Are you interested in getting started on OnlyFans but don’t have a huge social media following? We’ve got everything you need to know about how to start an OnlyFans without followers.
Why OnlyFans is booming
When so many of us were facing massive changes to our work, OnlyFans offered a solution for people looking to make money from home. And it was famously becoming a platform for adult content. But it wasn’t just porn.
Gamers, personal trainers, and musicians were also thrown into the mix. OnlyFans was the first platform to explicitly welcome ALL forms of content and to allow creators to monetize their work. Like Patreon for pornstars.
Last year, OnlyFans announced that they would no longer allow sexually explicit material on the platform. This didn’t even last a week due to the overwhelmingly negative response. Six days later, they reversed the decision.
Today, OnlyFans is still going strong and has become a very appealing get-rich-quick scheme amid mass financial and food insecurity. So, how do you start an OnlyFans without followers?
How do you start an OnlyFans account?
I made an OnlyFans account pretty easily with an email address. But when I tried to turn it into a creator account, I was denied repeatedly.
For very good reasons, OnlyFans requires that creators verify their identities with government-issued photo ID. This ensures that creators are old enough to be creating adult content, if that’s what they intend to do. So, you have to provide photos of your government ID as well as a selfie of yourself with your ID. But you also have to link a social media account with at least 10 posts, some of which must contain your face.
Personally, I thought this was a bit much. It’s one thing to send in proof of age and identity, but it’s a whole other thing to then require a pre-existing social media presence where your face is visible and link it to your OnlyFans account. I was consistently denied the ability to make money from OnlyFans because I wasn’t comfortable with showing my face. Given the very real risk that accompanies publishing sexually explicit content as a female-presenting person, this is actually a huge deal.
Assessing the risks
Though there are growing pockets of sex- and body-positive communities online, there is still plenty of animosity among prudes. Many people will target you with all sorts of threats if you choose to do porn. Beyond threats to safety, there are plenty of other reasons you might not want your face—or your social media account—linked to your OnlyFans.
Once, I actually created an NSFW Instagram account where I would post erotic photos and videos. I wasn’t making money with it and I wasn’t trying to herd people into some alternate way of paying me. It was just about having fun and being an exhibitionist. The last thing I wanted was for the wrong people to see and identify me.
Sexuality offers us so many opportunities for liberation. In the privacy of our bedrooms, we can explore the depths of our own embodied pleasure. As we grow and expand our conception of what our sexuality can be, many will want to explore their sexuality with a growing number of people, or with a faceless crowd.
This sort of exploration must be done carefully and with respect to ourselves and those who might be affected. Control of this exploration needs to rest with those doing the exploring. Forcing someone to expose elements of their identity that they aren’t willing to expose can be dangerous. Not everything can be undone—especially on the internet.
If after considering the consequences of having your social media account(s) attached to your OnlyFans you still want to go for it, we’ve got you covered with a brief intro to content creation.
What content should you make on OnlyFans?
Get creative! Creators have been successful with a huge range of content. Some content does seem to be more likely to be successful than other content, but ultimately, your passion should drive your content. Maybe you want to offer naked yoga videos like Abby Opel, or slow-motion videos of pulling apart doughnuts.
Generally, humans respond to short-format video content more than other forms of content. Sure, you could post endless text documents, but you might find it a challenge to discover your audience. Sensory-rich content is much more likely to appeal to the masses. It’s also a good idea to reserve high-value content for paying subscribers while offering a fair amount of content for free.
The more free content someone consumes, the more invested they become in you and your content. Just make sure you’ve got some good stuff for your paying subscribers because otherwise, how are you going to make a profit?
Once you’ve figured out what sort of content you want to make, it’s time to get to work on creating it!
What gear do you need to start an OnlyFans account?
1) Ring Light
Nowadays, everybody uses ring lights, and honestly, they make a world of difference. Not only are you then able to do the TikTok ring light challenge, but your videos and photography will be instantly elevated. Ring lights illuminate subjects more evenly and create a beautiful halo shadow effect that then frames your subject. Plus, you’ll get a fun little ring reflected in your eyes, giving you an ethereal or even magical look.
There are a lot of options in ring lighting since it’s become such a standard in content creation. An entry-level ring light is super cheap and will offer beautiful lighting for selfies and most social media content. This GerTong ring light has its own stand but also allows you to clip it to any device for quick and easy video creation.
But if you want to have more features to really get creative with different colors and effects, you can spend a bit more for a high-quality setup. This larger Neewer ring light is highly adjustable and offers a range of hues and intensities. It has a nice, tall stand and is Bluetooth-controlled.
2) Microphone
You might want to remove the sound from your videos and replace it with music. But if you’re going to be capturing audio, you’ll want to get a microphone. You really don’t want to rely on your phone’s built-in microphone. It’s going to sound weird and you’ll have trouble isolating the audio you want from background noise or echo.
The kind of microphone you’ll want to buy will depend on the type of content you’re creating. For an entry-level selfie-type of content, you can pick up this great lavalier microphone pretty cheaply:
If you plan on venturing out of the controlled environment of your studio and going to a place where noise-canceling and powerful audio pick-up from a distance are important, you might want to splurge on the Audio-Technica ATR6550x Condenser Shotgun Microphone.
Now, if you want to dip your toe into ASMR content, the microphone matters even more. Many content creators swear by the Blue Yeti USB Mic, which is reasonably affordable given its quality, and is hailed as one of the best podcast microphones around.
3) Video camera and editing software
Phones have gotten really good at video. You can shoot a very high-quality film on an iPhone, no problem. If you’ve got any kind of smartphone, you’re probably ready for some content creation. Not all smartphones are created equally though, so try to check that you’re able to record at minimum 1080p. Given how portable phones are, there’s no real reason to use anything else for video capture unless you’re hoping for some very niche functionality (or just want to feel cool with a big, fancy camera).
Adobe is still the industry standard for creative editing and creation. However, there are cheaper alternatives. DaVinci Resolve is the top free editing software and has gained notoriety in recent years for its top-notch color correction.
Of course, you can always outsource your editing to someone else. Head to Fiverr if you don’t know any good video editors yourself.
How to market yourself on OnlyFans without followers
Like any successful business, good marketing is crucial to making money. You can create the best content there is, but unless people hear about you and are enticed to pay for your content, you likely won’t make much money from your OnlyFans.
Word of mouth is still one of the top methods for advertising, so it’s a good idea to just get out there and tell everyone about your content. Beyond that, make sure your content is easy to find on Google and on OnlyFans. A good name with excellent SEO will go a long way.
Another great way to promote your account is to do crossover content with other, more established accounts. So get out there and do some networking with creators who share interests and potential fans!
Have Fun!
Ultimately, creating content on OnlyFans is a bit of a gamble. Your account might not take you very far, or it might launch you to global fame and fortune. Regardless of how it turns out, have fun with it. Create the content that you want more of in the world.
Most business success comes from identifying a gap in the market and then providing a product to fill that gap. If you wish there was more of a certain sort of content, you’re probably not alone. Make it. Give it a shot. Then tell the world about it.
Even if your first few attempts are complete failures, you will have learned something. Take these trial-and-error lessons and use them to become the pro content creator of your dreams!
