I would only recommend ELM to a newbie model looking to get some quick cash. Though I've made money on this site, it will drag you down once you're experienced, professional & ready to work for a decent rate.
Traffic flows easily if you know how to work the site. Recently uploaded videos stream on the front page, which provides some exposure, though you can't schedule posts (vids must also be approved first, which can take a few hours or more, so upload in advance). There's a custom request board (& I wish more sites would have these) where users can post custom video/cam show requests. Personally, I would not only click their "I can do it" button, but also send the requester a personal message about their request, along with pics of my outfit/costume that would fit their request, etc. That personal touch combined with my high reviews & ratings on that site nearly always landed me the job & I would get around 5-10 customs a day through the board & repeat customers.
Website is eh... outdated & unorganized, but works. Vid size is incredibly limited - only 500mb, so nothing of decent quality can be uploaded. Even if you film a high quality custom vid for an ELM customer, you can't go through the site to send it, which is ridiculous. Message threads with users can be restarted by them, so you may have several threads to the same person & it gets messy & disorganized. ELM also has a pay-per-txt msg feature, though it has some glitches.
Payment is on time (there's a week hold). However, they never fully recovered from the big payment processor who bailed out on all the porn sites last year (Crosstown?). ELM held our funds (unless you had
Paxum) & the only option they gave us MANY MONTHS later was
Dwolla, an online bank no one ever heard of.
Dwolla worked fine once I gained the courage to finally use it, but the fact they they still have a "we're working on it" on their payment page from a year ago implies they don't care to have any other payment options available. All other sites found appropriate workarounds, but ELM just seemed lazy about it.
***Update -
Dwolla went out of business, now ELM offers checks / ACH.
Support is not usually helpful. If & when they finally respond it's always a short/auto answer that doesn't fully address the issue, so expect to follow up for the rest, if they even respond.
Main downside to this site - users are CHEAP. And I don't necessarily mean this is in a negative way, but be aware of that when using the site. Take a look at the request board & you can find 10 minute, very detailed customs for $5.00 with 30 girls competing for it. Rude customers abound, but it's a good place to toughen up & learn to brush them off
So like I initially stated, great site to get your feet wet & try some custom orders, but not a place you want to stay because of cheap customers and lazy management practices.