You can have the best, most qualified traffic money can buy or search engine relevance can drive to your site, but if your content isn’t above par, you can forget about converting it to sales.
No, we’ll not get into the size or resolution of images or the quality of prerecorded video here.
It's the instance of that unique, one-time viewing that make the experience of a webcam event un-captureable and prevents it from being reproduced for even more massive (free) consumption.
We’re talking about content that is “better” because it can’t so easily be stolen, turned into torrents or given out for free over peer-to-peer networks.
And even if it can be taken and boxed and resold or, rather, stolen, it becomes different content, not the originally viewed experience.
It becomes static, recorded and nothing more than just another file.
What we’re talking about here is the real, live, interactive, dynamic experience of a live video sex chat.
What we’re talking about content that is “better” because even if it can be taken and boxed and resold or, rather, stolen, it changes instantly from an exciting interactive experience to a less interesting passive viewing experience. It becomes static, recorded, and nothing more than just another file.
It’s the instance of that unique, one-time viewing that make the experience of a webcam event un-captureable and prevents it from being reproduced for even more massive (free) consumption.
Even if the original customer re-watches an archived or recorded chat session, it won’t have the weight, significance and value of the original, actual broadband encounter to anyone except the customer at that time.
So what could go wrong? Many things.
Webcam models are subjects who are restless, ever changing, potentially very unpredictable. One of the most important things about working with a webcam model is establishing a relationship with them.
Certainly the first paycheck delivered helps cement that bond, but some other factors must be considered which can make average “content” good, and good content the best.
This can make the difference between satisfactory revenue and great revenue.
The Traffic Mismatch
Whether you actively buy advertising, pay for search engine marketing, hire social networkers, develop affiliates, or all of the above, your traffic must match the models your site presents to viewers in niche, in language, and expected performance.
Getting traffic to fit with your content is easier than getting that content to fit with your traffic.
Nothing can be more annoying to cam hosts who are English-speaking than having a chat room full of French or Hispanic-typing viewers.
The same applies to potential customers who cannot understand word-one a performer utters (or types —but that is another mistake we’ll come to).
It seems obvious, but needs to be said: monitor your traffic geographically.
Traffic programs allow you to geo-position your advertising to optimize conversions. Site optimization can help target search traffic. Social marketing is a question of reaching out via networks to markets easily “followed” or “unfollowed” (or liked and unliked). And in an introduction to affiliates, your program needs to define for potential sign-ups your site’s terms and traffic requirements — with mention that inappropriate visitors might see their account suspended.
Pricing And The Princess
While site operators should look at the competition to determine their price-perminute, they should be wary of individual performers when they can do their own price-setting.
For example, an inexperienced chat hostess (or host) may believe their revenue will increase the higher they set their pricing.
Or, a model with a certain reputation or degree of popularity may believe their status will let them raise their cost extravagantly above the “average” cam performer (who are often better and more experienced on-cam than the “star”).
Overlooking or neglecting to monitor these can cause a loss of income for both the site owner and the models, as well as discourage the model out of scheduling and performing.
Amateurs Marketing Themselves
Letting a performer who might be a student or book store clerk by day create and define their presence on your cam site can definitely lead to marketing mistakes.
In other words, rather than prompting potential customers further to the join or purchase page, they can easily drive them away, if the management of the site content’s presentation is lazy.
Unlike other sites, cam destinations rarely feature a “tour” per se. The tour is the model profile, the model’s picture, and especially the model’s presentation in the free or tease chat room.
Simply, potential webcam customers are seeking an ultimately intimate encounter with particular models to whom they’re attracted. Showcasing the available experience is the job of your basic webcam “tour”:
• Models should provide the clearest, flirtiest image of themselves they can. They should show their face, use their eyes and look into the camera, present more than just a head shot and less than full-on nudity, lean in toward the camera a little, and choose a clean, uncluttered but natural setting. Studio shots can also be great, if not too glammy - unless that is a specific niche being targeted.
• Models should provide a good text presentation of themselves, reveal personal details, particularly fetishes, biographical details, height, shoe or bra size, and anything they themselves might seek in a partner; even if this is a fantasy “role,” applying preferences which will help them relate to customers can prompt quicker conversions.
A model manager should be over-seeing and correcting or improving text information provided, and, if a program doesn’t, then also format the “bio” so it doesn’t come off as an unattractive block of letters and numbers.
Content Delivery, Customer Satisfaction
Finally, when all of the above is observed and deployed impeccably and the prospect is inevitably drawn into your performer’s actual live environment, it can all be for nothing.
Because. The performer does not “perform.”
A live model on cam should greet every new name appearing on their chat screen ... by name. This is an instant connection, a spark which will catalyze a conversion.
Models should also talk with their members and visitors, rather than type back. Responding by name to whatever room viewers write — regardless of its salacious nature, with diplomacy and a sense of humor, can prove especially endearing to the rest of the crowd.
Like a comedian handling a heckler with class, the performer with the right attitude can turn things in his or her favor.
Too many models simply wait, twiddling thumbs and hoping to be taken to paid chat. Ignoring customers, perhaps in favor of a chat room on another, competing site where they’ve also logged in, or texting to friends, is their first worst mistake. All the work they or the site manager has put into attracting interested visitors to invest in an intimate one-on-one encounter is blasted to pieces thanks to the model’s lack of investment in their appearance and outward presentation.
Treating the visitors with respect and patience will also pay off for everyone much more than negative attitudes will. A performer who automatically kicks out chat room viewers for the slightest excuse, from trolling to not tipping within a minute of entering, should be discouraged.
Appearance is another factor that can be neglected. It is vital a model appear more or less as they do in their profile picture or images. Whether it is make-up or hair color, tattoos, body-weight and proportions, it isn’t so much “honesty” as it is consistency which will drive that sale. Updating the profile regularly will ensure freshness of “tour” content as well as give the surfer what they’ve been told they’ll get. Also, the promise delivered in the photo such as nice hair, makeup and sexy clothing must be delivered in the chat room as well. “Dress to impress” applies here.
Before they register, chat hosts and models should be presented with a simple, clearly stated set of rules which, if broken, can prove detrimental to their possible revenue.
Promoting anything other than their chat room and subsequent appearances has to be prohibited, including other chat sites, private instant messaging or Skype encounters, or anything not part of their agreement to augment your joint fortunes and interests as cam performer and site operator. You agree to drive customers to them, and they must be your customer service providers.
As you can see, the human factor involved in webcam chat is a vital aspect of creating the environment and site experience that will turn surfers into visitors into members.
Providing online training manuals, tips and tricks pages, or even personal training on how to “act” before a webcam can be resource-heavy and time consuming, but will ultimately pay off to the wise site operator.
After all, this isn’t just flinging still images and sex clips about until money rains down.
You, and your chat model, are providing a uniquely direct and human experience. Let them know from Point A to Point B.
Mark Prince is CEO of 2Much.net, makers of LiveCamNetwork and other videochat systems for the adult industry since 1999. Based in Montreal, Prince has appeared in numerous publications on TV shows and interviews regarding video-chat technology and the industry in general, and recipient of various awards including Best Software Company of the Year by XBIZ.
