Byline: Brodie Lancaster

"I was such a good salesperson, and now I just sell myself!"

The first full day of VidCon Australia has barely begun and already American YouTube star Gabbie Hanna has summed up what it means to build a career on the internet. She is reclining on a couch with her sneakered feet in the air, in a theatre at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, as hundreds of fans hang off her every word.

Hanna's two channels have accumulated over seven million subscribers since she made the switch from Vine to YouTube four years ago. A fortnight before she landed in Australia, her singles Honestly and Honestly (Encore) were at #1 and #2 on the US iTunes chart. The only other artists to achieve this are Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and Shawn Mendes -- the latter two also successfully crossed over from viral social media fame into mainstream music.

Hanna is one of many high-profile international YouTubers who've made the trip to Australia for the conference this year. Comedy performers such as Hannah Hart, Grace Helbig and Liza Koshy join locals including Tanya Hennessy, Study With Jess, Riley J Dennis, Eystreem, Alan Tsibulya, Heyitsmaya, AJ Clementine and How Ridiculous on the list of VidCon's "featured creators": YouTube stars whose videos have amassed them thousands of the kinds of fans who want to spend two days and three nights watching panels, cheering on performances and lining up for airbrushed tattoos, merch and fairyfloss inside a hall the size of an aeroplane hanger.

Since brothers Hank and John Green founded VidCon in Los Angeles in 2010, the event has become a global phenomenon, which expanded into the Netherlands and Australia last year. Together, the Greens have over three million subscribers on their Vlogbrothers channel, but they're best-known for their work outside the platform: Hank...