This half lives outside the rich countries in Western Europe, North America and East Asia. In this newest World Wide Webmaster column we will make a number of recommendations for making profits in Croatia – and each suggestion applies to 230 more countries.Croatia is the world in which the other half of your traffic lives.

This half lives outside the rich countries in Western Europe, North America and East Asia. In this newest World Wide Webmaster column we will make a number of recommendations for making profits in Croatia – and each suggestion applies to 230 more countries. Follow these suggestions because this half is growing – and the rich half is not.

CROATIA BY THE NUMBERS

Croatia has nearly 4.5 million people – 1,497,525 are males between 15 and 65 with an average Gross Domestic Product of $10,700 per year according to the CIA World Fact Book. About 1 million Croatians are internet users – that is roughly a quarter of the 4 million internet users in the former Yugoslavian republics.

Croatia, like the rest of the world, is growing fast and using telecom billing. Internet user growth rates in Croatia are four times those in Western Europe and other wealthy countries. This large and growing population is paying to access porn with telecom billing. By definition, internet users have access to a phone line and anyone with a phone is set up to use telecom billing. It’s simple. Users access adult content by connecting to a premium rate line, and pay for the per-minute charge on their phone bill just as the early ISPs, including AOL, billed for internet access. End users choose this way to pay because they do not need to enter any private or financial information, and because credit cards are not accepted by internet payment system processors from outside the rich countries.

THE ADULT ONLINE INDUSTRY IN CROATIA

The Croatian adult online industry grew up on the other side of the digital divide. As the first US webmasters were playing with Mosaic in the early 90’s, Yugoslavia was being smashed into a mosaic. The telecom infrastructure needed for the growth of the internet was ravaged during the Balkan war. A destroyed economy could not provide venture capital to fuel a US-style development of internet technologies. Today, the infrastructure has been rebuilt – thanks to foreign investment – and quality connections to the internet are available throughout Croatia. Economically, however, the average Croatian surfer is still cash-strapped. But there is good news. Every major economic indicator is positive today. The economy and the adult online industry will continue to improve as Croatia joins the EU in the next three to five years.

CONVERTING CROATIANS

The way to convert Croatians today is to generate traffic with a free sex portal and offer telecom billing. While free sex portals are the most successful tool for attracting surfers, telecom billing is the only way to bill them. The majority of surfers do not have credit cards and online payment processors will not accept credit cards from the minority of Croatians who have them. Free sex portals are most successful when written in the local language, Croatian, combined with upsells such as live video sex chat. Promotional phrases which work particularly well in this market include:

“Live sex”

“Click to chat live with the babes of your dreams”

“Ask them to do whatever you want and they’ll do it for you”

What type of content do Croatians like best? According to the top listings for search engine activity for adult online in Croatia, the most important word is “hardcore” preferably associated with the word “Free.” In addition, “voyeur” is ranked high. Visit the Croatian sex portal www.voajeri385.com to see for yourself. There are no live shows currently operating in Croatia because of the conservative culture. Surfers are accustomed to interacting with non-Croatian girls in live video chats. For a sense of scale, www.voajeri385.com gets approximately 150,000 Croatian uniques per month. This compares well with the top ranked mainstream portal, Monitor’s, approximately 250,000 monthly uniques – check it out at www.monitor.hr.

CROATIAN LANGUAGE

Croations agree: A site written in a Yugoslavian language will get more sales. Writing in Croatian opens up your audience to the entire Yugoslavian online population, estimated to be 4 million.

As with every foreign language, a webmaster has two options: translate or partner. If you plan to invest significant resources in the Yugoslavian market, the cost of translation can be justified. Consider using Porn Translation Solutions (www.pt-solutions.net) where a native Croatian speaker will translate your English text into the local language. For most webmasters, the most intelligent solution is to partner with a telecom billing provider, such as Nocreditcard.com (webmaster.nocreditcard.com), which provides translated and locally customized promotion, content and billing in all major and many minor languages. Using this type of service is surprisingly simple. Webmasters sign up and geo-sort traffic from selected countries to the telecom billing partner. Sales staff can answer any questions about set-up and geo-sorting.

TRAFFIC AND TRAFFIC TRADES

The main sources for buying traffic in Croatia are portals. Monitor, www.monitor.hr, for example, is primarily a news portal, which sells adult traffic through its sub-domains dedicated to adult content. You should also submit your site to some top-lists including the top two: www.top-lista.com and www.sloveniasex.com. Banner exchanges are coordinated through www.svidnet.com.

CONCLUSION

The World Wide Webmaster recommends that you begin converting Croatian traffic by simply redirecting your existing Croatian traffic to a partner who can provide effective local solutions in this country and around the world. Monitor your results closely in this first phase before deciding to invest in Croatian/Yugoslavian traffic and translation. This small initial investment of your time (typically less than 30 minutes) will increase your profits and give you the feedback you need to move forward. Follow this approach with all countries outside of your main markets. In our experience, the “other half” increases a webmaster’s profits by an average of 15%!

Andreas manages the German-speaking markets for Nocreditcard.com. Mitch manages the English-speaking markets for Nocredticard.com. Clay manages marketing at Nocreditcard.com. Founded in 1996, Nocreditcard.com works with some of the largest, most respected companies in the industry. It’s a recognized leader in turning traffic into cash both domestically and internationally.