Are you a fledgling video star with thoughts of Internet stardom dancing in your head, and unfortunately, the Ark Music Factory won’t give you the Rebecca Black treatment, bridging the gap between “fledgling” and “wildly popular even though we aren’t sure why” for you?

Perhaps YouTube’s NextUp program is what you need.

Even though more hours of content are uploaded to YouTube on a daily basis than there are hours in a day (35 as opposed to 24), Google’s video service is always looking for more content, especially the kind that gets tons and tons of views, embeds and link backs.

To facilitate this process, YouTube’s NextUp initiative is searching for a new video star to train, mentor and promote. The only thing the prospective Amanda Congdons of the world have to do is provide an entry submission detailing why YouTube should select them for the NextUp program.

According to a post at YouTube’s official blog, up to 25 applicants will be selected, and those that are chosen receive the following:

• $35,000 in funding to produce a new project, purchase new tools or advance their overall YouTube careers
• A spot at a four-day YouTube Creator Camp in which they’ll benefit from 1:1 mentoring and learn an array of production techniques from leading industry and YouTube experts
• Promotion of their final work and channel
• The opportunity to become better connected with a special community of aspiring and talented content creators from around the world

So not only is YouTube going help promote your content, a boon in and of itself, those selected will be handsomely rewarded with backer money and given a crash-course designed to improve their content’s production value.

In other words, the chosen applicants will be financially backed and given access to valuable knowledge that can dramatically improve one’s video content by one of the most recognizable Internet properties there is. The caveat is, applicants will need to apart of YouTube’s partnership program. The blog post contains further details:

Who should apply? Up-and-coming Partners (those with less than 300,000 subscribers) who are committed to advancing their YouTube careers and to produce the next generation of fresh, compelling content. Last week, we announced another initiative from YouTube Next, the YouTube Creator Institute – please note that eligible Partners need to choose whether to apply for either that program or YouTube NextUp – sorry, you can’t apply for both! Full program and application rules are here.

Applicants for YouTube’s NextUp program must have their submissions turned in by March 27, 2011 by midnight pacific time. If you’d like to apply, you can do so here: http://www.youtube.com/creators.

Winners will be chosen on April 20, at the YouTube Creators area, and considering what’s being celebrated on that particular date, it should make for some interesting video viewing at YouTube.