As I depart my home on an overcast Tuesday morning to stroll the canine, I’m accosted by a neighbor who cheerily calls down the road: “I hear you’ve got an OnlyFans now!” I begin to marvel if I’ve made a horrible mistake.
OnlyFans has—how shall I put it—a status. Like many on-line platforms, it matches content material creators with their viewers. However OnlyFans is primarily identified for one kind of content material: intercourse.
When mates and acquaintances hear I—a 43-year-old father of two—have arrange an OnlyFans account, they’re intrigued. After I clarify I’m solely posting content material that’s nonsexual and really a lot protected for work, their subsequent query is “Why?” Of their minds, it’s clear that “having an OnlyFans” means doing attractive stuff on the web, for cash.
OnlyFans, a UK-based outfit that raked in $658 million in pretax revenue final yr, needs to shake this picture. For each college scholar elevating money by sharing nudes, there’s a healthful housewife importing DIY ideas or an up-and-coming musician posting his newest tracks, a minimum of in the event you go by the accounts highlighted on the corporate’s weblog.
“Everybody’s doing a dance on the remainder of social media, the place it’s like, ‘Hey, you’re not supposed to point out individuals your penis right here and also you’re not speculated to say loopy, wild shit,’” John Hastings, a 39-year-old Canadian comedian, tells me by way of telephone from his residence in Los Angeles. On OnlyFans nonetheless, he nonetheless has individuals who slide into his DMs simply to say “I wish to see your ft, I am not right here for jokes.”
Like all of the safe-for-work creators I communicate to, Hastings has a presence on many social networks, from Instagram to X to YouTube. The viewers on OnlyFans will often be smaller than on different websites, however followers are sometimes extra engaged and—importantly—will need to have a checking account linked to their profile, able to be prized open.
“It’s a completely different world, for certain, in comparison with the people who find themselves on my different social media platforms,” says Dudley Alexander, an R&B artist who releases music underneath the moniker Nevrmind.
Alexander, 33, joined OnlyFans in 2019, earlier than the location’s profile surged because the Covid-19 pandemic pushed many beforehand IRL actions on-line. As such, he’s a pioneer of the safe-for-work OnlyFans scene and has amassed greater than 67,000 likes on his web page. (OnlyFans solely shows a consumer’s like rely publicly; the follower rely, which is often increased, is hidden.)
