Quote Originally Posted by nickbaer
If bribes are bad for elected officials in DC, they are bad for business - at the Phoenix Forum, Las Vegas, Florida, wherever the dog and pony show pitches its tent the next time.
This has nothing at all to do with bribes. It has to do with human nature. When you meet someone face to face, talk with them, understand the things that the two of you have in common, and bat around ideas on how you can make each other money, it's far more likely that a deal will come about than if you send emails, talk over IM, or make phonecalls. Not that those things aren't valuable as well, but there are few things that beat a face-to-face opportunity to meet and talk... it's true of any business, but probably even more so in the online adult biz, since everyone is otherwise pretty anonymous.

If CCBILL wants a new customer, take the money spent on Phoenix Forum and set up my account! I'm NOT paying CCBILL hundreds of dollars to set up a merchant account, so they can spend tens of thousands of dollars on Phoenix Forum.
CCBill doesn't charge anything to set up an account with them, and they don't offer merchant accounts, they are an IPSP. If you want to accept Visa, then you have to pay the $750 fee required by Visa US regulations, but that fee goes mostly to Visa, with a small portion retained by the IPSP to cover their costs in reviewing the websites for compliance.