My case for cams: piracy proof business
 

The purpose of this thread is to outline my opinion on the webcam industry and how, for certain streaming platforms, it's practically unaffected by piracy.

Note that piracy is a serious issue, and I myself have even had tube sites in the past that have auto scraped videos from dozens of tubes, but since looking into the cam industry, I've realized that the so-called issue of piracy really doesn't make much of a dent in the world of camgirls.

This post is pretty much focused entirely on My Free Cams: it's my favorite platform and Crak Revenue are stellar at providing a great affiliate experience. I also find the style of MFC to be particularly anti-piracy. So, without further ado, let's take a look at what I'm talking about.

The MFC Environment

MFC is quite a unique cam platform. Unlike a lot of places where you typically play a flat amount per minute to see the girls do things, My Free Cams is basically a crowd-funded public sex environment. I'd estimate that 90% of tips made for girls are instigated in non-private environments, and because of this, anyone can easily jump on over to MyFreeCams.com right now and watch girls getting naked, playing with themselves and doing whatever else. Put simply, it's as true to the concept of 'free cams' as you can get.

Now how has MFC managed to make cash by getting girls to do things for free? Well, you see, there are one or two people out there that just want to pay a few bucks and see a show - Streamate is the type of site where this is popular. But you'll find that the more time people spend on My Free Cams, the more attracted they become to the idea of having a girl in their lives.

What I'm talking about with these types of cams is a personal experience. It's so much more than just sex - in the world of escorting, there's a concept known as the GFE, or 'girlfriend experience'. Put simply, the escort will go out with you, look pretty, kiss you, hug you and basically act as a girlfriend. There are some guys that really like this, and others who just prefer the straight-up sex. Thankfully, the GFE has translated world into the cam world, and My Free Cams is very much the pioneer of this concept.

So what are we talking about here, exactly? Instead of the girls just stripping and playing with themselves, My Free Cams promotes an environment where the girls talk to you about your day, show off their pets, have games (which I think is an INCREDIBLY attractive and addictive element of the camgirl experience) to play, add you to snapchat, will send you their used panties and even meet up with you IRL for a dinner date. Basically, camgirls on My Free Cams (at least the profitable ones) are turning more into the cyber GFE experience. They're no longer just objects of sex, they're objects of companionship and interest.

Pirating Sex Shows

Now I'm not going to pretend that people aren't looking all over the Internet for videos of the top girls on MFC. Let's face it, they're fucking hot, and they know how to get down and dirty. MissAlice18 is a perfect example of a girl that I've beaten it to on multiple occasions. She's so similar to my ex, but just has those little details a little more refined and perfected. She's a dream babe with a killer body - who wouldn't want to hit that? Anyway, I digress.

Those people out there that are watching these videos are NOT the people who are going to pay for the shows anyway. My Free Cams is, for all intents and purposes, public. This means that you can go to the site right now and watch free sex - all the videos do is archive the content. In essence, you're not getting access to anything that you wouldn't have been able to get just by visiting the site. There's no pay wall. None. Don't believe me? Spend a few hours on MFC, you'll see what I mean. I don't think that the concept of piracy as we know it (that is, taking someone you're supposed to pay for and getting it for free) exists with these cam shows. In fact, I'd argue that it's preferable for off-site storage in this context, because it can offload bandwidth, but that's another issue.

The Whales

The ultimate aim by being an affiliate with My Free Cams is directing those that want the GFE experience. Why? Because they will pay for it. And they'll pay lots too.

Let's take a look at my biggest fish.

http://i.imgur.com/y67XZmP.png

This is one guy who has earned me a total of $2530 since the start of November 2014. Now I get 15% of whatever he spends, so that equals $16,700. It's a relatively impressive amount, but I'm sure there are dozens of affiliates that have even bigger dudes than this guy signing up on the daily.

I'm by no means heavily focused on cams, I do plan to be because of this, but I assure you the cash will only keep increasing as I pump more and more time into it. See, the beauty about Mr. $17k here is that he doesn't have to spend a penny in order to get the sex. But like a lot of people, it's the attention, the recognition and the extras that come with the sex that are worth paying for. He knows he doesn't have to pay, but he does so anyway. To him, the concept of going to a website and watching the videos is pointless. That isn't what he wants. He wants the GFE, which is something that only comes with cash.

Pirates are either not interested in the personal experience (in which case, they're likely to be pretty frugal when on cam sites) or otherwise can't afford it, in which case they're just bandwidth hogs. Either way, the facts of the matter are that the people who are really paying a lot of cash for cams are not the type of people to be swayed by pirated material.

Conclusion

If you genuinely feel that the adult industry is plagued with piracy and it's cutting into your profits, switch to webcams. I hope that I've made a clear case as to why it's such an interesting realm of adult entertainment and the parallels it has with the escort industry. I truly believe that piracy doesn't have that much of an impact on webcams, because the real money comes from people who aren't there for the video alone.

Anyway, that's my take on the nature of piracy and webcams. Others are free to argue their case and claim that the webcam industry is being ruined by caps, all I'll say is that you should switch over to an aspect of live sex that doesn't have this issue.

Oh, and if you made it this far and have a genuine interest in promoting My Free Cams, the least you can do for me is sign up through my refferal link. Simply click here now to head on over to Crak Revenue and get signed up. I suggest you go down the revshare route with cams on MFC, but they also do $2.50 PPL for the top countries.

I hope that this post was useful and helped you understand a little about the current climate of camgirls and how My Free Cams has really managed to produce a unique platform and atmosphere that focuses on elements that don't lend too well to piracy.

So what are you waiting for? Start promoting MFC today with Crak Revenue.

never heard of this cams stuff, interesting concept this MFC site has. thanks for the info, i am gonna research cams on my own.

It won't work dude, the F stands for free...

Hi Arnox,

You are mostly right, but, It's not that the pirates aren't interested in webcams, it's that recorded webcam shows are not nearly as interesting as the Live experience.

We have customers who spend a lot of money chatting with the girls they like. They will go and watch the recorded shows, but only the shows that they themselves help create, and even then, not so much. They are much more interested, and more than happy to pay for, the live one-on-one real time GFE - style chat. Porn, movies, video clips and tube sites do not interest them.

Good post!

It's a proven-working model. No bones about it. Cam4 (Yes, MFC came to the party later and didnt invent this model, at all) pioneered the whole public money-making machine and now, it's blown wide open for one simple fact: It doesn't matter if its free to watch/download, the ones who are willing to pay, pay these girls/studios handsomely for live/interractive porn.

Unfortunately, The best promoters of cams are, piracy sites.

Not a bad post, lil' bump for you ...

Point-taken bro. Deserves a bump for everyone to read :thumbsup

interesting and thought provoking post. how much would your company charge to seo my site to the first page for "free cams" lmk.

You raise some excellent points. I've often thought about cams not being able to be pirated .. wrote a white paper about it, didn't generate much interest at the time.

On the other hand, from a site owner's perspective, the cams business is a lot more intensive in terms of time, teamwork, payroll, scheduling etc.

Most paysites don't have ongoing costs unless they are investing in growth, (which you should be) once you produce or license the content it's not generating any expenses. And it won't usually show up for work late, or surprise you with an uninvited performer on cam, or fall asleep in front of the cam, or try to steal your customers.

Most of that is offset to a degree by the much much higher income potential, but the margins are smaller as the income has to be split a lot of different ways.

Normally when you get a chargeback on a paysite your only worry is the processing % and the CB fee, and if you are using a 3rd party processor like CCBill or Epoch they usually eat that anyway. But with cams, the performer has usually already been paid and it can be complicated to get that commission back from them, personally I usually don't even let them know unless I see a pattern in which case I just close the account.

I guess the main thing is that with cams you have to be able to manage people, and not the easiest people at that. If there was a word that described performers I don't think it would be "reliable". Most content producers are well acquainted with no-shows, but at least when they get it right they have something solid in their hands. With live performers it's a daily adventure like herding cats.

go to pornbb or planetsuzy there are dozens of threads hundreds of posts deep of pirated cam videos.

theres no money i porn or cams. i will sell fishes at the fishes market ;)

But you will be called "Shirako"

Promote cams. Great. Now what? Put a link up? Great. No money. Now what? Put another link up? Okay great. $150 after 2 months. WooHoo! Promote cams!

Yawn.

You'd have to wash like 10 cars to make that much bru.

My job is director of cam sites since 2004 and I can tell most of the cash in cam sites I administered it always been made with girls mostly clothed talking about how it was their day. Hour long per-minute paid private chats, where they talk about having seen certain movie or book, how's their pet, or else "what's new" stuff.
Customers and perhaps affiliates, have no idea what's going on in longest private chats with the whales, and they assume it is hours of masturbation, but that's rarely the case. If cam sites billed only the minutes of sex, giving back the money paid for clothed chat minutes, the 80% of revenue would be lost. Note that this was the same back in 2004 and years before MFC was popular at all, this is a constant in human nature.
What MFC done it is to open this reality to the public, removing the private/pay gates, so everyone seen what really it happens in those paid private: lots of clothed blah blah, paid per minute by "boyfriends". Since it is opened and public, now these boyfriends send massive tips.
There's even who counter-tips to keep a girl clothed, I mean, a fan will offer to match every tip anyone sends to the girl, so that the girl does not do what these guys asked her to do. Guy1 tips $10 to see her tits, the fan tips $10 for her to keep clothed, guy2 tips $20 to see these damn tits, the fan tips $20 more for her to keep clothed, and so on.
That's quite a nice way to do cash for a cam site, and the girl have to do absolutely nothing but smile clothed on cam :)

Actually 14. LOL

Which competes with nothing and serves to promote the camgirl and the site she performs on. Cam customers want interaction, the videos are just a trophy. They don't replace the customer experience any more than the empty box replaces a big mac.

There is no money in cams, move along!

I'm sure there are, but it really doesn't matter.

For guys who like Cams, watching the girl do her thing is secondary. What they crave most of all, is the PERSONAL experience. The girl who does that special thing just for you, that specific, highly personal ultra-niche action, is why cam sites do extremely well despite the rampant piracy and tube sites.

Exactly. Sex & Toys and whatever are good, but customers spend MORE time and money "just talking".

doesnt matter one bit :2 cents:

I love me some cams :thumbsup

PS see sig :D

you actually need a proper member base first :2 cents:

*insert facepalm image*

Excellent write up on MyFreeCams, and a very thought provoking post at that. Great points!

Thanks for sharing your results, Arnox. Happy to have you with us ;) :pimp

The good stuff in cams -- what you don't see for free -- is streamed in secure tokenized sessions in "private shows". Cam content's value is in its real time production as a personal interactive "event" of the buyer's orchestration.

Not many *uploaders (read:pirates)* will pay the $2 to $5 a minute to make crappy screen caps. What you think is pirated video content is from freemium or free chats. Or, some studios or cam sites will upload (or plant) hardcore content for publicity.

There are maybe 4 million sales transactions a year, conservatively, for cam credit and token purchases (or more) globally (all webcam sites) I would guestimate.

What are you saying? That my 22 total Members aren't a big enough sample size to really judge? How DARE you Sir!!

:smiling_b

Find it and post it, dude. I'm sure I missed quite a few points on why pirates aren't really the types of people that are going to ruin the cam industry with videos.

Sure, but the question you have to ask yourself is whether or not these people are likely to be paying for cams if they couldn't get them for free. In the case of paysites, I think most people would be happy to shell out a few bucks in order to get access to a hot porn video if tubes didn't exist, but that's because paysites rarely offer anything that can't be replaced with a tube. I don't think cams have this issue, because it's not about the video, it's about the experience.

It's the difference between going to a concert or watching a recording of it done on an iPhone. The latter might be interesting to some, but we all know that you can't beat the real thing. Same applies to cams. Those who are going to pay for the experience are not going to have that experienced replaced by webcams.

I think one of the most interesting elements of MFC is that there are some girls on there who are always clothed. They will literally never get naked on cam - they might tease a little, sure. But the sex element on their streams are completely non-existent. Now those girls are real smart cookies.

:thumbsup

Good read, thanks for writing it :thumbsup

MFC is a grave yard if you are not stripping in public...it is true that a very small % of models make money by basically being naked in public :1orglaugh but you really do not know much about the cam business and how much money is really being made on the real sites...

camming in general does not suffer from piracy it suffers from "free shows" that degrade the whole industry and are to cams what tubes are to porn...

MFC is a beggar training camp, crak revenues scammy "hi my name is derek, never pay for cams again" landers are beyond comment...what kind of beggar do you expect to land with "hi my name is derek" :1orglaugh

MFC is money only for a very small % of girls, the 15% cut you get is laughable compared to other programs, and the "FREE DO NOT SPEND MONEY" landers do not help you much :2 cents: I Know crack revenue will say it out-performs other landers, well a stupid nail-in-coffin advertising campaign will always out-perform a legit effort, let me put this in proper light for you:

"FREE NEVER PAY FOR A PORN AGAIN, YOUPORN"

free cams are to cams what tubes are to porn= big money for very very few at the great expense of the whole industry...you would make much more money promoting regular cams, like every single model I have signed up to MFC has made more money on the crappiest pay site than on MFC...

You are missing the point. He is saying that people who are generous on cam sites are not looking for porn first, but looking for an experience and friendship. Those of us cam girls who do well also want friendship and to connect with people.

And here I thought it was a sales pitch...

the same thing exists in the pvt model...porn is a smaller part of profits...

the token model devalues the whole industry...it is plain old lazy advertising where people are lured in by the fake promise of "free"...then the industry has to adapt and lower the bar ect...

its kinda like what "Reality" did to TV...what tubes did to porn...torrents to movies ect...there is always some lazy guy with an "idea" on how to ruin shit and make a quick buck :1orglaugh

but it will not ruin cams, just devalue it...

WTF, on google you can find the answer to every question in human history, EXCEPT how to convert CAMS.. Its crazy...

If the model says "$10 to show tits" and I tip that and do not see tits I would be raising hell for a refund. I am sure majority would do the same. Not pay 200% on top of that.

piriod!!!

I find myself wondering if the MFC model will eventually be the downfall of the cam world. Here's my thought: I don't spend much time on MFC, but over time I have written a lot of reviews and done other things for clients that involve various cam sites. Most cam sites suck. They are packed with girls who have a dead look in their eye and do nothing but sit there and say, "take me private" over and over again. MFC is different. A lot of the girls have a lot of personality and it is more like a community. However, it seems like a lot of girls on there are bitching about getting tips. They want a total of 3,500 tokens (for example) to get naked and two hours later they still don't have it so they end up just leaving for the night or giving in and getting naked anyway.

My wonder is that if eventually people will just say, "why should I pay for any kind of private show when I can go to MFC, hang for a little bit and watch chicks getting off for free?" Sure, there will always be those that will tip and certain girls that have their followings, but I wonder if there will come a day where the freeloaders eventually overwhelm it. As an example. I just went to MFC, clicked on the link for the most popular rooms at the moment and two of the top four had hot girls using toys on themselves and one of the other two was fingering herself. I had my choice of three hot shows an I didn't spend a dime, nor do I really have any motivation to spend a dime.

I say all of this just based on history. Every time this industry decides to give more away for free it creates a lot of traffic, but seems to hurt sales and dilute earnings.

Just a thought.

http://www.mredllc.com/photos/property/542/08811542.jpg

no money in cams.

Been working on our own cam platform for over a year now and imo you can not compare MFC with any premium service out there. Sure you can see a lot of action for free but the main thing with cams is the personal interaction with the girl. That's where the money is. So the business model is just way different.

Besides MFC has been around since what, 2006?

All in all I don't believe it is a treat really. not in it's current format. I know MFC is making a killing so yes it works out for him but it's not a real treat.

hola Roald... how's the cam going now?

Where's the industry taking the good, the bad, and the ugly?

I was about to make this point. It's pretty 'sad' that in 1999 you had to pay to see one breast and now girls are one-upping each other with toys and plugs and dancing like monkeys to get your attention for free.

As for the OP's post:

He may be right about people wanting a GF experience but the real question is, "is there just as much money in promoting cams as there used to be?" ... Obviously not.

If there is, please do tell how to get a nice slice of the pie.

RE: Pirating Sex Shows

This is a response to an article posted on a webmaster forum and from an experience from a few webcam models.

It is said today that the advantage of webcam porn shows over recorded videos is that it's live.

Unlike films recorded then put into a members area, where it simply needs one member to download then upload the videos to all the tube sites, forums, torrents and so on (which in turn may be reposted, and reposted by others).

This gives the model the advantage that people need to watch her live.

However it must be noted that the shows may and often are recorded. These may be by individuals or automated by websites. Many sites such as camgirlcaps appear to automatically record the shows then upload to the site. They can often be found by simply doing a google search for the name of the model. However it is also probable that other sites do not use the models names and so finding the vids online becomes far harder.

Some people record the shows then upload to sites such as xhamster and other tube sites.

While others will share online via other sites.

Tracking such videos is extremely hard and one must question if its worth even the effort.

If having such videos online is going to make problems for you (say at work) then one needs to think about this before doing webcam.

Ideally when you do a show, but some material up behind you to disguise your room.

And whatever you do, never disclose personal information such as your personal email, your real name, your real location, family and friends and so on. This may seem obvious but someone I know has done this and it's caused her problems.

Its been said that those who download the videos are probably not ever going to be your customers. But I disagree.

My advice to any webcam model is to always on webcam show such as your twitter address or website or something. You can download software to do this or very simply have it on a banner on a wall behind you.

The idea then is those pirated videos now become advertising for you. Say your videos are seen by 60k of people it would be hoped that 60k may join you on twitter. And when you do a cam show you can post to say your going online and now you may get 60k watching you.

One thing to note is that before you do this (putting such as your twitter address on your cam site) check with the terms and conditions as some sites may not allow you to do this.

RE: Pirating Sex Shows | Wouj Webmaster Site

MFC has a problem in that it does not seem to police itself that well.

By this I have known models ask openly for money for escorting and doing shows on skype and asking payment via paypal.

A girl I know uses MFC simply for this.

This should be against the rules and harsher punishment.

The is so much myth around "cams" and "earnings".

Quite simply, EPCs aren't great when averaged across all unique clicks with cams. Why send high quality unique traffic to cams and earn say .02 per click when you can send to dating and earn .30 per click? Cams are much much harder to convert than anything else. I've owned cam sites. I've bought shit loads of traffic to cam sites. I am intimately familiar with the economics of cam sites. I don't send my bought traffic to cam sites. No big player does in media buys that I am aware of.

Of course someone occasionally spends a ton of money. How much money was spent trying to get that guy?

People excited about promoting cams are like having jack off friends that love going to Vegas to play black jack. All you hear about are the wins. No one talks about the losses. No one talks about how big the losses are over time.

:2 cents:

I am not sure about the affiliates, but running a mid to large cam site it is profitable. Running too small cam sites it is a waste of money and can bring the owner bankrupt.

Cams can be pirated but pirating cams feeds is made impossible by encryption. However, desktop display video can be recorded.

To do it right requires tech knowledge or you can use some of the windoze .exe proggies that are usually exploits to your windoze system.

Piracy is an overrated cost. People that want free don't pay (usually). The other school of thought is that if they could not find it free they would pay. There is little empirical evidence but not any definitive evidence to support the latter assumption. Personally, I think the latter assumption is wishful thinking and unrealistic -- the market got moved. At any rate, eventually wildfires burn out and some trees are left standing -- the forest regrows. Porn has survived a 7,000 year history in one form or another :2 cents:


I don't have any personal experience with dating other than being told it is profitable and seen its growth over the years.

It usually costs me $0 to get that guy but you are correct in that standard porn traffic sucks. Cams are their own market and porn surfers don't really give a shit about it.

I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone or something. Cams are dog shit easy to promote if you aren't approaching from a porn webmaster perspective. I would never send bought traffic to a cam site period. Bought traffic is garbage when sent to things they are interested in.

So without revealing your sources, how do you go about getting these guys? What is different about them compared to porn surfers?