Tuesday, Feb 12, 2008    Text size: 

Commonly, clients will blame the IPSP's lack of connectivity for a drop-off in sales; while the IPSP's Consumer Support department has been responsible for dealing with cancellation requests over issues of client website connectivity.

Clearly, connectivity is the issue, but where does the fault lie – with CCBill or the client's own website? This new study by CCBill's Policy Review group set out to find an answer.

CCBill tested sites from both its main offices, as well as from locations around the world, in order to understand the major performance differences that are seen across different regions 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," Mark Greenspan, CCBill vice president of risk assessment, said. "What we found was that up to 35 percent of the time, depending on the time/region, qualified consumers who were able to join your sites and access your content online, were unable to join because of connectivity issues."

Seeking to address the role that CCBill plays in these issues, the company has hosted all sign up form images such as banners and logos, on a Content Delivery Network which allows content to be served to users from the closest or fastest "node" on a worldwide network of servers.

As a result of the use of CDN for the delivery of its forms, CCBill reports a noticeable decrease in load times, especially throughout Western Europe.

"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," Greenspan said. "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."

Historically underutilized within adult due to the cost, CDN bandwidth has become much more readily available and competitive with standard bandwidth pricing and requires no additional hardware.

In an attempt to support its entire client-base in maximizing site performance, decreasing lost sales and increasing member retention and overall revenue, CCBill put together a list of hosting providers that offer CDN services and the technology to support paysite tours and protected member's areas, along with Flash and Windows Media streaming.

The ISPs include sister-company Cavecreek which is offering a special two week free trial; as well as NationalNet and Mojohost. More information on Cavecreek's CDN promo is available by contacting cdntrial@cavecreek.com.