OnlyFans is an Instagram account predominantly focused on 18+ content. Users subscribe to OnlyFans to receive exclusive content regularly. The service has been operating since 2016 and regularly sets new records in terms of audience count and revenue over the past few years.
OnlyFans provides a convenient platform for sellers to distribute their content and holds back 20% of the subscription fee. When the service first appeared, there was no competition, but today it is very difficult to create a profile awareness and attract at least a few dozen subscribers.
OnlyFans Features & Actual Statistics
Since the pandemic started, the OnlyFans visibility has grown considerably. At its peak, the daily signups count exceeded 200,000. Users’ attitude towards the platform varies from one country to another, but many see it as a money-making tool.
The content subscription platform has become a major source of income for many ladies. Few models who entered the platform with their content were successful, but they managed to make a well-established presence and earn an average of $2,000 per month.
Top models turned OnlyFans into a money-making machine. For example, American actress and singer Bella Thorne raised $1M in the first 24 hours upon signing up on the platform. Her hyped Instagram profile with over 25 million followers was her success formula.
Some models entered OnlyFans without hundreds of thousands of followers but managed to “hack” the platform algorithms. Polish-Swedish model Monica Huldt makes $200,000 a year on subscriptions alone.
Memes featuring webcam model Belle Delphine have been circulating the Internet for a long time now. But you might not want to laugh at her, because she earns a conservatively estimated $1M a month with her theatrics for the camera.
Besides erotic content, the platform allows you to sell any kind of info product. You can distribute yoga classes, music, or cooking lessons.
To gain an insight into a great demand for the platform, take a look at these numbers:
- The aggregate cost of products sold (GMV) is $2.2B in 2020 and $5.9B in 2021;
- Net income is $375M in 2020, and $1.2B in 2021;
- About 300 content creators make $1M a year and 16,000 make at least $50,000 a year;
- Monthly traffic is about 130 million users.
The numbers indicate that the platform is actively developing and has not yet reached its peak. according to analysts’ projections, net profit in 2022 will amount to $2.5B with a gross value of $12.5B in products sold.
OnlyFans receive about 50% of its revenue from subscriptions and an additional 30% from paid chat features. The rest of the revenue is generated by other content monetization tools.
In August 2021, the platform banned sexually explicit content due to payment gateways issues, but a global impact on the platforms’ revenue is uncertain though analysts predict a significant drop in revenue.
How Do They Make Money on Leaks?
One of the key OnlyFans tasks is hidden content protection. If any halfway competent user can bypass the security and access photos and videos available by subscription, the platform would lose its value.
So far, there have been only a few cases of global data leaks. In April 2021, it was reported that someone posted a huge amount of creator’s content from OnlyFans on a forum.
The archive included photos and videos by 279 content makers and was uploaded to Google Drive so that any user who possesses the link can download the content.
The cunning moneymakers in the non-CIS and CIS countries figured out a long time ago that they can make money on data leakage. To distribute content and monetize it, they created websites, Telegram channels, and private communities on various platforms.
Websites
The “onlyfans leaks” query allows websites from the top of the SERP to collect a decent amount of traffic. Niche competition is high: besides thematic websites, leaks are uploaded to standard projects with 18+ content.
The niche leader is the “onlyfans-slivy.ru” project. According to Semrush, it collects 39,000 of traffic per month or 1,300 users per day. Given that no service can determine the accurate numbers, there might be many more visitors.
According to the open Yandex.Metrica, 15,000 users visit the website every day. We cannot provide exact figures of income, but all the traffic is driven to the Telegram channel with an option to subscribe to the content. Given the visitors’ count, the website may generate $5,000 a month or more.
For a non-CIS audience, there is the OnlyFans Leaks website that provides free access to content. The website makes money on the traffic inflow from 18+ resources, webcam affiliate programs and attracts players to the poker project.
There is also a website called MissingToofff with a list of Internet resources and a Telegram channel that publishes leaks from OnlyFans. It makes money on clickunder and promotes hosting to post the leaked content.
Telegram Channels
At the moment, Telegram is the perfect platform for distributing such content and money-making. The messenger rapidly develops the integration of online payment in the app interface and various subscription options.
As of December 2021, the Telemetr Service found 213 channels with the “OnlyFans” phrase in its title, with a total audience of nearly 2.5 million users. Some channels do very well.
These numbers can’t truly represent the state of the niche, since not all channel titles include the “OnlyFans” key. If you filter by the “Leaks” category, the statistics will impress you, although many channels are no longer available.
The main “onlyfans-slivy.ru” channel has 36,000 subscribers with posts viewed 25,000 times on average. Most likely, website traffic provides a fine CR. The posts follow a standard pattern: a picture and a caption with a call to visit a private channel.
On a private channel, the interest is fuelled by CTA-focused engaging content. The button text is duplicated in ENG, from which we can assume that the owners are also attracting expensive non-CIS traffic.
The final step is a bot that accepts payment. Customers are offered several subscription options with a further enhanced benefit effect: you can obtain content worth 100,000 rubles for only 400-2,000 rubles.
There are four different tariffs to choose from and a Diamond Tariff, which allows access to all content packs. Upon payment, you’ll have unlimited access to private channels.
The funny thing is that there are no contact details on any of the channels. In case you experience payment or any other issues, you won’t be able to contact the channel admin. It’s all held together on a wing nut and a lot of prayers.
The payment gateway is provided by the Nemilin Pro Service, a platform for numerous gray channels with paid subscriptions in Telegram. Invoices are issued in YooKassa and arrive in an individual’s account. The wallet owner has already received several complaints, but the payment method is still available.
Other leak channels operate similarly: they provide some free content offering people to subscribe to a closed community for 300-1,000 rubles. Apparently, they are doing very well.
VK Communities
In VK, there are also public pages with leaks, but in most cases, the traffic is redirected to closed Telegram channels. This is because accepting payment for such content is more complicated in VK.
Most recently, Telegram started to block 18+ channels, so few may last long. But it is easier to accept payments via Telegram bots than in the VK. The traffic is first driven to the pre-landing page and then redirected to a closed channel with a subscription payment bot enabled.
There is a referral program on the platform. You can attract content creators and hold back 5% of their income. Referrals will stop paying as soon as they earn $1M or within a year of the signup date. To get a referral link you need to verify your ID.
OnlyFans will be trending for at least a couple of years to come. There are no immediate competitors to the platform and it is unlikely anyone will be able to take over a niche soon. The content subscriptions market is growing steadily, which means you can make money on OnlyFans leaks today.
