The landscape of internet porn has changed over the last 20 years.
Those were the days when “lifecams” were a huge thing. People had a webcam (or four) in their house, “Real World” or “Big Brother” style, and you could watch their life. Some folks might’ve had 24/7 streaming activity, maybe even some audio. However, you’d more than likely be treated to a grainy still shot from a $50 Logitech camera . The “stream” was refreshing a 320×240 pixel JPEG every 10 seconds to show nothing but empty room. At the height of all this cam shit, Shawshank and I had four cameras running in the house.
Show Us Your Tits
Naturally, the first question anyone with a webcam would get asked was “is this live?“. This would almost always be followed up with “get naked?“. It never mattered how often I warned people there was no intentional nudity – or at least no demanding it. If you presented as female and had a cam, it was simply assumed you got naked. It happened all the time, to every camgirl. After all, someone else once saw tits on Amy’s cam, what’s the harm in asking?
Seeing a demand for it, I gave in and signed up for an account on a pay-per-view streaming site. Goddamn it, if you wanted to see my fat ass and saggy tits, you were going to pay $3.99/min for it. I funded the cost of a digital camera and an international trip with random PPV shows 2-3 times a week.
It was mostly easy money. You logged into the site, marked yourself as live, and you showed up in their giant gallery of online streams. Users could filter streaming content based on keywords and visit a performer’s “room”. If the performer was available for it, they could take it to a private viewing. Users would pay by the minute.
What went on in private would depend on the performer. Private shows could range from some good old fashioned erotic cybersex and a striptease to explicit sex shows, with everything in between. If you had a niche, all the better. Users could review performers – a sort of camwhore Yelp. Private shows could be archived for on-demand purchases. On top of live PPV shows, performers could upload and sell members-only content, giving us multiple income stream options.
The More Things Change…
A couple of weeks ago, I was having a soak in the tub, like you do, when I had an intrusive thought: If I started posting the 
spicy content for money again, my handle could be _________. The perfect username was right there in front of me.
There’s no shortage of places to post that sort of stuff these days, so why the fuck not? It’s not new to me, after all. I did it before. I joked with Shawshank about it, joked with my other friends. Surely, there must be someone who would pay $5/month to watch me jam out to EDM in the tub with the LED poi strobing all around me. I thought about it overnight, and then created the account.
Compared to what I went through to be verified 20 years ago, setting up this account was easy. Back then, digital cameras weren’t really a thing any average Joe had. Even my mid-range digital camera cost me half a month’s pay. I had to scan my ID with a scanner nearly the size of a VW camper van. I used a shitty webcam to submit photos of myself and any identifying marks/features.
This time around, I took a picture of my ID with my phone. I snapped another of it beside my face. That was it. They approved me and the account was up and running in about 24 hours.
The biggest change is probably the hardest aspect for me: putting myself out there. Back when I was first tearing up the internet as a camwhore, we didn’t have to actually do anything. I did nothing more than type a blurb about being a tatted up BBW. That was enough to draw people in. From there, it was only a matter of being friendly enough to get someone to take things to the next level. If you got a reputation for being a performer who was ok with smoking a cigar or covering herself in cooking oil, you could make some money. It was never anything that would pay my bills, but it would put gas in my car.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Back then, that site offered one-stop shopping for all your erotic desires. It’s absolutely bonkers how much of a shift there has been since then, but it makes sense. Twenty years ago, the landscape of the information superhighway was fresh and new. We had webrings and bulletin boards and Livejournal and Geocities. There was ICQ and AIM if we wanted to talk to people, and forums for specific topics. Search engines were still in their toddler stages. If you were on the internet, you were there for a reason. You had a destination. If you wanted pr0n, you had to go to it.
Unlike the early years of the new millennium, social media is now an increasingly important aspect of some people’s lives. We log in to whatever account is our “hub”, set up a few likes and dislikes, and our feed is pushed at us nonstop. Not having a social media presense is considered freakishly odd. People have come to expect the firehouse of information to hit them with everything they need in one stream.
And that includes their smut.
Today, in order to drive people to my spicy content, I have to work with several different social media accounts. There’s the main spicy site’s account, obviously. But really, that site is just the end point. Performers do everything in their power to funnel views and followers from the free content to their paid content. In order to cast that net as far and wide as possible, performers will optimally have at least Twitter and Instagram accounts. For even wider reach, they might also have Tiktok, Reddit, and even Pornhub.
Then, consider that each site’s rules differ with regards to acceptable user content. Performers need to cater specifically to each site’s rules. You can’t be too sexy on Tiktok because they’ll flag you and remove your content at the least, risking a total ban at the most. Instagram is better, but still has its limits. Twitter is…. well, it’s something. Reddit is still more old-school, Wild West internet at times, and doesn’t give a shit about its content. I’m a regular user on a normal account. I’ve seen its user base develop over the nearly 12 years I’ve been there. The idea of posting anything like that to Reddit is scary.
When I first dipped my naked feet into the world of whorecraft, half my earnings went to the streaming site. Nowadays, newer sites might only take 20%, but they don’t handle the advertising or promotional aspects for their performers.
…The More They Remain the Same
One thing that hasn’t changed at all over twenty years? Spam. There is so much fucking spam. Every Tweet that I send ends up with at least half a dozen spam comments from bots. Sometimes bots retweet my posts. Does that help me or hurt me? I have no idea.
Competition years ago was against eastern European studios that would set up multiple streams of one performer. If you played by the rules as a performer, it was a mostly level playing field. Unfortunately, by the time I left, it was almost impossible to compete against the studios, even with a niche.
Then, there’s the issue of free versus paid content. Performers have to find that happy medium between free and paid content. They need a steady supply of fresh content to keep people coming. On top of that work, they’re promoting their content almost to the point of almost being a spammer themselves.
I haven’t made a single cent in the week since I first uploaded content. That’s my own fault, because I am an absolutely terrible salesperson. Will it work out? Who knows. It’s not like I wouldn’t already be rocking out conducting my imaginary EDM symphony orchestra in the tub. I may as well get paid for it.
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