnail.

Make sure the images you choose are relevant to the topic of your video.

4. Make Your Text Huge

If you use text in your thumbnail (you don’t have to) then it should be to add context. For example, if the main image is just you smiling then you might need some text to let viewers know the video is a makeup tutorial.

Thumbnails might look large while you’re putting them together in your image editor, but when they’re displayed on YouTube they’re a lot smaller. That goes double if a viewer is watching on their phone. So, make sure that any text you use is large enough that it can be read easily on small screens.

5. Keep it Clutter-Free

It’s great to add text and emojis to your thumbnails, but you do need to be careful not to add too much. You never want your thumbnails to look cluttered. Viewers should be able to glance at your thumbnails and know exactly what kind of video to expect – that’s difficult to do if there’s too much to process.

A good rule for text is to use only 1-3 words. That way they won’t clutter your screen, and you can make them large enough to read on small-screened devices.

For even more tips on making great YouTube thumbnails, click here .

Use these tips to make video thumbnails for YouTube, and tell us what kind of results you get!

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

The video thumbnails you use for YouTube are vital to getting views and subscribers. There are a lot of things that go into making people watch your videos, but your video thumbnail might be the most important factor.

Here are 5 easy tips for creating thumbnails that get views.

1. Have a Consistent Layout
2. Use Your Face
3. Use Graphics/Emojis That is On Topic
4. Make Your Text Huge
5. Keep It Clutter-Free!

Contest now closed.

Edit Your Videos Before Creating Video Thumbnails

1. Have a Consistent Layout

Your thumbnails all must look like part of the same set. You want viewers to recognize your videos like yours, and they are more likely to do that if you build up a standard layout that they can start associating with you.

An example of a standard layout could be you in the middle of the screen wearing an expression that matches the theme of your video, with your title written underneath your face. Every individual thumbnail would still be different, but you and the text would always be in the same spot.

2. Use Your Face

People feel automatically connected and drawn into images that make eye contact. This makes thumbnails which feature faces more click-able than thumbnails which don’t, in most genres (i.e. if you make food videos then this may not apply – featuring the food might be more important than featuring your face). Check out more tips like this here .

Also, if somebody recognizes you in your thumbnail from a previous video of yours, that will go a long way towards making them click.

3. Use Graphics/Emojis that are On Topic

Anybody can take a screenshot of themselves in their video and use it as a thumbnail. To make your thumbnails look polished, consider using small images (like emojis or hearts) to stand out. This will add color and personality to your thumbnail.

Make sure the images you choose are relevant to the topic of your video.

4. Make Your Text Huge

If you use text in your thumbnail (you don’t have to) then it should be to add context. For example, if the main image is just you smiling then you might need some text to let viewers know the video is a makeup tutorial.

Thumbnails might look large while you’re putting them together in your image editor, but when they’re displayed on YouTube they’re a lot smaller. That goes double if a viewer is watching on their phone. So, make sure that any text you use is large enough that it can be read easily on small screens.

5. Keep it Clutter-Free

It’s great to add text and emojis to your thumbnails, but you do need to be careful not to add too much. You never want your thumbnails to look cluttered. Viewers should be able to glance at your thumbnails and know exactly what kind of video to expect – that’s difficult to do if there’s too much to process.

A good rule for text is to use only 1-3 words. That way they won’t clutter your screen, and you can make them large enough to read on small-screened devices.

For even more tips on making great YouTube thumbnails, click here .

Use these tips to make video thumbnails for YouTube, and tell us what kind of results you get!

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Master Quick YouTube Video Uploads and Rendering Secrets

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

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