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Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
So I've searched the forum for all the tips, been lurking and doing TONS of research. And I've worked like 7 hours and only made like 70 bucks. I'm averaging less than $10/hr.
I run the encoder on an older macbook (1.86ghz 2gram) and have to use wireless just for now, but custies insist the video feed is good and it's not choppy. They can see and hear me clearly. I'm in prem/excl only 20% of the time, and THEN it only lasts like one to five min. Typically one to three. I try to take my time like I've seen advised, but a lot of the time the guy just jets. For instance: I'm hairy, so guy wants to see hairy pussy. I tease a little, show em' boobs, lift up nightie, pull panties to the side slowly, etc. Should I have gone right to it and just did a quick pussy flash?
I constantly move around, dance, alll of that. I talk to everyone, look great. I am using a built-in isight but honestly I don't think it's that bad. I tried Sunday/Monday afternoon and Weekday evenings, and I'm on the westcoast. Tomorrow I'm trying a morning shift.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have to gather like $150 in the next couple of days and am really beginning to panic.
Oh, and I created a twitter acct. sexyladyshow follows me now, and I'll send her a pic, but sm hasn't retweeted or followed me yet.
I started at $1.99/$2.99 default and raised tonight to $3.19/$3.99. for some reason lots of beggars!
Okay no more ranting. Any of you lovely goddesses who can help, I'd be eternally grateful.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
$10 per hour? Yikes ... did you check that the HD icon is actually shown above your name? Even if you're running the encoder, if the HD icon isn't shown by your name, your traffic will be greatly affected.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
oh crap I've never seen it there. Hmmm I wonder why. I paid close attention to the config. settings. Any ideas?
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
I found a post on it and am checking it out
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
You just started, don't give up! I know you said you think your feed is good, but honestly with those specs/and using the built in isight camera it's not as good as it could be. As soon as you can afford it, get a great computer and one of the logitech 9000 series webcams.
3.19 seems like kind of a weird price to me, I would stick to 2.99 or raise it to 3.99. I've also noticed SM seems to be kinda slow today/yesterday, but maybe that's only for certain people.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Not everyone jumps straight in to big earnings. My first couple of months on SM I was earning change. Raising your rates will help though, the % payout is much too low to earn money with the rates you are on. It really took me a while on SM to start earning decent $$. I think I was earning about $40 per hour after around 2 months or so. I've been there two years now and my hourly average is still increasing month on month.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
are you new to camming???? if you are not knew I would raise your prices up to 4.99 for xcl and 3.99 for pvt.... those will give you over 1 and will help the money add up faster.
I find that cam show are the same almost every where that you do them....it how you have to sell those shows that change....
go slower and tease but do NOT act like you are watching the cock.
I would hate to be new on sm right now.... it is really competitive right now.....
Last night when I look on the first page almost every girl on that first page was top cammer on the site and who I have seen in the top 2 rows.
Hang in there you will get it....
Tips for request also works well
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Oh thank you all so much. Yeah, I'm not even showing up in HD and can't get the encoder to cooperate. It's this terrible wifi I'm stuck with and my specs both, I'm sure.
Raising rates to 3.99/4.99 for today's shift to try to scrape that dough together. I'll try different things like relaxing/sitting. I did that more my first shift, actually.
Running in HD low puts my poor cpu in crazy mode as well.... but I know some were saying that my traffic decreaseses greatly if don't have that icon, so we'll see I guess.
I also removed my geographic restrictions just for a couple of days. maybe that will help.
Thank you again!! xxxx
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
In my experience, SM is the only site where not having the top camming equipment (hardware, cam, hd) can really mess a person up and decrease their earning potential. I know because my earnings on there tanked once I was no longer able to use the encoder. If you are serious about camming I'd add another site as backup to the mix, even if it's just one that's paid chat only and you run it in the background while you're camming on SM. That will increase your income and it's also mentally comforting to not rely on any one source of income. That aside, I think that $10/hour for a newbie is awesome and I know you can come up with that $150. It's only 15 hours on cam, you can do it :)
I also usually got 1-3 minute men on SM. Now I am working on another site and not only am I making 250% more per minute that I was on SM, but my privates are now averaging 10-15 minutes and I'm getting tipped much more frequently when in free chat. Go figure. My point is that not every site works for every girl so it's okay to branch out and try new ones while continuing to work SM so you can more accurately determine where you can make the most money. I think raising your rates will attract higher quality custies on SM. Also, sticking to a schedule. You can't directly tell your viewers to follow you on twitter so make sure that when you google your cam name your twitter is one of the top results so that they can find and follow you.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sammii
$10 per hour? Yikes ... did you check that the HD icon is actually shown above your name? Even if you're running the encoder, if the HD icon isn't shown by your name, your traffic will be greatly affected.
Anytime I have been on using the encoder and a the logitech 920, I have not seen this HD.. do you see that when you are checking your placement or on the encoder or on the streaming page?
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Yeah, my twitter doesn't even show up! I don't know why.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Hmmmm. Encoder without HD icon, and tried HD T1 using the old interface. Both terrible traffic. Actually worse than this weekend. haha. Guess it's slow
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MissHollyGolightly
Hmmmm. Encoder without HD icon, and tried HD T1 using the old interface. Both terrible traffic. Actually worse than this weekend. haha. Guess it's slow
I really doubt a wireless would be as fast as a T1 connection.
You should probably try HDLow and see if that will work for you.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
For me Wednesdays are a MAJOR suck day.
i do my best..but almost every Wednesday is just awful money-wise.
i tend to make extra on my other days just to make up for the suck that is Wednesday.
you made $70 on a Wednesday? You did really good.
Also keep in mind this is Rent Week for lots of people..so the first week of the month is generally a lot slower than the rest of the month.
Just my experience.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Just wanted to say thank you MissHolly for posting this thread because I recently just started at SM and have had the same issues.... I forgot to go look and see if the HD icon was on, but I'm also using the c920, so I wonder :/ But I'm running a nice computer & good internet connection, so... I'm grateful to everyone for their insight, anymore info is appreciated! I never had more than 5 guys in my room at once and randomly, one would take me private for about 5-7 minutes. Overall in about 7 hours, I've earned about $60, so... :/ It just sucks, it feels harder on SM to get the traffic you want, but 1 thing *I* can say -- I have a customer account and I have gone into gold shows and even just browsed rooms to see what *I* would like if I was a guy... Some tits connected to a body wearing some panties, not talking, only typing, with no face showing will NEVER get my attention -- The reason guys go to cam girls is partially for "the girlfriend experience", which is where we cater to them, TALK to them, flatter them, flirt with them, etc etc.... I definitely talked and flirted, laughed, smiled a LOT, and the guys that did come into my room and get privates were extremely complimentary of me and said tons of chicks weren't talking, showing their face, etc etc.... Now we all know most men are ruled by only one brain at a time, but not all, so just be you, let your personality shine through, and try to have sound, HD, and be a REAL girl -- that's why they're not watching free porn, because they want a REAL person willing to cater to THEM specifically, so try to market that part of your personality. That's what I'm trying! I just wish I could get gold shows soon! DANG this c920! I think we need a C920 thread, lol...
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
If you do not have the HD icon then SM is not reading you as streaming in HD and therefor you will not have placement as tho you are HD. This happens to me sometimes and I find that stopping my stream and starting it again sometimes works. Other times it just goes away and comes back randomly. I have great placement but as soon as that HD icon goes away, my room empties and stays empty.
While you're streaming, look at the "Encoding" tab on encoder (as opposed to the "Publishing" tab. On the right-side column you should see two fps (frames per second) numbers. Those should be around 30. When you sign on the number should very quickly increase. If you're sitting below 25 then you probably won't have an HD icon. My average tends to stay around 28-31. If those are low then there's either something wrong with your internet or your encoder settings. Also, I agree that the iSight cam is probably not nearly as good as you think it is.
Also, once you get better internet/computer/camera, I'd recommend going up on those rates. It's totally up to you, but hairy is a niche so you can probably charge more once you're providing a quality stream.
I know people rave about the C920, but I personally did not like it and returned mine. I called every computer/office store within a 20 mile radius until I found one that still had the C910 and bought another one of those. Next month I'm going to try to find another one just to have a second back-up.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Ghost is right. Thank you all for your help. Seriously, I was so discouraged before starting this thread, and you all are very supportive and incisive. It kept me from crying in my cereal yesterday. haha.
Yeah, I'm totally not showing up in HD with the encoder ever. I know it's cause I have to deal with the wifi. I'm trying to see if it's better NOT using the encoder but the "HD low" setting since then I get that icon. I guess that would give better placement? Last night I used the encoder and got pretty good traffic. Way better than normal, but it could've been my time change and rates.
Yeah, the isight is NOT very good. I have to fuss with lighting for 30 min at night before my shift. grrr. As soon as rent is paid, I'm upgrading.
I raised my prices to 3.99/4.99 and it DID increase my overall hourly rate to $14/hr yesterday. This was from under $10 before. I had a couple excl. and prem. that lasted up to like 7min, and even one 15min block session last night. Things are inching along to a better status, I think, at least as much as they can with my crappy equipment. haha.
Hairy IS a niche! Most guys come to my room for that. And ass men as well.
I'm off to buy a fresh cucumber for today's shift. I thought I'd lost the one I used yesterday, but I found it under the bed. phew.
Ciao lovelies!
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Don't forget that you can easily go above $4.99 a minute with a quick e-mail to the support staff at SM. Any time someone comes in and complains about the rates I just say sorry, but I'm out of their league (in a nice way lol). Don't sell yourself short! Not to sound cliché, but you're worth it. After the 35% $4.99 is only $1.74 per minute.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
you also have to member that camming is not steady like an hourly job would be. your money will come in spurts, so its important to be on as much as you can. the more your on cam the more your hourly rate will even out. dont freak out after 7 hours youve only made 70 dollars, cuz all it takes is one 30-50 dollar hour to even your rate out. it will come, just stay bubbly on cam, dont freak out and be patient. oh and STALL during shows to stretch out your privates. 2-3 minutes doesnt seem like much but youll feel much better when you go slow and the asshole that was in your room and left after 2 minutes of you teasing him just paid you for pretty much nothing when his plan was to rip you off.
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
lol, i say that as im procrasting in bed when i was planning on being on cam 2 hours ago. fml
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
LOL Angelfaced!! I love your theory to rip off the ripper-offers!
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
I hated SM when I first started on there. The few times I logged in at first it was sooo slow for me - I thought it sucked. Then I started to split cam with sm as my second site, after being on for 2 weeks religiously I am now averaging $30 an hour and its only going up from there - this morning I was at the bottom of the first page which shocked me for putting only a couple weeks of effort into the site. My point, with some time and effort even a small commitment of as little as 2 weeks you should see some improvements. SM is now my main site and now I can't make shit on my original site because SM keeps me so busy I have to constantly log off of the offer site.
Goodluck hun!
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
I've emailed them. hell yeah. You're right. Thanks!
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
Thank you all so much. Another slow one today, but yeah, I'm gonna drag that shit out. haha. I got on two hours late, too! haha. Traffic is better though, thanks to some rts and new followers.
Rate increased again. Let's see what happens. hmmmm
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Re: Dismal First Few Shifts on SM Any Advice?
I had a rough time on SM last week, it was my second full week of camming and I was just frustrated. This week, however, I am making like twenty five an hour and having a lot of fucking fun (no pun intended lol). I second what everyone else said, that HD icon is very important. Mine has randomly dropped a couple times and then all of a sudden my room is a ghost town. Starting and restarting the encoder is what helped me get the icon back.