The hilarious Colin Rowntree of Wasteland kicked the seminar off with the Eros Association's Fiona Patten, who discussed ISP filtering, which sparked debate about international content regulation.
Australia's classification and age verification systems, Patten said, are as strict as they come, and it's important to be aware that potential customers in other countries might have to go great lengths to be permitted to view certain material.
Michael Reul of Webbilling said that in Germany, a 2004 age verification law required users to prove their age in person by visiting the producers' offices to introduce themselves. Then the hopeful user waits to receive a password via postman, who checks his or her age before handing it over.
"Most webmasters left Germany," Reul said.
Some countries, Patten said, including China and Australia, filter their ISPs for anything adult or considered "inappropriate" — whatever that might be.
Also discussed was the penetration of credit card payment around the world, and the need to offer alternative billing solutions so that as many potential users can access and pay for material as possible.
Though credit cards are used more often than ever, 2000Charge's Raphael Berkien said, there is no credit system in Europe the way it is in the U.S. Most often, direct-from-account and bank-driven payments are most popular, and it's important to offer ACH and debit payment options.
Omar Rodriguez of GloballyTranslated.com brought up the necessity to translate all content and website information in every language spoken in every country a webmaster hopes to penetrate, and the languages to focus on now are Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, French, German and Japanese.
"Target those five languages," Rodriguez said. "They have the most solid economic structure to pay for porn."
Rodriguez also said that as soon as a U.S. webmaster opens up to international markets and does it right, he or she will notice a 5-15 percent increase in business.
And when exploring affiliation with international webmasters, all on the panel, especially Epoch's Jeff Thaler, urged attendees to truly know them and work backwards to find the source of their traffic to be sure they are legit.
Thaler also repeated the importance of working with a legitimate billing company that can measure an affiliate's performance based on transaction patterns, and will alert the U.S. webmaster if anything looks fishy.
