I don't see many post Talking about this, and it's VERY important.

If you feel lost with your content and don't know what to do in general, Use Gemini, the Google IA, but use it as a tool, don't use it to make IA slop because it doesn't work and nobody likes it.

I will explain: Gemini KNOWS the algorithm, they "work" for the same company after all, and it has very good points everytime you ask it about something, I'm not gonna say everything Gemini says it's the truth, but I will explain my experience:

Shorts: Gemini suggested that I linked my long form videos into shorts, I immediately said what we all "Know" about it: "it won't work because the audience from shorts it's different and it will destroy your long form retention", but apparently that was before, Gemini told me that was long gone because the algorithm was updated, now it takes into account ONLY when said person is interested enough to click on the video linked, but if said person clicks and leaves it won't ruin your stats because YouTube now understands that it's two different stream of audiences. I tried it and it's true, it doesn't ruin at all your retention.

Thumbnails: I was having trouble with my thumbnails and asked what's the trend or what works now, my thumbnail wasn't bad but I had a 5,5% CTR, Gemini told me a few ideas (I already had a bit of understanding of thumbnails but I was a little lost), the ideas Gemini gave me was to use max 3 characters on the image, and give the one in the middle a shocked face, I implemented it, CTR went from 5,5 to 8,7% and the video is slowly getting more and more views, sadly, I changed it a few days before upload so the initial momentum died down.

This is the thumbnail: https://imgur.com/a/ylUfC3Q

Finally, Gemini can actually WATCH AND REVIEW your video, if you gave her a link to the video she can watch it and answer all of your questions, for example, YouTube HEAVILY shadowbanned a short I made (I talk disturbing videogames), Gemini told me why, I fixed it and re-uploaded and now said video in on 12k views in one day, it can also help on retention, etc.

Don't be so hateful on IA guys, it's a tool, like how you would use a calculator, the key is to use it for guidance rather than doing all the job and producing slop that doesn't even work, every help is needed and if this tool knows a bit more than us about the weird YouTube algorithm, we have to pay attention, good luck to you all!

TLDR: none, read it, fight the TikTok brain.