I'll answer your questions... I suppose you were asking models to reply, not customers like me, so you can learn from their experiences, but I figured I would answer, too. Maybe it will help.
LINGERIE
These are just the preferences of one guy, but for example, I don't really like lingerie - especially the fancy ones with all kinds of lacy decorations and frills and stuff like that. I'll take a simple thong or booty shorts paired with a bikini top or crop top any day. I'll even take a tight mini dress over a lingerie. Although there are some sexy body suits I love, but in general I'm not into fancy lingerie at all, so it's by no means necessary for camming.
WEBCAM
It's super important to have a good webcam. The integrated ones with laptops are never any good. You should be aiming for at least 1080p (full HD - 1920 x 1080 pixels) instead of 720p (standard HD - 1280 x 720 pixels), but it's not just about resolution - the colours and sound are much better on higher quality webcams.
SPEAKING VS. TYPING
In general, I found that it's usually the girls who don't speak good English who tend to type. Most girls for whom speaking is not a problem tend to speak, because it's easier and they don't have to take their eyes off the screen to look at the keyboard, so it makes it easier for them to follow the conversation. It's also more engaging for the audience, rather than watching a girl bang away on a keyboard. Especially if you're planning to perform on a group chat site rather than a private chat site, speaking would be better for those reasons.
One thing that just occurred to me about your concerns about your voice is that if a girl has an unusual voice, it's a bit less of a "shock" if she's constantly talking and I hear it as soon as I see her, instead of her rarely talking, which gives me time to imagine her with a different voice before I actually get the hear her. Actually, my favourite cam girl has a voice that I found a bit annoying when I first chatted with her, but now I find it cute.
NON-NUDE / TEASE CHATS
First admission that I'm weird: I find the female body very attractive, but not the "lady parts", so I don't watch masturbation shows or anything like that. I only like non-nude chats... When the panties come off and the sex toys come out of the drawer, I usually leave. (I actually googled if this is common or not and there are some pretty interesting discussions about it online.)
Like I said, this is probably not common, but not everyone wants girls to spread their legs in front of the camera for many other reasons, too. I figure a lot of guys probably do, but there is an audience for everything - no matter what type of shows you choose to do.
SHOWING FACE
For me this is pretty important. It's just awkward when a girl refuses to show her face and for me it automatically puts some distance between us. Most girls have no problem showing their faces, so I would never settle for a girl who doesn't (when it comes to paying for shows or custom videos), because there are just so many girls to choose from for whom it would not be an issue.
PUBLIC CHATS / PRIVATE CHATS / SKYPE
I don't really know how Skype works with a site like MFC or whatever, so I'm not sure what scams you're talking about. (I may be wrong, but I'm under the impression that most girls here work on group chat sites like MFC, so it's just my assumption that it has to do with that.)
I do almost all my chatting on Skype and since I have to pay in advance for chats (either through a site like Skyprivate or directly to the model by whatever means), it's usually the models who could scam me by not doing the chat after I paid them, rather than me scamming them... I'm not sure how that would even work.
You probably want to know what are the advantages and disadvantages of private chats vs. public chats for a model and I can't give you any information about that. I'm guessing that private chats are more performance oriented, since the clock is ticking and the customer is paying you to do what he wants during that time, whereas group chats are more relaxed. In a public chat nobody is necessarily paying you at any given moment, so the expectations are lower as far as what you're doing, although in general you would have something you promise to do in exchange for tips.
I personally don't like public chats for several reasons:
- I'm a more solitary person and I prefer to interact with people one on one. I find it easier to have a conversation with a single person than with a group, where I'm often put off by how quickly and how often the discussion jumps from one topic to the next or how certain people want to dominate the conversation.
- I prefer to pay models to do what I would like them to do without having to contend with other members who probably want to see her doing other things. If I was the type who wants to see what everyone else wants to see (see above for my general preference for non-nude chats and below for my fetish), then maybe I would be happy to just go along with a democratic group chat and contribute towards a collective goal, but since that's not the case I would have to enter into a bidding war with other members to get the model to do what I want rather than what they want and since the numbers would be against me (and probably the relative bank account balances, too
) I have no desire to get into that sort of thing... So private chats it is for me!
SOCIAL MEDIA
I can't really say much about this.... I've added some models on Twitter before, but I always forget to visit that site, so it's not much use for me. One thing I don't like is when models only have a few different photos and they keep reposting the same one every time they come online to chat. I don't understand why they don't take a new picture of what they are wearing on that particular day, rather than reposting a photo that everyone has seen before and may be several years old. I think those girls underestimate how effective a sexy photo can be to get guys to visit them and by reposting the same old photos day after day and not adding new ones they are missing a huge opportunity to make guys horny and want to chat with them.
I haven't seen many Tumblr accounts, but what I've seen are mostly girls posting animated gifs of mostly lesbian porn scenes that has nothing to do with them, which I don't see the point of.
SCARS
It wouldn't be a big deal for me at all.
ALCOHOL & DRUGS
Second admission that I'm weird: I'm very turned on by drunk girls... It's basically my one and only fetish.
I know you said you wouldn't get drunk, only tipsy, but basically I've spent like 5-6 years asking girls to get drunk in private chats on ImLive.com at least once a month on average and neither the models nor I ever got into trouble for it. (Obviously, some girls tried to fake it and weren't actually drunk, but that's a whole different topic.) I've also seen some pretty wasted girls on MFC and I've heard of girls being very drunk on Chaturbate, too, although I've never been on that site so I don't know if there were any consequences.
There are also many girls who drink shots on MFC, although I would say most of them are not drinking real alcohol. They are just doing it to make guys think that by buying them shots they are slowly getting them drunk and more "sexual", I suppose.
As I said, for the past 2-3 years I've been chatting almost exclusively on Skype and mostly with the same girl, so my experience when it comes to how different sites deal with drunkennes is somewhat out of date, but I doubt much has changed.
In my experience, each site seems to have its priorities and depending on that, they may or may not actually care about models drinking (and other "offenses"). For example, I've seen many girls on MFC who have their cats or dogs in the room while they are preforming a sex show, but I've also had a model on ImLive tell me that her account got suspended because someone let her dog into the room while she was chatting - even though she wasn't even doing anything sexual at that moment.
I think part of it also comes down to being reported... Obviously, if you're doing a public show and hundreds of people are watching, you have a much higher chance of being reported for breaking the site's rules (or even if you're not by some idiot) than in a private chat where only one person is watching you and you may be doing exactly what he asked you to do, so he's most likely to be happy about it rather than wanting to get you into trouble for it.
Oh, by the way, you asked if private chats are always paid by the minute and the answer is not necessarily. For example, with girls who do "drunk chats" for me, I pay them a lump sum to get drunk with no time limit. Most sites that focus on private chats (like LiveJasmin and ImLive) do have set rates, so I'm not sure it's possible to NOT pay based on the length of the chat, but for chats that take place on Skype, you get paid however you agree to get paid with your customers. I suppose there are also sites where instead of the site automatically charging customers a certain rate when they are watching your cam feed, you can choose to allow them to see it "for free" if they have paid you a certain amount in advance, but I wouldn't know which sites are those.
Sorry about the long post... Good luck!