Camming now VS years ago

[HaleyBlake]

Was looking for a place in the Models Only section to post this, but didn't know where would be most appropriate, and decided some other people outside the models only section could benefit from this as well possibly

From 2013-2015 I worked full time on steamate mainly doing goldshows. Typically made between $130-$200/hr depending on the time of day/night. It was always consistent, and generally I reached my goal 9/10 times and most times going over it.

However I keep peeking in on SM every once in a while and notice not many gold shows are going on, and the ones I happen to see, aren't going too well.

I have been clip making and doing other side hustles, but really miss camming.

But I was wondering from the ladies who have been in it for a while, SM or not, how have things changed? If at all?

I know the sites are a lot more congested with models than it used to be, but was curious to how earnings/traffic/etc compare to say, 4-6 years ago.

Thank you in advance ladies

 

[Whatman]

Streamate seems to be dying a slow but sure death. Model diversity seems to be way down, and none of the new models seem to last more than a few weeks. The increasing amount of pre-recorded streams also suggest they can't keep up with paying real models.

 

[AmberCutie]

Obviously camming has gotten incredibly more popular and well known over the last decade, which has increased the amount of models on any site at any given time. It creates a much bigger pool of fishies for potential customers and members to choose from, and causes a lot of rooms to be quieter than she may be used to.

Some people love being all negative and call cam sites “dying” and use inaccurate traffic stats to prove some sort of point, but as I said, camming is more popular than ever and it’s thriving beyond these peoples’ imaginations.

My experience as a free chat model on MFC has changed drastically since I began in 2009. Back then there were maybe 500-600 models on at a time, and if there were 800+ it was a rare day! So that meant I had a higher chance of being in the top few models online, and got a lot more of the total viewer base on the site when I was on. Having a room full of 3000 viewers wasn’t that crazy then. I could make it to the top 10 or 20 on Miss MFC just working a regular schedule and not having to plan months in advance like many models do now. (Though there are still some models that it seems to come naturally to and they just do it monthly, lol). The amount of tokens it takes to make those ranks has quadrupled at least.

Over time, the amount of hours and days a week that I get on cam have dwindled mainly due to burnout and the aches and pains of aging. This means I don’t make the same amount of tokens per month as I used to. HOWEVER, my hourly rate has not gone down much if at all on most days. I find myself spending more offline time working on maintaining my content on Share and other social media and clip sites (those weren’t a thing back when I started, the focus was on LIVE camming much more than selling videos).

It has become a requirement to sell videos and Snapchat subscriptions during live cam sessions because that is what many members have become used to over the years. I think the average porn viewer expects more for less these days, as free porn is so easy to come by that when they do pay for it they want the moon and the stars.

Those are just some of the changes that I can think of right now.

 

[melanieoncam]

My money has been increasing steadily. I don't do gold shows though, only privates. The only thing stopping me from making money is not being online enough.

 

[JickyJuly]

I think it's more that our lives change and our camsite doesn't always change with us? Whether you start camming at 18 or 28 (like myself), most girls who are in camming are at ages of drastic change. I moved from MFC to Streamate and eventually to clips. MFC and SM seem the same, but fuck all if I can keep up with them. Hehehe. The competition on MFC seems much steeper than when I was there I guess? I'm not sure if the same can be true of ppm sites.

 

[SaffronBurke]

Streamate seems to be dying a slow but sure death. Model diversity seems to be way down, and none of the new models seem to last more than a few weeks. The increasing amount of pre-recorded streams also suggest they can't keep up with paying real models.

Streamate has no issue keeping models paid on time, unlike certain clipsites *cough*iwantclips*cough*

New models don't typically last long on ANY site. Same with new strippers, new pornstars, new escorts, etc. People tend to jump into the industry expecting it to be quick easy money - and it can be, but then the "new girl charm" wears off, they have a few slow days/weeks and they quit.

 

[AudriTwo]

Streamate seems to be dying a slow but sure death. Model diversity seems to be way down, and none of the new models seem to last more than a few weeks. The increasing amount of pre-recorded streams also suggest they can't keep up with paying real models.

no it isn't. i barely work and i still make my goals with ease. streamate also has never been late on a payment the 6 years i have been on there. and there is a plether of models. bbw, old, young, skinny, white, black, brown, straight, queer, trans. majority of new models don't last long on any site.

 

[Sansa]

Streamate seems to be dying a slow but sure death. Model diversity seems to be way down, and none of the new models seem to last more than a few weeks. The increasing amount of pre-recorded streams also suggest they can't keep up with paying real models.

Not sure why your comment has so many disagree marks on it aside from the fact that SM is actually very good about paying their models on time. It's also fairly normal for new models to not last very long either.

That said...SM has a lot of issues right now.

The fact that there has not been a cheap or quick payment option for models in the USA to receive payouts ever since First Choice closed down is a big issue. Every other major site does ACH, but SM does not. This can be a huge expense for the model if she wants to get paid quickly since it's $40 for the transfer and banks can charge yet another fee. I know mine charges an extra $15 for all incoming wire transfers, that winds up being $55 per check just to get paid! Also not every model can reliably receive checks, whether it's for privacy reasons or if they live in an area with a high risk of checks getting stolen in the mail. Payment methods (or lack of their preferred method) can definitely be a factor for a model not using a site.

I bring this up because of the six payout options, two (Cosmo and Juicy) are not available in the USA at all. A third, Paxum, is not available for new accounts, so a lot of older USA models might have this, but new ones cannot get this service. For USA models, two options involve a mailed checks, a free option and a $30 Fed-Ex option, which again, if a model needs to keep her camming a secret or if she lives in an area where stuff tends to get stolen, these are not a viable options. The last one, wire transfer, will be a minimum of $40 just to get paid. Plenty of other sites offer direct deposit which usually doesn't cost anything, might just have a minimum payout amount. I imagine this would be hurting SM's ability to retain models, a group that already has a high turnover rate. Considering how many models do camming part time or for extra money, why would someone want to work on a site that has such a high cost for getting paid?

The fake model accounts are definitely a huge problem, they're everywhere and in spite of reporting some of them, SM does not appear to take them down. Many users have mentioned being very sick of these fake accounts.

There are also a ton of glitches that members are sick of having to deal with. If the site isn't booting them from privates/exclusive over and over, then cam2cam isn't working. It really sucks when they're actively trying to have a show by entering an exclusive show over and over, spending $30-40 between all of their attempts only to not even get a show because of the glitches. Why would a member want to stay on a site that does that? To my understanding, SM will give a refund if a glitch can be proven, but who wants to deal with that kind of a hassle? Especially when there are a plethora of other sites they could go to.

SM will also say something like "1900 models online now!" but if you count all the rows and pages of models who are actually online, it's often less than half of that. Why artificially inflate the numbers? When you factor in anyone who isn't a solo female model (because that's what most paying clients are looking for) which is usually at least 100 accounts, and then all of the fake accounts (who knows how many are on at a given time), then there are even fewer models available for what most guys are looking for when they visit the site.

Even if there are say, 700 models online, they are not all going to meet what a particular member likes enough to spend money, whether it's her look, what kind of shows she does, the quality of her feed, the language she speaks, and so on. Everyone has different specific things that they are into enough to spend money and when all of that is factored in, it can be a lot harder to find exactly what you're looking for when there are fewer models available. When other sites have thousands, again, a member could easily go elsewhere if they are having trouble finding their type.

This seems to be an awful cycle and SM really needs to do something to fix it. I do not think they are in the dying phase just yet, but they ultimately need to fix the glitches that drive so many good customers away from the site. They need to get rid of the fake accounts that are also driving away so many members. They need to do stuff that encourages models to stay or join, like better payment methods and not having a glitchy site to work on.

Aaaaaaand, I'd written this up hours ago but hadn't posted it yet. Have since then had a shift. Tons of regulars had returned, but none did shows because the site was glitchy, if that says anything. :/ Yet another typical day of this kind of crap.

 

[AmberCutie]

Not sure why your comment has so many disagree marks on it

Cuz we’re all tired of random members with no actual facts saying that any cam sites are “dying” lol.

 

[Sansa]

Cuz we’re all tired of random members with no actual facts saying that any cam sites are “dying” lol.

Okay fair enough. SM definitely has a ton of issues though and they badly need to fix some of what's going on.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

Just a member, who is primarily on MFC, so take with a grain of salt. In the 3+ years I've been a member of MFC (joined Dec '15), I've seen a lot of changes myself. More models, more competition for tips, the addition of lush and similar toys. While there's always been a push towards the end of the pay period, it seems like there's more of a push now than I previously noticed.

Some of it's good, some bad. Probably the biggest thing I've noticed is that the number of models has grown significantly. The downside is that it seems many think it's nothing more than just sitting in front of a cam and they expect the tips to roll in. For me, there has to be a draw in order to interest me enough to enter the room. But, more so to keep me there. I'm not the one who expects the world for a few tokens. It can be something as simple as common interest we can chat about, joking with one another, etc. all the while I occasionally tip. But, if a model is just going to sit there without some kind of interaction, nah quick way to lose my interest.

I've visited CB and SM a few times. But, never really stayed. So, can't give good comparisons.

If I recognize a model from ACF, and have time, I might pop in her room and tip with a note saying it's from "Someone at ACF".

 

[SMuser69]

Okay fair enough. SM definitely has a ton of issues though and they badly need to fix some of what's going on.

I wouldn't called most of your reasons 'problems' that are hurting SM, most of those are frustrations. The pre-recorded models are annoying to think about but NONE of them have 5 stars so you need to scroll a big down to see them at all and I doubt any member's actually left SM because of them. Also due to SM's pretty generous refunding when technical issues happen I don't think they lose members from those issues either.

I doubt any of the sites that post a 'models online' number base that on any form of accuracy but it's also hard to tell the true number, a great many models have a geoblock of some form or another. Like if you set your VPN to France SM looks like a completely different site because there are a ton of models or studios that only seem to server France and have blocked out the US. There will always be models on any site that you simple won't see due to location.

The payment issues I don't know anything about but in regards to what you said about receiving a mailed checks, you know you can often talk to your local bank and have the check send directly to the bank and they'll deposit it for you. You might see if that option is available for you.

If I was to think of one thing that both helps and hurt camming I would say it's the interactive vibe tipping. This has drastically changed the visual optics of many camsites. CB's frontpage is overrun with very low effort models that don't do more than vend out giggles for 1 token at a time for hours. While it still appears a good income option for models it's also retrained the members behavior on the social based sites to be less community building and most one shot service based. I think this affecting the conversion to 'regulars' because these types of models leave no sense of attachment. SM might not be social but still is built about models retaining 'regulars' and often seems like vibe models don't see how the tip vibing becomes a crutch for them and regulars slowly move on due to the model giving up all other interaction to just 'vibe'.

 

[AudriTwo]

Okay fair enough. SM definitely has a ton of issues though and they badly need to fix some of what's going on.

I'm fine with actual criticism, like your post. You hit the nail on the head. Streamate is no way a perfect site, but it is certainly not "dying"

 

[SaffronBurke]

The fact that there has not been a cheap or quick payment option for models in the USA to receive payouts ever since First Choice closed down is a big issue. Every other major site does ACH, but SM does not. This can be a huge expense for the model if she wants to get paid quickly since it's $40 for the transfer and banks can charge yet another fee. I know mine charges an extra $15 for all incoming wire transfers, that winds up being $55 per check just to get paid! Also not every model can reliably receive checks, whether it's for privacy reasons or if they live in an area with a high risk of checks getting stolen in the mail. Payment methods (or lack of their preferred method) can definitely be a factor for a model not using a site.

That's honestly one of the many reasons I went with Boleyn Models. My bank is a small local bank which didn't offer mobile deposit until very recently, and the closest branch to where I live is like a $30 Lyft roundtrip, so getting paid with a check was a hassle. There's no good reason why they don't offer ACH, considering how big they are.

 

[Sansa]

I wouldn't called most of your reasons 'problems' that are hurting SM, most of those are frustrations. The pre-recorded models are annoying to think about but NONE of them have 5 stars so you need to scroll a big down to see them at all and I doubt any member's actually left SM because of them. Also due to SM's pretty generous refunding when technical issues happen I don't think they lose members from those issues either.

Actually the pre-recorded models often have several hundred ratings, mostly five stars. I presume that they are mostly made by sock puppet accounts, because whenever there is a bad rating, it is drowned out by pages and pages of good ratings, usually from the same set of usernames or "anonymous". Even top models rarely have that many good ratings unless they are absolute beasts about being online a lot, have been on the site for several years, and do a lot of gold shows. If a fake account is lower on a page or several pages back, it's because they don't have their microphone on which affects placement. If anyone sorts by categories, there are plenty of fake accounts that appear on page one, often in the first few rows.

Even though SM is generous with refunds over technical issues, it still winds up being a bad experience for everyone. I have had many regulars who have done some very long privates in the past, spending hundred of dollars. They will try to do a private now, only c2c won't work, they get booted from the private, try over and over. Even if they get their money back, they didn't get what they wanted, which was a show. It's a hassle and I mentioned in my previous post that members are leaving for this exact reason. Again, why would a member want to deal with only possibly getting a show instead of eventually going to another site where glitches aren't constantly happening?

I doubt any of the sites that post a 'models online' number base that on any form of accuracy but it's also hard to tell the true number, a great many models have a geoblock of some form or another. Like if you set your VPN to France SM looks like a completely different site because there are a ton of models or studios that only seem to server France and have blocked out the US. There will always be models on any site that you simple won't see due to location.

This is true, that geoblocks could skew the numbers a good bit, but even so, I live in a very little populated area now, I doubt very many have geoblocked it, and there still aren't very many models online. I have noticed that more appear online on average compared from when I used to live in a big city, but the difference is only by about 100 models or so. Anyway I brought that up because a lot of members have mentioned there not being very many models online anymore.

The payment issues I don't know anything about but in regards to what you said about receiving a mailed checks, you know you can often talk to your local bank and have the check send directly to the bank and they'll deposit it for you. You might see if that option is available for you.

My point is that it is still a major hassle for all new models from the USA. Why would a model want to have a check sent to a bank (which I can assure you would be an extra fee) just to get paid? That's ridiculous. We used to have First Choice/Payoneer and while it was not ideal (mainly because debit cards are not as secure as an actual bank) it was still a great and cheap viable option for getting paid quickly without a massive fee. There is absolutely no reason why SM should not have direct deposit available. It's been nearly a year since the First Choice fiasco, and models from other countries have better options for getting paid, but USA models do not. If I hadn't already been on SM by the time that happened I would have likely never joined the site, and I am willing to bet a lot of other potential models from the USA feel the same. They'll join a different site that has better payment options.

This part is personal experience, but I have had a ton of members mention that there are not as many English speaking or American girls as there used to be. These members weren't being rude or anything, just they needed a show with a lot of verbal communication and it's been harder to find that, especially at certain times of the day. Of course that's only anecdotal, but maybe there really haven't been as many newer models from the USA.

What is not anecdotal are all the contests SM runs that give out prizes to models who stay online for x number of hours per week. They literally have to give incentives to existing models just to be online more often, even if it's dead, full of glitches, no traffic, etc.

If I was to think of one thing that both helps and hurt camming I would say it's the interactive vibe tipping. This has drastically changed the visual optics of many camsites. CB's frontpage is overrun with very low effort models that don't do more than vend out giggles for 1 token at a time for hours. While it still appears a good income option for models it's also retrained the members behavior on the social based sites to be less community building and most one shot service based. I think this affecting the conversion to 'regulars' because these types of models leave no sense of attachment. SM might not be social but still is built about models retaining 'regulars' and often seems like vibe models don't see how the tip vibing becomes a crutch for them and regulars slowly move on due to the model giving up all other interaction to just 'vibe'.

I can't really give any insight on tip-activated vibes, I don't use them. I'm a non-nude humiliatrix/femdom type of model, and a huge part of what I do is both giving someone a great one time show or repeated shows if that's their thing. I do not even remotely have the same kind of clientele, many of the people I do shows with return, but they have been returning less and less because of the glitches as stated by them. Yesterday I had several who said they would come back for a show when the site isn't as glitchy. Some of them keep their word, but I am sure many of them move onto other sites. I'm not really sure why you're trying to argue that the glitches aren't having a massive negative impact on the site because they absolutely are.

 

[Sansa]

That's honestly one of the many reasons I went with Boleyn Models. My bank is a small local bank which didn't offer mobile deposit until very recently, and the closest branch to where I live is like a $30 Lyft roundtrip, so getting paid with a check was a hassle. There's no good reason why they don't offer ACH, considering how big they are.

Boleyn Models is a decent alternative, but even so, they take an extra cut after SM's cut. Aside from getting a mailed check, there's no way for USA models to get their earnings directly into their bank account without a large fee.

Agreed though, there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't have ACH.

 

[Emberblaze]

Actually the pre-recorded models often have several hundred ratings, mostly five stars. I presume that they are mostly made by sock puppet accounts, because whenever there is a bad rating, it is drowned out by pages and pages of good ratings, usually from the same set of usernames or "anonymous". Even top models rarely have that many good ratings unless they are absolute beasts about being online a lot, have been on the site for several years, and do a lot of gold shows. If a fake account is lower on a page or several pages back, it's because they don't have their microphone on which affects placement. If anyone sorts by categories, there are plenty of fake accounts that appear on page one, often in the first few rows.

Even though SM is generous with refunds over technical issues, it still winds up being a bad experience for everyone. I have had many regulars who have done some very long privates in the past, spending hundred of dollars. They will try to do a private now, only c2c won't work, they get booted from the private, try over and over. Even if they get their money back, they didn't get what they wanted, which was a show. It's a hassle and I mentioned in my previous post that members are leaving for this exact reason. Again, why would a member want to deal with only possibly getting a show instead of eventually going to another site where glitches aren't constantly happening?




This is true, that geoblocks could skew the numbers a good bit, but even so, I live in a very little populated area now, I doubt very many have geoblocked it, and there still aren't very many models online. I have noticed that more appear online on average compared from when I used to live in a big city, but the difference is only by about 100 models or so. Anyway I brought that up because a lot of members have mentioned there not being very many models online anymore.




My point is that it is still a major hassle for all new models from the USA. Why would a model want to have a check sent to a bank (which I can assure you would be an extra fee) just to get paid? That's ridiculous. We used to have First Choice/Payoneer and while it was not ideal (mainly because debit cards are not as secure as an actual bank) it was still a great and cheap viable option for getting paid quickly without a massive fee. There is absolutely no reason why SM should not have direct deposit available. It's been nearly a year since the First Choice fiasco, and models from other countries have better options for getting paid, but USA models do not. If I hadn't already been on SM by the time that happened I would have likely never joined the site, and I am willing to bet a lot of other potential models from the USA feel the same. They'll join a different site that has better payment options.

This part is personal experience, but I have had a ton of members mention that there are not as many English speaking or American girls as there used to be. These members weren't being rude or anything, just they needed a show with a lot of verbal communication and it's been harder to find that, especially at certain times of the day. Of course that's only anecdotal, but maybe there really haven't been as many newer models from the USA.

What is not anecdotal are all the contests SM runs that give out prizes to models who stay online for x number of hours per week. They literally have to give incentives to existing models just to be online more often, even if it's dead, full of glitches, no traffic, etc.




I can't really give any insight on tip-activated vibes, I don't use them. I'm a non-nude humiliatrix/femdom type of model, and a huge part of what I do is both giving someone a great one time show or repeated shows if that's their thing. I do not even remotely have the same kind of clientele, many of the people I do shows with return, but they have been returning less and less because of the glitches as stated by them. Yesterday I had several who said they would come back for a show when the site isn't as glitchy. Some of them keep their word, but I am sure many of them move onto other sites. I'm not really sure why you're trying to argue that the glitches aren't having a massive negative impact on the site because they absolutely are.

If you aren't logged in to a member account you won't see anyone with geoblocks. Even if they aren't blocking your area. It's why I keep mine off. I get a lot of traffic from guys surfing the site not logged in and then logging in when they settle on a model.

 

[AudriTwo]

What is not anecdotal are all the contests SM runs that give out prizes to models who stay online for x number of hours per week. They literally have to give incentives to existing models just to be online more often, even if it's dead, full of glitches, no traffic, etc.

I know for a fact they do those incentive ones to balance out the amount earned contests so everyone has a chance to win contest money. They listened to complaints that it was harder for lower earning models to have a chance or would have to work more to make up with more models online then usual.

 

[Sansa]

I know for a fact they do those incentive ones to balance out the amount earned contests so everyone has a chance to win contest money. They listened to complaints that it was harder for lower earning models to have a chance or would have to work more to make up with more models online then usual.

If they really wanted to listen to complaints, they would fix the glitches.

They seem to run contests when the site is either the most glitchy, or perhaps the other way around, that the site glitches more as the number of models increases. I wish they would put the contests on halt and use the near $20K per contest prize money towards fixing the site before they continue with them.

As I mentioned before, the type of shows are do are pretty niche, I don't actively participate in contests, and more models online during a contest does not affect the type of paying traffic I get very much. If I am having trouble making anything, it's nearly always because of the glitches. Sometimes I will get lucky and have a regular who just hangs out in public chat and tips a lot over and over and doesn't care about the glitches, but good luck managing to get a show to last more than a few minutes because users keep getting booted from the show, or cam2cam isn't working. Or better yet, the glitch where it shows some models as being offline when they're actually online. That kind of stuff is unacceptable.

I'm not trying to knock SM as a whole, I do genuinely like a lot of things about this site, but they have some major issues right now and I know for a fact that I am not the only model who is sick of this stuff. I used to not mind the 65% cut they'd take because the site was great and had excellent traffic (I still think traffic is great), but what good is traffic if the site doesn't work a good chunk of the time anymore?

 

[AudriTwo]

If they really wanted to listen to complaints, they would fix the glitches.

I know they are trying to fix things. We models need to keep constantly reporting when things go wrong. But they do listen to complaints, and they solved this complaint, so that is a positive.

I also don't work as much as I used to, but I don't normally experience the same glitches, and I'm fairly busy when I stream. I do experience some, but I can usually work around it. Like use smb over obs and take the placement hit. I also try to collect much data on my end with glitches to report to support. I know it's a pain in the ass, but it helps.

 

[SaffronBurke]

They seem to run contests when the site is either the most glitchy, or perhaps the other way around, that the site glitches more as the number of models increases. I wish they would put the contests on halt and use the near $20K per contest prize money towards fixing the site before they continue with them.

I've heard more than once that they intentionally run contests when they're updating things to get as many models online as possible for a sort of "stress test".

 

[Sansa]

I know they are trying to fix things. We models need to keep constantly reporting when things go wrong. But they do listen to complaints, and they solved this complaint, so that is a positive.

I also don't work as much as I used to, but I don't normally experience the same glitches, and I'm fairly busy when I stream. I do experience some, but I can usually work around it. Like use smb over obs and take the placement hit. I also try to collect much data on my end with glitches to report to support. I know it's a pain in the ass, but it helps.

I have made reports and also always encourage members to send reports to support during glitches, but two years later, it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

I dunno, they really need to make a better effort with fixing things because some of these glitches have been happening intermittently for over two years and have only gotten worse and more frequent in the meantime. I do use SMB instead of OBS. In the past month, I have had very very few shows that have exceeded 3-4 minutes when I used to get a bunch per day that were longer. It's not that the traffic isn't there, but they are getting kicked from private, c2c doesn't work, etc. so they leave. The customers are obviously unhappy. I'm kind of repeating myself at this point, but really, if SM is going to take a 65% cut, the least they could do is make sure the site is functioning. If I could find another private based site that is non-nude and fetish friendly, I'd just go elsewhere. :/

 

[Unique_kissX]

Obviously camming has gotten incredibly more popular and well known over the last decade, which has increased the amount of models on any site at any given time. It creates a much bigger pool of fishies for potential customers and members to choose from, and causes a lot of rooms to be quieter than she may be used to.

Some people love being all negative and call cam sites “dying” and use inaccurate traffic stats to prove some sort of point, but as I said, camming is more popular than ever and it’s thriving beyond these peoples’ imaginations.

My experience as a free chat model on MFC has changed drastically since I began in 2009. Back then there were maybe 500-600 models on at a time, and if there were 800+ it was a rare day! So that meant I had a higher chance of being in the top few models online, and got a lot more of the total viewer base on the site when I was on. Having a room full of 3000 viewers wasn’t that crazy then. I could make it to the top 10 or 20 on Miss MFC just working a regular schedule and not having to plan months in advance like many models do now. (Though there are still some models that it seems to come naturally to and they just do it monthly, lol). The amount of tokens it takes to make those ranks has quadrupled at least.

Over time, the amount of hours and days a week that I get on cam have dwindled mainly due to burnout and the aches and pains of aging. This means I don’t make the same amount of tokens per month as I used to. HOWEVER, my hourly rate has not gone down much if at all on most days. I find myself spending more offline time working on maintaining my content on Share and other social media and clip sites (those weren’t a thing back when I started, the focus was on LIVE camming much more than selling videos).

It has become a requirement to sell videos and Snapchat subscriptions during live cam sessions because that is what many members have become used to over the years. I think the average porn viewer expects more for less these days, as free porn is so easy to come by that when they do pay for it they want the moon and the stars.

Those are just some of the changes that I can think of right now.

oh my gosh i completely agree with this , ive just come back after 6 years and its changed alot i think!, xx

 

[LittleRedBunny Academy]

I only been on SM for 1.5 years, so cannot compare so much to what it might used to be. All I can do is compare to what I’m used to on the main platform where I been mostly in the last 10 years. Regarding changes in the industry in general, I believe there is a few factors:

- Freemium sites are not what they used to be, so girls are willing to do so much more in open chat for tips and ranking than back in the days, and I’m sure this has an effect on all other sites to a certain degree. Back then, girls were mostly original with games, concepts etc when it came to freemium sites. That said, there is also a much bigger amount of freemium sites and freemium models, which again, for sure impacted the industry in general with all said above taken in consideration.


- Interactive toys. Here again, it was not there before, and while premium sites try to keep this new element into privates and paying group chats, models of freemium sites often spend their whole time online gathering tips with this toy inside them. So much less room for originality, creativity, concepts, personality and actually interactions. While we all know sexuality attracts people, most models that do well are often either the ones that do very extreme, or the ones that connects a lot through their personality while also being open-minded for sex play etc. (I generalize here, this doesn’t apply to ALL models)


- There are, obviously, much more new models and rotation of models in the last 4-5 years. So of course, it is more work and competition among models. That is just life and all we can do is our best to adapt.

Regarding SM more specifically, there are few things that makes me have problems with and a reason why it always only remained a secondary site to me:

- I do not understand that all members can join private chat for 30 seconds free and models don’t get paid for every second that the members are in private (what they told me is that this system always works for them, so no need to change it)


- A reason I suspect is how unstable the connection seems to be on the site? I don’t know if that is just me, but lots of the people clicking pvt never say a word, never talk, and then there is random reasons as why they left the chat (yes often connection issues) but often it just says the member left, yet he comes back in the public chat wondering what happened, and I have a feeling that a lot are in private without knowing they are? I know, strange, but I seen many times where it appears quite obvious. The camera and audio more than often don’t work. I feel a long delay, its lagging a lot, and really hard to create a real time communication with the members, both in public chat and even more in private, with the cam and audio rarely functioning properly.


- Last point on this would be the limits members have NEVER I can make what I do elsewhere, with the limit members have. All the new members that wanted longer with me to talk, play longer or whatever could not due to new members limit. My specialty always been to make my ability to connect with members, and well, its pretty impossible to create that when they cannot stay longer. So the growth is limited and counter productive, for the way I interact and grew relationships with my members anyway.


- Last point, again, I’m not sure if that’s just me, but I wonder how the site advertise us at time. I get REALLY often people under the impression I’m an escort or dating site and I would just go to their house or them come to mine to have real sex? That never happened to me except here (beside someone wishing they could etc, but that is totally different)



So these are just my quick personal observations, I could be wrong on many things, please feel free to correct me if that’s the case, or to share your thoughts and comments.

 

[Dan Epstein]

I have a disclosure to make, I can't be objective about Streamate, because too many friends of mine work there (staff, not models). I believe that the missing component of many big websites at the moment, is sharing data analysis in a friendly way, that a model can make sound decisions from. For example, age ranges of paying members in a Premium website in comparison to ones in a Freemium. If the visitor I wish to convert to a member has the customer avatar of a man in his 40's like myself, or a border-line millennial, I'd like to know how to pitch them.
There's a big shift coming in, because people who were born in the 90's go into their 30's soon. They are different consumers, with more time on a mobile than a desktop, and with many more distractions to deal with. We have a stage in which both consumers and models would like to make most of their time online in a specific page or app, because they have to distribute between more online activities than just browsing or consuming. Think about it, I landed my first jobs by walking into a place and introducing myself, while now we use e-mails. You constantly compete with other data, whether as an individual, a company, a model or a member.

I was excluded by most adult websites as an inexperienced ex-payment rep, what they don't know however, is that I'm studying data analysis, pay per click, Google Analytics and hotjar for vanilla purposes ,and that I always study our markets. The name of the game is not just traffic, it's also conversion, and using big data to amplify it, for members and models.

 

[THE MOLLIE MARIE]

I believe that the missing component of many big websites at the moment, is sharing data analysis in a friendly way, that a model can make sound decisions from.

Yes! I wish more sites would provide us with that information. Everyone would make more money if performers were more informed about who is visiting them, I imagine.

I really enjoy the end of the year report that Pornhub releases, very interesting to see the changing trends in what is searched for and by whom. If cam sites would do something similar, it would be amazing.

 

[Dan Epstein]

Yes! I wish more sites would provide us with that information. Everyone would make more money if performers were more informed about who is visiting them, I imagine.

I really enjoy the end of the year report that Pornhub releases, very interesting to see the changing trends in what is searched for and by whom. If cam sites would do something similar, it would be amazing.

Exactly! Models are the most important data converters to begin with, so sharing it with them should increase sales, and improve the experience for members too.

 

[Sansa]

I only been on SM for 1.5 years, so cannot compare so much to what it might used to be. All I can do is compare to what I’m used to on the main platform where I been mostly in the last 10 years. Regarding changes in the industry in general, I believe there is a few factors:

- Freemium sites are not what they used to be, so girls are willing to do so much more in open chat for tips and ranking than back in the days, and I’m sure this has an effect on all other sites to a certain degree. Back then, girls were mostly original with games, concepts etc when it came to freemium sites. That said, there is also a much bigger amount of freemium sites and freemium models, which again, for sure impacted the industry in general with all said above taken in consideration.


- Interactive toys. Here again, it was not there before, and while premium sites try to keep this new element into privates and paying group chats, models of freemium sites often spend their whole time online gathering tips with this toy inside them. So much less room for originality, creativity, concepts, personality and actually interactions. While we all know sexuality attracts people, most models that do well are often either the ones that do very extreme, or the ones that connects a lot through their personality while also being open-minded for sex play etc. (I generalize here, this doesn’t apply to ALL models)


- There are, obviously, much more new models and rotation of models in the last 4-5 years. So of course, it is more work and competition among models. That is just life and all we can do is our best to adapt.

Regarding SM more specifically, there are few things that makes me have problems with and a reason why it always only remained a secondary site to me:

- I do not understand that all members can join private chat for 30 seconds free and models don’t get paid for every second that the members are in private (what they told me is that this system always works for them, so no need to change it)


- A reason I suspect is how unstable the connection seems to be on the site? I don’t know if that is just me, but lots of the people clicking pvt never say a word, never talk, and then there is random reasons as why they left the chat (yes often connection issues) but often it just says the member left, yet he comes back in the public chat wondering what happened, and I have a feeling that a lot are in private without knowing they are? I know, strange, but I seen many times where it appears quite obvious. The camera and audio more than often don’t work. I feel a long delay, its lagging a lot, and really hard to create a real time communication with the members, both in public chat and even more in private, with the cam and audio rarely functioning properly.


- Last point on this would be the limits members have NEVER I can make what I do elsewhere, with the limit members have. All the new members that wanted longer with me to talk, play longer or whatever could not due to new members limit. My specialty always been to make my ability to connect with members, and well, its pretty impossible to create that when they cannot stay longer. So the growth is limited and counter productive, for the way I interact and grew relationships with my members anyway.


- Last point, again, I’m not sure if that’s just me, but I wonder how the site advertise us at time. I get REALLY often people under the impression I’m an escort or dating site and I would just go to their house or them come to mine to have real sex? That never happened to me except here (beside someone wishing they could etc, but that is totally different)



So these are just my quick personal observations, I could be wrong on many things, please feel free to correct me if that’s the case, or to share your thoughts and comments.

You bring up so many good points about SM as well as other camsites.

1. Interactive Toys. I don't personally use them, but on SM they work. It's a private oriented site that doesn't tend to generate as many tips, and I think interactive toys help with this quite a lot. On free/token sites, they have definitely hindered a lot of the creativity that used to be around. The lush is one of the biggest complains I see around from guys. On the flip side, they're popular for a reason.

2. SM's free 30 seconds is terrible. I have heard that SM has implemented some sort of limit on the number of times that someone can do this per day before they can't access the site for the rest of the day, but honestly that free 30 second thing shouldn't be around at all. Seasoned models know better and won't start a show until after the first 30 seconds is up, and it also opens a whole lot of abuse of the system targeting newer models. It's terrible for everyone who has every intention of paying and only benefits members looking for something for free.

3. I have never heard about a member going private without realizing that they'd intentionally tried to enter a private, but there has been a huge glitch for quite some time where members get booted from private after a very short amount of time. Many will try to go private over and over, some will even tip larger amounts so I don't think they're lying about getting booted from private. Some end up spending over $50 (if not uch more) on attempts at trying to go private, and they never even get a show. It's terrible and I don't know why SM won't make fixing this a priority.

4. I completely agree about the limits...to an extent. The amount of time someone can lurk in free chat is far too short, and this is coming from someone who does a lot of findom if that says anything. I want new members to be able to get a good vibe for my room, but if they hit a 20 min patch where it's slow and nothing interesting is going on, that's not enough time for them to see what I'm about. The spending limit is fair for new accounts, and I get that SM needs to be able to protect themselves as best as possible from charge backs, but considering how much more expensive SM is for the member than other sites, the spending limit has a huge impact on what a new member can experience from a model.

5. Members who come to SM thinking that it's a dating or escorting site is very much a new thing, at least in the past 4-5 months or so. I used to very very rarely get someone who was expecting to meet-up (not counting the wishful thinking type), but there were some white labels of SM that were advertised on sites that focus on casual encounters and hook-ups and now this kind of traffic is constant. So many new members get really angry about the fact that they're expected to spend money for a virtual show, many expect that they should be able to meet-up for free.

 

[SaffronBurke]

5. Members who come to SM thinking that it's a dating or escorting site is very much a new thing, at least in the past 4-5 months

I've been experiencing this every few months since I started SM in 2014. It definitely seems to be more common as years go by.

 

[Deleted member 37064]

I've been experiencing this every few months since I started SM in 2014. It definitely seems to be more common as years go by.

I think it's because so much stuff happens online, and so many people believe they can meet anyone on any site and it'll be a hookup.