HIYA, dear. Do you wish to become famous? Good news for you. It's now easier than ever to achieve fame.
If you are a Taylor Swift or Bruno Mars wannabe, go get a camcorder and record yourself singing your heart out, post it on YouTube and wait for Fame to knock on the door.
That was how Justin Bieber was discovered. His mother posted his performances on YouTube. In two shakes of a lamb's tail, the view count skyrocketed and before you can sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, Usher has signed him up.
Ryan Higa is another chap who became famous through YouTube. I first saw him when I peeped over my son's shoulder a few years back. Who's this Asian guy with an American accent goofing off, I wondered.
That was my introduction to Ryan, a Japanese-American from Hawaii who has posted a gazillion comedic videos on YouTube. Thanks to my children and his legion of fans, he has more than five million subscribers to-date.
Close to home, we've got Red Hong, a Sabahan who painted a portrait of Yao Ming with a basketball. Her video went viral soon after it was posted in January and three months later, it has garnered more than 736,000 views!
"Malaysian gains overnight stardom" screamed the headlines.
Don't worry if you can't sing, act or paint. Do something you excel in and you might just hit the jackpot. But it's got to be something interesting, okay?
If you're good at sleeping 12 hours at one go, don't post a video showing you snoozing away unless you can orchestrate your snores into a symphony.
A video on how to solve Add Math problems might get you a decent viewership but if you can cook, get ready to wow the world. A clip on preparing a Bento lunch box has been seen 2.5 million times in three years!
Don't have any special skills up your sleeve? Well, do you have a big problem? Follow the lead of Robert Gibbs, a 600lb Californian who posted a videotaped plea asking for help with his weight problem.
Right away, he became a YouTube sensation and managed to garner the support from clinical psychologist Phil McGraw of the Dr Phil show.
A word of caution, dear. Not everything you post will become a hit. I know from experience. Three years ago, I commissioned a friend to produce a video trailer to promote one of my books. Though it was a decent effort, it has only cranked up 7,000 views over three years.
If you want to watch it, search for bookertisement or Eh Poh Nim in YouTube. Maybe when the book is released in comicbook form later this year, it will go viral?
Fame is illusive but dreams are free.
Lydia Teh is a mother of four, author of six books and centre manager at Cambridge English for Life.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment