wren230•7d agoProlific Poster

That $150 thumbnail masterclass that promised 10x click rates on YouTube

I dropped $150 on a course from some guy who claimed his thumbnails were pulling in half a million views per video. He showed screenshots of his analytics and everything, looked legit. The course was basically just him saying use bright colors, big arrows, and shocked faces on every thumbnail. I mean yeah that works sometimes but I could have figured that out from scrolling YouTube for 20 minutes. On the flip side I spent $40 on a cheap ebook about color theory for graphic design and that actually changed how I approach all my thumbnails now. Has anyone else paid for one of those expensive courses and felt totally ripped off or did you actually get something useful from it?

4 comments

4 Comments

fisher.thomas7d ago

Wait... you actually thought a $150 course would give you secret magic tricks and not just common sense stuff you see on every popular channel? The value in those expensive courses is usually the psychology behind why bright colors and shocked faces work, not just that they work... and most people skip that part because they're too focused on wanting a quick formula. I took a $200 thumbnail course and honestly it was worth it because the guy broke down the actual eye-tracking data and color contrast ratios, which is way more than any $40 ebook covers. You get out what you put in, man... if you just skimmed the course for bullet points you were never gonna get your money's worth anyway.

zara_sanchez6d ago

At least my $150 bought me a great selfie for the "shocked face" example. 😅 Still works.

olivia_white936d ago

The eye tracking stuff is exactly what made my $180 thumbnail course worth it too, i geeked out on that part for hours. Most people just want a cheat code but forget theres actual science behind what makes people click.

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spencer_gonzalez16d agoRising Star

Did you actually sit down and rewatch the eye tracking part a few times like the guy in the comments said? I paid $120 for a course that felt like a waste until I forced myself to take notes on that specific section and suddenly all the common sense stuff made way more sense. It was that deeper breakdown that finally made my thumbnails jump from 2% to 6% click rate after I started using the contrast ratios properly.