Since the creation of Youtube, thousands of video-makers have risen to stardom as YouTube celebrities. Among the most popular of these is Bethany Mota, the teen idol. At just 19 years old, she has attracted millions of YouTube followers, performed numerous public speaking tours, TV appearances, and built a fashion brand under Aeropostale. It’s probably the ultimate tale of internet stardom, so let’s take a look at how it all came about.

In 2009, YouTube had already established itself as the go-to video sharing website; all Bethany Mota had to do was start publishing content. She joined a contemporary craze of “Haul Videos,” a type of popular content in which the video-maker breaks-down their “haul” after a shopping spree, and grew from there, later transitioning into fashion tutorials.

Here’s a few key things Bethany had at the outset:

Personality: Obviously it’s important to be charismatic. For videos that involve a lot of talking, you’ll need to be able to engage people verbally—something that trained actors practice extensively. Mota was a natural, and people were drawn back to her videos.

Sincerity: It’s also important to note that Mota didn’t launch her career with the intention of monetizing it. It’s easy to think too abstractly about YouTube and Social Media as a free ticket to fame and fortune, but you can’t lose sight of the fact that people want quality content. Focus on the videos themselves, because if you don’t put a little heart into them, people will certainly drift away.

Persistence: This is by far the most important. Mota didn’t just post one video and by chance ride it’s coattails as it went viral. In her first year posting, Mota put up more than 50 videos on her channel! Slow and steady won the race.

Gaining YouTube fame means building a community of followers, and the only way to do that is to create content consistently. You may not have time to put out a video every week, but unless people have something to look forward to, there is no reason to subscribe to the channel—and no reason to remember who you are.

Bethany’s video quality and editing skills all improved over time, which helped accelerate the growth of her popularity, but she started with a very basic core. Her persistence was vital to her growth, in that it helped her build up followers and learn new skills quickly.

A few modern tricks

On top of that, the modern internet environment introduces a few important tricks to help encourage growth.

Social media: Link your Social Media Accounts. Post your YouTube videos to Facebook and Twitter and whatever other social media sites you use (there are a lot of them). Put links to your channel in your profiles, and include links to your social media accounts in YouTube video descriptions. This criss-crossing of links will help build audience exposure across your entire online presence.

Call to action: Make sure your videos have a call to action. For YouTube that generally means “like and subscribe.” Give them a reason to subscribe by foreshadowing upcoming content that they won’t want to miss. Asking people to do stuff just sort of works.

Cross-promotion: Get in touch with other YouTubers and see if you can arrange a deal for cross-promotion. You mention their channel, they mention yours, both channels get some fresh exposure from a new audience.

YouTube & Beyond

With a large enough following on YouTube, Bethany Mota became a desirable partner to brands and organizations. But last year her influence extended beyond of the web and into a fashion line deal, TV appearances, and live tours. These deals are all directly attributed to her celebrity status. She used YouTube to turn herself into a popular brand with an avid following among teen girls. She rules her niche.

Her story is the ultimate testament to the power of self-publishing platforms such as YouTube. Thousands of content creators and performers are leveraging YouTube and other media websites to empower their own careers.

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