Channel Review 6 Month Check Up. Need your help.

[TyrionTheWolf]

User name: TyrionTheWolf
Title of thread: 6 Month Check Up. Need your help.
Self review: I am a Call of Duty Gaming Channel. I have been doing YouTube for 6 months. I upload my own personal matches from Call of Duty. I do everything at the moment from my game console so I dont get a chance to edit them. I am respectfully requesting a channel review on my whole channel. I am looking for any way to improve my views and watch time. Is there any improvement i can make on the thumbnails and would editing my videos help out with watch times. Thank you.
Channel review or Video review? Channel review
Link to channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyldEzwxfGdYY6Jq8NCDk4A
Link to other review post: https://community.tubebuddy.com/index.php?threads/25234/

 

[Beanie Draws]

Not going to lie, I'm not a fan of any of the thumbnails, and because I'm not a fan of any of the thumbnails, I wouldn't even spend the time to read the title. I do like your logo, but that's about the only thing I like.

I believe your banner would get cut off on mobile, and sure, you upload new videos daily, but what's so special about your channel over any other channel doing the same thing (I say that in the most general sense)

The "gaming with the fiancé" (hold on, that title sounds familiar? Weren't you originally having a photo OF you and your fiancé in the thumbnail? Or was that something I suggested in the thumbnails part of this forum?)

All your thumbnails use, unfortunately pretty static, grayed out backgrounds. The "black ops 4: rate my match" has a thumbnail so flat I can't actually tell what's going on in the thumbnail, so I wouldn't bother clicking on it.

"Rate my match: hardcore free-for-all" the yellow and black banners caught my attention, but I see some building... there's nothing interesting about buildings.

"Rate my match: modern warfare (no commentary..." (the ... indicates your title doesn't even fully fit in before getting cut off... so if you see a ... in your title, that means your title is being cut off and the other half of your title isn't even being seen) BUT, that thumbnail just has some fire... why would I click a thumbnail that's just some fire... there's nothing interesting about that and I skipped right past it.



Unfortunately your channel suffers from the same issue many gaming channels suffer from... a lack of thumbnail design knowledge (maybe study what Mr Beast Gaming is doing?) and you're hoping simply having a gaming video out there, might be enough to get a click, but there's nothing enticing me to even want to rate a match because the thumbnails are so bland.

Just realize, when you're going with a gaming thumbnail, you don't have to just go with the default map photo, or a default promo photo, heck, you can zoom into the best bit of action. Your thumbnail is only going to show up at best 100 pixels wide, so you can totally zoom in on a shot if the actually is more interesting right in the middle.

I dare say the reason you aren't getting any views is because your thumbnails are uninteresting and incredibly stale.

Find the most exciting moment in your video and use that as the screenshot, and make sure it can be seen on mobile.




I'm sorry I sound so harsh, but I feel I need to be harsh to emphasize how important thumbnails are. I'd spend a few hours in your week studying graphic design and thumbnail design.

 

[TyrionTheWolf]

Thank you Beanie. I started working on better thumbnails. I took out the no commentary part in the titles. I didn't realize it got cut off. On the thumbnail that was just fire this is what I replaced it with

And i need the harsh, i take it as constructive criticism

 

[sherazyousaf]

I think I would re-iterate a lot of the comments of the above, although I think you might have improved your thumbs since. I think the main thing for me is the descriptions of the videos don't tell me enough. I'd like to know what the angle is on each video. I know it's the same game, but I need something to make me take a look. Have a look at Video Game Dunkey as a good example. His titles are fun and encourage you to watch.

I think if you can crack and interesting thumb and title, that'll really help you move forward. I think your logo and banner look good, and the page at a glance looks like you upload frequently, which is good. Just maybe a little more creativity on the thumb and title and I Think you'll start to get busier.

Hope that helps!

 

[TyrionTheWolf]

I believe your banner would get cut off on mobile

it does get cut off i have tried to make it work for all devices but mobile has just been getting cut off

 

[SILTHW]

it does get cut off i have tried to make it work for all devices but mobile has just been getting cut off

Little trick here that people don't talk about much.

Size your banner as 1546 pixels x 423 pixels. That is the YouTube safe area for all platforms. Then create a second banner that is the same color (or pattern) as your background that is 2560 pixels wide by x 1440 pixels. Center the first banner in the second. You now have a banner that will display properly on every device including TVs.

 

[Beanie Draws]

it does get cut off i have tried to make it work for all devices but mobile has just been getting cut off

It's best to use a template like this, but you basically want to make sure that the safe area is where most of your text is, but remember to be mindful of desktop max

These are how I uploaded to my other channel, and one of my original channel banners (including the grey/black boarders above and bottom) generally youtube no longer shows up like that on TV but on some smart tv's they will still show the WHOLE image including the above and bottom part, but the main thing is as long as the middle doesn't get cut off (it's always safer to align vertically) and make the sides presentable, but make them unimportant in case they get cut off on mobile.

 

[IgniteTheMic]

I actually like the thumbnails, not sure what it looked like before. My advice would be to show more of you with a more interesting background and cool lighting. Also, a higher resolution would be nice.