1. Background
Hi everyone. I decided to put together a series of posts about my journey into the adult industry. And in the first post, I want to tell you how I ended up getting into webcam.
A little about myself. I’m 36 years old. I was born and raised in a small settlement in a remote part of the country. There weren’t many educational opportunities nearby, so, like most people my age from the area, I chose vocational education after school.
Back in 2010, the salary in my profession was barely above the minimum wage, and even when it eventually increased, it was still far from enough to build the life I wanted. As you can imagine, that realization went straight to my head, and I started wondering where I could build a better career and earn more.
And that’s where, supposedly, everything should have changed… Yeah, right. I knew absolutely nothing about this whole internet thing. So for the next 10 years, I worked a whole bunch of jobs related to retail and food service, in three cities across different regions of the country.
Sometimes I had to work without a single day off, juggling two different jobs with shift schedules. At the time, I could make what felt like a small fortune by working extra shifts. On average, though, my income was still quite modest if I didn’t completely exhaust myself with overtime.
And then 2020 came along with all its surprises. The first warning signs were a month and a half of “self-isolation” with no income. It was pretty depressing: no money and no way to have any kind of leisure time outside the house. That’s when I adopted a dog from a shelter. Things got a little better, but the gray, furry miracle couldn’t solve the financial problem.
I started thinking about ways to make money online. After digging around on the internet, I realized that “getting into IT” definitely wasn’t for me (I simply didn’t have the brains or the patience for it), and all sorts of other online professions scared me off with terminology that might as well have been written in ancient Sumerian. So yeah, that didn’t really work out.
At that point, I learned about Twitch, but only in very broad terms. That you could sit at your computer, show people how you play games, and make money from it (so naive). I had enough savings to buy a used PC with a mid-range graphics card, and I decided to give the platform a try.
But after several weeks of streaming myself sitting there and playing games, it didn’t bring in anything at all. Back then, I still had no idea how categories and promotion worked, and, thinking it was a dead end, I happily gave up (as it turned out, only temporarily).
In the end, the lockdown period was over sooner than it seemed, and I went back to working at the sweets shop, doing twelve-hour shifts. However, foot traffic at the shopping mall had dropped significantly by then, so there weren’t many customers. To keep myself occupied, I binge-watched countless TV shows, read a ton of books, and kept thinking about what else I could do with my time.
I came across an app that was basically a webcam platform for people who had never really figured out how to use the more established sites.
I started streaming there, mostly just sitting at work and chatting with people, much like on Twitch. But things weren’t really going anywhere at first. So, purely as an experiment, I started adding a little more playful and suggestive content to my streams—a bare shoulder here, a glimpse of a thigh there, that sort of thing.
And suddenly, things started to take off. I received my first small donations and began getting requests for private shows.
This went on for about a month. Then, either the app’s moderators or some of the many haters there started reporting my account, and eventually I got banned.
And that’s when I found out that there are specialized sites where you can show all sorts of things for money. I don’t even remember exactly how: maybe someone made a joke about it during one of my streams, or maybe I googled it after getting banned.
Then came the difficult part—telling my boyfriend (whom I was dating at the time) that I wanted to try this line of work. I had no idea how he would react. At first, I brought it up as a joke, but then the conversation became more serious. To my surprise, he supported me and my decision, and even helped me register on Bongacams.
During my very first stream, I made my first $100 without putting in much effort. But there’s an important caveat here: the platform gave all newcomers a chance—there’s a separate tab for new performers that regular users of the site check from time to time.
During my second or third stream, I had a full-on panic attack when someone shared my stream in a social network with people from my contact list, including a few relatives. I wasn’t doing anything particularly extreme—just dancing in my underwear in front of the camera. But at the time, it felt terrifying.
Nowadays, hardly anything could scare me like that, but back then I was completely overwhelmed. I ended the stream and cried. Some of the people who had received the link messaged me to tell me what had happened. Surprisingly, most of them were understanding, and a few even seemed to enjoy what they saw.
If you’re thinking about getting into this kind of work and you’re worried about your reputation, my advice is simple: first, let go of the idea that you can completely protect it. And second, remove personal photos and identifying information from your social media. It still won’t make you impossible to find, but it can make things a little harder.
After that first experience, I stepped away from it for a while. First, I went on a trip for a few weeks, and then I returned to my regular job.
Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have taken that break. As I mentioned earlier, there was a “Newcomers” section that gave new creators extra visibility, but that promotional period doesn’t last forever. Those first few weeks are especially important for making money and building an audience, so I was essentially letting a valuable opportunity slip away.
After some time, I decided to give webcam streaming another try.The income wasn’t anywhere near what the top performers on the site were making, but it was more than enough to live on. In fact, after just a month, I quit my regular job. It was a lot easier money than spending twelve hours on my feet behind a counter.
I also started buying toys and equipment for my streams. For a while, it was actually pretty fun.
But eventually, webcam work gradually became a pretty miserable job for me, and I started feeling burned out by the whole thing. Maybe it was laziness, or maybe it was simply because any job, even one like this, eventually turns into a routine. But I really didn’t want to go back to working as a salesperson.
I set up various private sites for myself and gradually started streaming less and less. Eventually, I decided to give Twitch a second try. But that’s a story for another post.
2. How to Register
On the first platform, as I mentioned earlier, someone helped me register. But later I also tried Chaturbate, Stripchat, and other platforms. Basically, the registration process comes down to filling out a profile (in some cases in Russian, in others in English) and verifying your identity. You need to be prepared to submit your ID documents.
Considering how common data leaks have become, it doesn’t seem all that scary anymore. If you’re interested, I can prepare a separate piece about different platforms, withdrawal methods, and other details.
3. Interesting Viewers
There were quite a few of them, but I want to tell you about the most memorable ones.
There was one guy who paid for a private show, and during it, he played the lute for me. A really cool and sweet guy.
There was also a man who invited me to a private show just so I could vent. I was going through some kind of crisis at the time, and I told him about my life and cried. (Are you sure you’re a psychologist? :D)
There was a man who would dress in women’s underwear and ask me to insult and humiliate him in every possible way. In general, there were quite a lot of fans of femdom, especially during my period, when you can’t really show your whole body on camera. During those times, I would simply sit there fully clothed and make it clear to the audience that these were days for more specific services.
I actively chatted with some viewers in a friendly, casual way and received tips for it. Overall, I came across a lot of genuinely nice people, and there was very little toxicity on platforms like that compared to something like Twitch.
4. What about the money?
Looking back on my streams and earnings, I can say that I didn’t make that much money. But when I compare it to what I used to earn working in my field, in restaurants, and in retail, the difference becomes very noticeable—especially when you’re making enough not only to cover rent and food. During that time, I was able to buy an iPhone, various lingerie and toys, and put some money aside, but I never really lived lavishly.
5. Is it worth getting into webcam work or not?
If you’re not afraid of damaging your reputation (assuming you have one to begin with), like money, masturbating a lot, and getting naked on camera, then the answer is pretty straightforward: absolutely, go for it. In any other case, you’re probably better off trying something else, especially if you’re intelligent and hardworking. Besides, you’re unlikely to make the huge amounts of money you read about online.
If you’re a single guy, it’ll be even harder to make money in this field, because the majority of cam-site viewers are men. Bongacams even used to pay extra (at least they did back then) just for guys to sit on a stream. However, if you’re good at “transformations,” know how to do your makeup, dress up well, and aren’t afraid to show that persona online, this industry can bring in quite a bit of money. On Chaturbate, guys in the “Trans” category can make fairly decent amounts from streams like that. But ultimately, to each their own.
In the next few articles, I’d like to talk separately about my second stint on Twitch and how I eventually started a career as an amateur porn actress. If curiosity gets the better of your common sense, here’s my website:
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