#the camgirl survival guide
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First and foremost, I’ve released my most highly requested guide as of late, which is how to get started live streaming on Twitch. You can find it listed on the Camgirl Survival Guide Etsy page over here:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1402368236/the-camgirls-guide-to-twitch-sfw?ref=listing_published_alert
The Etsy listing includes a 40 page detailed breakdown of everything from Twitch-specific terminology, how to get started using Streamlabs (and customize the absolute fuck out of your stream) and how to use Twitch as a platform in general. It discusses whether or not it can be “worth it” for a NSFW creator to spend time and energy on the platform, and as usual, includes a transparent look at my own cost and income on Twitch compared to what I put into and received out of streaming on MFC. Essentially it’s a fucking chungus of a guide.
As per usual, though, since I haven’t figured out how to shut the fuck up, I’ll be including a ramble about the topic here on the Survival Guide. If you’re looking for step by step instruction and a very detailed and technical walkthrough, buy the guide. Yes, I know it’s $100. It took me like four million hours to put together and the process of learning the site itself took me over a year, so it’s expensive. Is the information something you absolutely will not find elsewhere? Of course not. A vast amount of knowledge about beginning on Twitch exists everywhere from Reddit to YouTube and beyond - but this walkthrough includes information specifically focused on a SWers experience on Twitch, making it somewhat unique, I think.
But for the Tumblr edition ... let’s get into some general discussion of the whole MFC to OF to Twitch pipeline.
As mentioned frequently here on the CGS blog, I left MFC in 2019. I was burnt out. No matter how I reworked my approach, I couldn’t find a way to make streaming on MFC itself enjoyable for me anymore. I liked spending time with my regulars but had grown so sick and fucking tired of spanking myself for tokens that the drive to generate income had dwindled down to nothing, but my expectations for that income stayed the same. Essentially I wanted to make camgirl money without having to actually ... camgirl. I knew my regulars were buying tokens to spend elsewhere and I felt personally owed income from them, even if I wasn’t teasing or doing handbras with any real frequency anymore.
I’ve talked about this before, but expectation truly had become the thief of joy for me - and I think it had become the thief of joy for my regulars even outside of my room specifically. I imagine that from a member’s perspective, MFC was becoming less and less of a hangout space and more of a financial responsibility, especially if they wanted to show up “publicly”. The number of times I’d heard of members making different accounts so as not to carry their main account’s tipping reputation with them was enlightening. The highest contributing tippers were expected to continue being the highest contributing tippers, and the pressure to maintain those expectations sometimes became so costly that they just stopped showing up at all. As much as I told myself any amount of tip was better than no tip, I can’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed when one of my usual whales wasn’t dropping stacks on me when they came in, even though I was well aware I wasn’t performing like I used to.
My own dedication to the experience sunk, but my expectations stayed the same. I became bitter and jaded. I fell victim to the habit of lurking rooms I knew my regulars spent money in to watch them support someone other than me, which perpetuated my bitterness even more. Even though I preach a lot of positive shit, I was not walking my own talk in the slightest. In light of all of this, I retired.
The timing was perfect for me specifically because I had just crawled onto OF a few months prior, which had me set up just in time for the pandemic boom when it occurred in early 2020. The relief was immense; I no longer had to perform NSFW in real time or even talk to another living human being out loud at all, sometimes for days on end. Great! Camgirl money without being a camgirl. Besides, making videos and taking photos was so much easier (oh god, if only I had known), and occasionally messaging people one on one took me less time than live streaming (again - fuck, that didn’t last long, did it?). It was the perfect solution to staying safe financially while recovering from burnout.
Truly, it was. The break let me unwind. OF was easier, and the income was greater and faster than I’d ever known on MFC. I went from making $6,000 a month (roughly) for 30+ hours of streaming to making $20,000 a month for what I’d considered to be less overall time in shooting and editing content. It was what I needed and then some.
So why on earth did I find myself nostalgic for MFC a few years later?
While OF took the majority of the social element out of the picture, it also largely left me lonely and bored. I like messaging my OF besties just as much as the next creator does, but it just isn’t the same as entertaining a room of chatters. I became a camgirl because I liked chatrooms. I had been in chatroom spaces since I was a teen, and as an adult creator, MFC gave me everything I already liked about the internet with added income. I felt like I had friends: real friends, both members and other camgirls alike. I created my own communities out of the larger industry.
This aspect wasn’t something I realized I was truly missing until I started up on Twitch. I didn’t start Twitch streaming with any income expectation in mind. During the pandemic I became obsessed with Animal Crossing and was spending the majority of my time (when I wasn’t shooting for OF) gaming alone, so I figured I may as well game with an audience. As soon as my usual audience showed up again, I felt a surge of good fucking vibes. It was nice to see the same usernames, to make the same weird jokes and to have that same “good time” feel all without having to do the shit I grew to hate doing over on MFC.
Does Twitch pay the bills? Absolutely not. It does not pay the bills. It pays some bills, but no where near the amount of bills it would need to pay in order for me to transition over to Twitch full time. It is absolutely not camgirl style money. Despite this, I fucking love Twitch. I think dropping the expectations component made my Twitch streams fun for me and my viewers alike. People contribute when they can, and they know I’m not watching their usernames like some hungry hawk waiting to be fed.
All in all, I am an internet gremlin, and as introverted as I am, I still need human interaction. Digital human interaction is still my favourite. Being a live streamer in that specific live stream format - me, talking out loud, my chat, talking via text - is comfortable and familiar and extremely natural to me. The boost in my overall wellbeing that I get from Twitch streaming is helping me feel human again, in ways that OF just doesn’t cultivate.
Which leads me to really take a hard look at how objectifying the OF experience can be. I don’t know if it’s just me or if I’ve misstepped along the way in my approach to OF, but I’ve started to really feel like a content factory or some perpetually sexual creature, always at the ready to receive lewd messages from individual after individual. I like making lewd content - I really do - but producing well over a hundred videos a year to maintain my income is ... overkill. It’s beating the process to death. I used to make maybe one video and photoset a month on MFC. Now I expect myself to make multiple sets per week at the least. My highest earning months I’m putting out new content every single fucking day.
We all know the pandemic boom is over. Anyone on OF that isn’t being run by management knows it’s harder to make a dollar now than it was two years ago. In a feast or famine industry, we know how to handle famine - but the only way through it (if we want to maintain the same sort of income) is to push three times as hard. With consistently restrictive SFW social media platforms making advertising an absolute nightmare, we also have to fully send it with respect to marketing, too.
I’m looking burnout in the face. It’s starting to feel like MFC all over again. I want OF income without actually doing OF work, at least not to the degree that I’ve done it in the past.
As contradictory as it sounds ... this is why Twitch streaming is helping me. I need balance. I need a space where I feel like a complex human being so that I can make space to exude the sexuality that makes me money on OF, and I need hobbies so I can keep my wellbeing level enough to put in work elsewhere.
All that said, I can’t deny the fact that my history with MFC makes it challenging not be an entitled brat over on Twitch. Sometimes I tell myself I’d be better off putting my 80+ hours of stream time a month back onto MFC. I’ve toyed with the idea, but still haven’t returned to being a camgirl simply because adding more NSFW to my already NSFW-laden schedule wouldn’t help me in the long run, at least not emotionally.
My advice to anyone wanting to start on Twitch would be to ask yourself why you’re getting into it, and then to drop your income expectations to the floor. Like, grab a shovel and dig a spot for the bar to go, because it’s low. I stream on Twitch for fun. It’s sort of the first actual hobby I’ve had in years, while still maintaining some sort of income and the possibility for increased income over time, all while staying well within my boundaries. I wrestled with the time contribution element of Twitch streaming a lot (going back to that “I should just go back to MFC” thought process) - but the bottom line is that I’m allowed to have hobbies. As long as I’m financially safe and still making OF work to support my life, doing something that I like is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s necessary for life to feel fulfilling. Not every aspect of my life needs to be making me tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Maybe I’ll blow up on Twitch. Maybe Twitch will get to a point where it pays the bills, and I can transition into making OF content when inspiration strikes rather than forcing myself to come up with new ideas (or just keep working with the same formula). In some ways, though ... I kind of hope it doesn’t. I like being a small streamer, because the whole point of me streaming is to cultivate a little community and have a good time with them. My following is growing over time, but the community aspect is staying very much intact. Plus, now I have girls in my community???? Like actual other women that like hanging out in my streams?? What a concept. It’s pretty fun to shake it up a bit in that respect.
Anyway, snag the Etsy guide if you want to make the startup process for Twitch immensely easier on yourself. Having all the information you need consolidated into one place will make beginning on Twitch significantly less painful than it could be otherwise. Like, I really wish I had something like this when I started, which is the whole reason I made the damn thing.
As always,
Happy Hustling.
xoxo, Ashley Tea
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For the Sake of Content- Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Pseudonym: Sugar
Summary: After walking in on your long-term boyfriend, Harrison, cheating on you and then losing your job the following day; your find yourself broke, jobless, and single for the first time in a long while. In order to make ends meet, your best friend since college, Freddie, suggests you start soliciting explicit photos of yourself, not only to help boost your confidence but to help pay the rent for his band mate’s apartment you just moved into.
A/N: Hello my lovelies! I’m so happy with the reception I've gotten with my fic! I’m really excited with what I have written out so far and I’m really happy seeing everyone enjoying what I have written, i have big plans for this little cutie. Not a lot is going to happen during these first few chapters other than establishing the foundation because it is a slow burn, but don’t worry, once we get there it’ll be like a fucking avalanche of chaos. My tag list is open, so if you are interested feel free to send me an ask! I will be reblogging with my taglist and links to the previous chapter, so please be patient with me!
Pairing: Roger Taylor x F!Reader
Warnings: Language, mentions of sex work, masturbation, some friendly banter between roger and reader, not proof read, short chapter but don’t worry it gets better.
Word Count: 1.7k
18+ if you are a minor do NOT interact with this post. This is fictitious content and I own nothing.
It was your first night living with Roger and you were secretly thankful he was busy with a gig which allowed you to unpack your things in peace. He made it very clear that you were to stick your side of the apartment, i.e. your room, and not ruin the ‘aesthetic’ he had worked so hard for his apartment to have. It disappointed you to say the least, considering your only qualm with the apartment was the hideous wood paneling that made up the walls of the living room. It looked like a scene straight out of a 1970s porno.
The later it got the more you progressed in unpacking what little boxes you had and the closer it got to Roger coming home. You finished with what you decided would be the last box of the night and now laid in your bed, door closed, your colored LED lights dimly lighting your room a deep red color.
Your frowned going through your emails and reading rejection letter after rejection letter from the jobs you had applied for. You were thankful you were quite the penny pincher and were able to survive to for at least a month, but the dread still loomed over you like a dark cloud.
Your mind drifted to Freddie’s suggestion from earlier that week, “Try camming, love, it’s all the rage right now!” his loud voice echoed in your mind until you finally caved and grabbed your phone typing in your search engine how to be a camgirl.
Several articles popped up;
How to Become a Cam Girl
TIPS FOR BECOMING A CAM GIRL & HOW I DID IT
Camming on a Limited Budget?
You sighed, your eyes felt strained from reading article after article. You’d seen several reoccurring websites, the two most popular being Twitter, Snapchat, and some live stream sight called WatchMe. Skepticism filled your brain, why would people be so into buying nudes from people or watching them masturbate on camera when they could do it for free on some porn site?
The sense of intimacy that one got, anonymity, and personal interactions with some who was literally paid to be nice to you over ruled the financial aspect.
The financial aspect also caused you to throw what little shame you had left out the window and soon you found yourself impulsively signing up for all three sights starting first with WatchMe. You pursed your lips when you found yourself being prompted to enter your name, what the hell would you put? You certainly couldn’t put your real name, could you? No, you couldn’t. You found yourself smiling while entering Sugar into the name space.
The application process was surprisingly long and bureaucratic, but it was probably good they had you submit a picture of your license twice, once just on its own, and once next to your face just to confirm you were of legal age. The only downside was that it would be a three day wait for the information to be processed.
You scrolled through your imaged looking for some pictures or videos to put on your premium snapchat, but much to your dismay you found that you had a few vanilla nudes taken ages ago back when your and Harrison’s relationship was still young and romantic, but not much else. You reluctantly got out of bed and rummaged through your underwear drawer, picking through your cotton granny panties you wore when your period made you bloated and finally found a black lacy pair of panties that had a matching black lacy balconette bra that pushed your breasts together giving you the perfect amount of cleavage.
You put it on and stood in front of your full-length mirror, it had been ages since you’d last put on lingerie. It felt nice to put it on for yourself and not for someone else; you twisted in the mirror, observing how the lace delicately cupped your cheeks and hugged your hips perfectly. You chewed on your bottom lip and posed, kneeling in front of the mirror, your legs spread and your back arched to give your chest a little extra pop while you positioned your phone over your face and clicked a few pictures.
The red lighting in your room caused a complimentary glow against your skin, showering you in red light and somehow making your images look more erotic. You smiled a bit to yourself, you looked hot!
Our relationship is boring
The word hammered against your mind, causing you to frown and your brows to knit together in frustration.
You were NOT boring, did boring people take pictures of themselves to sell to other people? No.
You found yourself getting hot with frustration and strangely enough, arousal. You didn’t know if it was from how you were dressed working in tandem with the lighting or if it was your pent-up frustration from not having a proper orgasm in so long, but you soon found your hand traveling south while you remained kneeling in front of the mirror. Before you began you carefully positioned your phone, just enough to keep your face out of the picture and rubbed your thighs, leaving teasing touches around the band of your panties.
Your chest heaved with anticipation, you didn’t know why but the fact that you were being videotaped added a feeling of naughtiness to your actions. You gave your slit a teasing rub, your hips twitching at the sudden pressure before your fingers harshly rubbed yourself. The rough fabric of the lace adding an additional tingle to the pleasure that shot through you. You moaned, leaning back ever so slightly to angle yourself and rubbed yourself through your panties, strumming harshly at your clit.
“Ah, fuck.” You whined, reaching up with your free hand and kneading your breasts, pulling your bra down and allowing them to freely spill over. Your nipples reacted to the cold air and hardened almost immediately. You pinched and twisted at them while your fingers began to move faster and faster against your wet core before you decided you needed to fully touch yourself.
You stripped off your panties and spread yourself for the camera, allowing your glistening cunt to be on full display. You slipped your fingers between your folds and began to rub harsh circled around your clit, rolling your hips along with your motions and allowing unfiltered moans to fall from your lips. Roger wouldn’t be home for another few hours, but for some reason the idea that you may get caught enhanced the arousal you felt.
You dipped two fingers into your tight hole, letting out a high-pitched sigh and now feeling contently full. You pumped them in and out of your tight cunt, the slick sounds squelching as you pumped them in and out rapidly. Your stomach clenched when you brushed against that spot inside you and a knot in your tummy began to tighten, getting tighter and tighter each time you thrust your fingers into you. You used the heel of your hand to rub harshly against your clit, the slickness guiding you with ease “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” You whimpered out, rolling your hips against your hands.
The tightening knot in your stomach snapped and your body jerked while a wave of pleasure washed over you.
After you recovered, you sat up, did you just masturbate in front of a camera? You couldn’t help the smile that crept onto your face; it was like you had a dirty little secret of your own.
When you finally ventured out of your room you found Roger lounging in the living room “Wow, out of your room for once?” Roger asked, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.
“No company tonight?” You chimed, noting the absence of some bar floozy hanging off his shoulder, “Did your show go all right?”
Roger’s brows were tightly knit together, he was obviously tense over something and the long sigh he let out before answering you practically told the story; “No, it was complete garbage.” He mumbled, “The venue, not us.” He quickly followed with.
Right, of course Queen was perfect, but you decided to entertain the idea, inching closer into the living room, “What was so bad about the venue?”
It was as though he were waiting for someone to ask him that question, “The crowd was total shit, I know Freddie is damn good at interacting with the crowd, they were just,” He took a surprisingly aggressive drink from his beer bottle, rolling his eyes at the memory, “Stiff as hell,” He mumbled, “Then! That wasn’t even the worst part, on top of that the power cut out not once but three times!” He dramatically raised his arms in frustration, “I practically threw my set off the stage after the third time.” Roger scoffed. Despite your distance from him you could smell the combined stench of sweat, cigarettes, and alcohol that seemed to seep into his garish outfit.
You arched an eyebrow at him “You threw your kit off the stage?” your voice pitched in disbelief.
Roger shrugged “Yeah,” he was so nonchalant, “What about it?”
“Well I guess you won’t be going back there anytime soon,” You mumbled, and Roger raised his bottle in agreement, “You know, I was thinking we could paint the walls a nice cream color.” You mentioned, lightly running your hands across the drab wood paneling.
Roger narrowed his eyes at you, “Paint over wood panel?” He scoffed, “It’s original finish, you can’t do that!”
You rolled your eyes dramatically, “I can tell it’s original, I can practically smell 1970 seeping out when it gets too hot in here.” You chastised, “Plus painting the walls a lighter color will brighten it up a bit, what the hell are you trying to live in, a cave?”
“Fine, you get to paint the accent wall and I’ll take the others.”
“I pay half the rent here too!” You constantly reminded him that he wasn’t the only one who lived here anymore.
Roger let out a frustrated sigh, “Fine you get two walls and I’ll get two. Have fun painting them Saffron Ivory of whatever boring color you decide on.”
Well, guess your civil conversation is over, you sighed, “At least it’ll look better,” You mumbled, turning back to face him "Shouldn't you shower, you filthy bastard" You scrunched your nose up at his pungent post show odor.
"Ah, fuck off," Roger muttered flicking you the V.
You flashed him a closed mouthed smile "Pleasant, as always." you sarcastically stated before you found yourself slinking back into your room. You truly had no idea how Freddie expected you to coexist with this man.
#roger taylor x reader#roger taylor x you#roger taylor smut#roger taylor series#ben hardy!roger x reader#ben hardy!roger taylor#ben hardy!roger taylor x reader#roger taylor fanfic#ben hardy character#borhap#borhap fanfic#borhap fandom#FSC fic
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Get Off Your Ass and Start Shaking It
Tough love for creators who need a push
I need to get my head out of my ass and start believing in myself again, so I’m writing this for myself - but sharing it for anyone who might benefit from seeing it. Enjoy a little slap from yours truly - free of charge.
1. Accept that you’re starting from “scratch”.
The internet is different now. Sex work is different now. If you’re an OG, it’s important to recognize that burnout isn’t just OnlyFans burnout - it’s industry burnout. We didn’t get a chance to catch our breath between having had ManyVids and MFC and then OnlyFans and now the biggest bitch of them all, visibility on social media. Our tweets used to show up and now they don’t. Our followers used to see us on Instagram, and now they don’t. We can cry about this all we like (and I do so frequently because it’s more healthy than just bottling it all up), but tears won’t pay the bills, baby. Time to pull up your socks and get moving.
2. Do your best not to overthink it.
There are a million and one theories on how to do things “right”, when in reality, sometimes a single Reel about absolutely nothing with zero effort involved will hit the algorithm and pop the fuck off. Strategizing can be good, but staying up to date with the theories surrounding advertising should be inspiring, not crippling. We’re doing away with creation paralysis. Brush yourself off, and focus on making content to the best of your ability. Who cares if it’s only selfies and low effort shit for now? People will pay for pretty much anything, and if you have any semblance of a following, they want to see what you put out even if it’s not “to your standards”.
3. Switch up your routine.
This sounds brutal because it is, but this is what I’ve been doing as of late: and it’s helping. You’ll come up with justifiable reasons why this may not be right for you - but ask yourself if what you’re doing right now is right for you. Are you achieving what you want to achieve with the routine you have? Do you even have a routine? This is tough love, but it’s meant to be a realistic look at where you’re at, followed by support to get you to where you want to be.
A month ago I started plugging my phone in across the room and setting an alarm for 5:30am. I have to physically get up to turn it off. It’s a brutal way of waking up (even though the alarm I have is all peaceful and cute, but still) - but it gets me up. I have my robe and slippers waiting for me, and I do not allow myself to get back into bed. I do my best work in the morning after coffee and before my first meal of the day. I’m not saying you need to work with this timeline, but if you’re a sleep-until-nooner, set your alarm for 10am. If you’re a work-later-on, set an alarm for when you need to start work - and then get your ass up. It’s hard to build a routine but much easier to maintain it once the habits are in place, so have a little faith in yourself. I don’t care how many times I’ve started, hit the ground running, and then crashed and burned, because guess what happened while I was running? I made money. Focus more on the positives of when you are functional, rather than moaning about the times when you’re not. If you’re in this industry it means you have, at some point or another, made it work for you. You can do it again.
I get out of bed at 5:30am, rinse off in the shower, make my coffee and do a beauty routine that makes me feel really fucking pretty. Sure, messy hair and an instagram filter can do just fine, and again - any content is better than no content - but I feel my best after dry brushing my skin (hello cellulite and the obvious signs of ageing, lol) and then applying a really nice smelling lotion all over my body. I have been listening to Ariana Grande instead of my usual lofi (or just fucking silence, which also isn’t great for my motivation levels). Pump yourself the fuck up. You’re a bad bitch under the weight of all of this self imposed pressure and comparison, you just need to wake that energy up again, and you can do it. Take your meds and drink your water. After coffee I’m in my most positive state to work through my inbox. Yeah, a neglected inbox on OnlyFans is going to take a hot fucking minute to get through but once you actually do it, it’ll be easier moving forward. Buck up, baby - you can do hard things, and the payoff will be worth it.
Setting actual times to get shit done is helping me immensely. I work on OnlyFans until noon. At noon, my second alarm goes off and I get up and eat and stretch and do something other than look at my phone. Most importantly: PAT YOURSELF ON THE FUCKING BACK! If you’ve done something more than you did the day before or the week before or the month before, you’re moving. You’re going. You’re doing. Our nasty little brains can always tell us we could be making more of ourselves but you know what, fuck that shit. Focus on doing 1% more than you did the day before. Rome wasn’t built in a day and again: you’re starting fresh from this moment forward. Kick the shit out of that voice in your head that wants to compare you to other people or, worse, compare you to what you “used to be able to do”. Fuck it, whatever, we are where we are - all we can do is work with that and make the most of it.
4. Schedule, schedule, schedule
Instagram allows you to schedule posts. If you do your makeup to shoot for OnlyFans, make two or three reels. Schedule them to post over the next few days. If you manage to shoot a few photos for OnlyFans, make a semi-SFW one and queue that up as well. Places like TweetDeck will allow you to even schedule Twitter posts in advance. Pound an energy drink (or take your meds, if you need that extra focus as I know many of us do) and get ‘er done. That way you can focus on working for shit down the line rather than trying to do everything day by day. OnlyFans lets you queue, so utilize it! Setting aside even one day to sit in your grubby sweatpants and just hammer out scheduling can be so fucking advantageous not only to building your success, but to strengthening your confidence and mental health.
I’m not going to blatantly call justifiable reasons excuses, but sometimes you need to really look at what your internal monologue is saying and whether or not it’s advantageous. If you’re depressed as shit, there are so many strategies out there to get you moving even while you’re depressed. If you’re ADHD or neurodivergent, there are strategies for you, too. The playing field is not level and if you’re starting from a rough point in your life, working will be really hard - but what’s the alternative? Not working, and making it even harder? I know you know this already, but you’re probably using this knowledge to beat yourself senseless. Stop. Even for one day, actively shout (out loud or into a pillow, whatever) at the nasty voice in your head that tells you that you’re too limited by your current position to crawl out of the hole you feel like you’re in. You can handle a scheduling day. Tell yourself, over and over again, that you can handle it. Even if you take breaks every hour to screech like a banshee or cry onto your keyboard, you can push through it. Send it. I believe in you in the same way I push myself to believe in myself. It’s not easy for any of us - but nothing ever is.
This isn’t bullshit coming from someone who’s doing well. I struggle so, so much. This shit is a grind for me, too. I berate myself and compare myself and am so fucking self critical that it can be immobilizing - but I have to smack some sense into myself once in a while and remind myself that I can grind even when I feel like I can’t. Sometimes I lean into being outright delusional. I love lucky girl syndrome. Shove your head into the clouds and pretend that you’re the absolute best version of yourself, even if you feel like absolute dogshit. The vibes may not last long, but if they last long enough for you to make something happen, then you’re pulling off that 1% improvement that you’re striving for.
5. Plan for breaks
Give yourself a light at the end of the tunnel, whether it’s relaxing at the end of the day or planning a “do absolutely nothing but lay around” day at the end of the week. As much as it may feel like you’re staring into an abysmal black hole demanding you to do more and more forever and ever, you’re not. You can hustle while taking breaks: in fact, you need to take breaks to make the hustle happen. Just be cautious not to let the downtime turn into a downturn. I put a limit on my rest periods because I am prone to lying face down and just … not getting back up, for weeks or months on end. Saturdays are my sleep in days. Sundays are my do nothing (except for a lil chores or whatever) days. Then I’m back to the grindstone on Monday, knowing that after my “end work day” alarm goes off, I can simply vibe out.
6. Stop looking at the numbers for now
Analytics are great, but also … not great. Story only got 500 views even though you have thousands of followers? It’s still 500 views. Reel didn’t hit the explore page? Whatever, at least a few people saw it. Recent PPV only sold once? It’s more money than you had before you released it. The best way to handle the restart period is to just focus on output and let any number motivate you to keep on keeping on. Everyone started somewhere. The biggest accounts started at 0 followers and the most successful OnlyFans pages started at 0 subscribers. You started from nothing, too.
7. Revisit your dreams
Do not stop yourself from dreaming big. What do you want? You can have it. Setbacks are setbacks, not finish lines. A break is a break, not an end. Write your dreams out and put them somewhere you can see them and fucking CELEBRATE every step you take toward them. If you need to start small to feel good about yourself, then do that. If your goal is to post once a week, push yourself to make that happen. If your goal is to make a certain amount of money in a week, do what you need to do to make that happen, whether it’s more posts, more messaging or more advertising. I like to set my goals small but keep my dreams big. I want to buy a condo, which is a big dream, but in order to do that, achieving all my little goals will put me closer to that every time I cross it off my “to do” list.
8. Fucking believe in yourself, goddamnit
You can do it. You can do it. You CAN do it. Do what you need to do, as your unique and individual little self, to put the systems that support you in place. Trust that you can rely on yourself. Even if that trust is frail for now, it will build as you build yourself up. Berating yourself isn’t helping, is it? I didn’t think so. You’re beautiful, interesting, worthy and so fucking capable, even on days where you think you aren’t. We’re in this together.
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Entertainment Weekly, December
Cover: Star Wars
Page 3: Contents
Page 4: Sound Bites
Page 6: Editor’s Note, other Star Wars covers
Page 8; Best of the Decade
Page 10: The Must List Best of the Decade edition -- The Snap -- how heroes rescued Hollywood
Page 12: Battle of the Bastards -- the TV that changed TV
Page 13: Beyonce -- the decade of the diva, Serial -- the cases that captivated
Page 14: Bridesmaids -- the ladies who made us laugh, Minecraft -- how videogames leveled up
Page 15: Hamilton -- the musicals of the millennium
Page 16: Gone Girl -- the books that broke barriers, The Dress -- the memes that drove us mad
Page 17: Netflix -- how streaming smashed the rules
Page 18: My Must List -- Catherine O’Hara
Page 21: First Take -- Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe on Outlander
Page 24: Al Pacino and Logan Lerman in Hunters
Page 27: Penn Badgley and Victoria Pedretti in You
Page 32: The War to end all Wars -- behind the scenes of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Page 40: Saga Genesis -- the most important scenes from each Star Wars movie in the journey
Page 48: Frozen II
Page 52: Breaking Big -- Andrew Scott, Hunter Schafer
Page 54: Kate Elizabeth Russell, Natasha Rothwell
Page 55: Kelvin Harrison Jr., King Princess
Page 56: Megan Thee Stallion
Page 57: Asante Blackk, David Corenswet, Maya Hawke
Page 58: Hollywood True Crime -- Peter Ivers ended up bludgeoned to death
Page 64: Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel hits the road
Page 69: Holiday Gift Guide
Page 77: Reviews -- House of X and Powers of X
Page 78: Charles Xavier and Magneto
Page 80: Movies -- The Awardist Interview -- Tom Hanks
Page 81: The Two Popes
Page 82: Making the Scene -- Marriage Story with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson
Page 84: Uncut Gems
Page 85: The cast of the original Black Christmas explain how the box office dud became a cult classic
Page 86: Role Call -- Toni Collette
Page 87: Knives Out, The Aeronauts, Waves
Page 88: The Shot -- Avatar
Page 90: TV -- Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser are back together for Mad About You
Page 92: Holiday TV-Movie Survival Guide
Page 93: Servant
Page 94: An inside look at the familiar faces headed to the CW’s most ambitious Arrowverse crossover yet Crisis on Infinite Earths
Page 96: What to Watch
Page 100: Music -- Under the Cover -- Pete Townsend and Sir Peter Blake on the design of WHO
Page 102: Q+A -- Mariah Carey
Page 104: Mary J. Blige -- HERstory Vol. 1, Rage Against the Machine
Page 105: Coldplay -- Everyday Life
Page 106: Books
Page 108: Isa Massei in the memoir Camgirl
Page 110: Q+A -- Jimmy Kimmel
Page 111: Annihilation author Jeff Vandermeer returns to the postapocalyptic borne universe with a wonderful and deeply weird new novel Dead Astronauts
Page 112: The Bullseye
#tabloid#star wars#george lucas#mark hamill#x-men#charles xavier#magneto#professor x#erik lehnsherr#cherik
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The Camgirl Survival Guide
About the Writer
My name is Ashley Tea. I started webcamming on MyFreeC*ms in 2013 and moved exclusively to OF in 2019. Adult content creation has been my sole source of income for a decade, and has paid for my entire life including tuition for my University degree, travel around the world, all my living expenses and my first home purchase. I have a degree in Psychology focusing on Men’s Mental Health and am a huge slut for marketing because it makes my brain go brrrr.
About the Guide
I have been writing articles here since 2015. This resource is entirely free and the information here will continue to be free as long as Tumblr will have me, lol. The information here mostly focuses around live streaming on MFC, but newer articles also discuss OF. As many of these articles are 5+ years old, some information will be dated or no longer relevant, so please keep that in mind when reading further back in the archive.
All articles can be easily accessed by scrolling through this page’s archive, found at https://camgirlsurvivalguide.tumblr.com/archive.
I am not here to tell you that this industry will bring you fast and easy money. None of my articles, no matter how well written and informative, are guaranteed to bring you success, especially not quick success. I write from personal experience and my personal experience is that things take time and very hard work.
Etsy Shop
I now run an Etsy shop with really fucking nice individual packages for specific topics. This is where you’ll probably find the most current information, especially about OF related advice. I’d also really fucking love your support over there because ya girl has been writing free stuff for a long ass time and making a cheeky sale on the Etsy literally makes my entire day lol.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/camgirlsurvivalguide/
Frequently Asked Questions
What site should I use? How do I get started?
How much money can I make?
Can I cam without showing my face?
How do I tell the people in my life (family, partners) about my new job?
How do I get people to watch, talk and tip?
How do I deal with taxes?
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Administrative Thoughts Re: The Survival Guide
A brief housekeeping conversation:
1. The Camgirl Survival Guide OF page is closing down.
Creators are allowed to have two pages on OF - a pay to access one with a monthly subscription price, and a free one where users can access their feeds without paying an entry fee. After nearly three years of content creation, I am now personally in need of a free page to host my own content so I can start generating passive income rather than letting my old videos and photosets gather dust. As it stands I have not updated the CGS OF in many months and simply don’t have the capacity to be creating content over there often enough for it to be profitable (or helpful, really), so I’m closing up shop over there as of today.
2. I will be creating CGS content for Etsy .... eventually.
The overall dream plan for the CGS is to have a proper website where I can organize the free tumblr articles in an efficient way and host additional paid packages for anyone interested in additional support. As it stands, neither Tumblr or OF are necessarily the right “fit” for this type of material and it’s always been my end goal to create an advice and educational platform for the CGS that is custom enough to make accessing all the CGS info as easy as possible for y’all.
If you haven’t rolled over to Etsy for OF and webcamming support, DO IT. There are a shitton of creators on there selling really helpful information/inspiration/advice and technical support specifically for OF for really decent prices. Super cool “new” area (or at least new to me, had no idea this existed until recently lol) to look for help for SW related stuff. My hope is to put out some PDF guides for specific topics over there in the near future, but as always with my hopes and dreams, the release date for stuff like that is suuuuper tbd.
3. As always, the CGS Tumblr will keep on keepin’ on.
Long live the Tumblr page tbh. Nothing will change, all info will stay up, lots of it is outdated but whatever it’s free and I know a lot of you still find it useful. I will be going through my asks here in a lil bit to make some new advice posts, but again, tbd.
Happy hustling 💕
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FAKE HAIR DON’T CARE - The what’s what of hair extensions
Come one, come all! It’s the Camgirl Survival Dummies Guide to putting someone else’s severed hair on your head and pretending it’s your own! I was asked by a few people recently to give advice on hair extensions (since I have some experience) and I decided to write up a big old post here for anyone who wants to take a peek at it.
The best person to talk to about hair extensions is, first and foremost, your stylist. Not all hair types work with extensions. Extensions can and do damage your natural hair, depending on the method you choose, and choosing to DIY any of these methods can cause damage, to your natural hair or to the extensions you buy. Extensions are expensive, and there is almost no way around that. They’re also a fucking pain in the ass, if I’m being honest, but damn do I look and feel twelve thousand times cuter when I’ve got my great big bad hair on - so here are my tips and tricks to making the most out of using someone else’s hair as your own.
GENERAL EXTENSION ADVICE
- Be gentle. Use a soft brush and work tangles from the bottom gently up toward the weft. Remember kiddies: the hair doesn’t grow back after you rip it out, like it does on your own head. Each fucking strand probably costs you like five cents, so treat your extensions like the gold they truly are, and they’ll last you longer.
- Wash sparingly. If you use a non-permanent extension method, this is great, because you can just take them out when you shower, but if you’re using a permanent method ... dry shampoo now is your best friend. Do not scrub permanent extensions near the root/scalp. Don’t blow dry or apply heat near the bonds/near the root/scalp. Use heat tools sparingly.
- OIL. Your natural hair produces natural oil, which is why your roots look healthy shiny and the ends of your hair look like a shitty split end desert. Your extensions can’t produce oil for themselves, so you’ll need to add oil for them. Always use heat protecting spray before styling your extensions, use a leave in conditioner when you do wash them (in the case of clip ins) or once in a while with your permanent extensions, and be sure to add an oil (like Moroccan or argan) to the length of your extensions to keep them looking natural.
- Medium length hair woes are usually what cause us to go get extensions, but are also subsequently the worst length of hair to try to hide using extensions. Search “how to blend short hair with extensions” for tutorial ideas on how you can get your hair to look a little more convincing.
TYPES OF EXTENSIONS
CLIP INS
PROS: Cheaper, longer-lasting, DIY-able
CONS: More time consuming, cheapest looking
WORKS BEST ON: already long, relatively full hair
AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $300ish
Ah, clip-ins. Everyone and their dog had a set at some point in high school, and they looked just as shitty as they felt: dry, thin, and very obviously not growing out of the tops of our own heads. Clip ins can look awful, and they can look pretty damn good - it just depends on how much work you’re willing to put in.
I wear clip ins for a few reasons. First, I’m cheap and I like to do things myself, and clip ins let me experiment. I dye them myself, and (since they just ... clip ... in) I put them in and take them out whenever I want, so I’m not paying a professional their professional rate to help me with them. Second, my hair is naturally quite oily, and I go to the gym 5 days a week, which means I wash my hair a lot, and that’s not wise with more permanent types of extensions. Being able to put in clip-ins only when I want to works for my lifestyle, since I find myself not wanting full, crazy luxurious hair probably 75% of the time. Lastly, for the past year my hair has been a pastel colour, and for anyone with crazy colour hair, you know as well as I do that it fades fast. Being able to dye my natural hair and my extensions myself at my house was the cheapest and most reasonable method for me to have extensions that matched my hair.
My advice with clip ins is to do it properly: get a good set of extensions, and when you first receive them, go to a salon to have them coloured to match your hair and cut to blend with your style. It’s good to go a little heavy in terms of weight (the fuller the better) because it’s easier to blend more hair than it is to try to blend a thinner set.
TAPE INS
PROS: Mid-range price wise, absolutely beautiful, semi-DIY
CONS: High maintenance, limited style options
WORKS BEST ON: thin/fine hair, jaw length or longer
AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $2500+
Long story short, tape in extensions fucking rock. They look amazing. They add length and volume without the clunky bulk at the root that clip ins cause, they blend seamlessly with your natural hair at most hair lengths, and they’re relatively low hassle because once they’re installed, they stay installed for 6 to 8 weeks. The hair can be used for up to 6 months (as long as you take good care of them), too, which means you’ll get 3 or so installs on any given set of hair. It’s also a relatively inexpensive method in terms of install price: my girl put them in for $100, and would remove them for $100 (putting fresh tapes on and the whole nine yards). I loved my tape ins. I really did.
The reasons I got them removed were cost and effort. Sure, they looked fucking fantastic, and when my full time job and only responsibility was to get cute and get on cam once a day, it was something that blended into my lifestyle pretty well. But now that I’m a student with a gym routine, the whole diva hair thing is a lot lower down on my list of priorities, and styling all that hair every day takes time. The biggest bummer with tape ins is that you can’t wear your hair up in a ponytail or a bun because of how the tapes lie. Not even that it would look bad (which it does) but it’s kind of painful if you try, in my opinion. I had to schedule hair appointments every 7 weeks like clockwork and that got expensive pretty quickly.
Let’s do the math: $200 every 1.5 months = $1600 in installation (not including colour, cut or tipping the stylist). The hair itself cost me between $400 and $600, which I had to do twice a year at minimum, so that’s roughly another $1000 ... that’s $2600+ per year, just in hair and install (again, not including colour and cut and tip, which is a whole other ballpark). They looked amazing, and I don’t regret having them, but for me, it was a limited-timeframe sort of option.
I managed to cut costs somewhat, though. I found that I could remove the extensions myself at home using a tape extension remover I found online for cheap (which was more or less just a blend of coconut oil and rubbing alcohol), and I would usually dye my extensions and my hair from the same box dye at home, too - so when I went to the stylist, I was only asking her to install and cut to blend them. Still, tape in hair is expensive, and you run the risk of ruining them if you DIY. I know there are tons of YouTube tutorials on how to put in your own tape hair extensions but I tried like 40 fucking times and screwed them up each and every time, and so did my girlfriend who tried to help me with it, so ... yeah. Not really DIY-able all the way.
BEADED/SEW IN WEAVE
PROS: Cheap, DIY if you have a patient friend
CONS: Heavy, painful, hard on your natural hair
WORKS BEST ON: Very thick, full/coarse hair
AVERAGE YEARLY COST: $300+ DIY, $1000+ (???) professional
My best friend has a lion’s mane for hair: super full, crazy thick, super gorgeous. Unfortunately, she fried the living fuck out of it with bleach one day and lost almost all the length she had. Tape ins weren’t an option because in order to have enough hair, she’d have to buy like 4x what a regular person would put in, so the cost just didn’t make sense. Clip ins were fine but she wanted to be able to go to sleep and wake up and still have long hair - so, I watched a couple tutorials on YouTube about beaded weaves, ordered a lil kit off amazon, and viola! We had our own weave salon up and running in my living room.
I don’t have much advice on these, because it really was a pretty hodge-podge DIY sort of situation. We took clip-in extensions, clamped beads to her natural hair and then sewed the wefts to the little beads, which would take me 2 or 3 hours, and we’d do this once every 6 weeks or so. It’s hard to explain and you definitely couldn’t do it alone, but if you’re one of these people with short but super thick hair, it would do you good to look up this process and see if you could convince a friend to help you out.
KERATIN BONDED EXTENSIONS
PROS: Very natural looking, super style-able, practically invisible
CONS: expensive, time consuming, not DIY at all, hard on natural hair, one-time use hair only
WORKS BEST ON: very fine/thinning hair
AVERAGE YEARLY COST: ??? it’s expensive as fuck I just know that
I’m pretty sure these are the extensions that Paris Hilton used to advertise. In summary, they’re fucking expensive, but they look exactly like your own hair and they work amazingly for individuals with hair so fine/thinning that tape in extensions would show through. The installation requires really special, intensive training to pull off, so stylists who offer this service usually charge through the roof for it - and you can only use the hair once, since the hair is in tiny strands with tiny bits of keratin as adhesive, that they install using tiny tweezers or something like that. A friend of mine had these and absolutely loved them, but they were very expensive and very time consuming, not to mention very delicate: she had to be super easy on her hair, particularly as the bonds got older with age.
MICRO BEAD EXTENSIONS / “Dream Catchers”
PROS: Super fucking nice. The nicest. The nicest ones you can get.
CONS: Super fucking expensive. The most expensive. The most expensive ones you can get.
WORKS BEST ON: Most average hair types - fine to regular to thick, but not thinnest/thickest
AVERAGE YEARLY COSTS: probably kajillions. I’ve heard horror stories.
So these are the Rolls Royce of extensions, from what I’ve been told. They essentially combine the techniques of a beaded wave and the keratin bond to create thick individual strands that can add a ton of length in a super natural looking way. I wanted these pretty bad but just couldn’t justify the price. I *think* they can be re-used, too, but I’m not totally sure - I’ve never had them myself, nor do I know anyone well enough to have asked them if they just collect the strands of hair that fall out of their heads or if they throw them out. It’s a weird, kinda personal thing to ask, if you think about it.
EXTENSION Q&A
Q: Where do I buy good hair extensions?
A: I bought mine from a store in a mall (bad idea) and from my hair stylist (sort of good idea, sort of bad idea). I’ve heard tons of great things from online sellers like Bellami Hair, but I personally like to touch and see the hair I’m spending hundreds of dollars on in person before I buy it. Call me old fashioned, I guess. My girlfriend bought her hair from Sally’s (clip ins and beaded weave) and they looked great, too.
Q: What about Amazon?
A: If it’s cheap, it’s going to look cheap. Extensions aren’t cheap because they’re an over the top luxury sort of item, so if you’re not willing to pay the price, I argue that it’s not worth it to do them at all. This is coming from someone who literally tried to DIY fix my own tattoo one time because I didn’t want to pay someone to do it. I get it. I’m cheap, too. But extensions don’t work well cheaply done.
Q: I’m not really good with styling my hair. Are hair extensions hard to make look good?
A: Yeah, they are - but they’re also an amazing way to force yourself to get good at styling. I sucked at styling my hair before I got tape ins. I didn’t know how to curl or braid, no joke - and now I can do a whole bunch of stuff, because having extensions forced me to learn how to make them look good. They do require work. It’s not like you’ll wake up every day with movie star looking hair - you’ll have enough hair to make into movie star hair, but you still have to actually style it to that point.
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Is Any Advice Good Advice? Where and who to look for direction in online SW
First of all, long time no see. If you haven’t already heard, there are a few major changes that have happened in my own life personally which have affected this blog. Number one, I have retired from live stream webcamming. After six and a half years I made the decision to step back from streaming, for both personal and pragmatic reasons - and I have been really thriving ever since! I’ve moved from my original site (MFC) to OnlyFans, which has changed my daily routine for the better and improved my income while reducing the amount of hours I need to work. The tl’dr is that I’m loving it over there, and have PLENTY to say about how I’m finding success - over on the newly formed Camgirl Survival Guide OnlyFans page.
onlyfans.com/camgirlsurvivalguide
After years of offering insight and advice for free here on tumblr, I’m now opting to ask for support from those who are interested in what I have to say - so for $10 a month, you can access my new pieces that focus (for now) around OnlyFans, but will also continue to speak about live stream camming in the future occasionally as well, in the event that I feel I have something useful to say.
Why pay for advice when you could access stuff here for free, or simply learn things yourself? Excellent question: and it’s one I don’t necessarily have an easy answer for, to be honest. I personally went back and forth for a long while about putting any advice behind a paywall, because for one I truly believe in supporting other SWers and for the other ... I mean, who am I to tell you how to run your business? Time and time again on this blog I’ve insisted that my advice is formulated around my hustle, and that what works for me may not work for you - so putting a price tag on something that may not necessarily benefit an up and coming content creator or camgirl felt ... off.
Then again, people sell stuff that might not help ALL people all the time. Gym routines, study guides, tutorials of any sort ... loads of other professionals sell advice. Self help is a booming industry, and writing self help requires zero qualifications.
So how is this different when it comes to SW? To me, it boils down to the audience looking to consume it. Joining the industry is not always someone’s first choice - and if it IS a first choice, a lot of the time, newbies are not totally aware of the extent to which stigma and discrimination can truly harm them down the line. People are often in tough positions before choosing to join SW, whether they’re suffering from some sort of a disability, in danger of or experiencing poverty, or attempting to support themselves through school - and while SW can seem like a saving grace (which it is, for some), I worry that without proper disclaimers, entering the industry can do more harm than good. I wouldn’t want to lead someone into thinking listening to my *~*~10 Simple Tips to SW*~*~ would help them transform their lives instantly without any repercussion.
That, and people are gullible and susceptible to influence. Lots of younger girls will look at a pretty, thin, white and financially successful camgirl and think “I wanna be her!” without really considering things. I mean, it’s just selling nudes, right? How hard can it be? How bad could things really get?
But I remember the headlines of SWers raped, murdered, beaten. I hear stories from friends about abuse, violence, death threats from strangers online; of having their nudes or p*rn sent to their families, their bosses, plastered all over websites that they’ll never be able to remove. I think of friends who are turned away from housing opportunities despite handsome income because the renters just “don’t think it’s a right fit” after finding out their involvement in the industry. I think of the camgirl moms I know who struggle to get visitation rights for their own children because of their line of work. I think of the woman who attempted suicide after her school ran her out of her nursing program after it was discovered she did porn. I think of being run out of my own program after being outed. I think of the last year of my own life.
I would love to believe that the majority of people offering advice are doing it out of a place of genuine desire to be helpful. I think there’s a big part of most of us that, upon finding success, wants to figure out how to raise others up with us. The Psychologists Fallacy is the belief that because I can do it, so too can anyone else - but this isn’t really the case, and when the drawbacks are as immense as they can be with SW, being naive as an advice giver can do more harm than good.
So who gets to give advice, then? The demand is there, so there will be supply. With how easy it is to make money off of referrals on OnlyFans (and with pressure being put on live streaming websites to implement similar features), it’s even easier for established creators to profit off of people who want to do what they do. I think the people who think twice about giving advice, or think long and hard before they publish advice let alone charge to access it, are probably the safest bet - but the people who are less experienced will probably do it first. If you’re looking for advice, I suggest seeking out credentials like time spent in the industry, variety of SW experiences, which skills that you think they could teach you in ways you couldn’t learn quickly or easily on your own, and/or whether or not they’re able to TEACH their experiences to others (because teaching and knowing are two completely different skillsets). Follower count or income matter less these days than meets the eye when we consider viral success stories - yet at the same time, I understand looking at the lure of luck and wanting to find a formula for your own instant rise to fame and fortune. Sadly, I’m here to tell you that I don’t think there is one, regardless of who might be selling their version of a How To.
I want to say to anyone seeking advice a simple, age old “do your research” -- but I also recognize that time is of the essence when many of us want to take the plunge. We need to make a paycheque right now and whatever comes our way first will likely be the only bit of direction or advice, if we get any at all, that we consume before diving in. I recognize that those who take their time, are able to discern which creators would likely give the best advice, pay for that advice and then have the time to study that advice and put it to use (paying for equipment, shooting and stockpiling content, so on and so forth) are likely considerably more privileged than the rest, which stands to further widen the gap between marginalized survival SWers at the bottom and those at the top.
I guess, in reality, this message has tilted from one for advice consumers to one for advice producers. Think before you offer help. Remember that what helps you is not guaranteed to help others. Remember the immense amount of responsibility you have when you offer tangible, procedural steps to entering an industry that can forever irreversibly damage someone’s life. Remember that wanting to help is good, but that sometimes helping is worse than choosing not to.
As far as this blog goes, I imagine I’ll still update from time to time, but I will be focusing my efforts over on OnlyFans moving forward - until the CGS book is ready, that is. Stay tuned~
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Cam Sites & Content Platforms
Since a lot of my inbox consists of “where should I cam?” questions as of late, here’s the general rundown of my advice:
1. MyFreeCams (MFC)
I cam off of this site, and have had no real reason to go elsewhere for 6 years. Easy to use, built in stream software from your web browser (as simple as plug in your webcam and hit “broadcast”), has its own content hosting platform called MFC Share that you can easily upload and sell photos, videos and more. Decent traffic (despite people’s complaints lol), perks like convention passes and merch if you decide to attend events. Heavily community based; more expectations on models to spend time socializing and being friendly/girlfriendly. Female-passing only, does not allow couples or trans girls. I’m sure if your ID states that you are female and you are female passing you could swing it, but it’s not an equal opportunity platform unfortunately so you might be swimming an uphill battle if you don’t fit into the binary as well as they require. Models make $0.05 cents per token, or roughly 50% of what members pay (which varies with token package but... whatever get off my dick it’s essentially 50% mk). Models are rated by “camscore” which is essentially hours streamed vs tips made, which can make things challenging for newer models who don’t reach quick success - but it’s not the be all end all. All of the camgirl survival guide is based off of my experience on this site.
2. Chaturbate
Similar to MFC but with a heavier focus on sex performances. Does not have a built in content hosting platform, but does allow men, couples and trans/NB! From what I hear they have more traffic, but not as much in the way of upper tier earnings - but don’t quote me on that because I have no concrete evidence or anything. Many models prefer Chaturbate over MFC because of inclusivity and because Chaturbate doesn’t rank models by “camscore”, making things a little bit less pressurized. Some that have talked to me prefer the more sexual environment because there’s less expectation to sit around and chat for free, and more expectation to quickly work through countdowns to do performances. I have never cammed on Chaturbate personally so my advice is limited, and I’d defer to anyone who actually streams there when it comes to what the community is like.
3. ManyVids
Was once a strictly content hosting platform now offers live streaming, which many models have found good success on. Run by an ex camgirl herself which I think is cool. They seem to always be doing fun themed contests and have interesting payment incentives and stuff which I really wish MFC would do - I’ve never used MV, but it seems like fun tbh.
4. Nood.tv
A fancy, art-hoe aesthetic sorta platform that’s been up and coming for ages due to the fact that one camgirl is making the whole thing herself essentially. It looks cool but it’s not fully functional and I don’t know about traffic/earnings. Not as simple as plug in and hit go - you’ll need to figure out OBS or Xsplit, which means great quality but more of a hassle.
5. OnlyFans
Mostly for content hosting, also newly offering live streaming! I recently started on this platform and I love it. They only take 20% which is nice, it’s essentially like a slut friendly Instagram, and my subscribers are happy with the platform so far. Would strongly recommend this to anyone who wants to start camming but is daunted by the live stream aspect, comfortable with instagram thirst trap style posting, or has a significant following on another app that wishes to monetize at least some of their viewer base. More to come on this.
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TL;DR
PSA: If you ask me any of the following:
- can I cam with a mask on
- how do you cam non-nude
- how come I’m not successful/how can I make more tokens
I will publicly mock you.
Yours truly,
The Camgirl Survival Guide
#I have answered these all before#like fifty thousand times#don't fucking ask me stupid shit#how do you expect to be successful if you are too lazy to even read#like brO
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Hey, my sis and I want to commit to the camgirl thingy, but we are met with a few problems: 1. We want to go non-nude and wonder what else to do on cam other than, well, chat? 2. We want to start a youtube channel in the future and do not want our faces being shown, so are masks ok? 3. We dont have a large amount of clothing to be "creative"... >_> Thanks!
I have answered all of these questions on the survival guide in the past. If you’re not willing to even read through the articles I’ve got here, then I can’t imagine you’d be very driven to succeed on cam, either.
I won’t repeat myself. The resources are here, it’s up to you to find them.
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2017: A Camgirl Year in Review
I’m definitely one of those ‘New Year New Me’ type assholes, so you better believe I’ve got a long-winded, anecdotal-evidence laden sort of 2017 recap ready for all of you. It’s what I do best.
For real, though - I think I learned more about webcamming this year than any year before, but also more about myself this year than any year before, so perhaps the two go hand in hand. I’ve grown a lot both as a person and a webcam model over the last twelve months, and I’m pleased to say that these changes have brought me to a place where I can comfortably say I’m happy and pretty damn successful. The two have not always occurred at the same time for me, especially with respect to camming, so I want to walk you through some of things I’ve learned - and also give an announcement as to the next step for this blog!
Lesson of 2017: Love What You Do
This is really it. I think success means actually enjoying being an entertainer, not just enjoying being paid, because some days you’re not going to get paid and you’ve got to continue to work with the same amount of enthusiasm as you do when you are getting paid. You want to know what members want to tip for? Genuine care and interest. Yes, this is our job - but if the only reason you show up for work in the morning is because you want to make money, then you’re not working the right job for you.
I didn’t want to accept this earlier in the year. My heart was not in camming, and I was anticipating the same sort of paycheques that I would receive back when I gave a fuck. I just didn’t bother to care: I would show up late or cancel last minute, I would half ass shows or not bother with countdowns, and I think most evident of all, I would spend my time doing other stuff instead of working on ways to make my job more interesting both for myself and for my members. Neither of us deserved that kind of shitty performance.
But what was I supposed to do at that point? Just walk away? I think a lot of us who are frustrated or downright done with camming get stuck in this position: we don’t want to walk away because we know our lives will never be as free as they are while we’re camming, but we refuse to face the reality that we just don’t like it like we used to. Instead of figuring this shit out, we ignore it - but when we ignore it, our members notice. Our room counts get lower. Our tips get smaller. We show up less as a result, or log off early. We can see this potential there for success and we know we used to be able to make it happen, which is frustrating and just perpetuates the shitty situation even further.
So my advice is figure out how to give a shit again. Figure out how to care about more than just the income. You think a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher manages to drag their asses to work day in and day out simply to see a figure on a piece of paper at the end of every two weeks? Money is a part of the equation, but it can’t be the entire equation. Especially in the cam world, you’ve got to find other reasons to be doing what you’re doing, because people notice when you’re looking at them like ATMs instead of like an audience of real human beings. Here are some bits of advice that I’d offer if you’re wondering how to go about solving this issue.
1. Ask yourself if you’re ready to leave.
Be honest. Look at the last year of cam. Are you making more than minimum wage? Are you living, or just surviving? How many hours are you working? How often a week do you cancel cam to do other shit - or worse, cancel cam to just sit around and do nothing at all? Camming is not different than any other job in that eventually, people do want to move on. Sure, we all want to live the glamorous life of a well-paid cam model, but in order to be that person, you’ve got to put in the work it takes, and if you’re not willing to work, it’s not going to happen.
2. Get consistent
I can’t stress this hard enough: consistency. is. key. The absolute most important aspect of my recent re-inspiration for cam is a direct result of my decision to cam consistently. Members can only become regulars if you’re online regularly. Don’t expect offline tips. Don’t expect the same people to show up at random hours of the day. Don’t expect the same crowd to keep coming back if you keep bailing on them last second. Treat your room like you’d treat your own friends: if you make plans to see them, you see them.
Figure out what time works best for you to be consistent, too. I used to push myself to cam nights because I thought (for some random reason) that I had to work nights because nights was when I was “successful”, even though I was bailing my shifts more often than not and not making tokens even when I was on. So I said fuck it and decided to start waking up at 5:45am so I could get ready and cam from 8 to noon, which left me time to go to school, study, go to the gym, live my life and go to bed when I wanted to go to bed. Figure out what works for you. It really doesn’t matter what time of the day it is: there are tokens to be made. You can check the top 100 list at any hour of the day and see top ranking models that are online and making money. There’s no reason this can’t be you.
3. Fuck camscore
When I figured out my ideal consistent schedule, I set hours for myself and decided to focus on staying the entire time instead of giving a fuck about camscore. Since I was starting at a new time slot, I knew room counts would be low and tokens would be slow, but I stuck around anyway. For the first little while, yes, shit was slow - but I knew I was building something for myself, so I didn’t mind sticking it out as much as I used to when I was camming evenings.
Stay for at least three hours. Don’t mention the word “slow”. If no one’s tipping, remind them of the deals you’ve got going on, or mention how much you love your newest video. Dance. Tease. Move around. Hell, work on making prize pulls or something if you have to, but stay for as long as you say you’ll stay.
People notice this, man. People really fucking notice this. This will separate you from the crowd in a big way - or at least, it did for me. I used to think that staying around would make people think my time was free and encourage them to tip less, but this just isn’t the case, especially not from people who give a fuck. If there is one thing I’ve been wrong about for many years, it was that you should log off when things are slow and try again some other time. All that does is show the members who have tipped you, even if it’s just a little, that their tokens don’t matter to you. You’re not likely going to make freeloaders give a fuck. So many tipping members want to be sure that they’re contributing their money to a model who they can count on to be there to entertain them. Logging off to “try again later” just means this: I can’t enjoy the time I spend with you unless you’re paying more than this.
I know we’re camming for the money, but I also know that members aren’t stupid, and they’re not just going to pay you because you want to be paid. This has to be a two way street. Once you start respecting them a little more, things change. At least they did for me.
4. Care
I don’t really know how to explain this last part. I’ve just felt this huge, recent resurgence of genuine love and care for my members that I haven’t felt for a long time. When we started spending more time together, I started feeling so much more connected to them. I fucking love being in my chat room these days - my members are hilarious and they make me smile and I can totally be myself around them, and I think a lot of these feelings came from my decision to let myself feel for them. I’ve also started basing my prizes around stuff I actually want to make for friends, which means more physical/handmade stuff and less generic videos that I know will sell. I love writing my friends letters and making them drawings and shit so now I make prize boxes for my members with polaroids and letters and drawings and stuff, and I’m like ... genuinely happy to send them off to them, because I give a shit.
Maybe I’m coming across a little cheesy or heavy handed with this last one, but honestly, it’s how I feel. When you care, things change.
AND NOW FOR A SUPER AWESOME VERY SPECIAL COOL AS SHIT ANNOUNCEMENT!
This is going to be the last original entry on this blog for some time, because I’m now hoarding my advice to myself .... to release as a book in 2018~! I’m now a good chunk of the way through writing The Camgirl Survival Guide as an actual novel, which will integrate the columns I’ve been writing here over the last three years with my own life story and how it connects to my job. I’ll still be answering asks, and I’m going to leave the material that I’ve already written up here because I want people to still be able to access it, but moving forward I’m going to be saving the juicy stuff to be released as a hard copy book sometime next year.
I’ll keep you guys up to date on progress and when you can expect to hold the actual book in your hands. Please send all your encouragement and good vibes, because becoming a published author has been a dream of mine for many years and I’m really excited about this project <3
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Hey I have done three cam shows so far. Each about 2hr. But only made about $10 in each, I try to welcome everyone to the room and ask how they are doing and stuff. I play today's hit music, good lighting and wear sexy clothes. Any advice?
I’m going to address this not just in response to your question, but as a response to the dozens of messages I get asking me (yet again):
Q: “CAMGIRL SURVIVAL GUIDE, HOW DO I MAKE MONEY???”
A: “I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW TO MAKE MONEY”
Here’s why.
How do cam models earn an income?
It might come as a bit of a surprise, but stripping on the internet doesn’t pay by the hour. It pays, in large part, by chance. Cam models earn an income in the form of tips, which are sent from members of the site who have tokens to spend. In this respect, stripping on a cam site is a lot like singing on a street corner. There will be people that pass by and have a couple dollars to spare. There will be people that pass by and enjoy your music but don’t tip you because they can’t, or because they don’t want to.
And, on rare occasion, there might be someone who throws in $10, $20, $50. Hell maybe a record producer strolls by and offers you some multi million dollar contract.
Camming is very much the same.
Why am I not getting tipped?
Just because you’re trying doesn’t mean your audience is going to support what you’re offering, and just because you’re offering something doesn’t mean it’s good. Being cute is good, but it isn’t enough. Being friendly is good, but it isn’t enough. Being sexy is good, but it isn’t enough. To maximize your chances (and again, they are CHANCES, not guarantees) of being tipped, you’d be wise to be very conventionally attractive, incredibly entertaining and online during prime broadcast times (and if someone can figure out what those times are, especially during July, please let me know).
Camming, just like singing on a street corner, involves a degree of talent. If you happen to be an amazing singer, then you probably won’t have much trouble going out there and making a half decent income. But if you aren’t a very good singer, as you can imagine, it would be harder. I hate to be blunt, but singing ability and conventional beauty are sort of one in the same here. Just like going to an American Idol tryout or something, you’re competing on a website with thousands of immensely talented models, some of whom put thousands of dollars and years of time into their appearance and their ability to entertain a crowd.
So while it’s largely chance to draw in members, you have to remember that you’re also competing (to a degree) with the room previews from the main page, too. Without a social media following (which takes time, dedicated effort and consistency to build up), your only real ability to pull in viewers is through your position on the main page, what your room preview looks like (aka: how you appear in a split frame moment to someone who’s choosing between you and hundreds of other models to click on), and what your camscore is. If your camscore is low because you’re not making tips, it’s going to put you further down the main page, and likely further lower your score.
Long story short:
Making an income as a cam model is equal parts difficult and left up to chance. Physical attractiveness, as well as an attractive and unique personality are incredibly important, but still won’t guarantee you tips - nothing will guarantee you tips. Even being well endowed with all of the "talents" that might put an individual at somewhat of an advantage (aka being super attractive and personable) still doesn't guarantee jack shit, because you've also got to be creative, enduring, incredibly driven and consistent. There are a ton of top models who aren't necessarily pop-star, Victoria Secret conventionally beautiful, but have conquered the cam world with these other badass skills.
These types of “advice” questions are essentially asking me, in very broad terms, how you can make money as a cam model, and I can’t (and have never claimed to be able to) answer that. The entirety of this blog focuses on specific aspects of cam modelling, and I share my opinions on these areas, as well as write entire articles dedicated to tips. It’s up to you to read through them and pull out what applies to you.
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