Money Matters

How much money do you make?

When other camgirls, or people looking to be camgirls, ask this question, they are wanting to know how much they can expect to make, or how much they should be making. The problem with this, is that every girl is different. For some girls, they are lucky to make $100 in a night, and usually aim for something like $50. For some girls, $500 a night is normal, and for others, $1000 or even $2000 a night is their usual take.

What about an average?

An average is a useless number. All the average is meant to do is let you compare yourself to the rest of the world. That's all it was ever meant to do. It was never meant to be a benchmark. It was never meant to be an aspiration. It was simply meant to say "50% of the camgirls make more than this, 50% of the camgirls make less than this." It does not tell you about the outliers, the girls who make $10,000 a night, or the girls who make $2 a night.


Now, when a member asks how much a girl makes, sometimes it's just curiosity. Often, it's a troll, wanting to then ridicule her for not "making enough", or a freeloader wanting to feel better about not tipping or taking her for a show.

Here's the problem with that: every girl has different expenses. In some parts of the US, a girl only needs about $600 a month to live on her own (after taxes), while in others, anything less than $2000 a month will leave her trying to figure out which bill goes unpaid. Some girls are supporting others, either a significant other who is going to school, or a family that has fallen on hard times. Some girls are using it to pay for college. In the UK, they just need a few thousand a year for that. In the US, most colleges cost more than $15,000 a year, BEFORE room and board. Those who graduated and then found camming probably have a lot of debt (Mine's at about $30,000 for college alone, and I'm not currently making enough for even minimum payments on it).

So you can't judge how much extra money a girl has by asking how much she makes. Now the kicker- in the US, money is a taboo subject. We are taught not to ask about how much a person makes, and to not tell others how much we make. So when you ask how much a US girl makes, she sees you as being rude. I'm very open about things, I'll tell you that when I work all 7 days, I have two days that I make $30, two days that I make $50, two days that I make $70, and one day that I make $120. So.. $420 a week, if I work all 7 days.

Usually, I can't work all 7 days, but I do make up for it by working extra hours on a couple days. So instead, it goes:

$30 + $65 + $75 + $120 + $35 = $325 a week. Of course, one or two weeks a month, I can't work all those days. If red week is on a single week and takes Sat-Wed, I usually make $200 between Thurs, Fri, and Sat afternoon (paycheck closes around 8pm Saturdays for me). If red week is a single week and takes Tue-Sat, I usually make about $70, because I wasn't expecting it and usually take Sat night and Sun off. If it's straddling a week, say Thurs-Tues, then the first week I make about $120, and the second week I make about $250.

So, I might have:

$325 x 3 + $200 = $1175 for the month
$325 x 3 + $70 = $1045 for the month
$325 x 2 + $120 + $250 = $1020 for the month

When I first started camming, my first month I made $1,500, and my second one I made $2,100 . That was Nov 2009 and Dec 2009. In June 2010, I made a whole $325 for the entire month. (that was my birthday month, and yes, it did hurt)

OH, and those are before taxes, so take out 20% for taxes and that's what I have left to spend.



What do you spend your money on?

It's invariably the members who ask this one. I don't know what answer they're expecting to get, but, here's the priorities:

1. our needs, and the needs of those dependant on us
2. a small thing for ourselves if we can
(if we have any debts, those go here)
3. stuff for our camming if we can
4. this will be a mix of saving and spending money, depending on the girl

We need to spend a little bit on ourselves. If all we spend on is things we need and things for camming, we start to wonder if there's any point in camming when we can't get anything for it. So a little thing for ourselves is important. It keeps our mood up, and since mood is important to our earnings, it counts as putting back into the business. Any business will tell you that you need to put money into the product. Our product is ourselves. Of course, that's the bit we can't take out of our taxes.

Then comes things for our business. If you've ever owned a business you'll know that you need to put money back into it in order to get money out of it. Thus, we put money into our camming.

And lastly comes everything left after needs have been addressed. Some girls will save most of this. Some girls will spend most of it. Some girls will have a whole $2 left, say "fuck it", and head over to Taco Bell.

I only really make enough for 1 and occasionally 2. But that's me, not every girl.

Model FAQ- How do I Increase My Earnings?

This is usually the first question models new to the forum ask. On the forum that I visit, it gets asked in the model's only section at least once a day, and in the ask-a-model section at least once a month, and in the other public areas once every few months.

(To the members: "But I thought you were in it for the fun!" Well, I am in this because it is fun, yes, but I also need to make a living off of it. The same is true for any camgirl. Just because we find it fun doesn't automatically make payment irrelevant. I'm sure a lot of actors find acting fun, but they still expect payment for their skills.)

There are a number of things you can do to increase your earnings no matter what site you're on, but for the most part, what makes one model soar will make another model sink.

Trying to find out what affects placement and focus on getting a better placement on the site, is something that most models think of immediately. But this is not always the way to go. In fact, it isn't usually the way to go. Everyone else is trying to get the best placement too, but outwardly competing with other models usually hurts the model doing the competing. Instead, focus on yourself!

So what will actually help?

1. Get a good camera, and good lighting.

Most models like the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000, or the Logitech c910. Fiddle with your settings until you find what makes you look best on your computer, before you go live. The current Logitech software likes to reset it every time you restart your computer, but it's not that difficult to put it back right. Take off ALL auto-anything. Those will make it choppy when you move.

As for lighting, if you're pale, you're going to want soft lights, if you're not pale, you can get away with harsher lights. Place the lights behind where the camera views. To the side as well as behind is good, but it can't be in the view of the camera, ever.

2. Be yourself. By this I mean don't try to act, don't try to force a role onto yourself. You won't have the energy to make it convincing for hours on end. Let however you act be how you act.

3. There will be slow days.

Don't get discouraged, or bitchy, just because there's a slow day here or there. If you have to log off to play a round of minesweeper, or read, or sing, or whatever, to pick yourself up, that's fine. Just don't stay logged off for hours- you have to be logged in for people to find you!

4. Get creative. If you can find something innovative, it will bring people in. But it doesn't have to be difficult. Sometimes, something as simple as wearing sweatpants instead of lingerie will increase your earnings.

5. This is a service- so serve the members. We rely on the members to pay our bills. Never lose sight of the fact that these people are the ones you are trying to please. That said, you don't have to do everything they say. If it makes you uncomfortable, don't do it. If it hurts you emotionally, mentally, or physically, in a way that leaves you unable to serve the next person, it's not worth it.

6. Don't feed the trolls. There will be people who will try their hardest to make camming hell for you. Don't pay any attention to them. What they are saying to you, they say to every model. So if you are self-conscious about your weight, and someone tells you that you are fat, consider this- that person goes to every model's room, says "ur fat" or "ewww, gross" to every single model they see. Some of them wait to see how you respond, but a lot of them just leave, not even bothering to see if their words had an effect. That is just how not-about-you that is. They don't care about the words they are saying, why should you?

7. Payment needs to be guaranteed- if you expect a tip, get the tip first. Do not accept paypal. For one thing, that will not help you on the site. For another, paypal will close your account if they have any suspicion at all that you are using it to get paid for adult entertainment. Very few members will pay after they get what they want.



Every girl is unique; there is no magic formula for success. There's things which are definite income killers, like shitty camera, bad lighting, and fake personalities. But... well, the top girls are a wide variety of personalities, camming styles, and body-types. Some girls do well dancing naked, some do well sitting clothed and chatting. Women of all sizes, colors, and camming styles have made it to the top.


Lastly, if you've been doing all of the above, and you haven't gotten anywhere on the site after a few months, then you need to try a new site or quit. Camming is not for everyone. Not every girl can handle been a webcam model. But for every girl that CAN handle it, there is a site. It may not be your first choice, but there is a site that will do you well. If you have the time to try out a bunch of them, go for it! If not, then try something besides camming for now.


Sites I know are Real (in no particular order)

Since a lot of guys love to start up bullshit sites which end up flopping, I figured I'd give a list of sites where a model actually stands a chance of doing well. This is by no means a comprehensive list, as I can only list those I've heard conclusively that girls have done well there. Later, I will post "Looking at Sites You Don't Know".

NOTE: Camsites focus on cams pretty heavily. Content sites focus on content pretty heavily. If a site is listed in both, it means that I am aware they focus on both an equal amount.

Camsites:

-myfreecams.com
-streamate.com
-adultwork.com
-camwhores.com
-livejasmin.com
-chaturbate.com
-cams.com
-skinvideo.com
-mygirlfund.com
-myfreeimplats.com
-cam4.com

Content Sites:

-adultwork
-extralunchmoney
-clips4sale

MFC FAQ- Camscore

Camscore, at it's most basic, is your average tokens per hour for the last 60 days. The problem is, it also factors in what the average tokens/hour for the whole site is, so unless you have that number, you can't really get the tokens/hour.

On Amber's forum (link in the sidebar), we get together and occasionally determine what the current average tokens/hour is. At the moment, we're pretty sure it's around 385 tokens/hour.

So, step 1:
keep track of how many hours you spend on camera. Every day, record what time you log on, and what time you log off. Do this every single day, even once you've hit the 60 days.

Step 2:
Once you have sixty days of hours recorded, add up the total for 60 days. This will be hours.
Then add up your total tokens for the 60 days using your token stats page. This is tokens.

Step 3:

Plug your tokens and hours into this equation:

((tokens/hours)/400)*1000 = camscore

You should come up with your camscore. Note: 400 an estimated average tokens/hour for all models on the site. It's a stand-in, because the real number is somewhere close to that. It will be a little off, but you should know it within a couple hundred points. Second Note: 1000 is your averager. It's what tells the equation that the average camscore should be 1000. Without it, the average would be 1.

SOME THOUGHTS:

-Camscores do not update every minute or even every hour. They do not update whenever you log on or log off. Camscores update every several hours and will continue doing so as long as you are active on MFC.

-The only way to raise your camscore is to get tipped more tokens with less time online. Members- you can help! Tip your favorite camgirls so her camscore can raise.

-Worrying about camscore tends to lead to members not want to stick around. Thus the joke: the more you worry about camscore, the lower it goes, the less you worry about camscore, the higher it goes!

-1 token tips do not hurt your camscore. However, some models have reported that a flood of tips from many members can cause the system to not quite recognize all the tips that are sent. I have not experienced this phenomenon, and cannot say that it has any truth to it.

-ratings and admirations do not do anything to your camscore.

-if you still use the model software, staying logged in to the software counts as time online, even if you don't have your room up. Nothing else has this glitch.