Examining the Path to YouTube Stardom

Actor Jamie Kennedy's recent parody "How To Blow Up on YouTube" recomended mixing Mentos with Diet Coke, playing with cats, singing into the camera or pairing yourself with a teenage girl.

CAPTURING EYEBALLS

Once you've uploaded your video and tagged it with relevant subjects, your work has just begun. Some people may stumble on your video and maybe your friends will share it with others, but you've got to create your audience just as you created your video.

"One of the things that we always recommend is to build a YouTube channel and be an active part of the community," says Aaron Ferstman, a spokesman for YouTube. "It's really about producing creative content, contributing it, getting comments and just participating with other people."

Francis Stokes, a 34-year-old independent filmmaker, spent years at film festivals with his movie "Harold Buttleman, Daredevil Stuntman." Now his "God, Inc." series on YouTube has brought fame and industry notice in a matter of weeks.

The first episode of "God, Inc.," which presents heaven as an office, has received nearly one million views since being added in early December _ but it didn't happen overnight.

"I uploaded the video thinking, `Oh, people will find it.' And then after a while, I started getting to know YouTube and getting to know who was popular, so I sent out some e-mails and made some comments," he said.

To infuse yourself into the community, you can post video responses and comments to the videos of popular YouTubers.

Damien Estreich has become a unique presence in online video with his channel, YourTube News. His videos _ sometimes hosted by a professional broadcaster _ report what's happening on YouTube and profile notable contributors. But he also had to fight to become relevant.

"I just marketed my heart out on people's pages and got social networking going," says Estreich, who lives in Australia. "I got popular members doing video responses _ got the name in there."

Going, however, is reluctant to lend his spotlight to those who approach him: "That's not what it's all about."

Occasionally, suspicion arises that a video has become artificially inflated by "gaming" the system _ repeatedly posting comments on one's own video to make it one of the "most discussed" videos, or by using multiple user names to increase subscription numbers.