Could YOU make your fortune with OnlyFans?

I interviewed a top 0.2% creator on OnlyFans to find out more

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It’s pretty clear what people think of when they hear the brand name ‘OnlyFans’. I won’t say it out loud, because this is a respectable blog, but it rhymes with cornography. But is that really fair?

Founded in 2015 by British entrepreneur Tim Stokely, OnlyFans has become the internet’s best home for NSFW content creators through luck rather than design. At its heart is something deeply simple, no different to Patreon or even Substack, a mechanism for people to build a personal brand with their own bespoke content and monetise it in a simple, effective way. It’s one of the fastest growing platforms for digital media, and yet it often gets left out of these discussions (I too am guilty of this) because somehow it feels seedy. But ignore OnlyFans at your peril.

In order to better understand how the platform works for creators, I sat down for a conversation with Cat Grande, a top 0.2% OnlyFans creator, and one of the few users on the platform who speaks openly about the financials. You can watch our conversation below or read a full transcript (which will really show up how much I talk in interviews where I’m supposed to be the one learning something…)

Nick: I just wanted to first of all get your perspective on OnlyFans. I don’t know how long you’ve been doing it for um but what’s your experience been as a content creator? Has it been a useful platform for you?

Cat: Yeah, I’ll give you a little background. I got started on only fans in December 2020, so it’s been a year and two months. When I started I actually had zero following on social media so OnlyFans was my reason to start. And yeah it’s been hugely successful for me. I think I didn’t realize when I started how attainable it was to grow a social following but I’m still thankful that throughout this year of like growing on social media, on TikTok, I’ve had that income stream.

It’s really interesting you know a lot of people only turn to OnlyFans once they already have a platform or they already have a following, but I think OnlyFans is different in that you don’t have to have any sort of following to get started and make money right away. So in that way I think it’s really good for content creators as a way to finance your growth in social media.

So when you joined OnlyFans kind of day one, presumably you start with no one following you and then various internal algorithms sort of push your content. You can I presume have like an element of teasing what the paywall stuff is going to be, but how quickly were you were you generating an audience on OnlyFans or was it that you had to do it in tandem with kind of developing TikTok and Instagram?

Yeah, so it’s pretty in tandem. You have to spend you know half your time posting content on OnlyFans and talking to your fans, and then half the time growing your following on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram. So I started out making $3000 a

month in December and January, and then the real ticket was getting on TikTok because originally I was just on Instagram, Twitter and Reddit. TikTok is the app that allows you to reach an enormous amount of people. So when I got on TikTok, I think in March 2021 a year ago: immediately $10k a month. And then I had a really big month in April — $50k a month — so you know the power to reach that many people is what really allows you to make that much money.

It’s a balance, I guess, because TikTok has a kind of difficult relationship with its OnlyFans creators. Is that fair to say? You can’t directly market your OnlyFans, right?

Yes, and that’s a huge conversation too. You have to kind of learn how to dance along those lines. I’ve had a few accounts. My first account ever is gone now. It got completely taken down. And then you know often they’ll prevent you from posting if you’re breaking the guidelines and then you know if you can’t post you can’t make your money. So it’s really a delicate game you have to play on TikTok. But you learn after a while what you can and can’t do.

And in terms of your division of labor, because, well I don’t want to do down how difficult the content creation is but maybe it’s something you can do fairly simply. Do you spend more time working on the marketing of it or more time actually developing the content for your OnlyFans? And also, are you doing this all yourself?

Or do you work with people social media, do you work with, I don’t know, photographers or whatever…

I currently do everything myself. I know that’s not how most people do it actually. A lot of people, a lot of creators, have someone taking their pictures and answering their messages. Answering messages is a huge amount of time but I’d say personally I spend like 70% of my time on the marketing aspect, so on TikTok and Instagram, and then 30% of my time actually creating the OnlyFans content and also replying to OnlyFans messages which takes a lot of time.

Do you see yourself outsourcing any element of the process in the future?

It’s a constant conversation I have with myself, because I like my fans know that I answer all my messages myself and I do everything myself and they like that I’m super authentic. And you know you found me through that TikTok and that’s how I try to be, how candid I have to be about everything. And my fans like that so I’m really hesitant to outsource things because I’m afraid of losing that authenticity. But I do know that the income would definitely increase if I outsourced a few things. So we’ll see.

The income would increase in terms of: you think you could build a bigger marketing team and reach more people? Or do you think you could just streamline your content? I don’t know how you innovate in terms of the content you’re putting out and whether there’s kind of pressure to constantly be doing more and be more explicit or whatever. I guess the balance is you want to essentially do as little as possible without pissing everyone off… But, I guess the more you start bringing in a team is there more pressure on you to then be doing kind of more complex and more varied?

Yeah, I don’t know so much of that. I do think that, regardless of whether it’s just me or if I have a team there’s always that pressure to do more and offer more and to be more available to my fans. But I think the main aspect is if I had help with the OnlyFans side of things, I could spend more time advertising and more time interacting on social media and just grow in more directions. So for example, I’m really thinking about starting a YouTube channel, but I currently do not have the time to do that because I’m pretty occupied every day.

So you’ve noticed there’s a direct correlation: the more your TikTok users go up the more your OnlyFans users go up?

Oh yeah, it’s incredibly linked. If I have a viral TikTok, you can you know look at the TikTok views and the OnlyFans subscriptions and it’s like a direct correlation.

And then there was the point last year, the whole obviously the whole OnlyFans fans is getting out of the, whatever we might call it, the ‘adult material’ game. Do you think your stuff is kind of platform agnostic? Would you try and move it to another platform or is it quite like tied to the mechanics of OnlyFans?

I have taken a look at some other platforms, and there’s so many especially after that issue back in October. There’s so many that have popped up that are incredibly similar and some that are even better. So I have thought about moving platforms before I don’t think that’s really an issue to think about. Additionally, I don’t think a lot of people outside of the creators realized this but they were still going to allow quite a few things with that change. They were still going to allow nudity but not sexual acts if that makes sense. So personally I wouldn’t have been affected by that. I know a lot of creators would have been and they would have had to move but I don’t think this type of platform is going anywhere.

I guess the question is: your users on OnlyFans presumably also subscribe to half a dozen other creators. They want to get it all from one channel, you don’t have to be switching between these things. But you feel like you could migrate relatively easily… Can I ask: do you have a relationship with OnlyFans? Do they work with you to place your stuff, to curate and say “we’re going to recommend you against this person”? Have you ever spoken to a human at OnlyFans?

No, I’ve never spoken to anyone OnlyFans. I’m glad you pointed out because that is a difference between OnlyFans and other platforms that have sprung up. OnlyFans has no explore page. They don’t really promote their users in any way. So I know there’s other platforms that do offer that and have a better connection with their creators. So there’s things to be gained on other platforms too.

But you got a cheque in the mail saying the OnlyFans corporation has dispersed X amount of money to you and they’ve never spoken to you… I guess that’s the digital economy for you…

Yeah, yeah.

And in terms of extracurriculars in in this in this area. Do you have you had any sort of a sense of whether you can get brand deals? And you know, for instance on Instagram and TikTok, which I guess are also big platforms for you maybe in terms of raw numbers maybe higher than OF, do you get a sense of whether that’s something you can branch out into? Or does the OnlyFans count against you in terms of that sort of the more kind of wholesome –it’s not necessarily family friendly like promoting bikinis drinks or whatever — but do you think that OnlyFans is helpful or unhelpful there?

So, I’m just now starting to explore that world of sponsorships and that such, so I think it does hurt me a little bit. Certain brands wouldn’t work with me, but I have had plenty of companies reach out to me and I’m just now starting to you know negotiate and decide on what I want to do. And I think as time goes on you know it’s going to become more and more mainstream for creators to offer like maybe not OnlyFans content, but you know that private subscription content. That won’t be a complete end-all be all for sponsors but I would say it definitely hurts me a little bit in that in the aspect.

And in terms of kind of like long term — and by long term I mean pretty short term really but like say five years — do you see yourself being an OnlyFans creator for five years if it’s still providing a good living or are you thinking about diversifying your content? I don’t know whether there’s a sense that you feel like you’re gonna be putting out very similar, day in day out. Do you see yourself becoming a general entertainment broadcaster or do you think, actually, this is what makes me money, I’m gonna stick with it for as long as the cheques keep coming in…?

Yeah, so I don’t see myself doing the same thing in five years that’s for sure. You know, I think I said in the beginning that I didn’t realize when I started how attainable it would be to grow a following on social media. And so in the next few months really I want to branch out and see if I can expand to YouTube and just do different kinds of content on TikTok that aren’t exactly like ‘thirst traps’. And kind of see where that takes me, because I can see myself stopping OnlyFans within the next year, honestly, maybe even like six months. Because I have gotten a little bored and it does kind of become repetitive providing the same thing every day having the same conversations and I’m definitely the kind of person who likes to challenge myself and you know do go through change. So yeah, I do see myself switching it up in a few months.

It’s interesting how we’ve seen so many celebrities, particularly people who were maybe already kind of digital/online celebrities, doing the opposite and realizing that suddenly they can make money from their Instagram following. I’m thinking of people like Bella Thorne and Corinna Kopf. I guess if you’re OnlyFans-first creator it’s probably really annoying when people do that and come in and get huge figures for absolutely nothing! In my industry podcasting we’ve seen the exact same thing where celebrities just kept walking and make all the money, so I sympathize… But you’re interested in doing the reverse of that. And there’s probably gonna be a whole generation of people– because OnlyFans is only five years old — a whole generation of people presumably moving away from the platform. Is there anyone who’s made that transition successfully already?

Yeah that’s what’s kind of scary is I don’t really have anybody to emulate in that sense. But I don’t really see why it can’t be done. I think a lot of people think, like you said, you make great money on OnlyFans. So a lot of people are like why would I move away from that? It’s a very personal choice but I’m excited to see if it can be done.

And presumably you can always go back, right? See how it goes and then, if you go back, people will be excited. The return will be like, you know, Queen doing a final tour…

I’m not quite there but yeah!

Would you recommend it to someone who was who was looking for a way of kind of liberating their finances and doing something they could control? Do you think it’s been a net positive for you in your life?

Personally it’s definitely been a net positive. I have a lot of disclaimers about recommending it. I think you should be of a particular age, maybe have graduated college, or you know be around that age before you decide to do it. But for me it has definitely been a net positive. My day-to-day life is much more happy.