1. What's your motivation for maintaining a portal of camgirl sites? Money? Fame? Sex?
I am honestly impressed by the amount of sites and the uniqueness they all
display. I would love to help the community grow, by providing them an
easy way to find each other, swap traffic, and an easy way for others to
find them.
2. Describe a typical camgirl site, or give us some demographics of camgirl site genres.
Most sites include a journal/blog, various information about the
owner, links to friends' sites, most include the "live" webcam (which
interestingly enough most of them I never catch live =)), pictures of
themselves, friends and family. Most of them now seem to include a wishlist
for their fans to pamper them. A lot of girls are now adding in other ways
for them to get some cash, too, by adding in links (normally to porn sites,
since those are the easiest and most profitable).
Of course, each girl has her own style. There are too many out there to
try to generalize them. Some sites offer ways to help charity, some sites
include other topics of interest. I've seen many sites where the design is
centered around a favorite band, like Blink 182 (I've seen quite a few
using Britney Spears) to give it some extra flair. i've seen camgirls
aging from 13 up to late 20s, from all around the world.
3. I find camgirl sites to be overwhelmingly uninteresting, rife with terrible writing. What's the draw?
In the May 2002 issue of Wired, Dave Winer bet that by 2007, online
weblogs (independent journal/blog sites, which most camgirl sites fall
under) will outrank the New York Times website. For someone to say that,
they expect the exposure to these sites to grow for quite some time. This
looks like the future of journal writing.
You say these sites are uninteresting and the quality of writing isn't top
notch; I don't disagree. A lot of people use their sites to vent and let
go of some of the stress in their lives. Apparently, some people like
reading about that stuff in the world. I think most girls just post and
don't really care too much if people read it. Most of the people who read and
comment are usually guys with crushes on them or fellow
friends/cyberfriends who can relate to their problems. The point of these
sites isn't to make a perfectly written journal entry or anything, it's a
form of self-expression. When it comes to self-expression, there is no
"wrong" way because it's all about the person expressing themselves.
I can't say that the "draw" is also as dense as you may think; a lot of
visitors come and go, probably without reading most of what is there. I'm
sure there are a lot of shallow visitors who come to see what the girl
looks like. Most of the traffic is generated from girls linking to each
other and such, which is why I found the need to try making some place
where everyone who owns a site can list it. I'd go to someone's site from
a link I found on site No. 1, from site No. 2, and I saw the link on site No. 3
from site No. 4. It's really a neverending maze of links.
There are some interesting sites out there, and I suppose it's up to
yourself to define what you think is interesting. Some people may like
hearing a girl rant. Other people might enjoy reading about someone else's
life. Some girls don't write about anything like that at all and will
write about completely random and humorous things. There's an audience for
every site.
4. How risque do some of these sites get? And by all means, name them the good ones.
Most sites don't censor their speech at all. It's the Internet. Most
people are used to swearing and seeing it, so it's goes unnoticed.
Picture-wise, I would say the majority of girls don't show themselves
naked (a good deal of them are not legal, or don't want to do it) — a lot
of girls say things like "see me naked at ____" and such, but that is
usually just a way to promote their link off to a toplist site or a
porn site. There are, however, some sites I've noticed who show naked
pics for free, but most of them only show enough to entice you to join.
Those sites vary from normal nudity to fetish and hardcore XXX. if you
want a list of the "good" ones, just check out the site. More are added
each day =)
5. My impression of a guy who visits a camgirl site is a cross between a virgin and a pedophile. Break down that stereotype, if possible.
Again, I can't disagree with that. I'm sure the recent growth of the
camgirl population is every pedo's dream. I'm sure that many girls out
there have gotten some sick fan mail, or had other problems. That is why
CGD only lists age "ranges" instead of searching for a specific age. This
allows the girls to have a little bit of privacy. Some girls don't want to
specify their exact age (but most the sites I've seen they do share that.)
Just because guys come to see a camgirl's site means nothing about their
personal life. I'm sure there are plenty of fratboys who party and have
sex with random girls who check out a couple sites daily (girls they think
are hot and such) as well as us losers who play around on the net for half
of our life. We may have slightly different reasons for going to the
sites, but nonetheless we're both fans.
6. You have a page linking to the web tools used to create your directory site. Can you explain some of them?
Most of the sites have a guestbook and a journal. I've seen a group of
them with forums, fan clubs and "tagboards" also. I just wanted to make a
list of links so if people are looking for a specific tool for their site,
they can go there and see what other people use. I host quite a few
camgirls and a few of them have asked me "do you know a good ____?" and
this way when I discover a useful tool, I can share that with them, or
they can let me know and I can post a link so everyone has a chance to
check them out. They might even find better versions of something on their
site and want to switch.
7. All right, spill the beans. Which of these girls are you hot for?
no comment =)
8. What are some of your favorite websites?
I have to say it's too hard to choose. I love looking at the descriptions
the girls leave for their sites. They range from simple "just a cam and a
journal" to "some stupid ass site with a stupid ass cam." Maybe reverse
psychology works. Saying your site is stupid may bring people to it to
wonder why it sucks so much. I don't know =)
Most of the sites are cool enough because they're all unique. It's hard to
compare them to each other. I have met some pretty interesting and cool
people though. I'd say my favorite is oish.com. It's the only site I make
an effort to visit often. She is so genuinely nice and gorgeous it's
surprising. It seems like everyone reaches the "maximum popularity" limit
at one point and after that has grown too tired to talk to everyone who
emails/IMs them and becomes a little "bitchy" or impersonal, but she
hasn't yet. It takes a lot of energy to answer hundreds of e-mails a day,
most of them asking for nude pics or spam or other wacky requests. There
are some gems in there though (like ones sent from me! =))
9. Do you think some of these girls are headed for bigger and better things, like amateur porn?
I don't know what a lot of girls' plans are. Renee' of agali.net just
"wants to be famous," she told me. She's got a pretty good start on it
already, with thousands of people coming to her site per day. She's just
waiting for the real-life opportunities to come knocking. She's told me a
couple other camgirls have recently been offered spots in commercials and
other things and she's just waiting for her turn.
As far as everyone else's future, who knows? Maybe some girls will realize
how easy it is to get money/presents from guys by bearing it all and wind
up doing amateur camshows when they become legal age. Or maybe they'll
just grow out of the whole camgirl thing (or some people may grow into
it?) Their personalities and goals, just like their websites, are all
unique.
10. I went to your "most popular" camgirl, which is measured by amount of hits in to your site. Her link to your site read, "See my naked webcam." Doesn't that pretty much sum up the silly teenage bullshit that infest the whole camgirl community?
Well the "most popular" fluctuates during the days, especially around
nighttime. I recently switched it so it only shows sites that have sent me
at least three hits that day, it felt like there were too many
freeloaders. The point is to link back so other people get exposure. It's
the proper thing to do, since they've linked to CGD and are sending them
new visitors. At midnight when the stats reset it looks like the European
sites are the ones that show up on top first, which makes sense since it
is daytime over there.
I'm not really picky on how girls link back. They know their visitors (or
they don't know them but don't care) and know what they like. A lot of
visitors can be considered the "wandering male" to most of the sites.
They come to see naked action, so the girls can profit off that by
sending them to other sites that will boost their popularity or boost
their bank account. Any exposure to the directory is good exposure.
Eventually other camgirls will hear and sign-up, and it will keep growing.
I'm also going to start a general independent directory, that would list
any independent web property (e/n site, camgirl site, general blogging
site or camguy site, etc.) but I have yet to come up with a good word for
that type of crowd. If anyone has ideas, feel free to e-mail me.
11. PaulKatcher.com is updated every Sunday night. How often do visit?
Forgive me father, for I have sinned =)
12. Your directory seems to be doing well, adding several camgirl sites each day. What are some of the more successful ways you've been able to promote your site?
Money is the best motivating factor of them all. I've usually tried
offering some cash award to whomever can promote my site the best when I
launch a new one. I really hoped this one would promote itself, since it's
an idea no one else has tackled before, it's clean, ad-free and not a
lousy excuse to profit off of the camgirls' traffic and bandwidth — like
most toplists.
I hope it continues to grow, and more people like to it prominently.
Eventually it will be the only link anyone needs to get exposure. When
everyone pools all their traffic together into a central place, everyone
gets it all back.
Oct. 6, 2002 — TracyLines.com — Model/actress Tracy Lines
Sept. 17, 2002 — JumpTheShark.com — Jon Hein on his popular site and new book
Sept. 17, 2002 — idreamofkerri.com — Atlanta model Kerri
Sept. 2, 2002 — LisaMenuto.com — Model Lisa Menuto
July 21, 2002 — Kelli Graham.com — Model/actress Kelli Graham
July 14, 2002 — YourDreamModel.com — Detroit babe Chrissy
July 14, 2002 — WhosNYC.com — The craziest bar on Manhattan's Upper East Side
June 30, 2002 — RoundCardGirlz.com — Boxing and babes. We like the babes better
June 16, 2002 — SomeIdiot.com — A longtime leader in the e/n scene
June 9, 2002 — SportsByBrooks.com — Sports, beer and babes in Los Angeles
June 2, 2002 — MurphGuide.com — Connecting fun people through parties and events in NYC
May 26, 2002 — Honeygirlx.com — Blonde bombshell makes your fantasies come true on posters
May 19, 2002 — MirandaRox.com — Michigan model and Playboy hopeful Miranda
May 12, 2002 — CamGirlDirectory.com — A directory for camgirl sites, sortable by popluarity and location
May 5, 2002 — GoShannon.com — Model/actress/entrepreneur and overall hot babe
April 28, 2002 — NYCBP.com — Pictures and stories of New York city bartenders and patrons whooping it up
April 21, 2002 — GuyCritical.com — Where women ask men anything and have it answered anonymously
April 14, 2002 — Networkinggirl.com — A singles-event planner in New York City
Want to be interviewed? E-mail Paul.
