Questions about cam sites?
 

I'm thinking about starting a cam company.

The questions I have are. How profitable are they??

Say 60/40 on the tips side. Is that enough to make it profitable??

Say My Free Cams. What do you believe their net profits to be each year??

How many employees do I possibly need to run a site??

-Security?
-Host contacts
-Support?
-Advertising/Marketing

Is there a way to outsource all this?? Like using people from Odesk or something. Or is it better to run an office locally??

If you've ran or run a cam site, even better. Please, share your experience.

Thanks.

That's about it for now.

Edited. Added it to first post.

No offence but...

If you have to ask, you probably aren't qualified to run one.

Well. People start all kinds of Internet businesses. I don't plan to run a losing ship. That's for sure. So, that's why I do re-search before I dive in. I know nothing about the cam business.

Good luck to you ...

If you have heavy traffic and hot models you will make a fortune ...

I don't have to say this. But I think I will though. It's for a mainstream project. Don't steal my idea though. LOL. Okay. I didn't reveal too much. Hehe.

Edit: Thanks by the way.

You have wrong approach to this. You need some plan so that all your questions are in some reasonable context.

You don't just ask: "How much wood I need to build a house?". You ask first: "What kind of house I am going to build, how big it is, what it is like?" Then you can calculate how much you need and what. And when you know what it costs you can calculate your desired profit margin (and hope that customers agree with it too).

Well. Building a house and starting a cam site company isn't exactly the same thing. Just wanting to get a ballpark figure. So I know that most cam sites are at least profitable enough to be run with employees. I know nothing about ownership of a cam site. As it's much easier to figure out what you make as an affiliate.

But I got your point though to some degree.

Is it profitable enough to run with eployees? That depends!
Does it make bank? That depends!
How many employees you need? That depends.

Really your question is so broad that the only right answer is 42.

Good luck.

Well, then this is not the ''brain trust'' to ask you questions of.

You said 60/40 tips? "tips" a.k.a.:"tokens" these are generally used as payment in the adult sex cam business.

I would do some "re-search (s.i.c.)" into the technical aspects, that are quickly evolving, of live streaming before you lose your money. Also, you would need a proper monetizing proforma to even start to project any ROI.

Almost all adult cam businesses are privately owned and we do not publish any annual reports as a public stock company would. So you are on your own to project the profitability of your venture. If it is really an new business model: start small then scale up then find an Angel VC investor. If your idea is really non-porn and mainstream, there is venture capital available however without any new technology just a "ghetto script" and cobbled together infrastructure, you will not get to talk to any venture capitalist and just be knocking on doors and having the slammed in your face.

:thumbsup

Say you paid out 60% of your gross revenue that leaves 40%
Your operating expense (mainstream merchant account costs of 3%) will eat maybe 13% and post income tax (?) what is left of that 27%? Then multiply that verrry ifffy net profit by .65 and you are close.

(.27*.65)*.75
.131625
* assumed tax rate of 25%

A paper napkin projection of net revenue -- can your business plan survive on half of that?

Don't forget you will have to amortize any development expense.

So how many millions do you need to do?

It was figurative example about establishing business, so it is the same thing.. well, not literally, but you can use it whether your business is building and selling houses or establishing cam site.

In many European countries including my own, basic financial information is public from all companies, excluding private entrepreneurs.

Thanks for the posts Barry.

Hi Max,

I started my cam company back in 2000 and have seen lots of growth, lots of setbacks, lots of rewards, and lots of problems. It can be very profitable sometimes, and not very profitable other times. It can be very frustrating today, and crazy fun tomorrow.

There are many factors involved that make things unpredicable such as chat model and customer preferences and behaviour, fluctuations in traffic and traffic sources.

What I would suggest that you do is, since you are just starting out, is to save as much money as possible. Don't hire anyone to help you with a job that you can't do yourself. Don't buy servers that you can rent or lease instead. Don't hire chat models that don't fit your niche.

When it comes to marketing, since your idea is non adult, start with Google Adwords, and definitely use Google Analytics. Google Adwords is cheap and easy to manage, and Google Analytics is a must-have tool. Always track every single type of marketing you do. And if you are working with a new company for the first time, ask for free trials or at least, small ad tests.

Good luck!

if you do wisely, they are fucking very much profitable., i am small affiliate and cams are paying my bills.
in cam you have to pay affiliates, cams girls while in paysites you just have to pay affiliates
more than couple of millions
depends on many factors.,
but at least
1 server admin
1 html/css expert
1 php/or any other server side language expert
1 mysql/or any other DBA expert
1 photoshop expert
security no idea.
host , see what others are using
support , depends on how big you wanna go, email support/phone support
advertising/marketing, hire expert/experienced

you can outsource all of this , but its better to handle all this from one location having direct access to all employees..

i dont run ca site , but if i get enough funds surely i will start one.

Well good luck with that , you'll need a lot of luck , knowledges and tons of money !

Thanks for the replies guys. Surely helpful to figure out if this would be for me or not.

Are you a WebCam affiliate right now?

Are you a WebCam studio right now?

It would probably be a good idea to have either one of those under your belt pretty good before jumping into the whole operation. Try doing one, if you can be profitable, add the other to the mix and see how it goes.

You might find that you don't like marketing your WebCam site, or you might find that you don't like managing your WebCam girls.

Starting out smaller would be a good test to see what you do and don't like.