earlier this morning i was accused of having a pitty party and labeling myself as a victim after vocally speaking out against the pay policies and treatment of models at KinkLive. (no hard feelings, A.) so look, this is how it is, i got fed up, i resigned, and instead of doing the expected “fuck this place, here’s all their dirty laundry” ranting, angry post, i’ve decided to write a letter to my department heads suggesting how i think the department could be run better, more lucratively, less exploitatively, and more transparently for models to come. maybe i’ll go back, maybe i won’t, but i won’t unless i see some change. i’m not here to take on a whole castle and fight an entire brand. that’s not what i want. in fact, i don’t want anything. so instead of “feeling sorry for myself”, i have, as per request of many of you written a blog. but instead of my blog being a “tell all”, i’ve decided to, as a veteran cam girl offer solutions to improve and boost both morale and profits. please reblog if you stand with me. i will not behave as ugly as the ugliness i’ve seen.
Dear KinkLive Management,
first of all, thank you for as always, hearing me out. idk if the following things i’m suggesting can or would ever work, and i absolutely understand that nothing can happen overnight, or anytime soon at that matter (hence my frustrated resignation) but so far everyone whom i’ve run these ideas by has said that at the bare minimum it could really be a starting point to something constructive.
1. re-instating some kind of minimum guarantee or small base wage.
- i know that the independent contractor status could inhibit giving us a “minimum wage” but hear me out…
- this is a job for models. there is no model who would book a job, get out of bed, get ready, and drive to a shoot with no base scope of how much she’ll make for the gig, especially if once she gets there the camera or lights don’t work and she knows that beforehand. if she’s uncompensated for that time and effort she won’t rebook with that photographer. it’s the same kind of logic, and a part of the reason that makes KL unique from home camming. we’ve no control over the infrastructure even though we have to show up and sometimes walk away empty handed due to problems completely beyond our control.
some girls also do wildly explicit things in free chat, FOR FREE to attract attn or please certain members. i watch kink live, a lot, and i can tell you that some girls give great live shows and are compensated well, some, do not and are not. they’re just… doing it. some look so so unhappy. naturally, ALL the attention of potentially paying members goes lopsidedly to those showy models, while the rest of us are sometimes literally singing and dancing for attn. at one point, we’d have 6-7 girls on at air all doing shows at once while that was happening. it was impossible. it’s humiliating. i refuse to compete with another model shooting beer bottles out of her ass in public anymore. that model in question is very sweet and a good person, but she’s single handedly brought down the quality and dignity of all our shows. even if us other girls don’t do things in free chat, we have to work harder, look better, be more creative, or show more just to compete with that to have 3 ppl in our room, not to mention actually talk to us and pay for services. it’s exhausting and disheartening. damned if you do, damned if you don’t. its very hard to put in that kind of effort when you walk away with $20 some dollars some days. i put in that much effort, a lot of other girls did and do too.
- that being said, give us a “showing up fee”. what i mean by that is, a small base pay for the hours you are there. i suggest $75 if we continue to do “anything” in public. $50 is fair, but not much lower. i know you can’t give us “minimum wage”, but there are commission split systems that are much more fair and very effective.
for example: i have a cosmetology license. many new hair stylists work at chain salons to garner a following. they don’t have enough clients to rent a station, so what they do is a commission split. they get paid either min. wage or a low hourly fee for the time they are there, and if the bookings and services they do in a day equal to be more than the minimum wage they would have earned, then they take the higher amount, usually a 50-50, 40-60, or 60-40 commission split of the profit made from that stylist, that day. if they have a dead day or one client or just did a shampoo, they get the minimum for showing up with a good attitude and doing their job, or waiting for work diligently. it creates initiative, it creates a team centric environment, it shows appreciation to the staff, and positive hope and outlook for advancement. it helps the staff to see the bigger picture and create goals for themselves to be better models/employees.
so, either give us a set base fee, or a low hourly that also covers a 4th or 5th hour of show should the model take the initiative to work longer.
- if the equip fails and the model is in the middle of a show, she should get her base fee or her commission split PLUS a kill fee. not just the money she earned that day, but both. if the equip makes it so the model can no longer work, especially on a busy day when all of the sudden the plug is pulled on her work in session, then she should be compensated with a kill fee for that too. you should not have to ask/bargain/beg for a kill fee. it should be automatic and offered. that is kink.com’s way and it should cover the cam models who work in my opinion much harder on a day to day basis than any other model at kink.
- if it is night time or a weekend or a holiday and IT is not there to help, the kill fee should be automatic. if nobody can fix the problem, we shouldn’t feel we have to sit there and apologize to an angry member all the while not being paid ourselves. we are not IT techs. we are models and it’s hard to keep it “sexy” when everyone’s complaining their kinks got eaten. there are tech problems all the time, you say it yourselves, that’s why we used to get a salary. it shouldn’t be any different now esp, for night and weekend girls. we all can’t clamor for the 9-5 weekday shifts bc those are the only business hours when we’ll have proper assistance and sometimes then not even so bc IT prioritizes the other live kink shoots on other sites if they’re happening that day. you literally could not make it harder for us to make money. it’s totally unfair and a waste of models, talent and resources all around.
- by reinstating a base salary and appropriately paying out kill fees, you will see a huge change in morale. old models will return. your quality of applicants will go back to models and porn stars and not just (sorry) a bunch of college girls with little to know XXX experience, not to mention lacking the tough mental capabilities and experience you need to be a professional dom, switch, or submissive. girls will feel happy and respected again. it’s not that much per model, we earn the money that’s brought in OURSELVES right there and then, we don’t require editors, or talent dept, or drivers, or flights, or camera men, or hair and makeup, we bring our own clothes and shoes, for what we do with our bodies, is it so much to ask? we can’t talk about or promote any of our other work or sites, so if we are stuck in your studio w your rules, and you can’t help us when we need the help, then we have to be paid for our time.
2. bring back the overnight shift. the overnight shift is a pro and con situation if i’ve ever seen one. i’m no night owl, but when they had the $300 minimum it worked great for me. ask any model: when you do the overnight you lose 3 days of your week. you sleep all day the day of, sleep all day the next day, then you’re all weird and jet lagged the third day. when the minimum was a few hundred the incentive was totally there to go through that, and the only thing really bad about it was the last hour. OMG, the last hour. so bad, lol. don’t get me wrong, i did a couple shows after the minimum was taken away and made a KILLING one night, good money. but that was a very specific circumstance that probably won’t happen again soon. not exactly incentive to do it again. most models, even the ones who work at night, agree with me on this. with no base pay, nobody wants to do the overnight shift, but the members love it! they always complain about their 4pm kinklive dead air wasteland. esp our Aussie, NZ and european members. it’s not worth it to rattle and completely disrupt and throw off 40% of your week for maybe walking away with $80 for an all night show. it’s too hard!
i know this is a staffing issue too. however, if you get the personnel again to go all night, and gave us a couple or few hundred in base pay for the trouble, (it really is a lot of trouble) then gave us a commission split if we made more than our base, EVERYONE would be happier and make more money. models can alternate the overnights or be restricted to 2 a month to make it fair, more members will be online and spending kinks which will bring in new fans, and it will create employment opportunity BTS on the 2nd floor. the overnights can be a goldmine if approached right. i’ve thought about this, a lot.
suggestion: maybe the overnight can be something like a goal or privilege for the models? by that i mean, if you’re not a model with a cheery, sunny personality, and you’re just going to do the shift for the money and doze off and be all cranky, it’s a waste of time and money. perhaps overnights could be a lucrative spots for models who care to put the effort in? goals work, even in sex work. really.
3. why is it so hard to do 2 girl shows, damnit?!
- oh lord, the first time i did a 2 girl cam show on another site, we made so much money! we were so busy! it was SO fun and sexy, i was actually turned on, for real. every cam show should be a 2 model show. i know they used to happen all the time a couple of years ago before i was there and we get asked to do them all the time. i know the ones we had a year ago were really popular, and it should start happening again.
i think 2 girl shows should happen in a 2-tired kind of way:
- models who have or pay for their own testing can perform together by independently contacting each other and working out show dates and limitations as per a protocol that should be drafted using the kink model’s bill of rights. the models can then independently schedule it after giving the appropriate boss proper notice, promote it using their live shows, twitter, FL, etc and can request a room just like a solo model can. the show doesn’t have to have a specific theme or be promoted using a banner on the KL main page, or be 6 hrs long, but staff can make sure the calendar is not over scheduled during that time slot to make it fair for solo performers that day. models can explore working together within their limits and if a certain model combo really performs well it can be a great precursor to a formal live show and an excellent way to make long time devoted members happy.
also, if 2 girls are having shows at the same time and a member wants one girl to go into the others room and spank her for example, she should be able to do that. she should go back to her room after if no more money is being paid bc then it’s unfair to the other models on air at that time. there should be a restriction to things like fluid exchange and heavy impact which can also be another protocol drafted using the model’s bill of rights. if i had the freedom to say, be tied up by bella rossi for 50 kinks for 10 min then she came back and untied me for the same amount i would do that! if bella went to prvt during that 10 min then, the members would have to understand that she was busy and couldn’t come back. just like how if i was pulled into private during a public game. that’s the risk you take but that’s why it’s fun. the key words are incentive and opportunity. it would make kink live so much more exciting and less depressing some days for us girls. we can say NO to members badgering us into playing w other models we don’t want to or don’t care for just like we say no to our different limits all the time.
- formal live shows. we can do 2 girls shows as a kinklive special once monthly or bi monthly/quarterly like we did for a brief period last year. the shows can have a theme like “Bad student angry teacher!” or “2 house slaves go at it!” or ” kinklive wrestle mania!” or whatever, be 6 hours instead of 3 or 4, be promoted for a month in advance, and can be potentially put on kinklive on demand afterwards to generate even MORE income as time goes on. the beauty of live shows is the excitement of never knowing what to expect. all kinklive members and kink.com fans know this.
my only edit to this is that in this circumstance, if it’s a featured shoot with banners and promo pics then kink should pay for the participating model’s testing if they are not tested already just like they would any other model they book. if it’s not a “tier 1” 2 girl cam show that’s 3 hours long, then kink should provide testing for safety and as incentive to be obtain the privilege of doing a featured like show. you’d also get more pornstars coming back to work for KL who are ahem… pornstars. they perform best with other models. just saying!
4. Cut it out with the no twitter and fetlife. come on!
- i understand that kinklive is not only a business, but a brand. if you are at work and representing a brand, it is uncouth, taboo, and just plain unprofessional to name drop other companies in a self serving way. that’s just basic business. however, my fans and members are grown adults. if i give them my twitter or fetlife name, they are completely aware there are 100,000 other fetish models and pornstars on those sites that they could be looking at. i am completely aware that at any time they could use my or any other girl’s social networking picture or video to get off for free. but guess what? if they wanted to get off for free using free social networking pics or videos, THEY’D DO IT NO MATTER WHAT, NO MATTER WHO I WAS OR WHAT SITE I WAS ON. they’d find a model, and they’d find a way. i’m camming FROM a BDSM porn site for crying out loud, do you not think i don’t do everything i can to keep their attention on me?
- i am also aware that my members are also completely capable of opening up another tab to look at said profile. most have said sites already up in a tab on their computer right next to the tab they have kinklive running on. for them to leave and click out of my living, breathing self in a cam show to go look at 2D pics on twitter, that completely defeats the purpose of finding out more about me! they want to look at the profile next to me so they can get to know me. people are social creatures and need information to feel comfortable around others they don’t know. we are hot girls and they need ice breakers, duh. it worked great before, there was nothing wrong with it.
now that being said, maybe models should not be saying “hey go check out these pics of my gaping butthole on twitter” or “hey check out the link to my new trailer on a competing site on my fetlife”, THAT is the same as name dropping another site or diverting attention away from yourself. NOT COOL and will hurt you in the end. but let us talk about our amazon wishlists for crying out loud. if the dude gets distracted looking at used Kindles, he wasn’t going to spend any money on you anyways. seriously!! you realize that all banning twitter and FL as done has create a secret language on air. everyone does it. “the Dark site” “FL” “twatter” “blue bird”… for crying out loud. allow us to be successful by allowing the capability of tending to our fan base. we need our fans. they love us, we love them and you need them too. the members and their complaints and needs are rarely if EVER discussed. it’s just all about the company. so backwards.
5. Stop Blaming Us.
i’ve been a KL camgirl for 1.5 years and have seen every kind of member, from every country, at every time of day or night. at this point, i can tell the difference between some guy from france who can barely speak english with a dial up connection in some farm house on a 16 year old HP desktop. that happens!! how do i know? i ask them questions along with the usual change your browser, clear your cookies, log in/out etc. this takes up an egregious amount of my time on air. tons. when i should be working. not sexy. i’m and EXPERT in troubleshooting and 85% of the time the problem is on kink’s end. when multiple members get their kinks eaten, when i’m skillfully, exhaustively, and almost impossibly juggling 2 or 3 guys in private then they all say they can’t see me AND they lose their kinks?! that’s not my fault AND i don’t get paid for it. my members and regulars work very hard for their money, they are not all millionaires, they are mostly normal working ppl like you and i are and their money, kinks, time, and dedication to us models is just as valuable if not more valuable than any other paying member of any other site on
kink.com. saying “do you want to open a ticket?” or “do you want to work another day” or my favorite: “OH WELL” with no kill fees does not benefit anyone and all it does is make models quit and their members follow them to other cam sites. just like i said in paragraph 1, we have to be compensated for our time and effort when your equipment craps out on us. it’s a hard enough job on our bodies and minds to feel completely unsupported by the staff. how long can we create our own motivation and initiative?
i was nominated for best alt cam girl of 2012 by
altporn.net for my work on kinklive 8 months ago. the work i did when i was nominated was when we were all salaried, was happy, and very fulfilling. we were a team. i SHONE and i was so proud to be the only KL girl nominated when i thought 5 or 6 of us would. of course i could have improved things about my performance pre-salary cut and yes we did have it made and a lot of us including myself could have appreciated that more and worked harder some days to make more money for the company. i fully acknowledge that we didn’t *always* earn our checks. but i truly believe i am one of the best of what i do in the entire camming industry. i am a world-class cam girl and in 7 months my career has denigrated into panic attacks, insomnia, crying before and after and sometimes during shows, the stress…. a night mare. everyone’s always just blamed it on me. i even got a boob job to help with my appearance. know what that got me? a ton more privates of which 90% didn’t work properly. that was the last straw. it’s absolutely impossible to make any money there unless you’ve got 1 or 2 “Daddy” members taking care of you and taking you private all the time.
the rest of us… we just get crumbs. crumbs of respect. crumbs of appreciation. crumbs of a barely livable salary. i can’t speak for the top 10 models but i can sure as hell speak for the rest of us 90 or so. we can’t work for free anymore just to keep a site going so that other girls can come in and make all the money with janky equpit just to be told some 1% kind of rhetoric. treat us with respect and realism. now i have no “home” anymore, i miss everyone at kink, my job, my friends, but i am not some piece of cattle being kept in the barn next to the armory for as much milk as they can take. i’d rather leave and fight for change then stay and be an example of what’s going wrong.
all i ask of you 2 as studio managers are to look at your job as an advocate for the models who keep the dept going, and not be a facilitator of unrealistic rules that people in warm comfortable offices with salaried positions make. you 2 have always tried to do what’s right for us girls and i understand that your hands must be tied in ways i couldn’t ever even begin to imagine. but i don’t think what i’m suggesting is so out there it couldn’t happen. and you may have to spend a little more $ as a dept., but for what us strong, brave, tough, intelligent, sharp, women go through with our bodies, it’s not that much to ask.
how much would you charge per minute if you were selling your soul? even if it was “just a role play?’ how much would you really want to make if it was you who had to do that and it wasn’t just … just “us” who had to do it. what if it was your daughter?
we’re here you know, we are daughters, sisters, mothers, wives, friends, and the best at what we do professionally. cream of the crop. kink should be proud to have a cam dept as diverse, talented and amazing as the girls i see in the halls every day. all we ask is to be compensated as fairly as the janitors we see there every day, working hard too.
thank you, thank you,
Eden Alexander
