Brainstorms Issue #15: OnlyFans

Brainstorms Issue #15: Getting Rich Off OnlyFans

February 04, 2021

Brainstorms Issue #15

Getting Rich Off OnlyFans

“I started an OnlyFans page a few months ago. It’s been going well, but that wasn’t always the case. When I was first starting out, it was really challenging to find quality resources on best practices on things like what to charge, how to get my first subscribers, content strategies, ect... I’ve figured most of that stuff out, but I’m always trying to find ways to grow my audience.”

- OnlyFans Creator

Market Background & Opportunity Size

OnlyFans has taken the world by storm over the last year. If you’ve never heard of OnlyFans, don’t feel bad - your soul is more pure than most.

Here’s the quick rundown - OnlyFans is a subscription site that lets creators lock their content behind a paywall allowing fans access for a monthly fee or one-off tip.

The difference between OnlyFans and most other subscription-based social media sites is that OnlyFans primarily deals with “explicit content” - aka porn. To be clear, you don't need to post explicit content to be a creator on the platform. Because the site has few restrictions, it’s become popular among sex workers, adult performs, and NSFW creators.

Before you write this off as a niche porn site, OnlyFans is positioned to be one of the next big creator platforms:

  • OnlyFans currently has 85M+ users and they’re growing by 500K user/day

  • They have over 1M+ creators on the platform

  • In 2020 it’s estimated that they did $2B in sales. They take a 20% cut of every transaction, which means they netted $400M… just in 2020.

Along with impressive growth numbers, OnlyFans has also attracted a number of celebrities to the platform. Some of these celebrities are posting non-explicit content, which signals it’s becoming more mainstream.

Note: most of the numbers came from this article - it’s the most recent one I could find.

The Pain Points

Like any social platform, the biggest challenge creators face is creating content, growing their audience, and finding ways to monetize that audience. The good thing about OnlyFans is that monetization is baked into the platform.

The reality is, making it big on OnlyFans isn’t easy. To help illustrate this, check out this graph and this graph to understand how money is distributed across creators.

That said, the biggest pain points for creators on OnlyFans is similar to any business:

  1. Starting out is hard: There are a set of best practices, strategies, and tactics that need to be learned to lay the foundation for success. There’s added complexity with OnlyFans due to the taboo nature of the content being created. It’s different than most platforms creators currently use.

  2. Growing your subscriber base is challenging: Like any platform or business that creates wealth, growing your subscribers from 10-100, 100-1000, and to 1000+ it’s a straightforward process.

The Opportunity

For a number of reasons there’s a wealth of opportunities within OnlyFans:

  • It’s still relatively under-the-radar

  • The user base is rapidly growing

  • There are over a billion dollars paid out to creators each year

I’ve got a ton of ideas related to OnlyFans, but I’ll give you my two best (maybe I’ll do a part two in the future):

Idea #1: Create a set of resources to help new creators on OnlyFans. This idea is inspired by a tweet I saw from Courtland Allen, responding to a different tweet from Nat Eliason. To save you some time, here’s the gist:

There's a great opportunity to create courses or guides for OnlyFans creators. You could charge a fee for the content, or use OnlyFans' referral program - For any creator that signs up using your referral link, you get 5% of that creator’s income from the platform for 12 months or up to $1M (whichever comes first). I’ll talk about this more in the “How to Execute” section.

Idea #2: Create the Everything Bundle for OnlyFans Creators. The Everything Bundle is a collection of business-focused newsletters that give you access to multiple publications for one fee. Purchasing each one individually would cost you hundreds per month, but as a bundle, they’re only $200/year.

This same model could be applied to OnlyFans. The truth is, people who consume explicit content don’t stop at one photo or video. Giving people access to multiple creators for a reduced price helps creators make more money and grow their audience, and gives consumers more of what they love - everyone wins.

The idea is to create a solution that makes it easy for creators to partner up, manage subscriptions, and split revenues. You may even be able to create a marketplace to help creators pair up.  

Current Solutions

In terms of competition, there aren’t many solutions that help OnlyFans creators start or grow their audience. The ones that do exist don’t look professional and are very poorly branded.

  • Panty Selling School (cringy name, I know)

    • Panty selling school is the #1 result in Google for “OnlyFans course”. The website is poorly branded and its primary purpose is for… teaching people how to sell used panties. That said, there is a dedicated course for OnlyFans.

  • Racks to Riches (also pretty cringy)

    • This is another course on how to start and grow your OnlyFans. Similar to the one above, it’s poorly branded and doesn’t look very trustworthy.

  • OnlyFans Management

    • The OnlyFans Management is run by Dannii Harwood, a top OnlyFans creator. They offer a course as well as a fully managed service. Of all the solutions I’ve found, this one looks the most legit, but could still use a lot of work.

How to Execute

Of all the ideas I’ve talked about, this is one that seems very easy to pull off. Again, I’d like to credit Courtland for , as it’s a great guide for how to start:

  1. Interview Top OnlyFans Creators: In these interviews, I would ask questions related to how they grew their business, how they got started, and any other tips or tricks they’d be willing to share. Publish these interviews via a podcast.

  2. Hire a VA: After the interview, I’d hire a VA to create blog content or other course content that you can use in the future. turn these into articles and other organic pieces to use for marketing.

  3. Build an Audience: Share your content on Twitter and Reddit - these appear to be the most popular platforms for OnlyFans creators. Drive people to a newsletter or course. Bonus: you could create a subreddit where you share your tips and guides.

  4. Leverage the Creator’s Audience: The fastest way to grow is by making the content easy for creators to share. If you’re asking them good questions and telling their story in a positive way, they should be excited to share the content.

  5. Create a Course or Community: This is where you’ll make money. Use the content to lead people to join a paid community or course where you can provide even more value. Another way to monetize is through adding OnlyFans referral links to all your content.

Note: You could also partner with a top OnlyFans creator - they provide the content and you create the course. This would be a quick way to get amazing content.

Challenges

  • OnlyFans Has a Bad Rep: Many believe OnlyFans is just a porn site. Naturally, a lot of entrepreneurs don’t want to run a business associated with that space.

  • Small Opportunity: This is an idea that could make millions, but probably not tens of millions. If you’re an entrepreneur that’s looking to swing big, this probably isn’t a good fit.

  • Upfront Work: Any content-driven business is a grind. Creating content, gaining trust, and building an audience takes work. In most cases, the pay-off won’t be immediate - you’ll need to stick with it.

  • Platform Dependency: Your success is directly tied to the success of OnlyFans. Meaning, if they fail, you fail. If you’re trying to build a long term business, being dependent on a platform isn’t ideal.

TL;DR

  • The Pain Points: Starting and growing your OnlyFans page is difficult.

  • The Idea: Create courses or a community for OnlyFans creators to help them start and grow their OnlyFans.

  • Opportunity Size: Small ($1M-5M)

  • Why I Love This Idea:

    • It solves a real problem creator’s face

    • There’s little to no competition

    • It’s really easy to start

  • Biggest Hurdle? Upfront hustle to get results.

Thanks for reading - now get out there and build it! 

Catch ya next week, 

Keevin ✌