As indy skype webcam girls we’re responsible for every aspect of our independent webcam businesses. We need to be able to manage our own skype cam sex websites, shoot and edit our own promotional pictures and edit our own fetish and sex clips and videos. While many of these skills are beneficial to all camgirls (particularly video editing skills), as indy skype camgirls our skill sets needs to more expansive simply because we are responsible for all the things the ‘big box’ sites typically handle for camgirls who work their sites. While there are many excellent paid tutorial and software options out there, I’m a huge fan of open source software and free resources. Below are some of my favorite cost-free resources that have helped me tremendously in running my independent webcam business.
HTML and Web Design for Indy Skype Webcam Girls
When I started out building my first fully independent webcam site I knew nothing about web design, HTML, PHP, nothing. Hell, I couldn’t even create a clickable link. My learning curve was steep and involved a tremendous amount of trial and error, but I found a few resources that became vital to me as I broadened (and then deepened) my skill set. Below are a few of my favourite resources that are of particular interest to indy skype camgirls who want to create and run their own websites
W3Schools
W3schools.com is an amazing free resource that allows one to explore all aspects of html, css and PHP. It’s an ideal resource for beginners who are learning the basics and allows us to venture into more complex aspects of web design as our skill sets develop and progress. This is a highly recommended resource for all indy skype webcam girls, regardless of pre-existing skill set.
WordPress.org Forums
The wordpress.org support forums can be quite overwhelming if one is brand new to css, however as proficiency in css develops the wordpress forums are an ideal resource for indy skype webcam girls who operate wordpress-based personal sites.
Photo and Video Resources for Skype Camgirls
As camgirls who don’t work free chat cam sites our pictures and videos are vital, in that these are all that new clients get to experience of us prior to booking a skype cam show. Below are some great open source video and photo editing options.
Gimp
Gimp is an open-source (free) alternative to photoshop, and with this monster of a program you can do pretty much anything you can do with photoshop. That said this software comes with a steep learning curve if you’re unfamiliar with digital image editing, however if you’re prepared to explore the features and experiment this program can replace costly editing programs.
Photoscape
Photoscape is another open source (free ) program. It offers far fewer features than photoshop or gimp, but for those unfamiliar with these latter options photoscape is easy to use and does offer some great features such as watermarking, cropping, (including batch-editing) and instagram-style filters. It also comes with a drag and drop feature for making .gifs.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a fun program that you can access via the browser on the pixlr website, no downloads required. While not a great tool for cropping and watermarking you can have a lot of fun adding filters and accents to your photos to create dramatic moods with your digital images.
WMM
Windows Movie Maker is a common video editing software that usually comes pre-installed on computers that operate with windows. For that reason it’s one of the most commonly-used editing programs, despite the limitations of the program. With WMM you can cut and merge video recordings, add narration or a soundtrack, watermark your videos and add color effects and segues between film clips. For indy skype webcam girls who don’t have hugely complex video editing needs WMM more than adequately serves our purposes, however as follows below it is only one option among many.
Virtual Dub
Virtual Dub is an open source (free) video editing software that operates in a manner quite similar to WMM, although it does offer some technical features WMM neglects such as noise reduction, keyboard and mouse shortcuts for ease of use and precise frame rate adjustment. Virtual Dub is AVI-format based, whereas with WMM the default format is WMV. This shouldn’t be a concern however, as programs such as Any Video Converter (a free video conversion software) can easily reformat videos to any of the most common formats preferred by clients.
Camstasia
Camstasia is an open source software that includes features such as free templates and soundtracks, a built-in recording system, unlimited tracks for editing multiple files together at once and the ability to export files to a dizzying array of devices such as phone and DVD.
Filezilla
While there are several open source FTP (file transfer protocol) options available to indy skype webcam girls who wish to operate their websites via FTP or upload clips and videos to clip sites, Filezilla is my personal favorite. It’s intuitive to use and it’s free to download.
A Note on Open Source Software
Open source software is different than pirated (stolen) software, in that Open Source licenses provide for legal, free use of the programs that use this license. That means that not only is Open Source an ethical option, it is also much safer than pirated software attained for free, as pirated material often included nasty viruses in the downloads. In contrast, Open Source software is available for free download from safe, legitimate sources such as CNet and SourceForge that screen programs available through their websites and provide full access to program code. The only thing to watch for when installing Open Source software is to always select ‘custom installation’ when installing a program, to ensure you don’t end up downloading superfluous tool bars and programs that sometimes come auto-enabled if auto-installation is performed. Generally custom installation involves no more than unchecking a few pre-checked boxes on the download screen so it’s an easy and straightforward process.
Indy Skype Webcam Girls Doing Things For Ourselves
As indy skype webcam girls we don’t have an arsenal of cam sites and whitelabel websites at our disposal to promote our websites and our cam shows, we’re responsible for every aspect of advertising and running our independent webcam businesses. For those indy skype webcam girls who are starting out from scratch the learning curve can be steep, but if we embrace the challenges of learning new skills and taking on new responsibilities the feeling of self-sufficiency can feel as amazing as the money we earn doing things for ourselves. Luckily free and open source software and tutorials can make the process less daunting, more fun, and far more cost effective than relying solely on commercial paid resources.
