Info piece : Phone billing uncovered

[emjay]

With so many different online billing methods available, the world of processing ? the most crucial element of the value chain ? can sometimes be a confusing place.

In broad strokes, if you operate a paysite, it is important to cherry-pick the best processors in their respective fields, and offer them all. After all, the more ways a prospective customer has to pay you, the better ? both for them, and more importantly for your bank balance.

One form of billing that should definitely feature as part of your processing portfolio is telephone billing ? not least since the phone is so ubiquitous. There are now more cellphones in my home country of the UK than there are people!

This article aims to help give you a better understanding as to how this particular form of billing works, so that you can make an informed choice when deploying it.

Contrary to popular belief, phone processors like us and others involved in this space do not dictate the end-user costs ? the various phone companies worldwide with whom we have interconnect agreements do.

This is why the outpayments vary from country to country. In all those markets that support domestic ?premium rate? billing, then these numbers are served to surfers the cost of which, as the name suggests, are charged at a premium and collected by the surfer?s phone company who, in turn, then pay the company with whom you have an agreement. These then retain their margin and pay the balance to you, the webmaster, whose content initiated the call in the first place.

Since the telephone remains an essential utility to most people, chargebacks are practically unheard of since they tend to pay their bills in full. However, as with mobile, the USA is one notable exception ? Americans are not legally obliged to pay the 1-900 element of their phone bill. Thankfully, the credit card still reigns supreme here, which is why I actually advise clients NOT to employ phone billing in this particular country.

Thankfully, the world is a big place and the internet, being the world?s first truly international medium, allows you to make money on a global scale with this kind of billing.

It is important to bear in mind that when comparing rates from the various processors, all is not as it first appears. A case in point would be when comparing the outpayment rates for Switzerland, a country which supports pay-per-minute at exceptionally high rates.

Some processors automatically elect to serve the most expensive premium number available in each country, thus at first appearing to be offering the best rates. However, this strategy can be counterproductive since it can be an instant ?turn off? for most prospective customers. We believe it is far better to employ more realistic price-points where possible so that surfers are far more likely to pick up the phone to pay you!

Note that the vast majority of counties throughout the world do NOT support domestic pay-per-call billing. In such cases, the surfer is invited to make a regular IDD (International Direct Dial) call in order to receive their password. The telco of the country to which the call is made understands that this is effectively ?new money? and thus is prepared a proportion of the so-called settlement rate which phone companies worldwide use to pay one another.

We pride ourselves on offering the highest international outpayment rates within the industry, allowing you to make money from markets such as the huge emerging growth economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Whilst credit card billing is and remains the best way to charge for monthly subscriptions, phone billing is a great way to charge for lesser periods of access time.

Bottom line : Phone billing will add to yours

[seeandsee]

Phone billing rocks :

[The Duck]

Great article, do you offer phone billing for content stores?

[emjay]

Originally Posted by kandah

Great article, do you offer phone billing for content stores?

Good chatting to your earlier kandah In your case, since your price points are quite low, yes ;-)

[emjay]

PS : Compare our outpayment rates: http://www.password-by-phone.com/revenue_perminute.php

[HomerSimpson]

PBP rocks!

[fatfoo]

good post, thanks

[emjay]

As we point out on our website, most of the world does not have a credit card. However, practically everyone has access to a phone or cell. With this is mind, it is important that you include phone billing as part of your processing portfolio.

There are two primary methods to employ phone billing, which this post aims to address : ?Pay-per-minute?, whereby - as the name suggests - surfers pay you on a per minute basis, and ?pay-per-access? billing, whereby the password ordering process generates the revenue : how much access time you then grant for said revenue is up to you.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages which we will now explore in greater detail.

Per-per-minute (PPM) billing primarily only works in developed markets whereby the end-user has access to a broadband internet connection and has thus has access to a phone line and the internet similtaneously.

Surfers are invited to call a premium rate number which then grants them instant access to the desired members area for the time that the call connection is maintained : the moment they hang up, they lose connection to the web-content.

The hold-time and thus revenue generated with such billing is totally content driven : the more compelling the content, the longer the surfer is likely to hang around.

Such payment methodolgy makes for a perfect fit with VOD sites, as well as the classic paysite.

As anyone who has been inside a member area that interests them knows, time can really fly by, and this can result in connection times of half an hour or possibly much more.

As for the the ?pay-per-access? (PPA) method on which PbP ?classic? is based, this works with ALL types of internet connection, including with dial-up which remains the primary method of connecting to the internet in the developing world. However, they first need to disconnect from the internet in order to free-up their phone line in order to make said call.

The ordering process to generate the password needed in order to gain access to the premium content is what generates the revenue ? once ?inside?, the billing clock is no longer ticking.

This method of phone billing also makes for a great fit with dating sites : surfers need not worry about running up high phone bills since the hold time is fixed : however, once they have created their profile and enjoyed a day?s membership, they need to buy another password at a later stage in order to check their messages/winks etc. ? in short, a fantantstic recurring business model.

By not deploying phone billing as part of your processing options, you are depriving yourself of income from people from all over the world who would like to pay you, but can?t.

[The Duck]

Great article as always.

[emjay]

If you operate a paysite, we can create an international version to help squeeze every last cent from your global traffic. Some suggestions:

[MOxxx]

Great post as always.

[emjay]

Originally Posted by MOxxx

Great post as always.

Thanks Mo As you know, Money talks, in every language?