Good morning. In the rollout of her new album this week, Taylor Swift revealed she’s doing a Shorts challenge…Shorts. Not TikTok. Taylor doesn’t do anything on a whim so I’m wondering—how did Shorts manage to win Taylor? Sound off in the replies.

–Hannah Doyle

How Much Should Thumbnail Designers Get Paid?

Every burgeoning industry has its growing pains. For the creator economy, those growing pains are manifesting in a heated debate over setting rates. 

Why now: Last week, FaZe Sway posted a (now deleted) tweet announcing a thumbnail design contest with a top prize of $50 for the winning designer. He was subsequently ratioed, with a barrage of replies criticizing the $50 jackpot as way too small.

The reasoning? “I think anyone who is obsessed with YouTube, pays taxes, and carefully crafts unique imagery based on the clients’ needs using legally obtained assets has got to be charging at least $125 per thumbnail,” full-time thumbnail designer Jonathan Sippel told us. “It will go up from there.” 

Big picture: In most creative fields, the question of compensation is a loaded one. Consider traditional media—some freelancers make 50 cents per word, while others command no less than $5,000 per article. That disparity is part of why journalism went through a pay reckoning in 2019 that saw salaries anonymously shared via Google Doc—a resource used to inform future salary negotiations. 

On YouTube, compensation is even more complex: The platform and its governing algorithms are constantly changing, and adding on “must be able to hit a moving target” to a creative’s job description further complicates compensation structures.

But there’s an upside: Whether FaZe Sway deleting his tweet was an act of repentance, regret, or something else entirely, the gesture sparked a conversation about the regular undervaluing of the work done by thumbnail designers. As the saying goes, acceptance is the first step toward a fairer compensation paradigm.

Our Take

The creator industry is still in its early days—we’re making history, and systems, as we go. A step toward professionalism is making conversations on taboo topics (like pay and work structure) accessible—and holding poor standards to account when necessary. 

For more intel on what to look for in a thumbnail designer or if you’re just curious about what it takes—check out Sippel’s tips at the end of this newsletter. 👇

YouTube's Community Guidelines Crack Down on Creators

Within a couple days last week, Caitlin Doughty of Ask a Mortician and Luke Korns each posted buzzy videos about one of their uploads getting taken down for violating community guidelines—each highlighting an all too familiar cycle for creators of all sizes.

How violations work: YouTube uses a mix of algorithms and people to flag content they deem as violence, pornography, harrasment, or hate speech. Each video removed for violating community guidelines is a “strike,” and a channel is terminated if it accrues three strikes in 90 days.

By the numbers:

• Over 500 hours of content are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

• From April to June of this year, over 4 million videos were removed for violating community guidelines. 

• Of the 4+ million videos removed, less than 300,000 were flagged by a user—meaning most were removed by automated flags.

It seems the court of YouTube content violations is imperfect. YouTube’s overwhelmingly automated censorship considers creators guilty until they prove themselves innocent, which can be impossible for smaller creators or less frequent uploaders who lack the direct access to YouTube liaisons their larger counterparts enjoy.

Our Take

YouTube is a distributor like Hulu or Netflix, which means when they take a video down, a creator’s visibility goes down with it. Instances like these with Ask a Mortician and Luke Korns reveal that for creators whose livelihoods are in the hands of algorithms, the best bet is to mitigate risk by choosing multiple distributors—putting your content everywhere you can and building a community that amplifies your videos even when the algorithm doesn't.

Sponsored by Stir

It's Time To Get Credit

Everyone deserves credit. Every great creator has a great teammate who’s right behind them helping to tell their stories. Whether you're a savvy veteran or just starting out, it’s hard to communicate everything you’ve worked on and the role you played—and make that discoverable to others in the industry.

Introducing Credits from Stir: Credits helps editors, thumbnail designers, producers and more get verified credit for the work they’ve contributed to on YouTube.

Here’s how it works:

1. Enter the link(s) to videos you’ve worked on

2. Select the role

3. Get verified ✅

Once you’ve verified your work, share your profile to find your next project and connect with new collaborators and creators.

Go here to get started yourself or book time with the Stir team and they’ll walk you through setting up your first Credit.

TikTok's Trainspotter Gets a YouTube Series

Enthusiastic fish-eye lens user and Gucci model Francis Bourgeois is going full-steam ahead toward YouTube in a partnership with British public television network Channel 4’s YouTube.

In the five-part series, appropriately titled Trainspotting with Francis Bourgeois, he’ll show celebrities like rapper AJ Tracey and Love Island contestant Chloe Burrows the ins and outs of his passion for trains. It premieres tomorrow. 

Our Take

Unbridled enthusiasm is infectious—and it’s part of the reason Bourgeois is attracting so much widespread collaboration. For Bourgeois, this show could be a test to see if his TikTok charm translates to longer-form videos.

👀 Creator Moves

• Danny Duncan is looking for a producer for his YouTube channel to help post once a week.

• Coinsider is hiring a YouTube script writer who can analyze retention data. Pays $40–50/hr.

• OmarGoshTV is looking for a full-time thumbnail designer/graphic artist. Pays *cough* above $50 per project.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Ludwig launches a bidet brand called Swipe.

• Kai Cenat becomes the top streamer on Twitch.

• Condiment Claire is co-hosting a network food show.

• PRIME plans to expand its line of products and launch in India, UAE, and South Africa.

• Yes Theory premieres Project Iceman.

• Tinx launches fall merch.

What makes a Strong Thumbnail Designer?

 Jonathan Sippel, aka Thumbnail Guy, shares what factors to look for.

Concept ideation 

“Everybody knows how hard concept creation and storytelling can be in a video, but creating emotion or intrigue in a tiny little box (the thumbnail) is another challenge entirely,” Sippel said. “YouTubers need to find a thumbnail designer who doesn’t experience writer's block and can brainstorm on queue.” 

Asset ethics 

“I know many thumbnail artists will take pictures off Google Image search and put together whatever they find first. Similar to what Samir was saying on Creator Support, not all content is free to use without permission, professionally or morally,” Sippel said. “I either use images from my own archive or purchase via stock websites, etc. I will usually include stock prices in my cost.”

Comfort with creative criticism 

“Every client hopes their designer will hit the perfect execution the first time through, but realistically every project needs revisions. You want to hire a designer who will accept your criticism and achieve your goals with little friction.”

Analytical effectiveness 

“If their work isn’t boosting their clients’ channel stats, then maybe they aren’t quite ready to charge the higher prices. A great thumbnail won’t make a poorly executed video win, but the right pair up can work wonders.”