So, what are viral videos anyway? The internet - and mainstream news these days - seems to be obsessed with talking about them, and yet how many of us understand what “going viral” really means or how it happens in the first place? If you thought that a wide-eyed Japanese girl staring into a camera and a Canadian high school kid with a makeshift lightsaber suddenly became internet celebrities simply by chance, Viralcom is here to tell you different. “You don't get featured on the front page of YouTube without a professional crew that is experienced and ready for work” claims the “director” of the trailer. Funny animals, angry/clumsy/odd-looking children - yep, apparently all those clips that become super-popular overnight are all contrived and produced by a professional team in a real studio. You can see “backstage” at youtube.com/user/ViralcomSeries.

At Viral Video Film School (tinyurl.com/5mrutl) Brett Erlich has a different idea about the provenance of virals. You can make them at home, he argues, but only if you learn the tricks of the “trade” as laid out in his series of online lessons. Watch and learn.

Ever fancied being on The Apprentice but just missed the deadline? Wanted that job but were scared about being broadcast to a nation, hassled by newspapers and becoming instantly recognisable overnight? Well, how about broadcasting to a slightly less high-profile audience? The Hirer (www.thehirer.co.uk) looks like an almost carbon-copy version of the TV show, with Sandra McClumpha of the Fake Bake empire stepping in for Sir Alan Sugar. Applicants must submit their CVs and video pitches by August 22. Fake Bake, in case you'd forgotten, is a fairly successful producer of fake tan, which is probably about as interesting as Amstrad. Still, thousands of people have registered so far. If you have no interest in business, but just like watching entrepreneurial reality TV, you can watch the trailer here: tinyurl.com/5eeohs. The series is yet to come.

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