I'm not a fan of every youtuber having to make stupid reaction shots of themselves in the thumbnails.
yt has dozens of videos telling people how to make hit viral videos "for the algorithm"
most of them are full of shit but some basic items float to the surface
the thumbnail pic is critical, it has to contain a "shocked face", a red arrow pointing to something with a one-word caption (because ppl are morons with short attention spans), and or "weird or unusual imagery"
the video title has to be like a Daily Mail headline; short but descriptive and screamy, with choice words in all caps
the video has to be "at least 15 minutes long" for ENGAGEMENT and has to have spastic jump cuts, useless eye roasting video effects, and constant motion, embedded adverts have to be buried in the video at random places so people can't skip them easily (they do anyway)
all of this is marked "supposedly", because various shitheads have followed the "script" to the letter and still gotten very few followers. some bastards just have a magic twinkle that dumbfuck teenagers and college kids like--mr. beast being the most notorious and most widely copied.
and he's just copying similar "acts" like pewdiepie, mark rober, dudeperfect, veritasium, whistlin diesel, the vashketov "empire" and suchlike
its just like old-fashioned television, the basic concept never changes