YouTube announced this week the rollout of “Thumbnail Test & Compare,” a new tool for creators to see which thumbnail performs the best.
When creators publish a new video (or update an existing video), they can test up to three thumbnails, which will be shown “evenly” across viewers, the company explained in a post.
YouTube encourages testing thumbnails with distinct differences, such as variations in layout compositions, backgrounds, and text overlays, to ensure a comprehensive test.
Creators can test thumbnails on a variety of content, including regular videos, podcast episodes, archived livestreams, and public long-form content.
Over the coming weeks, Thumbnail Test & Compare will become available in YouTube Studio on desktop to all creators with access to advanced features.
Animating a 3D character from scratch is generally both laborious and expensive, requiring the use of complex software and motion capture tools.
Cartwheel wants to make basic animations as simple as describing them, generating a basic movement with AI and letting creators focus on more expressive tasks.
There’s a lot of value in just quickly getting it out of your head and moving.
“There’s this notion of AI replacing creative work, and as someone who does creative work, it’s like… no!
This leads to more animation, more motion, one person doing more,” said Jarvis.
Once a Kickstarter campaign is complete, you need to turn to a creator’s own page to pre-order the products — that is, until now.
Which, of course, it will do for Late Pledges as well.
A spokesperson for Kickstarter assures us that Late Pledges is seamlessly integrated within the Kickstarter platform, ensuring a smooth and efficient experience for all users.
That makes Late Pledges an excellent way to leverage the momentum from successful campaigns.
Despite potential challenges, Late Pledges offers substantial benefits to Kickstarter creators.
If you haven’t been seeing much political content on Instagram lately, there’s a reason for that.
Since March, Instagram and Threads have instituted a new default setting that limits political content you see from people you’re not following.
Hundreds of creators, convened by GLAAD and Accountable Tech, have signed an open letter demanding that Instagram make the political content limit an opt-in feature, rather than on by default.
Instagram’s definition of political content leaves a lot of room for interpretation, which stokes further concern among these creators.
“Removing political recommendations as a default setting, and consequently stopping people from seeing suggested political content poses a serious threat to political engagement, education, and activism,” the letter says.
Bot creators now have a new way to make money with Poe, the Quora-owned AI chatbot platform.
The addition follows an earlier October 2023 of a revenue-sharing program that would give bot creators a cut of the earnings when their users subscribed to Poe’s premium product.
Today we’re introducing a new way for model developers and bot creators to generate revenue on @poe_platform: price per message!
The offering is currently available to U.S. bot creators only but will expand globally in the future.
Alongside the per-message revenue model, Poe also launched an enhanced analytics dashboard that displays average earnings for creators’ bots across paywalls, subscriptions, and messages.
YouTube announced on Tuesday that it’s launching new Shopping features that allow creators to curate shoppable collections, better plan their shoppable videos, quickly monetize older videos and more.
The launch of the new features come as TikTok Shop is seeking to take on YouTube Shopping and other competitors in the space.
TikTok is reportedly aiming to grow the size of its TikTok Shop U.S. business tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion this year.
YouTube is launching “Shopping Collections” to allow creators to curate products from their favorite brands for users to browse through.
By allowing users to connect their Fourthwall shop, YouTube is making it easier for users to create and manage their content directly in YouTube Studio.
Five months ago, Rooms, a 3D design platform made by ex-Google employees, launched its beta version on the App Store.
Rooms is an interior decorating app that falls under the cozy game category.
Players can build and code intricate 3D rooms and mini-games using a library of over 7,500 digital items.
The majority of the updates are on the iOS app, but Rooms is adding the new categories and speed improvements to its web version.
However, in the future, Rooms may offer a premium subscription offering but the company is waiting until the app gets more traction.
Agnes Kozera and David Kierzkowski, the co-founders of podcast sponsorship marketplace Podcorn, today launched their newest app—Storiaverse, a short-form entertainment platform that offers a multi-format reading experience, combining animated video and written content.
Available on iOS and Android devices, Storiaverse caters to graphic novel readers and adult animation fans who want to discover original stories in a short-form, animated format.
At launch, Storiaverse offers 25 original titles spanning genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and comedy.
Additionally, TikTok star and independent animator King Science (Science Akbar) is teaming up to create an exclusive story on the app.
There are currently over 100 creators working with Storiaverse and more than 100 stories in development.
YouTube is launching a version of Shorts that’s only for members, allowing creators to share short-form videos exclusively with their paying viewers.
The new feature gives paying subscribers access to additional content, on top of their current membership perks, which include things like custom emojis, badges, livestreams and more.
YouTube says creators can use the new option to share a special announcement, product drop or limited-time deal.
The expansion means regular creators will be able to post exclusive videos that only paying subscribers can view.
The exclusive content will be displayed with a star icon, indicating that it’s only available to paying subscribers.
With TikTok potentially poised for a U.S. ban, YouTube is touting how well its own TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, is paying off for creators.
TikTok’s year-old fund, which replaced TikTok’s $1 billion Creator Fund, is now exiting beta.
YouTube first introduced monetization options for Shorts creators in September 2022, with its plans for expanding the YouTube Partner Progam (YPP).
But starting in early 2023, Shorts creators could meet a new threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days.
What’s more, YouTube notes that creators participating in the partner program for Shorts often monetize in other ways, as well.
