Read time: 3 minutes

Howdy,

Here is your weekly dose of The Creator Stream, a list of what I’m enjoying and working on in the Creator Economy. Please feel free to forward this along to fellow creators.

Have you been scratching your head on how to improve your YouTube video’s titles? You should think about adding:

• Time frames

• Spicy keywords

• Constraints

Here are some titles I brain-dumped to a client of mine who asked me for some quick and dirty ideas off the top of my head:

Original title: How To Fix Dry, Chapped Lips

Suggestions:

1. How To Fix Dry Chapped Lips in 24 Hours

2. How To Fix Dry Chapped Lips in 1 Hour

3. How To Fix Dry Chapped Lips in 15 Minutes

4. How To Fix Dry Chapped Lips Instantly

5. How To Fix Dry Chapped Lips With This One Technique

6. The Product That Will Fix Your Dry Chapped Lips

7. Apply These 3 Products, It'll Fix Your Dry Chapped Lips

I would also A/B test with more positive angled packaging as opposed to the above titles which focus on the problem:

1. How To Get Perfectly Smooth Lips in 24 Hours

2. How To Get Perfectly Smooth Lips in 24 Hours According to a Dermatologist

3. Apply This 1 Minute After Waking Up. It'll Change Your Lips

4. Apply This 1 Minute After Showering. It'll Change Your Lips

5. Apply These 3 Products, It'll Change Your Lips

6. How Celebrities Always Have Perfect Lips & How You Can Too

7. Why Celebrities Always Have Perfect Lips & How You Can Too

8. How To Actually Get Perfectly Smooth Lips Faster

9. How To Get Perfectly Smooth Lips Forever

10. How To Get Perfectly Smooth Lips Overnight

-

It's beneficial to run A/B tests with your audience to better understand them, do they resonate more with:

1. The problem

2. The solution

3. Do they prefer speed / time constraints?

4. Do they like being told exactly what to do in a step-by-step formula?

Do this long enough over many different videos and you'll start to have constraints and "go-to" title formats that you know perform with your returning viewers.

The above ideas were off the top of my head and I'd always recommend spending more time brainstorming, researching, and mocking up thumbnails to see how compatible they are with each title.

If you found this useful, I’d recommend following me on Twitter (I still don’t like calling it X!), where I tweet out advice like the above every few days.

My Favourite Things This Week

🎥 Video I’m Watching

MrBeast Explains How to Take Over The World - Mr. Beast spilled the secrets behind his YouTube dominance on the "How to Take Over the World" podcast. It’s just over an hour long and he touches on so many different areas of his YouTube Journey.

Whether you’re new to YouTube or not, the podcast has tactical advice for both beginner and experienced creators and is worth a watch.

Want To Sponsor The Creator Stream?

The Creator Stream has a following of over 1,500 creators who work in the Creator Economy. If you're interested in sponsoring the newsletter, you can find out more here.

🎥 YouTube Channel I’m Watching

This Channel Gained 1,500,000 Views in 3 Days on a New Channel - Yesterday I stumbled across this YouTube Channel which I think is an awesome concept.

There are only three videos on this new channel and their video from 3 days ago has crossed the 1,500,000 views mark, which is bananas!

The editing and packaging style reminds me of the 'The Entire History of [x], I Guess' series that always crushes on YouTube because of the 'low-quality' style.

I replied to a few people on my Twitter account about why I think this channel has taken off. You can read that here.

🎨 I Want To Design YOUR Thumbnails

I've created thumbnails for numerous well-known YouTube creators, including Bryan Johnson, Rian Doris, and Ali Abdaal. Now, I want to redesign YOUR thumbnails!

In a soon-to-be YouTube series, I'll be demonstrating to you how I approach thumbnail strategy and design improvement on my YouTube channel.

My First Million Podcast's Shaan has already DM'd me, requesting that I redo their thumbnails, so that will be the first episode I produce. However, I would really like to see more thumbnails from smaller channels who’re trying to increase clickthrough rates but don't know how to make their thumbnails better.

So, if you want to get some feedback, please fill out this form.

🎨 Thumbnail of the Week

The Thumbnail Vault is a collection of over 1,000 of the greatest YouTube thumbnails for inspiration to help you create clickable thumbnails.

This week, I added 15 new thumbnails to the library including the above thumbnail where I analysed exactly why they got clicks. If you want to check it out you can sign up here.

🎙️ Podcast I Released

Should You Start a Vlog in 2024? - As we’re at the bottom of the newsletter, I think it’s okay to shamelessly plug one of my videos!

In case you didn’t know, I have a podcast with George Blackman and Gwilym Sims-Williams which is a roundtable format where we share our experiences as YouTube producers, writers, thumbnail designers, and strategists working with some of the most exciting YouTube channels.

This week George, Gwilym, and I spoke about whether you should start a vlog in 2024 + whether to script your video or just turn up and riff on some bullet points.

You can watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Forwarded this message? Sign up here.

Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. I create videos on how I’m helping my clients get more views and make money on YouTube. Check out my channel.

2. Book a free 15-minute consulting call with me where I can give you some pointers on how to improve your YouTube Channel.

3. If you want to improve your thumbnails, I recommend you sign up for free at The Thumbnail Vault. It's a database of over 1,000 of the best thumbnails on YouTube for inspiration with breakdowns on why they got views.

4. Sponsor the newsletter - Get your message in front of 1,500 people!

Thanks for reading, if you want to reach out to me, just send a tweet to @WhiffenYT. Have a wonderful weekend!

Jamie