Converting International Traffic

Cyndalie

At the August 2001 CyberNet Expo, Jean-Christopher Gramont from GoodThinxx.com gave a seminar on “The Internet Gold Rush: European market for the adult Internet industry”. Several points made at this seminar deserve to be highlighted.

Did you know that by the end of 2001, over 40% of Internet traffic will originate from Europe? International traffic, in the past, has been a webmasters nightmare. Not only can they not convert the sales using a credit card payment option (only 20% of international surfers have and even less will use a credit card online), fraud from some countries is so common that credit card processing is blocked where charge backs are high and conflict resolution is difficult. And the traffic ups the bandwidth costs as there is no ratio for conversion to pay for the usage leaving the webmaster with lots of surfers, few members, and a high web hosting bill.

So how do you convert European and international traffic? Usually little effort is required to adapt US-originated sites to the European markets (re: content, billing, language). A couple factors are the quality of the products/services you are offering. Naming names, such as where your content came from, or using a preferred billing provider increases customer confidence in your site.

Niche is extremely important from the front page of your site to your members section. Since most of the world uses international versions of popular search engines (Yahoo, Lycos), marketing within your niche should be focused and targeted. Consider a marketing strategy that builds on partnerships with these region specific search engines and directories.

A payment option that anyone from around the world can use is clearly the first step to converting international traffic. The most popular solution is a Dialer Program. Did you know that Dialers are the preferred payment method in Europe due to Privacy and Security! Essentially, Dialer programs allow a surfer to pay per minute to view, chat, and interact with girls and content provided by the Dialer, and charges are applied to their phone bill. Learn about Dialer Programs.

Since language is a large factor in converting international traffic, dialers often provide banners and content in several major languages. Although the member content is translated (when provided by the Dialer), you may want to translate parts of your existing website, TGP, Free Site, AVS, or Pay site to attract the eye of the international surfers.

The website and text translator tool can help you translate text into 9 different languages catch phrases to add to your site, even translate possible keywords for search engine marketing! "Web users are up to four times more likely to purchase from a site that communicates in the customer's language" (www.idc.com) Be the first to use the translator at http://www.adultchamber.com/members/translator.htm

Still wondering if it is worth your time?
You can double your potential customer base!

"There are approximately 172 million English speakers and 163 million non-English speakers online" (Global Reach).

The top 5 countries based on Internet users are : US, Japan, Germany, UK, and Italy. (France, China, and South Korea close behind)

TO DO’s
1. Identify your site as European or Internationally Friendly
2. Provide language specific billing instructions for all your payment options.
3. Find out from your Credit Card Processor what major countries they DO NOT process transactions from.
4. If you offer a product or service to European webmasters, give names that ring a bell, talk about your business, history, and goals.
5. Be clear and concise; Try not to use too much slang.
6. Use a Dialer that can convert sales from all connection speeds (ISDN, DSL, LAN)
7. Ultimately, use a professional translation service or someone who speaks/writes the language you want to target.

Originally Written by Cyndalie for AdultChamber.com