As the adult industry online continues to move forward in pursuit of greater profitability during the era of free porn online, one area that many webmasters have noted as being particularly successful is the live show webcam market. The continued improvement of the technical aspects of live streaming content coupled with the insatiable appetite of fans for their favorite online models in live intimate cam shows is being fueled even more by the wide range of the white label live cam offers available for site owners looking to co-brand or rebrand cam content as part of their own monetization methods. That leads us to this examination of recent trends that are already shaping the present and will become even more significant in the future of the white label cams business.
Technical Innovations
When many webmasters hear the term white label, they mistakenly think that implies a cookie-cutter template site lacking creativity and innovation, but that simply isn’t the case anymore.
When many webmasters hear the term white label, they mistakenly think that implies a cookie-cutter template site lacking creativity and innovation, but that simply isn’t the case anymore.
“Most white label webcam solutions conform to two basic standards; first they are generic in look and functionality and second they run on revshare,” said Eric Wexel of FreeWebcamCash.com. “Conforming functionality means that everyone that uses Company A’s white label cam solution has the same website except for the URL, logo and colors. We know firsthand that large players in the adult market want more. They have specific integrations in mind and want their white labels to be unique. We have built our success on catering to large affiliates and technologically fulfilling their needs. We have built a webcam platform from scratch that will allow us to create white label solutions that are as unique and diverse as the larger affiliates that choose to use them.”
Recent Google updates like Panda and Penguin are also causing many to rethink the nature of duplicating content across a large whitelabel network.
“Google’s recent algorithm updates place the onus on white label providers to evolve by displaying unique and compelling content in order to maintain search engine visibility,” said Stacy Michelle, ClickCash senior affiliate manager. “This, in essence, redefines what a white label is because the days of slapping a fresh logo on a cookie-cutter template appear numbered if you’re reliant on organic search traffic for your cam site. It’s reminiscent of what parked domains experienced years ago. We’re working with existing brands to provide new SEO-friendly ways to monetize webcams. Users are keenly aware when a brand is genuine and when it’s a white-label. We’re developing technology to make the experience seamless between your brand and iFriends. We currently allow white-labels to completely replace the homepage HTML, and we are extending that level of customization to internal pages as well.”
On the consumer side of the equation, “it’s bandwidth quality over quantity that’s driving cam sites today,” said Red Apple Media CEO Steven Daris. “Home Internet connections have skyrocketed from 5 Mbps to 50 Mbps and over the next few years we will be seeing 1 gig connections in cities across the country.”
“Without the highest-quality bandwidth, fast servers and state-of-the-art network gear to make sure each video plays at its best, there’s no way a cam site can stay live in this competitive market. The most common and detrimental mistake we find adult entertainment companies make is letting price tags take precedence when deciding which hosting provider to work with. A $1.99/month promo often carries more weight than asking the hosting provider these important questions: What quality bandwidth do they offer? Is there risk of serve over-saturation? How reliable and secure is their network?”
“AWE is always working on something new and amazing,” said Douglas Richter, senior authorized consultant for AWEmpire.com. “This year AWE just released a new streaming protocol that delivers HD Streams in 30 frames per second. Typical is around 24 FPS. Many new releases are planned for late summer and early fall 2013 including exciting new promo tools sure to increase revenue. Increased quality, increased interactivity, increased accessibility. AWE is constantly working to improve the user experience, and the most important part of that experience is the stream quality.
“Making white labels more customizable and responsive to the user’s device is a big project, but necessary for live cams companies that utilize white labels for marketing,” said Jeff Wilson of VideoSecrets. “We recently released 52 new options for affiliates to customize their white labels, so I think it will continue to impact Video Secrets in a good way. For example we started allowing affiliates to advertise some of their other affiliate links on their white labels.
At the same time, we continue to improve our user experience on the white labels by making the sites more fun and allowing customers to purchase with less hurdles. I think more companies are starting to look at their data more closely. So many companies built sites and featured content in a way that they would like to see it and that’s how they decided what to work on. These days, customer lifetime value is at the base of every business discussion. I know that we consider many metrics and we’ve always paid attention to customer customer lifetime value, but more and more companies are changing their perspective.
Adding Video Secrets webcams to your sites isn’t just a fun add-on, it’s a passive stream of revenue that helps companies increase the value of each user. This allows companies to open up new campaigns, reinvest in their core benefits package, and maybe take a vacation.
PAYOUT FLEXIBILITY
For a long time the per-minute pricing and open-ended lifetime value of a new customer lead affiliates to believe revshare from a trusted source was the best payout option long term. Now, as more sites have moved to a “freemium” business model, where consumers tip their favorite models rather than paying per minute in many instances, some are finding the up-front PPS payout option to be more appealing — especially because it offsets the expense of acquiring traffic so much more quickly.
“Revshare poses a problem for affiliates pushing traffic to webcams because adult online marketing and traffic has become so competitive over the last five years,” said Eric Wexel of FreeWebcamCash.com. “The competition and bidding for online clicks means that affiliates are often paying so much for traffic that the margins and profits have become thin. Combine this with sending traffic to any sort of revshare and affiliates are forcing themselves into a cash crunch. Even though over time revshare is a proven business model and it can be extremely lucrative for the affiliate, they still need to pay for the traffic that generates the sales.
“Often the affiliates don’t want to lay out the amount of money necessary for traffic buys just to wait three or four months before the revshare makes them whole again. We have decided to take this downside out of the webcam white label business. We built a solution where the affiliate or website using our white label product can choose whether to get a higher payout upfront which will include profit, or to bear the cost initially to potentially make more money in the long run. What makes us different is that we empower the people who choose to use our platform to choose for themselves.”
Staying focused on building brand loyalty can still make revshare a more lucrative option long term if your pockets are deep enough to absorb the initial expense of building your brand.
“Whether you’re seeking a white label or want to market iFriends to your customers, our revshare offers a great opportunity to capitalize on the brand loyalty you’ve established and offers your users the personal connection that only cams can provide,” added Stacy Michelle of ClickCash.
FRAUD PROTECTION
Consumer fraud has become an increasingly important challenge for adult business owners to overcome. Viewers have become aware that charging back memberships usually doesn’t take more than a quick phone call while banks and credit associations remain exceedingly punitive while clinging to antiquated chargeback ratio standards.
“Webcams and more specifically FreeWebCams.com use a freemium model which intrinsically has a much lower chargeback percentage than other more aggressive webbased adult products,” said Wexel. “This is because you go to the site for free, you can join the site for free, and you can interact with the girls for free. If you see a girl you like and want to tip her you can then choose to put in your credit card and spend some money on her. As high-risk processing continues to become more difficult to obtain and even more difficult to maintain in the current economic climate, I feel that adult marketing will continue to gravitate towards products like webcams that impose much less stress on merchant processing relationships.”
MOBILE PLATFORM LIVE CAMS
Getting the mobile platform for live cam shows right has proven to be a very difficult task due to competing standards, differing devices and the basic nature of having a small portable device able to display sex on a small screen with enough pop to satisfy viewers instead of frustrating them. Some webcam white label providers are banking on the notion they will be able to come through in this area of development soon.
“Our next focus is creating the best mobile webcam experience the world has ever seen,” said Wexel. “Android and even iPad is much more easily doable but creating a satisfying webcam experience on the iPhone is the Holy Grail. This means live video without the use of Flash, somehow getting chat overlaid even though your video is full screen, and syncing an audio channel in there. We need to accomplish all of this in a resolution that is appealing and runs smoothly on 3G. It’s a big challenge but we will deliver an innovative solution to the mobile marketplace in the very near future.
ADVICE FOR AFFILIATES
“The most helpful advice I can give any large affiliate or entity that is looking for a white label solution or thinking of getting into the webcam space is for them to contact me before doing so. I eat sleep and breathe webcams,” said Wexel. “We are a very technical shop with the ability to customize our platform to specific requests. We give our partners the choice of getting paid more upfront or earning more longer term on a revshare. Our ultimate goal is to keep people using our platform because we are the ultimate fit in satisfying their unique needs.”
“Cam sites can feature the hottest girls, one-on-ones with award-winning pornstars and even free memberships – but they can’t maintain success without satisfied customers,” said Steven Daris of Red Apple Media. “Our cam clients are in the business of pleasure, but nothing dissatisfies faster than delayed, pixilated or distorted live videos.”
Clearly the days of posting a cookie-cutter template with duplicate content, unpaid links to the white label provider, traffic leaks and a simple logo swap at the top of the page are over. Now affiliate webmasters can create unique, eye-catching and innovative live cam websites in minutes using white label systems so advanced that virtually nobody will know they are actually white labels, except for the webmasters and cam providers working together to maximize the return on their mutual investment.
