How to start a webcam business?
To start a webcam business you need a good business plan and investment. However, even having these there is no guarantee for success. Only few new webcam startups become popular and bring high income. Want to know why?
With 17 years of experience in webcam software development and more than 1500 projects done, we learned useful things and in this article we want to share them with you. They will point you in the right direction before starting your own cam business.
P.S. If you want to start a content subscription business platform for adult content creators like OnlyFans, check out Scrile Connect.
Check these 10 common mistakes of webcam site beginners, avoiding which will give you more chances for a favourable outcome and success in the live cam industry.
1. Don’t make a copy of any existing websites.
We are often asked by our clients to make a website which would look and function very similar to the existing popular webcam site. This is understandable – when we see a popular website we are trying to make a copy of it to be successful as well, but it does not work this way. Why a client should visit a cloned website if he can visit the original one? Find a unique idea, make a website better than others. Figure out what is wrong and give more to your models, clients, studios and webmasters. Make something fresh – it will work much better.
2. Do not pay too much attention to graphics and look of your website.
Of course it should be well organized and have a good design, but don’t put the accent on this. You sell the content of models and you have to make sure customers see what they want to see. Check thoroughly the photos and videos uploaded by models, edit them and make them look professional. Check dimensions of photos/videos and make sure it fits an area of thumbnail image perfectly. You can also work with a photographer and make a professional photo set to models and use it for marketing needs.
3. Don’t try to save money on payment system.
There are many payment processing companies and they charge a different fee for their services. When starting a webcam business it is crucial to choose a secure and trusted payment gateway which protects personal buying data by a fraud prevention system. It might take a higher commission but it will guarantee the safety of payments and a lower level of chargebacks.
4. Be ready for marketing.
Your first task will be the puzzle how to keep models and customer on the website at the same time. Customers won’t stay on your website if they don’t see any models and vice versa. You have to find out the way to keep at least 8-10 models online and at the same time get traffic right away to start the ball rolling and to initiate business. Leave technical support and programming tasks to developers of the software and work on marketing. A thought-out marketing plan is the key to success.
5. Choose the right video chat software.
The right choice of a cam site software is one of the most important steps on the way to a successful webcam business. First of all, when you choose a script for your future video chat website you should check demo versions and working websites based on that script. Make sure those websites are really made with that script and are not co-branded websites. If you can’t find any alive websites, it is better to look for something else – problems will definitely come up. We have many working websites based on our platform and some of them have been running for more than 10 years. We always try to improve our system to keep it up-to-date. Learn more useful tips on how to choose a webcam software here.
6. Make sure your website is user-friendly.
The time when a good website was the one with many features has passed away. Now the good website is the one which is clean with user-friendly interface. Webcam business is complex and you have to deal with customers, models, studio managers, and webmasters. Make sure to pay attention to each type of users. Only when they are all happy the ball will keep rolling.
7. Avoid making mirrored websites.
In some cases, it is good to set up a mirrored website. For example in case you want to split models for men and women and it is reasonable to keep them separated. But if you are trying to make one more website just using another domain name that will not increase your traffic in overall. You will make one website with duplicate content which will not get great positions in search engines. It is better to concentrate on marketing of the main domain name. However, it is a good idea to split registration and entrance area for clients/models/studio managers/webmasters.
8. Grow up your team with partners.
Partners will help you to grow up on the first step and if your website is successful you will have enough work for everyone. The most important for a startup webcam chat system is traffic and if you are lucky to get a good SEO specialist or webmaster it might help very much. Share your profit or planned profit with partners, make sure they are motivated to make your business successful. You can even work with your own profit and give everything to partners. This is a pretty good plan because money earned in the beginning is not the key to success.
9. Check activity of your customers and models.
Your website can be visited by couple of swindlers: models and customer. In this case, customer will spend money from fraudulent cards and you will pay commission earned by models directly to their bank account. Then after 2-3 weeks you will start getting chargebacks and payment processing company will request back your money and you should be ready to get this money back from models. Make sure to check documents provided by models, if you think something is not fair. Communicate with them in a friendly manner but clarify concerns you have. In WebVideo we have internal features to check fraudulent activity and to help owners of webcam sites to find it out on time.
10. Keep your plans realistic.
When we start a new project we are not planning to fail and the goal is to establish a successful business. That is absolutely fine but we have to understand the reality and it is not possible to become a real competitor on the market within a couple of weeks. You will need to spend months or even years on marketing and promotion of your website to become popular and successful. Everyone is planning to have hundreds of models online with thousands of customers in each room. It is absolutely possible, but it takes time. Do not plan a network of servers from the beginning, save costs on that and spend this budget for traffic – this is the most important part of any online business.
Keeping in mind these 10 useful tips, you have a lot more chances to succeed in the webcam industry.
Have questions? Contact us and we will be happy to help you!