In a casual, conversational seminar at the recent YNOT Summit, cam performer, phone sex operator and general internet marketing guru Amberly Rothfield offered advice on the “Sometimes Subtle Art of Encouraging More Tips.”

A wide-ranging and freewheeling session, Rothfield’s presentation delved into a lot more territory than can be adequately covered in a single post. Rather than try to cover it all, I’m going to zero in on one of Rothfield’s central points: Customers “like to tip people who they connect with.” The realization stemmed from another of Rothfield’s axioms, which is that models should “think of your business in the terms of brick and mortar.”

“As models, there’s this disconnect in our industry that we’re different from any other business out there, when, honestly, we’re the exact same as every business out there,” Rothfield said.

From there, Rothfield got specific about what inspired her epiphany: A trip to the grocery store.

As Rothfield tells the story, she was browsing about the store, hungry and angry, a frame of mind which resulted in her filling her cart with loads of stuff. Along the way, she said she ate a few free samples, tamping down both her hunger and her irritability.

Looking down into her cart when she reached the checkout line, it hit her: “OK, now that I’m not starving my ass off and hating everybody, I don’t want half of this shit.”

“It got me thinking,” Rothfield said during her Summit session, “What is this grocery store doing to make me want to buy more?’”

Rothfield then analogized her position as a grocery store shopper to that of the customers who poke their heads into models’ cam rooms.

“We all know that if they’re not actively super horny, they’re like wanting to get into that mood,” Rothfield said. So, the question becomes, how does a cam performer encourage customers to get into the mindset where they’re eager to tip?

Extending the grocery store analogy, Rothfield said that some grocery stores will take a loss on baked goods, just to be able to put out fresh bread and have the smell of freshly-baked bread emanating through their stores, encouraging customers to feel hungry and buy more food – including, one supposes, impulse purchases of that freshly baked bread.

“Everything is placed in stores in an intentional way,” she added.

“Now, we don’t have smell in cam, or in clips, or wherever you’re talking to people,” Rothfield acknowledged with a laugh. “But there’s still things you can do. It got me thinking, ‘What can I put into my cam room, what can I do to structure the stuff around me to make it where this is an environment where it’s easier to ask for tips?’”

Rothfield described herself as “very customer-centric” and said she thinks a lot about things she can say that will make people identify with her. Pointing out a tutu and crown that she had on the walls in the room from which she broadcast her YNOT Summit session, Rothfield said people will often ask about those sorts of adornments – opening a door to tell stories that make her easy to relate to.

“It allows me to start talking about stories that then take someone from maybe just cruising out of my cam room” to engaging with her instead, often leading to common interests, or areas both Rothfield and her customers and fans are passionate about.

“It gives me a reason to talk to this person and connect with this person,” Rothfield added. “People like to tip people who they connect with. So, put stuff in the background of everything you create. Photos, video, cam – whatever it is. And if you’re an audio creator… if you create erotic MP3s and whatnot, mention stuff on the fly.”

Rothfield also emphasized the importance of the conversation with the customer being one that’s organic and natural, rather than forced or contrived.

“Make sure that the conversation flows and it doesn’t seem like you’re just stuffing,” Rothfield said. “I’m not just sitting here randomly talking with you and then I just go ‘I love pizza!’ and then continue on with ‘Keep stroking.’”

Getting more granular with her approach, Rothfield said “I know my demographic” – which she identified as “people in their 30s to 40s and plumbers in the Midwest.”

“I know most of those people in their 30s and 40s, they’re middle class, chances are they didn’t come from a super-rich family, so they may or may not have had cable (when growing up),” Rothfield explained. “So, I try to think about what was on normal TV right about that time and what was really popular. I will put something like a Fresh Prince of Bel Air pillow behind me – and they’re like ‘Oh my god, I love that!’”

It’s all designed to make herself more relatable – and someone with whom the customer can connect with on a level deeper than titillation alone.

“The idea is to try to find a way to incorporate stuff that is going to make someone stop and go ‘Oh, but you’re my people!’” Rothfield added, capping the point with another straightforward axiom: “Do stuff that connects people to you.”

As I mentioned at the start of this post, there was a great deal more to Rothfield’s presentation than what you see above. Luckily, if you’d like to hear more of her insights, Rothfield offers consulting services for cam models, phone sex operators and sex workers in other areas of adult entertainment, as well. For more information on Rothfield’s seminars, speaking appearances, classes and consulting services, check out AmberlyRothfield.com.