• Guest - Earn a FREE TubeBuddy Upgrade for being active on the forums! Click Here to learn how you earn free upgrades for TubeBuddy!
  • Guest - TubeBuddy has a discord! Click Here to join in the conversation!

Thumbnail Feedback what is considered "clickbaiting" v.s. click worthy"?

Carlos Dominguez

Active Member
32
7
Hi i am new to youtube however I am wanting to learn and get some advice on creating "thumbnails" and I wanted to know what is clickbaiting vs click worthy.
 

Aaron

Reputable Poster
TubeBuddy Legend
739
26
goldsteindigital.com
Subscriber Goal
1000
This is certainly going to be an interesting conversation to watch. I don't think its easy to peg thumbnails as necessarily "clickbait" or or "click worthy". Clickbait generically in my mind is something designed to achieve a click-through using irrelevant material. If I made a thumbnail saying "Bought a new car" with a picture of me standing next to a Rolls Royce when I actually bought a Nissan then clearly that would be clickbait. Click worthy thumbnails to me are accurate to the content and enticing to a potential viewer.
 

Damon

Trusted User
Trusted User
2,779
25
www.blackwarriorlures.com
Subscriber Goal
10000
Yeah, clickbait is all about lying and deception. It's where you promise one thing in your thumbnail/title, then the video is about something completely different. Click worthy is simply telling the truth, keeping a consistent message in your thumbnails, titles and videos' content.

What's tricky is people's perceptions. Point blank: People are selfish. They think they are the center of the universe. Anything that doesn't make sense to them is labeled clickbait because they lack intellectual fortitude. In other words people misuse the word clickbait all the time. Whenever a video doesn't fit their definition of the universe, they call it clickbait just because they have no life.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ikerot

Beanie Draws

Mythical Poster
2,883
27
www.youtube.com
Subscriber Goal
30000
Clickbait in my opinion is using visually deceptive methods to bait people into clicking your video. Objectifying women as a piece of meat because men like bikini clad women, knowing that the only reason theyΓÇÖre watching the video is because if the bikini girl on the thumb and they couldnΓÇÖt care less about your actual content.

Or using over the top images, again, in a deceptive manner, to entice a click. Making people think something horrible has happened in the thumbnail, or deliberately making drama just for a click.

Click worthy for me is using mystery, surprise and excitement to entice someone to click a video because theyΓÇÖre excited to see the rest of the video. In a way, you CAN use clickbaity methods which iΓÇÖd Owise thing are unethical, in an ethical way.

IΓÇÖve been subscribed to a tech channel, the guy is very family orientated, and he;s started using a bikini girl in his thumbnails to get views itΓÇÖs only using women for one thing which goes against his usual family friendly computer videos which really disappointed me.
 

Tito Tim

DecoratedPoster
TubeBuddy Star
1,155
25
titotim.com
I think it is nearly the same.
They are not at all the same. Click worthy is a good thumbnail - attractive and giving an idea what it is in the video. Clickbait is lying to your potential viewers. You put something splashy in the thumbnail that is not in the video. Click worthy gets you views, fans, and hopefully some good watch time. Clickbait gets you views, pissed off viewers, and short watch times. More importantly, clickbait will not get you return viewers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JeffOnTour