Webcam models (...), how did you start your line of work and what are the best and worst parts of the job?

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I worked as a webcam model for a few months last year. It was honestly a pretty awesome job and experience to have.

I was originally introduced to cam sex by a boyfriend I had at the time. He was pretty into it, so at first, we'd start off by watching some cam sites together. I really enjoy amateur porn, so webcams were a perfect outlet for me. I was pretty intrigued. Then we moved to fucking on cam on an adult dating site, and it eventually moved to fucking just for fun and for free on a potentially paying site. However, since we were both two fairly attractive individuals, we attracted quite an audience each time we did it - normally about 2,000 viewers, if not more. Both of us were obviously enjoying ourselves, so we figured, well, why not get paid for it? So we filled out the proper paperwork and became our own little version of porn stars.

Well, it quickly became apparent to me that although couples got a lot of viewers, solo girls actually seemed to earn more. I decided to keep doing cam work on my own free time. The relationship was a long-distance one by this point, and airfare was racking up, so I figured any easy, extra money I could get was well appreciated. I worked on MyFreeCams and an Adult Chatroulette, and it became pretty lucrative. I didn't work that long, only for a few hours when I got off my regular job, and I was getting paid to socialize, listen to music, and get myself off. Not a bad arrangement.

Best parts of the job? Easily, gaining more sexual confidence. And it's not just the aspect of people finding you attractive and tipping you for it. Honestly, it's working with all sorts of sexuality and becoming comfortable with it. First, I became immensely more comfortable in my own skin. I liked how I looked on cam, and suddenly I was able to transfer that into my personal life as well - being way more relaxed when it came to being naked around boyfriends and girlfriends. Also, people ask you to indulge in all sorts of fetishes, so you really see the whole gamut of what humans enjoy and just how little a basis there is for "normalcy" when it comes to sex. I really enjoyed the unusual clients that would ask for things that weren't harmful, but just a little beyond my realm of comfort. I had one guy who wanted to pay me private show rates just for me to sit there on camera for 15 to 20 minutes with scarves tied around my mouth and wrist as slight restraints, acting like I was just lightly struggling against them. Was it slightly odd? Yes. Did I feel like an idiot for the first 20 seconds? Entirely. But did I feel strangely empowered, strangely experienced, and like I had a damn good story to tell when I had earned almost $100 just for doing it? Of fucking course.

I also had a lot of people come into my room just for the intellectual conversation aspect, I kid you not. I normally did my shows with a huge bookcase in the back, and people would often ask about the books on it. From there, the conversation would progress that I had focused on Shakespearean literature in my studies, and we would fairly often spend more time discussing early Renaissance literature than sex. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not naive enough to think that having my tits out didn't play some role in keeping viewers. But a lot of people honestly appreciated a cam girl who could keep up in a conversation and have a genuine personality, rather than just being some sort of plastic, unrelatable entity. That was a bit refreshing to see, considering that I was quite worried that I would be dehumanized or completely debased in this work, and I found the opposite instead. If anything, people were overly respectful to me, and regular viewers became protective of me, telling off the newer viewers who would become pushy or demanding when requesting to see things.

Worst part of the job? When no one's tipping, of course. Same as any tip-related job, I'd imagine. You're doing pretty much the same thing you did yesterday, and you made $250 yesterday and just nickels today. There's just no rhyme or reason to it sometimes. Then, you get the "backseat drivers" coming out of the woodwork when times are slow. They'll try to hassle you and pester you with tips on why you're not making more money or having more viewers, whether it's expecting you to show everything for nothing "to get tips started" or just being overbearing, telling you to dance or change into a particular outfit. More often than not, that's when I'll just sign off for the day. Overall, a fairly minor drawback compared to some of the other jobs I've had.

I'm no longer working in that world, simply because I found some lucrative, fulfilling, and very time-consuming employment in my field in real life. Just no time for it anymore, although I love to occasionally play for free online. (I still really enjoy it that much - it's not just a job, although it can be.) However, it's always on the back burner for me - it's a great safety net to have to go back to if I'm ever short on money due to emergencies or perhaps in between jobs again.

TL;DR - Cam work is pretty much fucking fantastic if you're comfortable with it and can find a good audience.

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[–]ioneeuropa 83 points 6 mois de ça

I'm seriously considering this because I can't stand working in the strip club anymore (as a waitress) and don't want to start stripping. What advice could you give a noob? How does payment work, what sites would you recommend, and how do you protect your privacy?

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[–]lady_stone 106 points 6 mois de ça

Understandable. I do think that camming is some of the safest, easiest sex work you can do, much more than stripping. At least camming is done right in the safety and comfort of your own home, and you choose exactly what you're going to do. You can ignore any request if you're not comfortable with it, and if you want to ban or block a user, you can. I saw some cam girls who were very limited in what they would do activity-wise, and they still had their niche and audience too. It truly is exactly what you make of it!

(...)

As far as privacy, I didn't do anything extreme. I just used an alias and only told people the region of the US I was living in - nothing more personal than that. I would be extra careful when setting up Amazon wishlists, however. Not every user will buy tokens through a site to tip you; some would prefer to buy items for you off Amazon, so a lot of cam models set up an Amazon wishlist to post on their profile. When I first did this, I accidentally messed up some security settings, and I had a little bit more personal information visible than I would have preferred. Luckily, one of my regulars caught it and told me within 15 minutes of me posting the link for the wishlist, so I was able to fix it. That could have been a nightmare, though...

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[–]ioneeuropa 32 points 6 mois de ça

Thanks! I would assume there are things like peak hours to capitalize on, yeah? How much did you average weekly, if you don't mind my asking.

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[–]lady_stone 56 points 6 mois de ça

Definitely! For me, the best times were weeknights at about 6:00 (whenever the office crowd was getting home from work) and weekends. Weekend nights were technically better money-makers than the mornings, but since I preferred to go out or just have private-time-us-only sex on the weekend nights, I didn't take advantage of that time frame quite as much. But truly, with cam work being such a global thing, you can make money at any time. Sometimes I would actually make fantastic money working at off-times like 4:30 or 5 AM because most of the other cam girls working were all European or Asian. That made me stand out as an American girl, which brought in some people who were looking for the more conversational aspect of cams without a language barrier.

Weekly? Hmm, it really does vary, but I'd say about $800-$1,000 a week. And truly, I was a very small fish in that sea. There were some girls on MFC who were easily pulling in well over $1,000 a day.

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[–]ioneeuropa 55 points 6 mois de ça

SOLD. Thanks again for your help. The $300 I make in a good week (gotta love overscheduling) doesn't cut it when I think about the fact that I'm waiting tables in my underwear in a room full of men and strippers/hookers.

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[–][effacé] 6 mois de ça

[deleted]

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[–]ioneeuropa 17 points 6 mois de ça

I was out of work and looking ferociously for three months before I finally went to the club. And no. I've worked in all kinds of restaurants. Outside of Bartending and fine dining, the strip club is the best especially considering how little effort it takes to make money there, and there is practically no sidework.

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[–]ioneeuropa 17 points 6 mois de ça

One more thing. Did you ever feel unsafe, I'm sure the Amazon whoopsie scared you, but is there any considerable risk? What should I do to protect myself outside of an alias and keeping my location under wraps?

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[–]lady_stone 17 points 6 mois de ça

Nope, I never did. Sometimes I'd have pushy guys really trying to get personal info, but I'd just silence them if they kept going. Otherwise, I felt pretty safe.

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[–]ioneeuropa 22 points 6 mois de ça

I'm excited. Thanks again and again. :) good credit here I come.

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[–]IndubENTably 55 points 6 mois de ça*

Ladies and gentlemen. A stripper is born.

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[–]kane55 10 points 6 mois de ça*

I'm not a cam model, but I am currently writing an article about cam models and the camming industry for a magazine so I have talked to a bunch of models and done a lot of research into the industry. Here are a few things you might find useful:

Most of the big companies will let you set things up so you can block viewers from your local area. That is a good idea and one more way to keep you safe. One girl told me a story about not doing this and a guy found out her real name and showed up at her house.

The girls that make the big money almost all have a couple things in common. First, they are good looking. Some are better looking than others, but they are all pretty and often make sure they have their makeup done and look nice when they get on. Second, most of them have a good personality. A girl who talks to guys, stirs it up and has fun will make more than a girl who just sits there and offers to get naked. Third, Most of them have some kind of gimmick. One of MFC's biggest earners doesn't even take her clothes off. On very rare occasion she will wear a bikini or bra and panties, but 90% of the time she is fully clothed, but she created a community with the guys, holds raffles, plays games and engages them. Another puts on some pretty cool, unique shows. She has all kinds of sex toys and keeps things interesting. So try to find a way to engage the viewers and keep it fun and interesting.

Work Twitter and your friend list. You can post hot pics of yourself on Twitter and you can post when you are going to be on. Also with friend lists you can email the guys when you are going to be on. The more regulars you develop the more opportunity you have to make money.

Get a good webcam. So many of the girls have either crappy cams or crappy microphones or some kind of crappy setup. If you have poor video or audio the guys will move on.

Set a schedule. Try to be on around the same time on the same days so guys can get used to looking for you.

Sell stuff. As others have said in this thread, sell guys your worn panties, make videos and shoot pictures of yourself that you can sell. Sell lingerie, shirts etc. you would be shocked how many guys will pay to own a girl's used panties.

Be a little shameless. Sometimes you just have to ask for guys to spend money. One girl was so shameless that she went on for 10 minutes explaining how one of her regulars is a financial adviser and has given her all kinds of good advice. She talked about how she has money in mutual funds and precious metals and how she just bought a house that needs a little work, but she will fix up and rent out. Then after talking about how she is investing all her money, she asked everyone to go on Amazon and buy her daughter some school clothes off her wishlist because she badly needed them. It was shamelessness at its best, but works.

Anyway, I'm no expert, these are just some things I have learned as I put my article together. Hope they help some.

Edit: One last thing I thought of. Think twice before you jump into it. While camming isn't the same as being a pornstar, the odds are that pictures and videos of you doing naughty, naked things will end up on the internet forever and could come back to haunt you down the road especially if you have aspirations of one day working in a field that involves kids.

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[–]Tokkojin 127 points 6 mois de ça

Are you ever afraid that your current employment (bosses, etc) will find out about this history? Also, very well written/ great story.

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[–]lady_stone 197 points 6 mois de ça*

Absolutely not. My workplace is one that respects our personal time and space, which is one of the reasons why I love it. If it ever came to light, I think they'd just say that it's not at all relevant to our work what I choose to do in my free time and leave it at that. If not, I'll deal with the consequences. Honestly, I'm not a big-time cam star, and I didn't do a terribly lot of shows, so I think the potential for damage is fairly slight at this point. I've found recordings of my shows on some very obscure Russian sites, but that's about it - and that's only by searching for the alias I went by online, not any connection to my real life.

My only concern is facial recognition technology going forward. I fully recognize that there may be a day where it's much easier to link my footage to who I am. However, I always made sure I was proud of the footage I was putting out there. I feel like I looked pretty good, and I view sex as something very natural and not at all something to be ashamed of, so I think I'd just be able to laugh and smile if my past resurfaces.

Oh, and thanks!

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[–]marksills 22 points 6 mois de ça

im guessing you got insane numbers of pm's for that last paragraph

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[–]Mister__Pickles 18 points 6 mois de ça*

That was very interesting and enlightening. I (like you) always assumed that the cam girls were often dehumanized or treated poorly by viewers, it is nice to hear that often they are not.

I'm just curious about a few things; what kind of sex acts would you perform or would you mostly just sit there with your clothes off and talk to people? If you were performing a lot of sex acts on a regular basis (either by yourself or with your boyfriend) did you ever encounter any issues with discomfort or chafing from hours upon hours of performance? I remember seeing some documentary about sex workers and there was one couple who did a webcam/streaming show and made a lot of money. They would have sex for hours on end and one of the reasons they had to stop was because they would either be physically exhausted or get too chafed

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[–]lady_stone 25 points 6 mois de ça

I would always set a goal when I signed on - normally, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 tokens to get me naked for the session, and then a second goal of about 1,000 tokens to get myself off (usually with a vibrator, a Lelo). Until the goal is met, I'd sit there and talk, although I'd also do brief tit or pussy flashes for 25 or 100 token tips, respectively.

If I was with my guy at the time, we had more options for goals. Usually some oral first and then a sex goal afterwards, although we also did some pretty fun bondage shows a few times. LOTS of requests for anal, but I wasn't comfortable with that on cam.

Chafing and soreness is a real problem, especially with a partner! Lube was my salvation. If it was just me, I could take it easy and not put the vibrator in as far if necessary. But with actually fucking? Oh god, there were some shows where I'd be so sore from fucking all weekend already, and then we'd want to go again for an audience, but I just couldn't take it. That's just the time to turn off the webcam, unfortunately...

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[–]PM_Me_For_Drugs 3 points 6 mois de ça

I would always set a goal when I signed on - normally, anywhere from 500 to 1,000 tokens to get me naked for the session, and then a second goal of about 1,000 tokens to get myself off

So if tokens are $0.05, then you'd strip for $25-$50 and masturbate for another $50, right?

You quoted a figure in another comment: $800-1,000 weekly... Does that mean you'd have to do 8+ sessions a week to achieve that figure? How long do the sessions usually take?

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[–]pikkachewbacca 4 points 6 mois de ça

you are forgetting the $4.50 per minute private shows....

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[–]cumbersomecucumber 15 points 6 mois de ça

How did tax stuff work with a job like that?

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[–]AnabelleLeigh 20 points 6 mois de ça*

When you cam you don't receive a w-2 like most jobs. If you make over $600 you'll get a 1099 misc. that you will use to file your taxes. And when you do them you can right off everything that you've bought to use while camming, such as clothes, sex toys, camera and computer equipment. Most people try to set aside 30% of what they make to pay their taxes and after the first year you can have it set up to pay quarterly so it isn't such a heavy burden at the end of the year.

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[–][effacé] 6 mois de ça

[deleted]

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[–]Studioboss 28 points 6 mois de ça

this is maybe like 1% of the time when you are on cam, rest of the time you are:

1.fighting off the freeloaders that go like "come on bb pussy for 5 seconds and we go pvt"

1. explaining some dipshit all the things you will do in private, even though you have listed everything you do on your profile
2. watching nobody type anything while you have 6 people in your room

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[–]Slausbang 32 points 6 mois de ça

People really should learn to type with one hand.

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[–]Studioboss 3 points 6 mois de ça

Become a webcam model, and see how quickly you learn it :D

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[–][effacé] 6 mois de ça

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[–]AnabelleLeigh 12 points 6 mois de ça

I don't know how I built my fan base, it just happened over time.

The most popular girls are what you would expect, the ones who are stereotypically pretty or have big boobs.

Some of the higher paid girls on myfreecams are making tens of thousands a month last time I heard.

I've slowed down a lot but when I was camming regularly I was making around 3k a month.

Personality is super important you have to keep the guys in your room to make them tip. They like it when you talk to them and are entertaining. The girls that type or just avoid all conversation don't make nearly as much as the ones that are giggling and joking around with the viewers.

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[–]EmilySparrow 5 points 6 mois de ça

I cannot agree with this post enough. This is gold and the real experience of being a camgirl. You should write a book or something.

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[–]beybaska 3 points 6 mois de ça

So... Question, when you got your checks in the mail, were they very obviously from the webcam site? Or were they pretty discreet about it?

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[–]call_me_anal_girl 2 points 6 mois de ça

That sounds like an an amazing experience, I'd love to try it. Thanks for the great story!

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[–]Einhander1251 2 points 6 mois de ça

I had an ex whose step mother was a former porn star. She had moved onto a web cam business, and according to her the most bizarre thing she was asked to perform was to step on a full course Thanksgiving meal. The Thanksgiving qualifier always struck me as the most absurd part.

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[–]k1ttent1ts 2 points 6 mois de ça

I'm really thankful for this post because I've heavily considered doing it. Thank you so much!

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[–]dontthrowmeaway01 2 points 6 mois de ça

Oh my God I think I was in your room before. There are a few girls who have honest intellectual conversations in their cam rooms & it can be fun to go in there for a non fap experience just to talk to someone interesting.

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[–]Yiotter 2 points 6 mois de ça

How wonderful to have a safe, lucrative way to be a sex worker, without the dangers and annoyances of customers at stip clubs, pimps or STDs.

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[–]youthgonewylde 3 points 6 mois de ça

Whoa, the way you feel so open and chill about sex is pretty cool to me. If more people were like that, so many embarassing family situations and/or awkward sexual encounters could be avoided.

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[–]SOURSE 1 point 6 mois de ça

So the question is, when will you be on 

 ?

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[–]Retro21 1 point 6 mois de ça

are you not worried that people might recognise you? Did you ever get anyone that you knew?

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[–]honeydew49 0 point 6 mois de ça

TIL cam girls are people too

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[–]1mdelightful -5 point 6 mois de ça

What kind of socio economic back ground does one have to get into this[intellectually]?

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