20:07moneymaxxing · Essay
Why Retention Is Bullshit — It's the Packaging
A YouTuber walks through six outlier videos from small channels to argue that packaging, not the algorithm, decides who gets views.
August 30thThe argument in one line.
A viral thumbnail and title only works inside its context, so copy the format that transfers across niches, not the exact package that worked for someone with a different audience.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A small YouTuber who bookmarks outlier thumbnails and titles and copies them, but keeps getting a fraction of the original views.
- A creator in a niche like digital products or business who wants to borrow packaging formats from gaming or other unrelated niches.
- Someone choosing titles and thumbnails who wants a test for whether a borrowed package makes sense for their own topic.
SKIP IF…
- You already run a large channel with a loyal audience that clicks on anything you post.
- You want a full thumbnail design tutorial. This covers packaging strategy, not design technique.
The full version, fast.
Copying a viral thumbnail and title does not guarantee views. The presenter compares a 561K-subscriber channel's 220K-view video with a near-identical package from a 67K-subscriber channel that got 1.4K. The gap comes from audience size and context: the word 'wake up' fits AI, a topic everyone follows, far better than digital products. His rule is to understand why a package worked for that creator before borrowing it, and to borrow formats from unrelated niches only when the words and image still make sense together. He demos 1of10's trending formats and thumbnail winners as a way to find such formats, and suggests adding missing context to under-performing but well-titled videos.
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00:00 – 01:00
01 · Credentials and the claim
Presenter lists his three channels and introduces the rule about stealing like an artist.
01:00 – 03:10
02 · The 220K vs 1.4K example
Two videos with the same thumbnail style and title produce wildly different views.
03:10 – 06:10
03 · Audience size and viewership
Compares 561K subscribers with consistent views against 67K subscribers with 1-3K views.
06:10 – 09:20
04 · Why context matters
'Wake up' fits AI more than digital products; title, image, and context must make sense together.
09:20 – 10:30
05 · Gaming thumbnail transfer test
The 3DS revival thumbnail does not suit digital products, but an Xbox 360 version would.
10:30 – 12:15
06 · 1of10 trending formats
Sponsored demo of trending formats and thumbnail winners for finding transferable formats.
12:15 – 14:43
07 · Fixing an under-performing title
Adds missing context to a good headline and closes with the rule to understand why a package worked.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Two videos with the same thumbnail and headline got 220K and 1.4K views, so the package alone does not decide the result.
- A channel with 67K subscribers can still average only 1,000 to 2,000 views, so subscriber count says little about consistent viewership.
- The word 'wake up' lands harder on a topic everyone follows, like AI, than on a niche one like digital products.
- Title, image, and the context of the two combined all have to make sense, or the homepage viewer scrolls past.
- A gaming thumbnail like '3DS was just revived' will not transfer to business, but the same format with 'Xbox 360 was just revived' would.
- The transferable unit is the format, such as 'The [Adjective] [Thing] in [Thing]', not the exact words or image.
- A great title with a thin thumbnail can underperform; adding dramatic context to the image may fix it.
- Before copying any outlier, ask why it worked for that specific creator, then judge whether it works for your niche.
Copy the format, not the package
WHAT TO LEARN
A viral title and thumbnail succeeds because of its audience and context, so borrow transferable formats and check that the words and image still make sense for your niche.
- Identical packaging can produce 220K views on one channel and 1.4K on another, so a single outlier proves little about what you should copy.
- Subscriber count is a weak signal; compare a channel's typical recent views to see how much of its audience actually shows up.
- A single word like 'wake up' carries different weight depending on how widely the topic is followed, so test the emotional fit for your subject.
- Title, image, and the two together must read as coherent to someone scrolling the homepage, or the click never happens.
- Formats such as 'The [Adjective] [Thing] in [Thing]' transfer between niches because they are structures, not topics.
- A strong headline on an under-performing video can be a good candidate to reuse once you add the missing visual context.
Terms worth knowing.
- Outlier
- A video that gets far more views than its channel's usual average, used as evidence that its topic or packaging is worth studying.
- Packaging
- The title and thumbnail of a video taken together, which decide whether someone clicks on it.
- Stealing like an artist
- Borrowing the structure of something that worked and reworking it for your own context, rather than copying it exactly.
- 1of10
- A YouTube research tool for finding outlier videos, trending title formats, and thumbnail winners. The presenter says it sponsored the video.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
09:00
“The imagery needs to make sense. The text needs to make sense. The context between the two combined needs to make sense.”
14:00
“Don't just copy everything you see that gets a bunch of views. Find out the reason why it got views.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
Yo, what's going on gentlemen? If you don't know me, I am a random ass dude that runs three YouTube channels that have gained millions of views. So this one channel called Cool Indie Games has 2 million views in the past 365 days.
I've made a chill $6 ,300 in ad revenue on this channel. This YouTube channel here, Tragically Chill, has gained over 419 ,000 views in 365 days with 6 ,000 subscribers. And funny enough, I run a school community called Chill Money University, which makes me six grand USD per month.
And basically, I promoted this school community with this very small YouTube channel. And now I am a top 10 % earner on school. And last but not least, the channel that you are watching right now, which is called Money Maxing, which has 25 ,000 subscribers, all about YouTube growth.
important concept when it comes to stealing like an artist and using outliers from different niches and putting them in your own videos. You probably heard me say this time and time again. Go find thumbnails that have done really well with other people.
Like, for example, here's my bookmark on one of ten. This video that I really liked. this video that I really liked, et cetera, et cetera.
And I tell you guys to just take things that's worked for other people, for other small channels and use them in your own content. And there's an easy thumbnail and title for you that can potentially get thousands of views. The problem with this being is that a lot of people use this the wrong way.
And I have an example for you now. Before I get into this, this is in no way like me harping on anyone. Like this is not me harping on Aston CEO.
I believe this is what his YouTube channel is. I just thought this was a good example of when stealing like an artist doesn't work. And there's a few variables as to why this happened.
But as you can see, this video here by Nick Sarave, he is in the AI niche, has gotten 200. 20 ,000 views with this thumbnail here. And the title is how to survive the next two years of AI.
Now, uh, my guy asked him to CEO use the same exact thumbnail style, the same exact headline, uh, and the same exact title, which, um, I have done before and it's worked for me very, very well, but. as you can see here his video got 1 .4 thousand views although this video was uploaded a day ago but yet again this video was uploaded three days ago and has 220 000 views why did this happen and what can we learn from this and why is this important to know well number one i think this is personally one of the most important videos that you can watch when it comes to uh stealing like an artist in terms of packaging for youtube videos and this is something that i've found over just like pretty much years of trial and error and years of just copying other thumbnails and seeing what works and what doesn't work.
But with this being said, there's a few reasons why this thumbnail worked and this thumbnail didn't work. I'm going to go through them and then I'll just tell you like my consensus slash like my thoughts on why this video didn't get as many views as possible. So if we scroll down, we'll look at Nick Saray's channel.
For example, he's got 561. thousand subscribers. He has half a million people that have subscribed to him that watch his videos.
His videos also get Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of views. This one has 60K views.
This one has 46K views. This one has 54K views. This one has 102 ,000 views four freaking days ago.
This one has 220 ,000 views three days ago. This one has 103 ,000 views three days ago. This guy gets millions and millions and millions of views.
He makes a shit ton of money on school .com. He also runs a school community. He makes a bunch of freaking money.
And basically what I'm trying to say is he has a lot of money. money resources and people that watch his content and a lot of traffic uh going towards his thing people just freaking know him okay people really do know this guy and uh watches his stuff like religiously now let's go to aston ceo this guy has 67 000 subscribers which is a very respectable amount of people uh that watches stuff he is by no means a small youtuber but if we look at the views of his stuff uh this video was an hour ago so we're not going to count this this video was 23 hours ago which has 506 views this one has 1 .4k which is the one we're thinking of or sasha talking about in today's video this has 1 .4k this has 3 .8k this has 2k views so even though he has 67 000 subscribers He doesn't get as many views as a guy like Nick Sarayev.
He gets a, you know, like 1 to 3 ,000 views, let's say, on average. Maybe this is me not looking at his stuff more, but in his latest videos, let's just say on average he gets 1 ,000 views, 2 ,000 views, something like that. With this being said, if we go back to this thumbnail slash title style, this format, if you will.
will understand two things. Number one, Nick's rave is fucking popular. He has a lot of people watching his stuff, and he already has a huge fan base.
But when we look at a guy like Aston's CEO, yes, he has a lot of subscribers, but he doesn't have a lot of consistent viewership. That being said, this thumbnail and title personally is very ambiguous, but the reason why it works for Nick is like, A, he has a huge audience, but b when we look at the context behind this thumbnail if we look at the title here as well how to survive the next two years of ai and then you see this headline wake up i feel like the context of wake up matters a lot more with ai versus digital products here's the reason why i think digital products is one of those things where there's not a lot of like um ingenuity.
Like there's not a lot of new stuff coming out with digital products. A digital product is like a fucking course, a PDF, whatever the case may be. But AI is constantly evolving and it's something that's just getting better and better and better.
And it's a tool that everyone uses. Not everyone knows what digital products are, but a lot of people know what AI is. Pretty much everyone in the fucking world knows what AI is.
is that's why i think this video got 220 000 views and this video got 1 .4 000 views not only that nick has like a ton of subscribers and a ton of audience but the context of wake up and ai makes a lot more sense than wake up with digital products, right? So that's why I feel like this video got a lot of views and this video didn't get that many views.
Now, why am I telling you this and why is this important for you to understand? The reason being is because you need to understand the context of a thumbnail and title to understand. what your thumbnail and title should actually be.
So if you're taking from someone, if you're going to steal like this thumbnail slash title or not steal, but like use as inspiration and like use this in a completely different niche, it needs to make sense in your completely different niche to use this thumbnail and title. You see, not all videos that explode are. videos that you can just straight up copy and steal and use for your own niche.
The context doesn't work with specific thumbnails and titles. The imagery needs to make sense. The text needs to make sense.
The context between the two combined needs to make sense. And this is something that not a lot of people will talk about and not a lot of people will think about as well. So the reason why I'm making this video is to say, be careful.
Be careful when stealing like an artist, because sometimes you just won't make sense when when your audience goes on the homepage and scrolls around and frickin find something like let's just say like, for example, actually, this is a really good example. This thumbnail right here, the 3DS was just revived. This wouldn't make sense if we were in the digital product niche, right?
It wouldn't make sense to use this thumbnail slash title, even though it got 730 ,000 views with only 5 .4K subscribers. It wouldn't make sense to steal this thumbnail and title and use it for the digital product niche just because what do you mean if we rename this title to digital products were just revived? Like it doesn't necessarily make sense.
It kind of makes a little bit of sense, but you get what I'm saying. Like it doesn't make sense to use this gaming thumbnail with this business idea, but. what does make sense for us to do is if we made a video on like the xbox 360 for example if we replace this title with the xbox 360 was just revived and use this exact same thumbnail title style it would probably get a lot of views just because it makes sense with the context of the title and the thumbnail combined what i'm trying to say is that there's a bunch of variables when it comes to why a certain packaging style works in the first place for specific niches, for specific topics, for specific people.
And that's what I want to explain. And I just want to say, be careful when stealing like an artist, because sometimes you can end up not making sense to your audience. That being said.
There is something very interesting on one of 10 that I want to show you that I briefly mentioned in the past video that I want to talk about. And I want to say this video is fucking sponsored by one of 10 because I love one of 10 and I've been using them for years. So shout out one of 10 for freaking literally like just giving me the tool for free and giving me the opportunity to talk about their platform with my YouTube channel.
I wouldn't recommend some shit that I don't like. I love one of 10. So hear me the fuck out.
This is something in one of 10 that I find really interesting. Obviously. You can find outliers on one of 10.
We all know this. And in my personal experience, this is the best way to find outliers on YouTube. But one thing I want to talk about, and by the way, this is a really good thumbnail title.
Even though it didn't get that many views, I would use this thumbnail title. Just saying here, that's some free sauce right there. But the one thing I want to talk about is.
the analyze feature here obviously there's the video editor there's a thumbnail generator the video editor is really good by the way i would highly recommend using the video editor you can add apps to your one of ten but the one thing i want to talk about today is the trending formats section because this basically just um leans into what we were talking about today when it comes to packaging the one thing i really like about one of ten and this is like a semi -new tool slash feature is that you can find trending formats.
So like obviously right here, I tested everything in topic and you can see there's a bunch of different thumbnails and a bunch of different niches. But there was one that I found here. Yeah, this is the one that I was looking at that I really like the insert adjective slash thing in thing.
And for example, this one, the weirdest items in classic Fallout, the weirdest records in NBA history. And we could see other ones here and we can also see the views, et cetera, or the biggest lie about topic or this one, which I really like 100 most adjective slash thing.
And this is this works really well in the gaming niche. But anyways, what I'm trying to say is that you can find a bunch of outliers and a bunch of formats that have been performing really well for a completely different niches and find one that suits your niche that is found in a another completely different niche. The other thing that I like is the thumbnail winners.
You can see what thumbnails people are using. that have gained a lot of views and you can see the thumbnail changes that basically got them a shit ton of views after the change. That being said, the biggest thing I want to talk about in today's video is just the fact that you can't steal anyone's thumbnail slash title.
You need to understand the context behind the thumbnail and title and the reason why that specific thumbnail and title worked for said specific person. Now. Last thing I want to talk about is this video right here that I said was a good thumbnail slash title.
This right here got 3 .2K views, but this guy has 28 .9K subscribers. You're too nice for a great relationship. It's a really good title.
It's a really good headline. but this video didn't really get that many views why is that i feel like there's missing context behind this title that could have been added in the thumbnail now one thing i feel like that could have made this thumbnail a lot better is maybe some sort of like screenshot text here or some sort of like image of maybe his like past relationship or some mistake that he made or something that like is dramatic something on this side and something on this side could have been added or maybe even the scenery like if he was in like a dingy basement and he looked sad or like depressed maybe it would have worked better um with this title and maybe this thumbnail would have gotten a bunch of views just some food for thought just some uh you know like how do i say conspiracies maybe maybe some uh just some thoughts some thought experiments that i want to give you but what i'm trying to say is sometimes you can kind of pick things that don't get that many views, but you can find a thumbnail that has some potential that you can add to your own niche and maybe add some context behind the thumbnail.
And maybe you could make a video with the same format that gets a ton more views. So that's all I wanted to talk about. All I wanted to talk about was just there is context behind thumbnails and titles that have worked for a said specific person.
And then there's context that adds up. that doesn't work for other creators so what i'm trying to say is don't just copy everything you see that gets a bunch of views find out the reason why it got views and make the judgment would this work for my niche if not then let me find something else to use let me make another thumbnail and title let me come up with something completely different that's all if you like this have a great day and subscribe and also check out one of ten anyways see you later peace
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Same thumbnail, same headline, same layout. One video got 220,000 views and the copy got 1,400. This is the creator's explanation of why borrowing outliers goes wrong.
Named ideas worth stealing.
09:00model
Context test for borrowed packaging
- Why did it work for that creator
- Does the audience size match
- Do the words make sense for my niche
- Do the image and text make sense together
Before copying a viral thumbnail and title, check whether the creator's audience, topic, and image-text pairing explain the result and whether they carry over to your niche.
Steal forchoosing titles and thumbnails
10:40concept
The [Adjective] [Thing] in [Thing]
A trending title format that works across niches, for example the weirdest items in classic Fallout or the weirdest records in NBA history.
Steal forvideo titles
How they asked for the click.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
Visual structure at a glance.
