Making Money With Youtube

Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.

When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.

Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.

While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

1. There Will Be a Tipping Point

While campaigning and marketing share many similarities, the differences mean everything when you’re talking about democracy’s big picture. Brands can sell by hitting a tech savvy demographic of influencers. Elections involve everyone, whether they’re online or not.

If a large bloc of your constituency is made up of 65+ year-old retirees, chances are a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook strategy won’t be time well spent. Despite the enthusiasm of the tech crowd and blogosphere, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter is exceedingly far from the mainstream, with only 6% of Americans using the service. And while the world consumes YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos at a mind-bending rate, viral success is still transient and elusive.

While these tools have certainly proven to be effective in rallying support and contributions, we don’t yet live in a world where social media can make or break a political candidate by itself.

That will change, perhaps even by the next major election cycle.

The future of the social media politician is not about wild speculation and technological uncertainties. It has everything to do with when and how deeply social media can be absorbed into mainstream culture. We are on track for a tipping point — a JFK/Nixon TV debate moment — when everyone on the political scene will acknowledge that we can never go back to campaigns without social.

2. New Media Strategists Will Just Be Strategists

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with the new media strategists for a number of senators, congresspeople and political causes. Despite their differences, they all agree that their own jobs will soon be folded into the larger campaign strategy. As many have already foreseen, social media will not require experts for much longer. As we head toward true mainstream adoption, social will be a default and well-understood tool in the belt of any public-facing professional.

We’ve already seen this happening in the private sector with marketing and PR professionals. As many corporate entities lumber to catch up with those on the cutting edge, so too will government officials and the campaigners who seek their offices.

3. We’ll See the Devaluation of Old Media in Politics/>

Print and radio ads are not as valuable as TV. TV will no longer be as valuable as interactive media. For politics, this is especially so, as the arena (at its best, anyway) warrants engagement and discussion.

As media appetites shift, this is an inevitability. In the U.S., we’re already seeing web use catch up with television in terms of weekly hours spent. Political money will simply go where the eyeballs are, and we’re likely to see a big payoff on social creativity when it comes to future campaigns.

4. Whistle Blowing Gets More Efficient, But That’s It

The WikiLeaksclass="blippr-nobr">Wikileaks saga has ignited plenty of discussion about journalism and whistle blowing in the Internet age. But at the end of the day, the mechanics of an information leak are about the same as they’ve always been: Someone from within an organization leaks damaging information, and the media (in whatever form) disseminates it to the public. Generally speaking, WikiLeaks has only acted as a “middle man” for raw information. It’s journalists who are making sense of it and transmitting it to the public with context.

The web only speeds up this process through digitization and universal access. Governments and politicians will feel the impact of leaks sooner, but it’s unlikely the methods of protecting sensitive information will be much changed.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think will be social media’s biggest impact on the political process? How long until we see a winning campaign strategy that is purely social? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More Political Resources from Mashable

- How WikiLeaks Became the Story of the Year in 2010 [VIDEO]/> - The Future of Social Media and Politics/> - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results/> - How the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” Nailed Social Media/> - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

The indie prince talks to Nicole LaPorte about making Blue Valentine; falling in and out of love with Michelle Williams; and his Mickey Mouse Club days.

It is fairly impossible to fathom, but Ryan Gosling, the prince of indie moviedom, whose brooding expression and sleepy good looks inevitably trigger comparisons to James Dean, got his start on The Mickey Mouse Club.

It was a long time ago, sure. But not that long ago. After all, Gosling is only 30 years old. But it’s true; there’s even a YouTube clip to prove it. There he is, crooning along with a mini-Justin Timberlake, his clothes eight sizes too big, 1990s style, his soulful eyes squinted shut to help him get through a high note, as a crowd of tweeners squeal in adolescent lust. Yes, this is the same Ryan Gosling who, two decades later, garnered a cult following for his role in the quirky Lars and the Real Girl; was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Half Nelson; and is now back with two more critically acclaimed performances: in All Good Things and Blue Valentine, which comes out Wednesday and is already being showered in awards love. Both Gosling and his co-star Michelle Williams are nominated for Golden Globes in the Best Acting in a Drama category.

But back to The Mickey Mouse Club. How? Why? Huh?

Sitting in luxurious hotel suite in Beverly Hills one recent morning, clad in silhouette-hugging jeans and a beige zipper sweater that doesn’t conceal a small tattoo on one wrist, Gosling does not flinch at the question. Or even act defensive. In fact, he laughs.

“I was 11 years old,” he says, in his gravelly voice that carries an incongruous hint of Brooklyn (Gosling is Canadian). “I was at a dance company and everyone was going out for this audition, and I went. I’d never been to an audition before. I got it somehow, and then I moved to Florida and worked on that show for two years.”

Of his Mickey Mouse co-stars turned superstars Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, Gosling says: “All those guys were just impressive. Not just their talent, but they had such a focus at such a young age. They what they were kind of destined to do, and they worked at it, and they achieved it.”

Asked if he related to that kind of dedication, Gosling says: “No.”

“I knew when I got there that that wasn’t my destiny… I didn’t want those things. I wanted something else, and it kind of inspired me to figure out what that was.”

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine." Credit: Davi Russo / The Weinstein Company

It seems safe to say that by now he’s figured it out. Among a large group of younger fans, he will always be best known for his role in the weepy The Notebook. But that aside, unlike other actors of his generation—James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire—who regularly flit between shoestring-budget indies and commercial blockbusters, Gosling has demonstrated a consistent dedication to picking difficult, emotionally charged roles in small, intimate pictures; the kinds of movies that are about the performance, not the money. Or even the attention. Although Gosling received praise for All Good Things, in which he plays a character based on Robert Durst, the Manhattan real-estate heir suspected of killing his young wife in the early 1980s (Rex Reed called Gosling “a memorable study in unhinged self-destruction as a man driven to madness”), the film, which received mixed reviews, has remained on the sidelines this awards season, in part because it doesn’t have a well-funded distributor to bankroll a campaign.

Ryan Gosling: “I thought, ‘Michelle Williams is trying to kill me.’”

Needless to say, Blue Valentine, which is a much bigger showcase of Gosling’s talents, given that it hangs solely on the deteriorating relationship of a young, married couple played by Gosling and Williams, does not suffer from this problem. Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein—whose Weinstein Company acquired the film, and who spearheaded the decision to severely edit the film after viewers griped it was too long—has been actively touting the film ever since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival nearly a year go. Typical of Harvey, he parlayed a fracas with the MPAA over an initial NC-17 rating for Blue Valentine (due to an oral sex scene) into even more publicity. (The rating was recently overturned.)

robert shumake

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

robert shumake detroit

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

robert shumake detroit

Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.

When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.

Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.

While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

1. There Will Be a Tipping Point

While campaigning and marketing share many similarities, the differences mean everything when you’re talking about democracy’s big picture. Brands can sell by hitting a tech savvy demographic of influencers. Elections involve everyone, whether they’re online or not.

If a large bloc of your constituency is made up of 65+ year-old retirees, chances are a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook strategy won’t be time well spent. Despite the enthusiasm of the tech crowd and blogosphere, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter is exceedingly far from the mainstream, with only 6% of Americans using the service. And while the world consumes YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos at a mind-bending rate, viral success is still transient and elusive.

While these tools have certainly proven to be effective in rallying support and contributions, we don’t yet live in a world where social media can make or break a political candidate by itself.

That will change, perhaps even by the next major election cycle.

The future of the social media politician is not about wild speculation and technological uncertainties. It has everything to do with when and how deeply social media can be absorbed into mainstream culture. We are on track for a tipping point — a JFK/Nixon TV debate moment — when everyone on the political scene will acknowledge that we can never go back to campaigns without social.

2. New Media Strategists Will Just Be Strategists

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with the new media strategists for a number of senators, congresspeople and political causes. Despite their differences, they all agree that their own jobs will soon be folded into the larger campaign strategy. As many have already foreseen, social media will not require experts for much longer. As we head toward true mainstream adoption, social will be a default and well-understood tool in the belt of any public-facing professional.

We’ve already seen this happening in the private sector with marketing and PR professionals. As many corporate entities lumber to catch up with those on the cutting edge, so too will government officials and the campaigners who seek their offices.

3. We’ll See the Devaluation of Old Media in Politics/>

Print and radio ads are not as valuable as TV. TV will no longer be as valuable as interactive media. For politics, this is especially so, as the arena (at its best, anyway) warrants engagement and discussion.

As media appetites shift, this is an inevitability. In the U.S., we’re already seeing web use catch up with television in terms of weekly hours spent. Political money will simply go where the eyeballs are, and we’re likely to see a big payoff on social creativity when it comes to future campaigns.

4. Whistle Blowing Gets More Efficient, But That’s It

The WikiLeaksclass="blippr-nobr">Wikileaks saga has ignited plenty of discussion about journalism and whistle blowing in the Internet age. But at the end of the day, the mechanics of an information leak are about the same as they’ve always been: Someone from within an organization leaks damaging information, and the media (in whatever form) disseminates it to the public. Generally speaking, WikiLeaks has only acted as a “middle man” for raw information. It’s journalists who are making sense of it and transmitting it to the public with context.

The web only speeds up this process through digitization and universal access. Governments and politicians will feel the impact of leaks sooner, but it’s unlikely the methods of protecting sensitive information will be much changed.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think will be social media’s biggest impact on the political process? How long until we see a winning campaign strategy that is purely social? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More Political Resources from Mashable

- How WikiLeaks Became the Story of the Year in 2010 [VIDEO]/> - The Future of Social Media and Politics/> - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results/> - How the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” Nailed Social Media/> - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

The indie prince talks to Nicole LaPorte about making Blue Valentine; falling in and out of love with Michelle Williams; and his Mickey Mouse Club days.

It is fairly impossible to fathom, but Ryan Gosling, the prince of indie moviedom, whose brooding expression and sleepy good looks inevitably trigger comparisons to James Dean, got his start on The Mickey Mouse Club.

It was a long time ago, sure. But not that long ago. After all, Gosling is only 30 years old. But it’s true; there’s even a YouTube clip to prove it. There he is, crooning along with a mini-Justin Timberlake, his clothes eight sizes too big, 1990s style, his soulful eyes squinted shut to help him get through a high note, as a crowd of tweeners squeal in adolescent lust. Yes, this is the same Ryan Gosling who, two decades later, garnered a cult following for his role in the quirky Lars and the Real Girl; was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Half Nelson; and is now back with two more critically acclaimed performances: in All Good Things and Blue Valentine, which comes out Wednesday and is already being showered in awards love. Both Gosling and his co-star Michelle Williams are nominated for Golden Globes in the Best Acting in a Drama category.

But back to The Mickey Mouse Club. How? Why? Huh?

Sitting in luxurious hotel suite in Beverly Hills one recent morning, clad in silhouette-hugging jeans and a beige zipper sweater that doesn’t conceal a small tattoo on one wrist, Gosling does not flinch at the question. Or even act defensive. In fact, he laughs.

“I was 11 years old,” he says, in his gravelly voice that carries an incongruous hint of Brooklyn (Gosling is Canadian). “I was at a dance company and everyone was going out for this audition, and I went. I’d never been to an audition before. I got it somehow, and then I moved to Florida and worked on that show for two years.”

Of his Mickey Mouse co-stars turned superstars Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, Gosling says: “All those guys were just impressive. Not just their talent, but they had such a focus at such a young age. They what they were kind of destined to do, and they worked at it, and they achieved it.”

Asked if he related to that kind of dedication, Gosling says: “No.”

“I knew when I got there that that wasn’t my destiny… I didn’t want those things. I wanted something else, and it kind of inspired me to figure out what that was.”

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine." Credit: Davi Russo / The Weinstein Company

It seems safe to say that by now he’s figured it out. Among a large group of younger fans, he will always be best known for his role in the weepy The Notebook. But that aside, unlike other actors of his generation—James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire—who regularly flit between shoestring-budget indies and commercial blockbusters, Gosling has demonstrated a consistent dedication to picking difficult, emotionally charged roles in small, intimate pictures; the kinds of movies that are about the performance, not the money. Or even the attention. Although Gosling received praise for All Good Things, in which he plays a character based on Robert Durst, the Manhattan real-estate heir suspected of killing his young wife in the early 1980s (Rex Reed called Gosling “a memorable study in unhinged self-destruction as a man driven to madness”), the film, which received mixed reviews, has remained on the sidelines this awards season, in part because it doesn’t have a well-funded distributor to bankroll a campaign.

Ryan Gosling: “I thought, ‘Michelle Williams is trying to kill me.’”

Needless to say, Blue Valentine, which is a much bigger showcase of Gosling’s talents, given that it hangs solely on the deteriorating relationship of a young, married couple played by Gosling and Williams, does not suffer from this problem. Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein—whose Weinstein Company acquired the film, and who spearheaded the decision to severely edit the film after viewers griped it was too long—has been actively touting the film ever since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival nearly a year go. Typical of Harvey, he parlayed a fracas with the MPAA over an initial NC-17 rating for Blue Valentine (due to an oral sex scene) into even more publicity. (The rating was recently overturned.)

robert shumake detroit

robert shumake

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

robert shumake

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

robert shumake

Think of YouTube as a way to drive traffic to your website. If you make videos about your online business and the products you are promoting, you can instantly get free traffic to your site and in the long run - make money as a result of more visitors. You will do this by mentioning the name of your website in your video and also by placing a link in the video description to get viewers to visit your site.

For example, if you run a website about selling guitars, you can make videos where you will review different guitars and explain to people why they should buy that guitar from your website. If the viewer felt moved by your video, they will click your link, go to your site, and hopefully make a purchase. This method is widely used and can be used for any niche.

When you make your videos, you do not want to come of as a sales person. You want to seem like a genuine person who wants to help give people information about a product. If you present your product well, people may become committed to buy it, and the quickest way for them to buy the product will be to click on the link you provide and they will make a purchase from your site.

Now technically, you are using YouTube as a middleman to get traffic. YouTube does not directly earn you money. It is a great tool to take advantage of, and of course it is 100% free which I know is a plus in every one's book.

What You Need to Begin?

All you need is a video camera and some decent film editing software.

1. It helps if you have a high definition camera because it makes you look more professional. Often times if people watch videos with low production quality, they will stop watching it.

2. Film editing/production software is a must. I cannot emphasize this enough. You cannot just make a video by just having the camera on your face the whole time. You will need editing software to add an introduction, diagrams, pictures, etc. to your videos. If you do not have good video editing software already, get some to have quality videos. I use the Corel X3 Bundle because it is easy to use and is one of the least expensive professional software's. Some other good programs are: Adobe Premiere Elements or iMovie. Take your pick, and it will serve you well.

In Conclusion

Use this method of making YouTube Videos as another way to drive traffic to your site to boost your sales. This method will only help your goal to make money online, so give it a try today.

Keep reading at the free online article database of ways you can make money online at http://mysimplemoneyideas.blogspot.com/.



robert shumake detroit

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

robert shumake

robert shumake

Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.

When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.

Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.

While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

1. There Will Be a Tipping Point

While campaigning and marketing share many similarities, the differences mean everything when you’re talking about democracy’s big picture. Brands can sell by hitting a tech savvy demographic of influencers. Elections involve everyone, whether they’re online or not.

If a large bloc of your constituency is made up of 65+ year-old retirees, chances are a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook strategy won’t be time well spent. Despite the enthusiasm of the tech crowd and blogosphere, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter is exceedingly far from the mainstream, with only 6% of Americans using the service. And while the world consumes YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos at a mind-bending rate, viral success is still transient and elusive.

While these tools have certainly proven to be effective in rallying support and contributions, we don’t yet live in a world where social media can make or break a political candidate by itself.

That will change, perhaps even by the next major election cycle.

The future of the social media politician is not about wild speculation and technological uncertainties. It has everything to do with when and how deeply social media can be absorbed into mainstream culture. We are on track for a tipping point — a JFK/Nixon TV debate moment — when everyone on the political scene will acknowledge that we can never go back to campaigns without social.

2. New Media Strategists Will Just Be Strategists

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with the new media strategists for a number of senators, congresspeople and political causes. Despite their differences, they all agree that their own jobs will soon be folded into the larger campaign strategy. As many have already foreseen, social media will not require experts for much longer. As we head toward true mainstream adoption, social will be a default and well-understood tool in the belt of any public-facing professional.

We’ve already seen this happening in the private sector with marketing and PR professionals. As many corporate entities lumber to catch up with those on the cutting edge, so too will government officials and the campaigners who seek their offices.

3. We’ll See the Devaluation of Old Media in Politics/>

Print and radio ads are not as valuable as TV. TV will no longer be as valuable as interactive media. For politics, this is especially so, as the arena (at its best, anyway) warrants engagement and discussion.

As media appetites shift, this is an inevitability. In the U.S., we’re already seeing web use catch up with television in terms of weekly hours spent. Political money will simply go where the eyeballs are, and we’re likely to see a big payoff on social creativity when it comes to future campaigns.

4. Whistle Blowing Gets More Efficient, But That’s It

The WikiLeaksclass="blippr-nobr">Wikileaks saga has ignited plenty of discussion about journalism and whistle blowing in the Internet age. But at the end of the day, the mechanics of an information leak are about the same as they’ve always been: Someone from within an organization leaks damaging information, and the media (in whatever form) disseminates it to the public. Generally speaking, WikiLeaks has only acted as a “middle man” for raw information. It’s journalists who are making sense of it and transmitting it to the public with context.

The web only speeds up this process through digitization and universal access. Governments and politicians will feel the impact of leaks sooner, but it’s unlikely the methods of protecting sensitive information will be much changed.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think will be social media’s biggest impact on the political process? How long until we see a winning campaign strategy that is purely social? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More Political Resources from Mashable

- How WikiLeaks Became the Story of the Year in 2010 [VIDEO]/> - The Future of Social Media and Politics/> - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results/> - How the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” Nailed Social Media/> - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

The indie prince talks to Nicole LaPorte about making Blue Valentine; falling in and out of love with Michelle Williams; and his Mickey Mouse Club days.

It is fairly impossible to fathom, but Ryan Gosling, the prince of indie moviedom, whose brooding expression and sleepy good looks inevitably trigger comparisons to James Dean, got his start on The Mickey Mouse Club.

It was a long time ago, sure. But not that long ago. After all, Gosling is only 30 years old. But it’s true; there’s even a YouTube clip to prove it. There he is, crooning along with a mini-Justin Timberlake, his clothes eight sizes too big, 1990s style, his soulful eyes squinted shut to help him get through a high note, as a crowd of tweeners squeal in adolescent lust. Yes, this is the same Ryan Gosling who, two decades later, garnered a cult following for his role in the quirky Lars and the Real Girl; was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Half Nelson; and is now back with two more critically acclaimed performances: in All Good Things and Blue Valentine, which comes out Wednesday and is already being showered in awards love. Both Gosling and his co-star Michelle Williams are nominated for Golden Globes in the Best Acting in a Drama category.

But back to The Mickey Mouse Club. How? Why? Huh?

Sitting in luxurious hotel suite in Beverly Hills one recent morning, clad in silhouette-hugging jeans and a beige zipper sweater that doesn’t conceal a small tattoo on one wrist, Gosling does not flinch at the question. Or even act defensive. In fact, he laughs.

“I was 11 years old,” he says, in his gravelly voice that carries an incongruous hint of Brooklyn (Gosling is Canadian). “I was at a dance company and everyone was going out for this audition, and I went. I’d never been to an audition before. I got it somehow, and then I moved to Florida and worked on that show for two years.”

Of his Mickey Mouse co-stars turned superstars Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, Gosling says: “All those guys were just impressive. Not just their talent, but they had such a focus at such a young age. They what they were kind of destined to do, and they worked at it, and they achieved it.”

Asked if he related to that kind of dedication, Gosling says: “No.”

“I knew when I got there that that wasn’t my destiny… I didn’t want those things. I wanted something else, and it kind of inspired me to figure out what that was.”

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine." Credit: Davi Russo / The Weinstein Company

It seems safe to say that by now he’s figured it out. Among a large group of younger fans, he will always be best known for his role in the weepy The Notebook. But that aside, unlike other actors of his generation—James Franco, Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire—who regularly flit between shoestring-budget indies and commercial blockbusters, Gosling has demonstrated a consistent dedication to picking difficult, emotionally charged roles in small, intimate pictures; the kinds of movies that are about the performance, not the money. Or even the attention. Although Gosling received praise for All Good Things, in which he plays a character based on Robert Durst, the Manhattan real-estate heir suspected of killing his young wife in the early 1980s (Rex Reed called Gosling “a memorable study in unhinged self-destruction as a man driven to madness”), the film, which received mixed reviews, has remained on the sidelines this awards season, in part because it doesn’t have a well-funded distributor to bankroll a campaign.

Ryan Gosling: “I thought, ‘Michelle Williams is trying to kill me.’”

Needless to say, Blue Valentine, which is a much bigger showcase of Gosling’s talents, given that it hangs solely on the deteriorating relationship of a young, married couple played by Gosling and Williams, does not suffer from this problem. Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein—whose Weinstein Company acquired the film, and who spearheaded the decision to severely edit the film after viewers griped it was too long—has been actively touting the film ever since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival nearly a year go. Typical of Harvey, he parlayed a fracas with the MPAA over an initial NC-17 rating for Blue Valentine (due to an oral sex scene) into even more publicity. (The rating was recently overturned.)

robert shumake

John Roberts Leaves CNN for Fox <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Executives at CNN confirmed Monday that John Roberts, who served as the morning anchor for the network since April 2007, would be joining Fox News as a national correspondent.

Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Moore: EA not backing away from Tiger.

Apple&#39;s iOS market share tops Android, RIM | Apple - CNET <b>News</b>

iOS is leading Google's Android and RIM's BlackBerry operating system in U.S. market share, but Nielsen says the race may be to close to call. Read this blog post by Jim Dalrymple on Apple.

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