How US Adult Webmasters can dramatically increase revenues from European Surfers

[emjay]

Over the years , the US has given us some great things for us Europeans to do in our leisure time. Undoubtedly the best movies, arguably the best fast-food, and certainly the best internet porn!

But it never ceases to amaze me how US-Centric our American friends are. Not only do they seem to assume that everybody outside of the US can read and understand English, they also assume that the preferred payment method worldwide is the credit card. This is not necessarily the case.

In Europe’s largest market Germany, for example, credit card penetration is still relatively low - and those that do have them are often reluctant to use them online, particularly with overseas vendors. Their preferred method of payment is an ‘Ueberweisung’ (= wire transfer) directly into the vendor’s bank account.

Since 1st May this year, the European Union consists of 25 member states – that’s 454 million potential customers folks, versus 293m stateside. But unlike the States, Europe consists of a group of countries, each with it’s own technical standards, billing capabilities, and consumer preferences for paying for goods and services. If you are going to sell to them, it is important to understand the dynamics of each individual country.

And sell you should! Given the underlying nature of the product we sell, the world is our oyster! Let’s face it, a blowjob is a blowjob in any language, making online erotica the perfect global product. However, getting potential customers to part with their hard earnt cash for your content is not easy – no matter how compelling your content might be.

So Rule Number One is, translate your galleries and tours into other languages! Our online cousins, the casinos, understood this a long time ago and have long offered their product in multiple languages. And if you are tempted to use online translation tools such as babel fish to accomplish this, think again. ‘Pussy’ will be translated into the native’s feline version, and is more likely to do your sales process more harm than good! Employ the services of someone native to the country you are targeting – preferably a fetish pimp!

Second, if you are to take the targeting of any given country seriously, you should register a domain specifically for that market. Having the translated version embedded within your existing English site is not enough. Having a standalone site for each market will dramatically increase the chances of you site being found by prospective customers who are actively seeking out your kind of content. It goes without saying that you should then place that countries flag on your main homepage so that foreign surfers who stumble upon your main site call link through and get sold to in their native tongue.

Thirdly, and most importantly, you must offer more than just credit card billing. Make it easy for the customer to pay you! Working with a billing partner that can accept German wire transfers is a good start! Chances are, no one partner can meet all your needs for all of Europe, so you will need to work with multiple partners who specialise in specific markets.

In theory, diallers were going to be the ideal billing mechanism for the global market. The end user’s modem dials a local premium rate number for access to your wonderful content, and pays for this on a per minute basis via their telephone bills. Unfortunately, countless fraudsters thought it was a wonderful billing instrument too, leaving users with horrendous telephone bills for content they might not even have received by being tricked into remaining connected for far longer than they originally intended To this end, the reputation of the dialler has irreversibly been tarnished, and is an instant turn off many European surfers. Also, more and more Europeans have ‘always on’ DSL Broadband internet connections, rendering the dialler obsolete anyway.

For this growing army of potential customers, you should consider offering LAN-call as a payment option. Here, the customer dials a premium rate (1-900) number on their regular phone and are issued with a PIN # which they then enter into your website. They are then granted access to your content whilst the phone is connected – once they hang up, access to the site is terminated. Broadband customers feel comfortable with this payment method since no potentially harmful software needs to be downloaded onto their computer.

Another interesting payment option you should consider is the text message or ‘premium SMS’. Over one million SMS have been sent in Europe in the time it has taken you to read this far. Premium SMS is a relatively new billing tool and is quite expensive since the (cellphone) operators still keep a disproportionate proportion of what the customer pays – but at least this way, you can make money from the foreign free tour takers who never converted before. But if the old pay-per-call (or audiotex) industry is anything to go by, the margins on offer to the content providers will increase as the industry matures.

Which brings me on to my final but very crucial point. Europe is a continent of cellphone junkies. There are now more cellphones in the UK then there are people. It get’s better. The cellphone operators in Europe are currently in the process of rolling out their ‘3G’ networks for which the networks paid billions when various governments auctioned off the necessary airwave frequencies to gain licenses back in 2000. Vodafone – Europe’s largest network operator - has invested over $23bn in 3G alone – so there’s a heck of a lot of money at stake here. 3G handset owners can watch video-clips with ease wherever they are. But no-one is sure where the market is headed or how the operators are going to recoup their enormous investment.

Well, I’ve got some excellent news for you. I know who is going to drive the market forward. You are! Do you know what the ‘G’ in 3G really stands for? Girls, Games, and Gambling, that’s what! And do you know the best part? The Network’s won’t push the content that really makes money, since selling hardcore pornography will not sit well with the shareholders. That’s where you and I come in. Because, one thing is for sure, the novelty of playing soccer and comedy clips from anywhere will soon wear off – whereas the prospect of being able of watch beautiful cum-shots anytime & anyplace has an almost universal appeal.

‘Find a need and fill it’ is the quintessential law of capitalism. We both know the need is there. So fill it we must. Anyone who in this business for the long haul must begin to ‘mobilise’ their content. You can do this already by creating a WAP site, which you can then cross-promote on your website, or offline. And given the fact that Europeans are already used to paying for content such as ringtones and logos for and by means of their cellphones, the conversions you experience will be correspondingly higher than that of your website.

I’m not going to pretend it’s going to be easy. It’s not. Going global seldom is. But if you want capitalise on the opportunities afforded by the global village and new emerging technologies, you will need to take action now. So here’s your new years resolution. Start going global. It’s going to cost time. And time is money. But the seeds you sow now will yield a long and healthy harvest for years to come. Content is King. So you are too.

Marc Jarrett
marc@pearlnoirstudio.com

[GeorgeTH]

What a well written article!
I hope you didn't waste it on some of the other crab boards...

Being German born and having migrated only in my 30s I'm still very much in contact with people over there, and a good number of them know what I'm doing, so sometimes the talk comes to topics like adult sites, dialers, etc. PLUS: the adult part of the internet is actually openly discussed in many of the mainstream computer and entertainment magazines (unlike here in OZ)!
So I can only support the views of this article from my own experience!

Specially the option for different billing systems is an important one; CEN used to be the first program who had a link to European style processing (incl. 'Überweisungen' for Germans, with easy to understand German instructions), and I believe that's one of the reasons CEN always converted well for me! And SMS billing is really the next big thing in Europe, and already far more used then you'd probably imagine!

I don't think that with all sites it's as important to translate the tours, specially not the ones relying on graphics and content snippets, but it would certainly help with any text heavy tour and sites which offer something special which needs explaining...

If your website needs a German translation , which is fluent and well worded, contact me for a quote! george|at|TropicHeat.com

[Mateusz]

Originally posted by emjay
[b]Since 1st May this year, the European Union consists of 25 member states – that’s 454 million potential customers folks, versus 293m stateside. But unlike the States, Europe consists of a group of countries, each with it’s own technical standards, billing capabilities, and consumer preferences for paying for goods and services. If you are going to sell to them, it is important to understand the dynamics of each individual country.

Don't expect surfers from new UE countries (including Poland - ) to spend cash on internet & porn. I pass over the fact that most people don't even have CC (and those who have are afraid to use it) but average income here is less than $260/month (I mean real life - not what goverments says - politics earn 10x more than common citizen here so calculation of average income says shit) There is cell-phone BOOM indeed but as I see it's getting over already..

It's sad to say but in mid and eastern europe people are born with unwillingness and are tough to not trust others - problably its coused by all those frauds and cheats we got there every day - including goverment..
Personally I belive nothing have changed lately but as you say I guess it's still worth to 'fight' for old UE porn surfers

[dimbozimbo]

Marc thanks for your excellent article. Do you (or anyone) have any information about how to acquire an SMS payment solution ?

You know I was reading also the thread about the ibill problems and it got me thinking.....chug... chug...

How about this for a daft idea.

We the adult industry create a non profit organisation owned by its members (us) to establish an alternative billing solution, which could be based on the model of paypal. The organisation would have a board which would be democratically elected by the members and the organisation should be based in Switzerland.

Lets call it A-pal and the customer has an account with A-pal and he transfers funds into this account. He can then use his A-pal account to pay for any goods and services on websites that are part of the organisation, it doesn't have to be limited to adult content.

No more 15% processing charges and Visa can go fuck themselves.

[emjay]

Hi,

Glad you liked the article...

In the first instance, check out

http://webmaster.nocreditcard.com/?p...type=0&parent=

but do not commit at this stage, am shall be talking to another company later today who may offer better rates.

With regard to your idea, I think it is a sound one but would involve alot of work for, initially at least, no money.

Best,

Marc

[Useless]

Originally posted by dimbozimbo

No more 15% processing charges and Visa can go fuck themselves.

Without processing fees, how would it pay for itself? Someone still has to pay Visa if they want to process their cards. What about hosting and support? Money, money, money. It's a noble idea, but it's like saying you don't like eating at Joe's, so you build a restaurant next door where only your friends can eat, but no one has to pay.

I've read a couple of articles in Klixxx magazine about global billing solutions, such as dialers. I do find it odd that more sponsors have not created a cascading billing system that includes dialers. I wonder if the stigma of the dialers that cheaters have used so heavely has kept honest programs from researching them more. What's the first thing you think of when you read the term 'dialers'?

[Bjorn]

I like your thread man, as i told you

About SMS billing, this is getting more and more widespread in Europe, and people often dont even think twice aout sending an sms to get a movie . If anyone need help about smsbilling just hit me up.

Bjorn , http://www.smsbiller.com

[emjay]

Originally posted by Useless Warrior
Without processing fees, how would it pay for itself? Someone still has to pay Visa if they want to process their cards. What about hosting and support? Money, money, money. It's a noble idea, but it's like saying you don't like eating at Joe's, so you build a restaurant next door where only your friends can eat, but no one has to pay.

I've read a couple of articles in Klixxx magazine about global billing solutions, such as dialers. I do find it odd that more sponsors have not created a cascading billing system that includes dialers. I wonder if the stigma of the dialers that cheaters have used so heavely has kept honest programs from researching them more. What's the first thing you think of when you read the term 'dialers'?

here's an example of how it should be done.
http://www.thegirlzone.com/girlzone/...rls/covers.htm
then hit 'send to mobile'

[neticule]

great article, thank you for sharing

[Jel]

Hi Marc,
You work for mpush? I looked into this around 8-9 months ago, as I was convinced SMS technology was a great way forward, but ran into problems with pushing adult material. I did have a few conversations with a guy from mpush, who unfortunately I cant remember his name, but the way around it was not really viable time wise (had to put the porn to the mobile behind a members area) is this still the case? From what you have written so far, it seems not to be, and I'd be very interested in promoting that platform, your example in your last post was EXACTLY what I was hoping to do previously, I'd seen a joke site using it, and realised the potential there for the porn market, especially in the EU, where as you say, the mobile situation has really exploded.

Just one thing concerned me, with the pre-pay options available now, it means that minors can download paid-for-porn from MY site (OK, through a sponsor, but you get my drift) without a check on the age of that person, so technically you could be done for selling porn to minors.

Your views and any answers welcomed

Jel

[emjay]

New Tool released to enable Webmasters to sell their content
To Cellphones

Txtnation (UK) today officially announced the release the launch of their MPUSH family of
Product, heralding the dawn of a new era whereby webmasters can capitalise on the massive
opportunities afforded by the huge popularity of cellphones worldwide by offering their existing
web-content directly to them.

The mobile telecoms arena is one rare example of where Europe is ahead of the curve relative to
North America, thanks in main to the unified GSM standard that these mobile networks are built..

The cellphone ‘tuning’ market has already become a billion dollar industry in it’s own right, with end-
users already used to paying for content such as ringtones for and by means of their cellphones.

‘This is a massive opportunity for adult webmasters to start selling into this new market now’, comments
Marc Jarrett, txtnation’s Sales Director. He continues: ‘Not only can they ‘mobilise’ their content within
minutes, but we already have revenue-share agreements in place with all the carriers, and in those markets
such where Premium SMS is not yet a reality, we offer credit-card and 1-900 – so we’ve got the world
covered in terms of billing. We are the only company in this space that can offer both content
and billing solutions quickly, cheaply, and efficiently.’

As the networks roll-out their long-awaited 3G networks, in which they have invested in excess of
$120bn, many industry observers are predicting a boom-time for forward-thinking content
owners. Yankee Research recently predicted that mobile porn will become a billion dollar industry
by 2008.

On a 3G network, content can be delivered to a subscriber in two ways:
- using a packet switched connection in the 3G network. This is what is offered today via the operator portals (Vodafone Live!, Orange Kiosk, KPN iModePortal, etc)
- using a circuit switched connection in the 3G network. This type of connection is comparable to existing (premium rate) audiotext services, enhanced with video capability. These services are new and offer content providers a huge opportunity as 3G networks are rolled out all over Europe.

3G will allow end-users to receive and pay for memory-rich content such as movie clips directly onto
their cellphones. However, 3G handset penetration is still negligible, so this a virgin market.

In the interim, content owners can sell pictures by means of MMS, whose predecessor was the
hugely successful SMS – of which more that 100 Billion have been sent so far this year. MMS has
experienced a 400% increase in usage this year, driven in part due to the huge popularity of
camera-phones.

‘Our tools offer a turnkey solution that thus far has been unavailable’, says Jarrett, ‘content owners
can decide what they want to sell, and they decide the pricing’. He continues: ‘They can then cross
promote their new service on their website and now casual browsers who never converted before
will become customers’

He adds ‘This will not cannibalise their existing business – on the contrary it will enhance it, creating a
brand-new revenue stream with a promising future in no time – our tools take the
hassle out of integration and billing, leaving webmasters able to focus on their core business’

- Mobile Marketing Association 2003: Best Use of Mobile Technology www.mpush.com
- Mobile Marketing Association 2004: Best Mobile Billing Solution www.menable.net
To see example of application go to http://www.thegirlzone.com/girlzone/...rls/index.htm#
To contact sales, contact Marc Jarrett email Jarrett@txtnation.com

‘Fully Customised Mobile Commerce Solutions’

[dimbozimbo]

Originally posted by Useless Warrior
Without processing fees, how would it pay for itself? Someone still has to pay Visa if they want to process their cards. What about hosting and support? Money, money, money. It's a noble idea, but it's like saying you don't like eating at Joe's, so you build a restaurant next door where only your friends can eat, but no one has to pay.

I didn't suggest a system where there are no processing fees, that is just naive. My expression 'No more 15% processing fees' was implying that the processing fees of the system I suggested would be much less than 15% i.e. something like 1% or 2%.

How would it be paid for ? The online porn industry is at least a $500 million a year business, 2% of that is $10 million. That is an awful lot of bucks with which to run a processing system. You could charge 5% or more and repay any surplus to members at the end of the financial year.

CC merchant transaction fees are usually in the region of 3%. If a CC is used to deposit funds into the users wallet then this surcharge should be levied onto the user. This would encourage them to transfer funds using bank to bank transfer which would cut the Card associations out of the loop with all the attendant benefits thereof.

Paypal now sets up a direct debit into your account, easily the best way to do this.

Answer these questions;

If a completely independent industry body existed that offered a billing solution to the online adult industry such that processing charges were in the region of 1-2% would adult paysites use it ?

Would any paysites NOT use it ?

Would it become the preferred payment option for adult paysites ?

Would paysites offer the user incentives to use this system ?

If this industry body is based in switzerland and uses bank to bank transfer to deposit funds into the users wallet what could any government or Card association do about it ?

Would they want to do anything about it ? It is after all not their problem anymore if they are no longer being used to process transactions.

Basically what I was saying was 'guys get together and sort out this problem collectively'. It is an age old maxim that has ALWAYS worked.