YouTube: An Insider's Guide to Climbing the Charts

Table of Contents

Dedication; Foreword; Preface; Why You Should Buy This Book; What This Book Promises; How This Book Is Organized; Bonus Materials Online; How to Use URLs in This Book; Conventions Used in This Book; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: What Is This YouTube of Which You Speak?; 1.1 YouTube and Online Video: A Brief History; 1.2 Finding Videos; 1.3 Navigating YouTube; 1.4 Going Viral; 1.5 The Joys (and Problems) of the "Level Playing Field" That Is YouTube; Chapter 2: Storytelling and Directing; 2.1 The Importance of Storytelling; 2.2 Conflict Is the Essence of Drama; 2.3 The Hero's Journey; 2.4 A Likable Main Character; 2.5 Brevity Is the Soul of Wit (or 2 Minutes to Fame); 2.6 The Importance of Writing; 2.7 Choosing and Directing Actors; 2.8 Directing the Camera; Chapter 3: 99-Cent Film School: Shooting, Editing, and Rendering; 3.1 Choosing Your Weapons; 3.2 Computers; 3.3 Basic Editing; Chapter 4: Creating Your Very Own Channel; 4.1 All About Your Channel; 4.2 Registering Your Account; 4.3 Introduce Yourself; 4.4 Customizing Your Channel, or "Pimping Your Profile"; 4.5 Subscribe to Other Channels; 4.6 You're Not Alone: Make Some Friends; 4.7 What's Next?; Chapter 5: Broadcasting Yourself: User-Generated Content; 5.1 Uploading Your Video Treasures; 5.2 Processing, Please Wait; 5.3 Thumbnail; 5.4 Favorites; 5.5 Playlists; 5.6 Flagging; 5.7 Sharing; 5.8 Permission; Chapter 6: Rebroadcasting: Commercial Content; 6.1 Copyright; 6.2 Fair Use and Parody; 6.3 Public Domain; 6.4 Creative Commons; 6.5 Copyleft; 6.6 YouTube's Stance on Copyright and Fair Use; 6.7 Getting Permission to Use Corporate Media; 6.8 When Someone Uses Your Video Without Permission; 6.9 Finding Material You Can Use and Remix for Free; Chapter 7: Building Your Audience; 7.1 Priming Your Channel; 7.2 Views and Ratings; 7.3 Comments and Replies; 7.4 More Subscribers and Friends; 7.5 Promoted and Featured Videos; 7.6 Privating: Covering Your Online Tracks; 7.7 Playing the Game; Chapter 8: The Community: Where Do You Fit In?; 8.1 Networking; 8.2 Video Responses; 8.3 Collaboration Videos; 8.4 Collaboration Channels; 8.5 YouTube Groups; 8.6 Video Contests; 8.7 YourTubeAdvocate; 8.8 Trolls; 8.9 Your Niche; Chapter 9: Hacking the System: How to Cheat (and Why You Shouldn't); 9.1 A Word of Warning; 9.2 Spam Bots; 9.3 iSub Network and Sub4Sub; 9.4 E-begging; 9.5 Autorefreshing; 9.6 Thumbnail Cheating; 9.7 Tag Loading; 9.8 Sock Puppets; 9.9 Utubedrama.com and Trevor Rieger; 9.10 This Account Is Suspended; 9.11 Ethical Hacking; Chapter 10: Reaching the World; 10.1 Promoting Versus Interacting; 10.2 Social Bookmarking; 10.3 Social Networking; 10.4 Blogging; 10.5 Your Own Website; 10.6 Signatures; 10.7 Moving Forward; Chapter 11: Money Money Money!; 11.1 Monetization; 11.2 What Is a YouTube Partner?; 11.3 Do You Qualify?; 11.4 How to Apply; 11.5 Branding Options; 11.6 AdSense; 11.7 Sponsored Videos; 11.8 Selling Out, Again; Chapter 12: Beyond the 'Tube; 12.1 Stepping Out; 12.2 Facebook; 12.3 BlogTV; 12.4 Stickam; 12.5 Twitter; 12.6 YouTube Gatherings; 12.7 Time Budgeting; 12.8 Steady Work Beats Frantic Work; Chapter 13: Becoming a Success Story; 13.1 Building Your Brand; 13.2 Memes That Have Jumped the 'Tube; 13.3 Education and Charity via YouTube; 13.4 Hacking Embedded Videos to Autoplay; 13.5 The Moral of the Story; Chapter 14: Closing Arguments; 14.1 What's Wrong with the Internet; 14.2 What's Right with the Internet; 14.3 The Media; 14.4 What's Wrong with the World; 14.5 What's Right with the World; 14.6 What You Can Do About All This; Chapter 15: Interviews with Other YouTube Rock Stars; 15.1 Interview with Lisa Donovan (LisaNova); 15.2 Interview with Hank Green (vlogbrothers); 15.3 Interview with Michael Buckley (WhatTheBuckShow); 15.4 Interview with Kevin Nalty (Nalts); 15.5 Interview with Liam Kyle Sullivan (liamkylesullivan); Colophon;

Alan Lastufka a.k.a. fallofautumndistro (YouTube user name), is one of the Top 100 Most Subscribed Comedians on YouTube. His YouTube videos have had more than three million total views. One of his early short films received multiple airings on the Independent Film Channel.

On YouTube, Lastufka is widely praised for his collaboration videos. One of the most popular is the "iPwn" iPhone parody commercial, starring MadTV cast member LisaNova (as well as some narration at the end that was engineered and produced by Michael Dean).

CNN and YouTube held presidential debates on national television comprised solely of questions submitted by YouTubers via video. On July 23, 2007 U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-Connecticut) made a YouTube video response answering a question on the subject of Net Neutrality submitted by Alan Lastufka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiiCR0​USyJg

Lastufka has contributed articles to numerous international magazines and zines, while co-running a popular independent publishing project in Chicago, IL.: www.fallofautumn.com

Alan is currently a teacher and skills coach for a non-profit social services agency.

Michael W. Dean is very active on YouTube. His DIY or DIE video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtX09q9​SCXw ) was featured by the YouTube staff, and has had over 28,000 views.

DIY or DIE was one of four staff-featured vodcasts on the launch of the Zune Marketplace (along with "Ask A Ninja" and "Diggnation").

Dean is an independent filmmaker who has written for Make Magazine, writes for the O'Reilly Digital Media site and runs the pop culture blog, StinkFight.com. He was a contributor to the O'Reilly book Digital Video Hacks, and edited the O'Reilly book DV Filmmaking: From Start to Finish.

Michael has sold over a million dollars' worth of books. He is the author of the how-to books $30 Film School, $30 Music School and $30 Writing School. $30 Film School has gained a substantial cult following, just went into the third printing of the second edition, and is taught in colleges. Michael wrote the novels, The Simple Pleasures of a Complex Girl and Starving in the Company of Beautiful Women, and the popular Creative Commons eBook Digital Music - DIY Now! (released via blog post on BoingBoing.net to 50,000 downloads in the first week): http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/19/​free-ebook-digital-m.html

Michael directed the documentary films D.I.Y. OR DIE: How To Survive as an Independent Artist and HUBERT SELBY JR: It/ll Be Better Tomorrow (narrated by Robert Downey Jr.). The Selby film was a featured selection in the 2005 Deauville Film Festival in France, and Michael traveled to present the film in person. This film was released on DVD by MVD in America. It was released as a two-disc set with Requiem for a Dream in the UK, and in Australia as a two-disc set with Last Exit To Brooklyn.

Review of the film in Variety Magazine: http://www.variety.com/review/VE11179281​94.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

Michael toured America and Europe as the singer in the band BOMB (Warner Brothers). And more recently, he's toured America and Europe showing films and lecturing at youth centers, colleges and museums. Dean has been interviewed on NPR, BBC radio and CBC radio. He has been featured in Spin magazine and on VH1. He does three podcasts, and was a speaker at 2007 Podcast and New Media Expo.

Michael has collaborated with co-author Alan Lastufka on several videos, by providing advice, as well as creating music and doing narration. Michael did the voiceover for Alan's popular parody video, "Now That's What I Call Emo: YouTube Edition": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RDw9yx7​gEM which has had over 346,000 unique views.