Adult webcam studio 101

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maddog152fo

Pigeon
OldRich said:
This is awesome dude, definitely keep posting about this. I have a few questions for you.

What country are you operating this in?
What are the laws like regarding cam shows? can you run down some of the legal aspect of this business if you don't mind.
How are you planning on finding the models?

I'm launching the first studio in Lima, Peru. Not any real benefit to this country over another, it's just that I've been doing business in Peru over five years. So I got as pretty good feel for how business works in this country. A project like this is not gonna work in every country. JoeHoya already comented how he couldn't make the numbers work in the states. But here, where the minimum wage is about 275USD, it is definately doable.

As far as laws here regarding webcam studios...catch me, fuck me.

Not really, well maybe.

Webcamming basically consists of a woman (usually) in some semi-private place playing with herself while people pay to watch. There is no sex involved, so it's not prostitution (which is legal in Peru anyway). Masturbation is not prohibited by law and activities that are not prohibited and are conducted on private premises are afforded constituional protection. So, according to my lawyers, the actual business activity is permitted. Of course, no minors. That is a planet-wide no no.

A city business liscense may be required depending on how you want to play it. We are gonna first try it without and see how it flies. If there is a problem we will get a liscense as a call center.

Zoning is not really an issue down here.

As far as taxes, also not much of an issue. Most websites pay their studios with an online payment processor, like payoneer. Models are independant contractors. We will pay them in the same manner. There is a 2% financial tax on transactions if the money stops moving in Peru. But as there will be no income actually earned in Peru, no corporate income tax. Stateside taxes, I can make up to about 90k before I have to pay anything to Uncle Sugar. With my other businesses, I am pretty close to bumping up to that limit, so I will have to consult with an accountant up there to see how to play that.

Finding the girls? They are finding us. For now we are paying a 50USD birddog fee but thats gonna stop real soon as we have more girls now who want to work than studio capacity. Not an issue. Again check JoeHoya's comments about how to get started finding girls. We did some of that and the word gets out real fast.

We are paying models 3x the national minumum wage so there are plenty of applicants.
 

Hooligan Harry

Kingfisher
Gold Member
maddog152fo said:
OldRich said:
This is awesome dude, definitely keep posting about this. I have a few questions for you.

What country are you operating this in?
What are the laws like regarding cam shows? can you run down some of the legal aspect of this business if you don't mind.
How are you planning on finding the models?

I'm launching the first studio in Lima, Peru. Not any real benefit to this country over another, it's just that I've been doing business in Peru over five years. So I got as pretty good feel for how business works in this country. A project like this is not gonna work in every country. JoeHoya already comented how he couldn't make the numbers work in the states. But here, where the minimum wage is about 275USD, it is definately doable.

As far as laws here regarding webcam studios...catch me, fuck me.

Not really, well maybe.

Webcamming basically consists of a woman (usually) in some semi-private place playing with herself while people pay to watch. There is no sex involved, so it's not prostitution (which is legal in Peru anyway). Masturbation is not prohibited by law and activities that are not prohibited and are conducted on private premises are afforded constituional protection. So, according to my lawyers, the actual business activity is permitted. Of course, no minors. That is a planet-wide no no.

A city business liscense may be required depending on how you want to play it. We are gonna first try it without and see how it flies. If there is a problem we will get a liscense as a call center.

Zoning is not really an issue down here.

As far as taxes, also not much of an issue. Most websites pay their studios with an online payment processor, like payoneer. Models are independant contractors. We will pay them in the same manner. There is a 2% financial tax on transactions if the money stops moving in Peru. But as there will be no income actually earned in Peru, no corporate income tax. Stateside taxes, I can make up to about 90k before I have to pay anything to Uncle Sugar. With my other businesses, I am pretty close to bumping up to that limit, so I will have to consult with an accountant up there to see how to play that.

Finding the girls? They are finding us. For now we are paying a 50USD birddog fee but thats gonna stop real soon as we have more girls now who want to work than studio capacity. Not an issue. Again check JoeHoya's comments about how to get started finding girls. We did some of that and the word gets out real fast.

We are paying models 3x the national minumum wage so there are plenty of applicants.

The trick with this sort of thing is to kind of apply basic business models to it and not get caught up in what it is. You seem to be figuring out the best way to do things as you go along, and thats not a bad thing at all, but normally you find that what applies to one thing will often apply to another.

Consider the way you handle strippers and love motels, and maybe its not far off that.

Here are some things you can consider:

- Anytime you push content through a traffic generator, they will take a cut. Sometimes you score from the volume of traffic they bring, but if you start building up a large enough group of women, then it may be better just to start offering affiliate programs of your own and gradually building up your own site. So do both, use the existing services, but gradually build up a site of your own, this way maximising their chance to earn. Gradually, as your own site starts growing, you take a cut off that.

- With regards to the chicks, managing any contractor is a pain in the ass. Does not matter what industry, but something like this is going to be frustrating. Consider the stripper model, which is them paying you a set fee per day REGARDLESS of how much money they made at your joint. So you provide the facilities and the customers, what they do after that is their problem. You dont need a pimp hand this way, they need to work off their days cost before they earn. This is a much better way to do things too for your books too, because a lot of it can be cash. It will be a lot less to manage too.

- Dont even consider paying salaries or taking a percentage of what they earn. Stay away from that if you can IMO. I know you think you will make more money, but it costs you more and you need to manage them. The more time you spend managing them, the less time you spend growing the thing. Charge for the room by the hour instead, or in blocks of hours. This way, what she does in there is her business only, all you are doing is providing an internet connection and webcam. Just like strippers, they will come back when they know what they can make, and just like strippers they are going to know they have to work or they wont cover what they are paying to work there.

- You keep your earnings consistent, and what you want are full rooms only. Thats what you focus on, filling the rooms. After that, its up to the women in there to do their thing, you are getting paid no matter what.

- As your own site starts to grow, take a percentage off it just like the current traffic generators would. So you would have your rooms, and you would have your site.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
That is not a bad idea at all.

Managing employees is always a hassle. That is the one aspect of this project that I was really not too excited about, having to manage a dozen or so latina cunts. JoeHoya touched on the subject a bit. These employees are by nature lazy and flaky.

Paying a salary or commission not the best option. But renting them the space? Brilliant idea! That does away with a lot of managerial issues. Me like.

That is why I started this thread, gentlemen. There is power in collective consciousness.

Thx Harry
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
Traffic generator. That is a good way to describe the websites. I have had some trouble explaining this aspect of the business.

The websites are where the betas can go to look at models, chat with them and hopefully get horny enough to go into private chat (where they pay 3-5USD/minute).

Some of the more popular ones are MyFreeCams, LiveJasmine or Streammate. There are a bunch.

The websites usually don't have their own models. Their focus is on bringing traffic to their website. Often times they will have an affiliate marketing program where they pay others to drive traffic to them.

Basically the website finds the buyer and presents the buyer with a catalog of models. Traffic generators.

The “traffic” is browsing the website and looking at the models who are currently available.

Those models are all over the world, streaming live vid from a studio or from their home.

The studios and their models are creating the content which the website then sells to their client (the traffic).

If a client “takes them private” that means that he begins paying an ungodly amount each minute to watch the model do whatever it is she's gonna do.

So for example, if a client is “private” with a girl for ten minutes and she charges 3 bucks/min then 30 bucks is deducted from the client's account. That 30 bucks is then split between the website (for the traffic) and the model (or the studio if she works for one).
 

OldRich

 
Banned
Maddog, ever thought about attacking this market on a different angle than the typical way? there seems to be an abundance of low quality cam streams and girls that the market has to be craving for something better. I feel this market hasn't evolved at all, it's the same low quality webcam that I've seen years ago.

If I were to do this, this is what I'll do:

Invest in the best internet connection I could find, perhaps T1? or if possible T3. This is doable in the west, not sure if this is available in Peru. Offer something no one else does. HD chat.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
OldRich said:
Maddog, ever thought about attacking this market on a different angle than the typical way? there seems to be an abundance of low quality cam streams and girls that the market has to be craving for something better. I feel this market hasn't evolved at all, it's the same low quality webcam that I've seen years ago.

If I were to do this, this is what I'll do:

Invest in the best internet connection I could find, perhaps T1? or if possible T3. This is doable in the west, not sure if this is available in Peru. Offer something no one else does. HD chat.

You're right there is a lot of crap quality vid.

But HD is the standard we are trying to achieve with our studio. The websites actually factor in the quality of vid stream when the are presenting the models on their sites. Those with the higher quality are usually presented before lower quality feeds. Its like a google search result. The higher you rank the more eyeballs that see you.

The websites are spending money in bandwidth for every model that is actively broadcasting. So they wanna get the best possible stream out to their customers. That's why a lot of em prefer to work with studios. Vid quality, lighting, set design and other technical factors are usually better with the studios than the solo model broadcasting from their bedroom. HD streams can usually charge a bit more per min as well.

The internet connection (specifically the upload speed) is something we are dealing with right now. I fucked up and selected our studio location without considering the internet velocity available in the neighborhood. I've got techs working on it, but we may have to actually relocate to get the velocity to stream HD.

I'm looking at broadband bundellng as a possible workaround.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
Vorkuta said:
:popcorn:

Will be following this one with interest. Do you aim to keep your relations with the girls strictly on business terms or are you using the business to get sexual benefits?

Never say never but this is business. I almost never mix business and pleasure. Almost never ;)
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
bface said:
gfy.com

Nothing on there about this?

That's a really active forum but its mostly about affiliate marketing, webmastering, white label sites, stuff like that. Not too much about the things we are going through to get a brick/mortar studio up and running.

I will be spending more time with them shortly because we want to be actively driving some traffic to our models. But that's later on.

I spent quite some time looking for stuff about operating a adult webcam studio. There really isn't much. I found forums for the models and the web guys (like gfy). But not much for studio managers. I think these guys keep it pretty close to the chest.
 
Excellent thread.
As someone who's interested in business but doesn't have any experience, it's very cool to see this unfold. Then there's guys on the total opposite end of the spectrum (eg Hooligan Harry) who can offer brilliant insights gained from experience. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Business is business no matter the avenue and this has the potential to be an invaluable resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

Keep the posts coming! Will be following this closely.
 

Duke Castile

Crow
Gold Member
Do you just advertise the job? How'd you get the word out? And, can you pay a little more and ask that they be able to understand written English...or maybe you can teach them to use google translate....teaching them English seems inefficient....
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
RenewalMan said:
Excellent thread.
As someone who's interested in business but doesn't have any experience, it's very cool to see this unfold. Then there's guys on the total opposite end of the spectrum (eg Hooligan Harry) who can offer brilliant insights gained from experience. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Business is business no matter the avenue and this has the potential to be an invaluable resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

Keep the posts coming! Will be following this closely.

Thx for the words man. I concur 100%. That is why I am putting the effort into this thread. We can create a reference that will serve others. In this type of project or perhaps something similar. Or something completely different. Who knows?

I have been thinking about Harrys suggestion all day. Its that kinda stuff that makes it worth my time to post to this thread. To him it was maybe no big deal. But to me it was an elegantly simple solution to a common managerial problem. A problem I expect to be more challenging than normal in this project.
 

Duke Castile

Crow
Gold Member
maddog152fo said:
RenewalMan said:
Excellent thread.
As someone who's interested in business but doesn't have any experience, it's very cool to see this unfold. Then there's guys on the total opposite end of the spectrum (eg Hooligan Harry) who can offer brilliant insights gained from experience. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Business is business no matter the avenue and this has the potential to be an invaluable resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

Keep the posts coming! Will be following this closely.

Thx for the words man. I concur 100%. That is why I am putting the effort into this thread. We can create a reference that will serve others. In this type of project or perhaps something similar. Or something completely different. Who knows?

I have been thinking about Harrys suggestion all day. Its that kinda stuff that makes it worth my time to post to this thread. To him it was maybe no big deal. But to me it was an elegantly simple solution to a common managerial problem. A problem I expect to be more challenging than normal in this project.

Here's my take on HH's suggestion. Most of these girls don't have any money right? They aren't going to like that proposal to start out. So you start out the way you were thinking earlier, then after these girls start making money and see the potential (aka get them addicted to the money) , then you change the policy and do it HH's way. Bam.
 
Following for interest. I knew someone who has done the webcam model business. Kinda similar to this, but he just pimps the girls on cams and gets a cut of the money.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
JofSuperman said:
Following for interest. I knew someone who has done the webcam model business. Kinda similar to this, but he just pimps the girls on cams and gets a cut of the money.

Thx for following. Don't hesitate with any comments.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
Fisto said:
maddog152fo said:
RenewalMan said:
Excellent thread.
As someone who's interested in business but doesn't have any experience, it's very cool to see this unfold. Then there's guys on the total opposite end of the spectrum (eg Hooligan Harry) who can offer brilliant insights gained from experience. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Business is business no matter the avenue and this has the potential to be an invaluable resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

Keep the posts coming! Will be following this closely.

Thx for the words man. I concur 100%. That is why I am putting the effort into this thread. We can create a reference that will serve others. In this type of project or perhaps something similar. Or something completely different. Who knows?

I have been thinking about Harrys suggestion all day. Its that kinda stuff that makes it worth my time to post to this thread. To him it was maybe no big deal. But to me it was an elegantly simple solution to a common managerial problem. A problem I expect to be more challenging than normal in this project.

Here's my take on HH's suggestion. Most of these girls don't have any money right? They aren't going to like that proposal to start out. So you start out the way you were thinking earlier, then after these girls start making money and see the potential (aka get them addicted to the money) , then you change the policy and do it HH's way. Bam.

Nice
 

ManAbout

Pelican
What is tying all this together? Do you have a custom designed software solution or are you using something off the shelf?
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
RioNomad said:
Ah, got it. Sounds interesting man. My question would be what does the average girl on there bring in per week/month? Were you able to get some figures on this in order to see if the business would be viable?

Looking who is online now, there are 90 Asian chicks, 250ish white chicks, 80 Latin chicks, but only 34 black chicks. I wonder what kind of statistics Livejasmin releases so you could crunch the numbers to see if each black model is bringing in good money because there is a lack of them? Or maybe there is only 34 online because they are in lesser demand than other ethnicities?

hey man, found this website today on craigs list - vegas. they got a few fotos on facebook, gives you an idea of the breakdown of models. check out the huge tit section on the right. again, JoeHoya knows his stuff.

[attachment=7164]
 

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Hooligan Harry

Kingfisher
Gold Member
Fisto said:
maddog152fo said:
RenewalMan said:
Excellent thread.
As someone who's interested in business but doesn't have any experience, it's very cool to see this unfold. Then there's guys on the total opposite end of the spectrum (eg Hooligan Harry) who can offer brilliant insights gained from experience. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Business is business no matter the avenue and this has the potential to be an invaluable resource for newcomers and veterans alike.

Keep the posts coming! Will be following this closely.

Thx for the words man. I concur 100%. That is why I am putting the effort into this thread. We can create a reference that will serve others. In this type of project or perhaps something similar. Or something completely different. Who knows?

I have been thinking about Harrys suggestion all day. Its that kinda stuff that makes it worth my time to post to this thread. To him it was maybe no big deal. But to me it was an elegantly simple solution to a common managerial problem. A problem I expect to be more challenging than normal in this project.

Here's my take on HH's suggestion. Most of these girls don't have any money right? They aren't going to like that proposal to start out. So you start out the way you were thinking earlier, then after these girls start making money and see the potential (aka get them addicted to the money) , then you change the policy and do it HH's way. Bam.

Still a pain in the ass because you need to manage them. You build a model and you stick with it.

Think about it

- Manage their productivity
- Manage their attendance
- Manage what they are willing to do
- Manage their activity and monitor it

Its a waste of time and it will slow you down. Even if its just for a little while or even just a few of them, its a waste of time and would be a waste of money as a result.

Simplify it and treat them like contractors/salespeople/strippers. And if they dont have the money to pay the fees for the day, offer the newer girls discounts for the first few weeks if you have to. Make it policy to never take a cut of their pay/tips.

Its better to charge them less or nothing to get them going then it is to take a cut of pay until they are on their feet. Its all about time management, but also making sure they produce more from day 1. You want them to feel like they are getting a good deal and that they cant do better elsewhere.

Enable people to be self sufficient, dont manage them because you are worried you may lose out. Always think of their pocket, and you will take a little knock here and there, but its OK. You will more than make up for it over the long term.

You improve productivity by incentive. If the girls are making a lot of money, they are going to be bringing down friends and cousins in no time too. Treat them well, let them make their money, and if you need to help them out a little to get them started, then do it. Once they are hooked with what they can earn, you are not going to have to worry about managing them at all. Some will waste your time, but the ones that dont will pay you back ten fold.

Remember, simply it. Always, simplify, even when it looks more expensive on the surface. There is a saying that has always stuck with me

"Penny wise, pound foolish"

In other words, dont save pennies that may cost you pounds. If it requires a little investment in a chick that will eventually earn, give her a few days free. If she sticks around, charge her more the first few weeks so she can pay it off (not too much, just a little) and before you know it she is going and you are collecting. Give it to her free just to get her going.

This is a pretty solid idea. There is money in content and sex will always sell. But the location also makes this feasible. The infrastructure is widely available to women in the US if they live in a city, so chances are it wont work as well in a developed country.

In the middle of Lima, high quality connectivity is not widely and cheaply available. Throw into the mix the fact that the exchange rate works in their favour and you are not going to battle to find girls nor will you have to tolerate much bullshit.

Good luck with this maddog. Run it like a business, not like your personal brothel, and you are going to make some decent coin with this. Never get high on your own supply.

Your next step once your rooms are full is to make them sign agreements, but its an agreement between you both and its more informal.

While you may not be able to enforce them in a court, its more a case of them understanding that they need to turn up consistently but that you are also looking after them too. So the agreement is for them to pitch up for a specific amount of hours on specific days. You guarantee them their room for those times and those days always. Its their space for that time, and you can review the agreement at anytime.

You then make them pay weekly in advance for it eventually, and if they dont pitch up on specific days without adequate notice, thats their problem, you still get paid for it. You will see a lot less flaking this way and your earnings will also be more consistent.

What this allows you to do is forecast your earnings better too, and before you jump into setting up the next one in a new location or adding more rooms, you know that what you have is being used efficiently. You will be able to track your income in advance with some accuracy and it will help with your planning.
 

maddog152fo

Pigeon
Hooligan Harry said:
Still a pain in the ass because you need to manage them. You build a model and you stick with it.

Think about it

- Manage their productivity
- Manage their attendance
- Manage what they are willing to do
- Manage their activity and monitor it

Its a waste of time and it will slow you down. Even if its just for a little while or even just a few of them, its a waste of time and would be a waste of money as a result.

Simplify it and treat them like contractors/salespeople/strippers. And if they dont have the money to pay the fees for the day, offer the newer girls discounts for the first few weeks if you have to. Make it policy to never take a cut of their pay/tips.

Its better to charge them less or nothing to get them going then it is to take a cut of pay until they are on their feet. Its all about time management, but also making sure they produce more from day 1. You want them to feel like they are getting a good deal and that they cant do better elsewhere.

Enable people to be self sufficient, dont manage them because you are worried you may lose out. Always think of their pocket, and you will take a little knock here and there, but its OK. You will more than make up for it over the long term.

You improve productivity by incentive. If the girls are making a lot of money, they are going to be bringing down friends and cousins in no time too. Treat them well, let them make their money, and if you need to help them out a little to get them started, then do it. Once they are hooked with what they can earn, you are not going to have to worry about managing them at all. Some will waste your time, but the ones that dont will pay you back ten fold.

Remember, simply it. Always, simplify, even when it looks more expensive on the surface. There is a saying that has always stuck with me

"Penny wise, pound foolish"

In other words, dont save pennies that may cost you pounds. If it requires a little investment in a chick that will eventually earn, give her a few days free. If she sticks around, charge her more the first few weeks so she can pay it off (not too much, just a little) and before you know it she is going and you are collecting. Give it to her free just to get her going.

This is a pretty solid idea. There is money in content and sex will always sell. But the location also makes this feasible. The infrastructure is widely available to women in the US if they live in a city, so chances are it wont work as well in a developed country.

In the middle of Lima, high quality connectivity is not widely and cheaply available. Throw into the mix the fact that the exchange rate works in their favour and you are not going to battle to find girls nor will you have to tolerate much bullshit.

Good luck with this maddog. Run it like a business, not like your personal brothel, and you are going to make some decent coin with this. Never get high on your own supply.

Your next step once your rooms are full is to make them sign agreements, but its an agreement between you both and its more informal.

While you may not be able to enforce them in a court, its more a case of them understanding that they need to turn up consistently but that you are also looking after them too. So the agreement is for them to pitch up for a specific amount of hours on specific days. You guarantee them their room for those times and those days always. Its their space for that time, and you can review the agreement at anytime.

You then make them pay weekly in advance for it eventually, and if they dont pitch up on specific days without adequate notice, thats their problem, you still get paid for it. You will see a lot less flaking this way and your earnings will also be more consistent.

What this allows you to do is forecast your earnings better too, and before you jump into setting up the next one in a new location or adding more rooms, you know that what you have is being used efficiently. You will be able to track your income in advance with some accuracy and it will help with your planning.

Spot on.
 
I ran a sex industry business in Bogota, Colombia for about a year - Bogota Brothel Tours. I heard about the webcam business from a client who was looking forward to meeting webcam girls in Medellin he'd already met online. So I started looking into webcam.

As stated in a few posts, a studio doesn't offer much a girl can't do on her own. They're going to be on LiveJasmine and all those sites anyway. It's not as much of an investment as gringos might think for a Colombian or Peruvian whore to get a computer with webcam set up. When I started talking to whores about the webcam business, everyone I met did it from their bedroom.

I had heard of studios in Colombia, but they were in business because they were able to receive payments online, while the whores couldn't. That was the only value the studios provided.

I didn't research much and it was well over a year ago, but I remember coming to the conclusion that the only way to make real money off webcam girls was to provide the affiliate links to their LiveJasmine profiles. LiveJasmine (or whatever webcam site) have sophisticated tracking links that will account for every dollar someone spends after arriving from your site. So in my case, since I'm a blogger, I was going to party with these whores and write about them with affiliate links. But the first time I hung out with one I decided I didn't want to hang out with whores.

Brothel tours, however, would work in any Latin American capital (Lima, BA, Santiago, DF) or high tourism destination.

However, the most important point - keep a low profile with the Peruvian government if you're not a citizen. Try to put assets in a Peruvian partner's name. Latin governments don't want gringos launching sex businesses. I started getting harassed like crazy once I launched the tours, culminating in my pseudo-deportation from Colombia.

BTW, I'm in Arequipa right now. Drop me a line.
 
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