1. How people set up their rooms:
http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/sho...amming+routine
biggest takeaways are:
a. have toys, common fetish items (heels, stockings), baby wipes, hand sanitizer (maybe just me), possibly a different bra/panties or two easily available offcamera
b. have a visually appealing room, not necessarily decorated elaborately but clean and orderly.
What helps is I watch myself first either with my cam software or
http://www.testmycam.com (does not appear to be HD compliant) to see what is/is not visible before going live. What would be ideally visible is a clean room, a made bed, and all chaos should be on the periphery so no one is visually distracted by anything except you. Cute accent pillows are a great addition - I more mean overflowing trashcan, mail you just picked up, food, etc... I tend to be super minimalistic & don't have a girl next door look, so YMMV.
2. Lighting. Have a bunch of reading lamps around your house? Put them to good use or invest in a basic professional lighting system (I do the former for now, and have a mix of halogen and soft light bulbs... if you use halogen bulbs or lamps, please have a fire extinguisher on hand. I have a small one, cost maybe $15, keep it hidden underneath my desk. Again I am a bit neurotic but itll rest your mind a bit).
Tips:
http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/
http://camgirlhandbook.wordpress.com...lights-lights/ (easily the most useful guide out there, from minnie, one ofthe people who post here often)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5uyb...eature=related (more of a professional lighting system)
3. Watch other camgirls. Doing this will answer any random questions that come up for you & will help you figure out your own flow and "persona". Streamate is probably your best bet as they have mandatory free chat and you don't have register with the site to watch. Look at various rooms, see who makes you stay longer in their room and ask yourself why (personality, layout, outfit, lighting & clarity, combo of all of the above). A common courtesy is not to stay parked in one girls room for extended periods of time, skip around a lot and you'll see enough of a variety to get an idea of what you think would work well for you.
4. I saw you asked for general tips in another thread? My overall suggestion: Read this forum. Over and over and over again. It helps not just for tips but also to pick up on forum culture so that you know how to navigate it. Its best to learn which topics are controversial (lowering your per minute rate, anything that starts with "I would *never* cam on [popular site that some people do well on]", etc) & repeatedly covered (which cam is the best to use, I need $1000 by tomorrow). Key 101 posts to read over and over again:
Start Camming 101:
http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/sho...light=lighting
Info for Girls Thinking about Camming:
http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=137369
Annoying Cam Customers (helpful if you haven't started so you know what "downsides" to expect and cathartic for people who have started camming):
http://www.stripperweb.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=139932
But the best advice I've read here for Camming 101 that I can sum up:
1. Be consistent (harder than it sounds)
2. Have decent lighting and a decent cam
3. Have a camming ritual so you're in the mood when you sign on (can be music, perfume, body spray, give yourself an orgasm, watching comedy, thinking about making that $$$$)
4. Don't put your eggs in one basket, work several sites. You don't have to splitcam from the bat, but don't rely on one source of income. Some sites go down for maintenance, have chargebacks, use unreliable bank cards, etc. If you're not convinced search "epassporte" in this forum.
5. Have a burnout prevention plan: take care of yourself.
6. Figure out your brand. Doesn't require a ton of work but - basically, what image do you want to project, what kinds of customers do you want to attract, what name do you want, are you girl next door, glam, sub, domme, do you want to use the same names on each site you work, want to be found on google, etc. For example, if you have a name like: analsquirtbustyournuthere, be prepared to do more hardcore shows. If you're marketing yourself as a Domme, don't have pictures in your profile of you wearing pigtails and sucking on your thumb. That kind of thing.
More touchy-feely stuff Ive picked up:
7. Be civil in forums. Camming and really most forms of online sex work are socially isolating and there are too many tricks of the trade involved to sacrifice for your ego/bad day/insecurity. Being sassy will leave you even more socially isolated. Not worth it. If you can't curb this impulse, just lurk.
8. Customers are... customers. Many will try to push your boundaries (regulars very very very much included), don't let them, not worth it. Decide on what your boundaries are before starting to cam - figuring out your boundaries along the way is not fun.
This includes: do you want to call your customers during private if your site allows it? what do you show or talk about in freechat? will you leave explicit talk for private or no? what is your threshold for kick or bannable behavior? will you spend a lot of time messaging customers beyond telling them your schedule? do you want people to know you as "no taboos and ALL fetishes welcome"? if yes, be prepared for requests to engage in: incest, scat, racism, extreme ageplay, fisting, etc. Know your limits. If you feel bad about yourself after doing something in private, make a note to never do it again, no $ is worth it.
Hope this is helpful, good luck.