The key topic for this roundtable, “Where has all the traffic gone?” seemed to be a misnomer according to our distinguished panelists. They all seemed to agree the traffic is still there but for a variety of reasons and recent developments, conversions and attracting new customers is more difficult than ever before..The key topic for this roundtable, “Where has all the traffic gone?” seemed to be a misnomer according to our distinguished panelists. They all seemed to agree the traffic is still there but for a variety of reasons and recent developments, conversions and attracting new customers is more difficult than ever before.
Panelists:
Richard Nash (BangWang) – Silvercash
Started in 1995 with a top 50 site list / TGP
Founded illicitsex.com and Holio.net in 1997
Became Executive VP of Silvercash in 2003
Aly Drummond – Python Video
Been with Python since the original streaming sex feed
Colin Rowntree – wasteland.com
Started in 1994 with an online lingerie catalog developed into the wasteland.com fetish/bondage sex site
Rick Schwartz (AKA Webfather, Domain Pimp)
Began collecting keyword domains related to sex in 1995 beginning with dick.com and currently owns the largest collection of keyword traffic domains
Fred Lane
Moderator, attorney and author of Obscene Profits
“The novelty of Internet porn has worn off,” Richard commented. Further, the recent developments in the credit card billing industry make it more difficult to join adult sites. Rick believes that credit card companies are scrubbing too hard unnecessarily eliminating new customers and causing a disproportionate charge back ratio. Additionally, more free porn available now on the Internet devalues the content that pay sites offer, reasoned Aly.
The overall combined effect of these factors causes our conversion rates to fall and the “appearance” of a general decline in surfer traffic. So with all of these factors contributing to a decline in the quality and quantity of traffic reaching adult Web sites, how do we both as individual Web site owners and as an industry bring back the traffic and increase the bottom line of converting a surfer into a paying customer?
One area where the novelty of Internet porn is still alive and well is in the overseas and non-U.S. markets. With computer equipment and Internet access becoming more accessible in other countries, more and more traffic is coming from international sources. As much as 40% of the traffic for some of the sites run by our panelists indicates that this is one of the largest and fastest growing market segments. Rick predicts that in ten years the amount of traffic coming from other countries will exceed the traffic from the U.S. Some of the most recent growth is coming from the Spanish-speaking countries.
Having your website translated into multiple languages is a necessity to convert the non-English speaking surfer into a paying customer and in attracting new surfers from other countries. Making your Web site friendly and understandable to non-U.S. surfers is critical to your success. Offering your foreign members extended memberships or free memberships in exchange for translation services has worked extremely well for Colin (wasteland.com is currently available in seven different languages).
Additionally, having ways to collect payments from people in other countries using their native currencies is also key. Reputable third party billing solutions from the countries where your surfers come from is the answer. Dialers seem to be a good solution for countries where the native banks lack the accountability or stability to support online billing.
Offering more solutions to bill customers is a starting point to attracting more traffic that everyone seemed to agree with. Making a Web site easier to join is the key. But the traditional billing methods (Visa / Mastercard) lately have blamed the adult industry as the source of their charge back woes. Factors ranging from credit card fraud to affiliate program fraud are responsible for the recent events.
One alternative to decreasing the charge backs is that, “if billing were not done monthly, but rather per-minute or pay-per-view, the number of transactions would increase and at the same time charge back ratios for porn in general would become negligible,” offered Rick. While the logic of this solution seems obvious, not everyone agreed that this is a viable method for billing customers. Other panelists seemed to lean toward the less radical approach of having a “base” monthly fee, with premium “add-on” content and some pay-per-view events – similar to the way cable television works.
On top of the suggested shifts in the approach to billing, there is also an inevitable shift that must occur in affiliate program payouts. Aly summed it up best with, “Businesses can no longer afford to take the risk of large one-time cash payouts for customers.” Large one-time payouts encourage fraud. The current trend is to return to affiliate programs that pay a smaller percentage of the membership fee on a recurring basis, thus ensuring the higher dollar payouts are for long term customers, and a lesser cash risk to the Web sites paying the commissions.
Even with the billing issues and the growth in non-U.S. traffic, a simple common sense business approach was echoed by all of the panelists. Provide your surfers with quality content, frequent updates and excellent customer service, and you will attract new customers and increase the retention of the customers you have.
Unlike previous roundtables I’ve attended, the focus on niche content and content in general was greatly downplayed here. Niches are great, stated Colin, as they generate loyal long-term customers and have excellent conversion, but unfortunately they aren’t going to generate substantial income by themselves. Niches can help develop community and brand recognition among surfers that are looking for a particular niche, but they only provide variety to your overall site content. Even though content is the vehicle that we as Webmasters use to earn money, traffic is the gasoline that makes that vehicle go. Having a large variety of niches and content with frequent updates is a good way to attract more traffic.
Jim “CodeMonkey” is the Senior Web Developer for YNOTMASTERS as well as a chat board administrator and Tech Chat Board moderator. He can be reached at jim@ynotmasters.com.
