4 frugal ways to become famous

Engineer-turned-comedian Dan Nainan says his main tool for marketing himself is YouTube. "YouTube has been great for marketing. One of my clips on YouTube has just surpassed 900,000 views, and it's been directly responsible for getting me a lot of work," he says.

In one specific incident, someone saw Nainan on YouTube and booked him for a corporate event in Dubai -- they paid him $8,000. He then headed to Hong Kong to perform at a 50th birthday party and was paid $10,000.

He says, "There have been many other shows that I have gotten as a result of that YouTube clip." Due to his increasing popularity, Nainan has performed at the Democratic National Convention and at three presidential inaugural events, and has performed for Donald Trump.

Nainan says the best thing about the Internet and social media is the phenomenon of disintermediation: "This is where I don't need middlemen or television to get exposure. In the past, I would've had to have an agent see me, who would've had to pitch me to Comedy Central to get exposure. With social media, I get all kinds of exposure I never would've had, and the cost is exactly zero."