What makes people famous?

How do the ordinary people on Youtube get to be famous? What characteristics do they share that causes them to explode in popularity and appeal to such a wide variety of people? Does it have something to do with their subject, their creative process, an internal motivation, or somehow just luck that has brought fame to these people.

This is obviously of interest to a lot of people. There are hundreds of thousands of aspiring Youtube stars out there, hoping to reach the goal of fame. They want to know how to succeed, how to appeal to and entertain, a large group of people. The aspects of fame on Youtube apply to every single performer and could provide some tips and advice on how to succeed, although obviously some aspects would be limited to just the online form. The paper might encourage the average person to take up an account and attempt to reach out to others. The idea of using this paper as sort of a guide to achieve fame is more of a practical research paper.

The more conceptual research that could come out of this idea is in what the trends say about our society. The things that make the Youtubers popular shows a lot about what the majority of our society values and enjoys in a performer and a person. It could reveal what topics grab people's attention, a very interesting research point for someone such as a writer, columnist, or reporter.

Youtube might be very interested in this topic, as well as other sharing sites. The research may show some unfairness in the system, how some people might have a more natural advantage over others due to a flaw in the website, something that could be fixed.

Determining what constitutes fame in this situation is very interesting. There are many indicators of fame on Youtube depending on what you want to determine. The like/dislike rating system would give an indication of how well-liked or appealing a certain video is, the same applies to the comment system. Another indication of fame is in the amount of pageviews to a certain video, showing how mass popularity, sharing, and the nature of viral videos affects fame. Since I'm mainly looking at this research as a way to analyze how individual accounts become famous, the most acceptable statistic might be in subscribers, which not only indicates fame but also commitment of those who follow them. However, using all three statistics in conjunction would probably provide the most comprehensive viewpoint.

Popular channels http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-channels

Popular videos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_viewed_YouTube_videos