I know exactly what you mean!
You just have to read each site. Is your room full? Any regulars about?
Currently, like I mentioned in another thread, I usually ditch free in AdultWork but display live thumbnails on the listings/profile page to draw punters in there. Then I'm free to wave my moneymaker about in CB if I'm doing well there.
At CB I usually have setup the Ultra Bot for a hidden show at 100 tokens or 15 token/min if I get a bite at AW.
The drawback with this is losing freeloaders....ahem viewers at CB.
When it works I do well from this tactic.
Also, if you want to chat in free at AW can take a snapshot of yourself in Justcamit and use it to replace your video feed for a few seconds if you get tipped for something in CB.
