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Blaming the biller for your low sales is a mistake.
There are entirely too may threads on GFY by site owners blaming the biller for their low sales. Instead of answering yet another one I thought I would start a new thread and try to end this ridiculous argument.
Here's the problem:
A site owner will see his sales drop, and then blame the biller he uses. He will attempt to prove his theory through one wild idea or another without any real evidence. He may then switch billing providers, see his sales go up, and then use that as proof that his original biller sucked.
This way of thinking assumes that the billing processor is the only variable in your business, or the only thing that makes or breaks a sale.
In reality there are dozens of factors that affect a person's ability or willingness to sign-up to your site. Such as:
- Did your traffic drop?
- Did the source of your traffic change?
- Did you lose an affiliate?
- Are there any other influences in the world that might affect peoples interest in buying your porn today?
- Do you have a new competitor?
- Are competitors taking away your traffic by more competitive advertising?
Assuming after all of the above you get a potential customer to your site:
- Is he a real person, or a bot? (Let's assume the click we're talking about is a real person)
- Does he like your content?
- Was your banner add relevant to your actual content?
- Does he like your site?
- Does your site do a good enough job to SELL to your client?
- Does he have a credit card?
- Can he purchase right now? (Are their friends or family around preventing him from doing so?)
- Is he distracted by other ads?
- Is your site giving him other choices? (Other ads, products or links luring him away?)
- Is he in the mood?
Lets assume YES to ALL of the above. This guy is a prime candidate. Next:
- Is your site too expensive?
- Does he have room on his credit card?
- Will he enter the right card information during his purchase?
Now HERE is where MAYBE you can begin to wonder if the card company of your choice is what you want it to be:
- Will the fraud scrub accept a wrong street address?
- Bad CVV2?
Alot of inexperienced site owners also automatically assume that every click to their site is a potential client and they base this information on whatever their stats program tells them. This again is far from the truth. Of course alot of people buy filtered traffic but still, alot of the traffic can be from:
- Bots
- Foreign Countries / unqualified customers
- Hotlinks (banners, photos, etc)
And finally, though you may hate to admit it, alot of those clicks will be from people who:
- Are just surfers with no intention of buying
- Freeloaders who comb your site for new tours but have no intention of buying
- Other webmasters who steal your content and have no intention of buying.
A quick count of all of the above might reveal that the billing provider is responsible for 3.5% of the total picture of the reasons why you may not make a sale but even this is wrong because the billing processor is most likely to accept the transaction from a qualified customer. This is why I saw that people who blame their processors for low sales are bad for their own business.
If your sales suck, here are a few things you can do:
- Check your stats very carefully and try to tie various sources of traffic to conversions. Done right, you will see what sources of traffic work for you and which ones do not. You may have 1 or more affiliates sending you poor quality traffic.
- And speaking of affiliates, check to see if any affiliates seem to have alot of declines or chargebacks associated with the traffic they are sending you. Double-check with your billing processor's sales rep for some advice on the issue and consider dropping any affiliates who is responsible, or at least talk to that affiliate.
- Invite feedback from your customers. Add a "No thanks" button to your site's join page and have a form to ask customers why they didn't sign up. Or even better, ask them what you could do to earn their business. Don't talk to customers like they're idiots. Ask some real questions and you will find that alot of people want to tell you what they are looking for.
- Is your site full of pop-ups and ads? (Chances are, it is, and no wonder you get low sales).
You might try reaching out to other webmasters in a similar niche and see if they can offer you some advice to grow your business. Trashing the processor and ignoring all other possibilities isn't the way.
And finally after all of the above you still feel like being lazy and blaming the processor, just add another processor already. For most membership sites it is fairly easy to do. Don't bitch about the MC and Visa Fees either - they are a cost of doing business. Furthermore it is a small investment to make and it is tax deductible anyway so stop crying and do it.
P e a c e.
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