SLC27/W4 | Branding & Thumbnails

Greetings to everyone!!
Welcome to the fourth week of the "Learn to Be a YouTuber" program!
In week 4, we enter a more advanced stage that is also very important for the development of your YouTube channel because it will determine how viewers perceive your channel. This week, we will focus more on visual branding and video thumbnails. Last week, we all learned how to create and upload videos to your YouTube channel. Now it's time to make sure your YouTube channel looks more attractive, professional, and consistent, so that anyone who visits it will immediately feel the unique identity and style of your channel.

MrBeast	Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes

Actually, if you often watch popular YouTube channels, you will surely know what makes them famous. Take MrBeast and Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes, for example. Both channels have very attractive appearances, starting from their intriguing titles and thumbnails that are very characteristic of their channels. On MrBeast's YouTube channel, they create more challenging content that makes people curious, while on Nursery Rhymes' YouTube channel, they focus more on making children interested.

To make our channel attractive and grow quickly, we can follow the example of large channels and adapt them to our content. There are several things to consider, such as:

What is YouTube Branding?

I know that earlier in the first week, you all learned about channel branding, but I want to emphasize that branding is very important because it builds your channel's identity, so that people immediately know that this is your channel just by looking at its appearance.

Branding your YouTube channel involves several important elements that shape your channel's identity. First, your channel must have a profile photo, which is a small image that represents who you are. It can be your own face, a logo, or an easily recognizable icon. Next, there must be a channel banner, a wide image at the top of the page that gives a first impression to viewers who are new to your channel. And lastly, there must be video thumbnails, small images that appear on each video and serve as visual bait to attract viewers. This time, we will discuss this in more detail.

Why is Branding Important?

Imagine you are scrolling through your YouTube homepage, with videos appearing endlessly. Among the many videos, there must be one or two that immediately catch your attention. Usually, it is because they look cool, clear, and seem to have a purpose. That is where channel branding and thumbnails come into play as two elements that make people pause for a moment and then click on your video among the sea of other content.

It’s important to know that strong branding makes a YouTube channel:

• Look professional
• Easy to recognize
• Keep viewers engaged for longer
• Attract more clicks and subscribers

To make your YouTube channel more effective, you must at least set up a banner as follows:

• You must use the appropriate banner size: 2560 x 1440 pixels (safe area in the middle is 1546 x 423 px so that the text is not cut off) (as learned in lesson 1).
• On the banner, display your channel's identity, such as the channel name, niche, and upload schedule.
• You should also use colors that reflect the tone of your content, such as: Educational content typically uses blue, gray, and white. Entertainment content often uses yellow, red, and purple. Vlog content usually uses soft and natural colors.
• You should also add a brief text or tagline to make your channel more impactful, such as “Everyday Stories, Yet Full of Meaning.”

Here are some tricks or secrets to making thumbnails more attractive.

You should know that thumbnails are the “main door” to your video. Viewers will be interested in watching your video before reading the title because the thumbnail is attractive. It is also important to note that you only have a very short time to attract viewers, only about 2 seconds.

Here are some tips:

• Make sure to use a human face (if possible) with strong expressions (surprised, happy, focused). You can take inspiration from the thumbnail styles of popular channels like MrBeast and Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes.
• You also need to add short, concise, and clear text, consisting of 3 to 5 words that describe the content of the video.
• To make it clearer and more visible, you need to use contrasting colors so that the thumbnail stands out among other videos.
• Usually, viewers find it easier to see and read when the thumbnail uses large fonts.
• You need to remember not to overdo it with too much text or images.
• You can edit using free applications such as Canva, Pixellab, or Photoshop, or whatever is easiest for you.

I can give an example:
If the video title is: “Easy and Simple Ways to Edit Videos Using Only Your Phone”
For the thumbnail: You only need to display a photo of yourself holding your phone + large text that says “PRO VIDEO EDITING USING ONLY YOUR PHONE!”

• A quick note for Shorts users:
  If your channel previously focused solely on YouTube Shorts videos, you weren't able to change your thumbnail.
  So this week, you should create a long-form video (at least 2 minutes long).
  You can use this long-form video to:

• Practice basic editing,
• Manually adjust thumbnails,
• And strengthen your channel's visual identity.

Week 4 Assignment

This week, you must create one long video (landscape) with a minimum duration of 2 minutes according to your channel's niche, not a short video. The video must be relevant to the content you discuss on your channel. It must include at a minimum:

1. You must create your own thumbnail using a free or paid design app.
2. Your video must have a catchy title that aligns with the video's content.
3. The uploaded video must have a description of at least 100 words, 3 hashtags (included in the description section), and 3 tags.
4. Your channel must have a profile photo, a relevant channel banner, and a video with a custom thumbnail.

After uploading, take a screenshot of your channel's appearance (showing the banner, profile, and video with thumbnail) and share the video link as well. The video is shared publicly for everyone to watch

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Rules and criteria:

1. Posts can be written on the STEEM LENS Community or your personal blog or any other community.
2. Your post title must be: SLC27/W4 | Branding & Thumbnails by @ username
3. Include personal photos (highly recommended) or free images with clear sources.
4. Plagiarism and the use of AI are strictly prohibited.
5. The publication must contain a minimum of 300 words in an official language, preferably English.
6. Make sure to use the hashtags: #youtuber-s27w4, #learnwithsteem, #steemvideo #steemexclusive, #club100/75/5050, and your country's hashtag. (Example: #indonesia)
7. Invite at least three friends to participate.
8. Resteem this post and leave a link to your post in the comments section of this post.
9. This contest will be open for 7 days, starting Monday, October 20, 2025, until Sunday, October 26, 2025, at 23:59 UTC.

Prize:

1. Every week, I will select the 6 best posts that exceed other posts in terms of entry quality, interaction with other users, unique ideas, neatness, and creativity. The 6 best posts will be the weekly winners and will receive additional prizes from SC01.
2. Several good posts from users who participate in the Steemit Challenge and follow the rules will receive support from SC01 / SC02. (Upvotes are not guaranteed for all articles. Please note.)

Closing

This fourth week can be considered an advanced stage and is also very important in order to attract viewers to your videos and channel. Next week, we will move on to the final stage, Analytics & Consistency, so you can see how your YouTube channel is progressing.

Thank you

^{Dewantara, October 20, 2025}
𝕭𝖞 @𝖜𝖆𝖑𝖎𝖈𝖙𝖉