The "Paris Hilton Disease"

Submitted by 2houseplague on Fri, 02/09/2007 - 02:55.

Celebrity Sites are Infected with the "Paris Hilton Disease"
THE EFFECTS OF PARIS HILTON ON CELEBRITY WEB SITE ADVERTISING
Diagnosis

"Disease" is kind of a negative word, I admit. But I believe the right metaphor can do wonders for clarity.

Lately, I have been writing a lot about electronic commerce and about the forces I see shaping it. Lots of cause-and-effect in evidence these days, to be sure. As a webmaster interested in long-term prosperity, I concern myself with trends and I try to prepare accordingly. As the operator of a celebrity Web site, I also have a direct insight into the subject. My conclusion is based on my own experiences, and on the things I have seen happen to some other Web sites I monitor in the celebrity space.
I know it will be difficult for most of you to put the words "failure" and "Paris Hilton" together in the same sentence. And, to judge from the myriad images of the young Hotel Heiress spread-eagled as she exits her Lamborghini, that appear on a hundred thousand Web sites, it's obvious that Paris, herself, is doing just fine.

But, as someone concerned with whole of online advertising and with the plight of Joe Webmaster, I see a terrible swath of needless destruction and a toll of wasted opportunity.

Let me explain.

I have previously written about the SEO consequences of linking to affiliate sponsor sites in bad neighborhoods. This relates to that.

It's no surprise to hear that celebrity-oriented Web sites are among the most popular on the Internet. As a consumer culture, our interest in celebrities is one of our most definitive attributes. We are fans, we idolize, we covet, we obsess. But, to a far greater degree than we "consume" celebrities in any other form, we foremost consume them with our eyes. Whether on the big screen, the little screen, or the really little screen we love, love, love to look at celebrity pix.

Inescapably, our consumer interest in celebrities turns towards sex. Our desire to see our favorite stars remove their clothes has meant box office millions for even the unworthiest of vehicles. It also drives in excess of 40 million search engine queries every day.

For advertisers, there should be a bonanza of traffic, just as offline there are ample opportunities for companies of all sorts (from automakers to fast-food chains) to successfully co-market with Hollywood's output. But, alas, a damage has been done that makes it difficult if not impossible for most advertisers to enjoy this traffic. So, what happened?
Death in Paris

A few years ago, a comet struck the celebrity Web site sector, and her name is Paris Hilton.

Admittedly, the Paris Hilton example is an extraordinary one. There had been "sex tapes" prior to hers, Pamela and Tommy Lee, most famously/recently. But in Paris' case, the release of the tape was catalytic to her now-enormous fame. While we have been assured by her various publicists that Paris lived a life of exquisite privilege before she was famous, the truth remains that only a few years ago nobody'd ever heard of her. The release of the tape seemed to so perfectly "set up" her television debut ("The Simple Life"), that many savvy marketers must wonder if the whole thing wasn't brilliantly orchestrated. The question remains askable. We must reckon Paris Hilton's ascent to global fame as one of the swiftest in the history of global fame.

To say that the Internet played a central role in her achievement would be an under-statement. The release of the Paris Hilton tape happened to coincide with a moment of great distribution preparedness on the Internet. Because the tape was (as all who have seen it may attest) undeniably pornographic, the existing online adult industry embraced it enthusiastically. And, for the eager consumer of celebrity skin, there was for the first time in history a starlet having hardcore sex. The demand was unprecedented.

To look back on it, it's hard to judge the "cart from the horse". Did the sex tape make the TV series and the "actress"? Or did the public simply will Paris Hilton into uber-celebrity status, so as to enjoy the tape all the more?

Whatever you believe, one fact remains: Post-Paris Hilton, the celebrity web site universe is decidedly more sexual. Where once the typical celebrity site was a free fan site, comprising movie stills and "fun fan facts", today most of the top results from The Search Engine are either nude celebrity paysites or free sites run by affiliates of nude celebrity pay programs.

"So, where's the missed opportunity in that?", you may be asking. "Looks like folks are gettin' paid to me."

Folks are getting paid... Well, some folks are getting paid.

As a result of the proliferation of porn throughout celebrity-oriented Web sites, advertisers have been alienated from one of their most desirable demographic targets. Among the alienated advertisers are some of the deepest click-buying pockets in all of online advertising. This is untenable and must be corrected. The advertiser interest in these queries is simply too great. As it happens, this situation is being corrected by The Search Engine. The specific mechanics of that correction will be the subject of a latter article.
The Spread of Disease

Mr. Spock delivers a great line at the absolute summit of poignancy in Star Trek 2: "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." In this case it's "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

There was always a sexiness to celebrity Web sites. Part of the draw was getting to linger-long over still images of moments that had slipped too quickly from the motion picture screen. But the advent of Paris Hilton Celebrity Porn Star has pushed blatant XXX pornography into a camp previously bounded by the vaunted "R".

Paris brought porn to where there had not been porn before. Paris herself, for becoming a viable porn product, went to where porn was. People made new sites to cash in. They made "celeb sites with porn". They made a lot of money. Division Trust, however, was violated. All the merely-sexy R-rated movie stills became hopelessly commingled with what ranges from outright porn to close-enough-to-porn-to-be-of-concern.
Triage

"Clean" advertisers and The Search Engine have had to recoil a bit. Well, in the case of the advertisers the correct word is recoil, but in the case of The Search Engine a better choice of words would be "differentiate and separate".

Imagine the United States was over-run by a deadly epidemic...

And you are the President. You have to decide where you are going to draw the quarantine line. You have to decide who gets treated as a patient, and lives, and who gets a body-bag.

The situation with celebrity sites is exactly the same. This is a territory now filled with links to some of the most offensive domains on record, the spammers, the installers, etc. from back in the day.

So, not only is it an innately blurry territory, contentwise, but it also appears to be the in hands of proven betrayers of the public trust.

Hmmm. What would you do? Would you try to save the big circle, and carve-out just the little circle?

The Search Engine is, in this case, the President. He has no desire to give up the Southwest to the disease. But he must stop the spread. He only has so many resources available to divide between the dual efforts of containment and medical treatment. If you try to save the big circle, you may risk more of the country, because you know there will be a meaningful number of carriers who may travel outside the quarantine zone. It looks like the best solution might be to sacrifice the bigger circle and be sure to save the rest of the country. It doesn't hurt, either, to know that in just a few weeks the National Guard will be able to roll-in (with proper equipment, of course) and begin reclaiming National Assets.

Of course, it will take a little while for the infected to die. We may also expect that those within the quarantine zone will do all they can, for as long as they can, to survive. But these will be relegated to ever-smaller, very-well-contained slums in some of the bigger cities.

Who knows what definition of "survival" they will cling to there.

But a line will be drawn. The President is making his decision soon. The wise webmaster must consider where he stands and who stands with him.

This is going to happen because advertising, just like Nature, abhors a vacuum. They want those eyeballs, and they will get them... cleanly.
MISCELLANEOUS STATS RELATED TO CELEBRITY WEB SITES
Courtesy PROJECTBLACKBOOK.COM

The first number is # of unique domains that have the keyword. The second number is # of domains linking to websites that have the keyword in the domain. The third number is the # of links linking to websites that have the keyword in the domain.

celebrity

1) 35,133
2) 43,838
3) 164,487

celebs

1) 7,196
2) 22,298
3) 135,636

celebrities

1) 9,633
2) 53,188
3) 282,568

paris-hilton

1) 3,295
2) 1,865
3) 27,089

parishilton

1) 423
2) 596
3) 3,172

NOTE: It is possible that domains are double, triple, etc counted on the referring domain stat, since one domain could link to several other domains that have the keyword. More intensive processing would be needed to collect the unique number of referring domains to websites that contain the keyword. But this is doable.