''People aren't throwing money at video sites like they were two years ago,'' Tulsiani said. ``Video is a very tough business. It's not for the faint of heart.''

His report, ''Competing with YouTube,'' said niche topics are where success can be found. For one reason, they can obtain premium advertising rates with a highly targeted audience.

For example, Break.com targets young males, Hulu.com targets people needing to catch up on television shows, and Howcast.com reaches the how-to market.

NICHE FOCUS

But he says the demographic interested in entertainment and talent competition videos is ''a little harder to classify'' since it is so broad, so it's too early to tell if a site like TriFame or Openfilm can benefit from their niche focus. And it's especially challenging considering that these startups picked a niche that YouTube already does well: showcasing talent and short films.

Having a more comprehensive site is what Tulsiani believes will help make a YouTube competitor more valuable and thereby more profitable.

And other relativity new media-upload sites are popping up with different flavors. Miami-based Veridoo.com is a social network divided into topic channels where users can upload and share various multimedia, including videos. Your Listen.com in Hollywood is all about uploading audio files.

And it's not just in South Florida. London-based Amuso.com lets users create their own talent contests for cash, rewards and recognition. California-based Outshouts.com lets users send messages with videos -- which is something like a virtual greeting card.

Project Breakout founder and chief executive Gregory Sukornyk realizes that one of his biggest challenges is to get people to see the value of his site and make the effort to spend time on it, in addition to YouTube.

''It's amazing how entrenched people are,'' Sukornyk said. ``It's like your telephone number, you don't want to change it. You have to be that much better. You have to be that much more compelling to give people a reason to move house and create their profile on yours.''

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