Video Thumbnail Perfection... Metacafe Video SEO

[wHarKeiD]

i don't get it.

somebody help me!

[VideoLeadsOnline]

This video shows you that when uploading video to MetaCafe (not YouTube) you can stick still shots into a video and get the proper thumbnail to show up. Click on the links up there in the Description area (click more info) it will take you to some web pages that give you the details. Let me know if that helps enough. You can contact me via the website you visit via those links.

[KingdomVideosOnline]

nice hat...

[LATROOPERTV]

once I go to Metacafe & choose my thumbnail...how do I insert it on to my youtube page?

[VideoLeadsOnline]

You can't... this video shows that you can easily choose your thumbnail for MetaCafe, but not for YouTube. You may end up getting a good search result on Google for the MetaCafe video which might show the cool thumbnail you have chosen.

[SOULSEEKA]

...still no success, eh?

[VideoLeadsOnline]

The success is outside of YouTube, like in Metacafe (in this case) for choosing your thumbnail. But the technique for "adding" or "inserting" stills to get jut the right Thumbnail works in Yahoo, MotionBox, MySpace, etc. -- just not YouTube.

[Vernichtungslager666]

How does adding stills to get just the right thumbnail not work for YouTube?

How is the way I would get just the right thumbnail for a youtube video?

[VideoLeadsOnline]

YouTube seems to be trickier (new word?) than most of the other sites. The trick of adding a still shot for YouTube in "just the right place" works as expected but finding the right spot for YouTube videos seems to be a lot more difficult.

I've been able to do it on occasion, but I can't create a formula to do it on a regular basis yet. I'm still trying, so thanks for subscribing to my channel. Once I figure it out, I'll be sure to tell folks via a video on this channel.

[Vernichtungslager666]

This may seem kind of bizzare... but, Is it possible that YouTube has some way of 'knowing' that you are attempting to create an exact video still?

Like a short memory of a 'one' video you keep trying to get the thumbnail just right. They can see the one clip that you are moving around trying to get right, so their system 'flags' that clip so it never shows up for your video still..

[Vernichtungslager666]

..I am saying this because I have this one video (I gave up on creating the perfect thumbnail for it) and I've gotten just several frames away from my 'shot' being selected for the middle option thumbnail.

But it seems as if there is a pattern. like every time I move my 'selected clip' to a spot it usually chooses, it knows I moved it there and moves to a different spot.

I even gave in at once and put in the clip taking up 33 seconds of the video and it completely...

[Vernichtungslager666]

..made the 'chosen' thumbnail neary 35 seconds out of its usual area it chooses, as if it was avoiding my 33 second-long clip.

Sounds kinda like their systems can read our minds 0.0

tell me what u think.

[VideoLeadsOnline]

I know what you are saying... at times I thought YT was watching me, but I really don't think they can since there are so many videos being published all the time!

[VideoLeadsOnline]

I think it has some really nerdy stuff in it to keep it HARD to crack their system. Some of my ideas will take lots of time to test, and I'm not ready to invest all the time needed yet, nor the money I think I'll need in new/better video editing software to do it. I do have a plan to test, which I'll do soon, but no... I don't think they can read our minds, but I DO think they really thought out how to mess with our minds!

[Vernichtungslager666]

But do u think it's possible that they have a new system that can tell from each of the same video we upload that it's slightly different each time (they see the changes in each video of that same 'shot' that u keep moving around so they save that in their system so they avoid it from being chosen)

and that way they purposly avoid your thumbail that u keep trying to achieve.

If any of that made since to you what I said, can u tell me if that is a possibility?

[VideoLeadsOnline]

One thing I know for sure, if your video (that you insert your stills into) is a different length (even by just 1 frame) the positions for grabbing thumbnails will be extremely different.

Ex: if the video I made with the timer is 1 min, 30sec, 0 frames long and the position for the middle thumb is (hypothetically) 45 sec 10 frames, my final video (into which I insert still shots) must be the exact same length. If it is 1 frame longer the middle thumbnail might be pulled from 1 minute 15 sec!

[VideoLeadsOnline]

YTube makes a small difference in length equal a large difference in thumbnail position.

Hopefully that helps you understand why your tweaking just a little may mean YTube changes A LOT in where they grab their thumbnail from.

[Vernichtungslager666]

hmm. I get what you are saying.

I used Windows Movie Maker to make my video and I did make sure each one was Exactly the same length each time....unless windows movie maker isn't an accurate enough program to guarantee that?