Can anyone make it in camming?

[lovelylemonpie]

Hello just wanted to ask...Do you think anyone can make it in camming? can it take years? I have been doing it this for 2 years full time, invested in pc and I feel I don't earn enough. I cover my bills because I live in a cheap country in USD, but that's it. I can't believe some models can me 100-200 daily. Maybe I have to try other sites, I don't know. Or it's the fact I don't have a Lush yet. I'm pretty and entertaining and speak good English. I have met people that weren't able to make enough or zero...So is it that unstable and luck based? In March I started on a new site, I was at the top for 3 weeks and then I made 50$ in a week,...Sometimes I think about quitting or trying something similar like Reddit selling

Any thoughts or experiences?

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

Yeah i mean, anyone can make it but I do think there's a personality type and certain skill sets that will thrive and others that won't. Resilience and adaptability is key. I think now most models really need to supplement with content or onlyfans or some other adjacent work to make things more stable and build up passive income.

I'd encourage you to explore other things that are similar WHILE camming to see if anything fits better than what you've been doing. Sexting, phonesex, assistant work for other sex workers, fansites like onlyfans, clips, customs, private video calls, audio files, reddit selling, panty selling, etc are all areas you could look into. But yeah, it can totally take years, and there are luck and unstable elements.

 

[Danigirl]

Any body can make it in camming but not just anybody can make it if that makes sense. All body types can find a market but you need tenacity and thick skin. It's too volatile if you're just relying on live camming vs adding clips/content/affiliate etc. If you don't have a niche or income coming in when not camming, it's easy to lose footing and get lost in the 1000s of models online at any given time.

So no, I don't think just anyone can make it in camming. It's more about the personality and drive behind the model than the actual esthetics.

 

[lovelylemonpie]

thanks everyone for the input

 

[AmberCutie]

The others have answered with good info but I'll add as I've learned over the last near 14 years:

Do you think anyone can make it in camming?

Anyone? yes. Everyone? no. This industry is NOT for everyone. Not every person has what it takes to really make it work beyond surviving, and some not even that.

I cover my bills because I live in a cheap country in USD

Some people consider that successful, though. There are a lot of jobs that people live paycheck to paycheck just to cover their basic living expenses. If you can do this one with less effort and/or hours than other jobs, that could be considered successful, too.

Maybe I have to try other sites, I don't know.

Trying/adding other sites is wise, there are different markets for them all.

Or it's the fact I don't have a Lush yet.

10 years ago a lush made no difference, but the times have changed, and some models find luck with this business model.

I'd encourage you to explore other things that are similar WHILE camming to see if anything fits better than what you've been doing. Sexting, phonesex, assistant work for other sex workers, fansites like onlyfans, clips, customs, private video calls, audio files, reddit selling, panty selling, etc are all areas you could look into.

On top of opening up to working multiple sites in a day, I do also suggest expanding beyond just live cams. That may NOT be what your'e cut out for, and something else suggested could work.


I'll state again, though, this job isn't for everyone. At some point you need to stop trying to force it to be, before you break yourself.

 

[LilyBlueBBW]

May I chime in? I think that it is possible for anyone to make it in camming. I just think that you need a lot of patience and a high level of tolerance(for the cheapskates) and a good personality in order to make it in camming. I have never been able to make it in camming because there aren't a lot of women in my niche that are successful and because I am not consistent and because when I try to be consistent, there's certain things that I am not going to do.

I am NOT going to dance for 4 hours straight and I am not going to slather myself in kabuki makeup and act like a geisha girl. Oh and I ain't clucking like a damn chicken for 2 hours. Oh and I am NEVER going to pay money to promote my NF listings, because that's technically paying to work and I am not doing that. You see...I hold myself back.

I am one of those people where I will get on cam and basically make it known that unless a client is paying me, I am not doing billyjackshit.

Don't ever sit up and just rely on camming to make your income. You have to do multiple things in this subsection of the adult industry to make money because a lot of these fuckers on these camsites are cheap and only a small percentage of them act like they know how a cam site works. You can go and open up a clips store on MV and C4S to make extra money. You can do PSO to make money. You can sell panties in order to make money. There's sites where you can sell audios to make money. You could become a text chat operator and make money. Hell, you could start a youtube channel like PaisleeHaze and do videos where you give advice on camming and make a check that way.

Camming has NOT worked for me at all this month but skyprivate has and paidbytheminute has and NF has. Those 3 sites that I just mentioned never work for me but out of the clear blue sky, I have made checks on them this month. I am telling you this to tell you that you need multiple streams of income if you want to be in sex work and survive in sex work.

Oh and don't just rely on sex work in order to pay your bills because everything that I just mentioned can have slow months, so you got to think outside of the box. I have a poshmark, a mercari, and an ebay page. I even went earlier today and shipped an item that someone brought from me on ebay. Its okay to open up one of those accounts and sell some clothes or baubles that are in your house and pay your bills with it.

Don't ever think that you are limited to just camming....there's so many ways for you to make money. Oh and don't ever sit up and feel bad because camming isn't working for you at a particular time. Its a slow time for everyone in terms of camming and you are not doing anything wrong. You just got to find a side hustle that works for you until things pick back up again.

I have said far too much....so let me slide on out of here. Good luck hun and I send you lots of hugs.

 

[AmberCutie]

I am NOT going to dance for 4 hours straight and I am not going to slather myself in kabuki makeup and act like a geisha girl. Oh and I ain't clucking like a damn chicken for 2 hours.

This is one of the best things ever posted on ACF

YES

 

[Miss_Lollipop]

This is one of the best things ever posted on ACF

YES

Lol i literally just did a video where i had to cluck like a literal chicken

 

[AmberCutie]

Lol i literally just did a video where i had to cluck like a literal chicken

It's definitely a thing! haha

 

[Lilly_____]

Like you I've been camming for a few years and it was never a success with me either. Always long hours, little pay. But I will say that also just like you, I pay my bills with it. I can say that this is way better than having to leave my house and take the bus to a lousy job that would pay me way less for even more hours. So I like to think that there's still a level of success to what I'm doing.

That said, I do know what you mean. Sometimes it's hard not to take it personally and think what are other models doing that I'm not? I'm currently on my 6th hour online and not a single soul has even said hi to me. I have a schedule, the outfits, the lights, the talk, the thick skin, so what is it that is still lacking? That's what I get from your OP and I think it's inevitable to feel like that sometimes. When that feeling comes I just try to push it away because usually nothing good comes out of it. I think that energy is better spent hustling somewhere else.

I think maybe cam is just not for some of us. Idk. I'm not saying that's your case. But that very slow February made me go look into other sources of income like full service, clips and going back to shooting with a studio and that made me realize how many options are out there besides camming. That also helped me relax when I have a really bad day on cam. I've been considering reducing my camming hours drastically and substituting them with these other things, it feels like it would be a better use of my time.

 

[misterical]

panty selling

There suddenly seems to be an influx of guys on MV Live offering models silly amounts of money for used panties. Most of the time they ask the model to show a few pairs of panties, at which point the model usually smells a rat and refuses but I'd never seen this before in a cam room.

 

[EvaRomania]

I am not a successful model in the eyes of models who earn a lot of money in a short time . I usually have to work for 6 hours online for 70-200$.
But in my eyes,I do good. I pay my bills,I do my monthly goals and can save some also.
I earn better and faster than if I had to go out and work at other job. (24 h per week).
I can get a free day or two or a week whenever I want because I am the boss .I always do my monthly goal because I stick to my schedule,I don't work everyday but I focus on the $ earned .

 

[KingMarti]

Do you think anyone can make it in camming?

It really depends on what you consider "making it". Your idea of what making it is will probably differ from someone else.

What you don't see with the girls who are making $100-$200+ a day or hour is the work that goes on behind the cam. When you look at some ones cam room you only see a very small % of what is actually going on that makes that room function the way it does. I would guess that more "successful" models spend a large amount of time posting to social media sites, interacting on forums where potential members that enjoy their content might be (essentially marketing even if they don't realize that is what they are doing) etc. Doing the off cam work reduces the amount of luck required.

Personally I don't follow my own advice / thought process here, so cant say for sure that's how it is...from what I have seen that's the conclusion I have come to.

Oh and I am NEVER going to pay money to promote my NF listings, because that's technically paying to work and I am not doing that.

Just to put another spin on this. In business when you need to increase customers you need to advertise, (generally when earnings decline companies will increase their marketing budgets to gain new customers in an attempt to stabilize their earnings) so I wouldn't think of it so much as paying to work as paying to raise awareness that you are there.

Even brands like coca-cola need to continually advertise to keep themselves at the forefront of their customers mind. If I remember correctly they stopped all advertising in I think it was Portugal in 1977 and lost the majority of their market share (I could be remembering wrong though since all the research on it seems to go to dead links now).

 

[MarieElise]

I was not able to sustain myself on cams and clips alone until I was several years in. I relied on side jobs, and part time work outside the industry to get me by during that time. It's only my last 6 years I've been full time, and made enough to consistently to afford a pretty expensive area etc. I would encourage anyone who is in their first few years to consider that it takes time to build a base.

I also think it takes certain psychological characteristics, that not everyone has inately. There are people who seem to do very poorly (mentally) in this field, and burnout is real too. So it's really important to manage boundaries, and time. People who personalize too much, or who base their self esteem around the market and sales, tend to crash and burn. People who are able to set boundaries not only between themselves and the customers, but also between themselves, their feelings about themselves, and how busy the market is - tend to do better. However that can be something which is learned too. Those are skills which can be acquired, but they do need to be acquired in this field. As much as consistence is definitely important, I'd also add that consistently knowing when to diversify, and being able to recognize where you are beating a dead horse, is a skill that needs to be learned to. Some of us do great on some sites, and poorly on others. It's just a fact. Overall there are just lots of difficult judgement calls involved, that get easier with time and experience. Time management and knowing where the balance is between diversifying too much, and not enough, for you personally, is also an acquired skill.

Back when I started there were a lot of very realistic posts on Stripperweb warning models not to expect to be able to go full time the first few years. And that was in a good economy! That's why I kind of want to bring that topic up again. Some people can and do. Some of us need time to acquire the skills needed. There's absolutely nothing abnormal about taking 2 or 3 years to get a solid footing in the cam/ clips world. That doesn't mean you failed, it means you're learning. I'm 9 years in and still learning a ton!

 

[LolaLuv]

I think the most important thing is the skill of selling. Selling to a live audience is not easy because not everyone responds to the same sales tactics. In fact, some will be offended and leave no matter what you say if you bring up spending. (some will call it "begging for tips" and try to shame you for it too).

I think a lot of models expect that if they're pretty and nice and fun and if guys are having a great time in their room then they'll make money. This is not necessarily the case. Thousands of guys will sit and watch for free if they like what they see. We need to be able to generate sales from those potential customers. For some models this comes naturally. For others this takes many years to develop. And for others their audience seems to spend like magic while they do nothing at all. Never compare yourself to these unicorns.

 

[blayze_noir]

Camming has exploded so much in the past 3-5 years, and become so very competitive. Like with people in bands , everyone knows someone in a band, it seems like today everyone also knows someone that cams.

You really have to define what "making it" means to you.

For example: I do a lot of different things to pay the bills while playing in bands and making music for almost 3/4 of my life. For me making it in music is being able to write, record and release music every few years while playing gigs in small clubs, selling albums here and there while streaming music internationally and making people happy. Considering that I write and record original music, I have no illusions that music will pay any bills or make me famous. I still need other sources of income to pay the bills. I think this is a pretty realistic goal.

For some of my bandmates and peers, their measure of success is having an album that sells millions and they can play Madison Square Garden or Lollapalooza or whatever. I have had so many bandmates and friends have outright quit music because they didn't achieve these goals in their 20s or 30s.

For me making it camming originally meant that I make enough money to supplement my income to cover certain bills or hobbies and enable my music career. As male cammer for almost 2 years now, I have found it extremely difficult to achieve my goal of supplementing my income. So I adjusted my goal because I really like camming and entertaining people.

What are your goals? Do you do this to expecting it to be your main source of income or to supplement your income? Whichever way you answer, what are you doing to achieve those goals? You are a business. If you are "open" only 3 hours a week, what are you doing to drive customers to your store so that you meet your goals?

 

[yummybrownfox]

There suddenly seems to be an influx of guys on MV Live offering models silly amounts of money for used panties. Most of the time they ask the model to show a few pairs of panties, at which point the model usually smells a rat and refuses but I'd never seen this before in a cam room.

Lol. I don’t think it’s silly at all. Some of these panty fetish guys will pay $100 or more for worn panties in the mail, or a panty fetish custom video.

I loved it when that guy on ManyVids Live tipped me for a worn bra that I was getting ready to throw in the trash anyway.

$100 is nothing to sneeze at. I can buy a dozen large male crabs with that. Lol.

 

[lovelylemonpie]

Thanks everyone. This has been the most useful post about camming.

 

[misterical]

Lol. I don’t think it’s silly at all. Some of these panty fetish guys will pay $100 or more for worn panties in the mail, or a panty fetish custom video.

I loved it when that guy on ManyVids Live tipped me for a worn bra that I was getting ready to throw in the trash anyway.

$100 is nothing to sneeze at. I can buy a dozen large male crabs with that. Lol.

Don't get me wrong, if you can make the money they are offering then great. There's just something about the particular guys I've seen that gives me the feeling that they really just want to jerk off to a model holding up a selection of panties and then disappear. The venn diagram of these guys and the guys with the weird alphabeti-spaghetti usersnames is a circle. You know the usernames I mean? e.g. YdkFkjdjher_57JJdyf. Seems to be an abundance of those guys on MV at the moment.

 

[Danigirl]

Don't get me wrong, if you can make the money they are offering then great. There's just something about the particular guys I've seen that gives me the feeling that they really just want to jerk off to a model holding up a selection of panties and then disappear. The venn diagram of these guys and the guys with the weird alphabeti-spaghetti usersnames is a circle. You know the usernames I mean? e.g. YdkFkjdjher_57JJdyf. Seems to be an abundance of those guys on MV at the moment.

I offer panties if they're in the US for 1500tk. I sell 3-4 pairs a week. I take a pic of the panties up for general browsing but unless someone tips me to try them on or has purchased in the past, they're not getting a free preview on me.

 

[AudriTwo]

I loved it when that guy on ManyVids Live tipped me for a worn bra that I was getting ready to throw in the trash anyway.

 

[melanieoncam]

These days I think it's a mistake to rely on only one site, even if you make enough for bills with that one site. No site is too big to fail (learned that lesson the hard way from back in Ifriends days). Try out a few other sites and see how it goes.

One of the best things I did for a secure income is to buy a more powerful computer and multiple monitors (I actually use flat screen TVs because it's cheaper than giant monitors and I like a lot of screen space) and a high upload internet speed so that I can stream to multiple sites at once. It was a game-changer for me.

 

[yummybrownfox]

Don't get me wrong, if you can make the money they are offering then great. There's just something about the particular guys I've seen that gives me the feeling that they really just want to jerk off to a model holding up a selection of panties and then disappear.

Yeah, my stretch marked ass ain’t getting up from the bed to go grab a selection of panties…until the guy has either started a private show with me or has tipped.

 

[pep]

As far as the lush goes, if you're able to buy one, it could be worth trying. When I get online with the lush, guys will pop in and immediately tip for it. Some will keep tipping for it. If I don't have it on, people are more likely to lurk. I personally don't want to have a lush-themed room all the time but it does seem like guys would rather tip for it than things on my menu or my wheel.

 

[AussieCosplay]

May I chime in? I think that it is possible for anyone to make it in camming. I just think that you need a lot of patience and a high level of tolerance(for the cheapskates) and a good personality in order to make it in camming. I have never been able to make it in camming because there aren't a lot of women in my niche that are successful and because I am not consistent and because when I try to be consistent, there's certain things that I am not going to do.

I am NOT going to dance for 4 hours straight and I am not going to slather myself in kabuki makeup and act like a geisha girl. Oh and I ain't clucking like a damn chicken for 2 hours. Oh and I am NEVER going to pay money to promote my NF listings, because that's technically paying to work and I am not doing that. You see...I hold myself back.

I am one of those people where I will get on cam and basically make it known that unless a client is paying me, I am not doing billyjackshit.

Don't ever sit up and just rely on camming to make your income. You have to do multiple things in this subsection of the adult industry to make money because a lot of these fuckers on these camsites are cheap and only a small percentage of them act like they know how a cam site works. You can go and open up a clips store on MV and C4S to make extra money. You can do PSO to make money. You can sell panties in order to make money. There's sites where you can sell audios to make money. You could become a text chat operator and make money. Hell, you could start a youtube channel like PaisleeHaze and do videos where you give advice on camming and make a check that way.

Camming has NOT worked for me at all this month but skyprivate has and paidbytheminute has and NF has. Those 3 sites that I just mentioned never work for me but out of the clear blue sky, I have made checks on them this month. I am telling you this to tell you that you need multiple streams of income if you want to be in sex work and survive in sex work.

Oh and don't just rely on sex work in order to pay your bills because everything that I just mentioned can have slow months, so you got to think outside of the box. I have a poshmark, a mercari, and an ebay page. I even went earlier today and shipped an item that someone brought from me on ebay. Its okay to open up one of those accounts and sell some clothes or baubles that are in your house and pay your bills with it.

Don't ever think that you are limited to just camming....there's so many ways for you to make money. Oh and don't ever sit up and feel bad because camming isn't working for you at a particular time. Its a slow time for everyone in terms of camming and you are not doing anything wrong. You just got to find a side hustle that works for you until things pick back up again.

I have said far too much....so let me slide on out of here. Good luck hun and I send you lots of hugs.

I wanted to laugh react because you put this in such a humorous but true way! (I for one have clucked like a chicken but only did it briefly )

I didn't though because your advice underneath is real and true. 100%.