Onlyfans: Why fast money also entails dangers

Mr. Diop, as a service provider you advise creators on Onlyfans and other platforms. How much does an influencer like Tara Tabitha earn there with her content?

From the outside you can only half analyze that, realistically only a creator knows that himself. There are people who only have a few followers, but make an extremely large number of them pay because they serve certain topics. But you can say: It is very quickly to five-digit sums and more.

Can you be more specific?

As a general rule, if you only open the profile to paying followers, like Tara does, then each follower gets the monthly fee—in her case, $20 per user. In addition, there are of course additional services, such as personal chats or exclusive pictures. In our experience, on average well over half of the users use it and then usually spend between 20 and 100 dollars a month.

That’s a lot of money.

Yes, especially when you consider that some super fans do it for five or six months. They then quickly transfer thousands of euros. But what is often forgotten – unfortunately also by many content creators themselves – of course, all of this has to be fully taxed.

So it’s not surprising that many influencers are also drawn to Onlyfans…

It’s a way to monetize your reach extremely quickly. If you have a lot of reach and decide to go in the erotic direction – then that ensures that many of the fans get a taste of it. In our experience, just under one percent of followers on Instagram and Co. are willing to pay money. With 100,000 followers, that’s 500 to 1000 users. And suddenly large amounts of money are already flowing in without the need for much effort or equipment. Of course that fixes it, we see it again and again. Many are making money with their content for the first time ever. The headlines about how quickly money is then earned give the whole thing an extra boost.

Tabitha is going in a clear direction with her Onlyfans: foot fetish. Many people are surprised that they run there about toenails. They also?

Not anymore, no. Especially when it comes to fetish, you can find a large audience with unusual preferences at Onlyfans, which is then also willing to pay. Other creators also get a lot of similar requests. You have to decide for yourself whether to use them.

It’s also possible without sex

Does Onlyfans automatically have to move in the direction of eroticism?

Clearly: no. One of our clients, Laura Vetter, who used to be with “Berlin Day and Night”, doesn’t do any erotic content at all. She uses the platform to stay in touch with fans. Unlike Instagram, she can earn money there directly with fan contacts, for example with paid chats or with exclusive photos or dance videos – without any nudity. These are more of a glimpse behind the scenes, into private life. If fans appreciate that content and are willing to pay for it, that works too.

The proportion of Onlyfans that has nothing to do with sex is growing. Do you think the platform will make it out of the dirty corner?

There will definitely be more, but I can’t say whether it will grow proportionately. But there are more and more projects. The platform has a different standing among younger users anyway, who either hate it – or use it themselves.

In fact, Instagram and Co. are also geared towards Onlyfans and now offer subscription models. Did the service kick open a door?

Yes, of course. Due to the scandals and the sums that were repeatedly mentioned, the public and the creators became aware of this in a completely different way. This ensures a renaissance of paid content on both sides. Skate videos, for example, do surprisingly well on the Patreon platform. This is often content that, for example on YouTube, can hardly be monetized due to alcohol or the risk of injury.

You also have to say: In Germany Onlyfans is currently on the decline. Because many payment service providers terminated their cooperation in the fall, payment options such as Paysafe cards are no longer supported. But many Germans don’t have a credit card or don’t want Onlyfans to appear on the bill, sales have fallen by 30 to 50 percent since autumn. Therefore, many creators and fans switch to alternatives that offer PayPal, for example.

Back to eroticism: A lot of content on Onlyfans is clearly pornographic. What is the difference to the classic porn industry?

For many women, Onlyfans is a whole different way to have control over sex content. Sure, there are a few men too. However, as with influencers, the field is clearly determined by women. And they appreciate that the position of power that always exists in the porn industry is almost completely gone. The women can really decide for themselves what they want to do. You don’t have to push your limits.

If they don’t want that. However, the money should motivate many to be more flexible than initially planned.

For me, that is one of the greatest dangers: you look at others, see how far they go and how much money is involved. And then you maybe keep going and in the end you don’t even know: Is that what I want or is the money too tempting? Then the car breaks down or a new smartphone is on the market. And you’re just one step away from going in the wrong direction. It’s easy to lose boundaries there. We warn our clients very consciously about this. Such decisions should not be made on the spur of the moment. There is no going back after that.

note dangers

Many of the creators are very young. Can they really assess the consequences for their later life?

This is difficult. Unfortunately, it happens again and again that creators get mental problems or depression as a result. For example, because the content with the ex-boyfriend comes up again and again, even if you don’t want it anymore. That happens especially to women who slipped into it like that, as a student, for example.

Once the content is online, it’s very difficult to get rid of it. Especially if it can be linked to the real identity. I know of two women who stopped applying for certain jobs as a result. For fear of being exposed.

But can this be avoided?

I would never take my real name and certainly not my real social channels. If you want to rely on the reach of the real name – for example as an influencer – you have to be very aware that you shouldn’t go in certain directions thoughtlessly. Once you’ve done porn, there’s no turning back. You can then forget about future advertising cooperations. Very few advertisers want anything to do with porn. And unfortunately, the existence of an Onlyfans profile can sometimes be enough if there is a suspicion that erotic content is being placed there. This will cause problems for certain advertisers.

Despite this, this step seems to be becoming more normal.

Especially in America, this is developing in a really crass direction. There are tons of influencers who actually work as DJs and whose Instagram looks completely normal. And then at Onlyfans they suddenly go very quickly in the direction of hardcore porn. It’s much more normal there than here. But as a rule, you also notice that they are solely responsible for this and that nobody advises them.

What advice can an agency provide?

We have a lot of experience with how to build and keep a following, what types of content works. Of course, this also includes support with legal and tax issues. Some also moderate and manage the whole profile. But I would always advise against that.

How come?

There’s just a lot of abuse out there. I personally think it’s my job to support the creators. But some supposed managers primarily want to take over the profiles, enrich themselves with the Creator without focusing on individual goals and needs. That’s why I can only advise everyone to check an agency carefully. Real agencies have contracts that you can check, a real company address and references that you can check. If none of that is available, it’s better to do it yourself.

Bano Diop runs the Sky Life Agency together with Sidney Diop. Based in Hamburg and Los Angeles, she oversees content creators on numerous platforms.