What I’ve Learned About Making Better YouTube Videos
Posted on August 4, 2026 by Aywren
Making videos was one of those things I said I’d never do. Until I suddenly created a YouTube channel.
As you’ll see throughout Blaugust, I’m going to be writing posts that feature the videos I’ve made over the past 2 months. These posts will be short since the video is the focus, but given the fact I spend hours writing, recording, and editing the videos, I think it’s fair enough to use them as Blaugust entries – just as long as I add some text to the video, of course.
Every time I sit down to work on a video, I feel like I’ve learned something new about a better way to approach video creation. Times have really changed. Gone are the days where you could toss out a video made in something like Windows Movie Maker with a slow-paced intro and title slides and cheesy text effects.
Nope. In this day in age, that does not fly on YouTube.
There were some things I knew about video making before starting, but there are just as many things that I’ve learned about YouTube now that I’m in the thick of things and have watched my own statistics for a few months. I want to share these here.
Packaging Matters
I already knew that folks do judge a video by its cover. Or in this case, the thumbnail image and title.
Your thumbnail and title have to draw attention to your video amongst a sea of other videos. But it also can’t overpromise something your video won’t deliver.
You likely only have one or two chances to get someone’s click, so putting a lot of thought and effort into the title and thumbnail is how you earn strong click-through rates on your videos. This is a statistic that YouTube measure for you, and may also factor into whether the algorithm shares your video – if it’s not getting any clicks, YouTube will share it less and less.
Also, it’s a good idea to be consistent with your thumbnail designs. You don’t want them all to look too samey, but you do want to build “brand recognition” with your thumbnails. Below is a sample of a few of my video thumbnails – I may change some things up, but I use the same FFXIV character, and similar styles of outlining and sometimes even the same fonts.
Your First 10 Seconds Are Crucial
I had no idea that folks on YouTube were so impatient. Maybe because I’m not – I’ll settle into a video for the long haul, and usually watch something all the way through unless I’m really not vibing with the message or something else in the video annoys me.
Apparently, my watching habits do not match the majority of folks out there. If you don’t have a strong hook at the beginning – a promise that your video is worth someone’s time – then chances are, you’re going to lose viewers who stop watching in the first 10 seconds.
I was struck by this fact, but YouTube’s statistics heavily focus on viewer retention, especially in the first 10-30 seconds. It’s something that I still work on in every video as I tend to be the type of person who likes to craft an introduction. I’ve learned cutting to the hook and the first point of my video is far more important than gentle pacing, though.
Chapters Are Important
Along with this, I’ve learned that breaking my videos into smaller parts – similar to creating subtitles for a blog post like this – goes a long way towards keeping viewers.
Building chapters into a video to segment it shows visible jumps on engagement graphs. Here’s what I mean.
You can see a steady decline in viewers over the video, which is normal. But the spots where the viewership pops up, along those dotted lines, is where I’ve added chapter breaks to the video to indicate a new section.
This means that people are using those timestamps to hop between the sections, likely to browse the content and see if that topic is something they’re interested in.
Without the chapters, I feel like there would be just a general decline into nothingness.
Obvious Outros Are a Struggle
One thing I still have trouble with is the outro section of my videos. Once people realize the bulk of the content is over, they click away, leaving that tail end to straggle in viewership. So, you want to somehow bring things to a close without being overly obvious that it’s ending.
Either that, or find a way to leave something at the end of the video that people hang on to see. I haven’t quite pinned down what that should be for my videos yet, but it’s something I’m aware that I eventually need to do.
Don’t Fret Over Your Stats
While it’s so tempting to sit and refresh the channel dashboard to keep an eye on the stats of a new video, it’s not worth it. Especially in the first couple of days.
I’ve found that most of my videos don’t really start pulling in views until a day or even two days after I post it. I’m not sure if it takes YouTube that much time to start casting it out into the algorithm, and I’m not sure if that’s the same for larger channels as mine is still very small.
Some videos do much better than others, however. That’s a truth that I think every YouTube creator learns really quickly. All you can focus on is making the best video on the topic as you can. Once you put it out there, there’s not a whole lot more you can do about it aside learn from the experience what does and doesn’t work.
Sure, I guess you can tweak the title and description some, and even upload a new thumbnail once the video is out there. I’ve seen other YouTubers do this, I’m guessing because the video wasn’t gaining the traction they expected it to. I’ve done this once or twice, but I’m not sure how much it really helped in the end, so I haven’t tweaked most of mine once they’ve gone up.
YouTube’s AI Helper is Hit or Miss
Under your newest video, you will see a button called “Catch me up on this video.” When you click it, YouTube’s AI will analyze your video stats, the content of comments, and more. I’m surprised at how thorough and specific it is – which is both good and bad.
For my Tankiety video, in the very first hours, I got feedback such as this:
I usually don’t like to use AI, but as a completely new creator who is looking for tips, this gave me feedback and made me think about what I could do to make my next videos better. It does do a good job at guiding you through elements such as the drop-off in the first 30 seconds, whether your click-through rate is good in comparison to your other videos – basically, what’s working well and what could be improved upon.
However, I find that it also contradicts itself sometimes, even in the same instance of usage. It’ll tell you something is good about your video, but then suggest that you improve on that very thing later. Go figure.
Basically, if you pay any mind the AI helper, pick and choose the advice you take. Some of it’s helpful for a beginner like me, some of it not so much.
Posting Consistency
In my research, I’ve found varying information on consistency and how often to post videos as a small channel. Some folks say it doesn’t matter – you could churn out a video every day and it may or may not move the needle. Some folks say consistency is important.
I, myself, chose to dedicate myself to a video a week so far. This is because I want to pace myself around other projects I already put time into, and I don’t want to oversaturate my channel with too much content in the beginning.
I do have a list of video topics I’ve written down, mostly based on ideas I’ve gleaned from comments and conversations with folks on my channel. But these topics require thought and approach to each, and they’re not infinite in number.
So, a video a week is what I chose to do, and it seems to be working pretty well for me. Nothing I’ve done has gone viral or anything, but I am seeing a steady growth in terms of subscribers and views week by week. Each video I release brings in more viewers, so that’s a good sign.
Would I like to eventually monetize my channel? Well, money isn’t the major factor here, but it would be nice to have some kind of income stream from my creative projects. So, yes, eventually. But that’s going to be a long time coming based on these requirements!
Still, knowing that my videos have reached thousands of people is somewhat a humbling thought. While the number of likes, comments, and follows I get are a fraction of the visits, that’s okay, too. I know that I focus on a slightly niche concept within the FFXIV community, and that’s just par for the course.
The most important thing to me is to build community, to encourage others, and hopefully offer them help that will improve their enjoyment of the game that I’ve loved for over the past decade and some.