January 31, 2013

What Tumblr's Porn Warning Means for Webcam Models

A report from XBiz . . .



Microblogging site Tumblr has mounted what appears to be a preemptive move to keep its iOS app from being banned for allowing porn.



The Twitter Vine situation is interesting. It takes us back to our recent discussion on  "Selling in a Free Adult Economy" and, at the same time, also it shows the significant role adult entertainment plays in the development of apps and in technological advances in general. Notice they didn't take the position of banning porn on their platform, instead opting to age-restrict  their users. Even though I thought 17 was still considered a minor.

It's a great move for cam models. Especially since Tumblr is used by lots of cam girls to promote their cam shows and share pictures. Hopefully the restricted app will be efficient at keeping younger minors from viewing adult material and provide a better quality, marketplace for webcam models to promote their services.


January 29, 2013

Dealing with the Cam Girl Competition


       Lately, I've been getting more and more e-mails about how catty and rude models are to other cam girls who ask for help and thanking me for being willing to share my knowledge and experience with cam models. On that note, I wanted to say a word about competition in the webcam modeling industry.

Cam Girl Competition
Is it real or simply a figment of your imagination?

In the book, Karmic Management, the author offers the following commentary on the subject of competition,

"The line between me and you is artificial ...Give up me versus you...Give up us versus them, create success for everyone. When you drop the boundaries and work for everyone's success...then, for the first time in your life, you are in harmony with the laws that govern the Universe. Your co-workers, your customers, your suppliers, and the world are no longer your competition, they are your business partners. You are them and they are you. When you help them win, you win too."

Marinate on that and keep it in mind the next time you find yourself caught up in gossip about another model behind her back (or on Twitter). Stop to consider the karmic repercussions before you start taking one of your regular customers for granted and remember this concept whenever you get the idea that you are too good, too busy, too whatever, to support other cam girls along their journey. The line between you and them is non-existent. If you help enough people get what they want, you get what you want automatically.

I mean, let's be honest, isn't this the way we've always wished things would worked?


January 23, 2013

The Answer to All Your Cam Girl Problems



How do I keep my chat room entertained?

What is ManyCam and how do I use it?

Where can I sell clips and pictures?
How much should I sell them for?

Which cam site is the best?

Is it better to use a laptop or a desktop?

How do I get more regular customers?

What do I have to do to get longer private chats?

How do I become an independent cam model?

If I quit camming, is there a way to get rid of all my videos?

Do I need a payment processor? Which one should I use?

Sound familiar? 

Come get the solutions to these and other cam girl problems during our live Cam Girl
Q & A class tomorrow, Thursday, January 24th, 2013 at 9:30pm EST in the Cam Girl Classroom

For one full hour, I'll be at your disposable to answer all your webcam modeling and business questions. There's no cost and no registered required. It's sure to be a fun and informative experience!

See you in class!

P.S. - Yes, I will be doing a "How to Split Cam Using ManyCam" tutorial! Go to Ustream and get a screen name so you can ask questions during the class.

***Edited to Add*** You can now watch the recording of this class in the Cam Girl Classroom. Please rate and share it. Thank you!



January 21, 2013

Selling in a Free Adult Economy

Today's post is brought to you by Brad Gosse and the XBiz 360 conference which took place earlier this month in L.A. In this video, Brad shares some interesting perspectives and strategies on how to keep getting paid in this "freemium" adult climate.

Related: Cam Girl Problems: Someone Stole My Content

What I enjoyed most about Brad's talk is his very informal, no sh*t, no sugarcoat way of speaking. During his seminar, he paints a extremely....colorful...picture that shows us what motivates a user to go to a free site like PornHub versus buying content directly from the performer's site. We, as cam models, tend to figure, that most users just want free stuff and won't pay. In this video, you'll learn why that may not be the case and why users are bypassing your pay site and heading to the free tube site instead.

Take some time to watch Brad's talk in it's entirety. It's 49 minutes and he definitely keeps it interesting. When you finish watching, reflect on what you have learned and how you can use what Brad has shared to improve your customer's experience. People will pay, it's up to you to give them a reason to do so and in this video, Brad will tell you a little bit on how to do that. Enjoy!

Related: Chronic Marketer: Confessions Of A Half-Baked (But Highly Paid) Internet Marketer (Volume 1) by Brad Gosse


January 15, 2013

Cam Girl Tip: Time Management


We are creatures of habit and many of us, myself included, have created a habit of distraction and being wasteful with our time. Time is your most valuable and precious resource. This is worth stating again...

Time is your most valuable and most precious resource.


You can always earn more money....

You can always get more energy....

Once a minute has passed, you do not get it back...and furthermore, all of us are given exactly the same amount of time to work with each day. Last month, I posted a blog to help you determine exactly how much your time is worth, based on how much you want to earn annually. Today, I'd like to share with you some tips for effectively managing your time and getting more done.

Related: Is Webcam Modeling Worth Your Time?

1. Determine your peak performance hours

I read in an article on YoungEntrepreneur.com, that,"we are truly focused for an average of only six hours per week." With that knowledge, it's vital that you be aware of the times when you are most energized, inspired, focused, and ready to work. For me, I'm a night owl and I like to work during the wee hours while everyone is sleep. However, I'm also at my best in the late morning into early afternoon. I'm most sluggish in the mid afternoon around 3pm, so that's when I usually schedule my exercise for a mid-afternoon energy boost.

2. Set targets and outsource

If you don't know where you're going, you'll be more likely to waste time getting there. If you know you want to produce and publish eight new clips this month, than you know you have a weekly target of two clips per week.

How much time do you need in order to produce a clip from start to finish? 3 hours? 6 Hours? Free up your precious time by leveraging the time of others and outsourcing production tasks like editing. You can find freelancers to do just about anything on websites like www.odesk.com, www.elance.com, www.fiverr.com and Craigslist. Remember if your time is worth $75 an hour and you can hire Jo-Jo to edit your videos for $20 an hour, it only makes fiscal sense to let Jo-Jo do his thing in the editing room, while you remain focused on the income-generating task of creating more clips.

Related: How to Train Your Brain to Stay Focused

3. Use Time Blocks

Time blocking are personally my favorite time management strategy. I use my Google Calendar to create blocks in my schedule. It's look like this  



You can see, each block has a color and a category. When I first set up my time blocks, I did it based on a great piece of advice from a multi-millionaire mentor of mine. He told me, that if all else fails, I should at least be doing these three things every day. Educating myself, blogging, and marketing. So, I schedule an hour for each of those tasks, but they take on different forms every day so I don't get bored doing the same thing. 

Educating myself can mean reading articles on XBiz to see what happening in the industry or going onto the forums on WeCamGirls and StripperWeb to see what other cam models are talking about and what resources they are need. Other days, educating myself can mean watching a webinar on marketing techniques, SEO, team building, leadership, or simply reading a few chapters in my favorite books, Karmic Management.


Blogging hour is pretty self-explanatory. It's when I write my blogs. The reason I put education before blogging, is because often during the process of educating myself, it sparks an idea on what I want to blog about that day.

Marketing Hour can mean recording a new video to post on YouTube, creating and loading new e-mails in my auto-responder, improving the SEO on my blog or YouTube channel, posting my videos or articles to social media platforms. You get the idea. Anything that involves spreading the word about who I am and what I have to offer.

Now, in all honesty, do I always get to every block right on time, every single day? No. isht happens, sometimes I sleep in and especially when you work from home, there's always someone or something else vying for your time. I've learned to use my schedule as a guideline, not a strict structure and be flexible. However, it's also important that you respect your time. When it's time to focus, it's time to focus. I've been known to tell people, "Hey, I working on my e-mail marketing campaign right now. I"ll call you back sometime between 1:30 and 2:30 (during my social hour)." I even have to tell myself this sometimes when I catch myself fumbling on Facebook instead of writing.

4. Reward Yourself!

 We don't give ourselves enough permission to celebrate the small successes. If you know there is small reward waiting for you if you reach your deadline or target, you will be more likely to stay focused on what needs to get done. Your reward can be something simple like buying yourself a new nail polish, taking yourself out for a sushi lunch, or something bigger like a new outfit or piece of jewelry. Let the size of the task to be accomplished, dictate the size of the reward.

5. Practice Makes Permanent

Learning to manage your time effectively is a learned skill and creating a new habit will take some trial and error. You have to easy with yourself and learn what works for you as you go along. Start by creating a schedule you feel will work for your current lifestyle. Try it for a week and evaluate what works and what doesn't work. Move things around to suit your needs, while also keeping in mind the time schedule and needs of your market. Luckily for us, we work in global marketplace and there's always a horny man, somewhere, waiting. With some diligent practice, you will be a master of time management!



January 14, 2013

Coming Up on HowToCamGirl.Com

Puttin' ya in the know, here's the tea on what's going good here at How To Cam Girl!


If you're on the HowToCamGirl.com e-mail list, watch your inbox tomorrow for an e-mail from me. It's got all the info about the upcoming "Taxes for Webcam Models" live class with "The XXX CPA" David Beider and more special news on events happening during the first month of 2013. If you're not on the e-mail list, be sure to take a moment now to put your name and e-mail address in the box on the top right hand corner of this page. 

More YouTube videos coming next month, maybe sooner, and I'm open to all your suggestions on topics to discuss, webcam modeling questions, or other ideas. If you have sent a question to my e-mail, YouTube inbox, or by using the Contact form, and you HAVE NOT received an answer back from me, please send your question to me again using the CONTACT form on this page. You and your question are important to me. Unfortunately, sometimes, things get buried in my e-mail inbox. My oOps.

I still owe you all an updated cam girl resource guide. I'll save you the sob story on why it's not done yet (I don't like hearing excuses, not even my own, LOL) and reassure you that as soon as the resource guide is completed and ready, it will be sent out to everyone who is on the e-mail list. Again to get on the e-mail list, enter your name and e-mail address in the box on the top right. 

Lastly, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has LIKE'd, ReTweeted, subscribed, shared, or recommended me to others and told them about what's going on here at HowToCamGirl.com. I appreciate your support and encouragement more than you will ever know!


January 11, 2013

Cam Girl Confidence: Make Me Over


Back in July, I did a live class titled, "7 Habits of Highly Effective Cam Girls"


Habit #3:  Kill 'em with Confidence!

I'm too _______ to be a webcam model

In this video you'll learn why you are the perfect type for webcam modeling!


Confidence is more than just the way you look (although that is part of it). It's self-assurance. A complete knowing of who you are, what you do, what you stand for in life, and the value of what you have to offer. 

One action you can take today, to boost your confidence is to create your own signature look or persona. This doesn't have to be anything far off from your regular look, sometimes a little change goes a long way. Get a haircut, color, weave, bikini wax, eyebrow threading, Crest whitening strips, a new piercing, tattoo, outfit or accessory. Do whatever is going to make you always feel your sexiest, not just when you get on cam, but all the time, and do this regularly.

The great thing is, updating your look doesn't have to break the bank. After I finish this post, I'm on my way to a local Aveda Institute to get a cut & style from an Aveda Master Student for only $18! Each week I go to Dollar General and treat myself to a new nail polish. Total cost: $1 + tax. There are always beauty deals on discount sites like Groupon. I've made it a habit to check Groupon and LivingSocial first before investing in beauty treatments for myself.

Listen honey, no matter what you may have told yourself...

You are beautiful! You are desirable! You are sexy!

Once you feel it, know it, and act like it, your results with webcam modeling will improve dramatically! There is nothing more attractive to a man, than a confident woman!

January 8, 2013

Cam Girl Problems: Someone Stole My Content!

       Over the weekend, I received a message from one of my fans on Rude asking me if I was aware that some of my videos were on another site. I asked him to please send me the links so I could check it out because it was possible I was the one who "leaked" the videos. This was not the case in this particular instance, so now I was faced with a few choices

A) Do nothing

B) Get mad, feel violated, and holler and scream about how I just couldn't believe this was happening

or

C) find a way to convert the eyeballs looking at this stolen video into traffic back to me. One of them had over 12,000 views!

   Here's the thing about stolen content, if you're going to be in this business, in this day and digital age, you're going to have to accept that your videos, pictures, etc. are going to be lifted by somebody, at some point. I don't understand why models get so surprised by this, like OMG I can't believe this happened to ME? Honey chile, what made you think you were so bootleg-proof? People download music illegally, watch copyrighted videos on YouTube, buy bootleg movies from the neighborhood bootleg man, and even have questionable copies of Windows OS running on their computers. If you're completely honest with yourself, you'll have to admit that you are partaking in one of these piracy activities too!  Does it make piracy okay? NO. I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that once that you accept that it happens, you can make the decision to use it to your advantage, instead of b*tchin' and whining about it.
                                                 

Who is STEALING your videos? 

The culprit may be closer than you think. Watch this video to learn more.


So, what can you do?

   First, watermark all your content, including your pictures, videos, and live cam feed. You can do this using Photoshop, MS Paint, or watermarking software like EasySector. Go to Download.com and search for "photo watermark software". You can use ManyCam or WebcamMax's "text over video" feature to put a watermark over your live feed when you are broadcasting on cam sites. It can be your website link like myusername.cammodels.com or just your name, however, if you put just your name, be sure that if someone were to search your name on Google, they'll actually be able to find you. Otherwise there's no point. For example, if you go to Google and type in "Unique Passion" the first link is to my Twitter page and the second link is to a radio interview I did on the Motown Maurice show which has a list of my links in the description. Also, be sure to put the watermark somewhere on the photo, video, or cam feed that it can not be easily cropped out.

Marking your stuff doesn't necessarily mean it won't be swiped and circulated elsewhere, however, now if it is, it becomes a form of advertising back to you.

   The second thing you can do, is ask your fans to let you know if they see your content other places on the internet. You could even offer a small incentive for them doing this, if you want. Most times, our fans know more places to get their perv on than we do, and are more than willing to be your scouts and report back if they see you on other places they look at porn.

Lastly, whenever you find that you are posted somewhere else, here's what you do:

Create a profile on the site where the picture or video is posted

Make a comment under the picture or video saying something like, "Hey this is UniquePassion, I am the performer in this video. If you enjoyed this clip/pic and want to see more of me, check out my website www.mywebsite.com. You can also follow me on Twitter @MyTwitterName. If you follow me, be sure to tweet me and say hello so I can say hello back! Thank guys."

If your content is posted on a forum of some sort, it may even be worth it for you to become an active part of the forum and build a relationship with the members there. They obviously are already enjoying your content and many of them could easily be converted to contributing clients if you took the time to make your presence know and be friendly with them.

Moral of the stolen content story: You can get mad, or you can get even. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

January 3, 2013

Webcam Models! What Are Your Questions About Taxes?


       Tax time is right on the horizon and I need to gather up your webcam modeling related tax questions for a blog series and live class planned for later this month with “The XXX CPA” Mr. David Beider. David has over 25 years of income tax, bookkeeping, and accounting experience and specializes in the unique needs of those working in the adult entertainment industry.
webcam modeling taxes, adult entertainment accounting, being a webcam model

My apologies to my international lovelies, but this is open to U.S. models only because I don't have any experts on international taxes right now. If there are any U.K or Canadian tax professionals reading this, please reach out to me! I would love to include you in this class.

Be sure to save the dates Thursday, January 24th and 31st. The taxes for webcam models class will be held live via Ustream on one of those dates. You can expect some great bonuses and special offers to be included with the attendance price and a recording will be available if you are unable to attend on the scheduled date.

Please leave your webcam modeling related tax questions in the comments section under this blog post. If you reply with a question I know the answer to, I will definitely provide it to you, otherwise I will pass it on to the professional to be answered during the class.


Thank you for your input! We are certainly looking forward to putting together an informative class for you all.  

January 2, 2013

Look Back to Move Forward




webcam modeling advice, how to make money as a cam girl
Hey Everyone! Happy New Year to all of you. I pray that you have had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to take on the 2013 with moxie! It's great to be back here writing on the blog and I look forward to all the delicious new things I have in store for you this year.

In this post, the first post of 2013, I wanted to talk about resolutions and goal setting. Of course, many of us make new year's resolutions, but one thing I feel is often overlooked when it comes to goal setting and making intentions for the new year, is that we fail to take time to reflect on the lessons and blessings from the previous year and fully release them so that we can be open to what's in front of us.

In the following video my mentor, James Wedmore, shares his process for reflection and releasing the previous year. During the service at church this past Sunday, we participated in a similar exercise known as the "Burning Bowl". The technique described is simple, and perhaps a bit hokey, however it is effective and I highly suggest that you take the time to watch and follow along with James' video. I promise you will be able to feel a difference.


After you finish watching James' video and doing your own burning bowl exercise, be sure to leave a comment sharing your experience and also tell me about one of your new year's resolutions!