Disclaimer: I don’t speak for everyone in our community, just for myself based on my own experiences in the industry. I’ve had an issue with how these agencies work for a while, and finally got around to writing something up about it.
As a cam girl I’ve always worked independent of a studio or a manager. When I started my career in the industry I went in nearly blind, I had scoured the little resources and forums available to me online at the time, but I had never seen a cam show or even spoken to someone in the industry before – I just dove in. I’m not going to pretend that this was the best idea, my first cam show was a complete mess and I had no idea what I was doing, my first ever client spent their time explaining to me what to do and I think in the end just paid me out of sympathy for the clueless girl. But after years of doing this (ranging from full time to part time depending on my life, but never quite quitting) I have a pretty good understanding of how this whole thing works, how to “milk the clock” so to speak.
I spend a lot of time marketing on social media, and I get a lot of targeted ads and see a lot of the popular posts in our community. Something I’m seeing more and more often are ads for webcam agencies that promise the world for very little work – after years in the industry I can attest to the fact that being a webcam model is hard fucking work, it’s exhausting, sometimes dehumanising, and the pay is unreliable at best, but it’s still better than being locked in a 9-5 so I still do it. But it isn’t just typing and wearing cute outfits like a lot of these ads would have us believe.
I joined an agency once, years into my streaming career, purely out of a morbid curiosity – and it was a mistake. The support provided consisted of a group chat of other people complaining about not earning enough being ignored, while the one or two models who make good money are responded to and their numbers posted all over instagram stories to try and tempt new sign ups. I think I went to one laughable “training” meeting where they played it off like “don’t worry it’s just chatting, you don’t have to take your clothes off” as though the whole premise of the job isn’t virtual sex for cash (note: if we’re going to get nit picky here then yes you obviously don’t have to get naked, but you’re not going to make much in pyjamas chatting about the weather).
I still see the same agency (one of the 50 or so that have popped up over the last year or two in an already saturated market) posting top models totals from the day to try and get vulnerable people outside of the sex industry to sign up – of course so they can take their 20% cut of anything they earn. But what they don’t tell these models, or at least the one I was signed up with didn’t, is that the site already takes between 30-70% of anything you earn, then the agency takes 10-20%, so what do you actually get for ‘totally not showing your bits on the internet’? You get less than minimum wage, that’s what you get. But that doesn’t look very good on a nice pink sparkly background does it? I saw one just today promising earnings of £1,000 a week (a week?!), I have never made 1k in a week from camming in 6 years, nor do I know any cam girls that have. To advertise such false promises during a time where seasoned sex workers are even struggling to make a living given the current economy is mindless.
As an independent streamer my hourly rate often fluctuates but it tends to average at a good amount, depending on things like time of day and holiday seasons – but when I streamed via the agency I made $60 in ten hours after everyone else had taken their cut. It was laughable, so laughable that it’s still not been paid out a year later. This is only on one site though, in my suspicion about the agency I only allowed them to make one profile for me on a site I didn’t already use (no way was I giving them access to delete my accounts I’d built up over years) – the account they made is unusable to me now, and I’m not allowed to sign up independently for at least 6 months (the agency never told me this either, of course, the site did).
I love the sex industry, I love the independence and the freedom, but I do not believe it’s ethical for these predatory agencies to be advertising all over social media for their “get paid to type” style scam. The comments on all the posts are always the same “Me please!” “Tell me more!” “I’m a (insert financially precarious situation here), I want to join!”, without telling them the god honest truth – you will be masturbating online for men to watch, you will likely be verbally abused by people you will never meet, nearly everyone you meet will now make judgments of you and your life, and you might not even make minimum wage for that privilege.
It’s unethical and predatory to not be clear about the expectations of the services provided, to not ensure that individuals outside of the industry understand what is going to happen and the effect this could have on all other aspects of their life. I myself have done survival sex work, sex work is my main form of income still today, so I understand the feeling of pushing yourself into uncharted waters to try and address financial precarity. These agencies seem to prey on these situations, and that is shameful. If someone makes the informed decision to join the industry, this should be supported and information shared – we keep each other safe, after all – and I always try to help people who ask me about streaming as best as I can, I’ll share which sites I use, my spreadsheets, and safety tips, because community is important and I wish I had that when I started too. But you don’t need to sacrifice 20% of your income to an agency that doesn’t have your best interests at heart just to get started.
Of course on the other hand, there are a handful of agencies ran by cam girls themselves that do offer community & support, that are honest about the expectations of the services provided, and don’t take an extortionate cut of your profit, but these are few and far between.
I love webcamming, and I will probably keep doing it for a long long time, and the industry is going to change so much more than it already has, but I think it’s so important that we all make informed decisions. There is an amazing community of people accessible online, most of my sex work friends I’ve met online first, and you don’t need an agency that only provides a group chat to feel part of a community. You shouldn’t have to give a percentage of your money to people who do nothing for you beyond taking your money and setting up a profile (which is easy enough to do yourself). But the most important thing is going into it with a clear head and an understanding of what’s to come. Some days will be lovely, some days you’ll wonder why you even bothered, but there’s just something about it that keeps us coming back.
A. x
CYBER HARLOT 
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