The Business of Sex
Warning: Some of the links in this post go to content that is NSFW and may even be NSFYS (Not Safe For Your Soul).
Yesterday my friend got 600,000 pageviews on a site that normally gets about that much in an entire month. Why? Because of the emergence of provocative pictures of youth superstar Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana. The pictures were taken of Hannah Montana in her bikini and some even in her underwear.
Anyone who’s been at this Internet business game long enough knows that sex sells. Well, any marketing person knows this too. But on the Internet it’s truer than ever. The dilemma for business people is whether the money that one can gain from using sex is worth the feelings of cheapness and sluttiness that might come along with it. It’s something I definitely struggle with on several of my own sites.
Another friend of mine did a simple analysis of the search engine placement results for what was the most popular search phrase on the net for a few days “Amy Fisher Sex Tape” – the traffic he got to this one article outnumbered all of his other traffic combined.
Just to give you a flavor of what’s involved here, in the last year, the following stories have driven over 45 million pageviews to sites that I’m involved in:
Warning: some of these pages contain provocative images that many people would find unacceptable. View at your own peril.
Hannah Montana Underwear Pictures
Jamie Lynn Spears Pregnant
Is this the Vivica A. Fox sex tape?
Amy Fisher Sex Tape
Vanessa Hudgens Nude Photos Released
Miley Cyrus Bikini Pictures
Vanessa Milano and Nick Lachey Nude Photo Scandal
The Antonella Barba Scandal
The fact is that people are out there searching for sexy things. Whether it’s sexy pictures or scandalous celebrity stories, our culture is 100% sexed up. Like it or not. It’s a fact.
So what are your thoughts. Sure, sex sells. But does it cheapen the product? Does it do more harm than good?
You have a little mistake in your post in this sentence, the last word : “Anyone who’s been at this Internet business game long enough knows that sex cells.”
What about the money for this kind of traffic ?