Be a YouTube Superstar

Who doesn't love (or love to hate) popular YouTube videos like OK Go dancing on treadmills, or 1,500 Filipino inmates performing their own rendition of Michael Jackson's Thriller? Oftentimes hilarious, crude, slapstick, and even possibly educational, amateur digital media directors are making names for themselves everyday on YouTube.com. Inspired to become part of the revolution of home-made video entertainment? Here's what you might need:

1. A Camera: Don't worry, you don't need to break the bank for a sweet recording device. Depending on what type of video you want to create, you can use a simple hand-held camcorder or webcam.

Hand-held camcorders come in three main types: Mini-DV (possibly the cheapest and best quality video output, but must be firewired to your computer to edit and post video), Mini-DVD (with removable mini-DVD disks, these are really handy but because of the compression of video onto mini-DVD format, the quality can be lower than that of a Mini-DV), camcorders with built-in hard drives (like the iPod camera, these cameras can get more expensive, and the quality of video produced by them is not as technologically advanced as other types of video cameras on the market today).

Digital webcams are cheaper, smaller cameras you can plug directly into your computer and use to shoot videos directly from your desktop. They usually come with built-in microphones, and can oftentimes double as a photo camera. Webcams are ideal for frequent video blogging, video chatting on Skype or other video chat software, or snapping quick shots for your MySpace profile.

2. Video Editing Software: YouTube has its own simple editing software with some basic features, but if you want to get experimental, you may want to try out a video editing software package of your own. Put in sound effects, credits, and special visual effects into the shorts you make with software by Adobe, Corel, Maxon, and more.

Additional tips on publicizing your YouTube vids:

Make friends with other YouTubers and post videos as comments to their popular submissions

Tag your YouTube vids with keywords that you want your video to be associated with!

Publicize your YouTube profile and videos on your personal blog, in forums, or blast an email out to your friends to check it out

Post your video on sites other than YouTube, like Digg, EyeSpot, OurMedia, and Grouper.