Building a random live webcam discovery site

Charles Leahy — Fri, 29 May 2026 04:20:03 +0000

I'm a 32-year-old Brit guy living in Quy Nhon, Vietnam. Travelled 60+ countries, worked as an anti-poaching ranger in Africa and an English teacher in Thailand. Noticed cameras are literally everywhere on Earth and thought - why isn't there one site that pulls them all together?

So I Built EarthLive.TV
500+ live webcams from 90+ countries to date. Hit "Take Me Anywhere" and land on a random one. Could be a volcano in the Philippines, a harbour in Iceland, bats in Tel Aviv or North Korean state TV.

What I Learned:
Getting traffic without a budget is a grind. Backlinks from niche directories actually work if you pick the right ones. AdSense RPM is depressingly low until it isn't - just got approved for Mediavine which should change things at x8 - x20 the income!

The "Take Me Anywhere" button gets TONS of clicks.

People stay longer than I expected. The bounce rate is surprisingly low for a site where the whole point is to click and leave.

What's Next?
More cameras, more countries, eventually building Click & Seek - a GeoGuessr-style game mode using real live cameras.

Also just about to add "Submit A Camera" option so anyone can connect their camera via HLS / M3U8 - at least then we can slowly depend less on YouTube Live embeds.

EarthLive.TV - Watch The World Through Live Webcams!

DEV Community: Charles Leahy

Building a random live webcam discovery site