Right at the top of a Reddit forum is a thread entitled 'Deleted my OF today'. The author sounds despondent. “Have been feeling exhausted, like none of this is worth putting my whole self out there vulnerably the way I do. I’m done putting forth time and effort for not enough money in return.”
A wave of members empathise: “I feel like deleting daily"; “Been feeling this lately for sure"; “I hear you. I have put it on hold because it was getting tedious for not enough return.”
This isn’t the typical narrative you hear around OnlyFans. If you Google the subscription-based social media platform, what you’re more likely to see are the success stories of those whose lives have been changed by it - like the ex-waitress whose videos netted her £20k a month and enabled her to buy her first home at 19.
There are dozens of headlines like this among the latest gossip about the platform’s most famous or top earners like gem101, who reportedly makes $21.3m a year. But while the high-earners and their fortunes are the ones that make great news stories, they are the minority: gem101 is just one of 100 people who’ve earned more than $1 million using a platform that has 1.5 million content creators on its books.
Creators on OnlyFans earn money from users who subscribe to their content - the 'fans'. The platform is popular with sex workers, but also hosts chefs, fitness trainers, and musicians. There is also a market for a lot of niche content, from a woman who pretends to be a puppy to another who makes thousands by selling videos of her knee-length hair.
However, the idea of getting on OnlyFans as a sex worker automatically means you’ll get rich is false says user Taylor Ryan - and totally disregards the graft and skill needed to become successful in the industry.
“It’s not unrealistic (to be a high earner) - what’s unrealistic is giving the false narrative that anyone that joins the industry can do that,” she says. “It makes it look easy, like there are not many steps to become successful.”
There are certainly those who’ve been fortunate enough to be able to quit their jobs after finding OnlyFans, like the labourer who realised he earned more by making content three hours a day than 60 hours a week in construction. But Taylor says the vast majority of creators are “mums, nurses, wives, sisters - just general everyday people” doing it “to put food on the table”.
“This is why showing just the high earners is so detrimental to the industry,” says Taylor, who also owns SX Creators, a video-based mentoring service that helps people build successful adult platforms.
“It completely dismisses the people who are just making enough to pay bills, because it’s like if you’re not rich then you don’t deserve the respect of being a sex worker.”
Scour Twitter and there are plenty of people joking that “maybe it’s time to start an OnlyFans” to supplement their income, which is perhaps no surprise with the rising cost of living.
According to hunger charity the Trussell Trust, food bank use is up by a third compared to five years ago and 2.1m emergency food parcels were handed out across its network between April 2021 and March 2022 - an increase of 14% on the previous period. Meanwhile, rising gas and electricity costs could see the number of households living in fuel poverty double to 12 million before the end of the year.
On the face of it, OnlyFans might seem like a convenient way to make money quickly from the comfort of home and with little more than a smartphone. With a potential customer base of 150 million registered users since the platform launched in 2016, it's likely that there will be a willing audience whatever your niche.
While it’s widely accepted that it offers predominantly adult content like sexually explicit videos and photos, it’s not the only way users make money. One former model claims she’s made $2m from sexting 16 hours a day and has further monetised her content by writing a book of erotic SMS tips. A 6ft 2” ex-accountant says kicking her leg on top of the fridge has earned her up to £80k a month, while another user's armpit hair has made her £300,000 in two years.
There are also accounts that don’t rely on adult content at all. In the United States, congressional candidate Alexandra Hunt used her OnlyFans account to raise funds for her campaign while a round-up of those featuring no nudity included singer Cardi B offering behind-the-scenes content, a fitness instructor sharing workouts, and a chef who posts meal-planning tips. One Reddit user claimed she made money just by talking to people who were stressed.
What OnlyFans says
OnlyFans said it was “proud to be the most inclusive social platform home to a range of creators across genres including glamour models, music artists, adult content creators, athletes, artists, foodies and more”. A spokesperson added: “Many are, of course, extremely proud of their success and choose to share how they have effectively taken back control of their creative content and successfully monetised their content with the media.”
The issue is perhaps believing that an OnlyFans account is a fast earner. Making it a regular source of income takes time, says Taylor. “I’ll get people come to me and say ‘I earned a grand in my first month and now I’m not earning the same amount - why is that?’" she says.
“Well one of the biggest reasons is curiosity killed the cat in the first month: you’ve had people from your hometown (looking), it’s people who are nosy that have created that grand. But that’s not marketing, that’s not sustainable, because those people aren’t fans, they’re not your target audience.”
Taylor set up her business to teach others how to make a steady living out of creating adult content and has mentored clients that make anywhere between £1,200 and £2,500 a month.
But what the average person makes from the platform is unclear. When asked, the company wouldn’t provide figures due to its “commitment to creator privacy” but added it had paid out more than $8bn to creators since it launched.
The number quoted most often in the press comes from a blogger based in Canada, who crunched data scraped from the OnlyFans website to conclude that the median account makes $180 a month - adding that most take home less than $145, minus tips.
This tracks with the people in the OnlyFans Reddit forum. One posted they’d had a few months “where I make less than $50 a week”. Another replied, “I’ve had OF for about 4 months and I’ve only made about $500 total.”
Spectrum of success
Taylor made £420 in her first month on OnlyFans in 2018 - a result she was happy with because it supplemented her full-time income and was therefore extra cash in the bank. She says she still remembers the feeling of being able to "buy the nice bacon and the fresh bread".
But it was another year before she quit her job to focus solely on her account and business.
"I’m the perfect example of you don’t need to show a flashy person to show a successful one," says the 24-year-old. “It keeps the food on my table, I don’t have debts, I have a car that I bought outright. I pay for my bills, I have savings and invest in my company.
“For the general person it’s a slow process but the consistency of the work you put in and the education that you put into the work that you do is going to help your success - that’s my biggest tip.”
The truth about OnlyFans is there’s a spectrum of success - it’s just that you rarely hear about the ones at the average end of the scale. A spokesperson for the company said it “routinely highlights the success of a broad range of creators across all of our social channels” and “does not control the success stories which the media chooses to focus on”.
It’s a fair point but not the only issue - there’s a general glamorisation of the sex industry that makes entertainment out of the lives of those who have found fame and fortune.
“People love to see other people have expensive things and nice houses because it’s interesting to see someone being successful - take Real Housewives for example, there isn’t Poor Housewives, that’s not the narrative,” says Taylor.
She would prefer to see what it takes to get there; that it means becoming your own makeup artist, stylist, set designer, marketing expert, production manager and social media strategist, to name but a few roles.
“I’m all for showing a successful person - the thing I have a problem with is why can’t we show where they started, their ups and downs and how they became successful, because I think that would have a more positive impact.”
