Thoughts on the recent IWC changes. 

10% of my earnings are disappearing. I have thoughts.

I’m an ‘artist’ on iWantClips.

I woke up this morning to find out that 10% of my earnings would be disappearing. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy – I don’t think anyone would be. 

The Facts

  • IWC will now be paying the ‘industry standard’ of 60% down from 70%.
  • IWC will now cover chargebacks within that 60%.
  • IWC tribute payout will go up from 75% to 80%. 
  • The changes will go into effect on October 1st 2018.
  • From November, payouts will be ‘timely’.
  • A button that increases the price of all past content to offset the change in revenue. 
  • Pay To View, iWantPhone, iWantFanClub, and Customs will remain at their current percentages.

There is a fair bit of background that led to this decision, the main chunk being that the primary payout source First Choice Pay stopped doing business with adult sites a few months ago. Queue a lot of sites not knowing how to pay their talent. I can only speak for the sites that I’m on, but I know KinkBomb had, and is still having, problems finding a better payout method. 

Businesses refusing to do business with adult related sites (hello PayPal) is a huge problem. In fact, it’s what’s led to this mess. It is also why clip sites can, and ultimately have to take a huge chunk of our earnings to cover the cost of running a high-risk business. I get it, but I don’t like it. 

I know some offer more – some sites payout up to 80-85% for clips. Not entirely sure how, but for the big names like Clips4Sale, ManyVids, and now iWantClips 60% is the industry standard for sites that provide traffic. ManyVids, and Clips4Sale have been stable in their percentages, through both experiments with an ‘extra 5/10% contests’ here or there. 

Thoughts

“The changes will go into effect on October 1st.”

I want to touch on this point first. In just 5 days thousands of models will see their income drop 10%. Now, for those amongst the top, this won’t be too much of an issue, but it’s the models that live paycheque to paycheque that will feel this 10% drop in earnings. Myself, I will feel it. I’m not yet at a comfortable place after being ill for so many months that 10% won’t hurt me, but I will get through it. I also have the support of my partner. Many models/artists/clip makers don’t, and that’s the crux of the matter. 

The fact they gave artists 5 days notice for an ‘artist managed site’ is out of touch. If they truly had the best interest of the artists at heart they would have let artists know earlier, or if the change had to happen during October, they’d give it as a ‘grace month’ of 70%. Instead, they have a Halloween competition for the chance to win $100 a day. Personally, I’d rather 70% so I have time to produce more to make up for the lost income. Now, I do not know what’s going on behind the scenes, but that’s also an issue I’ll get into.  

Business Goals

The fact that IWC could offer 70% is great, but the fact they now need to drop that three years later is worrying. IWC, and iWantEmpire to have big photoshoots, a radio show, phone lines, and have been branching out their business in other ways incredibly fast for a business that’s still quite young. To memory, they started in 2014/5.  

They should have made sure they could sustain what they had before they grew. To an artist that has seen sites like Clipvia and YouKandy disappear and take hundreds of though sands of dollars of models hard-earned money, it’s not a good sign. The fact that IWC can’t see this is worrying. Clip artists have to be wary because we’ve been burned hard in the past. 

We want stability, we want a clip site we can trust, we want to be informed of major decisions – ideally more than 5 days before they come into effect. 

Late Payouts

I have been an artist on IWC for over three years. I have experienced payout delays regularly for three years. Some are saying it’s because of the whole fiasco with First Choice, but it’s not. IWC has a history of not paying models on time, models taking to Twitter, and IWC asking said models to take the Tweets down. I’ve not experienced IWC asking me to take my Tweets down, but I’ve seen the screenshots. 

My current payout – pay period ended on the 12th, and payment processed on the 14th is late. My current pay period ends on the 27th. That’s less than two days, and I still haven’t been paid. To me, this isn’t anything new, and my payments have been over a month late before. 

Late payouts started to become a ‘thing’ after the First Choice issue, and I get it, but this is where being a business comes into play. A good business plans for unexpected events, or has a plan in place that at the very least communicates with the models, and doesn’t leave them in payout limbo. I lived in payout limbo for months whilst trying to pay off my taxes. It was stressful and bad. Oh so bad.

Lastly, I take issue with the word ‘timely’. Timely to some could mean a month, but to others could mean 1-5 business days. I want solid numbers. I want something more than an abstract word amongst a bunch of other changes. I want certainty – though I know that won’t happen. 

Honestly, the pessimist in me isn’t hopeful when it comes to payouts that are on time. For all the sites I’ve been on, and wire transfers I’ve received – nearly all sites, IWC has been the only one to be consistently inconsistent, and late. 

The privilege of being paid on time shouldn’t be something I have to take a pay cut for. End of.

I can see clearly now …

The number 1 problem I have (aside from not being paid out on time) is the lack of transparency. For years this has been my biggest gripe with them. No one knows anything much, and whilst they have a model liaison or two, it’s still the same old company line, apology, and apparent fix.

Models, artists, and clip makers have pleaded for transparency time and time again but get nothing. We’re not asking for trade secrets, we’re just asking for an approximate date on our payout or not to be blamed for a bug in their system.

For my main problem with IWC, it’s a small paragraph, but I’m so tired of fighting for this point, I honestly have nothing left to say. 

Finally

Will I be pulling my content down from IWC? 

No, they are a large portion of my income. I have a lot of problems with them, but I like their site, I like the FemDom traffic, and I’ve found some lovely and well-paying clients through there. 

Will I be pulling my promotion? 

Somewhat, I’ve been trying to upload my back catalogue of 500+ videos to other sites for a while, but this has really given me a kick in the butt to do so. They don’t give me the highest percentage for tributes or clips anymore, so I will adapt. I will attempt to spread my income even more, and make sure IWC is amongst the biggest payout I get and not the single biggest payout I get. 

Do I recommend them?

Yesterday I would have said yes, today I’d say probably. They do have traffic that is largely FemDom, and they are one of the big names in the clip world. They’ve made a name for themselves for a short amount of time mostly down to the fact a model runs the site. This is a plus. 

What I’d recommend doing is maybe make a count (so you get model updates), and wait it out. See how it goes. Hopefully, it will all settle down. 

If you do feel like starting a clip site on IWC, and feel like helping a fellow clip maker out, this is my referral link – by clicking it you incur no charge to yourself!

The Crux

Aren’t all sites the same?

Ultimately, yes. 

I’ve been around for 5 years now. That’s a long time in the adult industry, and I’ve seen a lot of businesses come, and go – some within the space of a year. I’ve seen conflict, name-calling, legal issues, fetish controversies, model problems, and site problems all the way from technical issues, and chargebacks to payout delays and more. 

Every single site has had a controversy or two, and some more than 10. Unfortunately, every single site has problems, and none are innocent or fault free. These are just some of IWC faults and they happen to be the first site I’ve written about because I both feel a need to vent.

It might also help clear up some confusion if you’ve seen models and artists tweeting about it from a consumer’s point of view, but I also acknowledge I may have added to the confusion.

I shall leave you with this. Any business, at any one time, can do what it wants – especially in the adult industry.  As a freelance chipmaker on a site like IWC, the fragility of my paycheque is at the mercy of the higher-ups, and I understand that. I also understand that this doesn’t just apply to  IWC. It’s a risk I take every single time I upload a clip, HOWEVER, if you want to be different, if you want to claim you have great model relations and satisfaction your actions must speak louder than your press releases.

Do better, don’t just say you’re going to do better. 

If there’s anything I’ve learned from being a chronically ill sex worker is that adaptation is key, and I must always think of myself first.

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