Whether you’re a fresh, sparkling newbie in the camming world or you’ve been working in the industry for a while, it’s important to understand that marketing is a major part of finding success.
There are so many ways to promote paysites. Many of these ways are totally free, too. Mainly, social media has been the way to go for advertising paysites. From Twitter accounts to premium Snapchats, promoting yourself is extremely important.
However, few people actually seem to invest in purchasing a website — and this is a pretty hefty mistake. Owning a website — and thus controlling your space online — can cause a major boost in your career.
The Benefits of Building Your Own Website
Think of the biggest brands you know. Chances are, they have a website. Why can’t you?
A website is a fantastic all-in-one spot on the internet for fans and possible viewers to find all the places you are on the internet, from your paysites to your social media accounts. It’s a great way to start marketing yourself as well.
It’s worth noting that we don’t suggest using a website for your actual chatrooms unless you’re prepared to launch a pretty hefty business and know a lot about development. Rather, it’s easier for most cam models to simply use a website for their marketing endeavors and as a place for people to find links.
There’s also the issue of SEO or “search engine optimization.” If you want to advertise yourself as a cam model, you want to get as high up on the Google food chain as possible for your relevant keywords. You can’t really do this with just a paysite. A website can really change the game in terms of SEO.
So how can one start a website? It’s actually quite easy — even if you have zero know-how in the coding department.
How to Build Your Site Using Wix
Wix.com is a website building platform designed for professionals who are not necessarily great at coding but need to build their own website. Wix is free to use, but certain bells and whistles and the ability to use a domain name will cost some money. However, the initial investment is definitely worth the payoff.
It’s worth noting that while Wix is definitely the easiest platform to go with, it isn’t nearly as useful as WordPress. However, WordPress requires quite a bit of additional work, money and coding know-how. You’d need to go through a secondary platform to purchase both a domain name and hosting before even diving into using WordPress. If you’re a beginner, WordPress can have quite a learning curve and isn’t the most user-friendly. So for the sake of any readers out there who aren’t developers, we’ll go through the ins and outs of Wix.
Building a website using the Wix platform requires absolutely no coding ability. The webpage edit itself is not that different from any other drag-and-drop dashboard. It’s entirely visual, so what you actually see on your screen is what you will actually get in terms of image, text and video placement.
To begin, simply make a Wix account. This is fairly self-explanatory. Wix will ask you what your website is for, if you’ve created one before and what kind of website you need. From there, you can allow Wix ADI to create a website for you. This doesn’t always have the best results, but it definitely is easier. We’d recommend creating your own website with Wix’s editor using templates.
There are so many templates to choose from with Wix, so feel free to experiment with your aesthetics. Once you’ve found the right template, you’ll be taken to Wix’s dashboard editor where you can watch a tutorial and start dragging and dropping content. You can add everything from videos to images to graphics to lists to contact forms. It really comes down to what you want your website to provide possible viewers.
We talked a bit about search engine optimization earlier… With Wix, your best bet would be to invest in a domain name instead of using a Wix-based subdomain. This means that you’re going to want to pay for an actual website title — like, “www.amandamodelz.com” — rather than whatever your Wix username is — like, www.amandamodelz.wix.com/mysite. Wix makes it easy to purchase a domain name straight from their dashboard.
And that’s it! Congratulations, you’ve just made your first website to promote your cam career. Be sure to include your website link in your bios on your paysites and social media.
“I’m an online sex worker… Can I even use Wix for work?
Sex worker discrimination is real, and we would be remiss if we did not raise this topic.
Wix is a little bit vague in their TOS when it comes to what is allowed and what isn’t allowed on their platform:
Wix shall not be liable for any mistakes, defamation, libel, falsehoods, obscenity, pornography, incitement and/or any other unlawful and/or infringing User Content you or any other party may encounter.
There’s also this equally non-answer on whether “pornography” is allowed or not. Still, there does not seem to be any explicit prohibition of sexual content or pornography on the Wix platform according to their Terms of Service. Unfortunately, there is always the chance that Wix will go the way of Tumblr, Blogger and so many others and completely ban adult content in the future. So be cautious and back up your data regularly if you decide to go with Wix for your website.
Even if you decide not to use Wix, there are so many possibilities for building your own site. Building a work website could be the best decision you’ve made in terms of marketing yourself. Now get out there and kick your career up a notch!
—
Em Casalena is a queer sex positive writer and professional protective mom friend. Email them at em@ynotcam.com.
Background header image via Unsplash here.
