Thinking about launching your OnlyFans?
DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES I DID!
You are more than likely not prepared for the can of worms you are about to open. So here is what I wish I knew over 4 years ago, when I first got started as a creator myself, and what I would do differently if I were just getting started today!
Most people who get started in this business don't take it seriously. They forget that this is a business much like any other, with risks, and decisions you're going to have to make around those risks in order to get the most out of your launch.
For starters, if you've made it this far already, then kudos to you. This is a big decision to make, whether you made it on your own with no support or with the support of friends and family. Either way, let's make sure we cover all the important things you must do to protect yourself from things like:
- Accidentally sharing too much unnecessary info about yourself
- Operational security risks from not taking the right precautions
- No thought on branding, which hurts you in the long run
- No ideas on what content to make
- Work-life balance issues from not managing your time well
- Not optimizing your account to make the most sales
- Not being prepared for the requests and demands of your fans
I have personal experience with all of these problems, because nobody taught me how to do this when I first started as a creator 4 years ago.
I'm here to teach you the right way to do it, so you don't have to make the same mistakes I did, and hopefully you can have a long-lasting career that goes well beyond OnlyFans.
Ready? Let's get started.
Operational Security: What to Share and What Not to Share
Okay, so the decision's been made. You're doing it. You've mustered up the courage, and you're going to start your OnlyFans. What do you do?
Well, I guess first you must pick a name: an artistic name or, as some people in this industry call it, a “stage name” that you will go by. Why? Because I'm assuming you're going to want to do this OF thing only for a short period of time, to get the money you want for that dream you have. Then, when you decide it's time to leave this industry, you can leave it all behind with that old stage name.
People say “the internet is forever,” but they underestimate the power of simply ghosting and using an entirely different alias that will protect you in the future. The truth is, nobody really cares about you that much. People are too busy worrying about their own lives. If done correctly, you can absolutely create this “online persona” without anyone in your immediate vicinity, circle, or community knowing that you even have an OnlyFans account up and running. That is why we create a stage name.
Now, I may write an entire article about this, because not choosing the right name has affected me multiple times. When I first got started, I went with a name that was associated with a big trans creator. People used to come to my account thinking I was a trans creator because we shared the same name. There was no forethought in picking it. I just went with a name I thought sounded cool back when I was livestreaming Call of Duty: Mobile. I didn't think twice about it, and it still bites me to this day.
Spend some time thinking about this name. Make sure it's easy for people to say (aka it passes the American barista test), and that you're not competing with anyone big and famous who is using the same name. This will protect you from operational security risks and doxing leaks in the future, and you can sleep soundly at night knowing this name will be your brand name for the future.
You are, of course, also not going to share your exact date of birth, your age, or the exact city you're in, unless it's a big city and you're comfortable sharing that info with your fans. If you're in a very small city or town, I would highly recommend changing it to a bigger one. That way, people can't look for you and find out where you live, pretending to be a Rappi driver (the Colombian version of Uber Eats) and waiting outside your front door.
“That happened to me once when I was in Medellín. Some crazies found out where I was staying and tried to meet me in person, and I had to go back to Bogotá immediately.”
I'll write more on that story later, so if you want to hear it, subscribe to our newsletter so you know when that article drops.
These are all things you might not think twice about, but take it from me: take some time to take precautions and don't overshare about your personal life. I would even go as far as to say: don't share this decision with the people around you. Even though you might have a partner, or even family, who supports you, you may have haters and deeply envious people around you. If they find out you've created this page, they will make every effort to dox you and leak all your information, ESPECIALLY if they see you having even just a bit of success from it. Nothing makes someone more painfully self-aware than watching someone from their own neighbourhood and upbringing succeed when they didn’t. You have no clue who that person may be. In general, it's best to keep the number of people who know about your decision to a bare minimum.
Branding and Finding Your Voice
Okay, so you found the name. Great… now what? Well, I guess it's time to start posting content.
But what do I post? I have no ideas. Where do I get ideas? What do I do? What is __ creator doing?
STOP!
At this point, I already know you may be tempted to start mimicking and copying the top OF creators like Sophie Rain and the rest of the Bop House. Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but those days are over. The days of simply turning the camera on, doing a silly TikTok dance, acting like a complete slut on camera and raking in millions of dollars are over. Every month, Meta is cracking down on OF creators, making it harder and harder to get exposure without getting shadowbanned. We now have to think more strategically and methodically about how you present yourself online. So let's start with branding and niche. What is a brand? What is a niche?
A niche is the overarching umbrella category of the content you're going to make. This could be live streaming yourself playing video games, cooking, or dancing. Maybe you're into anime, or you're into fitness. These are all popular, very saturated niches that many creators, even outside the OnlyFans space, are competing in. So your competition isn't just other OnlyFans creators, but every creator trying to attract an audience with that interest. This is where branding comes into play. With your branding, you can hyper-niche into a community that will love you for you, because you're unique in this space and not just copying what every other creator does.
So what is a brand?
A brand is how people know it's you, and how you make them feel. It's what makes a community love you for you, instead of you just copying what every other creator does.
What branding elements should you consider?
- The environment you record in (indoors or outdoors?)
- The sounds and music you use for your content
- The colours of your background, your hair, your outfits, etc.
- Key items, props or pets in your space that are unique to you
- A certain catchphrase at the start of your videos
- Other sub-niches or interests that pair well with your main niche
These are all parts of your brand, and they tie directly into your niche and the content you'll be creating.
So please, for the love of God, do not go and start copying what Sophie Rain does on TikTok. You will not win. That was a winning strategy back in 2020 and 2021, even before my time on OF in 2022. You must differentiate yourself with something unique that is easy and effortless for you, something you were going to do anyway, even if the camera wasn't on. Spend some time thinking about all your interests and find the ones you could do every single day without tiring yourself, because they're things you already do. Now you're just deciding to document yourself doing them and share it with the world. You won't have competition this way, because with this strategy, it's only you versus you.
So, to recap:
- Niche = what you make.
- Brand = how people know it's you, and how you make them feel.
No Ideas on What Content to Make
There's a reason I put this right after the branding and niche section: without it, of course you won't know what content to make. Figure that out, and this part becomes very easy. I'll be writing an entire article on this, so stay tuned, but here's the main gist. Your niche should be something you already do, with or without the camera. It should be something you would do for free. This is the only sustainable path in this business, because if you try to do something that isn't real, that isn't who you actually are, you will burn out.
So, you know the kind of content you want to make. Great. Now you research who the top creators in this space are. These could be OF creators or just regular creators. I'd recommend leaning towards regular creators and staying away from OF creators, to get better inspiration and higher-quality ideas that the other competitors in your space aren't doing yet. Funny enough, you probably already follow quite a few of these creators and influencers. Look for lookalike creators and spend some time gathering a good list of them, because you'll use them for inspiration and ideas on the days your creative juices are low. If you follow enough of them, you'll have an endless amount of inspiration to draw from, and you'll never be stuck wondering what kind of content to make.
Work-Life Balance
This is why it's so important to do the first two exercises I mentioned above: if you do them wrong, you will inevitably burn yourself out. If you decide to do this on your own, just know that you're taking on a full-time job. More than a full-time job, because you're treating this as your business, so expect to work overtime without getting paid. Assuming you picked a niche you genuinely love doing, amazing. Now comes the hard part: all the boring admin and logistics, like:
- Editing
- Scheduling and posting content
- Replying to comments and DMs
- Replying to your fans
- Managing your content calendar
- Shooting and filming
This is a legitimate full-time job, so if you don't manage your time correctly, you're going to burn the candle at both ends.
My recommendation: batch.
BATCH.
Don't try to edit your videos every day. Don't try to shoot content every day. And don't respond to comments, DMs, and your fans every minute of the day. BATCH a time in the day to respond to them. Find certain times of the day for each of these, and it becomes a repeatable system until you finally have the means to make your first hire.
Who should that first hire be? I'd recommend doing a time audit and seeing where most of your time is being drained, or which activity drains you the most. Use that pain point to guide your first hire. This could be your video editor, or your first personal assistant who helps with your video shoots, light edits, and posting. This is for you to decide, and I have my own recommended order of what to hire first. I'll write an article on this subject as well, so look out for it when it drops.
It's never going to be perfect, but you can optimize to find something that works for you and is sustainable in the long term. That way, you don't burn out and then completely ghost your fans for days or weeks at a time because you need to curl up into a ball under your favourite blankie and binge-watch Downton Abbey to recover. Trust me, I've been there.
So, pace yourself. This is not a sprint. It's a marathon. And take it from me, someone who used to be a marathon runner: you want to pace yourself, dedicate certain times of the day to specific activities, and leave it at that. Have some self-discipline and don't go over your time. Your relationships will be better. Your mental health will be better. Life will be better.
Optimizing Your OnlyFans Account
Okay, so you're now a content-making machine. You've been consistent. You're growing your followers and your audience, and you are ready to launch your OF. Before you do, let's go over the most important parts.
I've seen so many girls do this wrong and show way too much on the feed. To me, this is one of the biggest mistakes on OF. You have a $7 paywall, somebody comes in and sees all of you, and now they're no longer interested in buying more content from you. This is why we want to escalate at every step of the fan getting to know you.
I've also seen girls make this mistake on Instagram, where they show more skin on Instagram than they do on their actual OnlyFans. Then fans get mad, because they spent money to subscribe to your OF and you basically blue-balled them into thinking they were going to see more, when it turns out your free & public Instagram account was spicier than the OnlyFans they had to spend their hard-earned money on. As you remember from our branding exercise above, we are not going to overly sexualize ourselves. At each stage, you turn up the spiciness a bit, to MAKE IT WORTH THEM ACTUALLY SUBSCRIBING!
I would recommend having at least 50 to 100 posts on your OF before you start promoting it. Preparing in advance like this increases your chances of someone actually subscribing. When people land on your page and see plenty of posts, they see the work you've already put in, and that raises the perceived value of what they're paying for. It shows you're active. It shows you're serious, and that you actually have a decent amount of content in there before they pull out their credit card and subscribe. Someone landing on a page with only 12 posts sees none of that.
Next, the content on the feed should be a step up from the most explicit things you're already sharing on social media, which, FYI, should not be explicit at all. Here, you're being a bit more provocative, a bit more sexy and risqué. You're choosing to share a bit more of yourself, but not everything quite yet. This is where PPVs (pay-per-view messages) come in.
I'll have an entire post on PPVs (how to price them, what kind of content to make, etc.), so stay tuned for that. But you should have a handful of content ready, so that when fans come, you're not trying to create content on the fly. It's already recorded, organized and ready, so you can serve them quickly if they come in asking for a specific type of video.
What types of videos, you may ask? First off, that depends on what you're comfortable with, so never create content you don't feel comfortable recording. Be true to yourself. This is how you stay in the game longer. Once you've set that boundary, you can begin shooting what you know you're comfortable with. Record various lengths, like a 5-minute, a 10-minute and a 15-minute video, and various kinks. That way, you have different videos you can sell at different price points to meet different fans' budgets and interests. Having this prepared ahead of time will help you massively when your first waves of traffic hit. I'll go deeper in a PPV guide, so stay tuned for that if you want to know more about the right content to have ready when you first launch your OF.
Engaging With Your Fans
So your fans are here. They're talking to you. This is the part where you get to have some fun and really get to know your fans. Listen to them. Find out what they actually like and what they want. And do not scam them. Don't promise to sell them something you can't deliver. Be honest with them. Tell them what you're comfortable with and what you're not. They will appreciate you for it.
If you don't have time to constantly check your inbox throughout the day, let them know. Tell them you're busy and you have things you're working on, like making more content to bring more fans into your community. This is now your full-time gig. This is how you support yourself, and they should be aware of this and support you for it. Pick specific hours of the day when you know you'll be active, and let your fans know: hey, between this time and this time I'll be chatting, so I'll be waiting for you then.
This transparency and over-communication is how you get your diehards to keep supporting you for months, and maybe even years!
You're Already Ahead of Where I Was
There's so much more I could pack into this article, but it could end up being an entire book, so I chose to keep it short and sweet for you. Keeping all these things in mind, when it finally comes time to launch your OF, I believe you'll be in a far better situation than I was when I first started.
There are so many things I wish I could have told myself back then, but if you made it this far, kudos to you. It shows you're serious about this and you really want to give it your all. If so, subscribe to our newsletter so you're up to date with all our tips and tricks on getting the most out of managing your OF. And if you're interested in joining our agency, reach out using the form, and I'll be in contact if I see that you could be a good fit for our team.
Besos!
Mari Minx