Why Are so Many Women Flaunting Their OnlyFans Earnings?

Whenever I log into TikTok, I’m bombarded by women showing how much they’ve made on the adult site, OnlyFans. The videos usually say something like, “Thinking about making an OnlyFans? This is your sign.” They might flash money on the screen or show something they’ve supposedly bought with their earnings. Some of these women even show screenshots displaying one month of their earnings. If you click on their profile, it will show their OnlyFans origin story, which usually includes them being miserable working in fast food or retail. Suddenly, they’ve stumbled upon OnlyFans and their life got so much better. Now they can afford to pay their rent, buy designer handbags, and get a new car.

While that may be the case for some of these girls, this is also a marketing tactic. OnlyFans has a referral program that gives the affiliate 5% of the new user’s earnings for one year. The person who refers you can make up to 50,000. This means that the TikTok video you watched flaunting this glamourous new life is an ad designed to make you think you can obtain what they claim to have. The person who posted the ad wants you to sign up so that they can make a commission from you. As the case with most things commission-based, they don’t care if you succeed, and they aren’t there to help you either. Sometimes they’ll even lie to you to get you to sign up, promising that you won’t have to show any skin that you don’t want to show.

I’ve never had an OnlyFans, but someone once approached me about it when the platform was still semi-new. I had posted about my YouTube channel on Reddit, and someone sent me a message asking me if I’d ever considered doing OnlyFans. I explained to them I wasn’t interested in using an adult site, and they told me that OnlyFans was created as a competitor to Patreon and can still such. While that may have been true, it wasn’t what the site has become known for. I knew I didn’t want to be featured on the site, even if it meant keeping my clothes on, because I didn’t want to be associated with the content that the website’s become notorious for.

Feedback from former creators only further cemented my decision that OnlyFans wasn’t for me. They reported the businesses refused to service them when it came time to do taxes, and otherwise judged by friends and family when they found out about their OnlyFans. They also stated that without an existing following, you wouldn’t make as much money as the women bragging about how much they’d made. One woman stated that it was hard to gain subscribers when there is free content on the internet. They also confirmed that you would have to take off your clothes to make money from the website and do things you may not be comfortable with.

Another drawback they listed was the fact that some people who subscribe to your OnlyFans feel entitled to your pictures and will often say abusive things to you. There’s also a possibility of being recognized in public, which could lead to a safety issue. One woman even reported that having an OnlyFans had ruined her chances at finding a job because future employers could see that she’d claimed OnlyFans on her taxes.

While I acknowledge there’s nothing wrong with using OnlyFans, I believe people should know what they are getting themselves into before signing up. At the very least, do your research before signing up, and don’t be fooled by people flaunting what they bought with their earnings. OnlyFans may be life changing to some, but those who earn commission know that you aren’t guaranteed a paycheck.

Originally Posted On Medium