14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube introduced a new contest for all the clip uploaders to allow them to become famous and win a contract with the well known Sierra Mist company. All you need to do is to register for the competition, upload your hilarious clip on YouTube and try to promote it to receive the viewers' votes. The contest is split in three rounds: the first one requires registered members to upload clips until May 31 and will receive votes in June 7-13th. The top ten videos will proceed to the second round where only five of them will survive. The final winners will be announced on July 12th. The prizes are quite attractive, YouTube offering a contract for a comedy clip with Sierra Mist, a trip for 2 in The Lonely Island, a Panasonic AG-HVX200 camcorder, Apple Final Cut Studio 2 and a Lighting Kit - 300 watt variable output video/digital lights with fan.
"If you think you or your crew has what it takes to make consistently funny comedic content, submit your best original sketch comedy video by May 31st. With the help of comedy connoisseurs The Lonely Island, the YouTube community will determine the winner through three rounds of elimination. Thousands will enter. One will be discovered," YouTube describes the contest.
As you can see, YouTube wants more and more user-generated content and tries to lure the users with exciting competitions. In the past, the online video sharing service hosted the 2006 YouTube Awards, an event meant to honor the most popular clips uploaded by its users. Recently, the parent company Google announced the debut of pre-clip adverts that will allow the search giant to share the revenues for a certain clip with its uploader. This way, the users will be attracted to upload their homemade content and obviously, boost YouTube's traffic.