GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - How Alternative Billing and Instant Payment Options Increase Profits

It's become a tongue-in-cheek joke nowadays to hear the number of billing companies attending adult industry tradeshows. The reality though, is that due to the global nature of online business, as well as the ever growing methods of connectivity; the more billing options you use to capture sales on a worldwide basis, the better off you're likely to be.

The most common processing method in the online adult industry is credit card processing. Naturally credit card processing has a positive impact on site conversion and sales retention, but what about those people who don't have credit cards? How can they pay for memberships?

Alternative Billing
Alternative forms of payment tend to be more popular for customers located in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In addition, some 90million+ North American citizens do not have access to a credit card.

It's wise to examine your current incoming traffic patterns to determine which countries visit your site. The next step is to ensure you have suitable processing set up to convert those countries traffic into profit.

In Europe the credit card is not the preferred payment method. Many Europeans use DirectPay EU, Discover Cards, EuroDebit and other individual country payment providers such as EPS, Giropay, and iDEAL.

In 2013, Epoch Billing negotiated an exclusive arrangement with Paypal to enable Paypal payments as an option for European adult traffic. Based on adult industry message board posts and comments, it appears this option has proven quite profitable for many adult programs.

Hundreds of millions of European consumers use these alternative payment methods on a daily basis. Do you accept any of them?

If you haven't reviewed your global billing strategy lately, consider doing so now. Calculate how much traffic cannot be monetized due to location, and then take action. Contact any of the fine adult billing companies active today and explore your options for alternative billing to increase your profits.

Why leave sales on the table when you don't have to?

Of course, in the adult industry, success and increased profit come from more than simply being able to process memberships and sales. Success is also assisted by your ability to get the right traffic to your site on a regular basis. In the adult industry that tends to mean special traffic deals, business to business arrangements, and quality long-term affiliates.

Instant Payments
Whether you're buying traffic or paying affiliates, having an instant payment service in place to handle your everyday payments can significantly help cut down on time and expenses. In a world where time is money, being able to save on both resources is a definite advantage.

Instant Payments Give You Increased Flexibility
While Wire payments and Checks have been a standard form of payment for decades, instant payment services offer faster payment delivery and much lower fees, particularly for International payments. As a result, business owners can expand their reach and attract incoming traffic and sales from countries previously unavailable due to payment difficulties.

Even Processors Are Getting In On It
Both Epoch and Segpay have been offering instant payouts for quite some time. Many business owners are taking advantage of the convenience of receiving processing payouts directly to an account they can use to make many of their other payments, such as to affiliates, designers, traffic brokers and hosts.

With instant payments enabled;

Business owners can gain an edge by offering instant daily payouts if they wish.
Special promos and contests can be created for branding/exposure that won't exclude certain countries involvement due to the cost involved sending the prize.
Business owners can receive their processing earnings, pay their affiliates, buy some traffic, get some design work completed, pay their hosting bill, and even register some new domains, all from the same account through the power of instant P2P payments.

As technology advances the world shrinks a little more, and as it does, every business owner needs to take advantage of the appropriate tools available to capitalize on International growth. Being able to offer and accept international payments is definitely a step in the right direction toward success and increased profit.

How Instant Payments Benefit Affiliates

Ten years ago, Paris Hilton debuted her first sex-tape, “One Night in Paris” to a frenzy of sales, and some healthy commissions for those affiliate webmasters able to quickly capitalize on the hype with the right graphics, ads, and traffic.

While traffic generation and site & ad designs have naturally evolved in the last decade, it remains true that those who are able to exploit a new craze first, especially those who can dominate it, will have a greater chance to maximize profit.

Did you manage to cash-in on the recent hype surrounding the Belle Knox porn college student scandal?

What about “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta” star Mimi Faust's sex tape last month? Were you quick enough to capture some hot commissions when Vivid sold $400k worth of pre-sales amid scandalous mainstream publicity?

If you did, nice job! Feel free to share your thoughts on the topic by posting a reply! If you didn't, no worries, and take heart. It's been said that we learn more when we stumble than when we succeed. The key is to get back up and keep trying.

To position yourself where you can most benefit from a time-sensitive opportunity, it is helpful to have a few things in place.

Keep Your Finger On The Pulse
From industry publications and trade magazines such as AVN Online, YNOT and XBIZ, to celebrity entertainment gossip sites such as TMZ and PerezHilton, along with Social Media management through platforms such as HootSuite and Google Trends, there are plenty of resources that enable you to keep abreast of any exciting industry news that may be brewing. If you capture the traffic quickly enough you can use all kinds of hot stories and news to your advantage and profit.

Network With The Right People
When you need to obtain the right traffic, ads and landing pages for a rush job, do you have contacts that can get your tasks completed quickly? Being able to call upon the services of a designer, traffic broker, domain registrar and hosting provider, and pronto!, can make all the difference if you're in a time-sensitive situation.

Develop A Positive Payment Reputation
A practical way to forge strong dependable relationships with the key people you need for your business, is to

Regularly use their services
Make sure you pay as promptly as possible
Keep in touch between projects

Consistent on-time payments are important in any business. In the adult industry, having a good payment reputation can truly mean the difference between getting your projects completed on time versus being put to the bottom of the pile because either

You're an unknown, or
You already have a reputation for payment procrastination

The first affliction is easily resolved through patience and good business practice; the unknown eventually become known through time and exposure. The second affliction, while not easy to overcome can also be somewhat achieved through patience and good business practice performed on a consistent basis.

The wisest strategy is to begin as you aim to go on, and to always pay your invoices promptly.

When you use an instant payment service such as Paxum (yep, I work for them, full disclosure), you can issue instant payments that your payee can also instantly access. There's nothing quite as satisfying as paying for, and being paid for, a job on time. Since most adult sponsors offer an instant payment service for payouts it's easy to pay for web/affiliate services with instant payments directly from your affiliate earnings. This not only cuts costs and saves time, but it can help you earn a trusted payment reputation even faster, making your business goals, and ergo your profit, easier to accomplish.

Be Willing To Take Risks
Having all your ducks in a row means absolutely nothing if, when push comes to shove, you don't seize the opportunities that present themselves to you through your well-planned hard work. In the words of the late Apple guru, Steve Jobs;

“You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Seize the opportunities that present themselves, and make that jump confidently knowing that you can trust in the resources you've carefully nurtured through good business practices, and push your profits to the max!

About the Author
Ruth Blair works for Paxum Inc in a Business Development role. She has more than a decade of experience working in various aspects of the adult industry; including affiliate marketing, promotions, and alternative payments. If you'd like to connect with Ruth directly, she can be reached via email at [email protected]