Titles, Thumbnails and the First Hour

Write the title and sketch the thumbnail before you edit. If you cannot make them compelling, the video idea itself is probably weak.

The thumbnail should be readable at the size of a postage stamp. That usually means one subject, high contrast, and at most three words.

The first hour after publishing matters because early click-through and retention shape how widely the video is shown. Have the title and thumbnail finalised before you hit publish rather than fixing them after.