You're damn right you can make good money with them!
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I love this.
I put my hard ass work into MFC for three months for nothing. THAT TRAFFIC SUCKS. You'll have 80 men in there and no one will talk or tip.
Also the men on MFC brag about buzzing your vibe nonstop for 1 token. Bitch that's 5 fucking cents. And it's common. They think one token is amazing.
Whereas men on Streamate will tip 1 gold which is 35 cents. You bang that out 30 times that's $10.50!!
When you login/start stream the algorithm places you lower on the page until one of the models on the top of the page (or in your normal area) goes into a show or offline. Once that happens you get pushed up to your "usual" spot. If the girls up top aren't "turning and burning" your placement will suck until they do. Don't worry too much, you will get bumped back up.
I figured that out stalking the front page for awhile. Also, I am autistic so patterns are my thing :)
It's a shame none of the larger sites allow sleep shows. I checked. If I could do it on CB or MFC I ABSOLUTELY WOULD!
SM is my main site right now and I am not about to tank my placement doing sleep shows. I watched too many top row models get dropped down the page hard and fast for doing that.
i feel like in order to succeed as a primarily indie model you need to already have an established base of followers, and/or be willing to put in a lot of unpaid time and effort seeking new traffic/clients. that's probably the main reason I stick to SM. all i have to do is log on and they bring the traffic, then it's up to me to convert users into customers. it's way less effort on my part and i'm willing to give up a huge chunk of my earnings for that. i like the majority of traffic i get on SM, and i wouldn't even know where to begin if i was totally indie and had to find a steady stream of nice high spending clients on my own.
also consider that if you go indie, it's likely going to be all one-on-one shows. personally i would find that quite limiting. you probably won't be doing any group skype shows (whereas on a site like SM, you could be earning your per minute rate multiplied by the amount of guys in the show, which can really add up fast), and you won't have a live free chat where you could be making lots of extra tips especially if you use a tip vibe.
the obvious upside to indie is that you can keep a very high percentage of your earnings, but ask the same question - at what cost? you have to drive your own traffic, you have to be mindful of more security related issues (for example guys won't find your IP address through a camsite stream, but they most certainly can through Skype or email so don't slack on using a good VPN!), you may have to deal with the risk of chargebacks depending on how you decide to process payments, you'll probably deal with more guys wanting to meet up or do extreme taboo requests, etc... going indie is arguably WAY harder to succeed.
do you currently cam on a mainstream/big box site?
The reasons we get 35%
affiliates sign up for pay per member join or pick 35% lifetime cut of money spent on the site. Think of places like pornhub, anyone that does huge advertising or pushes traffic through social media
when you use your cammodel link you can add 40% more to your cut, if the member spends on another model you earn 20% what he spends on the entire site
I have no clue what sm looks like on the inside, if its 5 people or 500 ppl employed they are employed and receive benefits, vacation etc
the cammodel vibe in free chat is sexy, talkative, flirtatious, peek here and there but only for a tip. That's why I love sm
Members are loyal too.
thnsk for responding I restarted my browser and im back to my normal placement in row 1 an am getting customers again lol
It's funny you say this because this is a model centric forum (and thread) and I don't really know if anyone not exposed to business structuring understands the real extent of start up costs, liabilities, and consistent business overhead. I'll use firsthand examples in this industry for reference because it really is unreal.
1) I looked over a business plan from a model that makes over $1 million/year who wanted to make her own MFC/CB/SM site. All in it takes $10-13 million.
2) I personally had a meeting to open my own site. EVEN WITH the invitation only business model where they take a set percentage so you don't have to pay for content storage, hosting, web development, legal concerns etc - They said each website they run their software on and manage, their break even overhead was $3-5K ON EACH SITE!
3) I had a meeting with a 3rd party adult compliance team in 2021 that was responsible for 1) policing the feeds on webcam sites for compliance 2) keeping up with regulations in all the various countries in the world so adult business could run as usual on a day to day basis on the Internet among this huge laundry list of other duties they were responsible for. After that meeting I felt like I really had no comprehension for all the moving pieces in this industry.
4) 1 webcam site I worked for years ago that was popular at the time - went out of business recently in the last year or so.
1 webcam site I did a paid model consult with about what a webcam site needs in order to be competitive and attract top talent ended up never opening EVEN AFTER already going through an investor cycle.
1 Telegram app that was created and marketed for models to accept payments on Telegram from customers to models for content and services could not generate enough revenue to stay afloat. Again I did a paid model consult for them in 2021 and answered their questions. That app's CEO is now mysteriously hired by a big time adult company in an Executive position and not pushing their app anymore. Probably couldn't make the business work.
With all of that being said, I have no f*cking clue how much it costs to operate a huge webcam conglomerate like Streamate. We get 35%. They get 65% (sometimes more or less depending on several things.) Knowing the little I know about the business side of the adult industry and a lot about business in general, I'd still sign that SM model agreement all.day.long. I'm completely free of all of the business strife HAPPILY! Knowing what I know, I wouldn't invite it into my life for one second.
Obviously from the defunct adult websites that come and go - it's a pretty tough industry. If any of these sites are publicly traded or open for investors - become a shareholder. Even as a model. You'll hear all about the earnings and site performance that way. Then you can judge for yourself, in real time, if they are paying talent appropriately.
That's correct. We all have a decision of to where we decide to sell our services, and in order to do that we have to inform ourselves. Even if I were to make a "better site", I'd do well to know about the businesses I'm up against, so I'd still be asking questions. But that's really neither here nor there. As NitaBaby said, "be grateful and shut up" isn't enough.
SM's business model is what it is, and it's fair for me to call it into question in order to make an informed decision. I also agree that where we work is in fact an investment in that business and whatever they stand for...so it's worth knowing what exactly I'm investing in...
More everyday talk because this is the thread to see if SM is great today or not - I've deprioritized streaming this month because my earnings are too low on SM to be live and engaging every second of every minute of every hour to get a sale. Easier money elsewhere right now.
I really came here to see if any of you noticed your detailed earnings report (if you were included in the beta test group) being incorrect. SM makes it ungodly impossible to do month end bookkeeping with their overlapping pay dates. Just tell me what I made TOTAL for the month (with affiliate credit) - SM payout fees in the 28-31 month cycle. I track earnings by day, week, month, and year and also by passive vs. active income streams by site. I'm thinking the report is off...
I see your perspective here. I haven't worked for SM so don't know how the traffic is. As others have already said, the quality of traffic makes up for the low cut. I'm listening. And I agree that finding the right site is likely to dictate my income potential more than the cut. Also, thank you for pointing out that you can make 75% by bringing your own traffic.
As for "sweat shop vibes"...from my reading on SM...I used the words I meant to use.
Ladies here comes another contest!! Does anyone know a rough estimate about how much it would take to even place in the 50-100 range? I'm really gonna try this time!
lol when i first started sm i had came from other sites that paid 50%, my very first email to sm was WTF why so little? deactivate my account now lololol I think i even called them a trifling sweatshop
I was livid and at that time still new to camming part time and bc i couldn't make payout on my other sites in a week, how would make payout w sm @ their 35%
I would cam at night and those sm checks were BIG FOR ME at that time 500-700 bc i couldn't make payout on the other sites. I cashed out and went w sm full time, doubling money while running cams.com nude chat on the side (but they fucked that up for me by forcing obs)
I'm not a Indy girl at all and hate token sites bc its a lot of work
I've lived that make 50% of peanuts or make 35% and hit goals, sm is where u can hit goals
also models are 100% covered for chargebacks
i just think it's lazy language to equate SM with a sweatshop, or a pimp (you didn't say that but i've seen others use that term), or anything else that implies coercion, unfair working conditions, low pay, etc. you voluntarily sign up to work on whatever site you choose and have the agency to decline shows for any reason, block customers for any reason, set your own rules and rates, work whatever hours you want, and even work on competing sites without consequence. in return all we have to do is abide by the terms of service and give up a percentage that we were already aware of when we chose to sign up and work. sure sometimes the site is glitchy, sometimes traffic is slow or rude, and sometimes you have to put in longer hours to hit your goals, but that's just the nature of camming, which is effectively just like any other commission-based sales job.
and keep in mind you're getting a very biased view of SM if you're basing it solely on reading threads like this, because the majority of posts here are negative/commiserating. most of the models who are doing well don't bother posting about it. you could check out SM related posts in the "camming rocks" thread to get a somewhat more balanced view, but in general out of the many thousands of models on SM i think it's safe to assume that only a small fraction is represented here.
I worked on another site for 7 years before I came to sm, that site no longer exists. On that site were given 50 % BUT.....if a member asked for a refund, committed credit card fraud, over spent on their limit etc ....it was taken from OUR earnings. Sometimes that could be $300 being taken out weeks after. With sm, they cover this its something we dont have to stress about, like is this guys money going to come thru to the point you are now paranoid about doing any long shows wondering if you are going to get paid.
At least here on sm I dont have that stress and can totally focus on my hustle and my vips and new members that are coming thru my room.
Just giving a different perspective of why sites have different %'s.
If i had of known about sm in 2003 I would have joined here instead of with the other site, but being naive, I didnt know other sites existed as this was a whole new world to me.
Happy hustling chicky babes :)
I know I've bitched about SM a few times but my primary gripe was the contests slashing my earnings by like 70%. Until I started obsessing over following the girl who wins all the time to see what she does and it's like yeah...I don't have a huge social following and that model works like a million hours a week. So I won't complain anymore haha
You don’t need an established base of followers. I started with 2K on Twitter and 500 on IG. All you have to do is promote and promote. It’s a different hustle, more in terms of being consistent, but no physical effort.
The fun part of indie is that you can choose what sort of services you offer, it doesn’t have to be exclusively camming. I mostly do content and sexting. I gave up customs cause it wasn’t worth the hustle for me. But I do know girls that charge $50/min for a custom or live show. It doesn’t even have to be Onlyfans. Fansly and LoyalFans have internal traffic, just 2 examples.
Yes, SM is still an option if you don’t want to build a brand and branch on social media, but making content it’s more scary than hard. Also I can guarantee no girl ever will make 150K on SM per month, while I can name at least 10 girls I know that do it with indie (Onlyfans, Fansly, private Snapchat, Cashapp, sexting, customs, live calls). So yeah, SM is comfy, but it’s limited.
What I find funny is how often the cammodels affiliation is mentioned. How many of you could actually live of those earnings? I know I couldn’t, even tho I spammed Twitter with my link back in the day, Pornhub also. It was just peanuts. And then again, to make people join the website you need to have a presence online and market. So my question would be, why turn that person into a customer for a platform, when you could keep it for yourself? On paper it sounds very tempting, uh, 75% from your clients. But again, how many of them do you actually have, cause from what I remember other’s mentioning, it’s pulling teeth to convert people.
Also, there is no way in heaven SM isn’t making more from “covering chargebacks” and giving a lower percentage, than not covering them. It’s business. Now that I actually deal with chargebacks, I would rather than a higher % and cover a couple hundreds every few weeks, than a lower percentage and safe from chargebacks. I’m telling you chargebacks aren’t as often as you’d think.
I don’t want to sound like a broken record. I loved SM, I grew as performer there, it was a choice. But there is life afterwards and if you are a good entertainer, you can succeed in any other place!
the initial discussion stemmed from SM's "low cut" so i mentioned the affilliate situation just to note that you can in fact make up to 75%. if you are working indie with another known adult-friendly payment processor you're likely keeping 80%. so if i bring someone to SM instead of to IWC or some other indie site for payment, then yeah i'm giving up that extra 5% but i'm also getting to keep 20% of whatever they spend on other models indefinitely which is a nice perk. i got a fair amount of my SM affiliate signups from Clips4Sale, back when i made fetish content and would put my cammodels link at the end of my clips. this was years ago and i still make about $100 every week from those guys spending money on other girls. i also personally prefer when guys can find me while i'm already working live on SM; it's just an easy all in one situation as opposed to having to log off SM, deal with emailing the client for show details and making sure he's punctual and pays in full beforehand, etc. it's a hassle which is why i only do indie/skype with a handful of regulars who are really chill about it. i couldn't fathom doing indie camming with customers i didn't already know well. but that is just me.
i've just come to accept that i like the low effort instant gratification of big box camming (log on, do shows, make money, log off) which is the opposite of indie and content creation. you might spend all day filming and editing clips that don't even sell, or spend a lot of time promoting and marketing yourself with no guarantee that you'll gain any new clients. i don't disagree with any of the points you made. my general point has been to emphasize the additional effort/work it takes to succeed with indie especially since the original poster doesn't have experience camming on big box sites to compare.
I am pumped for the contest and ready to give it my all!! Does anyone have any experience with a contest where they do the top three days before? Any tips or tricks?
I hear you. I agree that it's important to gain a balanced perspective so I'll definitely check out the thread you mentioned.
Also get you on the sweat shop vibe comment, but I am only being honest about the image that came to mind! Steam whistle and all. Lol. And now that you mention it..."pimp" crossed my mind too.
I recognize that many of us who cam have made an active decision to do so, and we don't have to cam on SM if we don't want. But just because we have that level of agency doesn't mean that the cam sites can't be exploitative of us. Capitalism exploits by nature, and there are the big boys and the worker bees. The more money involved the more exploitative the industry is to someone. I know there are levels...but the energetic divide may not be as disparate as you think.
That said. From what I've gathered, SM cuts are low af...but that doesn't mean that my pay will be low af. It sounds like it is a site where a lot of women started and there are ways to leverage it. I know I've taken the piss with SM today, but I really just wanted to see how the performers who actually work there feel about it. Seems polarized. I can see why many of you have stayed (as some have pointed out the benefits to SM's model) and I can definitely see why some have left.
THIS. I'm actually trying to be very strategic from the outset with which platforms I work on, what services I offer and how I want to manage my image/brand. Some of these platforms are actually run and owned by men who don't respect SW and I'd rather avoid them as much as possible.
I am still considering SM as it does sound like a good place to get up and running, but...I also feel like there are ways around it. Lol. I have a Fansly that I haven't posted on yet, can I sell cam shows there too?