Unlikely Celebrities Are Stars On YouTube

A Dancing Tourist, A Faux Valley Girl and A Maker Of Blenders Find Fame Online

(CBS) 
Lonelygirl is now picking up sponsors. But Lonelygirl is still low-budget, shot with one camera, often in the suburban Southern California home of one of the producers' parents.

"On T.V. if you have a hit show, you become rich," Beckett said. "On the Internet, you can have a hit show [and] you will not become rich — at least not yet."

But it is possible to be an Internet star and make money? Just ask Tom Dickson.

Dickson invented one tough blender. He's the CEO of Blendtec, in Orem, Utah. They started posting homemade videos of Dickson pulverizing just about anything you can imagine in his company's products.

"Our marketing person came to me very excited," Dickson said. "And he said to me, 'You know, we've have 6 million hits in five days on YouTube.' And I said, 'Who tube?' I'd never heard of YouTube!"

Sure, to you it might look like just an ad. But at Blendtec they've found, like the Lonelygirl folks did, that it's all about making a connection. Dickson said he responds to suggestions viewers send to him.

"A lot of people, when we do something that's obvious — like cell phones or remotes or something like that — people say, 'Oh, that was my idea!' So everybody takes credit, and they feel like they're part of it now," he said.

So what lies ahead for our online celebrities? Tom Dickson, dancing Matt and Lonelygirl15 have all been nominated for YouTube awards. Beyond that, Jessica Rose's career seems to be taking off.

"I also did 'I Know Who Killed Me,'" she said. "I had a small part in that with Lindsay Lohan. She's really fun. I mean, it's awesome to get these opportunities that I never had before."

Harding is getting ready to take off again. He's got his own aptly-named Web site, and a gum company is sponsoring his third trip around the world. This time he wants people to dance with him and his fans to track him.

"You'll be able to click on each location and there'll be sort of a floating head of where I am now," Harding said. "You can click on it and see the latest pictures and the latest dancing clip."

And over at Blendtec, Dickson said he is selling more blenders.

"Thousands of percent more, yes," he said.