what's the importance of live webcam to success of a solo website?
 

Does the inclusion of a live webcam/chat on a website have a big influence on the success of a website, i.e. does it significantly increase the conversions?

Do not think conversions, think about retention that is where the money is at.

Although I'm not a site owner, this is exactly my thinking.
It should help retention because of the obvious reasons:

1) Interaction with the model -> increases his "feelings" towards her
2) Prevents a rather common occurrence of the model moving on and the site is essentially dormant. If I was going to sign up for a solo girl site, this would help convince me she's at least still around!
3) Email alerts when she's on her cam -> gets customers coming back when they may have completely forgot about the site
4) For "memorable" shows (perhaps a little girl/girl or something with another solo model), you can archive the videos -> more content or even charge a premium

etc.

I've seen a lot more solo sites adding the cam feature though for girls that only go into this short-term, it could be a pain when the site has to explain why she's no longer doing live shows!

bingo...was his name.
also, stuff like buying panties from webcam shows, online diary, calander of events, sneek previews of whats to come next week, and such also help.

I should have said retention. As you stated, that is the name of the game. It makes sense that interaction between customer and talent would keep members longer. I guess then, that more interaction would be even better for retaining. blog/diary, emails, and all the things mentioned by babagirls would apply to this as well.

So, the question still remains... how important is it? What if there is no interaction? Is a site doomed to fail? I have someone who is intersted in having me put them on, but they just want to have pics and video and not be bothered by anything that requires them to be live or interact at all.

Should I tell her "no thanks"?

Well ask Lightspeed, but then again you are not Lightspeed.

Possible it will work yes, more than likely it will be worth it again yes, though my yes's really depend on what she looks like and her personality.

definitly very important whem it comes down to retaining your members

Fucking aye. I'd say thats 70% of retention right there.

I can aspire to be Lightspeed.

She's hot. What's that mean? Well, I've never given a ten out in my lifetime. I've met some very hot women in my lifetime, especially when I worked in TV/Radio for some Jewish guy that recently went over to Sirius Satellite. (sorry, half Jewish)

She's got a great personality, she comes off well in print and on video. I'm just worried that the lack of interaction is going to hurt the bottom line. I don't mind working with her, I'm just not out to perform charity work.