Sunday, January 25, 2015

CamGirls Guide to Social Media


CamGirls Guide to Social Media


Whether you're an independent or working on a network site.  If you aren't utilizing social media you are missing out.

Social Media is a great way to keep in touch with current clients and attract new ones by getting your body out there.

First off when using any form of social media, make sure you create a new account that's tied to your specific performer profile.  What I mean by that is don't re-purpose old accounts.  Like if you have a lifestyle Instagram, don't start promoting your cam site on there.  You are advertising to the wrong audience.   



Twitter

Twitter you might be surprised to learn has a massive porn audience.  As a Cam model, you need to set up a twitter account with your model name.  In your description section, write something seductive and if you are working on a network site use the referral links they gave you to link to your room.  Make sure you use the one that links to your room and not the camsite home page.  You want the followers you attract to be your customers, not someone elses.
If you don't work at a cam site it's still a great way to communicate, just link your description to wherever you set up a profile with your rates and content.

Whatever social media you use, you should maintain a constant presence on it.  Don't just tweet when you go on cam.  Tweet something at least every day.  Whether it be some teasy picture for the day of the week theme.  SexySaturday, SundayFunday, humpday.  Or whatever the current trend is when you read this.  Along with that just literally tweet out random things about your day or whatever is going on.  It only takes a minute and it will let your more loyal interested customers feel like they are getting to know beyond the cam room.  This will help keep you on their mind, so when they want to spend some cash on a model, they will think of you first.

To use it to promote yourself a bit more, find tweeters that have NSFW themes, like an ass themed twitter.  Tweet at them to try and get your butt out there so you're bringing in more customers.

As for any social media account, avoid uploading full nudes or censored nudes.  Being a cam model is about selling your body.  If you're putting it all out there, you aren't leaving anything up to the imagination.  If there is less to be curious about, there is less incentive to follow you to your cam room.  So stick to sexy teasing but don't show the goods.   You can still do a form of censoring for full nudes.  I recommend creative censoring.  I.E covering with your hands, maybe a pillow.  Get creative and sexy, make them want you.  Avoid digital censoring, I.E the black bar, or blurry line.  The only time you should use digital censoring is when you are promoting exclusive content, rather than yourself.  I.E taking a hardcore photo from a private gallery and using it to promote said gallery/fan club.

"Get this uncensored and access to a lot more exclusive photos by joining my fan club ;)"

Twitter is also a great way to keep your fans updated on you.  In case you decide to take a vacation from camming.  You can let them know easily.

Instagram


I've never really had good luck with Instagram, and I noticed a number of modeling sites recommend against it.  You can get a lot of followers and exposure, but what people have been saying is there is a low conversion rate.   Meaning a low rate of getting paying customers from it.  You're also limited to the content you can post.  I believe you can't even show pubic hair or hints of it on there.  If you wanted to use it to post sexy non nudes, twitter might be your better option.  If you want to branch out and start a following with a more tasteful modelling account. I say go for it, but you probably wont be sending a lot of people to your cam site through here.  If anyone else has any other experience, please let me know.





Tumblr seems to be a great success with models.  I've been on it myself for a few years and have seen countless independent models spring up  within this social media community.

It's pretty easy to set up, choose a name, find some porn blogs to follow and you're good to go.  You'll need to create a "me" tag and post sexy photo's of yourself on it.  Then go out and find some sex blogs that accept submissions and submit to them with a request for a link back to your blog.  Easiest way to do that is find some picture with a ton of notes on it, and scroll through the notes and see what blogs have reblogged it or even posted it originally.

Girls this is going to be exceptionally easy to find. Guys, the easiest thing for you to do is google some gay sex terms along with the word tumblr and you should find the more popular blogs for your audience.  The biggest issue guys run into trying to promote on tumblr is they are trying to promote to the wrong audience.  You need to go to the specialty gay blogs.  Though that community on tumblr is significantly smaller than the ones for girls.  Sorry fellas.

The rest of your blog you set up with all your camming info, if you add new content you blog about it and give a teaser, if you go online blog a photo of yourself with a message and link to your room.  Simple as that.

Try to keep a steady reblogging going to continually gain followers for exposure.  I typically use the queue function so I don't have to babysit my blog.



Youtube can actually be pretty good believe it or not.  You can't put any porn on there, but that doesn't mean you can't do a seductive strip show in some lingerie and upload a video with some links to your cam profile.  Make a how to "dating guide", videos of you working out in something sexy, doing some yoga, just get creative and do it.  The great thing about youtube as well is you can toss some ads up with your videos and make a few extra bucks through that

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Flirt4Free - New camgirls Guide


Disclaimer: This guide is in no way directly affiliated with this company.  The guide contains my individual opinions based on my experiences working as a model on their network.  The purpose of this guide is to share my experiences and help new models interested in performing on their network get started and use all features available to them to their full benefit to make the most out of their experience and enjoy their time there.

Video Secrets

unofficial guide to getting started as a camgirl/camboy with the Video Secrets Network (Aka Flirt4Free) 

 

Commission: Base 27% but increases depending on activity.  Flirt4Free has some of the highest per minute rates for models I've seen, as well as attracts often a higher class of clientele.  Having clients spend a few hundred dollars on a single show is not uncommon at all from my experience.

Bonuses/Features:
-Contests: Lots of constant contests.  Top Daily/Weekly/Monthly, top new model.  Occasional theme contests, and yearly.  Great ways for you to earn more by working hard.
-Phone Service: Allows your fans to call you directly.  It connects to your existing number, so easy set up.  And is completely secure so your phone number is not given out.  You set the rates and you activate and deactivate it through the site.  So you can easily choose when you don't want to be contacted.
-Deals:  They let you actually set deals with a lot of flexibility on how they're set up.  I.E you can offer a deal if a user takes you private for 20 minutes, they get an extra 5 minutes free.  Good option to reward loyal fans.
-Amazing customer connection services:  You can post notes to customer's profiles for your eyes only.  Letting you easily keep track of simple details about them, like fetishes or how they enjoy being talked to or addressed as.  And an offline messaging system you can communicate with customers with.
-Ranking is based on activity not viewer count.  Activity is based on a number of factors, letting you gain an edge or even the playing field with more experienced and high earning models.
-Fanclubs to promote to customers to earn extra income with. 
-Resell Private shows: Every Private show you do is recorded.  You can manage these recordings and resell them, setting the rate for users to watch them.
-Upload samples of shows to their personal video site:  This was rather cool, you can upload samples of your videos to their video site.  The videos link back for them to purchase the entire thing from your profile, as well as act as an affiliate link.  So if they sign up and buy credits you get a bonus from that.
-Interactive sex toys:  Yes you read that right.  It's an upfront investment on the models part (they don't supply them for free), but you can get them through them and offer the service to customers where they can control your sex toy/machine on their end.
-Cam2Cam:  They let customers broadcast their cam to you in private.  Opening up a more personal experience and letting you more intimately tease them,
-Record a commercial:  Yes, they let you record a commercial you can use to advertise yourself in your public profile.  Pretty neat way to advertise yourself I thought.

Models Accepted:
Men: Yes
Women: Yes 
Transgender: Yes
Couples: Yes

Offers Geoblocking: Yes

If you're interested in broadcasting with the Video Secrets Network.  Follow this link for their sign up page.
Again make sure you sign up as an individual model and not a studio to avoid any complications.

A studio is an organization that hires other models and takes a portion of their commission, usually in exchange for promoting or offering other services to the models.
If that's something that sounds interesting to you, you can always open one with the network later anyway.

************

Video Secrets is a great network to belong too, even as a newbie in the business.  They've been around for close to 20 years.  So they have a reputation and that's 20 years of building up exposure for an amazing customer base.

Not only that, they offer loads of support for their models and a quick and easy sign up process.  If you ever have any questions they are also friendly and happy to help.  I actually had some issues with my audio on my end when I first started and they were great with helping me on that.  Talked me through it in live chat and fixed the settings on my end.  They're a great help.

Video Secrets network is probably one of the better networks for men to work on as well that I've seen.

The company has a great interface for getting started and offering advice to new members on best ways to do things with them.  So I will just use this guide as a way to explain some things that I personally overlooked when I started on their network.   That way you don't make the same mistakes I did.

So after you sign up and get everything through and are awaiting approval, you should start making sample photo's to upload.  That is to say if you haven't already.   One of these sample photo's will be used as your cover image on the network where customers browse through the cams.  So make it really enticing to get them to click on you.

They have a few restrictions on what models are allowed to show for free in the samples.  This keeps the site a bit more high class and prevents models from doing a race to the bottom, giving away everything for cheap or free and attracting customers who come to expect free and cheap services.  Nope, here they get nothing for free, so customers on this network join knowing they have to pay to see the goods.  Which is great for the models.

So again I will quickly run over a few things to do right away.  First get some photo's up.  Some teasy sexy sample photo's that customers can view for free, and then get some more hardcore photo's up in their appropriate section.  Follow the sites guidelines for writing your bio, if you get stuck, browse a few other models pages for some ideas.

 Read over their rules and regulations carefully.  If something is unclear or you're unsure if you are able to do something in free or private chat even.  Email your rep, they will be more than helpful in answering your questions and clarifying whatever your question is.

Videos can not be uploaded, the only videos they accept are ones they record from your private shows.  Once you have your first private, head on over to their video configuration section and set it up.   Title it, give it a description and what rate to charge for users to view it. And if it's long enough, set up and upload a sample to their tube site right away.

Blog, blog, blog.  Your "PowerScore" as they call it, is your activity level which determines your rankings in their networked sites.  The higher your "powerscore" the more traffic they will send your way.  Each day you can earn a fair number of points from simply writing a short blog entry.  Write one everyday for the required word amount.  Doing that everyday will put and keep you in the high percentile of performers.  Which will mean more traffic

Your first 2 weeks are the most crucial, so don't put this stuff off.  They give you extra exposure, so if you combine that with blogging, and if you get 5 videos uploaded to their tube site quickly.  You will have an amazing first month! Trust me.  Not long you will be able to stop doing the blogs if you want, because your earnings will keep your score high.

The "powerscore" only counts for activity in the past 7 days.  Except for video boosts from their tube site.  That boost is permanent.
So a blog entry that is 8 days old will not count towards your activity level, but a blog entry that is 6 days old will.  So you will need to keep this up every week till you get a stead stream of customers.
It's only like 200 words per a blog entry to get the points.  So it's really not hard to keep up with.  To give you an idea, this paragraph you just read was about 90 words.  So you can see, 200 words is not that much.


Their broadcasting software is pretty cool.  If you're ever having slow days, or just having trouble getting a customer to go private.  Like you're getting someone who just wants to casually talk and not buy anything.  You can do a fake private to stop it.  Rather than being rude and telling them outright to go away or ignoring them.

The chat room is also unique in the sense that customers do not see the guest list for your room.  The only people they can see are those typing in open chat.  So you never have to worry about a low guest count looking bad.  Since no one can see your guest count but you.  A lot of your chatting will be done through PM's typically

2 things to be wary of that I made the mistake of missing when I started.  First I didn't ask customers if my sound/video was looking good.  I ended up working my first week with a slight audio issue, that a customer finally brought to my attention later.  First day, when you get a chatty customer ask them if everything is looking and sounding good and smooth.  If it's not, ask what's wrong and then contact your rep right away to get it fixed.
But even with that audio issue, I was still getting customers spending $200 on a show.  So like I said, really great high class users here.

2nd thing I screwed up on.  The log in types.  I typically did the combo, letting users pick group or private.  What I didn't realize was that users were picking the group option often instead of the private. So they'd take me private under group pricing, instead of actual private pricing.  To remedy this, always pick a single option log in type. If you are working a room and got a group willing to go for the group option, it's extremely easy to quickly switch log in types to allow them to do group.  I was unfortunately shorted a fair amount of credits due to my own carelessness before I noticed that.

Though, if you're unsure what to price your rate at initially.  The combo option can be good for that.  Giving users the freedom to buy time at the cheaper group rate, but at the risk someone might join the fun as well, or at the more expensive private rate and make sure they have you all to themselves.


Play around for whatever works best for you.

My main quarrel with their chat system though is they don't let you approve requests.  You can be in the middle of seducing a VIP client, and some random guy you didn't chat with once can take you private and interrupt all that hard work.   It's only happened to me a couple times, so it doesn't happen often.  It just can be frustrating when it does happen though.

Though something I did enjoy about their chat, that's kind of a hit or miss with models.  Is that they will kick models offline(temporarily) who haven't made any money after a certain amount of time.  (This only counts if you have an extremely low "powerscore" level.  Moderate "powerscore" users, this doesn't effect them)  So low earning and low activity models are kicked off temporarily (Something like an 8 hour break I believe)  I personally enjoyed this because it meant less low quality models (models that sit around and do nothing expecting money, types) clogging up the network and distracting potentially paying customers.  really helps attribute to the high quality aspects of the network I personally felt.
But like I said, this can be easily avoided.  I think it takes something like 4 blog entries to be at a level high enough that you wont be booted if you happen to have a bad start for the day.
If you're not at a high enough level though and you are approaching that time limit without any income. Just log off before it hits, take a break for an hour or 2 and try again. This will avoid you getting that boot.

Something else that's pretty handy is their room receptionist feature.  This is enabled where you manage your account.  Most models and customers seem to agree to not use it to send them automated greetings.  They find it impersonal, and they don't like how it calls them out in public chat.  Instead just use the option for it to privately notify you when VIP and customers with a history of spending come into your room.  So you can focus your attention on them.


If you had a particularly good show with a customer, make note of them and send them a sexy message or virtual gift a few days later to remind them about you and the fun you 2 had. Video Secrets give you a lot of tools to market yourself with.  Make sure you are using all of them to your benefit.  When you first sign up, the "credit levels" to get access to more marketing features for you to use, the levels might seem daunting, but you'll blow through them in no time.

Make sure you set yourself a consistent schedule for going online and stick with it.  You have the potential to get a lot of repeat high paying customers on this network.  If they like you and you're consistent with your performing schedule they will keep coming back.  If you're not, they will jump around other model rooms and that's income lost for you.

After you've been modeling for about a month you will want to take advantage of the "Feature Show".  It's an hour long show in a prime time slot.  This is a great way to market yourself to High Paying customers.  Read up about it and ask questions to start to prepare one.  It will boost your exposure a lot.

That's really all the advice I have for them.  They are pretty great about helping models maximize their potential income and explaining everything they have to offer and how you can use them, it's all really upfront.  So there is 0 need for me to write an expansive piece about it here.  Once you sign up above and get approved you will see all the tools available to you and explained clearly by them.  And if you ever have any questions, their FAQ section covers everything, not to mention the reps are nice and helpful for any questions not answered in their FAQ.

Video Secrets is a great network in my experience.  If you decided to use the link above to sign up with them.  Good luck and I hope they work out great for you!




Pt 4: Maximizing your income potential - New models guide to Chaturbate.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Pt 3: Settings & Privacy - New models guide to Chaturbate.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Pt 2: Setting up your profile - New models guide to Chaturbate

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Getting Started: Camgirls guide to Chaturbate

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Camgirl guide, Getting Started

Credit

So you want to learn how to be a camgirl?

A guide to starting a web model career.

Well you've come to a good place to get started.  I'll be running through a how to get started guide for both male and female cam models alike.  So sit back, relax and let us get down and dirty ;).

So, if you've come here, I am going to assume you have an interest in working as a web model.  Web model being the fancy term for CamGirl or Camboy.  So the question on your mind right now is probably "How do I get started?"
Probably the most daunting part of caming is the beginning when you're completely lost. But that's ok, that is what this blog is for!

  • Q: "Where and how do I get started?" 
 The first questions of every aspiring cam model.  So first things first, if you have decided this is something you want to do, you will need to decide if you want to go completely independent and do private skype shows or if you want to work for one of the many sites out there.
In my honest opinion I would go with the sites for just starting off.  You're still an independent model in the sense you dictate your shows and hours and more or less everything really.  Even prices to a degree.  All with the added bonus of them doing the majority of the leg work for already building an audience that they give you easy access to promote to.   As well as handling the payments from clients.
So this area I'm going to go over working with the sites.  I'll cover working complete independent in another section.

So back to deciding which site to start off with.  If you google cam-site no doubt you'll get hundreds of links which can be overwhelming to choose from.  So to make things easier I've compiled a small list of the more well known ones that I have experience with.

Now each site has something called a commission rate.  The commission rate is essentially your cut of the profits.  The site obviously gets a chunk for their overhead costs and marketing efforts to get customers to the website.  But anyway lets go on to the sites.

At the moment there are a few sites that are popular amongst the communities.  I'll go over them briefly below.  Obviously the ones I have experience with I'll be able to more detailed with.  I do plan on trying out the other highly rated Chat Sites so I can give a better and more detailed review on how to make the most of them.  So wait for those in the future.

Chaturbate focuses a lot on being a community which has become a sort of unique party environment.  Meaning models typically do group shows dictated by the model themselves, rather than the typical 1on1 private shows.  Though they do allow the models to perform private shows.
Who is it good for?  Men/Women/couples, more or less everyone really.  It has a community and exhibitionist environment going for it, so it tends to attract all types of viewers looking for all types of models.
Commission: 50%
Bonuses: Hourly contests for the models to earn extra income. Allows models to sell Pics/Videos on site.

Offers Geoblocking: Yes

Flirt4Free is centered around private shows mainly.  They have a massive network of sites that they promote their models on which means lots of potential customers.   They can kind of be hit or miss in the cam model communities due to their strict policies on what you're allowed to do in free chat.  What I mean by that is when you're in public chat they don't allow you to perform sex acts.  This forces customers to actually pay for a show and prevents other models from giving it all away for free.
Commission: Starts at 27% but increases over time.  As well though the main clients the site attracts are typically high spenders with a higher dollar per a minute charge.  So that starting 27% earns more than you would think.
Bonuses: Lots of major contests centered around holidays, and minor contests as well.  Chances to win large cash prizes for top models. Interactive sex machines for more experienced models.  Massive amounts of ways to promote yourself and keep track of your clients to optimize your earnings.  Massive network to promote to.  Performer rank is determined by activity not view count.  flirt has their own private video site which models can push sample clips of their videos too, to further promote their room and videos for sale.  Offer phone sex capabilities for models.  They've been around for close to 20 years and are active with adult industry trade shows like the Adult Entertainment Expo.


Offers Geoblocking: Yes

If you sign up with Flirt, during the sign up process make sure you sign up as a performer, not a studio. What's the difference you may ask?  A studio is someone in charge of other performers.  And a Performer is obviously someone that's interested in performing.  I will discuss studios later and why as performers you should careful of them.

For more detailed review of my experience with Flirt4Free and all it has to offer, including how to make the most of it's features. Click here.


A few other sites the models are enjoying but I don't have any experience with yet.  I will try them out soon and get reviews up.


        3. Streamate

Commission ranges from 30-35% as I can tell.

They are focused around privates and listing models by client fetish.


Offers Geoblocking: Yes


        4. MyFreeCams

This is girls only, they do not accept male models.  Sorry fellas.

Commission is 60%

From what I've heard from the girls that work here.  The place can be a real hit or miss for the models.  Some models swear by it, others say the majority of people are just looking to see what they can get out of the model for free.


Offers Geoblocking: Yes


  • Q: "How do I choose, do I go after sites with best commission?"

Nope.  Never go to a site based on their commission rate only.  I'm sure you're wondering why.  I mean it makes no sense to work for a a site that offers 30% of every dollar compared to a site that offers 60%.
But here is the thing, commission isn't everything. I work on both Chaturbate and Flirt4Free.  CB as you read has a commission of 50% and Flirt starts off at 27%.  I make about 1.5x to 3x the amount at Flirt than I do at Chaturbate.
It's all about the type of traffic the site pulls in and how well you're able to take advantage of it.  On Chaturbate I can pull in 300+ viewers on a good day.  Average is about 100+.  On flirt my average is 20-30, a good day is about 50-70.  So you'd think I would make more money on Chaturbate, since more views and a higher commission.  The problem lies in monetizing those viewers.  Sure I get a ton of viewers at Chaturbate, but most of them are in your room hoping for a free show paid by others.  In Flirt the only show viewers get are ones they pay for. 

You can find sites that offer 80%+ commission to draw in models, which sounds amazing, but if their is no traffic to the site, you're not working, so you're not getting paid.  Which means you're getting 80% of nothing.  Not to say you shouldn't look into those sites.  Odds are that commission rate isn't going to stay and if you feel they are genuinely trying to grow larger and it's showing.  It's a great idea to get in on it.


  • Q: "So if not based on commission then what?"

For your first site to work with.  That's the toughest pick.  I would not recommend working for the site you want to work for right off the bat.  Mainly because you want some experience before you go to those sites.  So you can take full advantage of all they have to offer from day one.
My recommendation is to use Chaturbate as your first.  The atmosphere is more relaxed and you are free to experiment more in finding your niche, as well as understanding the dynamics of performing and what to expect.
From there you should pick a site that makes you happy and you are comfortable working for.  If Chaturbate ends up being that site, awesome.  If not, you can use what you learned to start off stronger at another site.

  • Q: "What will I need to sign up?

When you sign up they will ask for various forms of information.  Drivers license, SSN, and/or other forms of I.D to confirm your age and you are who you say you are.
You will need a webcam and mic.  The higher the quality the better.  Almost every site gives better rankings to cam models who have HD cams.

That's more or less it.


Some words of wisdom when signing up with new sites.

  • Never pay to sign up for a site.

  • Don't sign up with individuals.  If someone is asking you to sign up with their studio.  probably a scam.  Not 100% of the time, but be extremely cautious.   You'll sign up with them and they'll take a portion of your earnings for no work on their part.   Regardless, a good thing to do even if you didn't go through an individual is to double check your earnings at the end of your pay period.  Make sure you're getting the full commission for your level.  If you have issues email the company support staff directly. Support should always have an official email, not some 3rd party email like @gmail.com.  If you're thinking of intentionally signing up with a studio, make sure you research them heavily.  Ask them for information on resources they provide, what cut they take from your earnings.  Where they are based in.  If they reside in your country you have more legal options should something go wrong.  If they reside in another country you might just be S.O.L if they screw you over.  Essentially make sure they genuinely have something to offer you as a model.  That's worth it to you.


  •  Q: "Is there anything else I should know of when joining a site?"
 Yes, you should read over their model agreements carefully.  Personally I don't join sites that don't let me perform elsewhere.  It's rare that I've seen, but occasionally you'll come across sites that don't allow models to work elsewhere while they work there.  As well as make sure they have geoblocking capabilities.  Geoblocking lets you block states and countries.  So if you want to make sure your neighbor wont accidentally stumble upon your profile.  You can Geoblock your state, so you wont appear to them in any fashion.  Even if they some how got a hold of your username   Most sites you sign up for to perform on will own whatever media you upload.  So understand you might not have rights to that video you made for a client on that particular site.
  •  Q: "I signed up with my first site... Now what?"
Go here and read about starting strong(Section currently being developed check back in a few days.).  The first 2 weeks are always the most crucial with whatever site you sign up with. 

Good Luck!