Slovakia is a country in the middle of Central Europe, and since May 2004, a new member of the European Union. It’s two times the size of New Hampshire and known for its great nature (including the High Tatras Mountains, which a World Wide Webmaster author recently snowboarded), its NHL ice hockey players, its supermodels, and in general, its smiley, warm-hearted people.Special thanks to Klixxx Magazine, where the World Wide Webmaster series of articles were originally conceived and published.
Slovakia is a country in the middle of Central Europe, and since May 2004, a new member of the European Union. It’s two times the size of New Hampshire and known for its great nature (including the High Tatras Mountains, which a World Wide Webmaster author recently snowboarded), its NHL ice hockey players, its supermodels, and in general, its smiley, warm-hearted people. Slovakia is also becoming an economic tiger in Central Europe for two reasons: For the last five years it has attracted a significant amount of new investors from every sector, but most impressively from the auto industry; secondly, Slovakia have achieved the great dream of former US Presidential Candidate Steve Forbes – the flat tax (19%).
Before we continue, a few facts on Slovakia:Population: 5.4 million
Average income: 6,000 USD
Internet Users: 2 million
Traffic Generation
There are a total of 2 million males aged 15-64 in Slovakia, and more than 50% of them are online. Every day 15% of males in this age group browse the Internet searching for news, chats, and of course porn. Slovakia’s adult online industry is still in diapers, but like a baby it is growing more rapidly than the mature adult markets of developed countries. Strong traffic results come from traffic trading, SE postings and banner and link exchanges. There are opportunities available to trade traffic with the bigger Slovak sites through blind links or through targeted text ads.
Preferred Payment Options
The dialer is the most-used payment option for the adult industry in Slovakia, generating 90% the industry’s income. The broadband solution, or “Voicecall,” makes up the remaining 10%. SMS is growing – there are more than 2 million mobile phones, and surfers are interested in paying for Internet services, including adult services, with SMS. This is the most promising payment method on the market at this time. Credit cards are not even worth considering in Slovakia. Only 20% of Slovakians have a credit card. The few who have credit cards are too concerned about security to use them for online purchases. Furthermore, there is a good chance your North American or European processor blocks Slovakian credit cards. Nothing personal to Slovakia. They block credit cards from all but 20 or so countries around the world.
Preferred Content
Slovaks, like most people everywhere, love barely legal teens in every position, and in and out of clothes. Live chats are also very popular and often requested. In every large city you can find young women working in live shows. This work is clean, non-contact and makes them a ton of money when compared with the other options, such as work in the auto factories. Slovakia is a photo shoot paradise, and homegrown content does well. Slovakian women are young and beautiful, as the world has discovered through Adriana Sklenarikova-Karembeu, Ivona Hlavata and a number of other Slovakian supermodels. Our Slovakian correspondent recommends that you ”go and get one right now!”
Legal Issues
There are no strict anti-adult Internet laws in Slovakia. 15 years after communist rule, it’s a free market for everyone.
Site Optimization
Interested in moving into the Slovak market? Here are a few tips on building a site that will attract the Slovak surfer. Set up telecom billing options – dialer, broadband and SMS. These payment solutions are essential to cashing in on the Slovak traffic. Second, translate. Use the Slovak languages; 90% understand Czech, 50% understand English and 25% understand German. Translate into Slovak, then geo-sort or browser language-sort.
Follow the rules that have made you a successful Webmaster in your home market. Update daily. Be surfer-friendly. Let surfers know what’s new, and what’s hot. In Slovakia, surfers will find you through the largest search engines and through text links on other adult sites. Simply offering your site in Slovakia will bring a great deal of attention. The timing is ripe today because there are few adult .sk sites with which to compete. Start today to take a leadership position in this growing market.
Adult Webmaster Networking
There are around 100 daily working adult Webmasters in Slovakia, working more on .com or .net domains than .sk sites. Slovakians have less than five adult Webmaster boards. Consequently, they do most of their networking on ICQ and via emails. There are also lively meetings at the local bars in Bratislava to keep up to date on what is working and what isn’t working in the adult online business.
Grab the Tiger by the Tail
Slovakia is young, Slovakia is new – they want to see more, and want to get more and more. Take advantage of this rapidly growing market to increase your revenues in a much less competitive environment than that in which you are working today.
This article was originally published in Klixxx Magazine.
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.
