These day especially camming might be a good idea. In a pandemic situation where everybody is stuck at home, everybody has 100% of their time to spend on entertainment, including on cam.

Camming has been very trendy for the last 10+ years at least, so regardless of the world health situation, you might want to explore that venue for another source of income.

There’s so many options to choose from so here’s a few things to consider if you’re interested in camming.

A little bit of history

It’s not really a tip but it’s something that you might use to impress your other camgirl friends;) Webcamming as we know it today started in April 1996 when a student from Pennsylvania, Jennifer Ringley, installed a webcam in her dorm room and started “streaming” her whole life on the internet. At its peak, jennicam.com, the site she created, attracted 4 million views a day which back then was huge. Of course technology was not the same as it is today and her website would show a picture every minute. She showed everything, including when she engaged in some sexy time. And the rest is history…

Let’s fast forward a few years later to today. The arrival of what’s known today as tube sites changed the adult industry…not forever, but at least till the next new thing. Tube sites didn’t start on the right foot and were quickly hated by a lot of people in the industry blaming them for the decrease in overall sales on content that were actually not free.

Anyway, when porn became so easily available everywhere for free, consumers were looking for more amateur content or content that is a little more interactive. After all, may be besides POV that, gives you that “I am the guy fucking that girl” feeling, porn never gave you the unique experience that live performance can. That’s where camming started to become very popular and a lot of companies jumped on that trend. Some are gone, some are still here today. And the best part of it all is that you can’t put a live performance on a tube site. Well, I guess you can but the live experience is already long gone…and your name that girl is moaning in that video might not be James.

The camgirls from that era that are still around probably remember. It was so new and amazing for the viewer to be able to actually talk to a girl live, watch her do whatever you want…or almost. And the best part, make money, a LOT of money.

Time have changed quite a bit and now it’s not a few thousands of models out there it’s 10s of thousands, 100s of thousands and more and more sites, some with specific niches, some with specific rules, etc.

Two business models

Today, there’s two major business models.

Freemium

The first model is what everybody called freemium. It’s something that came with Myfreecams, where unlike, the sites at that time where you couldn’t see anything at all till you enter a private area with your credit card, you could see absolutely everything for free. The freemium business model can be compared to a stripclub where the entire club can see the dancer’s show but only a few of them will give some money and therefore get the extra attention. Today the major freemium sites are myfreecams and chaturbate,

Premium

The premium business model is the old school way. In the stripclub metaphore, the premium would be the lap dance you’re getting from the dancer. Only you can experience it and you pay a little more than the dollar bill you gave during a dance. The variation of this would be the group version where more than one person can see the private show. In that case that would be the “champagne” room where I believe you can have few friends with you. I’ve never experienced that so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong;)

When it comes to camming, you don’t want to go with just about any of them. Not everything will work for you. If you’re already working in a stripclub, the freemium option might be what makes more sense for you. You’re already used to work the crowd to get them to throw more money at you. If you’re more of a private person and don’t want to get naked for free in front of everybody, the premium option might be best.

Research

Once you figured out what type of site will work for you, it’s always a good idea to do some research. And by research I mean search for as many information as you can from different sources. Do a google search, search on Twitter, Instagram…everywhere. Look at the pros and cons, what payout options they offer, do they have a niche…etc And you might already be confused in all the information you’ll find, especially if you’re rather new in the industry or completely new or simply don’t understand everything. After all, I’m not a lawyer either and sometimes all those terms and conditions and rules are a little hard to read and understand.

Narrow it down by demographic

There’s plenty of sites out there. Some are US based, some European based, etc. What’s important is to pick the site that is relevant to you. If you’re from North America, based on the fact that about 80% of adult traffic is from North America, a US based site might make more sense to you. If you’re French and only speak French, a French based site might make a lot of sense.

Narrow it down by traffic

I know a lot of people are looking at Alexa rank when it comes to a site potential traffic. That might work for a few of them, if they don’t have affiliates but in general those are mostly irrelevant. if a site as n number of affiliates that you don’t know about, unless they publish a full list, you would have to check those sites ranking as well and guess what should be the ranking of the network. Some sites have 1000s of affiliates! And even that, traffic is just a number. A lot of traffic means a lot potentially but it’s not because a site has virtually a lot of traffic that it means you’re gonna make more money. in fact, some models that cater to a very specific niche for example, might work better on a site that have less traffic but very dedicated users. Sometimes it’s better to be a top earning model on a smaller site rather than just another model on a busy site. Your chances to make more from a small audience with less competition for you might be higher. In other words, traffic amount might or might not be relevant to you. You’ll learn that when you go online and experience for yourself is the bottom line. But yes of course higher traffic means higher potential overall…

Narrow it down by payout

Sites have different payout percentage, options, frequency etc. Pick what makes sense to you. Most sites pay weekly or bi-weekly. Some even pay daily. Although I’m a bit confused by this option. When do they start the day and when do they stop? Are you losing anything by getting paid every day? And most importantly do you really need to get paid daily?

Payout methods

Look at the payout methods as well. They are not created equal depending on where you are in the world. Do they do wire transfer? Do they do it in your part of the world? What are the fees associated with each payout method? If you want your money wired directly to your bank account, what’s the cost? How long does it take? Those are the important questions. One of the most common industry payout option is Paxum. That might be the easiest way to get your money fast because they integrate with most cam sites.

Payout percentage

Now, one of the most talked about topic and also often most misunderstood topic is the percentage you are getting paid. Do NOT and I repeat do NOT think the highest the percentage the best option it is. And I’m going to explain why the lowest might actually be the best.
I see it often, when a new site comes around and they offer 80%…Ifriends (RIP) even offered 100% payout. If you are already a well known model, a famous pornstar, or whatever the case may be, then please do go with the highest percentage possible because you’re the one driving your own fans and traffic to your room. Therefore you want to take as much as possible from people you are sending to yourself. But if you’re starting, think about it. If a site gives that much, chances are they do not have any affiliates. And affiliates are where the money is. And if a site does not have affiliates, they’re relying only on organic traffic. Probably not advertising either because if they give you 80% there’s not much left to operate the site including getting any traffic, and certainly not traffic to you. At the opposite side of the spectrum, the ones that are giving you a lower percentage most likely have a larger network of affiliate, advertising etc…Therefore they do not take most of your earnings, but the revenue is split between more people, each taking a lower percentage. But let’s explain that easily. Would you rather make 85% of $1000 or 25% of $5,000? If you’re not good in math, the results are in one case you’re making $850 and in the other case you’re making $1,250. Bottom line is, what matters is the money you’re taking home, not the money you could be making if you would make 85% of those $5,000.

IMPORTANT: Look at chargebacks! Certain sites will charge YOU for any chargeback. And since any adult website is considered high risk, there is some fraud going on. So imagine if you made $200 and suddenly realize that person was using a stolen card and now there’s a chargeback and YOU have to pay for it…it means that $200 is going to be deducted from your earnings. So make sure to check what is each site policy on chargebacks…or even holdbacks which is a site will not pay you in full but hold money till everything clears.

Narrow if down by niche

Sometimes, it might be a good idea to find a site that is relevant to your niche, if you have one. If you are into BDSM, kinklive.com might be a good option for you as their users are already interested in this and only this particular niche.

Sometimes, you’re “forced” to pick certain sites because well your “niche” is not allowed on that particular site. If you’re a guy, I guess your niche might be relevant to mostly other guys and in the case you already picked freemium as your site of choice, that already eliminate Myfreecams for example since they do not allow anybody but cis women on their platform.

In other cases, certain sites are very specific to countries or even ethnicities like Sakuralive. If you’re not Japanese, no need to get on that site, obviously.

Bottom line is, look at sites that have a specific niche and see if it’s relevant to you. That might help you narrow down your research.

Narrow it down by features

Last, look at features. All the sites are a bit different and have different features. Those might drive your choice. Are you producing your own content, aka selling clips? Some sites have a video store. That could be extra earnings. Some things as simple as promoting your online presence may or may be allowed. if it matters to you, then don’t pick those sites.

Reach out

At this point you should have narrowed it down to a few sites already. From there, search for models of those sites and reach out. Nothing is better than getting feedback from models actively using platforms you might want to use in the near future. I suggest to reach out privately of course. Not everybody will be confident to talk about their experience publicly on social media.

I suggest asking both side of the spectrum. The happy models that are very pleased with the platform they’re using AND the ones that are very unhappy, probably even stopped working with that site. That will give you a more objective insight.

If you’re trying to reach out to people, some people might try to reach out to you. That’s the warning part of this article. There’s a few “recruiters” out there that are going to offer to help you…and some might, some will…and some will only take a cut from your earnings. Hopefully, I’m giving you enough information here that you won’t need the help of anybody else but yourself and your fellow performers to figure it out on your own. But of course, feel free to reach out if you have any questions about any platform, we’ll be happy to help you.

Try

Ok, now it’s time to kinda forget what I just said. Sometimes, just going for it is the best solution. You might do all the research in the world and realize that the site you picked was not even good for you. After all, you are not paying anything to signup to a site. So go ahead and try. Try any you think would be good to try, try them all even. Worse case scenario you’ll never use the site, but at least you already have an account.

It won’t take too long to create those accounts everywhere. Make sure you have a few things that most likely every single site will ask you which is a picture of your ID, you holding your ID, all your perform information, a proof of address for KYC compliance…Also find the best picture of yourself…or take a selfie that will be used as your profile picture everywhere. Oh VERY important, is to find the name you’re gonna use as your only persona. Don’t miss that step. Luckily we already talked about this here.

Now that you a few accounts on a few sites, log on and try them. Don’t try for 5 minutes and leave if it doesn’t go your way. By the way, it’s not 1996 anymore, it takes patience and dedication to start making decent money. It is a full time job so treat it like one. Well, that if you’re doing it full time of course. You can start on the side, after your actual job which is also a way to go but you’ll have to still dedicate quite some time to see results. My whole point is work a few hours each day at least. If you want to try a few sites, the best way, in my opinion, is to give it a week per site AT LEAST.
Work one site for a week as many hours as you can. If this is your main job, 8 hours would be standard…like any job really. If the site doesn’t give you any reports on time spend online, etc, then write it down. Look at how many hours you work, what day and how much you made, how much traffic the site had, etc. If you can look at how much you made per hour average even better…Then, try a different site. But you want to compare apple to apple so work the same schedule…if you can. At the end, look at the data again. Then compare the two, three or more if you wanted to try more cam sites.

At the end of your data gathering period, it’s time to compare. Look at the per hour. Why? because considering you’re just starting I don’t expect it to be at its full potential but that gives you an idea of what you could be making in the next few months. That’s why it was important to work the exact same way on each site you tried so whatever is the highest per hour should be the best site for you at this point. If you worked let’s say 3 hours and made $60/hour average, you know that if you start as a full time job double that time online, you will make at least $60/hour on average and that gives you an idea of your earning potential at the end of a pay period.

Choose your “home”

Ok now that you did all your research, tried a few sites, made your choice…it’s time to find a “home”. Although it’s getting less and less relevant today to only have ONE site, it’s always good to have a main cam site. The one you call home. The one that gives you a constant paycheck, where you have your regular fans etc. It doesn’t mean that you can’t go anywhere else. It means that this is the site you will get involved with as much as possible. If they have events, you’ll hang out, if they need model feedback, you will give it to them…you will be involved with that community as much as possible.

Then pick a plan B! Not that you can’t be exclusive or faithful to one site. But sooner than later you’ll learn that Mondays might not be good for you, that early mornings are not that busy, that site A doesn’t have a store option, that you can’t do this or that…whatever the case may be in your cam career. That’s where you pick a second “home”. The site you didn’t pick as number one but that had interesting option, like you can sell videos, or you can take tributes…That site will be the one you go to when your Mondays as slow on site A, when you log on and it’s slow or too fast and you need a slow pace on that day…

Cam Sites

Here’s a few information on each site that we think are relevant. There’s WAY more sites out there, but these are the biggest players, therefore most likely the best options for you.

Cam Site	Type	Payout	Affiliates
Chaturbate	Freemium	5¢ / token	Yes
Myfreecams	Freemium	60%	No
Streamate	Premium	30%-75%	Yes
Camsoda	Freemium	5-7¢ / token	Yes
CAM4	Freemium	10 ¢ / token	Yes
Flirt4Free	Premium	Varies	Yes
ImLive	Premium	30%	Yes
Livejasmin	Premium	30%-60%	Yes
Cams	Premium	32%-70%	Yes

I purposely excluded sites that have a live cam option like Manyvids but are not primarily cam sites…the same way I won’t consider any of those sites clip sites even though some are also offering you the ability to sell clips.

If you feel like I missed things, if you agree or disagree with any of it, please share with us, we want to know your opinion and we’d love to share your experience.