Need Advice

[Mike-mijen]

Hi To All! I have a real question to ask. I am at a cross road. I have been playing in the AVS arena for years now. I have a ton of original content. And I am thinking of going it alone and set up my own processing through CCBILL or EPOCH. I need some real advice here. If someone can help I would appreciate it. I do not take the help here for granted. If I do this and opt out of the $750 Visa charge (as right now after the cost of moving into my new home) for right now and just use the normal cards offed. Would this be a smart decision to not use Visa Right away and wait a couple months? How bad would this hurt me not using them right off the bat?
Thanks Mike

[Toby]

It depends on what you're going to do for those "couple months". If your going to be spending it building traffic, and don't figure to have many sales anyway for the first few months then it may not be a big deal.

However, if you already have a traffic source and feel you'll be making sales right away, then pony up and pay the fee. The overwhelming majority of CC sales are Visa, or Visa debit cards. If you don't accept Visa you'll be leaving alot of money on the table.

[Cleo]

Most of the sales at the two sites that I manage are made through Visa but who knows if that option wasn't there if the surfer would move on or use another option..

I don't have a lot of love for Epoch but I am a big fan of CCBill.

[cd34]

In looking over the last month's stats for some code I wrote umpteen years ago that somehow stands the test of time and still does processing, 71% of the charges handled through it to a particular series of sites are Visa.

53% visa, 27% mc, rest are amex/discover on a non-adult merchant account.

I can tell you that some of the solo girl sites that start out, are frustrated until they get visa processing set up. I don't think you can afford not to take visa.

If you are going to try things without an affiliate program -- just to toss your own traffic, Verotel does have a 'ticketclub' membership which has a volume cap that you could use to get started. Earn your $750 on your own traffic then sign up with ccbill or paycom.

[DangerDave]

Find! and invest the $750.. The return is far greater WITH Visa than without...

Having been through a time without processing, without CCBill, running through Verotel, I believe CCBill WITH the Visa option is by far the best choice.

DD

[Mike-mijen]

Thanks for the advice. I was leaning that way with Visa. I stay where I am at for a couple months and re-asset the situation then.
Thanks
Mike

[NY Jester]

Mike, just as the advice here has been offered I have to agree. The $750 may seem steep to set up but the if you have a source of traffic and have the option of VISA already in place you will see that it was a wise investment. Many of the larger US banks use Visa for their debit system and check cards and therefore much more chance of a sale from those. Take the advice given and pay for the activation...and also I'll say Im much more supportive of CCBill than Epoch systems...as I think many other are/will be as well. Best of luck with it all.

[SirMoby]

After processing fees you should make at least $17 per sale (assuming a $20 a month sales price). That means that in only 44 sales you'll make your money back. In reality you should make the money back with only 20 to 30 sales when considering rebills.

I think it's a must have item.

[Mr. Blue]

There is another option you can try...If you're pushing your own traffic and don't intend on having affiliates pushing traffic to you...you could use Verotel's Ticket Club to handle the processing.

Since I've been in porn people have yelped about Verotel, but I set up a site for someone 2 years ago using this and the conversion ratios for the site was great, Verotel was very professional in setting everything up, and it was a way to accept visa without the visa fee. Just an option for you to consider if you're a little cash strapped at the moment.