When you are working as an adult webcam model it is important to stay online for longer shifts if and when you can because the longer you are online, the more likely you are to connect with potential customers! There are also some camming websites that will prioritize placement for models that put in more hours and longer hours because they want to drive traffic to models that are online frequently! It’s totally easy to set long hour goals for your cam shifts but sometimes if it’s slow and there isn’t much chatting you may be tempted to end your shift early. Ending your shift early won’t have huge impacts to your career if you only do so every once in a while but if you consistently end your shifts early then you are impacting your potential to find new customers and regulars and also creating an unreliable schedule for your current fans to find you! It’s important to set specific hours where customers know they can connect with you so they can include spending time with you on their schedule!

Finding the Energy to Stay Online when it’s Busy

A common thing that I’ve seen as a webcam model myself and a manager for a webcam studio is that sometimes performers will log off early because of how good a shift goes. Typically in addition to having an hourly goal for cam shifts many models will create a monetary goal and allow themselves to log off earlier than anticipated if they reach that money goal early. While doing this is understandable every once in a while, when you announce cam shifts and plan for them, you’re making a commitment to fans that you will be live. Some customers may even move around their own schedules to make it to your live show and if you announce you’ll be online for a certain amount of hours they may not always plan to be there at the beginning of the show. If you frequently log off early when you make your money goal, then you’re not only limiting yourself to that amount of money you made and preventing yourself from potentially having an even higher earning day, but you’re also creating a precedent with your regulars that if they don’t make it to the beginning of your stream that they may miss out and they’ll be less likely to randomly pop in to your room in the future.

Staying Online when it’s Slow is Important Too

It’s possible to have the complete opposite problem of making a lot of money and leaving early; which is making no money and staring at a dead chat. In the webcam world this just happens sometimes and whether it’s a sporting event stealing the attention of the horny viewers or completely random, it’s something that happens to every single cam model online. Every single performer has slow days! You’re probably asking yourself, “if a cam model gets online and no one is around to see it, does ending the shift early really matter?” (Yes, that’s a play on the tree in the woods saying.) Surprisingly, yes it does. Some webcam sites use overall monthly or weekly hours in their algorithms to provide you with better placement; so logging off early frequently when you think your room is dead can be a bad thing! Another crazy thing though is that your room can be dead for an hour and suddenly out of nowhere, every fan you’ve ever performed for can show up. That’s an exaggeration but fans don’t always make alarms in their phone to show up at the beginning of our shifts and for most seasoned webcam models they actually don’t really start making money until at least an hour into the shift. You’re warming up (both the crowd and yourself) before the real big bucks come in.

So how do I stay online longer?

There’s a few things you can do to make it through your shift whether you’re dying of boredom or exhaustion. (But if you’re actually exhausted it’s okay to call it early.)

• Create a playlist: If you’re like a majority of cam performers I know then you probably listen to music while you’re online. Whether the room is dull or crazy with talking, music keeps things entertaining and fun. Create a playlist with songs that is the duration of what you want your cam shift to be! Now you won’t have to look at the clock while you’re on cam to know how long you’ve been on because when you’re looking and think it’s been 30 minutes but it’s actually been 5… that can wreak havoc on your mental.
• Don’t be scared to take breaks: A big problem most performers have is feeling like they can’t take a break during a shift which burns them out. You can take 5-10 minutes to grab a snack, stretch, stand outside an absorb some sunlight, or whatever it is that helps you decompress. You can create an “on break” screen that you display so you don’t even need to actually stop your stream. Some websites also have “on break” options!
• Break long shifts up into more manageable ones: If you want to cam for 8 hours a day then you should not expect yourself to be working those 8 hours straight. When you work for a company they’re legally required to give you a break and there’s a reason for that. If you work best busting it all out in one go, at least give yourself a 30-45 minute break in the middle for a meal. You can also try splitting the shift across times of day to make the most of the 24/7 market of the camming world and try reaching different fans in different time zones.
• Multitask: If you’ve got multiple monitors you can totally multitask while you’re online if it’s completely dead. Be mindful to keep an eye out for when customers join and if you aren’t good at splitting attention then maybe don’t do this but if you can handle paying attention and checking every minute or so for new chats and joins then don’t be scared to get some other work done in a dead room.
• Keep yourself mentally stimulated: Just because your room might get boring it doesn’t mean you have to be bored, you can plan fun things to keep yourself mentally stimulated like reading a book out loud or dancing along to some music to keep yourself busy!