“You could use an AVS system, a third party billing company, or go all out and get your own merchant account.”“You could use an AVS system, a third party billing company, or go all out and get your own merchant account.”

OK, so you have a great idea for a new paysite, or you have an existing free site that you are ready to start making some serious money from, and you want to upgrade it to a paysite. Plus, you want to keep kids off your site, and requiring a credit card is a great way to do that. How are you going to take care of billing your customers?

There are three options available to you. You could use an AVS system, a third party billing company, or go all out and get your own merchant account. Let’s take a look at each of them in detail.

ADULT VERIFICATION SYSTEMS

An AVS, or Adult Verification Systems, are one of the options available. You sign up with the company of choice (or multiple companies), they provide you with some HTML code to put on your site, and only that company’s (or companies’) members can access your site. Notice I said “that company’s members”. Not YOUR members –you only sell memberships to the AVS company! This means that everyone who has a username and password for your AVS company of choice can access your site….REGARDLESS of where they purchased it. When you DO make a membership sale for their company, they’ll typically pay you anywhere from 50% to 85% of the total purchase.

If you accept AVS passwords from one of the BIG companys, you are going to find that you are giving your content away for FREE to literally THOUSANDS of surfers, none of whom have any intention of spending a single DIME on your site. In addition, passwords to popular AVS systems are widely traded on the Web, on USENET and in IRC chatgroups. All in all, not a particularly good deal for you. Back in 1\’\’6, in the face of the Communications Decency Act, adding a new AVS system to your site was a built-in gold mine, but in today’s climate, as another author on this site has noted, the gold rush is over!

THIRD-PARTY BILLING COMPANIES

For the beginning paysite, this is the method of choice. Your members-only area is password-protected via .htaccess/.htpasswd or software methods. You sign up with a third party billing company to manage your members area, and they become an “authorized reseller” for your website.

There are numerous companies that offer these services, and they all differ from one degree or another. Some will provide you with software and HTML codes to accept sales to your members area, grant “instant” access, etc. Some will even install their software for you. Others expect you to find your own software solution. Most third-party billers also provide recurring billing in some form or another, and as any paysite webmaster will tell you, recurring billing is the LIFEBLOOD of a paysite!

“You sign up with a third party billing company to manage your members area, and they become an “authorized reseller” for your website.”