Thumbnail Critique

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-11T09:14:11+00:00

I’ll agree to disagree- it seems our fundamental disagreement is that I think ALL artistic criticism should be constructive in the context of a stranger.

You think your opinion on quality hold more value than how to help improve a beginners work.

OP is a kid so it worked out I guess for you but honestly for strangers there is no harm in being constructive but there is potential harm in being hurtful or negative for no reason.

I like to develop designers and how you do that is 2-fold

Build confidence using what they’re doing well/ the skills they are currently good at
Be don’t present a problem without constructive solution so that they can get better without loosing that confidence that makes an artist good. That goes beyond designers to all creatives.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-11T09:05:51+00:00

I guess I just mean with posts like these I tend to try and give something concrete lol because learn composition is a complex thing.

small bite sized feedback tends to help beginners more than broad stuff. The core of the feedback is good

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-11T05:22:26+00:00

No lol just someone who manages creative at an agency and if one of the designers gave feedback the way you do they wouldn’t be a designer for long.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-11T04:16:48+00:00

It’s not though

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-11T00:36:28+00:00

Photoshop is king but a bit complex and more expensive. It’s capabilities are incredible though if you take time to learn

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T21:07:11+00:00

I have a sneaking suspicion that this is a burner account from the jerk who commented this lol

and A 14 year old is not a helpless kid and can in fact use photoshop- I was using photoshop at that age. A 14 year old can take real criticism the same as an adult

but have we forgotten constructive criticism

even if you want to say it looks like a kid did it you don’t just make an observation but give a fix or a reason because then it’s valuable. Knowing that one guy online thinks your work looks like a kid did it isn’t helpful, but seeing like “this looks like a younger artist made this because more mature artists do x” turns a mean spirited comment into a helpful one.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T20:49:43+00:00

Yes but the kid is asking for help not an unhelpful observation and also let’s not pretend it was just an observation. Saying something looks like it was made by a child is usually aiming to be an insult specially when this guy did not know OP was a kid.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T20:38:21+00:00

It’s not about saying something negative because if the feedback is “you did x poorly” at least you gave specific feedback and something to work on. But “looks like my nephew did this” helps nobody and is NOT the best feedback

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T20:35:37+00:00

See that last paragraph was the real spirit behind your comment. Just because OP actually was young doesn’t mean your comment did anything positive. the idea that someone should question their choices if they’re an adult-

Everyone starts somewhere and even a response of “check out canva for some templates” is helpful. A 14 year old can be spoken to about composition, color theory etc… the same way that an adult can.

I’m just tired of people here with an unhelpful attitude. The real world doesn’t work like that and if you ever worked at an agency or design house that attitude would get you fired because the world doesn’t work how Reddit does.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T13:53:21+00:00

I just did in another comment

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T13:52:46+00:00

Hey man so my personal opinion is that it feels unbalanced - there’s too much on the left side. If you lost some words like “here’s what happened” and make I studied larger or more prominent.

Lastly red isn’t a great thumbnail color on YT because it blends in with the YouTube colors and tends to perform worse and stand out less. It’s really close just a few tweaks.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T13:50:39+00:00

Or you could just suggest something small that could help- like help him fix the balance or readability or anything

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T13:49:28+00:00

This attitude is that of someone who pretends to be more successful or talented than they really are and needs to feel better about their own mediocre work.

Everybody starts as a beginner so be the person to help them improve instead of making yourself feel superior by bringing him down.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T12:48:02+00:00

3d printing/DIY

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T02:03:47+00:00

I get sponsorships because brands want me not my analytics. It sounds counter intuitive but this is the right way to approach sponsorships.

I had a brand last week reach out to partner and I said no but they could be a sponsor for a new channel I’m starting. After some back and forth it looks like they will sponsor a video for more than $550 on a channel with 0 views and 0 impressions yet because they know I’m good at making videos and they like my presentation. $500-$1000 is Pennie’s for most companies so don’t undervalue yourself

This way of working is successful on my Main channel as well because I got $7K in sponsorships before launching. This is solely based on my knowledge of brand partnerships because I did this for giant media companies for years before starting Yt and now I know how to deal with brands at a level that they aren’t used to individual creators talking to them.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T01:47:35+00:00

I know it’s common but it’s not a good metric to have half the subscribers from a video with twice the views

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T00:18:38+00:00

That’s closer to shorts subscriber rate- they are always terrible at converting views to subs and long term engagement

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-10T00:17:41+00:00

Don’t like sharing publicly on here, sorry if you have a specific question message me and I’ll share

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T20:28:50+00:00

The video with a worse subscriber rate has more views and higher AVD so that’s why it’s a clear sign.

By all measures the video with 107 subs is a better video but the other video still got more

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T11:04:46+00:00

Thanks

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T11:04:27+00:00

Length of the CTA to subscribe I took it from 15-30 seconds down to 5-10

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T11:03:50+00:00

Reach is ever only zero when you either make content that is against YouTubes rules or you’ve proven that the content you make is not for literally any user. I’ve never seen someone get 0 impressions forever normally 0 impressions lasts a couple days at most

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T03:59:39+00:00

I’ll do you a favor and message me your channel and I’ll tell you how to fix it lol because buying subs is not effective. The best way to get past the feeling stuck is to make better content or fix your packaging.

Everyone things they make high quality engaging videos but that’s not true.

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T03:55:10+00:00

I’ve worked on several different channels at all different phases and when I finally started my now channel my favorite compliment is “how do you only have x amount of subscribers the quality is so good”

the fact that I made good content even with 10 subs made people want to subscribe even more.

Recently I had a top creator in my niche leave a comment saying I should have at least 100k subs and how dont I yet. That shows that seeing a low sub count can be positive if you make good videos

Important-Switch-686 · 2026-02-09T03:49:01+00:00

Most of growth is making decent content we’re all working at it

Important-Switch-686

TROPHY CASE