We live in an increasingly shrinking world, where once insurmountable distances are mere nanoseconds away. This has opened up vast opportunities through globalization, but it has also spread the risk and reward far and wide, with some unintended consequences.

For example, a recent trip to the local office supply store revealed a sign proclaiming a limit of one hard drive per customer (new computer purchases included).

I asked why, as I had never heard of such a thing before.

“Flooding in Thailand,” was the response from the store’s manager; who went on to explain rightly or wrongly that all hard drives come from Thailand today, and it would be a while before stocks could be replenished — hence the rationing of hard drives.

Indeed, previous semiconductor supply issues due to natural disasters have hampered the production of computer equipment. Add in a good dose of terrorist threat and drunken stupidity on the assembly line, and it is easy to see how localized issues can affect global businesses in unpredictable ways.

On the adult Internet, regional issues related to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or other problems, such as the availability of viable online billing options are also a concern.

Having a plan to mitigate some of these serious hazards; such as protocols to quickly suspend costly advertising and traffic buys, and to redirect sponsor links, could be vital.

An important ingredient in this plan is having the technological ability to immediately redirect traffic sources and destinations.

This is already a component of many billing and cascading setups, where un-billable countries are blocked or redirected; as well as a tool used by popular trade scripts and ad serving software; and an easy enough application for in-house or outsourced developers to deploy, providing myriad integration options.

But is bulk blocking or generic redirects the most sophisticated solutions available?

Another major consideration in all of this is that pesky “inequality of wealth” issue; where just because 99.99 percent of a certain country can’t afford any of your offerings, doesn’t mean that a rich Prince or two isn’t among that country’s overall traffic mix — these customers include those elusive “whales” you hear so much about — and are fish worth baiting a hook for.

Beyond royalty, every society has members that can well afford to pay for your wares — even in North Korea — but that doesn’t mean you can accept their payments online; as most payment processors limit the countries they serve, and standard credit cards such as MasterCard and Visa are still far from being commonplace in many parts of the world.

For example, a small CCBill operator will have less chance of successfully passing a transaction than will a megalithic corporation that cascades through every available biller, including its own merchant accounts and processing companies.

These factors combine to make the notion of installing a “whale trap” worthwhile, as opposed to simply blocking “undesirable” countries; or even placed upstream of a dump-out to a traffic broker or other revenue source used to monetize your “junk” traffic.

This can be as simple as a home-page redirect to a white label cam or dating sponsor, or better yet, a custom landing page offering a range of affiliate options — sending traffic that you are unable to bill, to someone who can — and geo-targeting makes it possible.