Category: Skype Camgirls and Cam Sex

A Follow-Up on Cam Girl Blog Services

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cam girl blog picture

 

Tumblr and Camgirls, A Cam Girl Blog Service Update

In my last post on no-cost blogging services for cam girls I outlined the ‘big three’ (wordpress, blogger and tumblr) and explained how the acquisition of tumblr by Yahoo was causing concern amongst camgirls who were worried that their cam girl blogs would be shut down, or flagged as ‘adult’ by the service. At the time it appeared that tumblr, like blogger, was simply targeting affiliates who use these services to spam their advertisements for major porn companies (not cam girls), but over the past few days it appears that a small content site used heavily by camgirls has been affected by tumblr’s new stance on adult material, as have a few camgirls who posted material on tumblr that heavily linked to the content site.

The site in question, a small content site used by cam girls to sell videos and skype cam shows, featured a tumblr ‘auto-post’ function wherein advertisements for new video uploads were automatically published to tumblr when they were published on the content site. Now, posts containing the name of the site are blocked from tumblr, the ‘publish’ button grayed out for any post in which the name of the site appears. Not good 🙁

For what it’s worth I suspect that this particular content site was targeted by tumblr because of the volume of automatic posts containing affiliate links generated from the site. While I don’t agree with tumblr’s policy, these automatic posts containing affiliate links do fit the category of ‘affiliate spam’ in that the content is not unique and the entire purpose of these posts is to drive viewer traffic to a commercial adult site. From my perspective, the only change between then and now in terms of tumblr’s stance on adult is that it’s evident that cam girls can’t assume that we’ll fly ‘under the radar’ when it comes to policies intended to target spam affiliates. We cam girls and the sites we work are becoming big business, and it’s increasingly important that free blogging services are not used for automatically-generated, affiliate link-laden posts if we want to use them for our cam girl work.

For those who are interested in a new no-cost blogging service similar to tumblr that doesn’t have any restrictions on adult, soup.io seems to be becoming a viable alternative. While this service still doesn’t have nearly the amount of traffic one can find on tumblr, it’s growing and I do believe the customer traffic will eventually follow the adult content producers who use it. It’s a new service, but it’s an adult-friendly service that does not feature any of the restrictions of the ‘big three’ no-cost cam girl blog options.

In sum, while the censoring of adult content on tumblr is disappointing, it still doesn’t appear that cam girls are at any significant risk of having our blogs shut down if we’re smart about how we use them, and strive to create unique, meaningful content that is more than just a bunch of affiliate links. While it appears that camgirls and webcamming are becoming increasingly high-profile, and as such subject to the same scrutiny as other forms of adult content, we ARE unique in that our businesses are ourselves. We’re unique individuals, not static pay sites. If we put ourselves, our unique personalities into our work we’ll attract great customers AND stay within the guidelines of no-cost blogging services such as tumblr. Auto-generated posting may be efficient but it’s not creative, and it doesn’t differentiate us from spam affiliates. Take the time to write your own content, use affiliate links sparingly and these services still do have some value.

An Update on an Update

So appears that tumblr has reversed it’s stance regarding the content site I’ve referred to above. Yay 🙂 Still, a lot of independent camgirls are pretty upset with the censoring of adult content on tumblr, and understandably so. While a few camgirls are leaving tumblr in protest, I guess I look at it like free blogs aren’t going to be around forever anyways. They aren’t something we pass down to our grandkids 🙂 We don’t own them, and thus, our control over the content we post there is somewhat limited. That’s the trade-off I guess. I still think tumblr is a great way to meet new customers and it’s ideal for skype camgirls who aren’t able or willing to put the immense effort that goes into running and promoting a full website (I love it but fuck it’s a lot of work).  I’ll take the good with the bad, I guess.

Happy camming 🙂

Messenger Services for Independent Cam Sex Shows

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independent cam sex shows with Quinn

As an independent camgirl I’m primarily a skype cam girl, but there are a ton of free private messenger/video call service options for independent cam sex shows under the sun so I figured I’d break em all down here. Even though I strongly prefer skype for my cam sex calls, skype takes up a ton of bandwidth and isn’t ideal for those with less-than-stellar internet speed, so if you’re a fan of independent cam shows and skype boots you or your playmate offline unceremoniously one too many times, below I’ll be discussing  some of the other free options available. After all, in order for cam sex to be awesome the calls actually have to work.

 

Yahoo Messenger Cam Sex Shows

Yahoo is always my preferred initial point of contact with potential customers and playmates but the service does support video calls as well, not just instant message (IM) chat. That said, the quality of video streaming on yahoo is less-than-stellar, and I find my playmates cams freeze on me far more often that with other services. There also seems to be an issue at times when my playmate and I are using two different versions of messenger…every now and then a video call ‘answer’ button will be inoperable and only returns to working function after my playmate logs out and returns. That’s annoying, for both of us.

Still, I do find yahoo to be an invaluable back-up service, in that it’s one most people tend to have already so it’s easy to access if skype is overloading the bandwidth of my playmate. Yahoo messenger supports free one on one video calls and you can choose to have IM’s sent to your mobile phone if desired.

 

Skype

Skype is my favorite messenger service for independent cam sex shows (as if the fact that I call myself a skype camgirl wasn’t enough of a tip-off) 🙂 mainly because I like the video call clarity compared to yahoo, I’m familiar with the service and it seems to be the most widely-used amongst my customer base. With skype voice an video calls are free, but in order to do group video calls one party to the call needs a paid skype premium account. The major drawback to skype is that many of my playmates with less than great internet connections get booted off of calls, so while I love skype I’d never use it as my sole option for independent cam shows. I also like that I can block an unlimited number of unwanted visitors, and can control who can see my profile and avatar image as well as who can initiate a video call. What I don’t like is that my conversation history on one computer does not always show up on another computer, which makes it annoying if I need to scroll through the chat history to find a piece of info a playmate has sent me. If both parties only wish to do one on one video calls and have ideal internet upload/bandwidth capacity, skype is an ideal choice. That said, look below for other options available to independent camgirls

 

AIM Cam Shows

Yes, it’s still around 🙂 I’ve personally never used AIM but it is apparently still a viable option for independent cam sex shows. It supports IM chats through one’s browser (the other party doesn’t need to have a download themselves) and group IM chat, however only one on one video calls are supported, there is no free group video call option.

 

ICQ for Independent Camgirls

I use ICQ for IM contact with webmasters (most adult webmasters seem to prefer it for some reason) but I’ve never used it for independent cam sex shows. The reason why is that, beyond adult webmasters most North American guys don’t seem to use it. The main downside to ICQ is that when I have it open I tend to receive a LOT of spam messages and contact requests, but you can easily ban/silence unwanted visitors. ICQ is mobile-friendly and supports free one on one video calls (there is no free group video call option) and there is a large community of chat rooms (including adult-friendly chat rooms) available if that’s your thing.

 

Camfrog for Independent Cam Sex Shows

Count this in as another service I’ve never tried. Still, from what I’ve gleaned Camfrog is both adult-friendly and mobile-friendly, has a user directory (which can be a good or bad thing, depending upon whether you want people to contact you unsolicited) and has an option for login through Facebook. Obviously this latter feature is a huge no no for independent camgirls who don’t wish to broadcast to their entire network of family and friends that they work selling independent cam sex shows, so be wary of using the Facebook login option. Camfrog supports free IM and person to person video calls, but not a group video call option.

 

Eyeball for Independent Cam Girls

With Eyeball independent camgirls can IM with contacts from their AIM, Google Talk, MSN and Yahoo lists all fro Eyeball Chat, which is a cool feature for independent camgirls who use several of these services simultaneously. Another plus is that Eyeball supports free video calls with up to 5 participants, and like ICQ provides access to a range of chatrooms.

 

Google Talk

I have to confess, I struggle with Google Talk. Maybe it’s the Luddite in me but I find it cumbersome to access and confusing to use, and I like to actually understand what I’m trying to explain to my playmates 🙂 In order to do cam to cam video calls each party needs to download a ‘hangouts’ plugin, and each party needs a google plus account in order to carry on video calls with more than one person simultaneously. I dunno, maybe one day I’ll actually try to wrap my head around it, perhaps not right before I begin a call 🙂

 

Oovoo for Independent Camgirls

With Oovoo independent camgirls can video chat with up to 12 people for free, and it also supports a few features that I think are pretty cool. You can watch a video with your cam sex partner during your cam to cam video call (ideal for watching porn during independent cam sex shows) and you can also create an up-to five minute recorded video which would be great for independent camgirls who are looking for a way to send preview videos to customers. I just link ’em to my youtube preview video but a range of options is always a good thing. Oovoo is mobile-friendly and also allows camgirls to embed a live video feed right on your website, access to which you can control through passwords. One major downside however is that with Oovoo video call participants can record the video call without having to download (or pay for) any extra software or plugins. Not great for independent camgirls or customers who want to minimize the risk of getting recorded.

 

PalTalk for Camgirls

I think I may actually look into this one 🙂 I’ve yet to use Paltalk but it has a range of features that sound interesting and unlike Oovoo don’t make it uber-easy for video call participants to record the call. With PalTalk you can import yourYahoo, MSN, AOL and Facebook (nix the Facebook idea please) contacts and the service supports free group calls. Independent camgirls can also create their own video channel URL through PalTalk and embed a live video feed right on a personal website. PalTalk also has a variety of community chat rooms for those who are interested.

 

I’ll admit, I’m a huge create of habit in preferring skype and yahoo over all other services, but in my defense so are many of my cam sex playmates. I like yahoo for initial contact and skype for video calls both because these seem to be the two most popular services amongst my customer base, and secondly because…well, I’m used to ’em 🙂 Still, with MSN messenger being merged with skype (MSN used to be my second choice service for video calls) it never hurts to have at least a couple of options available to cam sex playmates who have internet upload/bandwidth that is too low for Skype.

That’s the beauty of being independent camgirls, we can run our business they way we want, and adjust our options according to the needs of ourselves and our customers.

How to be Taken Seriously When Seeking Skype Domination

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skype domination webcam snapshot

Notes on Submissives Seeking Skype Domination Cam Shows

First off, some full disclosure here. I’m not a lifestyle Domme in that I don’t participate in off-cam BDSM activities, fetish sex of all kinds is something I sort of ‘grew into’ for lack of a better word, during my years exploring sexuality on skype and yahoo. Probably my perspective on fetish skype sex is best summed up here, in that I don’t follow formulas and strictures, and I don’t involve myself in anything hard core that could end up with someone being physically harmed. That stuff I’ll leave to the professional Dommes who hold far more experience than I. For me fetish sex is about exploration on both sides, and I really believe that skype shows are the perfect venue for exploring desires that many aren’t comfortable partaking in ‘in real life’. That said, fetish skype sex of all types has become an increasingly dominant (see what I did there?) 🙂  theme in my skype cam shows, and I’ve noticed some particular patterns that I feel warrant a post here on my skype sex blog.

What is Domination?

Skype domination involves me, or rather my alter ego Lady J, taking possession of your mind, your thoughts, your actions….even what you crave is given over to me to bend and twist according to my whims. Sometimes domination takes physical forms (such as CBT and flogging) but while I’m a huge fan of spanking and wielding my strap-on for forced bi shows I’m much more fascinated and entertained by the mental facets of skype domination. Since my entertainment is the first and only priority during domination cam sex, the mental and verbal is always at the forefront of my style of Domination.

 How to Be Taken Seriously When Seeking Skype Domination

Granted, I tend to be more of a workaholic type A personality than your average human being and I’ve turned ignoring annoying people in general into a precise art, but I tend to immediately ignore any professed sub who messages me on yahoo by addressing me as ‘Goddess’. Why, you ask? I ignore these people because to me it’s a huge warning sign that the dude is simply looking for some free text chat to get off on his fantasy, and it also demonstrates to me that the person really isn’t all that interested in a unique and memorable change between two human beings. Goddess is a fairly generic term…Skype Dommes who use the name ‘Goddess’ do so as part of their persona, making that term unique and special to them. Stripped of any attached identity the term Goddess means nothing to me or to the guy who uses the term, and besides, dudes need to pay to earn the privilege of calling me my Domme name of choice.

That brings me to my next point…another ban-worthy offense is expecting to get into specific details of what the indivdual seeks in a skype domination show before he even books one. Part of domination, actually, part of being a decent human being is respecting the time of others. I know throughout the years I’ve banned some probably great dudes simply because they didn’t understand that fantasy chat isn’t free and I didn’t feel like stopping what I was doing to explain that simple policy to ’em 🙂 The way I look at it, before we enter into a skype domination arrangement you’re not my sub, so don’t call me Goddess.

Granted, these rules are mine, but the prinicple behind them can pretty much be applied universally. As a skype camgirl OR a skype Dominatrix I’m not paid to get naked, I’m paid for my time and undivided attention, and expecting to get that without paying for it just isn’t on, ever. If you’re serious about wanting a skype domination show, contact me, give me a general idea of what you seek (please not I’m not interested in Financial Domination so you’ll have to seek elsewhere for that) and then pull out your credit card. After those formalities are over with we can get on to the good stuff, which is exploring what I want to do to you on cam and then having my way with you, preferably in cam to cam 🙂

I was compelled to write this because in this past week alone I’ve banned several dudes simply because they messaged me with some inane variation of ‘o Goddess let me serve you’. Yawn 🙂 They make me even more grateful for my real playmates who share experiences with me, instead of seeking a warm body to fill a pre-determined ‘slot’. I’ve never filled pre-conceived slots very well, I think that’s a good thing 🙂

When the Bad Influence Gets Influenced

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camgirl under the influence

A Camgirl Under the Influence

Haha, I made a (bad) pun :). In all seriousness though, I pride myself, nay revel in being not just a kick ass camgirl but also a dreadfully bad influence…inspiring respectable upstanding citizens to drop their clothes and act thoroughly improperly for my delight and entertainment while rarely losing my regal composure. This week though, it was a bit of the other way around 🙂

I arrived home from the office at noon and turned on my skype only to be immediately messaged by a certain naughty Englishman who’s appeared in all his glory on the pages of my cam sex blog here more than a few times over. It all started out innocently enough (by my standards of innocence, of course)… he stripped off his clothes and modeled his adorable derriere for me as he started in on a bottle of bubbly. I had put on my regular home summer attire of bikini and a smile. Next thing I know one of us got the idea that drinking alone is a terrible idea, and it only seemed proper that I add a dollop of vodka to my fair trade coffee. Those of you who are familiar with my ridiculously low tolerance for alcohol know what’s coming next 😀 Somehow I ended up completely blasted at 2pm on a weekday afternoon, changing from outfit to outfit until we both realized clothing is for losers and we decided I should wear nothing at all, figuring out what sort of outfits we can make out of pastries and planning our trip to Vegas to dress him in a sequined tutu in the middle of a strip club. Is it odd that aside from the fact I was tanked that this is completely normal for us? 🙂

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There are no pictures of our drunken fetish revelry, mainly because I was way too bombed to take screen shots, had I even remembered to do so. That said, since it was a rare example of me losing total control and being led astray by one of my pets I figured the experience was totally camgirl blog-worthy, even without some captures of my playmate in the buff.

So yes, for once someone led me down the garden path, and it was a wicked change. After I sent him off to take a nap I worried that I would be totally useless for the rest of the afternoon but turns out Dylan Thomas et al. were on to something…writing whilst drunk is actually pretty fucking effective 😀

Blogging Services For Cam Girls

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cam girls posing in bed in black dresses

Popular Blog Hosting Options For Cam Girls

While most established skype cam girls learn to run their own websites, the process can be a little bit daunting for newly-independent camgirls just starting out. Since there have been a few big changes in how the most popular free host blog services operate, I figured this would be a good time to outline some of the options available to cam girls who want a little space on the web off of the network cam sites.

 

Free Blog Hosts

Of all the free blog options out there, tumblr, blogger and wordpress seem to be the most popular with independent cam girls, with tumblr the most popular option and wordpress the least. While all three options permit adult content, free wordpress blogs (free wordpress blogs are hosted on wordpress.com) do not permit external links to adult sites, meaning that you can’t place a link to clips or cam site on a free wordpress blog. That isn’t ideal for the purposes of camgirls who both work independently and work the mainstream cam sites. Another downside of wordpress is that, while I love it, it is somewhat difficult to learn how to use compared to tumblr and blogger.

While blogger now also prohibits links to commercial porn sites, it appears that direct links to payment processors or small listing sites are allowed, provided they aren’t spammed all over the blog. A plus of blogger is that it is easier to use than wordpress.

Of the three free blog hosting options, tumblr is by far the most popular both for it’s ease of use and the ‘follow’ and ‘reblog’ system that enables independent camgirls to network with each other and gain new customers. Another important factor is that tumblr permits adult links, again provided that the links are not spammed all over the blog.

On tumblr there are two categories of blogs that relate to our purposes. The first is ‘nsfw’ and blogs that fit this designation can contain adult material, but the blog must not be ‘substantially’ adult-based. Basically, this means the blog contains a variety of different types of material, it needs to have more than the occasional non-porn post or picture. NSFW blogs are indexed by search engines but are not visible to viewers not logged into tumblr, and ‘NSFW’ blogs are not visible to viewers using a mobile app (unless they are already following you). This latter policy is a relatively new limitation that isn’t ideal. Blogs labelled as ‘adult’ are comprised of a substantial amount of adult content, are not indexed by search engines, and they are not visible to viewers not logged into tumblr. As independent cam girls, we want to maintain our blogs as ‘nsfw’ rather than ‘adult’, so it’s important to post a variety of material on tumblr that isn’t straight-up porn.

If you’re a camgirl who has had your blog flagged as ‘adult’ and you feel it’s better suited to the ‘NSFW’ category, you can send an appeal to tumblr at nsfwappeals@tumblr.com. When sending an appeal, include the email address through which you registered your tumblr blog, the URL of the blog at issue and a full description of why you think your blog was mistakenly flagged as ‘adult’.

Below I’ve posted a graph that I hope helps illustrate the differences between the three services:

WordPress Blogger Tumblr
Allows External Adult Links no yes yes
Allows Affiliate Links no no yes (in moderation)
Easy for the Inexperienced to Use no yes yes
Easy to Gain Followers Through the Service no no yes (the ‘follow’ system)
Free yes (wordpress.com) yes yes
Censors Adult Content no yes Yes (blocks adult-themed tags from mobile users). Users on desktops/laptops do not have adult-themed tags blocked from view

 

What Free Blog Hosting Service Rules Mean for Cam Girls

This may not be a very popular opinion, but I think the tumblr policy of ‘nsfw’ and ‘adult’ is actually a good one for cam girls, in that lazy posting habits of simply reblogging porn gifs isn’t a very effective way to gain new paying customers on tumblr. Our potential playmates want to see our personalities before they even meet us on cam, and a tumblr blog is a great way to allow viewers a peek inside our heads, our lives. What do we enjoy? What issues are important to us and what do we care about the most? These are all things that a great tumblr blog will cover, and showing our personalities is vital to attracting the types of guys who are seeking what it is we offer. Posting endless porn pics will only attract the types of guys that we all end up blocking on skype because they ask for free ish 🙂

Since blogger changed it’s policy to prohibit affiliate links to porn sites and tumblr enacted it’s ‘nsfw’ and ‘adult’ categories there have been a lot of  skype cam girls concerned that these options are no longer viable to us. In truth, both are still very much ‘camgirl-friendly’ provided that we stay within the rules of each service. On blogger that means limiting external links to one or two, maximum, and on tumblr that means posting a variety of adult AND non-adult content. These services aren’t trying to run us out of business, they are simply trying to prevent affiliate spammers from clogging up their services with low-quality blogs that offer nothing more than paid advertisements. That’s not us 🙂

In short, while it’s important to understand and follow the rules set out by free blog hosts, tumblr and blogger are still attractive options to independent cam girls who are intimidated by the notion of purchasing and running their own websites. Create well-rounded sites that convey your personality as well as your cam show rates and you’ll be fine. 🙂