Guide for New Cam Models

Don't Quit Your Day Job

People don't give enough credit to camgirls. It's tough work and success doesn't come overnight. Many people have given up quickly because they didn't see instant results. You may be a gorgeous, talented, charming, sexual person, but you are a complete unknown competing with models that have been doing this a lot longer than you have. My recommendation is that you cam during your free time in order to earn some extra spending money. Focus on that goal first, and if things start to take off, you may be able to turn it into a full-time job.

Camming isn't for everyone. Internet trolls can be brutal. Combine that with the fact that you are constantly objectified by sex addicts and judged on your appearance, you may just lose it after a night, week, or month of limited earnings. Some people don't have the nerve to deal with jerks night after night, others lack the motivation to run their own business, and lots of people are better suited for other types of work. At the end of the night, you need to look at things realistically and think, "Is this worth the time I'm spending on it? Are my earnings increasing? Will I be able to turn this into a full-time job?" It may be hard to tell if you are just going through the difficult first stage of building your cam model presence, or if camming isn't for you. Fortunately, there are forums online where other camgirls can discuss your specific situation, give you guidance, and help you figure it out. Wecamgirls.com is my favorite cam model forum; they have all sorts of useful resources, and you can also enter sweepstakes to win some really cool sex toys.

Start with 2 Sites

There are so many different things you need to learn to be a successful cam model that it boggles the mind. Trying to figure it all out on your first day will cause a serious case of information overload. For this reason, I recommend signing up for two cam sites, and devoting all of your cam model time to them for the first month. Hold off on the extensive social networking campaigns, making video clips to sell, creating custom content, and selling your panties for now. The best use of your time as a new model will be maintaining a regular schedule for customers to follow while learning the ins and outs of both cam sites. I would say to just stick with one site, but it's good to have two sites available in case one of them is having a slow night. The two sites I recommend signing up for are Streamate.Com and MyFreeCams.Com. Streamate promotes new models very heavily for the first three months. Although I personally have never worked on MyFreeCams, I've heard great things about it from other models; it's very popular, and they offer one of the highest commission rates in the business. Both sites have serious earning potential. Working one site on Friday nights, and the other on Saturday nights would be an ideal schedule because followers can come to expect you to be there every week, and eventually you will see which site earns you more money. Working both of them will help you learn about two different styles of cam sites and decide if you have a preference for one style over the other.

Two Types of Sites...

The number of cam sites is probably in the thousands, but most of them can be categorized into two types. There are sites like Streamate, where the majority of your money is earned by getting customers to take you to private chat, where they pay for your services by the minute. On these sites, you cater to a smaller crowd, and there are a lot of one-on-one interactions. On sites like MyFreeCams, models perform for customers who can watch the show for free and tip the model if they like. These sites are like crowd funding, where lots of people can chip in a little bit of money, which can add up very quickly. Thousands of people can end up watching your show. High energy entertainment tends to lure them in and keep them in their seats.

Working for Tips

On sites like MyFreeCams where you are performing for a big crowd, you want to do everything you can to make the show exciting and memorable. Many of these sites base your ranking on the number of people that are in your room, so as the number increases, your placement on the site moves up. This makes it easier for people to find you. A good tactic is to show some nudity and/or premium content type of stuff at the beginning of the show to draw people in. That will list you a bit higher on the preview page, more people will see you, and the room will get fuller. Then you should tone it down a bit, but keep it going good enough to keep people in the room. From that point, you can get more and more provocative until the number of watchers starts to peak. You will try to keep all the people in the room, but the important thing is that hopefully by this time you have a few paying customers. In the beginning, these crowd-based shows won't be too overwhelming. Most likely you will have a handful of tippers accompanied by a ton of freeloaders. Instead of wasting time talking to freeloaders in the main chat, a good tactic for beginners is to send private messages to the paying customers and engage them in a stimulating conversation. They will feel special, tip more frequently, and visit you regularly. If someone walks into your room and wants attention, they will have to tip. As you begin to gain popularity and notice the crowds in the main chat getting larger, you will need to move away from this tactic as potential tippers can walk into the main chat, feel ignored, and leave. Always feel free to ignore the freeloaders. Once you have a massive following, you won't be able to keep up with private messages anymore, so you will need to talk to all of the tippers in the main chat room. What can you do to keep your crowd shows exciting? There are all sorts of games you can play like hangman, raffles, battleship, and bingo. You can dance, twerk, do ballet, striptease, sing, play a musical instrument, or let loose with some mad freestyle rhymes. You can turn on a black light and fog machine and cover your body with glow-in-the-dark paint. Interesting backgrounds and room decor pull people in and create conversations. With this kind of site, you want to really make things engaging so you can fill the room and increase your ranking while generating repeat customers. You can try out all kinds of outfits, wear costumes, do role-playing scenarios, and read erotica. Show off your favorite fetish like self-bondage or give a lesson in flogging (as long as the site allows it). The possibilities are endless, so use your imagination and have fun with it.

Pay Per Minute Shows

One reason I like working for Streamate so much is that not just any guy off the street can come into your room and start chatting you up. They must register with a credit card to even be allowed to say anything in the guest chat room. This weeds out a lot of the time wasters. If you are tired of freeloaders or dealing with massive crowds, you may prefer sites like Streamate that rely on customers paying for private shows by the minute. The trick is to get them to take you to private chat, keep them there for as long as possible, and have them return regularly. When a customer clicks on your profile, they enter a guest chat room, where they can see what you look like, ask some questions, and chat with you. If life were easy, you could just schmooze them a bit then ask if they would like to take you into private chat. Unfortunately, asking them so directly is the quickest way to get them to leave the room. They all seem to have this fantasy where models enjoy talking to them and getting naked for them so much, that they will do it for free. Any sort of mention of money shatters that illusion for them. The key is to word it in such a way that makes it sound like you're into them.

For example, you could say, "Do you want to play?" or "I'm so horny right now, I really want to play with you. I get off more when there's somebody watching..." A good flow in conversation starts with some small talk, which leads to some sexual talk, followed by a suggestion of services (cleverly worded as not to bruise their precious ego, of course). At this point, they may ask questions. After that, they may ask more questions, followed by more questions ad infinitum. They are holding on to their money with a vise-like grip and stalling you. Feel free to tell them that you will answer their question in private chat. Sometimes you will be dealing with a broke sex addict who just can't stay away; other times you will be dealing with a paying customer who just wants to get as much of your time for free before paying. There have been many times where I thought a person would never pay, but after standing my ground they actually spent a lot of money on me. Once a customer is ignored, they will see that you are for real, and that they need to pay their way to keep things going. A good technique to learn is to maintain control of a conversation. You can do this by setting the tempo and keeping them busy with questions. For example, I usually start my time in private chat with, "Would you like to see my outfit?" Nine times out of ten, they say yes, so I stand up and give them a twirl. If they had got the first word in, it would have been something like, "Take your clothes off." How is a girl supposed to make any money online by taking her clothes off in front of strangers? In private chat, you want to keep things going, but milk it as much as possible. If you go too slow, they will leave. It's a skill you learn over time. Although you want to keep them in there as long as possible, I think it helps to culminate towards a climax, followed by a request for them to add you to their favorites and leave a good comment. Repeating phrases like, "I'm gonna come," "I'm so close," "Oh my god, are you ready?" "I'm almost there" for a half hour or more may make you a few extra bucks in the short run, but they may decide to leave early, write a bad comment on your page, and never come back. Making sure that they climax is a good way to create a repeat customer. There are a few more things I want to mention about Streamate. You need to use their encoder program to get the highest placement. Try to broadcast in high definition widescreen if possible. When you first log in, go to the tab labeled "My reports," and select "My Ranking." This tool will show you how to get the best placement possible on the site.

What do I need to Cam?

Although there are all sorts of things you can buy for your camming business, it doesn't take a whole lot of money to start, and you may already have most of what you need. At a minimum, you should have a couple of sexy outfits and a webcam. These will help you earn money for your other business expenses if you can't afford them yet. If you don't already have sex toys, you should purchase a normal-sized vibrator and a smaller toy for anal play (if you do anal). Customers prefer dildos that are flesh-colored and look realistic, but of course, you can build up to a nice diverse collection if you would like. Lube can be expensive, but many girls swear by coconut oil as a cost-effective way to keep everything in working order. Laptop webcams may not broadcast in high definition and may not upload as many frames per second as some nicer models. I recommend purchasing the Logitech C920. It's a very durable, high-quality camera that has a nice zoom feature you can control on your computer. It even comes with software that allows you to take still frame photos. The next item on your list should be a studio lighting set. You can find a good set of 2 or 3 photography lights online for less than one hundred dollars. If you would like, you can get a few fetish items like handcuffs, butt plugs, whips, ball-gags, blindfolds, etc. You will learn what kind of fetishes your customers are into, but some of the most popular involve heels, boots, and stockings.

Advanced Camming Guide Coming Soon...

So that's it! That's all you need to get started. Keep it simple and focus on putting in a good amount of hours on cam at the same time every week. That's the best way to get regulars. At this point, you want to learn how to interact with customers on cam, and the most profitable use of your time is being logged into a cam site with the webcam on. I hope you enjoyed reading this guide, and more importantly, I hope it gives you the information needed to start out as a successful cam model. I'm currently working on an advanced guide for cam models. It will include topics like promoting your shows through social network sites, booking independent shows over Skype, making money with phone sex, selling panties and video content, and camming at multiple sites at the same time.