What is a webcam model?
A webcam model is also known as a cam girl, who performs on the internet through webcam. The work of webcam model involves sexual conducts. Thus, the age has to be over 18. There are many sites recruiting webcam models. You may think it is a scam of some sort as it often says high pay job. But a webcam model is a female entertainer who interacts and entertains customers through a webcam. That is the short answer to what is a webcam model or what is a cam model. Fundamentals of webcam modeling, what a webcam model should wear, toys of webcam models should have, lighting and much more are explained in this page.
Why you can get money?
The viewers pay money to talk and see you. Depending on the site, you can get 50% to 10% of the amount that viewers paid. The way viewers pay money depends on the sites.
One site may focus on tipping while other focuses on private chat. The differences on each revenue stream are explained at “How to be a cam girl“.
How do you get money?
Providing entertainment is the main work of camgirls. Although there are many ways to entertain viewers, three types of revenue streams are common.
- Pay per minutes chat
This is common in Asian webcam sites that tipping culture does not exist. Depending on sites, the charge is 30 seconds or 1 minutes. Pay per minutes chat is divided into 2 type. 1 is private 1 to 1 chat, the other is group chat. Communication method for 1 to 1 private chat can be voice and video chat. Group chat is usually only typing.
- Tipping
Free sites such as Myfreecam and Chaturbate use this tipping base system.
Cam girls set the goal on tipping amount. Once it reaches, they do certain things that entertains viewers. Some models use sounds based vibrator that vibrate with the sounds. When webcam model receives tip, it makes sounds that vibrates the vibrator. This method allows closer interaction with viewers. This is the most popular way of making money as a cam girl in the culture that tipping is in common.
- Selling videos and picture
Selling videos and pictures can be autopilot making money online. Manyvids is one of the widely known platform specialized on selling videos and picture online. Some live webcam sites have a function to sell video and picture as default. It is different from selling but famous porn platform such as xvideo and pornhub have a partner program that allows users to upload videos. Depending on views on the video, the uploader receives reward. If you already have good number of followers at twitter, this route may make instant money without much effort.
What does webcam models do?
Each model has different style of entertaining viewers. But, what cam girls do is very similar to the work of strippers but online. Talking and doing sexy show is the main work of cam girls. Most of models are involved certain degree of sexual conducts. How far they go depends on models’ boundary. There are some camgirls who do not do sexual conducts at all. But they are very rare in the English speaking regions while non-nude cam girls are common in Asian cam sites. In fact there is a category for non-nude at popular Japanese cam sites.
Webcam model is independent business owner. Thus, it is completely up to you how much you work. Some models do only private chat while others do group chat. Some of the models do not even show their face. The work requires good communication skills and good appearance. On top of that, top models have their unique styles such as cosplay show, games and so on.
What is a webcam model doing offline
Since a cam girl is an own business owner, she needs to do sales and marketing work too.
Just broadcasting at the camming site does not make them successful webcam models.
They work hard to maintain and develop regular customers since they are the one who secures their revenue.
- Sending letters
Sending personalized email letter is a very effective way to keep your customers coming back. In order to personalized the letter, successful models make memos on their name, what they like, what their hobby is and any personal information of each customers who spend time with them.
- Giving out special gifts
Giving out an gift grabs viewers heart by providing special feeling. Gifts can be anything. It does not have to be adult related items. The gift card itself works. The intention of the gift is to make the viewers think they are special.
- Making own website
Models who have many regular customers have their own website. They sell video, pictures and some goods on their site. It is much more profitable than selling those at other site as there is no one to charge fees on your sell. this is great way to earn some cash offline. The website can also serve as your marketing tool. Having your own website will increase your credibility as a camgirl.
- Social net work
Using SNS to communicate and connects with viewers are good way to maintain fans. Cam girls have a separate account from their personal SNS account. That account is used to communicate and feed next online time. From viewers stand point, it is easier to support cam girls if they know when they go online next.
- Preparing tax
Sine you are independent business owner, you need to prepare tax for yourself. You need to track your own expenses and keep the receipt in case IRS audits you. You can hire tax expert to prepare for the tax. But you have to keep all the record. We explain what you can deduct and what you can not at webcam modeling tips: how to prepare tax.
- Research what is other webcam model doing
Camgirls are always competing with other camgirls. The entrance barrier is so low that everyone can be a webcam model. In order to stay in the market, you need to check what is the industry trends and what others are doing. If you are on top of the industry trend, you can get advantage over other models. For example, a model who started to use ombit first was making tons of money as that changed tipping game by adding more interaction aspect to the camming show. Nowadays, almost all models have it and it is not generating many tips as it used to be. The new hot trend to the camming industry may be Virtual reality show. Right now, only Camsoda offers VR camming show. What VR show is that viewers wear a VR device that allows viewers to see models from different angles. Since it is just starting out, models who are interested may get first mover advantage.
Furthermore, in order to be a successful model, you need to have business knowledge. You can learn it at Webcam modeling tips: Internet modeling marketing class 101 – 5W2H
Who are the customers
There are many different type of people at the site coming to chat room. Some are very rude, some are very perverted and some are simply horny. 80% of viewers are coming to the site to satisfy their sexual desire. Most of them ask you to do sexual things. About 20% are someone who just wants to talk as they are lonely. The webcam jobs can be stressful as camgirls have to deal with crazy people.
- Customers can be international
Since webcam model is the online job, you can work at a foreign site serving international customers. There are many reasons that you want to work for a foreign site but main reason is money. If your country has lower GDP than other country, you may want to seek the option to work internationally rather than working for a site from your own country.
Who are the webcam models?
They can be student, house wife, nurse, teachers and so on. They girls are ordinary girls. They usually have other full time job. The work of cam girl is part time. The usual work style is when they need extra money they work. Because nature of the work involves sexual conducts, they do not tell about the work of cam girls to anyone. The privacy is their top priority. Because it is not a job that you can work to build a career, usually cam girls quit working in 1 or 2 years after making enough money and go back to their life.
The countries where most of cam girls are from includes Ukraine, Romania, Russia and Philippine. The Cam girl jobs seem to be a popular choice in these countries. The age of cam girls vary as well. But the number of model whose age is between 18 to 30 is the highest. There are mature models but the number is small.
The sexuality of cam girl is not necessarily female. Although number is much smaller than female models, there are gay and transgender models as well. Because there are demands, top gay and transgender models make much more money than average female models.
Depending on cam sites, you see variety of races. In English Speaking market, white webcam models is the majority while Asian, Hispanic, Black are minor.
Type of cam girls varies greatly from girl next door type to femdom. Because there are so many fetishes, there are variety of camgirls who satisfies needs. In recent years, virtual cam girls or hentai camgirls are on the rise. It is the same concept as “Vtuber” but do adult action. They are pretty popular for the people who like Hentai. Well know hentai camgirl is “mel”. Her first appearance was at Chaturbate in 2020. She got so popular that she made $500 within 10 minutes in first day.
Where does a webcam model work?
One of the best benefits working as a camgirl is that you can work from home. Since you are independent business owner, you can decide how long you work and when you work too. If you are not confident doing all the work and need assistance, you can choose to work with a studio or an agency. Working with a studio, you have all the access to necessary equipment and help you need. Regarding an online agency, you have to be careful on which site can actually help models. Some online agency signs you up to several sites and that’s all they do and take big fees out of your earnings. internetmodeling.com is known for this. Both studio and agency take certain fees from your earning. So you need to make sure how much you can get if you are interested in working with them.
What does a work schedule look like?
When and how long you work is up to you. But it usually depends on which site you work for. You want to work at the time that traffic is high so that you get many viewers as much as possible. The good time is night time. However, night time for you is not necessarily night time for viewers.
Furthermore, it is good idea to set the schedule and follow it. By doing so, viewers know when you work and can find your room.
Do I need to show my face?
You do not necessarily need to show your face to work as a webcam model. There are many models who do not show their face and earn decent money. Especially if you are marketing as fetish model, you do not need to show your face. However, you can not expect to earn as much as what other models make if you limit yourself not showing your face. A model who does not show her face usually earns 70 to 90 % less than what other models make unless you are a fetish model.
There is little trick to increase earning if you choose not to show your face.
Take really nice photos of you including your face. Use photoshop to modify it to make it nicer. Use that photo as a profile picture. While you do not need to show your face during your show, viewers assume how your face looks like from the profile picture.
If you use this method, you have to make sure you do not show your face even one moment as what viewers are thinking how you look like and how you actually look like are probably different due to magic of Photoshop.
How much does a camgirl make?
It greatly depends on how you look like, your personality and site you work for.
If you work as a cam girl, you will have good days and slow days. In good day, you may make $1000 in 2 hours. In bad days, you make $10 in one day.
We gathered data from cam girls who worked with us in the past. Check how much do cam girls make? for more details. here is rough estimate of how much cam girls are actually making.
- 5% of the model
$80 to $300 per hour
- 10% of the model
$50 to $80 per hour
- 20% of the model
$25 to $50 per hour
- 35% of the model
$10 to $25 per hour
- 30% of the model
0 to $15 per hour
You may have thought being cam girl makes a lots of money. It is true that webcam model is one of the most profitable job. But not everyone can earn a lot. About 50% of camgirls make less than $25 per hour. Also the popularity of successful cam girl does not last long. Viewers are very easy to get bored. On top of that, the viewers have so many choices as new models sign up everyday. It is difficult on both becoming a top model and staying as a top model. In order to stay as a top model, you have to keep developing regular customers and fan base. This page explains on how to turn your customer into regular customers.
There are many things that new model can do to improve their earnings. Even if you are hot, you can not make money if you do not follow certain rules. You can learn more about at webcam model tips: 10 things to do to prevent slow room
What makes an successful camgirl?
There are couples of common traits that successful webcam models have.
- Good looking
If you want to be a top model, you have to be attractive. You have to have beautiful or cute face as well as good looking body. You may think you are not attractive enough. But the attractive face and body are greatly different between what woman think and what man thinks. Also, the standard of attractiveness from your prospective and people from other countries are greatly different too. Since webcam model job is an online job, you can get benefits of dealing with international viewers. So even if you think you are not attractive, you are not necessarily unattractive from different prospective and culture.
- Personality
Camming job is a service job who entertains customers, your personality plays significant role. Viewers are there in the chat room to have fun. Having good personality such as gracious, caring, vivid and happy would attract viewers. Also you have to be able to control your emotion as you would face rude viewers who intentionally try to hurt you if you work as a camgirl.
- Dedication
Webcam jobs require the same level of dedication as other jobs. If you are looking for $50 or so, it is easy to do so in couple of hours. But if you are thinking to make tons of money, you have to devote your time and have a strategy. You as an independent business owner, you have many things to do by yourself to market yourself.
Also there is no one who tells you to work. It is very easy to be lazy in such environment
- Willingness to learn
There are many hot/ beautiful models with empty head. Those models do not usually survive long because what they have is only good looking face and body which many of camgirls have in the market. You have to differentiate yourself from others. You need to learn from your own experience on what you can improve. The best way to differentiate yourself from others is to have broad knowledge on many subjects as the customers are coming from different backgrounds. In another word, educate yourself to be an attractive person with high intelligence. If you have background knowledge on what customers are interested, the conversation flows and customers get satisfied.
- Webcam site they work at
Where cam girl works at does impact her earning. There are variety of cam sites that have different feature and focuses. The best paying cam sites page explains which cam site is the best for you as a cam girl. Also we have a page for the best webcam sites for cam site beginner which explains the best webcam sites from viewers angle. It is difficult to find out which site is the best for you without try and error as what you think is important is not necessarily important to other.
What is a webcam model: Risk of being a camgirl
You know what is a webcam model now but you need to understand the risk of being a camgirl as well. It is always true that big money comes with high risk. Webcam modeling job is not an exception. There are several risks that you have to know before becoming a camgirl.
Identity risk
Most of camgirl do not want their friends or family to know that you work as a camgirl. The question is” can you hide I work as a webcam model?”. The answer is yes and no.
You can try to hide the fact from people around you but it is never 100%. Here is couples of things you can do to hide your identity.
Block the region you live in
Depending on live camming sites, you can block viewers from wherever the region is. If you block the country and region where you live, the risk that someone you know find out about you work as a webcam model is significantly reduced.
However, that function has a pit fall. It does not perfectly block people from the area you set for. The blocking function identifies people based on IP address. The IP address is like your home address in the internet world. This address can be modified if you are tech savvy. If you use proxy which is like a PO box in the internet world, your IP address becomes the location at where that proxy is located. Proxy is often used to protect identity as IP address can be used to identify where you live. Even if you block your hometown or surrounding area, as long as your family or friends are using proxy, it really does not matter.
Furthermore, it is possible people who you do not want them to know go travel to the area where you are not blocking.
Work at the site where nobody from your country visits.
There are many sites that specifically targets their own country. If you do google search, you may be able to find some sites in other country. The good country however is Japan. Whether you can earn a lot or not depends on the size of market.
China is probably the biggest market in the world simply because there are so many people and the proportion of man and woman is skewed due to “one child” government policy.
But live adult webcam site is illegal. Thus, there is a risk that the site you work may be shutdown next day.
Korea seems to be the second biggest market as they seem to spend a lot on porn.
But it is illegal to operate a live adult webcam site in Korea. There is no Korean adult live webcam site exists as of today.
Japan is the third largest country in the world in terms of spending on porn.
Cam sites are perfectly legal. There are many sites in Japan. If you are familiar with Japanese culture, sign up from here.
Information stays in the internet forever
Being a cam girl, you would face a recording problem eventually. You may not like it when viewers record your shows and upload them to the internet. you can try hard to get those images taken down. You may be successful to take it down at that time. But the fact is it is already too late. All it needs is one person who copied and saved that video before it is taken down. The video would be uploaded again at other site. There is nothing you can do about it to completely prevent that to happen.
Black mail
If you have personal SNS account open public, make the account private if you start working as a camgirl. There are people who try to black mail you. They use a face detection program to identify your account from the picture you upload to cam sites. Only way to avoid this risk is to close your account or make it private so that no body can see your personal photos.
How to be a cam girl?
Becoming a webcam model is not complicated at all. There will be no interview or resume is needed. All you need is ID, webcam, computer, and high speed internet. That is all you need to start working as a camgirl. Each steps and tips that you want to know is explained at how to be a webcam model . This page addresses everything you need to know before start working as a camgirl.
Should I become a camgirl?
Now you understand what is a webcam model is. Do you like it? May be it is easier to see how it is by broadcasting yourself. Try to see how you do at one of the biggest and well know cam sites in the world, Chaturbate from here. This is the good site to check how it is and see how you do because the registration is fairly simple and quick.
You may be successful or may not. Trying does not hurt you. You would be able to make some money in 1 hour. If you do not have HD cam and high speed internet, you will face tough time making money as people do not like bad quality broadcast. If you have these ready, you should definitely try to make some money. People will like you and pay attention to every movement you do. If you like to get attention, this is the job you want.
If you think you are cute but did not make money, do not give up there. There must be something wrong with your set up. Usually the reason that new models fail is either stream quality issue or attitude issue. The former can be lightening is too dark, webcam quality is crappy, bad camera position or internet speed is not high enough. The latter can be looked bored, do not look ready to welcome viewers(doing other things like using phone and internet surfing) or not smiling. You have to get rid of your thinking that you can get money just because you have nice body and pretty face. Others are equivalently cute as you are. Thus, you have to focus on your service to make viewers happy.
I want to be a top model
You need to work really hard. The top models work more than 12 hours a day with no vacations. The work you do is not only in front of Camera but you need to do marketing beyond the scene. Also they have a strategy to be a top model. Here is the page to identify what strategy you can use. Webcam model tips: strategy class 102 – Competitive advantage
If your are joining a camming site to get $50 or so a day, it is not difficult to do so. You can achieve it in possibly one day with not many hours. But if you hope to make hundreds of dollars in a day, you will need to work hard. You need to have basic knowledge about the business. Webcam model is a business owner who manage and sells themselves. There are so many models who quits working as webcam model because they can not earn money as they expected. The success depends on your appearance, willingness to work hard, and site you work for. If you read blog of the some camgirls, you would notice that nobody says that they made very good money without putting hard work. It is the fact that models who work hard often enjoy easy time that their show seem to flow easily and they don’t have to hustle. But that is sustained by periods of hard work and difficulty that they overcome. It is not the hardest job in the world, but you still have to work hard at it.
If you do not want to make an effort, you may still earn money. However, you would not be able to earn a lots.
Conclusion
Webcam modeling is a job that is high earning work from home job. But there are also risks involved to it. It is easy to make money if your appearance is good. But in order to make tons of money, you need to understand why people pay money and make them feel they want to spend money on you. We have plenty of resources for you to learn to be a top models. If you are just thinking to be a cam girl, learn more about it at our site so that you do not make mistake.
