A better fitted title would be: "I built a $5,000 Raspberry Pi server so you don't have to do it".
I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
41–50 of 199 posts
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.
I can't stand that Linus PC guy with his exaggerated faces on the thumbs.
He's explained it's pretty much for the same reason the OP did it. It's possible to prove it works, especially when you're releasing a video each day. Youtube at this point is about optimizing clicks. People like Mr.Beast generally know their video title and thumbnail before they even start production on the content.
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#43I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.
Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.
Its so strange, since the presence of a face immediately makes me not want to watch a video.
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#44Really sad to see so many people dismiss this just based on the YouTube thumbnail at the bottom. Jeff consistently makes very high quality content, I really enjoyed his series on Kubernetes, I would urge you to look past any preconceptions there. The fact is, if YouTube makes up a sizeable portion of your income, and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face, you’d be silly not to do so. It’s un…
> and that can increase by a factor of 10% just by making a dumb face
Think more like 20-30% — and not doing it leads to a much quicker falloff from YouTube recommendations, where over 90% of video views come from.
I overlook dumb thumbnails when the content is actually enjoyable/entertaining/educational.
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#45I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.
Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.
If you ever have the time I would like to read a blog post with this data and some comments about your perception towards this issue.
I have no trouble understanding why this happens on "entertainment" videos, but this issue on technical videos seems a bit strange to me.
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't stand that Linus PC guy with his exaggerated faces on the thumbs.
He's a video explaining how well that kind of clickbaity thumbs works.
Said video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#47I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.
I'm not convinced that it's optimized in any way. Linus claims to have A/B tested it, but changing the thumbnails disturbs the experiment too much (different time of day, Youtube knows that you changed the thumbnail and probably uses that information for something, CDN lag, who knows what else), and the sample size is too small to be statistically meaningful.
I watch a ton of YouTube and exaggerated facial expressions in thumbnails are rare in the channels I watch. The channels don't seem to be suffering for it, many have subscriber counts in the millions. I even have a concrete head-to-head example. Every Saturday morning, two channels I watch (clough42 and blondihacks) both post videos. YouTube puts them at the top of recommended every Saturday without fail. clough42 uses his face in the thumbnails, blondihacks uses a picture of her project. Both get recommended. Both channels have grown dramatically over the last year. As far as I can tell, YouTube considers them equally good.
On the other hand, I might not be the target demographic for "I cobbled together a bunch of computer shit" videos (which is kind of LTT's and Jeff Geerling's shtick). So maybe it's the right optimization for that kind of channel. (But if you want revenue, then your sponsors probably want me watching the video and not 13 year old kids with no money. Just saying.)
I will conclude that I pretty much won't click videos like this. Seeing the inside of someone's mouth in a computing video basically says to me "look, the content isn't very good, but I know how to play the game". This is unfair (Jeff, your content is fine), but it's how I feel. It's like seeing the first Google result for "foo bar" being "Cheap Foo Bars Foo Bar Food Bar Foo Bar Compatible With Quuxgorch". I'm not going to click it. You may have won the algorithm, but you didn't win me.
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't stand that Linus PC guy with his exaggerated faces on the thumbs.
He's explained it's pretty much for the same reason the OP did it. It's possible to prove it works, especially when you're releasing a video each day. Youtube at this point is about optimizing clicks. People like Mr.Beast generally know their video title and thumbnail before they even start production on the content.
Unconvinced. LTT has 1 or 2 good videos for every 30 videos they release. Maybe the face helps people click the bad videos, but the good videos stand for themselves and it's likely that he would be successful without playing the game. (His all time most popular video doesn't have a thumbnail of him making a weird face. It's his most popular video of all time because his guest was exceedingly entertaining.)
(Also, I don't mean for this to be an anti-Linus post. How he built LMG is a great story and he deserves the success he's achieved.)
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#49I get so frustrated with the idiotic thumbnails on youtube video these days. I am sure it's all optimized for the maximum number of clicks/views but if I see a still that looks the way it does at the bottom of this page I generally just don't watch it on principle.
Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.
Could you please A/B test if it needs to be your exaggerated face or if stock photos would suffice? ;)
Also kudos to building your brand, I only saw the headline and already figured it might be you.. (or Linus, but it didn't say anything about /dropping/ 5k)
Re: I built a $5k Raspberry Pi server (yes, it's ridiculous)
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Believe me, I had a nice discussion yesterday with my sister (who helped me take pictures for the thumbnail), and we both agreed it's one of the dumbest things about current YouTube... The thing is, from all my own A/B testing, a face vs. no face will automatically get 20-30% more views (all else equal). And an exaggerated face, a bit more than that.
I can't stand that Linus PC guy with his exaggerated faces on the thumbs.
I can’t stand the dumb faces either. And yet… I catch myself being more likely to click on them when it has a face on it. It’s the weirdest thing.