The LA Times has a story about how YouTube users can generate more views by adding words like “sexy”, “nude” or “hot” as their tags or keywords. One woman posting her music videos online was encouraged by veteran YouTubers to post a sexy thumbnail image to boost viewers.

They call it “bait and switch” since many people search YouTube looking for sexy, hot girls. Surprise, surprise.

Unfortunately, YouTube has a strict no nudity rule which means that searchers don’t get what they search for. At most, publicly available videos are at a PG-13 level–meaning they have some skimpy clothing or racy dancing, but no nudity.

One example the Times cites:

A YouTube video called “Naked Chicks!” exemplifies a well-worn strategy for boosting a video’s view-count. In addition to its breathlessly pervy title, the video’s “thumbnail” image — the small photo you see before you open the clip — shows off the nicely tanned lower half of a bikini-clad woman.

People have been gaming YouTube for a long time. After all, many people call it “BoobTube”. But YouTube says that the issue of misleading thumbnails isn’t rampant. Still, it’s quite easy for anyone to garner lots of views by using the right combination of thumbnails and keywords. Here’s another example the LA Times cites:

In late August, popular video blogger and bawdy YouTube humorist Philip DeFranco, a.k.a. sxephil, posted a video titled “Big Boobs and You,” a rant about his aesthetic preferences vis-à-vis the female form. The video’s thumbnail was in line with its title, but the video only flashed the image for a split second, the rest was just a monologue.

DeFranco admitted the video was an experiment to see how much traffic an offering with that name and image could generate. It scored 1.8 million views, by far the most successful of the 107 videos DeFranco had posted up to that point. The conclusion of his experiment was clear.

Yes indeed. Sex sells.

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