View Full Version : The General Purpose "Camming Sucks Right Now" Thread
The movie Ferris Bueller's Day off where he hears Bueller Bueller Bueller. I can hear that voice in my head saying: pixelating. pixelating. pixelating. fml
xxxGothBarbie
12-04-2016, 08:08 PM
Sat sucked balls for me :( All 3 sites were slow as shit esp SM ugh
MsJess
12-04-2016, 10:52 PM
Fucking slow tonight! usually sunday is my best night :( wtf 6 hours to make what i usually make in 3, oh well, i am at home at least :D
sweetandnaughty
12-04-2016, 11:55 PM
yeah, SM is hella slow tonight...close to my goal for the night but it's taking a looonnggggg time. last 5 nights have been killer on SM for me and I needed one more night but of course it had to die a death on SM...fuckers
Blonde-Ambition
12-05-2016, 07:43 AM
i can't handle how dead it is! this has gone on too long now!
Kaya_x
12-05-2016, 10:51 AM
Saturday was amazing, Sunday awful and today even worse. My finances are getting painful!
anonymous camgirl
12-05-2016, 12:45 PM
Yep that's how it went for me also.. Saturday was good ( not amazing).. Sunday was eh more like a Monday) Today is like a complete fucking drought.... I am starting to get super depressed .. I need things to pick up!..
Saturday was amazing, Sunday awful and today even worse. My finances are getting painful!
CreativeName
12-05-2016, 01:31 PM
I remember now why I never cam during the daytime. This is just god awful. Going back to night shift camming lol I can't make any money during the day
anonymous camgirl
12-05-2016, 05:48 PM
I hate Flirt4Free.. 7 hours on cam and all they got is a bunch of stupid viewer's choice votes and I get paid $2.46?? WTF???... That's fucking 35 cents an hour.. why the fuck do I do this again?
Holly_xoxo
12-05-2016, 06:23 PM
I hate Flirt4Free.. 7 hours on cam and all they got is a bunch of stupid viewer's choice votes and I get paid $2.46?? WTF???... That's fucking 35 cents an hour.. why the fuck do I do this again?
What are viewer's choice votes? I've never been on that site so I don't know anything about it.
JaneBurgess
12-05-2016, 06:45 PM
I hate Flirt4Free.. 7 hours on cam and all they got is a bunch of stupid viewer's choice votes and I get paid $2.46?? WTF???... That's fucking 35 cents an hour.. why the fuck do I do this again?
They are ok if you only do them occasionally. I doubt it will be good on there until after Christmas since they are cheap usually all the time.
luna93
12-05-2016, 10:44 PM
Spent two weeks in fucking bliss enjoying my new girl money on niteflirt. Sadly it's appeared to come to an end. Time to start camming again. Can't say I'm excited
Bridgetxo
12-05-2016, 11:11 PM
Tonight is soo slow. I can't even get anyone to talk to me. People just come in and stare. I've been on two hours and it feels like 5. I'm sooooo bored.
sweetandnaughty
12-05-2016, 11:17 PM
i agree...i hopped on for a few hours on SM and I'm live and dead on both...i made my low goal for a few hours...so different from last week which ROCKED! that's camming for u...just when you think u have it figured out it kicks your ass back down and you start over...lol..time to log off and go get some zzzzss
Glamourmilf
12-06-2016, 06:08 AM
I remember now why I never cam during the daytime. This is just god awful. Going back to night shift camming lol I can't make any money during the day
Same for me. But, if I get the 'morning wood' crowd, I can make my goal in like an hour.
At a certain time, it just seems to 'flip', and I get the freeloaders who don't pay.
That's when I know its time to log off for the day, and log in later at night.
xxxGothBarbie
12-06-2016, 08:33 AM
Fuck this morning was slow :( mostly freeloaders & short shows blah. Hopefully later today will pick up ugh if I don't get to travel or shop soon, I'm gonna explode :(
MissAdriana
12-06-2016, 08:45 AM
Yeah I never work the night of the VS fashion show... always seems like guys just jerk off to that at home. You might get lucky and get the odd fetish guy but otherwise not worth it for me
I'm taking some much needed time off right now. I can't deal with 'THE SUCK'. It's so hard to log in anymore when it's just no fun.
Missbeth
12-06-2016, 01:32 PM
Someone just came into my room with my full name as their screen name, I have a really rare first and last name so im 99% sure it it is someone who knows me. Being outed sucks, someone messing with you sucks even more.
Serena-Shields
12-06-2016, 02:29 PM
Looks like this week is going to suck too. Yay.
Glamourmilf
12-06-2016, 03:47 PM
Someone just came into my room with my full name as their screen name, I have a really rare first and last name so im 99% sure it it is someone who knows me. Being outed sucks, someone messing with you sucks even more.
What the actual fuck??
Did you block him?
Bananabunny
12-06-2016, 03:50 PM
Not a really neat week but better than the month november lmao
I made like 20-60 dollars since the begin of the month each night but no privates...In privates I can go up to 100 dollars or more so I'm upset to not have any privates since some time even tho my private show per minute is only 30 tokens which is 1,5 dollars per minute. Fucking greedy men ==;
CreativeName
12-06-2016, 05:55 PM
Same for me. But, if I get the 'morning wood' crowd, I can make my goal in like an hour.
At a certain time, it just seems to 'flip', and I get the freeloaders who don't pay.
That's when I know its time to log off for the day, and log in later at night.
Yeah when I said nights are better what I meant is for longer shifts like 6-9 hours.. you probably don't need those but I sure do! I will say that some of my best earning hours are definitely early mornings.
Missbeth
12-07-2016, 06:27 AM
What the actual fuck??
Did you block him?
Unfortunately they were in and out before I got the chance to. They came in and I was like oh geez got ready to ban and they left.
A few years ago someone came into my room with my first name + 's(insert common term for the college I was at) and between then and now randomly someone will come in with something else similar, my town with name etc.. Pretty sure it is the same guy all along. Pretty sure I know who he is. Given how many times its happened and the extreme rarity of my name I dont think its coincidence, if my name was jane smith it'd be different.
Every time it happens I show no shock and silently ban the person. Pretty sure they are just trying to get a rise out of me and are just a bored loser but its still shitty.
I am sorry for the situation Beth, be sure is somebody who knows u cause this happened to me too, i am 99% sure an ex bf found me on cam and trolled me FOR YEARS throwing the most ugly insults written all in a sentence, sent it then left before i was able to block this person, he changed names always so i cant recognize him but then he did the mistake to message me on SM (YAY!) & i was then able to block that account cause never again he came back into my room.
Maybe maybe he writes u or he did already, got any 'suspicious' messages in ur inbox? If so go BAN it!
Also, sometimes last year a person came into my room and called me by my real name asking me in my native language 'what are u doing here X?'
I tried my best not to show a reaction & typed in english 'What?' then he buggered off. Not sure how this person knowing me got an account on SM cause my nationals cant sign up for a membership but maybe he/she hacked an account/CC or is living abroad and has a CC from there. I freaked out tho, that 1st name is my official name & only 'official' people know it, ex bosses or colleagues, docs, teachers, etc, grrr, dont know who that person was, i wish i knew .....
anonymous camgirl
12-07-2016, 09:27 AM
It's so fucking annoying when these guys are dangling a private in your fucking face.. it seems worse around the holiday.. like they want you to beg , grovel, plead.. and bow down to their fucking asses... I am tired of them saying shit like.... do you want to go to pvt? are you sure? maybe it's not a good time.. I wasn't sure if you wanted to go or not.. the stress is mounting so hard these days... I took a day off yesterday but doesn't seem to be enough!.. I just yelled at a guy who is a REGULAR for pulling this fucking shit.
I mean seriously.. he said if you don't wanna go to pvt it's cool.. after just chatting to him about how crappy camming has been these days and it's stressing me out.. and this is what he fucking says to me.. fuck off dick!.. if I had back to back privates all day I wouldn't be STRESSED I would be TIRED!
hotmodel
12-07-2016, 01:37 PM
Someone just came into my room with my full name as their screen name, I have a really rare first and last name so im 99% sure it it is someone who knows me. Being outed sucks, someone messing with you sucks even more.
This has happened to me too :( I ended up closing down my account it freaked me out so bad! And I've gotten someone who sent me a direct message through my main domain camsite I have with my full name..even middle! Fuckin creep! I replied but honestly the best thing in the end was just to silent them out. Told him I'm never responding again. But from here on out..the best thing to do is never show a reaction..don't let them see that it gets to you..just block and ban and never respond and try your best to forget it even though I know it's FUCKIN HARD :(
anonymous camgirl
12-07-2016, 04:13 PM
5 hours later.. I and I finally get to break out my dildo.. good lord.
evaeva
12-07-2016, 04:24 PM
$20 all day. Damn it. None of my regs were online, my room was dead, and a show I had been planning to do for a week and relying on to pay some bills with the money from fell through so I'm pretty bummed.
AutumnAmbrosia
12-07-2016, 04:48 PM
Allbbwcams being bought out by Streamate.
I am supremely upset. It felt like there was no warning or sign that it would happen, either.
Sure, we didn't get as much traffic and it was harder to ignore the freeloaders on there, but we got paid a little more than most other sites offer and the tech support was always speedy and very helpful, in my experience. I preferred a lot of the site's features in comparison to some others, as well. :/ Now I have to settle for working for SM again...after I left them to work mainly at ABBWC a couple years ago.
R.I.P AllBBWcams :(
anonymous camgirl
12-07-2016, 05:03 PM
Fucking trolls or losers.. or both take your pick are out .. I have been called fat fucking piece of shit a few days ago and then today.. who would want to pay $100 to watch a fat slob who hit the wall.. sounds like MGTOW talk if you ask me..lol.. but they RARELY call me FAT!.. only recently.. for fuck's sake!
Bananabunny
12-07-2016, 05:13 PM
Why is it so hard nowadays to make money on cam websites?? It used to be so much easier and it was so motivating!! What happened?? Am I the only one who struggles to get the minimum for a payout since 2 months? Or is it always like this at the end of a year in the cam business? Damn that sucks I will take the half of the month off and go see my sugar daddy, I need a break from camming, I'm officially burned out after over a year of being a cam girl.
DonaDiabla
12-07-2016, 05:35 PM
Another vent for the end of this year: Please note that some these complaints are the reason why I decided to become more independent. In 2015 and 2016; I am sick of following certain companies' rules, dealing with bitchy owners(men and women), listening to other people's shit, and so forth. This why I am doing direct-dial and become a more independent texter/webcam model. Also, I am not going to put up with crap on these vanilla jobs as well.
Adult industry:
What is up with some of cam sites not telling anyone they are either closing or merging with other sites? Seriously,whosonlinexxx did not even tell anyone that they were going to close. Plus, sites like Needlive and AllBBWcams just tell you they are going to merge like a whole month after they beg sites like streamate or LiveJasmin to take them.
What is up with sites like Mongocams and Bongocams sucking at their affiliate programs? Thank God for Chaturbate and always phone sex because they always pay on time and their affiliate program does not suck.
Speaking of affiliate program; Arousr just drop from their affiliate program without telling you. I mean if you are female run company...least you can have some common-courtesy.
Another problem is these sorry-ass texting companies such as ChatStar. Seriously, you made me wait for approve for almost two months and I get there. But it is nothing! Another reason why I decided to do my own thing. I am not going to play second fiddle no one and wait for these companies to approve me.
Seriously, what is up with SinCats changes their format every month? I feel like they should have thought their platform more in depth. It is like they are flying at the edge of their teeth.
Vanilla work:
Real Estate- I do not have any real complaints about the real estate profession. However, I got very sick of being offer only low-tier property management positions in California. Please! I am not going to be some low-rent property manager in some ghetto place in California. Seriously, someone tried to offer me a job in Hawaiian Gardens. Gang-infected and poverty stricken Hawaiian Gardens...yuck! Luckily, my luck has changed by December and I am exploring more middle class places to work. Also, I am trying to decided if I should work which luxury real estate company to work for.
Writing: My writing gigs have been working out so far. However, I just feel that the romance field needs to recognized that sweet romance can be fun as a genre. Also, I do not want to write about sex in a romance relationship. Personally, I feel that many romance authors feel so "empowered" to write about sex in romance novels. Sweet romance is trying to died expect for the Christian based writers.
bbwbrianna
12-07-2016, 06:25 PM
Everything pisses me off these days. The freeloaders and trolls seem to be worse on holidays. Fucking hell how many times do I have to read "STAND UP" "PM me" "open my cam" "ur a fat fucking cunt" on my screen per day before I finally go stab somebody? Then this one asshole on the shitty CB token site had a lot to say after I copy and pasted my tip menu when he wanted me to pm him for free and waste my time. "you don't get tips for sitting"? "not to be an ass but why tip for you to stand are there medical doctors in here"? What the FUCK does that even mean? Yes I want to get tipped for every request you have of me, since I'm not here to entertain you for free on a fucking cam site! Then another asshole who spent 40 dollars on me once two years ago just keeps coming back to freeload in my room. He spams the chat with compliments and blows up my pms. Geez you spent 40 dollars on me once and I'm supposed to care about your very existence and give you all my time? Why not spend now? I don't care about compliments because they're not paying my bills or helping me buy Christmas presents for my family! Fuck off and stop camping in my room waiting for others to tip me. Fucking assholes.
Blovely
12-07-2016, 06:37 PM
Why is it so hard nowadays to make money on cam websites?? It used to be so much easier and it was so motivating!! What happened?? Am I the only one who struggles to get the minimum for a payout since 2 months? Or is it always like this at the end of a year in the cam business? Damn that sucks I will take the half of the month off and go see my sugar daddy, I need a break from camming, I'm officially burned out after over a year of being a cam girl.
Nope you aren't the only one struggling. If you read around many ladies have posted that they've experienced an extreme change/slowness in the last few months. There isn't usually an end of the year slowness, Fall is when things usually pick up. I remember this time last year I really banked, this year its the total opposite. I dunna wtf is going of with the cam biz right now.
MsJess
12-07-2016, 06:51 PM
geez it's so slow :( i starting to worry, worst month ever! like my other months were bomb and this is shit! :(
CreativeName
12-07-2016, 08:10 PM
k my shift key i use without looking is stuck real bad and i can't be fucked to fix it or find my other keyboard so just deal! kay.
lol right these people are all like "hey i spent some money on u now give me all yo time
[email protected][email protected][email protected]" bwahaha. omg if i get another stand up i'll kill somebody like yeah u want me to stand up why? "so i can see u" uhuh. so does this have anything to do with u buying a show from me? *logs out* thats right u stupid motherfucker and stay the fuck out of my room i don't want ur broke ass in here. what i hate most is these dumbass motherfuckers that act like you are on there cuz ur lonely and its ur hobby and u wanna be their friend for free?? bitch were u born yesterday??? fuck lol.
the worst is the manipulative fucks that fucking act manipulative. you know what i mean lets say everything is dead for u so they can see they can waste ur time and bait u and talk to u without ever buying a show cuz they see ur not busy.. when it is busy i dont have all these freeloaders cuz they see i am busy and know to get my time they must pay me and so the serious ones do.
Bristol
12-08-2016, 12:57 AM
Nope you aren't the only one struggling. If you read around many ladies have posted that they've experienced an extreme change/slowness in the last few months. There isn't usually an end of the year slowness, Fall is when things usually pick up. I remember this time last year I really banked, this year its the total opposite. I dunna wtf is going of with the cam biz right now.
When I started in early 2012, I would make $300 on Streamate on typical Saturday in about 4 to 5 hours of wall clock time. ($65+/hour at 50-70% in paid). It wasn't hard. Sometimes it spiked up to $90/hr on a very busy day. I'd log off, not because it got slow, but because there were too many customers. They wore me out having 3 to 5 simultaneous customers in premium chat. Boy was my ego flying with that.
I didn't even market myself. I didn't have a Twitter account or website, and I only worked SM. Now? I have all those, split across 3 or 4 sites, perform Skype indy shows, but I often make $50 in the same time frame. $10/hr is minimum wage in my state. I posted a month ago that I was getting a vanilla job in a restaurant. Well, I'm making a little more per hour doing hosting and earning tips on the take out station. If they move me over to serving tables, I will likely make double what I make now. Still not a lot, but a livable wage for me at the moment. (It's a very busy restaurant that got featured on the Travel channel. The 2 best servers are earning over $50k for 30 hours work per week).
There are probably a few reasons why I wasn't doing so well. Maybe I'm just getting old and need to downgrade my earning expectations. That is a real possibility for me, however I still think something has been happening with the industry for a while, but whenever anyone mentions it our concerns seem to get dismissed as just routine paranoia. The mantra is "hang in there; it will get better", but my landlord doesn't wait that long.
When you have one great day on cam, it's very easy to forget about the 5 lousy days before it. It's selective memory. When I look at my earnings averaged out for the year, it doesn't look so good when I take into consideration exactly how much time I'm spending on cam, doing makeup, cleaning, setting up, and taking breaks between sessions.
I know a lot of performers on here aren't feeling the pinch at all. Most probably work the industry better than I do and use social media better than I do. Others are frankly just fresher, younger, and better looking. Some just put in more hours than me, but I am physically and mentally unable to put in more hours than I already was (which was not a lot compared to a standard 40 hour a week job). The others are just more popular and better than I am, so I have no illusions about that. However, I don't think it's correct to argue the industry is doing well by referring to top performers who still bank like crazy. The majority of earnings always go to the top performers, so I don't think they experience declines the same way the rest of us do on page 2. This is because customer spending always concentrates on the top N performers. And, top performers are somewhat insulated by having enormous subscriber lists of faithful regulars. The larger your subscriber base is, the more insulated you will be. A reduction in customer spending doesn't translate to a proportional drop for top performers. Perhaps it's a fractional decline for them, but for those of us below the fold it's a disproportionately larger reduction in earnings .
Chaturbate has exploded in popularity in the past few years, because freeloaders can participate without signing up or submitting a credit card. I think Chaturbate has been having an impact on the industry by driving average prices down and raising freeloader's expectations. Freeloaders can sit all day long and watch free shows without giving a single tip. Who thought this was a good idea?
When I made above $40/hr camming it really worked for me, but lately averaging $10/hr for the month has stopped working for me. January and February have historically been my worst months. They were a total grind. Summers would be slow, but not as horrible as January. Then my earnings would pickup in September and become absolutely awesome from October building up to December. It picked up again just before March. This past fall? It was almost as bad as last January for me. I had days where I was at 0% in-paid on SM and frequently had days where I dipped to $5/hr on Chaturbate.
My opinion is I don't think the industry is healthy at all. I believe I started performing right around the time the industry began to decline (right after Chaturbate opened for business). There are going to be those of you who disagree with me. I honestly get it. The industry is changing. Customers are spending in different ways. We have to market and branch out to survive, but I don't think any of that addresses the issue that I think overall customer spending is declining. There's no fix for it. Only bandaids.
^^^ This is an amazing post Bristol and i totally agree with you cause i been thru all these myself, 6 years on SM now and God, i feel the changes in cam industry!!
All u said, soo true, this is not a life time job i consider but more like a short one like in modelling, sports, etc, after a number of years on the wave u simply are 'left behind' by the young beautiful & fit girls entering the industry with a fresh look & lots of stamina.
Some of us can last longer 'on the wave' but some get 'worn out' faster.
I think in my case after 5 years on cam things started to change & the date coincided with the born of these token sites, when u used & agreed to get naked & sexual in pvt chat with one (or a few) guys watching & paying you per minute u just dont want to do the same with hundreds of guys watching u and not paying, i refuse to work like that simply.
ep2002
12-08-2016, 05:25 AM
Gawd, I guess it's not just me. How long has this been going on? I haven't cammed steadily, then I got banned on CB & they WON'T tell me why <sigh> just as I made good money from 2 guys.
SM has been dead for me for a month, maybe longer. Guys come in & then leave right away.
I just started on Flirt4Free & the guys in there are TERRIBLE. They are total prick assholes who don't even say hi, hru, just right to ordering me around & trying to get freebies (even the guys who have paid to other girls). Is this normal on that site?
AND I found out that if you ban too many guys, they drop your ranking. WTF???
This site is clearly run by assholes b/c when I told him I should have a right to ban guys who start talking BS right away he said I shouldn't ban them, they may become paying customers down the road. Which is true, but highly unlikely.
Based on my experience, MOST (not all) guys who are rude don't pay, they are just Freeloaders.
Thoughts?
GoddessM
12-08-2016, 05:33 AM
My god it's slow! Pulling teeth to sell 5 clips a day this month, that's not even enough to survive on :-\
ep2002
12-08-2016, 05:36 AM
Chaturbate has exploded in popularity in the past few years, because freeloaders can participate without signing up or submitting a credit card. I think Chaturbate has been having an impact on the industry by driving average prices down and raising freeloader's expectations. Freeloaders can sit all day long and watch free shows without giving a single tip. Who thought this was a good idea?
When I first started on CB back in 2015 I think it was, I also asked the SAME question, why does a guy have to pay if he can just get it for free.
I started off on Rate My Cock which is a TERRIBLE site & there it's much worse b/c at least in CB, the guys know they shouldn't be flirting or asking for things if they aren't going to pay & guys defend the girls, while in RMC the guys & guys often call us whores. Girls on there are so desperate for a life, that they literally go onto that site to find friends. They don't expect tokens AT ALL.
The industry is run by men ladies & that IS why most of these sites don't give a shit about the girls & their needs.
I wanted to start a cam site, but I haven't found a backer yet & it's a tough industry with all the competition. Plus how do you change a market where 90% of the guys are freeloaders & the stage has now been set?
But it's not just that, we are competing with ALL the Russians, Ukranians & Romanians who are happy with $1/hr., & often give freebies.
Girls who do things for FREE harm us all. It tells the guys if they whine enough, they will convince a girl to go for free.
I'm really at a loss b/c I'm older & after I got a bit of experience, I decided I wasn't going to do ANYTHING for free including flirt heavily. Why should I have to do that if the guy isn't going to pay?
How many times has a guy said to me, make me hard & THEN I'll take you pvt. That's even guys who pay.
I never know if I'm doing it wrong & I should be flirting for free. I'm not a flit by nature unless I like someone, so it's hard for me. I am friendly & outgoing once the guy starts talking, but if I flirt too much it's fake & goes against my personality & I am not a manipulator or liar, so it makes me feel bad. Once I'm in a pvt, then yes, I do that & I'm happy doing it b/c I'm giving them what they want & vice versa.
Thoughts?
anonymous camgirl
12-08-2016, 07:03 AM
Yes it's so odd... May June and July were my best months ever and every month since then it has gotten worse and worse.. and now I am down to barely making $100 on 8-10 cam sites working 6 hours or less.. WHAT?? I am trying to not be upset about it!.. and finding home projects that I need to do .. I need the money for my bills but I have quiet a bit of savings , some 0% interest balance transfers and applying for HELOC beginning of year to start my real estate investing I keep talking about the last 4 yrs now!..lmao
Nope you aren't the only one struggling. If you read around many ladies have posted that they've experienced an extreme change/slowness in the last few months. There isn't usually an end of the year slowness, Fall is when things usually pick up. I remember this time last year I really banked, this year its the total opposite. I dunna wtf is going of with the cam biz right now.
Horny
12-08-2016, 07:16 AM
I was beating myself up for not getting on! Monday was awful well today is the worst ever not even $1!!
Semyonovna
12-08-2016, 07:37 AM
But it's not just that, we are competing with ALL the Russians, Ukranians & Romanians who are happy with $1/hr., & often give freebies.
Thoughts?
This comment annoy me. I hate it so much when people are so stupid to generalize. Wtf do u know? You don't even know how to spell Ukrainians. I hope you earn nothing and all money goes to Russians, "Ukranians" and Romanians :*
mint_
12-08-2016, 08:20 AM
Am I the only one who struggles to get the minimum for a payout since 2 months? I need a break from camming, I'm officially burned out after over a year of being a cam girl.
I struggle to make payout. It's been like that for months, so I've focused some of my attention elsewhere because it's ridiculous I can't even make payout in one week; I usually can in 2 or 3 weeks. It's embarrassing. It's been declining for me since last year, and this year was the absolute worst. My anxiety has went through the roof and the shitty traffic/less than minimum wage has really taken a toll on me.
I've got a plan for early next year to get out of camming because my goodness, I'm so damn burnt out. I hate everything about camming now and I can't wait for my new job next year.
christylive
12-08-2016, 08:57 AM
I struggle to make payout. It's been like that for months, so I've focused some of my attention elsewhere because it's ridiculous I can't even make payout in one week; I usually can in 2 or 3 weeks. It's embarrassing. It's been declining for me since last year, and this year was the absolute worst. My anxiety has went through the roof and the shitty traffic/less than minimum wage has really taken a toll on me.
I've got a plan for early next year to get out of camming because my goodness, I'm so damn burnt out. I hate everything about camming now and I can't wait for my new job next year.
I'm slowly working on backing out myself but I'm making sure to secure/replace income that will be taking cammings spot. I'm in multiple industries about to add another under my belt and I'm looking forward to quitting in the near future. Most of these sites take a huge % in return for shit. Low to no traffic and no real model support. We all deserve the world and undressing for pennies on the dollar just isn't worth it plus I'll be 30 in a few short months and this isn't what I want for myself. Even good earning shifts are too draining. The bad days for me outweigh the good days and I'm honest enough to admit that. Most days all I can think about how is much more gratifying it would be to work as a walmart door greeter cause they get hourly pay and real human interaction (even if it is getting cursed out by half the folks you stop to check receipts) . I am thankful for everything I've learned the last couple years as well as how hard it's pushed me to fight for better. I lived a rough and rugged life the 1st half of my twenties. For so long I was just another statistic in and out of jail , didn't give a damn about nothing but now that I'm older and wiser I'm chasing what matters which are my goals and dreams. Camming has allowed me to open my eyes and use it as leverage to get to where I want to be - now I haven't reached my goals by a long shot but for what it's worth I wouldn't trade anything I've learned for the world. I remember before I started webcam how someone suggested I try working a commissioned job and I laughed it off , but here here I am years later in multiple industries as a person earning commissions. I'd much rather stick to the affiliate side of the adult industry. I spend more time greeting ghosts and banning asshats than I do in shows so that's how I know it's time to say adios motherfucker !!
When I started in early 2012, I would make $300 on Streamate on typical Saturday in about 4 to 5 hours of wall clock time. ($65+/hour at 50-70% in paid). It wasn't hard. Sometimes it spiked up to $90/hr on a very busy day. I'd log off, not because it got slow, but because there were too many customers. They wore me out having 3 to 5 simultaneous customers in premium chat. Boy was my ego flying with that.
I didn't even market myself. I didn't have a Twitter account or website, and I only worked SM. Now? I have all those, split across 3 or 4 sites, perform Skype indy shows, but I often make $50 in the same time frame. $10/hr is minimum wage in my state. I posted a month ago that I was getting a vanilla job in a restaurant. Well, I'm making a little more per hour doing hosting and earning tips on the take out station. If they move me over to serving tables, I will likely make double what I make now. Still not a lot, but a livable wage for me at the moment. (It's a very busy restaurant that got featured on the Travel channel. The 2 best servers are earning over $50k for 30 hours work per week).
There are probably a few reasons why I wasn't doing so well. Maybe I'm just getting old and need to downgrade my earning expectations. That is a real possibility for me, however I still think something has been happening with the industry for a while, but whenever anyone mentions it our concerns seem to get dismissed as just routine paranoia. The mantra is "hang in there; it will get better", but my landlord doesn't wait that long.
When you have one great day on cam, it's very easy to forget about the 5 lousy days before it. It's selective memory. When I look at my earnings averaged out for the year, it doesn't look so good when I take into consideration exactly how much time I'm spending on cam, doing makeup, cleaning, setting up, and taking breaks between sessions.
I know a lot of performers on here aren't feeling the pinch at all. Most probably work the industry better than I do and use social media better than I do. Others are frankly just fresher, younger, and better looking. Some just put in more hours than me, but I am physically and mentally unable to put in more hours than I already was (which was not a lot compared to a standard 40 hour a week job). The others are just more popular and better than I am, so I have no illusions about that. However, I don't think it's correct to argue the industry is doing well by referring to top performers who still bank like crazy. The majority of earnings always go to the top performers, so I don't think they experience declines the same way the rest of us do on page 2. This is because customer spending always concentrates on the top N performers. And, top performers are somewhat insulated by having enormous subscriber lists of faithful regulars. The larger your subscriber base is, the more insulated you will be. A reduction in customer spending doesn't translate to a proportional drop for top performers. Perhaps it's a fractional decline for them, but for those of us below the fold it's a disproportionately larger reduction in earnings .
Chaturbate has exploded in popularity in the past few years, because freeloaders can participate without signing up or submitting a credit card. I think Chaturbate has been having an impact on the industry by driving average prices down and raising freeloader's expectations. Freeloaders can sit all day long and watch free shows without giving a single tip. Who thought this was a good idea?
When I made above $40/hr camming it really worked for me, but lately averaging $10/hr for the month has stopped working for me. January and February have historically been my worst months. They were a total grind. Summers would be slow, but not as horrible as January. Then my earnings would pickup in September and become absolutely awesome from October building up to December. It picked up again just before March. This past fall? It was almost as bad as last January for me. I had days where I was at 0% in-paid on SM and frequently had days where I dipped to $5/hr on Chaturbate.
My opinion is I don't think the industry is healthy at all. I believe I started performing right around the time the industry began to decline (right after Chaturbate opened for business). There are going to be those of you who disagree with me. I honestly get it. The industry is changing. Customers are spending in different ways. We have to market and branch out to survive, but I don't think any of that addresses the issue that I think overall customer spending is declining. There's no fix for it. Only bandaids.
That right there about sums it up for me. Word. word, word.
Especially the part about who thought catering to freeloaders was a good idea. THANK YOU. Well written.
anonymous camgirl
12-08-2016, 12:50 PM
For the record.. I knew it wasn't a good idea to give customers FREE LIVE VIDEO.. and in the beginning I worked on tons of sites that didn't offer it.. took me many years and desperation before I would succumb to free live video.. and I was right!.. camming sucks now.. you are always stressed out in free chat.. that's not how it was before.. before I would watch movies.. read emails and research things and be completely relaxed for privates..
That right there about sums it up for me. Word. word, word.
Especially the part about who thought catering to freeloaders was a good idea. THANK YOU. Well written.
ep2002
12-08-2016, 01:24 PM
I'm slowly working on backing out myself but I'm making sure to secure/replace income that will be taking cammings spot. I'm in multiple industries about to add another under my belt and I'm looking forward to quitting in the near future. Most of these sites take a huge % in return for shit. Low to no traffic and no real model support. We all deserve the world and undressing for pennies on the dollar just isn't worth it plus I'll be 30 in a few short months and this isn't what I want for myself. Even good earning shifts are too draining. The bad days for me outweigh the good days and I'm honest enough to admit that. Most days all I can think about how is much more gratifying it would be to work as a walmart door greeter cause they get hourly pay and real human interaction (even if it is getting cursed out by half the folks you stop to check receipts) . I am thankful for everything I've learned the last couple years as well as how hard it's pushed me to fight for better. I lived a rough and rugged life the 1st half of my twenties. For so long I was just another statistic in and out of jail , didn't give a damn about nothing but now that I'm older and wiser I'm chasing what matters which are my goals and dreams. Camming has allowed me to open my eyes and use it as leverage to get to where I want to be - now I haven't reached my goals by a long shot but for what it's worth I wouldn't trade anything I've learned for the world. I remember before I started webcam how someone suggested I try working a commissioned job and I laughed it off , but here here I am years later in multiple industries as a person earning commissions. I'd much rather stick to the affiliate side of the adult industry. I spend more time greeting ghosts and banning asshats than I do in shows so that's how I know it's time to say adios motherfucker !!
Good for you doll. I REALLY believe you will make it :)