RSVP for our last 2012 YouTube Partner Meet-Ups

Registration is still open for our remaining 2012 YouTube partner meet-ups! We are excited to meet with more of the YouTube community and facilitate our partners mingling with each other. Each of these meetups will offer you a chance to meet your fellow partners, learn about program and product updates, and take your content creation and audience development techniques to the next level.

Details and registration forms are at these links:

• NYC meet-up Oct. 29: http://goo.gl/WSnWB
• Note: form closes Oct. 8
• Our schedule in NYC includes:
• Another episode of "Partner Support Talks with..." featuring ImprovEverywhere.
• Panels on audience development and Creator Playbook updates.
• Product updates and announcements.
• Opportunities to discuss channel optimization directly with Partner Support.
• LA meet-up Nov. 12: http://goo.gl/QG9aM
• Note: form closes Oct. 12
• Our schedule in LA includes:
• Presentations by well-known partners such as LisBug and RatedRR, who will discuss their experience with audience engagement, production/post-production, and Analytics.
• An episode of "Partner Support Talks with..." featuring OlgaKay.
• Product updates and announcements.
• Group critiques of sample videos and channels, and an opportunity to discuss optimization best practices.

Space is limited, so please take note of the date each form closes and RSVP soon! We'll be sending confirmation emails with details to those we can accommodate.

We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events!

Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “11 Month Old Twins Dancing to Daddy's Guitar.”

Our August featured “On The Rise” partner is thevfxbro!

Congratulations to Aaron of thevfxbro! As a result of strong fan support and recognizable efforts to optimize his channel and videos according to our best practices, Aaron is our featured “On The Rise” YouTube partner for August. His channel and four engaging videos are featured on the YouTube homepage today.

As a film student at Biola University, Aaron perfected his video editing skills and special effects knowledge while mastering programs like Final Cut and Adobe AfterEffects. This work was a natural fit for YouTube, and he’s found success by sharing his expertise with the YouTube world. The thevfxbro channel hosts such videos as the walkthrough of the video effects Aaron used in his “I Am Legend” spoof, his adorable “copy cat,” and how the “Hunt for Pikachu” video was created. Check out his library of video editing tutorials as well as behind-the-scenes footage explaining how Aaron - and his friend Zach from FinalCutKing - use special effects to create their videos.



Here are a few words from Aaron:

Wow! Having started film school 4 years ago I never thought that it would have ended with me running a YouTube channel with an audience that I not only get to share my videos with, but help along the way. The crazy thing about YouTube is that it’s so new and we have no idea where it’s going to take us. I am so excited to see where this platform takes us filmmakers. Feel free to check out my channel that has awesome videos with visual effects as well as training and tutorials to help you take your own videos to the next level! 

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Christine Wang and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Content Partnerships, recently watched “Bentley the Bulldog Puppy is fussy.”

Expanding custom thumbnails to more partners

Over the past few months, we’ve been testing the impact of custom thumbnails on viewer watch time and engagement. Today, we’re expanding access to custom thumbnails for more YouTube partners, and over time, we aim to make them available to all partners in good standing.

Why not just give custom thumbnails to everyone?

As we’ve mentioned before, we focus on watch time when suggesting videos because it improves overall audience engagement on YouTube, and opens up more revenue opportunities for you. We’ll continue to recommend videos whose thumbnails help drive viewers to actually watch them, over videos that are clicked and then quickly abandoned.

When custom thumbnails do not accurately reflect the content they represent, they can annoy and disappoint viewers. These videos perform poorly on watch time, so they will become less prominent on YouTube. We’re continuing to test how partners use this feature to see how they better drive viewership on YouTube.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be granting access in weekly batches to partners. Partners need to have been active for 30 days and in good standing. When you get access, you should only upload images that are representative of your video, ideally featuring prominent stills from your video. Thumbnails must comply with our Community Guidelines, so abuse of this feature can result in strikes against your account and account termination.

Displaying thumbnails that accurately and appealingly represent your content is the best way to ensure long-term growth for your channel.

Andy Stack, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched “Written By A Kid: Scary Smash.”