The general public of non-pornstar individuals seems to have a few ideas in their mind about OnlyFans and the performers that utilize the platform; while it’s true OnlyFans has shown some incredible success stories, the truth is that most OnlyFans creators aren’t making thousands of dollars a month and actually most of them are not. In fact, the top 50% for January is currently only $50 to enter! That means that 50% of creator accounts are not making more than $50 for the first 2 weeks of January. The “formula” for the top x% performers feature isn’t public but it is generally assumed it is how much money you are earning in comparison to other accounts on the platform but there has been debate on if it may also include the amount of subscribers that an account has as well. Either way, it’s safe to say it is mostly monetary.
The Division of Earnings, Top x% Performer Statistics
According to this Reddit thread, only the top 10% of performers are earning $1,200 or more on the platform on a monthly basis. The top earner percentage scales once you enter the top 10%, with top 5% earning around $3,200 a month and the top 1% earning around $18,700 a month. The breakdown for top earner percentage does get weird near the top because rather than simply listing top 1% OnlyFans also furthers the divide into the fractions of the top 1%. The top 0.1% makes around $93,400 a month and the top 0.02% makes around $210,600 a month. The vast majority of the income made on OnlyFans comes from their top 1% creators and accounts for around 75% of the total money spent on the platform. The estimation for what the top earner on the platform makes monthly is around $9.2 million and it’s been rumored to be Iggy Azalea that holds the top earner spot, although this is unconfirmed. The pay gap between the top 10 earners itself is estimated to be millions of dollars with the 10th place spot estimated to be earning $1.8 million. (Sources: OFNet and Statista)
Why Do Some Creators Earn Substantially More Income on OnlyFans?
Some creators earn much more money on OnlyFans due to the nature of their marketing plan. OnlyFans is not a great option for models that are completely new to the industry and don’t have a pre-established social media following. This is why we tend to see news stories about influencers and celebrities dominating the platform, as they have an established fan base already, while newer performers don’t come into the platform with a pre-existing following.
Website Visitor Traffic and Customers on OnlyFans
OnlyFans does not drive traffic to their platform and doesn’t have any sort of directory or way for fans to find creator accounts internally on the website so the only way to earn income on the site is by encouraging people to sign up to your page off-site by using social media, adult advertisements, blogs and SEO, press releases, or other adult friendly marketing methods. Many people post about the “high traffic” on OnlyFans as a way to encourage models to sign up for the platform but it is very important to note that there’s no search functions or directories on the site itself, so all of the site traffic is being directed to a specific page by a content creator advertising themselves which will have no benefit to new models.
Marketing and Fan Acquistion for Earning Higher Income on OnlyFans
There is no single “best method” for marketing your OnlyFans page; some creators use agencies or marketing companies to handle their advertising (but be careful, there are a lot of agency scams), others do all of their own marketing themselves on social media, and some funnel traffic from live webcam shows and clip pages to their fanclub. The reason OnlyFans itself seems to be more successful than some of the alternative fanclub websites available is because there are more customer accounts on the platform than the alternatives and since OnlyFans provides it’s users with a dashboard of everyone that they follow, it allows consumers to keep all of their content in one easy to access place. OnlyFans has successfully established itself as a well-known “household” name which is why it’s “easier” to get sign ups on the platform rather than some of the (in my opinion, better and more feature rich) alternatives like LoyalFans, JustForFans, or even MintStars.
If you are a new model considering creating adult content it is very important that you know that OnlyFans will NOT send you fans, will not advertise your page, and will not push traffic from the site to your page. These are things you will have to do yourself through marketing. So, where should you market your OnlyFans?
- Reddit: It is fairly standard understanding for users of Reddit to know that if a person is posting in NSFW subreddits that they more than likely have an OnlyFans account. Most subreddits prevent the direct marketing of your OnlyFans link within the subreddit but you can put your link in your bio or in a post that you pin to your profile. Many successful models and agencies utilize Reddit in their marketing strategy, joining as many applicable subreddits as possible and essentially using “thirst traps” or content previews to attract people to sign up. There are a variety of specific subreddit rules you’ll have to learn in order to make sure you don’t get kicked out of subreddits, on the post page there is a button you can click to check the rules of the specific subreddit you’re posting in.
Learn more about Reddit marketing: Streamlined Reddit Marketing for Adult Creators. - TikTok: Marketing on TikTok tends to be a little more difficult than the previously mentioned NSFW Reddit and this is due to being a platform that completely bans the advertisement of adult services, content, and socials. Even if you try to put your X link in your bio, if it pings as being an adult link because of your posts there they’ll remove the ability for users to click it. This is one of those platforms where you can’t simply log on and say “Hey, I post porn!” You’ve got to be really creative in your SFW marketing tactics and stay up to date on the lingo associated with sex work and websites like OnlyFans. Luckily, a majority of the adult content creator population on TikTok is OnlyFans creators so they are coming up with fun ways to talk about work without actually talking about work all the time.
Doing market research on TikTok and seeing how adult creators navigate the platform will be one of your greatest advantages to successfully driving traffic from the platform. Popular TikTok adult stars include Hawk, Isla, Bambi, Cruella, Ssselboy (Nikita), Skylar, Sophie, and Natalie. Learning from their posting habits, trends that they participate in, and the vibe of their profile in general can be a good way to get started in marketing on TikTok.
Learn more about marketing your adult content on TikTok: TikTok Guide for Webcam Model and Adult Content Creator Marketing. - Buying Adult Advertising or Working with Advertising Companies: There are many ways for you to advertise without using social media but it’s generally through pop-up ads and on site ads that you can purchase. You’ll pay-per-click for these ads, so it’s important to ensure you’re buying on a website that aligns with your content niche and your moral values (because a lot of pirate sites sell ad space too, so watch out for that.)
JuicyAds is a great place to buy adult advertisements, with over 1,000 different websites where you can buy ads. They’ll tell you what website you’re buying the ad from so you can ensure it’s a site you want to advertise on and you can track the clicks on your ad easily. You get to decide what you’re marketing and create the clickable advertisement image for it, so it’s important you have some graphic design skills or have advertisements already generated for this option. You can also market any link you want, so this isn’t exclusively limited to your OnlyFans!
DivaTraffic is also a good option for buying pop-up traffic for OnlyFans pages but you’ll unfortunately not be able to select the specific websites where your ad is displayed. DivaTraffic uses a token system for purchasing ads, with English traffic costing around 9 tokens per 1,000 pop ups. You can get various token packages, the cheapest being 100 tokens for $10. There are also subscription plans for getting a specific amount of tokens each month with the cheapest plan being $10 per month. You can advertise a variety of websites besides OnlyFans, including: Streamate, ManyVids, MFC Share, JustForFans, Twitch, SextPanther, LoyalFans, FapHouse, and more. - Shoutout for Shoutout with Other OF Models, or Buy Direct OF Promotion: You can arrange shoutout for shoutouts on your OnlyFans page with other models by networking with them via various engagement groups across social media platforms or you can purchase OnlyFans shoutouts. There are ways to buy directly from creators, usually by finding advertisements within the engagement groups, but there are also websites where you can buy OnlyFans promotion from models like Blossm which serves as a marketplace for buying promotion on websites like OnlyFans, Twitter, ManyVids, Snapchat, and more.
Learn more about Blossm: The Marketplace for Buying Shoutouts
How Much Could I Earn If I Sign Up for OnlyFans?
How much you can earn entirely depends on if you’re currently active in the adult industry, if you’re already an influencer with a pre-established fan base, or if you’re planning to start your marketing strategy when you start your OnlyFans page. If you’re completely new to the adult industry and you aren’t planning to market on a current social media account, or if your current social media account is a personal social media account with only local friends as your followers, then unless you get jumpstarted with an agency that will promote you or you heavily promote yourself then you’re likely not going to make a lot of money. I want to once again stress that if you create an OnlyFans page, post to it, and that is your ONLY effort into growing your page, you are not going to make money.
The amount you earn is directly tied to the amount of effort you put into marketing your page and due to the censorship on social media platforms, this can be difficult to accomplish. Diversifying into more adult content creation outlets outside of only OnlyFans is a great way to make more income, especially if you are brand new. Trying out webcam or clip selling first is a great way to start building your audience!
So how much do OnlyFans models earn? That answer for your page depends entirely on YOU.
Should I Sign Up for OnlyFans?
Are you already established in the adult industry OR an influencer with a pre-established following on social media? Then yes, you should. OnlyFans isn’t ONLY for adult creators either! You can post lewds (like bikini pictures or lingerie pictures, cosplay photosets, etc.) and earn from subscriptions that way as well! Just make sure you’re clear about the kind of content you’re posting in your bio because typically OnlyFans does have pornographic material. Ready to dive in? Sign up for OnlyFans now.
Are you brand new to the industry and think you’ll make easy money on OnlyFans? Then NO, you should NOT sign up for OnlyFans. You should first do a bit of research on all of the adult websites that exist and which ones provide internal traffic to your content and/or live webcam shows and consider signing up there instead. Some content sites that provide internal traffic to your content or live streams include (but aren’t limited to:)
- Clips4Sale, iWantClips, and ManyVids for video content.
- Streamate, Chaturbate, Stripchat, and CamSoda for live webcam shows (most have mobile streaming options.)
- NiteFlirt for phone sex.
Please do your research before signing up for any websites (you can explore this page to learn about getting started as a cam model or this page to learn more about selling content.)