Each model has her preferences and strategies and you can be just as successful sticking to privates and group shows. You simply notice the "public chat" models more because they aren't going in and out of privates, their presence is more visible. But some of the top girls are private based. That said, this is the logic behind sticking to public chat:
Doing privates your earning potential per hour spent in private goes like this:
Minimum: 3600 tokens (regular private, no spies)
Medium: 5400 tokens (true private)
Maximum: 3600 tokens + (20 tokens per minute per spy)
Doing groups can be profitable too and there is no cap:
Minimum: 600 tokens (1 viewer average)
Reasonable: 3600 tokens (6 viewers average)
High: 12000 tokens (20 viewers average)
Maximum: unlimited tokens (I have seen group shows with over 100 viewers in the past)
Group shows can be very profitable if you are able to pull in a crowd and keep them watching. If you have the numbers, a group show can be really, really profitable. But only a handful of models have the skill and the audience to pull this off consistently day after day.
The upside of the private/group strategy:
No need to entertain an entire room of people. As long as you keep some mystery, there will be people willing to take you private. The effort you will spend will be 1 on 1. To models with low energy or who tend to be shy this might be an easier way.
Another upside is you limit the amount of people that have access to seeing you naked or doing a cum show. Successful private based models will be non-nude in public, or do only topless in public and keep the interesting bits for group/private. This avoids automated cappers from capping your public shows and protects your content from spreading for a while.
The downsides of the private/group strategy:
You won't always find people who will want to take you private for an hour straight, and every time you finish a private show your room is empty and you have to wait until it fills up again and for another interested member to show up. So realistically, even though your earning potential is still high, for every hour you spend online, you will spend most of the time waiting for people to show up, going in and out of privates, and in order to make money you will need to spend a lot of time on cam.
Now, let's look at the public chat strategy:
Earning potential per hour spent in public chat:
Minimum: 0 tokens (it does happen)
Maximum: unlimited (a crazy guy can drop a 100,000 token tip on you today, who knows)
Instead of privates and groups, public based models will spend their time in public chat and rely on goals for public shows, games, and tips for their income. This requires way more energy because they need to keep the room interested and entertain a large group of people. They also need to be a good salesman because they will need to persuade their members to spend on them even when it is not technically required. Most guys will spend in a private or a group because they must. Nobody will pay for them, they are required to pay to see. But when the show will happen in public most guys will freeload because they think others will tip and they will get to see for free.
Most of the models who stay in public chat do it because they know that if they go in a private show, perhaps it will be a long private and they will earn 3600, but they will miss on the members that want to tip you just because, who could tip you three times more in the hour you will be away pleasing just one person. They also know that they can meet more people if they stay in public and build up the audience than if they spend most of their time away from public chat.
Like I said before, do whatever works for you. There are incredibly successful models that use each strategy, and some even mix it up. Models that mix it up will spend the first two hours in public doing goals and once they are naked, for example, they will do a group show or do privates with their members. Whatever your strategy just know that if your strategy is working for you there is no need to copy what other models do, no matter how successful they might seem. Do what works for you and follow your own nose.
