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If you are going to incorporate, I would take Luke's Advice. If you want to process Visa with in the next 48 hours, contact me 202740086. You are correct that if you don't have VISA, you are cutting the potential revenue. From studies VISA is 70% of all credit card tansactions..
OK...I have to chime in here. People keep saying VISA is 70% of sales. The problem with that is, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is true all of us would be in serious trouble without CC processing - but it also true that all this means is to really think outside of the box is imperative because you're putting 70% of your eggs in a basket which is being held over a cliff.
Why do surfers choose creditcard? It's simple - it's status quo. The trick is to change the surfer's behavior so that it isn't status quo IMO. Ideally, your revenue would never be 70% dependent on any one source - no business in mainstream operates that way (I hope). It's not sound business practice unless that 70% is in gold bars. Remember, people, the entire US economy has collapsed or near collapsed several times in the past - and that should be far more sound than any creditcard.
There are also serious issues with creditcard which IMO are not being seriously addressed - and could easily be. Your whole business plan depends on minimizing what is mostly friendly fraud with CC - yet the security systems for over half of the world (AVS, for example) are either underdeveloped or non-existent. CVV2 is the worst example of real fraud defence that makes absolutely no sense - obviously if someone stole your card, "card present" is hardly a good measure of whether it's stolen. It's like cops stopping car thieves and letting them go because they have the car.
I rant here because I feel the adult industry is in part responsible for the serious questions surrounding CC today. Not because of fraud, not because of webmaster verification - because it is the accepted norm that we cannot operate without them. It's detente with no missiles.
I've raised this challenge before on GFY and other boards - and will raise it again. Why can't America catch up to most of the Western world? Debit processing is real in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland in most cases - why not here? Do we not have businesspeople in any industry with the technical expertise, financial backing, and general wherewithall to get this done? The adult industry is billions of dollars - yet we can't help the country catch up with systems that put the US on par with Europe? (I volunteer 40 hours of PHP programming for anyone legitimately doing this)
SMS billing. Why not here? Why do Americans have to call it "texting" instead of the simpler and clearer "SMS"? Why is our cellular phone system in such a mess that LNP barely operates, much less consistent billing practices for all providers that let people buy adult through SMS? Do the SMS providers really not *want* any revenue from adult - or is it the morality of an intrusive government causing this? It's perfectly fine for me to send twenty SMS's to vote for Nadia Turner on American Idol but not one to get a pint-sized pic of a naked person?
There are at least five or six ways to make a dime in this industry that do not require credit cards. It involves selling the consumer in some cases, to be sure - but isn't that what we do? And realistically speaking, based on my analysis, most of those ways mean counting on America for revenue is a serious misjudgment of business, since in terms of simple economics in the online world we're hardly first-world.
-doug
Doug.. you didn't read the sentence... VISA is 70% of credit card transactions and it isn't the webmasters responsibility to make sure the choose one over the other... since this is an internet industry the only thing you can do is offer options. A few bad apples can spoil the bunch and that is what happened in the past with adult and online transactions.... but the credit card is 70% because of rebills and that is where most people are looing to make thier money.Quote:
Originally Posted by crescentx
I agree with your rant, and believe in the same thoughts you have. Regardless of the word 'texting' it takes america a lot longer to adjust because the cellular systems here are on completely different systems where are the carriers overseas utilize the best of one technology (better than the US). We do offer SMS billing in the US, I have a product now that is working quite well...
In any case you bring up very valid points and are ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding the billing methods and needs to carry this industry on to the next generation. Which, btw, will be fund loaded, pre-paid cards, SMS and anything other than VISA or MAstercard.
Cheers!
doug, i have 2 visa cards plus 1 virtual visa account, and 0 mastercards.... mastercard is not popular here in Australia and it is not popular in a lot of other places around the world.
If i were to go to your site and see you did not offer visa, then I would be off to one of the other 100,000 or so paysites I could join...simple as that!
cheers,
Luke
What I meant was creditcard in general...be it VISA, MC, Discover, JCB, Amex...
-doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilihost
my point was just that if its not simple to join a site, surfers will very very quickly go to the next site where it is simple to join.Quote:
Why do surfers choose creditcard? It's simple - it's status quo.
cheers,
Luke
Not if you give them a good enough reason not too...its all marketing.
-doug
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilihost
Hey everyone... once again, the feedback here's been awesome. Thanks.
Luke (Chillihost), you mentioned EU incorporations for only about 500 pounds:
- can you let me know who'll do it for 500 pounds?
- does that price include the resident agent service?
Cheers,
Brian