Building an Adult Cam Site
 

I want to know as much information as possible, so everyone's input is welcome.

Basically, what all do you need to make it work; from the money necessary all the way up to the legalities that need to be taken care of. Is it absolutely necessary to have a lawyer behind the scenes? Do you have to be licensed in order to create an adult cam site? etc etc etc... I'm virtually new to this field, so any vital information that I did not ask a question about would be greatly appreciated

no one here knows?
 

so no one here knows anything about adult cam sites?

I think no one replied because it'd take a week to explain everything - LOL - but I'll take a stab at the specific questions you asked :)

Money:
You need a domain & hosting, which at 1st will be minimal costs. Depending on what things you can & can't do yourself, you'll need to have the site designed. If it's a paysite you'll need to have an account with a credit card processor & have that set up on your server. If you're going to host the cam yourself, you'd need to have all that programming set up too.
If your going to buy traffic or pay webmasters per sign up, you'll need some cash for that as well.

Legalities:
That's a tough one - I'd get a lawyer & ask him to do some research ont he laws & whatnot, as I am not one & any advice I gave would be just that - advice :)

first of all, thanx alot for replying green guy, I really appreciate you taking the time out to respond... but I have a few more questions, if you don't mind me askin?

Would it be possible to have members sign up for minutes to view the girls on the site with? and yes, it will be a pay site, similar to ifriends the way I have it in mind... whether its the visitors who want to become members and view the girls with a time limit or have them paying per minute to view... I haven't decided yet, I'm assuming giving visitors a small fee to buy 60 or more minutes will keep more wanting to come back and get more and more minutes.. or would it be wiser to have them paying per minute to view the girls?

Furthermore, you mentioned traffic or webmaster signups, would it be easier to get traffic being listed on adult search engines or is there other ways to get more visitors to the site daily? I have access to a few sites that I can be featured on, I'm not too worried about being linked on a network of adult sites and/or being viewed on adult search engines... I'm just covering all bases to make sure I'm on the right road

I can't think of any new questions at this time, and again I appreciate you taking the time out to respond to my questions

setup
 

First you'll need a software solution.

You can buy one or have one written for you. To do something like Ifriends you'll need a custom program written for you. Expect to pay $25,000 minimum for something decent. We would charge around $35,000 to write a turn-key Ifriends type site for you.

You'll need a dedicated server. Video requires a high end server fast prcessor lots of RAM and uses lots of bandwidth so you'll need to negotiate a deal for a 10 megabit pipe or you'll go broke on bandwidth fees. each feed on our system uses 1.3 Gb a day per viewer.

You'll need a domain and a decent web designer.

You'll need a card processor. You will have a very hard tiime finding a 3rd party CC company that will work with a webcam site and if you plan to do per minute it will be almost impossible to find a company that will work with you. Ibill and worldpay are the only ones I know of that will let you do a custom per minute webcam site.

Ok so lets say the site is built and working, now comes the biggest hurdle of all. No perfmormers no traffic. No traffic means the performers won't make any money so they'll quickly quit.

So you need to get performers and traffic on at the same time.

Finally yes a lawyer and accountant are a must as well. Expect to spend $5000-$10,000 on the lawyer before you go live.

Hope that helps.

LiveWorldWide's post made a lot of sense to me & since my statements are really only speculation, I'd listen to them :)

I don't know a lot about iFriends, but I do know a lot of inside info on TriCams & HomeSexNetwork (2 very good friends are part owners) Of course, I don't know enough to give you rock solid answers :(

Camhunniez, do yourself a big favor and type ultravid into goddam fucking google, and 90% of your questions will begin to be answered.

It's not exactly cheap, but it's been the professionals choice for over 6 years now. It's off the shelf technology, and the people there arguably know more about girls doing webcams than anyone else in the world.

They have ifriends type packages, billing per minute solutions, the whole thing.

Liveworldwide, your product looks okay, has some nice features, but it doesn't sound like you understand that adult has been doing webcam shows for a long time. It's a mature technology.

I'm not a webcam expert, but the first adult site I ever built was a streaming video site using ultravid in 1998.

BTW, I should add this- in order to do billing per minute, you will need about $20,000 to start- but that's because true billing per minute is only possible with a merchant account, and an adult merchant account is expensive to set up.

Much better to handle it inhouse, sell a member "30 minutes" for say $90 using a standard single purchase IPSP like ccbill, then have your girls watch the clock and shut off the show when 30 minutes are up.

There are other solutions, but they are all variations of the single bulk purchase theme. These are the only inexpensive way to get started.

about that.... is it possible, to have a timer set that starts immediately after someone logs in for their minutes they want to use and view... and once they've reached maximum, their access to the site is dropped? or is it impossible to have that set automatically?

If you are going to do it with the bulk payment or membership method, it's usually not worth your while to track minutes all that obsessively. You want your customers to feel happy and to come back and buy more time. So, usually, in that model of the webcam business, the girls just use simple mechanical timers, like kitchen timers. In that model, usually girls are paid by the hour, not by the minute, and usually not that much per hour either.

Ultravid sells, or used to sell, a per minute charging direct one on one show software- but I haven't been keeping up on the software for this, so I don't really know what the state of the art in per-minute is these days.

If you have good-looking talent that is ready to go, you can often sell a cam show with one-on-one time to the bigger paysites, and start making money faster, but your initial outlay will be between $4k-$8k per station, counting the hardware, plus a bunch for designing and branding a camshow interface, a central server, workspace, etc. Again, we're talking quite a few thousands to start.

Probably much wiser to start with a simple membership site, a webcam show, and some system for one-on-one shows, with all the accounting for minutes done by hand, using paper notes and kitchen timers.

thanx bill, for the detailed responses.. you are always a big help

but aside from the webcam site, but for a regular pay site that features just women taking pictures and making videos for members to log on and view of them... beautiful women.... webcam shows we'll think about doing later when we profit from the basics.... my question is as far as setting up a timer for members to be logged on up to when the minutes they paid for runs out... is that possible? or would it be better to have them sign up as members for a period of time, allowing them to view things?

The standard approach is to charge a monthly fee, typically between 19.95 to 39.95, for access to a members area with at least a few thousand exclusive pictures in galleries, video clips in different sizes for download, and a webcam show that happens a few times a week or more.

The webcam show is usually tame, with a few periods of more explicit stuff. Then you try to sell one-on-one time in a more private webcam page, for which you charge 2-5$ a minute, and get pretty explicit.

yea, a simple membership site is the way we're definitely going to go to start out, so we can generate profit and later spend that money for the webcam site in the future... im guessing that having guys that are members, who became part of the girl's fanclub will be the ones who are only able to viewthe cam shows when they're available.. so my question is, are the fanclubs (i.e. on ifriends) coded, programmd, or are there particular payments necessary to acquire a fanclub for your website? but like I said, I'm thinkin members who join girls' fanclubs will have access to the cam show when they're available... having the videos being available to members will be like a preview of the cam shows and we'll make it clear that only those in the fan club of the girl doing thje cam show at particular times will be able to view her.... but my next question is, do you think this is a good idea?

I'm not personally familiar with the structure of ifriends. I've never been on it, and don't know that much about it. If they have "fanclubs" on ifriends I have no idea how they work.

But yes, usually small membership sites that feature webcam shows have videos clipped for download so that members can get some idea of what to expect, and then members login at say 10 at night when the webcam show starts.

There have been a couple of people here who manage camgirls, but I haven't seen them posting lately. I was hoping some other people who are doing camshows right now might speak up, but camshow people are working in the content/talent part of this industry, and this board overall is more oriented to the marketing and traffic part of the industry.

I promtoe www.camcontacts.net and recently started to promtoe this new thing which a German / UK Phone Web Cam servce.

http://www.smithslookup.co.uk/phonesexcam/index.html

Ive met a few people that have their own cam platform including both of the above. I think theres still room in the market for some thing different but the question is what?

Guys get hooked on these girls and spend they entire life savings away, just those sorts of people never seem to sign up under my codes :-)

CamHunniez

I have a studio with girls, I have been working for almost any camsite around, what do u need to know exactly?

iFriends Fanclubs are kinda overrated, they pay the monthly fee but only get free cam if the girl is hosting a free fanclub session. Otherwise they get billed at 50%. Most girls exploit the fanclubs by not giving what is promised, they kinda have a take the money and run mentality about it. I've been a chathost for over two years on several sites, iFriends, ImLive, Tricams/Homesex Network and I find from a chathost perspective having a setup where you validate the users credit cards for say $1 and then they are free to search the site and pay per minute is better in the long run.

Guys that have time limits in their accounts usually end up frustrated, cause they get booted right out of the room as soon as time runs out. That frustrates the hell out of me because a potential good paying show was just cut short. Now you are left wondering if the guy is going to put more money in his account and most DON'T.

I would say its good in the dept. of controlling the amount of charge backs as most site owners would want to but then again, I'm not so sure. ImLive has a system set up like that, you have to re-up your account and guys charge back like crazy on there anyways.

Also if you are planning on doing a fanclub type of set up no cam girl is going to give a full all out cam show to these guys every single day. Believe me any guy who has been around these sites for a long time would much rather pay $20.00-$29.99 a month and get all the cam they want. Think about this, phone sex is not sold that way so why would you sell cam sex in that manner?

I don't think you are gonna do any good with a membership type site. Actually it's phyisically impossible.
Let's do some math.
Let's say 1 memebrship cost 30$ a month for example. And that u will have 10 girls online all the times.
Let's say a professional camgirl earns 100$ a day for 8 hours work (that's her share, or the tudio sharere, not yours). Some make less some much more but let's say on average.
So for 24hrs you need to make 300$ to "pay" every girl, just to pay the girls... nothing for you :( and to have $300 a day you need to have 300 members... You know what means for 3girls(3shifts in one day) to make 300 memebers happy??? Impossible.
THis would guarantee ONE 24/7 live show. Imagine if you want 10 girls online all time...

And that is just to cover the girls expenses... Still nothing for you and nothing to pay for server, webmasters, promo and all the rest.

Ifriends or Imlive fanclubs are a plus to the payperminute... members have some feature like can see the email of the girl or some free videos or exclusive pics but can't be the main income.
The only good thing is that they are recurring ...funny I have one girl not performing for more than one year and still having 3 ifriends members on her fanclub paying every month for nothing.

So what can I suggest...
There are 2 types of sites that in my openion can be successfull:
- Pay to View = u see nothing unless you pay (ex: camcontacts or imlive or tricams)
- Pay to Private= u can free video chat with the girl but pay for a private show(cumtv, livejasmin, flirt4free)

They both have pros and cons.
Pay to Private is maybe easier to attract traffic but you can endup with a bunch of free loaders and a big server bill at the end of the month. (you will need to rebroadcast the performer video from your server)
Pay to View is chaper to run (you can have a performer/viewer peer2peer solution) and it doesn't waste the performer too much time so they can stick your software in the background while working on other sites. Only problem is that is quite hard to attract customers as they see nothing but a few pictures before they pull they credit card out.

The ideal solution would be what "streamate, aka vipstream(wegcash) or epiccams (********) is using.
Ie: Pay2Pvt but you need to provide your cc to see the free shows even if not get charged. That will ensure all the viewers with no credit card to stay out of the game but then again it's not easy for people to give your credit card details if they see nothing before.

There is an already made system that is doing quite well: check it out at http://www.firecrackervideo.com and you can see the a demo of it at http://www.livejasmin.com
It can handle a lot of viewers and performers on the same time of course depending from the server performance and band.
Another good choice would be a flash communication mx solution but you still need a developer to adapt it to your needs.

After you chose you system you need to worry about performers and traffic. I would worry about traffic first, infact normally girls and studios try new sistes, at least for 2,3 days or 1 week, maybe they put you on background while working somewhere else, but normally they test you. If nothing happen in terms of money for them in 1 week they leave you and you are done. The voice will spread and you will be classified like a crap site.
If in that week they make money in less than one month you will have your site full of performers 24/7. Studios and performers are like a big family they spread news about new sites very fast.

I could keep on for hours so if you need to know something more specific just ask.

Let me try to do a little interpretation here...

Firecracker, is, I believe, an ultravid software, (at least I first heard about it from ultravid) and is presented as being an off-the-shelf ifriends style camshow solution.

Alexshark, there's a big difference between the way a one or couple girls site is run, and a 24/7 camgirl business is run. You sound like you are talking only about the full blast camgirl studio in your commentary, which all sounded pretty much right on.

I haven't figured out yet wether camhunniez wants to do a small camgirl site or start a full blast camgirl studio. ( I think she wants to start small and grow bigger.) Most of the suggestions I gave her were based on the small camgirl site model.

How much do you figure it costs per station to set up a camgirl studio?

Other than the stations, what other costs would there be to set up a camgirl studio?

What software do you use for your camgirl studio?

Maybe we can get some single-girl webcam site operators to talk about how they run their business?

Ok so...

Firecracker is Ultravid's software, it's java based chat and video and asp pages.
You need to install a server software and a client software on every performer's pc.
The performer video go to the server that reboradcasts to all the viewers.

What I was talking about was a 24/7 camsite but I used the 1girl example to try to explain my math.

To set up a station... well don't need much.. to stay on the budget...
1 Pc, 1 webcam or better and old VHS camcoder with remote and capture card, a couple of lights, a bed or a couch, some decorations, 128kb (the more the better) upload speed (as long as someone is rebroadcasting your signal or you have got only 1 or 2 viewers in the same time), possibly one public ip but most of the time not necessary.

Other costs... well I can't see any significant ones, maybe some advertising on local papers looking for performers.

Software... I work for videochat sites so they provide the client software.

PS : have a look at http://www.webcamxp.com ...that should be a good software for single camgirl site.

That webcamxp looks great. I'm definitely going to keep that in mind.

I have a bunch more questions myself, but I'm going to wait and see if camhunniez comes back with more more questions of her own.

And it would be great to hear from more camshow deliverers.

Phatbiatch, you said:
"I've been a chathost for over two years on several sites, iFriends, ImLive, Tricams/Homesex Network and I find from a chathost perspective having a setup where you validate the users credit cards for say $1 and then they are free to search the site and pay per minute is better in the long run."

Where does the software come from that lets you do that kind of per-minute charging?

What's involved in becoming a camgirl, and how much does it cost to get started?

Are you the developer of firecrackervideo.com?

No, nothing to do with them, I just worked for 3 sites that use their system so far.

A free way to stream video is to use Windows Media Encoder + Windows Media Server.

You still need to have all the administration software and the pay-per-minute system (it's usually javascript that handles that).

Um ifriends and tricams both have proprietary software that you broadcast your cam through. I don't know much about what software is being run on their servers. Actually iFriends offers alot of options, media encoder, helix, ifcam, or easycam (new flash-based). LOL I'm sorry I don't have more knowledge on the technical side, but all of the sites are Java-based. ImLive incorporates Eyeball chat into their programming.

To become a chathost on any site costs $0, most take 50% of your earnings for allowing you to host cam there,plus ifriends keeps a running 10% reserve for any chargebacks that may occur within 6 months. They do start paying the money back to the hosts after 6 months. Out of pocket expense would be for a fairly inexpensive webcam. Logitech QuickCam comes to mind LOL. The plus side of working on a big site is there is built in traffic, payment processing, shopping cart system and basic privacy protection, and they handle all aspects of customer service.

Now, if you wanted to offer pay per minute cam shows on your own there is that webcamxp, coffeecup webcam 3.0 (i think), webcam32, and I personally use Inetcam.com. For a personal license it was $40, and it can generate an applet that you can paste right into your site BAM you have a personal cam site. Inetcam offers a commercial license solution as well, so they can fit everyone's needs. Problem is now how does the independent cam girl process payments? iBill, CCBill, and the big guys won't let you take cam payments so the girls are left with places like Ikobo, Money bookers, Storm Pay, Pay Direct (which does not permit adult) and various other offshore payment processors that popped up within the last 8 months. I don't use any of them, cause I basically use my personal cam setup for my phone/cam customers on another site.

Those who might be interested in running a Studio, ImLive offers a setup where you can be an ImLive Host Agent & have girls work for you under one account but is limited to 5 hosts. iFriends also allows cam studios to open up shop on there, there are quite a few eastern European studios operating on there.

ImLive Host Agent

I have issues with that whole setup.

Serverwise or clientwise?

With how it's a turnkey style camsite. The same exact formula is used for every site that uses this software. I have no problems with the software. What I have a problem with is that any jerk out on the net can see the girls, even when they are in a private show. And how they promise to pay performers $10 an hr for working there, which is a complete scam. If I'm wrong and not all sites that buy their software operate in the same way then I apologize. It's just that I worked on their site and it was a bunch of B/S then about 6 months after that a new website popped up and some other cam girl tried to get me to work on there and I wasn't having it because it was the same exact scam.

So if cam sites are opening using their software and using their own format for paying performers and attracting customers then fine. But I'm not generally in the habit of endorsing scammers and the products they peddle.

Sorry which site are you talking about?
MaxCams?
I think that one is the only one "paying" $10/hour and I never tired it. It's not a default firecracker thing. Also the fact that they see you when in pvt (in small size) is a setting that can normally be turned off bu the performer.
I mean it's not a software issue, it's all about the people that operate the sites.
Have a go at livejasmin.com. They use FC but no private preview and no fake $10/hour. Also the traffic is very good.

I was talking about Girl Time and he has a couple of mirror sites. Yea the private preview is real tiny and what not, it's the free preview that bugged me. It's normal size for one, and guys hardly paid for shows on there. LOTS AND LOTS of traffic but few buyers, and lots of assholes and freebie chasers.

But I think you misunderstood me Alex, I never had a problem with their software just they way the guy runs his site. I had considered buying the software once

thanx everyone for the debating back and forth, helps me to understand and determine what's better than what... I appreciate it... especially you phatbiatch, you brought alot of options to mind

basically, the membership that we're creating will start out as just a model site... we'll feature videos and schedule webcam shows during the week, but first we'll start with pictures... with a small monthly fee (19.95), so guys can get used to the girls, used to seeing them... then gradually bring in more features and then introducing more girls month by month, ultimately raising the price of the monthly access, which will end up being 39.95 when we're featuring the scheduled webcam shows (we'll use an outside program to start with: msn or im logitech)... good idea or does it need a lil tweaking?

the advertising is not a problem, the traffic acquiring won't be a problem, getting the word out will be virtually easy because of the ties and partnerships we have.. we're just gonna hold off on the webcam site for a lil while, because of the cost... that's why we're makng a membership site, that will generate profit we'll use towards creating the webcam site in a later date, possibly a year or two.... we'll have girls licensed with us, so when we do put forth the webcam site, we'll already have girls ready to go

for now, the focus is getting the membership site started and keeping it successful enough to complete a dominant webcam site in the future or sooner if possibe, because we believe in supplying girls with their worth... so in the long run, we will definitely hope to get a minute-per-minute service where girls can actually make almost, if not, more than a thousand a day with us... providing there are many members, and that all falls on the shoulders of our advertisement, which we'll be getting a healthy dose of with the membership site and the dedication to getting-the-word-out that everyone possesses; hopefully achieving loyal fans for our women

I was reading up on a potential web host, so I want to inquire about a few things that I read on there, so that I have a complete understanding of everything....anyone that can describe these things in detail (i.e. what it means, how it helps, is it really good or just sub par, etc... any information is appreciated)

Apache Web Server
Searchable Database
Multiple Speed Broadband Video
Customized Templates
DVD video captures
No Upsell
Java Video 100% compatible

and gig transfers... anyone care to explain what they're for? I'm not entirely sure, so I want to get exact input about it, rather than assuming...

again, thank you to everyone consistently replying here, helping me get a better understanding of things to come

Cool, you're welcome, lol at least my webcam girl experience is able to help someone else with providing some insight.

Sorry I am not trying to be an asshole but are you really gonna start such project without knowing what these things are?

Anyway:

Apache Web Server - http://www.apache.org

Searchable Database - http://www.mysql.com/

Multiple Speed Broadband Video - the video is encoded in various formats suitable for slower or faster bandwidth

Customized Templates - http://smarty.php.net/

DVD video captures - a picture that is actually a frame of a dvd movie

No Upsell - dunno what u mean

Java Video 100% compatible - http://java.sun.com/

Gig transfers - the more you burn the better chances to get a Christmas card from your hosting company you have.


|waves|

everybody starts somewhere, some time alex.. nobody's fresh out the gate knowing it all, but I started in this as a recruiter; I didn't ask detailed questions about how things are organized and how things are orchestrated, I just focused on recruiting the women for the project... now, I'm gonna create my own websites, so it's like buying a home.. I wanna know everything there is to know, from the in's and out's to the crosses on the T's and the dots on the I's, beforehand... so yea alex, im fairly new to this, which is why I ask so many questions, cuz I'm a sponge for knowledge

question for you, phatbiatch... you're no longer a webcam girl or you still do it to this day?

Sorry for making an ancient thread active. We are working on a new solution that makes it more easy to engage into this market. With us, you don't need to have $35,000 upfront. Check our site for more info. You can always ask me more info at my chat, it's hosted at http://www.remarkable-se.nl/player.php

Can this software record the sessions?

That feature is not yet available, LeRoy.