Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
10 Things All Webcam Models Must Avoid In Order To Make Good Money
Re-posted from camgirltips.com
Don't throw money away!
How you
run your cam room is crucial to how much money you make. Even if you
work on the busiest cam website in the world, a poorly managed chat room
will cause you to lose money.
In order to make top dollar cam modeling, us chat hosts have to be strategic when it comes to how we run our business. And always remember, this is a business, so let’s look at ways to make it a more profitable one.
If you are serious about making money as a webcam girl, then avoid:
1. Complaining about your life in free chat.
(For those who don't know, free chat is the unpaid chat mode you are in where you stay clothed and flirt with guest visitors and site members while they decide if they want to enter into a pay per minute private show with you.)
If you were taking calls for Verizon Wireless and you had a customer on the line would you freely speak about how bad your day is going and that every other customer before them has been getting on your nerves? Hell no, you’d be fired. Well, there’s no one to fire us as cam girls, so it’s up to us to be smart about our behavior. Your job is to be a fantasy model. The customers can go to their girlfriends or wives if they want to hear complaints. They’ll probably just go to another girl if your attitude seems lousy.
2. Not knowing your limits.
Here’s what I mean by this. If you put “I love anal” on your profile/bio, you better be prepared to do a lot of anal penetration shows. That doesn’t mean that you are going to get those requests all of the time, but some days you will, so you better know what you are willing to do a lot of.
For example, I promote deep throat on my profiles because it is one of my specialties. Some days I seem to get only toy sucking requests for hours in a row. This is great for me since it’s so easy to do. Once, when I was gaining too much weight, I decided to use my cam work time as more exercise. I put on my profile that I loved to ride and I highlighted it. Whew! The guys surely picked up on that. I was sweating my ass off by the end of the day. Every customer was saying, “I wanna see you ride it.”
My point is that you need to really think about what you want and don’t want to do in your room. It’s a job, but don’t offer something if you don’t feel okay about it. If you are not comfortable with an activity, like role playing or domination, it’s alright. You don't have to do everything under the sun. Adjust your profile text to suit you. You'll avoid burn out this way.
3. Letting free chat guests get you to yell or show anger.
This kind of ties in with #1. Imagine walking into a department store and finding the sales clerk yelling at another customer, telling them to get the hell out and that they suck. You’ll probably just walk away and go to a different sales clerk, or a different store entirely. You only get one chance to make a first impression. The VIP customer with $300 in his account that left your room after seeing your bad side, may never return to see how sexy and sweet you usually are. Never let them see you angry. Unless they ask for it in a show. That’s another reason not to show anger in free chat. That’s a fetish for a lot of guys and they may try to get you angry just to get a free domination show.
When guys are rude to me, I usually ban them without even responding. If I do reply, I say, with my sweetest smile, “aw, I’m sorry you’re having a bad day, but it’s all about fun in my chat room so I’m going to ban you now.” Then I say hello to someone else, to show I’ve moved on. Why bother to say something nice? Because it WOWS the guys who are in the free room. They saw what the jerk wrote and they are probably used to seeing girls lose their cool in that situation. Responding in such a way makes you stand out and it impresses them. The spenders will then be more apt to take you in a paid private show. Just remember to keep your game face no matter what anyone says in the room. Ban them and be done with it.
4. Not tracking your VIPs.
Some companies give members the title of VIP if they spend a certain amount of money on the site. I am not speaking of this. I am talking about my own system of determining which of my own customers are VIPs. If a customer stays in my room longer than 20-30 minutes at a time I consider him a VIP. How you determine whom to identify as a VIP is up to you.
The trick is to find out his name and remember what his kinks and turn ons are. You want to make him feel special by greeting him by name the next time you see him in your room. This will keep him coming back. Most models don’t do this, so it will make you stand out in the best way. Keep a pad and pencil near your work area. As soon as the show ends write his member name down with short notes on what he likes. On some sites you can input this info directly into the system and access it with the click of a button whenever he returns to your room.
5. Poor Lighting. - This is the biggest newbie mistake I see.
I wrote this in my other cam girl tips article Setting Up Your Home Webcam Studio, but this is such a common mistake I had to repeat it.
You need 2-3 bright lamps. You don't necessarily need to go shopping. Just get two lamps from around the house. If you have a table lamp with a shade, remove the shade and put the lamp next to your camera source; about a foot or two away. Keep that lamp pretty much even with your camera, meaning at about the same height.
The other lamp should be directly behind your camera. No special light bulbs are needed; 100 watts works fine. If you have a bright over head/ceiling light that’s a bonus. With the ceiling light you can get away with not having the side lamp, but you really must have a bright one right behind your camera no matter what.
To clarify: you should have 2-3 light sources. The most important one being directly behind your camera. Plus a bright overhead light and/or another parallel lamp a couple of feet from your camera.
Experiment a bit and see the differences in how you look. It almost never works out to put a light behind you.
In order to make top dollar cam modeling, us chat hosts have to be strategic when it comes to how we run our business. And always remember, this is a business, so let’s look at ways to make it a more profitable one.
If you are serious about making money as a webcam girl, then avoid:
1. Complaining about your life in free chat.
(For those who don't know, free chat is the unpaid chat mode you are in where you stay clothed and flirt with guest visitors and site members while they decide if they want to enter into a pay per minute private show with you.)
If you were taking calls for Verizon Wireless and you had a customer on the line would you freely speak about how bad your day is going and that every other customer before them has been getting on your nerves? Hell no, you’d be fired. Well, there’s no one to fire us as cam girls, so it’s up to us to be smart about our behavior. Your job is to be a fantasy model. The customers can go to their girlfriends or wives if they want to hear complaints. They’ll probably just go to another girl if your attitude seems lousy.
2. Not knowing your limits.
Here’s what I mean by this. If you put “I love anal” on your profile/bio, you better be prepared to do a lot of anal penetration shows. That doesn’t mean that you are going to get those requests all of the time, but some days you will, so you better know what you are willing to do a lot of.
For example, I promote deep throat on my profiles because it is one of my specialties. Some days I seem to get only toy sucking requests for hours in a row. This is great for me since it’s so easy to do. Once, when I was gaining too much weight, I decided to use my cam work time as more exercise. I put on my profile that I loved to ride and I highlighted it. Whew! The guys surely picked up on that. I was sweating my ass off by the end of the day. Every customer was saying, “I wanna see you ride it.”
My point is that you need to really think about what you want and don’t want to do in your room. It’s a job, but don’t offer something if you don’t feel okay about it. If you are not comfortable with an activity, like role playing or domination, it’s alright. You don't have to do everything under the sun. Adjust your profile text to suit you. You'll avoid burn out this way.
3. Letting free chat guests get you to yell or show anger.
This kind of ties in with #1. Imagine walking into a department store and finding the sales clerk yelling at another customer, telling them to get the hell out and that they suck. You’ll probably just walk away and go to a different sales clerk, or a different store entirely. You only get one chance to make a first impression. The VIP customer with $300 in his account that left your room after seeing your bad side, may never return to see how sexy and sweet you usually are. Never let them see you angry. Unless they ask for it in a show. That’s another reason not to show anger in free chat. That’s a fetish for a lot of guys and they may try to get you angry just to get a free domination show.
When guys are rude to me, I usually ban them without even responding. If I do reply, I say, with my sweetest smile, “aw, I’m sorry you’re having a bad day, but it’s all about fun in my chat room so I’m going to ban you now.” Then I say hello to someone else, to show I’ve moved on. Why bother to say something nice? Because it WOWS the guys who are in the free room. They saw what the jerk wrote and they are probably used to seeing girls lose their cool in that situation. Responding in such a way makes you stand out and it impresses them. The spenders will then be more apt to take you in a paid private show. Just remember to keep your game face no matter what anyone says in the room. Ban them and be done with it.
4. Not tracking your VIPs.
Some companies give members the title of VIP if they spend a certain amount of money on the site. I am not speaking of this. I am talking about my own system of determining which of my own customers are VIPs. If a customer stays in my room longer than 20-30 minutes at a time I consider him a VIP. How you determine whom to identify as a VIP is up to you.
The trick is to find out his name and remember what his kinks and turn ons are. You want to make him feel special by greeting him by name the next time you see him in your room. This will keep him coming back. Most models don’t do this, so it will make you stand out in the best way. Keep a pad and pencil near your work area. As soon as the show ends write his member name down with short notes on what he likes. On some sites you can input this info directly into the system and access it with the click of a button whenever he returns to your room.
5. Poor Lighting. - This is the biggest newbie mistake I see.
I wrote this in my other cam girl tips article Setting Up Your Home Webcam Studio, but this is such a common mistake I had to repeat it.
You need 2-3 bright lamps. You don't necessarily need to go shopping. Just get two lamps from around the house. If you have a table lamp with a shade, remove the shade and put the lamp next to your camera source; about a foot or two away. Keep that lamp pretty much even with your camera, meaning at about the same height.
The other lamp should be directly behind your camera. No special light bulbs are needed; 100 watts works fine. If you have a bright over head/ceiling light that’s a bonus. With the ceiling light you can get away with not having the side lamp, but you really must have a bright one right behind your camera no matter what.
To clarify: you should have 2-3 light sources. The most important one being directly behind your camera. Plus a bright overhead light and/or another parallel lamp a couple of feet from your camera.
Experiment a bit and see the differences in how you look. It almost never works out to put a light behind you.
6. Neglecting Your Body & Health
Making money is awesome, but
neglect your health and you will find it difficult to do your job after a
while.- If you use toys (and you'll make more money if you do) use lube to keep from getting sore genitals.
- Don’t use anal toys that are too big for you. You don’t want to hurt yourself.
- Change which hand you use your mouse with every few days, to avoid carpal tunnel.
- Try to stay balanced with all that you do. Meaning if you lean to one side mostly one day, alternate the next day and lean in the other direction more. This will keep you from over-stretching one side of your body.
- Take mini breaks to stand and walk in place often when you are camming for more than a few hours; to keep from developing blood clots and other problems. You can always stand and do a little dancing in between shows.
- Give your eyes a break from staring at the computer and focus on something in the distance for a few seconds every 10 or 15 minutes. Maybe put a post-it note on your computer to remind you.
7. Having all nude profile photos.
(Your profile consists of your cam bio text --which should highlight what you want to offer-- and a few preview photos.)
There’s no mathematical formula for my reasoning on this tip. This is just something that I found to be true over the years. If you have all nude pictures in your profile gallery, you will make less money. Leave something to the imagination.
I do some nude, but not all; not even most. You can show off your best body parts without being nude. Lingerie is great and don’t underestimate the power of a headshot. Psychology teaches us that human faces attract people’s attention more easily than body parts do. Many marketing tests that track people’s eye movements online have also backed this up.
I tend to get better quality traffic when I post a headshot as my main photo. By better quality I mean guys who stay in my room longer and have good manners.
8. Not being in front of your camera when your free chat room is open.
Remember, you have one chance to make a first impression. This is just unprofessional. They come to your live feed and you aren’t even there? Not a good look for business. Just log out if you need to go to the bathroom or something. Of course, this doesn’t apply to you if you’re running some sort of 24hr live voyeur cam.
You don’t want to have to go off camera during a paid private show either. Keep your toys, lube, and some commonly requested sexy outfits (yes, some guys will just want to watch you try things on) within reach. It may be a perfectly innocent mistake, but if you don’t have what you need during a show and you tell a paying customer you’ll be right back to get it, you’ll probably lose the customer--he’ll think you are stalling to squeeze him for more money. Even if he waits, he’s more likely to give you a lower rating or an unfavorable review after the show.
Bonus Tips: If someone requests an item you don't have, like certain stockings or specific types of panties/knickers, instead of saying "no" tell them you'll get it next time you go shopping or in a couple of weeks. When you get paid you can invest a few dollars on the things requested most often, including one or two toys if you don't have any. In the links section of the Cam Girl Tips Yahoo Group I have resources on where to buy stuff cheap. If you choose not to use toys as a cam girl you should have stockings, heels and lingerie to make up for it; and/or be comfortable with domination. The more you offer the more you will make.
9. Ignoring potential customers.
Most sites give models some indication of whether a customer has money on their account or not. It’s important to remember though, that even if someone is a guest with no money on their account, it only takes a minute or so to sign up with a credit card, and even less time to add money if they already have a card on file. Don’t mistreat the guys with no money on file, they could end up being your next VIP.
10. Giving too much away in free chat.
In the US we have a saying: why by the cow when you can get the milk for free? Not only is it against the rules of most sites to show nudity in free chat, it’s also a really silly thing to do if you plan to make money modeling on webcam.
Guys will say things like, “show nipple and I’ll go private,” but take it from someone who’s been doing this for years: the members who go private never ask for a free show first. If you show them, they will either keep asking for more things or they will leave the room. Don't be a sucker. Simply don't respond to begging, or say with a smile, "mmmm... sounds like fun, let's go private so I can do that for you."
So, there you have it! My top ten things to avoid as a webcam model. They are in no particular order and I learned them all from direct experience. Don't over-think things too much though. Sign up now to get started making money today.
Monday, November 5, 2012
For Newbs
An excellent post by Evvie on Ambercutie
forums that I found to be very informative and absolutely
essential for everyone looking into becoming a cam model and cam models that
are new to the profession to read. So I'm re-posting it here, and hope that
others re-post and pass on this info as well.I do not believe that MFC is a good site for beginner models, although you all may change my mind! Here is my argument:
♥ Camming has a steep learning curve. Juggling everything at once and spinning it in to a successful shift where the model is on top of everything takes at least several shifts to get the hang of; and yet, MFC starts punishing models as soon as they log on by reducing their camscore when they don't bring in enough tokens.
The only new models I see with high camscores are models who already have experience working on other camsites.
I've only worked on MFC and SM, but I would call SM more beginner-friendly, and here be why:
♥ Camming has a steep learning curve. When you log in to SM, your ranking is never at risk if you don't earn X amount of money. You can log on for hours at a time to get the hang of things and it will not hurt your ranking.
Now I'm not denying that MFC is a super website. I do believe that an experienced model can make ridiculous amounts of money on MFC in a way that other websites haven't fully harnessed. But I think MFC should be a website that career models sign up for after they've worked a month or two on some other site. MFC is very unforgiving; if you mess up your first five shifts, you're stuck with the camscore you've got until you spend months building it back up again.
Now I'm not denying that MFC is a super website. I do believe that an experienced model can make ridiculous amounts of money on MFC in a way that other websites haven't fully harnessed. But I think MFC should be a website that career models sign up for after they've worked a month or two on some other site. MFC is very unforgiving; if you mess up your first five shifts, you're stuck with the camscore you've got until you spend months building it back up again.
On the same note, this post isn't to imply that SM does take lots of hard work and that good models can't make bank there. I just think that it's much more forgiving.So, what do you guys think? Is MFC a site that's more difficult for beginner models, or am I just a big poo?
[* know that some models that work on SM do spend many full hours working on 'behind the scene' stuff that is important to their careers. From my own experience, when I stopped spending hours of my time social networking on MFC, my earnings dropped to the point where I could not longer make minimum wage. On SM, I don't network at all (even though I probably should do some minor things) and I'm making just as much as on MFC when I did spend all that time doing extras.]
As a follow-up, if MFC holds so many pitfalls for new models, why are so many new models wary of joining a different website? Here are my thoughts.
♥ MFC has a negative-style ranking system. A model will continually be pushed back in the ranks unless she makes X per hour. This puts huge pressure on new models (many of whom don't even understand how the rankings work) and inevitably means that the majority of new models, who cannot compete with established models, will have their camscores tanked by the time they are out of new model status.
♥ New model status, while generally bringing in more traffic for new models, lasts for only 10 hours of streaming time instead of, say, 5 days. This puts extra pressure on an informed model who knows she only has 10 hours to get the hang of MFC, collect regulars, get tokens, and push her camscore up before she's on her own. Models who don't understand the New Model status may just squander the time, not realising that soon they'll be dropping off the radar.
♥ MFC is a website where many models find they need content, games, prizes, raffles, and very interactive shows to be successful. I would be surprised if a new model was able to include such elements to her shows - which, while being money earners she really needs for her camscore - she may be unlikely to manage until she has more experience down the road.
♥ While we know there are some exceptions, once you have an account on MFC, you're stuck with it. No do-overs.
♥ If a model makes early mistakes, it may take months to earn her camscore back, even if she has drastically increased her skill level and really improved her shows.
♥ When a new model logs in, what might she do? A countdown? A nudity countdown? Should she take all her clothes off at once? Should she take only privates? Only groups? Should she use a dildo? Hitachi? What about a shower show? Wax? Lotion? Should she try not being overly sexual and many just hint at things? The possibilities on MFC are endless - which is what attracts a lot of people. But for a new model, the possibilities can be overwhelming.
♥ SM has a positive ranking system that is not dependent on money earned per hour. Your ranking on SM is judged by your Internet speed, your feed quality, whether or not you use a phone, star ratings, and time spent online (apologies if I've missed something). This means that during one day, the longer you stay online, the higher and higher you will be ranked. Your ranking will never be hurt if you stay online for a long period of time without earning money.
♥ New SM models do not need to rely on new model status to boost their accounts before they drop out of the spotlight. I'm not familiar much with how long models on SM are listed as "new", but because SM is not a site with a huge amount of pressure to be perfect when you start and you are always rewarded for time spent online, new model status is not a precious gift to be carefully used.
♥ SM is not a website where models need to spend their own money on prizes, host raffles or do other MFC-esque things; a model can log on, work, log off, and not pay much attention to camming until she wants to work again*
♥ SM support will allow you to create a new account if you want to.
♥ If a model makes early mistakes, it doesn't matter - those early mistakes will not hurt her ranking and by the next time she logs in, her ranking will be back to normal.
♥ On SM, you log on and take exclusives or privates. If you want to do something specific, you can do a GOLD show. There is no anxiety about what kind of show to do that night hours before you get on cam, and no worry that you'll be "out of ideas" when you log on. You log on, get taken to private chats, and work.
♥ It seems like MFC's reputation as a "social" camsite is very attractive to many models, who are afraid to try out another website - even though myself and I believe AlexLady can attest that there is just as much socialization on SM as on MFC.
♥ Even if models are willing to do sex acts in public chat on MFC, they are scared away by sites like SM who advertise with "live sex cams," "sex 24/7".
♥ Many models seem to incorrectly believe that because the payout percentage is higher on MFC, they will make more money. Or, they just can't stand the idea that they earn fewer cents per dollar spent, even if they may make vastly more dollars total on a lower-percentage site.
To read the OP and how others
responded click here
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Social Networking to get Followers
Well I’m in no way a top model or anything, and I still have a great more to learn.
Here’s some basic stuff I’ve learned…
How you get followers. Social networking on Ambercutie Forums and signing up for Twitter are a GREAT start!
Let’s start with Twitter basics:
I personally never liked Twitter back when I first signed up for it under my personal email account and real name years ago back when it first came out. But after becoming a cam model, I learned that this is essential.
Make sure you tweet a little something at least once every other day, even if you’re not going to get on cam. But you don’t want to get carried away and tweet so much that everybody’s home page gets full of nothing but your minute to minute tweet updates either. I hate that and so does everyone else, it’s the fastest way to get “un-followed” by someone who once “followed” you that’s for sure. No body wants their home page to be all spammed up by one user’s account you know?!
Send out one simple “Hi, I’m on cam guys” tweet right when you go live. After I’m done camming, some times I send a little “thanks for the awesome time on MFC tonight guys. See you tomorrow at [insert time here]”
Every cam model should have a twitter link on their MFC profile… Click those links and follow those women!!! The more models you follow, the more models will follow you. And doing this will put you on the “suggestion” list of people to follow on all of these models followers/fans, and so on and so on. And of course, follow suite by making sure that you also have a clickable link to your twitter on your MFC profile as well.
Remember that even though twitter is a great real time alert advertising resource for you to let people know when you’re on and any deals or specials you might be selling, you never want to give off the vibe that you only tweet for solicitation purposes. You want to use your tweets to give everyone a glimpse into your personality. You want your tweets to be your opportunity to intrigue people into wanting to get to know you more.
Who knew that there was such a science to learning the “art of twitter”.
Let me get my thoughts and words together for the next few pieces of camming advice.
Here’s some basic stuff I’ve learned…
How you get followers. Social networking on Ambercutie Forums and signing up for Twitter are a GREAT start!
Let’s start with Twitter basics:
I personally never liked Twitter back when I first signed up for it under my personal email account and real name years ago back when it first came out. But after becoming a cam model, I learned that this is essential.
Make sure you tweet a little something at least once every other day, even if you’re not going to get on cam. But you don’t want to get carried away and tweet so much that everybody’s home page gets full of nothing but your minute to minute tweet updates either. I hate that and so does everyone else, it’s the fastest way to get “un-followed” by someone who once “followed” you that’s for sure. No body wants their home page to be all spammed up by one user’s account you know?!Send out one simple “Hi, I’m on cam guys” tweet right when you go live. After I’m done camming, some times I send a little “thanks for the awesome time on MFC tonight guys. See you tomorrow at [insert time here]”
Every cam model should have a twitter link on their MFC profile… Click those links and follow those women!!! The more models you follow, the more models will follow you. And doing this will put you on the “suggestion” list of people to follow on all of these models followers/fans, and so on and so on. And of course, follow suite by making sure that you also have a clickable link to your twitter on your MFC profile as well.
Remember that even though twitter is a great real time alert advertising resource for you to let people know when you’re on and any deals or specials you might be selling, you never want to give off the vibe that you only tweet for solicitation purposes. You want to use your tweets to give everyone a glimpse into your personality. You want your tweets to be your opportunity to intrigue people into wanting to get to know you more.
Who knew that there was such a science to learning the “art of twitter”.
Let me get my thoughts and words together for the next few pieces of camming advice.
Basics of cam modeling on MFC in a nut shell
There's good money to be made in webcam modeling and even more money in G/G shows on cam with the proper planning, a good promotion a head of time.
Here is an example of a good promotional ad of a successful webcam show from AedanRayne and Oohthatlady
Here's a screen shot of their show:
There is also good money to be made in selling content of past shows (ie, Photo sets, and videos).
Here's an example ad of content from one of AedanRayne and JolenJolen's past shows:
Like I said, there is good money to be made in webcam modeling. Either from from tips, doing private shows, and group shows.
Here's how getting paid works:
Customers purchase Tokens and then spend these tokens on models through Private shows, Group shows, Voyeur Shows, True Private shows, and Tips.
For all tokens earned by the model, the model is paid 5 cents per token.
For example, if a model earns 2000 tokens during a pay period, the model will be paid $100.00 immediately after the end of the payment period.
The following table explains the cost of each type of session or "show"...
REMEMBER: A token is worth 5 cents to a cam model.
Converting Token amounts to dollars, either take the token amount and multiply by 0.5 or even easier way would be to just divide the amount of tokens by 20.
Now this won't happen every time you're on, but it sure is great when it happens.
In a nut shell
Here's what you're gonna need.
Here's what you're gonna need.
- A valid ID A good (external) web cam, not the one that is built into a lap top, those are crap.
- You'll need your own blog, twitter account, and model status on acf.xxx for social networking purposes.
- You will need to set a schedule on your profile, and stick to it.
- Have a plan before you go on cam, be entertaining. Don't just sit in front of the cam not saying or doing anything.
- Go to myfreecams and study the successful models.
- Get yourself an account on this forum http://www.ambercutie.com/forums/
And then get verified as a model so you'll have access to the models only section. Best thing I ever did for my cam modeling career.
That's all I can think of right now.
Happy Camming
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