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Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
We just rejected an application based on the girls chosen prices, as she was charging for 10 mins, what most girls would charge for 1 minute.
This got me thinking and I would really appreciate your opinions on this.
What do you think about cam sites setting a minimum on what a girl can charge on a per/min basis?
We feel that there is a certain market value to this industry and that models should try to keep up with this "fair market value" (so to speak) out of respect to all of the other models in the industry.
However, I do realize that "fair" is subjective and that models do run their own business and make money in their own way. Each with their own business ethics and style.
Models tend to adapt to whatever works for them.. So given this, should cam sites have a right to tell them they can't charge whatever they feel is "fair"?
Or, Should websites start setting a minimum on what a girl can charge?
Thanks in advance for your input!
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CamGirlServices
Or, Should websites start setting a minimum on what a girl can charge?
Thanks in advance for your input!
You wouldn't be STARTING. As far as I know, iFriends, who were one of the first major camsites on the scene, always had a lower limit of $1.99/min, to discourage what you are describing.
I think this is absolutely necessary. You should have every right to set a minimum price.
I think it's absurd when camsites set a CEILING on prices though... or force every girl to charge the same thing. That's just ridiculous, IMO.
Maybe you can just encourage her to charge more? You'd be doing the poor girl a favour..... :-(
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
^^^
Jessica1001 said it better than I ever could.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Not exactly the same thing, but I like how Clips4Sale has it so that your clip price has to at least match the number of minutes the video is. For example, a $2.99 minimum for a 2-minute clip...a $3.99 minimum for a 3-minute video, etc.
I think having a minimum (like $1.99/min. as a minimum) is cool...especially for girls who are new to camming who may not know what to charge.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
I'll join the choir...YES
On the internet, there's always someone charging less, but if a guy is horny and he's on a site, as long as he sees chicas he's into, he'll pick one and pay for a show, so I can't see price minimums actually hurting anyone's business.
Ridiculously low rates bring the types of customers no one wants..cheap, rude, arrogant and entitled "open cam bb" cellar-dwellers
It's your site, don't let it become the LiveJasmin of indy! :)
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Yes. There is absolutely no excuse for charging less than $4.99/min. Anything else is pitiful IMHO.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
^^is this a joke? A per minute indy rate of $4.99 minimum? If so, let me say I wanna join you in that world :cloud9:
If not, way to insult every chica I know (myself included) who does make a living doing indy. I've seen indy chicas who charge way above the average, but they don't make much $$$$, at least not on the sites I work, so I'm sorry, charging $4.99 per min on principle when that approach doesn't bring in a sustainable customer base is kinda pointless. Since names aren't allowed here, can you PM me the cam name of one chica who earns a good living doing indy at the rates you suggest? She'll be my hero, real talk.
Indy rates are lower than big box. That is a fact. It's a trade-off for making a much higher percentage than big box and not having to do free chat. I'm all for charging as much as possible, but the rates I charge need to bring me the amount of $$$$ I want. My business is thriving and growing every quarter. If that makes me pitiful, so be it, I guess:-\
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cvarga
Yes. There is absolutely no excuse for charging less than $4.99/min. Anything else is pitiful IMHO.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ll...i6tmo1_500.gif
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
^yea I agree with loveshooks, unless youre in a niche category that is uncommon. Particularly with indie (a glaring exception would be NF) most don't charge the same amount per-minute for a 10min block as they would a 120min block. Doing so just isnt sustainable.
OP I think it is great you rejected an application on that grounds - I know most of my indie is NF which is a different arena but I think most of us heavier posters here dont exclusively indie like loveshooks (aka the Juggernaut* of indie) so given youre indie I defer to her POV.
There are a subset of indie customers who seem to fall into convulsions if you don't charge pennies for 10min blocks - even on Niteflirt of all places, which is hilarious. Many do not but there are a chunk who know performers earn more/tend to charge less on indie than say SM or F4F who leap from performer to performer like theyre auctioning on eBay. Most performers dont appear to cave tho which is fantastic.
I also agree with Jessica - the cap is kind of silly, particularly for bigbox sites where CBs and payout percentages can barely reach 30% (cough cams.com, cough livejasmin), so if a performer is calculating CB risk and their guaranteed payout charging the absolute minimum is like an express train to burnout and unsustainability. Even for sites like Webcams.com I saw a thread on a forum where a few customers were complaining girls weren't charging 0.99 a minute (unless it has changed, Webcams.com's lowest price you can charge is 1.99). Worse those places become feeding grounds for cashgrab studios where they set the lowest prices for their models despite all logic or reason - which ends up setting the tone for the site over time.
But CGS, you're indie so that is not your burden or concern, but just echoing loveshooks to remind people who tend to use threads like these for pricewank - this is indie. Also, every site is not Streamate or MyFreeCams, sites have their own strange customs that wont fit a universally rigid mindset, so --- free your mind.
I think the onus is on the site to set pricing minimums. The responsibility isnt really all on performers, I think too often here we tend to blame performers for setting a site's climate but it really isnt just us. We're just more convenient to blame but we're just a disorganized hoarde of very diverse mercenary individualists trying to make due --- sites are the ones who set the tone for the their customer culture and pricing expectations.... too many sites fall short or clearly arent strategic enough in their planning to think about longterm impacts. So thanks for not just falling prey to the impulse to fill your site to the brim.
Hopefully the model was pleasantly surprised that it is common to charge higher :shrug: just because it is indie doesn't mean your cut should be any less than it would be on a bigger box site. I know Ive been on smaller sites where I thought I was charging competitively but looked around saw I was uh definitely was not - that motivated me to raise my prices. That kind of culture has a domino effect.
*lol at Juggernaut being in FireFox's dictionary
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
loveshooks
^^is this a joke? A per minute indy rate of $4.99 minimum? If so, let me say I wanna join you in that world :cloud9:
If not, way to insult every chica I know (myself included) who does make a living doing indy. I've seen indy chicas who charge way above the average, but they don't make much $$$$, at least not on the sites I work, so I'm sorry, charging $4.99 per min on principle when that approach doesn't bring in a sustainable customer base is kinda pointless. Since names aren't allowed here, can you PM me the cam name of one chica who earns a good living doing indy at the rates you suggest? She'll be my hero, real talk.
Indy rates are lower than big box. That is a fact. It's a trade-off for making a much higher percentage than big box and not having to do free chat. I'm all for charging as much as possible, but the rates I charge need to bring me the amount of $$$$ I want. My business is thriving and growing every quarter. If that makes me pitiful, so be it, I guess:-\
WORD.
I charge 3.80 on ImLive, and I sure wouldn't call that 'pitiful'. Also, I know that $3/min seems to be the standard price for models on CamWealth, Skype, etc. So since when is anything under $4.99 considered pitiful? Lol.
What I DO think is pitiful is the lengths some models will go to (trolling/spamming other models' rooms) trying to get more traffic/spenders in their room.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
I do my Yahoo and Skype shows for no less than $4.99/min. If it's a sub I charge more, if it's a regular I expect a tip. I don't sell myself short.
I had no idea others were charging less. I actually considered raising my rates, thinking I was low.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Wow, I really feel bad! I'm coming back to post again because I don't want anyone to think for a second I said that to make anyone feel bad. I guess I just started asking for it because that's what I charged the very first time. He asked for a discount since there was no middle man and I threw back at him if he really wanted me to make the higher percentage he wouldn't ask for a discount. He agreed so that is what I have been charging all along. I have one guy I charge $100/10 min but he is a sub and it was also something agreed before we started our camming relationship.
I think it's just a matter of assigning a value to yourself and sticking to it. If YOU believe you are worth XX then that is what they will also believe. Just my opinion and certainly not meant as anything other than wishes of positive directions and outcomes.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Cvarga, while I understand the other girls' defensiveness at your suggestion to never charge less than 4.99, and I agree that it might not be realistic for everyone, I absolutely admire and agree with your philosophy to charge the absolute max that you possibly can.
Way to go.
(and yeah... Probably time for you to raise to $5.99 now.) ;-)
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
cvarga
I do my Yahoo and Skype shows for no less than $4.99/min. If it's a sub I charge more, if it's a regular I expect a tip. I don't sell myself short.
I had no idea others were charging less. I actually considered raising my rates, thinking I was low.
I can't help but wonder how many shows you get at that rate. Sure there are some who will pay it but could you get enough to make a decent living at that price with only your indy shows?
Making a little on the side is a far different matter than pulling in enough money to support yourself.
Actually that's one of the main reasons I stopped doing much indy. I just don't like the lower prices for a variety of reasons.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
laurielegs
I can't help but wonder how many shows you get at that rate. Sure there are some who will pay it but could you get enough to make a decent living at that price with only your indy shows?
Making a little on the side is a far different matter than pulling in enough money to support yourself.
Actually that's one of the main reasons I stopped doing much indy. I just don't like the lower prices for a variety of reasons.
Hmmmm.... Just thinking about what you wrote here, laurielegs. Out of curiosity, what would you consider to be "enough to make a decent living"? I'm sure this is different for everyone, so I would love other people's ideas too.
Just walking myself through a little thought exercise...
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jessica1001
Hmmmm.... Just thinking about what you wrote here, laurielegs. Out of curiosity, what would you consider to be "enough to make a decent living"? I'm sure this is different for everyone, so I would love other people's ideas too.
Just walking myself through a little thought exercise...
Yes it is going to be different for everyone for sure, depending on where you live and if you have dependent children to support or elderly parents to support (or perhaps both).
I feel if it's not just extra pocket money seems to me it should be at least 50k a year - more would be better to be honest, taking into account health insurance costs and retirement planning, but that would be a minimum amount I would come up with. I feel everyone should be aiming for more though due to the nature of this work.
I'm interested on what other's thoughts are on this too.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Ok, that's a fair starting point.
50k a year is a nice round number. Assume you take 2weeks off a year for vacation, that's exactly 1k a week.
Soooo... Back to our discussion about indie camming rates.
Now, instead of busting your ass for pennies on the dollar on a big box site, you realize that if you can convince just one big-spending guy that you are worth $10/min, and you convince him to see you weekly, you can make 1k per week in 1 hr and 40 mins a week worth of work.
(One hour and 40 mins a week. I spend more time than that sitting on the toilet, personally.)
Please share your thoughts on this perspective.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
I like the idea of an absolute minimum rate for sites, say, $1.99 a minute, to try and keep the industry going in the right direction!! But at the same time, sometimes the minimum rates drive me nuts....I do vlogs for c4s, and they always end up really long, so they end up costing LOADS...seeing as they aren't fetish, but just a way for customers to "get to know me better" I would love to offer them at a discount, but am stuck selling them at uber-high prices, so only the most devoted guys buy them. I KNOW that I could be making more off them if I could charge less, and I don't think I would be undercutting anyone because I'm not actually doing any fetish (that I am aware of, at least!!)...
Sometimes I feel the same with voyeur stuff - If I am doing a voyeur gold show, I'm going to charge waaaaay less per minute because it is voyeur, and I'm probably folding laundry or something!!!
But for the majority of shows/clips, I would like to see everywhere have a minimum.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
First off, I just want to reiterate that I wish every site had a price minimum, so the following has nothing to do with the original question posed in this thread. On that matter, my answer to the "should cam sites set a minimum on what a girl can charge?" question is a resounding hell yes!
In response to Jessica's question, to be honest, I probably wouldn't still cam if I only made 50k per year camming. I'm not knocking anyone who does; like Laurie said, it's all based on our circumstances. My vanilla career is going really well, so I'm at a place in my life where my time is really fucking scarce. For that reason the amount of time I devote to my cam work wouldn't be worth it to me for 1k per week.
Regarding a reliance on a small number of high spending regs, I have those, like I'm sure every other chica who has been in the biz for a minute does, but personally I would be uncomfortable relying upon a small group of guys for my income. I'm a control freak, and I like that knowing that without any given customer I'll still earn the $$$$ that I want to make. I could lose my top regulars tomorrow and while I'd actually miss em, I'd be perfectly fine financially without them. That's important to me.
As a final point in the "assigning a value to your cam shows" debate, I'll repeat again, I'd love to know which indy chicas earn even 50k per year charging $4.99 per min. I'm really fucking good at what I do, but I want to earn enough $$$$ doing ONLY indy camming to not need to use a big box site. Everyone is entitled to an opinion regarding what chicas should charge, but in implying that we who don't charge $4.99 per min are undervaluing our worth feels pretty condescending, particularly when the chica making that assertion also uses big box. There's nothing wrong with using big box, but what I'm saying is that finding enough indy customers willing to pay the rates you're suggesting to make for sustainable and lucrative solely indy business is something I've never seen. I really would love an example.
I don't want to sound like I'm trying to pick a fight, because I'm not. We're all entitled to an opinion. What I'm questioning is whether that opinion is actually grounded in the reality of indy camming. I would love an example of a SOLELY indy chica who banks at the rates you're suggesting, Cvarga, mainly because I'd love to study her game and see how she does it. I'll never pretend I have all the answers. That said, based on my observations the chicas who charge above average rates for indy DO NOT earn a living at it. Even if a chica gets a handful of customers at those rates, that's not sustainable, as every reg has an expiration date. I want my business to be more than a dependency upon a handful of guys, and it is. I'm proud of that.
So yeah, count me in as proudly pitiful
peace and $$$$ y'all :)
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
laurielegs
I can't help but wonder how many shows you get at that rate. Sure there are some who will pay it but could you get enough to make a decent living at that price with only your indy shows?
Making a little on the side is a far different matter than pulling in enough money to support yourself.
Actually that's one of the main reasons I stopped doing much indy. I just don't like the lower prices for a variety of reasons.
I don't actually consider myself to be an indie girl but I can do as many as 12 to 15 indie shows a week. I usually do better on my own than SM but for some reason still consider SM my bread and butter probably because it's much more far reaching whereas indie customers are limited to those on my list. I only have about 20 to 30 active indie guys. I mean, my list is hundreds long but not everyone buys shows on a regular basis. It's more like a rotation. Some weeks certain guys show up like Sunday church and other weeks I'll get one who hasn't done a show with me in months.
I think it more or less just depends on what kind of client you draw in and what value you place on yourself. I may have 200 college guys and make the same amount in bulk as someone else's 20 regs. There's some girls who have a niche nailed down and might make more than my 200 college guys and your 20 regs with just one single show.
Speaking clearly as a niche girl, I am one of the luck ones (I guess) that has high paying custies. I don't know why but I just assumed we were all in the same ball park. I officially apologize for coming off as condescending. Clearly I am a spoiled bitch --- but this is how I portray myself on cam. I don't accept all offers and I let them know I am too good for them regardless if they pay me or not. It is a blessing to to get my attention let alone to be allowed to spend money on me. They can go fuck themselves when my egg timer goes off and that's pretty much how I end my shows.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
Lol @ "like Sunday church". :-)
I love my "churchgoers". They're so faithful. :-)
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
there is a whole lot of fiction being written in this thread. newbies- do your homework before believing everything is 100% legit in this thread.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
"Why men love bitches"- Cam Model Edition.
You will not be able to cateur to the masses but I'm with cvarga I make more money with a few and spend less time. If I have to rely on the masses at the cheap rates then I need them all to = what a few spend on me.
I wasn't sure if this was about indy camming or regular sites.
$4.00 is standard but $3.99 is smarter. That illusion of saving with that penny missing seems to get most people.
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Re: Should Cam sites set a MINIMUM on what a girl can charge?
I'm sayin Chloe
It's not a matter of "being in the same ball park". It's a matter of whether anyone can sustain a successful, solely indy business charging $4.99 per min. I don't think you're spoiled or a bitch, but I do take issue with you judging those who do something you can't do, which is earn a great living staying off the big box sites.
Nothing that's been written here so far has disproved my point, and I'm still hearing crickets in my PM box
anyway, I'm off to enjoy the day. Hope everyone else (including you, Cvarga) does the same :)