Hit 500 rejected thumbnail drafts in one month, here's what that told me

I was tracking my YouTube uploads for a niche channel and noticed I had a folder of 500 unused thumbnail concepts sitting there, way more than the 12 videos I actually posted. Sorting through them showed most of the flops were trying to be clever instead of just showing the actual thing people clicked for, like a price tag or a face. Anyone else keep a graveyard of unused thumbnails and mine it for patterns, or is this just my hoarder instinct kicking in?

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sammartinez1mo ago

My rejection folder hit 600 last week and honestly I treat it like a museum of my worst ideas. There's one of a cat holding a calculator for a finance video that I still dont get. But yeah I mined mine too and found out 80% of the flops were trying way too hard to be funny instead of just showing the thumbnail subject clearly. The good ones were boring as hell, just a big arrow and a face. So now I just make the plain version first and only get fancy if it bombs.

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