There are seemingly boundless opportunities these days when it comes to side hustles. First, there are traditional avenues like online survey sites, cashback apps, food delivery services, and driving services. Still, as the gig economy has evolved, more options have become available.

One of the most lucrative side hustles can be creating original content. No longer are we glued to our TV sets or radios to get our information. With modern technology, it seems that anyone with a bit of determination and an internet connection can become an internet star overnight.

A more recent content outlet is a site called OnlyFans. Its popularity has exploded over the past few years. Most of us might recognize it for its link to, well, let’s say, not safe for work (NSFW) content. However, that’s not the site’s only use. If you want to know how to make money on OnlyFans, keeping your clothes on or not, read on.

What is OnlyFans?

At its core, OnlyFans is a subscription-based social media platform where users can subscribe to original content. Every day, people like you and I create the content.

Launched in 2016, it became widely popular during the pandemic by adult entertainment workers due to many physical venues shutting down. To diversify their income, many started doing what they usually do, only now, they were posting it online. For many, the results were an astounding success.

Although this content might be the most popular on the site, it’s not the only way to learn how to make money on OnlyFans.

Who Uses OnlyFans?

Anyone looking to make original content can use OnlyFans to promote themselves. It’s not only a way to promote your content, product, or services but also a way to monetize them immediately. Some examples of what you might find on OnlyFans are:

• Fitness Coaching
• Cosplaying
• Writers
• Poets
• Fashion
• Travel Blogging
• DIY Tutorials
• Beauty Tips
• Gaming Tips and Walkthroughs
• Adult Content Creator (if you are at least 18 years old)
• Recipes & Cooking Tips
• Funny Videos
• Influencer Vlogs
• Modeling
• Many more

As you can see, there is much more to OnlyFans than simply NSFW content. OnlyFans is for anyone looking to make a name for themselves.

What You Need To Start On Only Fans

The first step in learning how to make money on OnlyFans is understanding what you’ll need to get started. Although subscribers understand they are not getting professional quality content, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make your content look and feel as close to professional as possible. Higher quality content typically gets you more subscribers, followers, and money.

To make sure you can create the best quality content possible, you’ll need to invest some money upfront in some equipment. Some basics you might need are:

• A good camera – for many, your smartphone will be more than enough
• A tripod or any equipment to hold your camera steady
• Basic lighting equipment if you don’t have access to natural, daytime lighting
• Basic video editing software

None of these are absolute necessities, but when making money on OnlyFans, it’s best to present the highest quality content you can, and investing in yourself first will make that possible.

How To Get Started On Only Fans

Ok, so you’ve got an idea of what kind of content you want to do. Then you bought all the equipment above to give your waiting fans the best possible experience. Now it’s time to set up your account and start making content. Below is a guideline for how to make money on OnlyFans setup:

Create Account

First things first, when you are ready to start making money on OnlyFans, the first thing you’ll need to do is create an account. Then, do all the necessary steps to get your bank account info and verify your information, so once the money starts to roll in, you’re ready.

Create A Name

Most OnlyFans users don’t want their real name out there. Like many other social media sites, you’ll have a username you’ll go by instead. Have something catchy and easy to remember.

Setup Page

Now that you’ve got some initial setup done, it’s time to customize your landing page. Your landing page is what people will first see when they find you on OnlyFans. So make sure to have your top content easily visible once ready.

Create and Promote Content

Alright, now it’s showtime. You’ve got everything set up for your account, and you’re ready to roll—time to start making excellent content. No matter what content you create, do your best work every time. Sometimes you only get one shot to hook someone.

Once you’ve got some content on OnlyFans, you can’t simply sit back and wait for people to find you. No! You’ve got to yell from the rooftops how great you are. Promoting your content will likely take up more of your time than actually creating it. That’s just how it goes.

Get on social media and any other site that allows you to self-promote (be careful, as many sites will kick you off for self-promotion). Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are just a few of the leading social media sites you can use to advertise your content.

Separate Yourself From Others

Sorry, but more than likely, you’re not the only one producing content on your topics. Having a way to separate yourself from others like you will be essential. No matter what kind of content you’re making, you’ll need to find a way to hook people into watching you instead of someone like you. If you do, you’ll see you start to earn more income from OnlyFans.

Post and Interact Consistently

There is nothing worse than finding a good content creator and finding out they only have one or two videos. Once you’re on OnlyFans, be ready to produce content regularly. You could post content daily, weekly, or somewhere in between. There should be a relatively short amount of time between your content. If you wait too long, people will forget about you and move on to the next creator.

OnlyFans also allows for direct messaging and interaction between creators and fans. One of the best ways to keep people engaged with your content is to engage with them. So make sure you respond to your fans regularly. Don’t give them generic answers either; thoughtfully respond to them.

Be Patient

We all see the stories of people going from nobodies to the biggest name on the internet seemingly overnight and want to emulate the same success. But unfortunately, that’s not how it works for 99.9% of us. If you want to learn how to make money on only fans, you’ll need to be ready to wait for the piles of cash to come in.

Making a name for yourself is going to take time. Be ready to watch your subscriber count slowly work its way up. If you keep producing content and promoting yourself, the money will come over time.

Listen to Your Fans

Once you do have a following, don’t ignore your fans. You might have a vision for your content, but if people tell you they want to see specific content, give them what they want!

That doesn’t mean you need to abandon any plans for your content. It just means you might have some additional work to do, and that’s not a bad thing. If fans request content from you, they value you and what you’re doing.

How to Make Money on OnlyFans

We’ve talked about what you need to do to learn how to make money on OnlyFans, but there are several ways the site allows you to monetize your content. Below are the main ways the over 2 million content creators on OnlyFans have started to make money on the site.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are the most popular way to make money on OnlyFans. When a user pays for a subscription to your content, you’ll keep 80% of the revenue while OnlyFans keeps the remaining 20%. There are several ways to set up your account when creating content. First, you can have some free content to get people hooked or interested in what you offer. That can be some teaser or full content; it’s up to you.

Once you have someone interested enough to subscribe to your content, you can start to make money. The amount you charge is up to you, but you should research the site for others like you and how much watchers are willing to pay. Subscription rates can vary anywhere from $4.99 to $49.99 per month. Most users will pay per month, but some will use subscription bundles to save money with six-month or twelve-month package deals.

There is also the option to have premium content on your site. Premium content is locked even to subscribers, and users will need to pay an additional fee to unlock it. Setting up your account is up to you, but subscriptions and locked content are typically a creator’s best way to earn money on OnlyFans.

Direct Messaging

Another lesson in how to make money on OnlyFans is using direct messaging. Many fans will pay a fee to interact with their favorite content creators, either per message or at a flat rate. Again, you’ll make most of the profit when this happens but split some with OnlyFans.

Many creators have become so popular that they’ve had to outsource their messaging. If done right, using direct messaging can quickly become your top source of income on OnlyFans.

Paid Posts

Instead of having a subscription-based model, many content creators will have free accounts but put their content behind a paywall(sometimes referred to as a price lock post ). Users won’t have to subscribe to their content for a monthly fee. Instead, they can choose which of these price-locked posts they unlock by paying for those specific videos, posts, or other content.

Live Streaming

In addition to posting content on OnlyFans, OnlyFans content creators also can live stream their content in real-time. When using the live stream feature, creators can interact with their fans and make some money. In addition, OnlyFans allows users to tip creators during a live stream. You can set up a tip goal as a creator to encourage fans to tip. Users will be able to see your entire plan and how close you are to achieving it.

You can also set up your account to have a payment-gated stream to make money on OnlyFans. A payment-gated system means users will have to pay to join\watch your live streaming events.

Coaching

There is no coaching within the OnlyFans platform. However, many content creators have become popular enough to offer their services to other individuals outside of OnlyFans. They might be looking to replicate their success or use their expertise to accomplish a goal. The creators use their skills to help others and earn extra money with even more side income.

How To Make Money On OnlyFans: Final Thoughts

OnlyFans has been around since 2016 but burst onto the scene during the pandemic due to its creative content. Although most people will know the name due to its controversial nature, there is more to OnlyFans than being an adult content creator. There are plenty of other safe-for-work content creators on the platform. Of course, most creators’ primary source of income will be subscribers. Still, direct messaging, paid posts, live streams, and even separate coaching sessions are all legit ways to learn how to make money on OnlyFans, no matter what kind of content you produce.

This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.