Alternative Billing School – Lesson One: How to Squeeze Spain for all its worth!

[Gentle_Ben]

(Scroll to the red text for the CliffNotes :thumbsup: )

Spain is one of the most beautiful and thriving countries in Europe. With a population of 45 million, it relies heavily on its incredible weather, its unique cities, and its eclectically beautiful architecture and culture in order to bring in the tourism dollars and foreign investment.

Broadband Penetration High:

Spaniards have always been ahead of the Internet learning curve. Broadband penetration has increased from 13% in 2000, to almost 50 % in 2006 (Neilson). The extra earning potential is there, and it’s growing… fast.

Big Hint:

Psssst! Whispers: Spaniards don’t speak English!!!

Well, of course there are some who do, but in general, most do not speak a ton of English. You see, Spain is a very new democracy. It was ruled by the famous war mongering dictator Francisco Franco until his death in 1975. For decades people weren’t allowed speak or learn any other language apart from Castellano (Spanish).

This means that although a Spanish user might be interested in your content, there’s little chance they will even make it to the payment page if everything is in English. Makes sense no? Thousands of potential members are being lost!

If They Don’t Speak English, How Do I Convert Them?

Here is the lesson:

Credit Card? Not so much. Although it’s a civilized Western European country, credit card processing is not the best option. Credit card fraud is high in Spain and hence, so is the scrubing.

Debit? Although localized debit card processing is becoming trendy, it more or less acts as a gateway to CC payment, which we have established, does not work so well in Spain.

Phone Billing is the Best Solution!

Phone billing works so well in Spain for several reasons. Culturally, Spaniards are very comfortable paying for things with telco-based solutions. They aren’t as comfortable divulging their credit card info on the Internet.

In fact a surprising amount of people here will jump on the phone quickly at work, purchase their password, which they then take home with them to enjoy.


You’d be surprised how many people love using the system. Without being tied to just one site membership, the surfer pays for the content when he feels like it (when he’s home alone for instance) and is billed anonymously on his phone bill. If you have great content, users will come back again and again providing you with far more profit than you’d get with a typical credit card join.


The best way to convert Spanish traffic is to find a phone billing company with the following abilities:

- The more phone options the better: Pay-per-minute, Pay-per-access, and SMS/Micropayment providers (SMS is VERY popular in Spain).
- A company that can help you customize, optimize, and geo-target in order to make sure you are speaking ‘their’ language.
- A company that has as much experience as possible in dealing specifically with foreign traffic.

I'll post some good examples tomorrow...

Hope this info will help anyone trying to boost their revenues!