Paying models' commission instead of hourly?
 

Hey guys,

Does anyone have experience with paying models commission instead of hourly/by session?

I run a niche fetish video sales site. I'm really looking for growth over profits right now as my website is pretty new to the scene ( <1 year selling) but pretty well received, and I'm noticing that more established / attractive prospects are taking issue with how I pay. I typically pay by the hour or per session (I have some remote models who I pay based on screentime). I've had a few suggest that a commission based compensation would be more appealing.

Does anyone have any insight or experience with paying commission, giving models a % of all future sales or an idea on a good pay model to do so? It seems like an easy way to screw yourself if done wrong. I could definitely still find girls who will happily accept my current pay model, so maybe I'm being a fool for even considering this.

My theory is this could help cut costs short term to hire more models, but the sales also have to be good enough to retain the models. It also means I'd have a new neverending task of monthly payouts. Another theory is that I'm an idiot and should just keep doing it my way.

Thank you

From my prospective, commissions & content share can be both good & bad...

We shot a few sites with models on a 50/50 share, the said models didn´t expect to wait until ccbill had a payout quota, so a few of the models become anxious waiting for their payouts, they all were paid, but had to wait several months for the payments & this create bad vibes & tension.

Others, this worked well, so this does depend on the model & the trust between you & the model.

I also know other producers who have had no problems with the content share, apart from the content ended up being shown many places where the models & producer didn´t want, and of course, tension become arguments, of which one was the leak...

like with any business, I recommend, it´s best just to pay the model & then you own the content, it´s your rights & your commissions, no stress from other people :2 cents:

The overhead on commission could be a nightmare (recordkeeping on who is owed what, dealing with a bunch of payments to different people, keeping current on emails or phone numbers, losing track of someone only to have them pop up years later demanding missed payments, etc.).

Maybe wotk it more as a content trade, where you shoot an hour of stuff for your site and then an hour of different stuff for the model's site/OF.

Pay by hour/session is the standard. Don't listen to the ones who suggest revenue share.

Hi Bush Bandit,

Yes - we have alot of experience paying models by commission and flat-rate for chatting - I'm sure you can apply what we learned below to your own business too.

When I had setup my first websites back in the day, I had to solve the chieck and egg problem: How do I get users to spend money on my website if there are no models to talk to, and how do I get models to be online if there are no paying customers to earn from?

My solution was to pay them as Salary + Commission. When my team and I started writing our software, we baked in an accounting systyem that would track how long the models spend in free chat, and how much was spent in private chat and group chat. The administrator could then set the price per minute the model earned in each mode. At the time, we set the payouts to $13.50 per hour in free chat, $90.00 per hour in private chat, and $60.00 per hour per customer in group chat.

This format worked really well for us because the models love the idea of having a regular minimum pay that they could count on, and especially loved how it incentivized them to make more.

Some models took advantage of the flat-rate payout and became lazy, so we had to expand the system to give the models alerts to when they were under-performing. We also setup a semi-private section that would show the models a top list showing how well all fo the models were doing compared to all of the other models. Some of the models on the bottom of the list became incentivized to work harder, but it just made certain models even lazier. Alerts in our system would let us know when it was time to let a model go, or when it was time to give other models a bonus (Good sales, always on time, positive customer feedback, etc).

I think that paying models a base salary + commission is the best possible way you can run your business. It can be expensive if you make mistakes or ignore data, but done right, you and your models can thrive at the same time.

Good luck!!

23 years dealing with models.. you better have an iron clad reputation. Because anyone approaching a model saying ill give you commission say scammer all over it.

Work some kinda commision deal out, that favours yourself. I dont mean you get loads, model gets hardly anything, but make sure YOU are covered financially in the deal - That all costs associated with the model taking a commision basis are covered out of their share...

Then, continue to offer full payment per job, as normal, but if a model decides that they MUST have commision (ie its their request) then you have something in place that you can offer. Something which wont cost you any extra to operate, and also makes it worth while for you to put the extra work in, in order to make, record and account the % payments going forwards to the model.

Obviously, only you know your figures / cost / break even point, but it shouldn't be hard to work something out which is beneficial to you, should a model request it, & also not detrimental or costly for you to implement.

Not sure what kind of website you are talking about here (maybe I missed it). If it's a cam site then yes you need models to chat with etc. If it's a niche fetish site or a traditional paysite then just pay the models their 'day rate' and be done with it. All profit goes to you the models just get paid for the content shot that day.

Have luck!

I've done both. Usually pay by the hour or better yet, pay by the shoot. If you find a model that your customers really like invite them into a commission deal.

Sounds like your problem is more traffic related than model related?

That is good advice and a surprising number of start-ups fail this. They promise the models money and forget to pay themselves. Like any business, its important to take all of your costs into account and watch the moneyflow very carefully. Otherwise you can end up broke before your business even gets off the ground.

Yeah commision is scam IMO

Is he a pimp or a whore(s) customer?