YOU set your own hours, work from home and can earn big money.
With a job description like that, it’s no wonder OnlyFans is pulling in users.
Olivia WestOnlyFans has paid out around £4billion in creator earnings since it started in 2016 – pictured Sun Sexpert Georgette Culley[/caption] Georgette said: ‘I didn’t feel empowered, a phrase many of the celebs with profiles trot out — I felt desperate’
Love Island’s Megan Barton-Hanson claims to be earning £800k a month, adding that the work makes her feel “sassy and glamorous”.
Yet critics say there is a decidedly unglamorous side to the sex-soaked site which has become synonymous with porn pictures and videos.
There was only one way to see what it’s really like — sign up.
Would I make £1million as Kerry Katona says she has?
It is claims like this that have taken the site from 7.5million users in 2019 to more than 180million today, with two million content creators.
OnlyFans has paid out around £4billion in creator earnings since it started in 2016, yet the average content creator is said to make around £133 a month.
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Setting up my Bored Housewife profile was surprisingly harder than I thought.
After a BBC investigation last year revealed underage girls were bypassing the verification process, it appears the site has tightened up its checks.
After several attempts to prove my ID and age, my account was finally verified.
The hard bit was over, or so I thought . . .
I took some sexy snaps in my best green lingerie, uploaded them and waited for the fans, and money, to start rolling in.
I set my profile to “free” because I had been told “nobody will pay a non-celeb without seeing a taster first”.
This meant fans could see my content without paying and interact with me. I cringed as I uploaded the first picture.
As The Sun’s Sexpert I’m no prude, but it felt strange uploading a personal picture to the web in the hope strangers would like it.
In that moment, I didn’t feel empowered, a phrase many of the celebs with profiles trot out — I felt desperate.
I waited for the likes and comments to roll in like they do on Instagram when you post a nice pic — but was met by silence.
Minutes rolled into hours and still no DMs, no big offers of money, nothing. My pics weren’t even getting likes.
Georgette Culley
Suddenly I felt self-conscious. Negative thoughts started to consume me.
Maybe my pic wasn’t sexy enough? Maybe I needed to post racier stuff? Maybe, at 35, I was over the hill?
I refreshed my account to make sure there wasn’t a technical glitch, but still no fans.
Confused, I messaged people I knew with profiles but they had similar stories.
I logged back into my profile on day three and saw fans had started to trickle in.
I now had a whopping four, and that’s only because my friend with a big Instagram following pointed them my way.
I uploaded another snap of me flashing my pink underwear and captioned it: “Thanks for the follow guys, who likes my new bra?”
Again I cringed as I pressed post.
Minutes rolled into hours and still no DMs, no big offers of money, nothing. My pics weren’t even getting likes.
My ego was a bit bruised but I was comforted by the news that Katie Price had just slashed the price of her OF subscription from £11 a month to £5.50, weeks after launching her page. It appeared she was struggling to get fans, too.
I set up a profile on Reddit, and joined the most followed and popular of all the OnlyFans promotional sites.
There were thousands of women like me asking how to get their profile noticed, get fans and make money.
Revenge porn, harassment and stalking are real problems with OF, and if you find yourself on the receiving end, you’re by yourself.
Georgette Culley
It is good that users have a community they can confide in, and get useful advice, but I had to be careful not to use my real name in case I attracted stalkers.
I found the whole process exhausting.
With a full-time job and a two-year-old, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to try to build a fanbase.
Mum-of-one Myaa-May Thompson, 27, from Leicester, told me she was making little money until she was seduced into doing more and more explicit acts.
She added: “After I did it, I burst into tears. I felt dirty and it was degrading but I was making up to £3k a month and liked the money.
“But I knew I’d crossed a line and was terrified in case someone had sneakily recorded it and it would end up as revenge porn on another site. I’d heard that happening to other girls.”
It seems celebs are not immune either.
Having at first claimed her OnlyFans would be “a place for me to share my world and my adventures with my closest supporters in my own authentic voice”, Katie Price has since promised to “get naked”.
Responding to claims that her posts were too tame, she announced: “This has been the warm-up. Now get ready for me to level up! You know what that’s about.”
That wasn’t for me, which is probably why, after ten days, I had eight fans and hadn’t made a dime.
My friend Emmerald Barwise, a glamour model and influencer from Manchester, told me: “What you have to remember is that your fans are following thousands of girls who are constantly uploading x-rated content and offering them explicit bundles for tuppence.”
It was true, one girl I follow keeps offering a bundle of hardcore porn she claims is worth more than £300 for as little as £18 if you pay her a monthly subscription fee.
Sex work is a legitimate job — and a hard one at that — which deserves respect.
Georgette Culley
After OF commission, that will leave her with less than £15.
While the messages are too graphic for The Sun, it is depressing how little she is selling this stuff for.
I have no issue with consenting adults who put up graphic content to make money.
Sex work is a legitimate job — and a hard one at that — which deserves respect.
I fully support women — and men — doing what they wish with their bodies.
But I do take umbrage with the celebrities with millions of young, naive followers glamorising an industry which is largely unregulated and darker than they like to make out.
Revenge porn, harassment and stalking are real problems with OF, and if you find yourself on the receiving end, you’re by yourself.
There is no HR department or boss to complain to.
All OF will do is block the abuser — but that doesn’t stop them tracking you down.
Young women see celebrities flaunting their wealth made from OF on social media and are seduced by the supposed glamour of it.
The celebs make it look so easy — but it is anything but.
I tried the site for an investigation.
I could log out at any time and leave that seedy world behind me. But not every woman has that luxury.
It is possible to succeed on OF, of course, but don’t expect it to happen overnight unless you find a new way to stand out . . . which will probably involve you selling your soul.
Last night OnlyFans said it took reports of harassment “extremely seriously” and added: “Any attempt to characterise OnlyFans as a ‘get rich quick scheme’ disrespects the effort and dedication of our creators.”
‘Celebs on the site make me angry’
MYAA-MAY THOMPSON, 28, from Leicester, a mum of two, now only sells pictures of her feet after being seduced by money in the past.
She says: “I also work to get by.
ONLYFANS/MYAA-MAY THOMPSONMum of two Myaa-May Thompson now only sells pictures of her feet after being seduced by money in the past[/caption]
“It makes me angry when I hear celebrities bragging about making loads of money, it’s their star status which helps them do that for ‘normal’ women it’s not as easy and we learn the hard way.”
‘Hard to get fans and make money’
EMMERALD BARWISE, 31, a model and influencer, from Manchester, says: “It’s really hard to get fans and make money.
“I’ve got 50k followers on instagram and 50 fans on OF, which I don’t use any more.
Creative InstinctsEmmerald Barwise says: ‘It’s really hard to get fans and make money’[/caption]
“I was putting up full-frontal nudes and sexy shower videos and making £50 quid a month if I was lucky.
“I was getting odd requests which made me uncomfortable.”
‘I’d earn more at McDonald’s’
MARIA ASHLEY, 24, from Swindon, says: “I’d make more money in McDonald’s.
“I thought I’d just have to upload a few racy pictures and the money would fly in.
SuppliedMaria Ashley says: ‘I’d make more money in McDonald’s’[/caption]
“But I was spending up to five hours a day filming content and responding to fans.
“It was exhausting and I was working for free for months to try to entice fans.
“I couldn’t afford to live on the £1k a month I was making.”
Georgette said: ‘As The Sun’s Sexpert I’m no prude, but it felt strange uploading a personal picture to the web in the hope strangers would like it’ Georgette added: ‘Setting up my Bored Housewife profile was surprisingly harder than I thought’ InstagramMegan Barton-Hanson claims to be earning £800k a month adding that the work makes her feel ‘sassy and glamorous’[/caption] Katie Price InstagramKatie Price struggled to get fans and slashed the price of her OF subscription from £11 a month to £5.50, weeks after launching her page[/caption]