FYI, this is an email that is going out to clients today
Dear Valued Client -
On a daily basis, we receive a variety of calls and emails regarding issues with performance and connectivity. When sales dip, we hear from you and other CCBill Clients asking for insight. If Client website connectivity is the issue, our Consumer Support department receives the cancel requests.
Because we take performance and satisfaction very seriously, we decided to task our Policy Review group with testing sites from our main offices, as well as other locations around the globe, to uncover the major performance differences from different geo locations and during certain peak times.
We began by mapping out those times and areas, against the afternoon/evening hours of the population concentrations with relatively easy access to the internet, and the ability to pay for products online.
What we found was that from 10 -35% of the users in that time slot who could purchase products from your site, were unlikely to do so because of very slow connectivity issues. These tests were conducted on Client sites in a variety of cities with a strong history of purchasing powered (i.e. London), and ultimately these sites would take a very long time to load, and/or their video content would lag and thus be non-viewable. As an illustration, lets say the prime purchasing time for our product is 4pm to 10pm around the world. Now throughout your 24 hour day, visitors from that 4-10 slot are hitting your site from around the world and some of them have a very poor connection. Thus at any one point during the day, 10-35% of the users in that slot that could purchase products from your site, are unlikely to do so because of very slow connectivity issues.
With this information, we believe it is important for you to consider that your site may be quick for a good portion of your users, but you may have a small-to-mid percentage of visitors who have the ability to pay for your content, and have access to the internet, but are finding it difficult to join your site or view your content because they are getting download speeds of 2k/sec.
In an effort to address our side of these issues, some months ago we placed all our Sign up Form images (banners, logos, etc.) on a Content Delivery Network* (a network of servers around the globe that enables content on the network to be loaded from the closest/fastest ?node? to the user). As a result of this switch, we have seen a 23% decrease in form load times, most notably in Western Europe, due to the use of CDN in the delivery of our CCBill Forms.
We think the next step in addressing the balance of the website performance issues is to encourage the use of Content Delivery Networks across our client base. Almost every major US website (mainstream) uses content delivery in some form or another in the delivery of their high-traffic and bandwidth pages and images. Because of this increase in the amount of CDN bandwidth, pricing for content delivery is generally now the same as regular bandwidth pricing. Best of all, CDN does not require additional hardware, so there is really no downside to using these systems.
In closing, we at CCBill want to support our entire Client-base in their efforts to:
-maximize site performance
-decrease lost sales and increase member retention
-increase of overall revenue
To assist you in this process, we have listed CDN providers below that have the technology to support your Tours, Protected Member's Content, plus flash and windows media streaming technology:
* Cavecreek CDN -2 week free trial. Test the performance difference between your current Host and CDN with no commitment or automatic billing. One call to us at the end of your trial places you back with your current hosting provider.
* NationalNet CDN
* Mojohost CDN
Many thanks,
Mark Greenspan
VP of CCBill Risk
*Below for your information, are some commonly asked questions about CDN:
GENERAL CDN FAQ'S
What does CDN stand for and how does it work?
A Content Delivery Network is a network of servers around the globe. When you ?offload? your content on a CDN your content gets distributed over this global network and as a result, when your users access your content, they get it from the closest ?node?, rather than from the location your servers are at.
How easy is it to set up?
No additional equipment required. The host name DNS is redirected to the CDN provider and they start to cache right away. The system has tremendous flexibility so you can determine what gets cached and what doesn?t and for how long. Set up can be done in a few days
How can I trust CDN?
CDN technology has been around for more than 10 years and every major website in the US uses it in some form or other. The adult market has not had access to this before since most of the major player have previously not allowed allow adult content on their network, and this attitude has recently changed with the first Major provider (Level 3) getting into the adult market
How would CDN benefit me?
Revenue - Clients have reported speed increases of 100%+ in load times for images and videos on their tours, which translates to shorter wait times for the users and a higher numbers of clicks proceeding to the signup form
Availability - with better performance and less dropped connections users will have higher likelihood to complete transactions and access content quickly.
Scalability ? If there is an expected or unexpected spike in traffic (ie: a mention on Howard Stern) CDN allows you to efficiently absorb the bandwidth with continued lightning fast performance.
Who uses CDN?
The list of people who use CDN is a who?s who from CNN to Disney, yahoo, Google, etc. Mainstream web sites have been benefiting from this technology for years.
How much does CDN cost?
CDN prices have dropped over the years and are now at the same levels at normal bandwidth pricing.
Do I have to be a certain size before I can use CDN?
CDN can be implemented on websites of nearly any size. You can host just the pictures/video on the CDN or host the entire website.
Dear Valued Client -
On a daily basis, we receive a variety of calls and emails regarding issues with performance and connectivity. When sales dip, we hear from you and other CCBill Clients asking for insight. If Client website connectivity is the issue, our Consumer Support department receives the cancel requests.
Because we take performance and satisfaction very seriously, we decided to task our Policy Review group with testing sites from our main offices, as well as other locations around the globe, to uncover the major performance differences from different geo locations and during certain peak times.
We began by mapping out those times and areas, against the afternoon/evening hours of the population concentrations with relatively easy access to the internet, and the ability to pay for products online.
What we found was that from 10 -35% of the users in that time slot who could purchase products from your site, were unlikely to do so because of very slow connectivity issues. These tests were conducted on Client sites in a variety of cities with a strong history of purchasing powered (i.e. London), and ultimately these sites would take a very long time to load, and/or their video content would lag and thus be non-viewable. As an illustration, lets say the prime purchasing time for our product is 4pm to 10pm around the world. Now throughout your 24 hour day, visitors from that 4-10 slot are hitting your site from around the world and some of them have a very poor connection. Thus at any one point during the day, 10-35% of the users in that slot that could purchase products from your site, are unlikely to do so because of very slow connectivity issues.
With this information, we believe it is important for you to consider that your site may be quick for a good portion of your users, but you may have a small-to-mid percentage of visitors who have the ability to pay for your content, and have access to the internet, but are finding it difficult to join your site or view your content because they are getting download speeds of 2k/sec.
In an effort to address our side of these issues, some months ago we placed all our Sign up Form images (banners, logos, etc.) on a Content Delivery Network* (a network of servers around the globe that enables content on the network to be loaded from the closest/fastest ?node? to the user). As a result of this switch, we have seen a 23% decrease in form load times, most notably in Western Europe, due to the use of CDN in the delivery of our CCBill Forms.
We think the next step in addressing the balance of the website performance issues is to encourage the use of Content Delivery Networks across our client base. Almost every major US website (mainstream) uses content delivery in some form or another in the delivery of their high-traffic and bandwidth pages and images. Because of this increase in the amount of CDN bandwidth, pricing for content delivery is generally now the same as regular bandwidth pricing. Best of all, CDN does not require additional hardware, so there is really no downside to using these systems.
In closing, we at CCBill want to support our entire Client-base in their efforts to:
-maximize site performance
-decrease lost sales and increase member retention
-increase of overall revenue
To assist you in this process, we have listed CDN providers below that have the technology to support your Tours, Protected Member's Content, plus flash and windows media streaming technology:
* Cavecreek CDN -2 week free trial. Test the performance difference between your current Host and CDN with no commitment or automatic billing. One call to us at the end of your trial places you back with your current hosting provider.
* NationalNet CDN
* Mojohost CDN
Many thanks,
Mark Greenspan
VP of CCBill Risk
*Below for your information, are some commonly asked questions about CDN:
GENERAL CDN FAQ'S
What does CDN stand for and how does it work?
A Content Delivery Network is a network of servers around the globe. When you ?offload? your content on a CDN your content gets distributed over this global network and as a result, when your users access your content, they get it from the closest ?node?, rather than from the location your servers are at.
How easy is it to set up?
No additional equipment required. The host name DNS is redirected to the CDN provider and they start to cache right away. The system has tremendous flexibility so you can determine what gets cached and what doesn?t and for how long. Set up can be done in a few days
How can I trust CDN?
CDN technology has been around for more than 10 years and every major website in the US uses it in some form or other. The adult market has not had access to this before since most of the major player have previously not allowed allow adult content on their network, and this attitude has recently changed with the first Major provider (Level 3) getting into the adult market
How would CDN benefit me?
Revenue - Clients have reported speed increases of 100%+ in load times for images and videos on their tours, which translates to shorter wait times for the users and a higher numbers of clicks proceeding to the signup form
Availability - with better performance and less dropped connections users will have higher likelihood to complete transactions and access content quickly.
Scalability ? If there is an expected or unexpected spike in traffic (ie: a mention on Howard Stern) CDN allows you to efficiently absorb the bandwidth with continued lightning fast performance.
Who uses CDN?
The list of people who use CDN is a who?s who from CNN to Disney, yahoo, Google, etc. Mainstream web sites have been benefiting from this technology for years.
How much does CDN cost?
CDN prices have dropped over the years and are now at the same levels at normal bandwidth pricing.
Do I have to be a certain size before I can use CDN?
CDN can be implemented on websites of nearly any size. You can host just the pictures/video on the CDN or host the entire website.
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