The Camgirl Survival Guide

About the Writer

My name is Ashley Tea. I started webcamming on MyFreeC*ms in 2013 and moved exclusively to OF in 2019. Adult content creation has been my sole source of income for a decade, and has paid for my entire life including tuition for my University degree, travel around the world, all my living expenses and my first home purchase. I have a degree in Psychology focusing on Men’s Mental Health and am a huge slut for marketing because it makes my brain go brrrr.

About the Guide

I have been writing articles here since 2015. This resource is entirely free and the information here will continue to be free as long as Tumblr will have me, lol. The information here mostly focuses around live streaming on MFC, but newer articles also discuss OF. As many of these articles are 5 years old, some information will be dated or no longer relevant, so please keep that in mind when reading further back in the archive.

All articles can be easily accessed by scrolling through this page’s archive, found at https://camgirlsurvivalguide.tumblr.com/archive. 

I am not here to tell you that this industry will bring you fast and easy money. None of my articles, no matter how well written and informative, are guaranteed to bring you success, especially not quick success. I write from personal experience and my personal experience is that things take time and very hard work.

Etsy Shop

I now run an Etsy shop with really fucking nice individual packages for specific topics. This is where you’ll probably find the most current information, especially about OF related advice. I’d also really fucking love your support over there because ya girl has been writing free stuff for a long ass time and making a cheeky sale on the Etsy literally makes my entire day lol.

Frequently Asked Questions

What site should I use? How do I get started?

How much money can I make?

Can I cam without showing my face?

How do I tell the people in my life (family, partners) about my new job?

How do I get people to watch, talk and tip?

How do I deal with taxes?

Eyooooooo guess who wrote a new e-bookkkk it's YA GIIIIRL coming back to you with my 2024 approach to content creation: the "Grind & Unwind" method that centres around working for as little time as humanly possible so I can play on my Nintendo as much as humanly possible. The guide includes a five page e-book with a detailed breakdown of the approach, three checklists so you can work your way through the process and a free Notion template for those want to use it. yeyeye enjoy https://etsy.me/3W50fgz

Made a podcast episode for ur enjoyment~

and now for something different: a video! Just a heads up, camgirlsurvivalguide dot com isn't me - someone snagged the domain (booooo).

Honestly yeah - now more than ever. Practically no one used to know what a camgirl even was back in the day, and if they did they just assumed it was 100% of the time hardcore solo p0rn. On MFC, only a handful of strictly non explicit performers made a sustainable (or at times handsome) income - but we were definitely recognized as being more than a little weird. I don't think being non-nude outcast us in any way - but there was still an element of "oh wtf wait you ACTUALLY don't strip???" that persisted right up until the end of 2019 when I retired from live streaming.

OnlyF*ns changed that practically overnight. There was a rush of new creators making bikini pages or lewd focused content that wasn't viewed as unusual in the way it was on MFC.

I still think it's like that, tbh. I think now more than ever, creators can choose to create lewd content and profit sustainably off of it. There has been and always will be pressure for lewd creators to "do more", but careful strategizing and mindful marketing can make the tease last forever, and in a fun way.

This is not to assume that it is at all easy, because obviously it isn't, but I follow like 10 different totally non-explicit creators on OF that make BUCKETS more money than I do so ... yep, definitely still an option lol

An Updated Approach: Changes between Then and Now

Good morning Survivors - I hope all is well, and that you’re keeping good care of yourself and continuing to secure the bag as best you can.

I’ve been using OF for three years as of this month, and a lot has changed between now and then: massive changes to consumer’s time, interests, trust and (of course) financial freedom. My own approaches have changed in a few key areas as well which I think are not only beneficial to my income (and sanity), but also to my continued longevity on the platform. 

After three years, things have felt stale. It’s not just for a creator’s perspective: long term users (who tend to provide the most reliable support) have also grown tired of old strategies. To keep things brief, because I’m definitely procrastinating starting my day by writing this article (what else is new), I’m going to rapid fire some of my recent changes and why I find them helpful.

THINGS I’VE BEEN DOING DIFFERENTLY

1. NO MORE LEWD SOCIAL MEDIA

Lewd social media was fucking killing me, and I think it was also killing some of my chances of securing actual subscribers, not just followers on free platforms like Twitter or Instagram. To dodge TOS in terms of overt sexuality, a lot of creators shifted toward making content as lewd as they were able to without getting flagged for a shadowban, mostly by utilizing generically horny audios and trends to attract attention in hopes of finding new subscribers.

This works for other people just fine. I thought it would work for me, but it didn’t, namely because I fucking hated shooting lewd reels. Since I still run a primarily lewd page, I think the dissonance between hypersexual social media content and a more tease-focused page was generating a bit of a boost in initial subscribers but more often than not they would stay for a month, not purchase anything, and then leave. If my reels were garnering hundreds of thousands of views at a time, maybe the boost in sub income would have been enough, but by and large the approach just flopped for me. Low views on reels I didn’t like making just made me hate myself and the more I compared myself to creators getting a lot more attention than me, the less and less I wanted to post to social media at all.

So, I threw in the towel. I logged out of my old instagram (which was shadowbanned as shit anyway) and kind of just walked away from it, even though I felt like leaving behind 75k followers was a little heartbreaking. The truth was that the number was just a number, and no matter how many followers it looked like I had, no one was able to see my posts anyway ... so, I called it quits. The account is still up, I just don’t use it or look at it anymore. Huge relief to my mental health, to be honest.

I created a totally SFW account where I simply took photos and a few easy Reels here and there in outfits I really liked. To make my life easier, I would shoot a bunch of lewds at the same time - in the same outfits I was posting to Instagram - and then use those for OF. To my surprise, my subscriber count started going up, and my existing subscribers started to tell me that they were excited to see my SFW IG posts because they knew they’d get to see me put a lewd spin on things on my OF feed. 

Not only am I enjoying social media a lot more now, but it seems like it’s benefiting me in surprising ways, which makes me want to dress up in fun outfits more - creating an upward cycle of enjoyment rather than a downward spiral of disappointment. This may be mostly beneficial because of my specific style (lewd rather than nude, etc) but who knows: maybe it’ll help you if you feel you’re in a similar spot.

2. NICHE DOWN (AKA ENJOY UR FUKIN LIFE)

The biggest advantage I’ve experienced has very little to do with OF at all, which is perhaps my favourite shift in approach so far: I’ve stepped into my gamer girlie era, I guess. I started on Twitch about a year ago mostly as a hobby (because holy shit I really needed to do something other than shoot smut all the time) and it’s not only made my life a lot better, but it’s boosted genuinely interested subscribers, too. 

I hate to constantly monetize all of my passions, but the bottom line I think is that when people can tell you’re genuinely interested in something, the authentic enjoyment comes across as attractive. I play a lot of Zelda and have incorporated elements of this into everything I post online, including my OF content. Because the characters in the game wear elf ears, I started wearing a cheap pair of elf ears from Amazon and boom: I’m the Elf Girl now. Random niche, but lovers of the game series and randoms alike, I have something that apparently sets me apart (considering it was fucking $10 ears I’ll take it lol), and it’s driving interest and engagement. 

I guess what I’m saying is this: find your own thing, and see what happens. At the very least you’ll spend a little time doing what you love, and best case scenario, it complements your OF. I don’t know if it really even matters what that thing is - people are starting to look for more personality, and letting yours shine through a bit more might be a good idea.

3. PERSONALIZED APPROACH

This ties into the last paragraph, and is also my biggest “key point”: long term OF users are getting tired of the same old same old. They’re not stupid and they don’t want to be treated like ATMs. They know that when creators “follow back” it’s got nothing to do with continuing connection and everything to do with being able to spam them with PPVs even after their subscription ends. They’re really sick of S4S on the feed. They’re well aware a ton of creators are run by management agencies and they’re bored of hypersexual “u up?” sexting prompts. Now I’m not saying these approaches don’t work at all - because jesus christ I’m well aware that the top of the top girlies are doing all this shit and making way more money than I am - but what I’m noticing is I’m retaining subscribers more now than I was when I was relying solely on mass messages. 

I’ve started reaching out individually to new subscribers with an actual handwritten welcome message as they arrive. It always includes a simple snap photo of me in whatever I’m wearing (usually my robe while holding a cup of coffee since I check notifications in the morning) - and the response for a very simple action has been overwhelmingly positive. People are shocked that a creator would touch base and say thank you by hand. It’s boosted engagement and boosted sales, and I’m not looking too closely at analytics, but it’s also seeming to boost renew-on numbers as well. 

At the end of the day, OF just isn’t that deep. People are still looking for two simple things: fap content to make themselves feel good physically with, and a chance to interact with a hot girl to boost their mood. Making sure we’re not forgetting the latter half seems increasingly more important these days.

4. UTILIZING PAST CONTENT: MOST RECENT STRATEGY

When you’re using a paid page, OF doesn’t allow for locked feed posts. They also don’t provide any sort of “video store” or clip shop setup, which is a huge let down in terms of utilizing previously created work longer term. The ability to even scroll down the feed of a creator who has been posting for more than a year is borderline impossible: eventually, with enough scrolling, the browser simply crashes.

So far this year I’ve made a ton of fantastic photo and video sets that sell really well upon release and then just gather dust. There are a bunch of strategies to re-release content, but I’ve found putting “re-release” in the description of a PPV kind of turns people off for whatever reason. So, I cooked up a new idea, and it is paying off very well.

I went back to January and tagged all January posts under a label titled “January” (creative, I know). I then went over to Canva and created a “January Favourites” graphic that includes a small preview photo and a brief description of the video: something like “booty focused in black lace lingerie”, with the time of the video and number of photos included, as well as the price. In the post description box itself, I copy/pasted my actual captions from my message history.

People can request this content to be hand delivered. I tell them to message me the date and title of the video (it’s an easy copy paste for them), and then I send over the content via PPV. Since I’ve been using my organization structure for a while now, all I have to do is access the folder on my computer, drag and drop the content and copy/paste the caption from the post itself. 

What I’ve noticed is a huge uptick in old content sales. People will often order two or three at a time. So far this is the best method of delivering old content that I’ve devised so far, and even though it’s a little more labor intensive than just re-sending old messages, the personal connection makes it more appealing to the supporter.

Since this is working, I’m creating a master list of all content to date. It is tedious, but is also paying off. I went to my own profile and sorted my feed by “ascending” rather than “descending”, which brought me waaaay back to the very bottom of my feed. From there, I created a label for 2019 and 2020, and then started adding every single post to those labels. In 2020 alone, I made 1200 individual posts. A lot of these had 10 to 15 photos attached to them. While this was well and great at the time, the reality is no one was able to even see them anymore, so some pruning was definitely in order.

After sorting all of 2020, I “deleted” a lot. It seems that clicking “delete” was a much slower process in terms of actual page loading time, so instead I moved everything to my private archive (where I’ll eventually go and work on manually removing when I find the time). Bottom line is this: I chose the best of the best in terms of posts, removed “duplicates” (since I’d often break up a photoset into 5 or so individual posts, I simply kept one or two from that shoot and removed the rest), and then advertised the new label to anyone wanting to see the best of what I had to offer to the feed for that year. In the end I took things  down from 1200 posts to 400. It’s still a lot of content, but it’s little enough that it can actually be scrolled through without breaking the browser. 

My next step is to do what I’ve been doing for 2023, but for the entirely of 2020 in one “2020 Favourites” post: the same style graphic with brief descriptions on the image and longer captions in the body of the post. This way people will be able to click “2020″ and choose from a list easily. Since it’s working well enough for more recent content, I have high hopes that this method will continue to work for all the content I’ve offered so far (or at least the content I want to re-release).

This is where the longevity aspect comes in. On months where I make fewer new sets, I want to be able to utilize old sets to offset income loss. 

In reality, there will come a day where I stop making new lewd content with any frequency. I want my page to continue to be attractive to new subscribers without it feeling too recycled. With a massive (hand made and slightly labor intensive) “video shop” available and an easy way to actually see all the content I’ve made so far, I feel strongly that I will be able to continue to profit off OF even if my new, more involved content sets become fewer and further between. This can also help to insulate me from periods of stress or illness where I’m simply forced to pause new work to a stronger degree.

My Workflow Now:

I wake up and check my messages, being sure to look at “new subscribers” and reach out to each one personally. I attach a simple selfie and open the door to future communication without it feeling too “business-y”. 

I then reply to all my other messages and provide content requests via PPV. Since it’s just a matter of dragging/dropping and copy/pasting, it doesn’t take me long, and it still comes across as authentic communication with me (the creator) myself. 

Often I’ll put on a comfy pair of panties and a cute little bra and shoot a couple basic posts for the feed just to keep things updated, and then work on dressing up in something fun to make SFW socials posts. After shooting SFW, I make a lewd photoset in that outfit (upskirt shots, strip teasing, etc) and I’ll shoot a short video or two to include as a new PPV. I queue the feed post, send off the PPV and get ready for Twitch, where I get to be myself and attract an audience interested in my personality and potentially attracted enough to how I look to drive them to search for NSFW content. 

At this point, I’m really enjoying how I’m doing things. So far this month I’ve only released two PPVs and I’m still sitting at a maximum of 350 subscribers, but I’ve pulled around $5,000 and can expect at least a little more by the end of the month. For considerably less frantic and exhausting work, I’m making more than enough to support myself and save, and that’s good enough for me. It feels good, too. 

Not all advice will be advice on how to make $100,000 in a month or whatever. What I aim for is consistent and long term income without burning myself out, and these changes have honestly been really helpful. I hope they might stand to help you, too.

Get Off Your Ass and Start Shaking It

Tough love for creators who need a push

I need to get my head out of my ass and start believing in myself again, so I’m writing this for myself - but sharing it for anyone who might benefit from seeing it. Enjoy a little slap from yours truly - free of charge. 

1. Accept that you’re starting from “scratch”.

The internet is different now. Sex work is different now. If you’re an OG, it’s important to recognize that burnout isn’t just OnlyFans burnout - it’s industry burnout. We didn’t get a chance to catch our breath between having had ManyVids and MFC and then OnlyFans and now the biggest bitch of them all, visibility on social media. Our tweets used to show up and now they don’t. Our followers used to see us on Instagram, and now they don’t. We can cry about this all we like (and I do so frequently because it’s more healthy than just bottling it all up), but tears won’t pay the bills, baby. Time to pull up your socks and get moving. 

2. Do your best not to overthink it.

There are a million and one theories on how to do things “right”, when in reality, sometimes a single Reel about absolutely nothing with zero effort involved will hit the algorithm and pop the fuck off. Strategizing can be good, but staying up to date with the theories surrounding advertising should be inspiring, not crippling. We’re doing away with creation paralysis. Brush yourself off, and focus on making content to the best of your ability. Who cares if it’s only selfies and low effort shit for now? People will pay for pretty much anything, and if you have any semblance of a following, they want to see what you put out even if it’s not “to your standards”.

3. Switch up your routine.

This sounds brutal because it is, but this is what I’ve been doing as of late: and it’s helping. You’ll come up with justifiable reasons why this may not be right for you - but ask yourself if what you’re doing right now is right for you. Are you achieving what you want to achieve with the routine you have? Do you even have a routine? This is tough love, but it’s meant to be a realistic look at where you’re at, followed by support to get you to where you want to be. 

A month ago I started plugging my phone in across the room and setting an alarm for 5:30am. I have to physically get up to turn it off. It’s a brutal way of waking up (even though the alarm I have is all peaceful and cute, but still) - but it gets me up. I have my robe and slippers waiting for me, and I do not allow myself to get back into bed. I do my best work in the morning after coffee and before my first meal of the day. I’m not saying you need to work with this timeline, but if you’re a sleep-until-nooner, set your alarm for 10am. If you’re a work-later-on, set an alarm for when you need to start work - and then get your ass up. It’s hard to build a routine but much easier to maintain it once the habits are in place, so have a little faith in yourself. I don’t care how many times I’ve started, hit the ground running, and then crashed and burned, because guess what happened while I was running? I made money. Focus more on the positives of when you are functional, rather than moaning about the times when you’re not. If you’re in this industry it means you have, at some point or another, made it work for you. You can do it again. 

I get out of bed at 5:30am, rinse off in the shower, make my coffee and do a beauty routine that makes me feel really fucking pretty. Sure, messy hair and an instagram filter can do just fine, and again - any content is better than no content - but I feel my best after dry brushing my skin (hello cellulite and the obvious signs of ageing, lol) and then applying a really nice smelling lotion all over my body. I have been listening to Ariana Grande instead of my usual lofi (or just fucking silence, which also isn’t great for my motivation levels). Pump yourself the fuck up. You’re a bad bitch under the weight of all of this self imposed pressure and comparison, you just need to wake that energy up again, and you can do it. Take your meds and drink your water. After coffee I’m in my most positive state to work through my inbox. Yeah, a neglected inbox on OnlyFans is going to take a hot fucking minute to get through but once you actually do it, it’ll be easier moving forward. Buck up, baby - you can do hard things, and the payoff will be worth it. 

Setting actual times to get shit done is helping me immensely. I work on OnlyFans until noon. At noon, my second alarm goes off and I get up and eat and stretch and do something other than look at my phone. Most importantly: PAT YOURSELF ON THE FUCKING BACK! If you’ve done something more than you did the day before or the week before or the month before, you’re moving. You’re going. You’re doing. Our nasty little brains can always tell us we could be making more of ourselves but you know what, fuck that shit. Focus on doing 1% more than you did the day before. Rome wasn’t built in a day and again: you’re starting fresh from this moment forward. Kick the shit out of that voice in your head that wants to compare you to other people or, worse, compare you to what you “used to be able to do”. Fuck it, whatever, we are where we are - all we can do is work with that and make the most of it. 

4. Schedule, schedule, schedule

Instagram allows you to schedule posts. If you do your makeup to shoot for OnlyFans, make two or three reels. Schedule them to post over the next few days. If you manage to shoot a few photos for OnlyFans, make a semi-SFW one and queue that up as well. Places like TweetDeck will allow you to even schedule Twitter posts in advance. Pound an energy drink (or take your meds, if you need that extra focus as I know many of us do) and get ‘er done. That way you can focus on working for shit down the line rather than trying to do everything day by day. OnlyFans lets you queue, so utilize it! Setting aside even one day to sit in your grubby sweatpants and just hammer out scheduling can be so fucking advantageous not only to building your success, but to strengthening your confidence and mental health.

I’m not going to blatantly call justifiable reasons excuses, but sometimes you need to really look at what your internal monologue is saying and whether or not it’s advantageous. If you’re depressed as shit, there are so many strategies out there to get you moving even while you’re depressed. If you’re ADHD or neurodivergent, there are strategies for you, too. The playing field is not level and if you’re starting from a rough point in your life, working will be really hard - but what’s the alternative? Not working, and making it even harder? I know you know this already, but you’re probably using this knowledge to beat yourself senseless. Stop. Even for one day, actively shout (out loud or into a pillow, whatever) at the nasty voice in your head that tells you that you’re too limited by your current position to crawl out of the hole you feel like you’re in. You can handle a scheduling day. Tell yourself, over and over again, that you can handle it. Even if you take breaks every hour to screech like a banshee or cry onto your keyboard, you can push through it. Send it. I believe in you in the same way I push myself to believe in myself. It’s not easy for any of us - but nothing ever is. 

This isn’t bullshit coming from someone who’s doing well. I struggle so, so much. This shit is a grind for me, too. I berate myself and compare myself and am so fucking self critical that it can be immobilizing - but I have to smack some sense into myself once in a while and remind myself that I can grind even when I feel like I can’t. Sometimes I lean into being outright delusional. I love lucky girl syndrome. Shove your head into the clouds and pretend that you’re the absolute best version of yourself, even if you feel like absolute dogshit. The vibes may not last long, but if they last long enough for you to make something happen, then you’re pulling off that 1% improvement that you’re striving for. 

5. Plan for breaks

Give yourself a light at the end of the tunnel, whether it’s relaxing at the end of the day or planning a “do absolutely nothing but lay around” day at the end of the week. As much as it may feel like you’re staring into an abysmal black hole demanding you to do more and more forever and ever, you’re not. You can hustle while taking breaks: in fact, you need to take breaks to make the hustle happen. Just be cautious not to let the downtime turn into a downturn. I put a limit on my rest periods because I am prone to lying face down and just … not getting back up, for weeks or months on end. Saturdays are my sleep in days. Sundays are my do nothing (except for a lil chores or whatever) days. Then I’m back to the grindstone on Monday, knowing that after my “end work day” alarm goes off, I can simply vibe out. 

6. Stop looking at the numbers for now

Analytics are great, but also … not great. Story only got 500 views even though you have thousands of followers? It’s still 500 views. Reel didn’t hit the explore page? Whatever, at least a few people saw it. Recent PPV only sold once? It’s more money than you had before you released it. The best way to handle the restart period is to just focus on output and let any number motivate you to keep on keeping on. Everyone started somewhere. The biggest accounts started at 0 followers and the most successful OnlyFans pages started at 0 subscribers. You started from nothing, too. 

7. Revisit your dreams

Do not stop yourself from dreaming big. What do you want? You can have it. Setbacks are setbacks, not finish lines. A break is a break, not an end. Write your dreams out and put them somewhere you can see them and fucking CELEBRATE every step you take toward them. If you need to start small to feel good about yourself, then do that. If your goal is to post once a week, push yourself to make that happen. If your goal is to make a certain amount of money in a week, do what you need to do to make that happen, whether it’s more posts, more messaging or more advertising. I like to set my goals small but keep my dreams big. I want to buy a condo, which is a big dream, but in order to do that, achieving all my little goals will put me closer to that every time I cross it off my “to do” list. 

8. Fucking believe in yourself, goddamnit

You can do it. You can do it. You CAN do it. Do what you need to do, as your unique and individual little self, to put the systems that support you in place. Trust that you can rely on yourself. Even if that trust is frail for now, it will build as you build yourself up. Berating yourself isn’t helping, is it? I didn’t think so. You’re beautiful, interesting, worthy and so fucking capable, even on days where you think you aren’t. We’re in this together. 

First and foremost, I’ve released my most highly requested guide as of late, which is how to get started live streaming on Twitch. You can find it listed on the Camgirl Survival Guide Etsy page over here:

The Etsy listing includes a 40 page detailed breakdown of everything from Twitch-specific terminology, how to get started using Streamlabs (and customize the absolute fuck out of your stream) and how to use Twitch as a platform in general. It discusses whether or not it can be “worth it” for a NSFW creator to spend time and energy on the platform, and as usual, includes a transparent look at my own cost and income on Twitch compared to what I put into and received out of streaming on MFC. Essentially it’s a fucking chungus of a guide.  

As per usual, though, since I haven’t figured out how to shut the fuck up, I’ll be including a ramble about the topic here on the Survival Guide. If you’re looking for step by step instruction and a very detailed and technical walkthrough, buy the guide. Yes, I know it’s $100. It took me like four million hours to put together and the process of learning the site itself took me over a year, so it’s expensive. Is the information something you absolutely will not find elsewhere? Of course not. A vast amount of knowledge about beginning on Twitch exists everywhere from Reddit to YouTube and beyond - but this walkthrough includes information specifically focused on a SWers experience on Twitch, making it somewhat unique, I think. 

But for the Tumblr edition ... let’s get into some general discussion of the whole MFC to OF to Twitch pipeline. 

As mentioned frequently here on the CGS blog, I left MFC in 2019. I was burnt out. No matter how I reworked my approach, I couldn’t find a way to make streaming on MFC itself enjoyable for me anymore. I liked spending time with my regulars but had grown so sick and fucking tired of spanking myself for tokens that the drive to generate income had dwindled down to nothing, but my expectations for that income stayed the same. Essentially I wanted to make camgirl money without having to actually ... camgirl. I knew my regulars were buying tokens to spend elsewhere and I felt personally owed income from them, even if I wasn’t teasing or doing handbras with any real frequency anymore. 

I’ve talked about this before, but expectation truly had become the thief of joy for me - and I think it had become the thief of joy for my regulars even outside of my room specifically. I imagine that from a member’s perspective, MFC was becoming less and less of a hangout space and more of a financial responsibility, especially if they wanted to show up “publicly”. The number of times I’d heard of members making different accounts so as not to carry their main account’s tipping reputation with them was enlightening. The highest contributing tippers were expected to continue being the highest contributing tippers, and the pressure to maintain those expectations sometimes became so costly that they just stopped showing up at all. As much as I told myself any amount of tip was better than no tip, I can’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed when one of my usual whales wasn’t dropping stacks on me when they came in, even though I was well aware I wasn’t performing like I used to. 

My own dedication to the experience sunk, but my expectations stayed the same. I became bitter and jaded. I fell victim to the habit of lurking rooms I knew my regulars spent money in to watch them support someone other than me, which perpetuated my bitterness even more. Even though I preach a lot of positive shit, I was not walking my own talk in the slightest. In light of all of this, I retired. 

The timing was perfect for me specifically because I had just crawled onto OF a few months prior, which had me set up just in time for the pandemic boom when it occurred in early 2020. The relief was immense; I no longer had to perform NSFW in real time or even talk to another living human being out loud at all, sometimes for days on end. Great! Camgirl money without being a camgirl. Besides, making videos and taking photos was so much easier (oh god, if only I had known), and occasionally messaging people one on one took me less time than live streaming (again - fuck, that didn’t last long, did it?). It was the perfect solution to staying safe financially while recovering from burnout. 

Truly, it was. The break let me unwind. OF was easier, and the income was greater and faster than I’d ever known on MFC. I went from making $6,000 a month (roughly) for 30 hours of streaming to making $20,000 a month for what I’d considered to be less overall time in shooting and editing content. It was what I needed and then some. 

So why on earth did I find myself nostalgic for MFC a few years later? 

While OF took the majority of the social element out of the picture, it also largely left me lonely and bored. I like messaging my OF besties just as much as the next creator does, but it just isn’t the same as entertaining a room of chatters. I became a camgirl because I liked chatrooms. I had been in chatroom spaces since I was a teen, and as an adult creator, MFC gave me everything I already liked about the internet with added income. I felt like I had friends: real friends, both members and other camgirls alike. I created my own communities out of the larger industry. 

This aspect wasn’t something I realized I was truly missing until I started up on Twitch. I didn’t start Twitch streaming with any income expectation in mind. During the pandemic I became obsessed with Animal Crossing and was spending the majority of my time (when I wasn’t shooting for OF) gaming alone, so I figured I may as well game with an audience. As soon as my usual audience showed up again, I felt a surge of good fucking vibes. It was nice to see the same usernames, to make the same weird jokes and to have that same “good time” feel all without having to do the shit I grew to hate doing over on MFC. 

Does Twitch pay the bills? Absolutely not. It does not pay the bills. It pays some bills, but no where near the amount of bills it would need to pay in order for me to transition over to Twitch full time. It is absolutely not camgirl style money. Despite this, I fucking love Twitch. I think dropping the expectations component made my Twitch streams fun for me and my viewers alike. People contribute when they can, and they know I’m not watching their usernames like some hungry hawk waiting to be fed. 

All in all, I am an internet gremlin, and as introverted as I am, I still need human interaction. Digital human interaction is still my favourite. Being a live streamer in that specific live stream format - me, talking out loud, my chat, talking via text - is comfortable and familiar and extremely natural to me. The boost in my overall wellbeing that I get from Twitch streaming is helping me feel human again, in ways that OF just doesn’t cultivate. 

Which leads me to really take a hard look at how objectifying the OF experience can be. I don’t know if it’s just me or if I’ve misstepped along the way in my approach to OF, but I’ve started to really feel like a content factory or some perpetually sexual creature, always at the ready to receive lewd messages from individual after individual. I like making lewd content - I really do - but producing well over a hundred videos a year to maintain my income is ... overkill. It’s beating the process to death. I used to make maybe one video and photoset a month on MFC. Now I expect myself to make multiple sets per week at the least. My highest earning months I’m putting out new content every single fucking day. 

We all know the pandemic boom is over. Anyone on OF that isn’t being run by management knows it’s harder to make a dollar now than it was two years ago. In a feast or famine industry, we know how to handle famine - but the only way through it (if we want to maintain the same sort of income) is to push three times as hard. With consistently restrictive SFW social media platforms making advertising an absolute nightmare, we also have to fully send it with respect to marketing, too. 

I’m looking burnout in the face. It’s starting to feel like MFC all over again. I want OF income without actually doing OF work, at least not to the degree that I’ve done it in the past. 

As contradictory as it sounds ... this is why Twitch streaming is helping me. I need balance. I need a space where I feel like a complex human being so that I can make space to exude the sexuality that makes me money on OF, and I need hobbies so I can keep my wellbeing level enough to put in work elsewhere. 

All that said, I can’t deny the fact that my history with MFC makes it challenging not be an entitled brat over on Twitch. Sometimes I tell myself I’d be better off putting my 80 hours of stream time a month back onto MFC. I’ve toyed with the idea, but still haven’t returned to being a camgirl simply because adding more NSFW to my already NSFW-laden schedule wouldn’t help me in the long run, at least not emotionally. 

My advice to anyone wanting to start on Twitch would be to ask yourself why you’re getting into it, and then to drop your income expectations to the floor. Like, grab a shovel and dig a spot for the bar to go, because it’s low. I stream on Twitch for fun. It’s sort of the first actual hobby I’ve had in years, while still maintaining some sort of income and the possibility for increased income over time, all while staying well within my boundaries. I wrestled with the time contribution element of Twitch streaming a lot (going back to that “I should just go back to MFC” thought process) - but the bottom line is that I’m allowed to have hobbies. As long as I’m financially safe and still making OF work to support my life, doing something that I like is okay. It’s more than okay. It’s necessary for life to feel fulfilling. Not every aspect of my life needs to be making me tens of thousands of dollars a month.

Maybe I’ll blow up on Twitch. Maybe Twitch will get to a point where it pays the bills, and I can transition into making OF content when inspiration strikes rather than forcing myself to come up with new ideas (or just keep working with the same formula). In some ways, though ... I kind of hope it doesn’t. I like being a small streamer, because the whole point of me streaming is to cultivate a little community and have a good time with them. My following is growing over time, but the community aspect is staying very much intact. Plus, now I have girls in my community???? Like actual other women that like hanging out in my streams?? What a concept. It’s pretty fun to shake it up a bit in that respect. 

Anyway, snag the Etsy guide if you want to make the startup process for Twitch immensely easier on yourself. Having all the information you need consolidated into one place will make beginning on Twitch significantly less painful than it could be otherwise. Like, I really wish I had something like this when I started, which is the whole reason I made the damn thing. 

As always,

Happy Hustling.

xoxo, Ashley Tea

After the most recent post being as heavy as it was, I want to follow up with my latest guide for Etsy (surprise surprise, I’m still out here hustling), which outlines my strategies for coping with and recovering from content creation burnout. 

I was going to attach this photo to the last post itself, but honestly, that was a mountain to cover and I think it’s better to follow up with something a little more positive.

We can’t control the platforms we work on or the state of the world, but we can take care of ourselves and one another while we ride things out. 

The link to the Etsy as a whole is on my pinned post, but if you’re interested in seeing my strategies toward burnout recovery, peep the direct link here: https://etsy.me/3wt2NYg

Good luck, friends. When I have something a little more light hearted or constructive to share, I promise I will. In the mean time, do take care. 

Too Little, and perhaps Too Late: The short-comings of MFC as a platform

I know how sick and fucking tired I am of hearing this exact phrase but I will reiterate because it’s important: we’re living through rough times. The pandemic coincided with a massive shift for digital SW, from a realm that was largely live stream (which in a lot of ways was very much booming then) to a content creation platform that by and large took the entire world - SW and vanilla - by storm.

MFC is not a household name. It never has been. The average person doesn’t know what MFC is, and even the average porn consumer likely just thinks of it as one of the sites that pop up as an ad here and there while browsing other sites. Even in the “hayday” (which I’d argue was probably between 2014 and 2018), the pool of people in the know was small, especially in comparison to how prolific OnlyFans has become in broader (vanilla) society.

When established camgirls moved to OnlyFans in the wake of declining traffic and declining mental capacity for live streaming, especially those of us who were five or more years into constantly grinding, we created the foundation for the platform that quickly attracted non-SW to the site as soon as the pandemic occurred. The timing was the perfect storm. With an interface identical to Instagram, it was familiar even to the most vanilla or casual of audiences. With the concurrent rise of subscription-based payment modalities, people felt as comfortable clicking “subscribe” to a $5 a month page as they did with signing up for Netflix.

MFC has not had the same luck. Yes, strategic interface choices and payment structures were conscious decisions on OnlyFans’ part, but I cannot stress enough how heavily luck played into the explosion of OnlyFans as a platform. As much as what I’m about to say (eventually, after I’m finished my characteristic long winded ramble*) may be counter to this point, OnlyFans also inevitably did draw a significant portion of MFC users away from the platform and toward OnlyFans instead. Cheaper (sometimes), faster, easier to use, more transparent. The “tokens” thing was and still is an interesting concept** (again, I’ll get into this in a second), but seeing an obvious dollar amount to subscribe with and clearly defined dollar amounts to spend on individual creators pages themselves cleared any ambiguity about spending for the consumer. For better or for worse, OnlyFans is a SW-consumer platform for consumer dummies. It simplified everything a casual user was looking for out of a digital SWer, and then grew from there.

This is not to say live streaming is dead. Live streaming is bigger than it EVER has been before - but this also means MFC has even more competition now than it ever had in the past. We were the first live streamers the internet had, and for a while, the only live streamers the internet had. We were here before Instagram live, YouTube live, TikTok live, hell we were here when Twitch was justin.tv and even then, the average person had no idea justin.tv even existed.  reference notes for internet history nerds: MFC was founded in 2004, justin.tv (which later became Twitch) was founded in 2007. By 2010, MFC was considered the largest adult live streaming platform on the internet (which also means on the internet itself, since ... others didn’t ... exist yet). Justin.tv was initially a free for all live streaming platform, but after developing a successful gaming section, it moved its gaming component to a site called Twitch in June of 2011 - later dissolving justin.tv and solely becoming Twitch in 2014, which was then quickly acquired by Amazon that same year. Tl;dr - MFC was first, and it was king. 

Alright kids, history lesson concluded. Now you know. Back to the topic at hand.

MFC consumers are unique - but in their uniqueness, I personally feel that the user base that was once largely exclusive to MFC now have options to have both of their primary needs met on other competing sites. Consumers on MFC are looking for two things: personal connection and sexual gratification. For some, having both needs met simultaneously is necessary - but for many others, dividing and conquering is likely a cheaper and higher quality strategy. A user who wants to get off will go to places that are cheaper or have more immediate access (aka OnlyFans), and that same user who wants to feel a sense of community or comfort from a live streamer can go to Twitch to have those needs met over there. 

Even for the most dedicated MFC users, the history of site culture, for better or for worse, has likely impacted overall satisfaction for using MFC itself. There is massive pressure on dedicated MFC users - those with recognized usernames, at least - to provide their performer with tokens often on an hourly basis, and sometimes, depending on their reputation, the expectation is to spend a lot an hour. There is little in the way of anonymity for a user. The second they enter a room, their name pops up in the viewer list, and model expectations immediately kick in. Some of us even lurk other models rooms from separate member accounts or as guests to see members we consider “our tippers” (for better or for worse) and feel a massive sense of loss or disappointment if other camgirls are being tipped by “our tippers” more than they tip us. 

In so many ways, expectation is the thief of joy, and this is playing a role on both sides of the MFC experience: for camgirls and their audiences. We need expectations about tipping because for many of us, it’s our sole or primary form of livelihood. When our goals aren’t met, our morale sinks. When our morale is low, we have less in our cup to pour from, impacting not only our own enjoyment of our jobs, but the experience of our viewers as well. Thus, the downward spiral.

Aside from literally forcing ourselves to keep on smiling and shaking ass, much of the issues experienced are in the hands of the MFC platform itself. Since the same team had no problem copying Instagram for their interface, having MFC improve their homepage in a Twitch-esque way even if only slightly could help new users (particularly those familiar with Twitch) feel more familiar on MFC. Main page integration of MFC Share visibility would work wonders for our video stores. The bare minimum would be consulting models themselves about site functionality and interface - an open forum of any sort for MFC developers to receive feedback is a pipe dream of course, but at this point, the state of things does call for drastic measures.

Very little of this is actively helpful for you as an MFC streamer right now, during a time crisis more or less, so I’ll hop off the lecture podium and begin the workshop component. Thank you for your patience. I will never, ever stop being wordy, so if you’ve made it this far, congratulations - you’re just as big of a nerd as I am.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

- Forget everything you knew about what you used to earn on MFC; focus on the future, not the past. Re-frame your tokens per hour goals, or throw them out the window entirely, because they’re not likely to serve you well right now if you’re already struggling. Create a stream schedule and stick to it. Focus on hours streamed, not tokens made. Hope for the best.

- Up your quality as well as your content production. Lean on familiarity marketing, and increase your visibility. Twitch is huge right now and a lot of MFC viewers, particularly die-hards, are splitting their time and money between platforms. Learn how to use OBS, create “stream starting soon” screens, “BRB” screens, “Bath show starting soon” screens - stuff like that. Jack up the quality of what your set-up looks like as much as you can so that you appear attractive physically but also in terms of digital (and professional) set up style.

- Do more. More streams. More videos for MFC Share. More content for OnlyFans, more advertising on Reels, more advertising on Twitter, more hours more content more hours more content more hours more content --

...yeah. I know. That’s where it’s come to, in a lot of ways. It’s either relentless patience (which a lot of us don’t have the financial freedom for), or aggressive and constant ‘more more more’ which most of us just don’t possess the capability for anymore. 

I’d strongly recommend revisiting whether or not you want to continue on MFC, particularly if its your (perhaps failing) primary form of income. Obviously there is and always will be money to be made on MFC. Diehard users will likely stick around until the platform literally falls into ruin, and there is always the potential for new users to fall in love with the experience and become dedicated supporters. 

The question here is ... do you want to ride this out? Are you over it? Are the emotional, financial and time costs outweighing the pay? Do you feel as though you want to continue streaming on the platform while it’s experiencing the issues it’s currently experiencing? What if the issues never get resolved?

We’re in recession, “post”-pandemic, during a time of massive inflation. We, as creators, are under more pressure now than ever to be making the type of income we used to make, while relying on supporters who have less to spend than they used to. I hate to sound doom and gloom here, but this is a very, very challenging time, particularly for MFC camgirls for all of the reasons listed above (and more, I’m sure). 

My only strategic advice is to diversify income and go where the money is most likely to be. Reels for advertisement (and the potential for virality, which isn’t a word but you get what I mean) are a more sure fire way to draw traffic to OnlyFans than using MFC. 

This is a heavy post. I don’t want to deflate anyone, but I’m being realistic when I say the vast majority of us right now are likely struggling. You’re not alone, this isn’t the end and there will be another time in the sun - but now we’ve got to work three times as hard for half the pay, and if that’s what it means to make ends meet, we simply have to rise to the occasion.

Hey — swinging by to say thank you again for all of the support on the Etsy. You don’t know how much it means to me. 🖤

Goooood morning Survivors -- back at it with my favourite procrastination strategy: making e-books instead of shooting for OF! Love that for me.

Anyhow,

Tier systems and exclusivity marketing have always been at the forefront of my personal approach to my business. My two overarching goals with online SW are to make a lot of money (duh) while also keeping myself and my subscribers happy. For the camgirl migrators who used to live stream and then worked our way over to content creation platforms - I feel like some of our foundational knowledge has been forgotten, and I’m here to remind everyone that the way we used to do things is still a really good approach even on OF.

On M/FC, we focused our energy on premium members, and always offered more attention to tippers than to basics or non-tippers. This helped us focus on where the money was actually coming from, and rewarding tippers with more attention/special treatment plus access to things that others didn’t receive (videos, VIP status, club memberships etc) made tipping look more attractive to non-tippers. 

Somehow on OF, practices have shifted - and I argue they’ve shifted in ways that really don’t benefit all of us very well, or very often. I’ve paid for “shout outs” from top creators twice now, and both times it’s involved giving out a number of free trials to my page. Both times I’ve paid over $200 and received a grand total of zero fucking dollars in the end - the free trials were used over 50 times, and NONE of those new “subscribers” paid me a damn dime. The only people benefiting were the seller, who pocketed my $200, and the seller’s subscribers who got free access to my page for a month (and then proceeded to spend absolutely nothing). Maybe this works for others, maybe there are criteria that I need to follow more carefully, bla bla bla - the bottom line is I think this practice mainly circles around from top creator to top creator while providing the buyer themselves - aka me, in this situation - with next to nothing. Now if I sold a “shout out” with a free trial link to someone else and then gave all my subscribers a month of free access to a different creators page, sure, some of them may click it - but they’re also more likely to stick with me for the chance to get free subs elsewhere.

Make sense? Because when it makes sense, it just kind of sucks. For me, I mean. For the other two parties it’s great - but I’m out here trying to make me money first and foremost. The second piece, as per old M/FC knowledge, is I’m trying to make the people who actually support me happy so they continue to do so. 

This is where my e-book comes in. I’ve had more than half of my current subscribers for more than a year, with probably a third of that half having been subscribed for two or more years. At current, 125 active subs have spent $1000 or more on my page - and that’s out of just 275 total subscribers at the moment (it’s low bc I broke my fucking wrist and can barely lift a spoon to my mouth without dropping food, let alone shoot sexy content lol).

What I’m getting at here is that I’ve learned how to make people happy enough to stay long term and spend a lot. I do this using exclusivity marketing, which helps me maintain my own boundaries (I only really want a small group of top tier supporters seeing my most explicit content, which helps me keep leaks lower and makes me feel better about what I release) and allows me to charge $100 plus for a single video, because I know the individuals I’m sharing it with are way more likely to purchase expensive stuff. This is personal experience that I feel strongly enough about to sell to you as a tutorial book. As always, I’m never going to offer something for sale that I haven’t personally utilized with strong reward, so the book is a massive source of information not just for newbies but especially for long term creators. 

At this point, because of how I’ve set myself up, even if I lost access to every single social media account I own, I know I’d still be able to make a handsome income because I don’t rely on advertising or a constant influx of new subscribers for the bulk of my income. Advertising is always necessary, but if you set yourself up right, it’s not 100% crucial to be doing every single day. As always, I’m sleepy and I have a huge brain so I prefer to work smart, not hard. 

Anyhow, thanks for listening to me rant. I really hope the book benefits some of y’all because I think we could all use a bit more of this strategy and a bit less mad scrambling to secure new subs every day. Are you tired? I’m fucking tired. Doing things this way is a little less tiring. 

Because the site can't tell if the person wearing the mask is the person who registered with their ID to be a part of their site.

Nothing in this industry is "easy" imo. While some individuals will skyrocket to success based off a single viral tiktok alone, the rest of us have to bust our asses to make this shit happen for us.

I'd be very cautious of those who oversimplify things, particularly ones that make big promises to new performers, ESPECIALLY if they have a vested interest in doing so (aka charging you for information or profiting off your income). To me, that's pimp territory, plain and simple.

What counts as a "whale" is subjective. If I usually make 10,000 tokens a night, a whale would be someone who went above and beyond that. If I usually make 1000 tokens in a night, it would be different.

I've talked about this a lot on here already so if you dig endlessly through the archives, you'll probably find more in depth answers. To be brief: