Filtering traffic by country, yes/no?

I am seeing a load of surfers in my stats from places like Germany

anyone filter their traffic based on country?

Im deciding whether or not to do it and if yes how, besides .htaccess

Greetings:

Why such hostility towards .htaccess? Heh.

There are a bunch of different ways that you can filter, here's a few things to consider:

Do you want to filter based on the COUNTRY that they are actually in, or on their primary LANGUAGE. It may seem like not that big of a difference, but from a technical perspective, it very much is.

If you want to filter based on their primary language, you can use something as simple as javascript to detect the primary language they have their browser set to, and do redirects that way. You can also use php to do the same thing. Language is an environmental variable passed along to the server by the client's browser, so virtually anything that can pick up on those (applets, cgi-scripts, etc.) can be used for redirection. Apache even has a config option that lets you set different index pages based on the primary language detected.

If you want to filter on the actual COUNTRY that they are in, then you have to do a little bit more work. You need to get yourself a "Geo IP Database". Basically, it's a database of ranges of IP addresses that are assigned to various ISPs around the world. When a user visits your site, their IP is detected by your server, run through the database, then a result is returned to a php script, perl cgi, or whatever it is you're using. MaxMind offers a free version of their GEO IP database that has about 99% accuracy, which is MORE than you'd need for this type of application. It's pretty slick, and I use it in my ad server.

For the pay site i'm working on, we're going to be detecting primary language, and directing those users to a version of our site that's translated into that language, via php scripts. We'll also throw users away from countries that are banned by CCBill, to help save on a bit of bandwidth.

But, I have a good bit of work to do before I get around to that, as it's not very high up on my list of priorities.

HELL YES!

Filter that traffic as much as possible :thumbsup:

We do it on most of our stuff and do extremely well with it however, we dont send it to a dialer ;)

In addition to .htaccess you can also filter it utilizing .php and also JavaScript however, .htaccess is by far the easiest method to filter it so far as country filtering goes.. throw a single file on a domain and redirect the traffic based on either browser language or, ip location to a specific location of your choice :)

Do a search on the community for the following:

geo
filtering
foreign

Youll find around 5-10 articles on the subject that i have written over the past few years :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee

thanks guys

JustMe I'm planning to filter based on location only since what lanugage is on the OS isn't indicative where people are. If Lee filtered based on primary language I wouldn't be able to waste his bandwith every day :P

now to figure out where to send all the punters - certainly no dialers, i tend to dislike them

Hiya jIgG,

SEXMoney.com has over 250 pay sites, spanning 40+ niches and sub-niches in 25 languages. We have 6 different payment methods that are offered to our surfers/members. In addition, we pay in FULL on ALL exits (in Full as well on Console-Free if you choose this method) and on ALL payment methods.

As far as filtering...I would provide you a script, java or PHP based. The script will detect the users OS language and or Browser Language. If it is an English based OS/Browser Language, they will see your site. However let’s say a German surfer came to your site, our site of CumShotGay or similar site which is in German would show instead in the same window. So it is not a true re-direct.
With so many sites in our line-up we can niche target very specifically. So if your site has Twinks, We hit your traffic with ytwink sites, if your site has mostly oral, we hit them with an oral site and so forth.

The script can be implemented on Exit as well as entrance, but in general, my feeling is to target them right when they come onto the site.

We can specify up to 25 languages in the script, or we can target specific countries such as German, Austria, Switzerland the Netherlands etc.

Just to give you an example, in Germany there is a 22% CC penetration and out of that 22% Germans traditionally do not use their Credit cards like we do here in the US or Canada. We see Direct Debit as the major way of paying.

One nice feature about our program is that since we handle our own processing, there is no need for the user to re-enter his CC or other billing info in for upgrades or different package upgrades or cams, as we already have it. This makes for spontaneous in the moment purchases. This is ideal, especially if you go for the rev-share program of 50/50 as you will make 50% of every single dollar the user spends within the Members Area in addition to your standard rev-share. We also offer a per sign-up program

If I can assist you in any way, please feel free to contact me via Phone, ICQ or E-Mail.

Warm regards,
-=Chipmunk=--