How to Make Money on OnlyFans: step-by-step guide

OnlyFans creators can make tens of thousands of dollars a month. But you won’t get there by doing things randomly. In this article, we’ll break down a step-by-step plan for earning on the platform — from choosing a strategy to the small details that can seriously boost your income.

How much creators earn on OnlyFans — and why it varies

Earnings on OnlyFans depend on your marketing approach, how engaged your audience is, how consistent you are, and how long you’ve been active on the platform. All of this adds up to your final income:

• Beginners usually make around $350–$3,000 per month. They often start with a low subscription price to build an audience, then gradually raise their rates.
• Experienced creators earn $3,000–$30,000 per month. At this stage, many bring in a promo team, content specialists, and managers.
• Top creators can make millions. For example, Amouranth earns about $850,000 a month, and Sophie Rain was making around $4,000,000 per month last year.

OnlyFans takes 20% of a creator’s earnings, and the model keeps the remaining 80%. All the income figures we mentioned are after platform fees.

The three main ways to make money on OnlyFans
Subscription	Pay-Per-View	Tips
Users pay to follow an account. The creator sets the subscription price — up to $50 per month.	Creators can charge for individual pieces of content. If the account has no paid subscription, PPV prices can be set directly on feed posts.	Fans can send tips under posts, in private messages, or via a special button on the creator’s profile.
3% of total sales	<1% of total sales	26,3% of total sales

That said, around 69,74% of all revenue comes from private chats. This is the main monetization channel and by far the most profitable one. Other methods bring in much less money and are harder to scale — they require constant attention and a lot of time and effort.

If you want to make serious money on OnlyFans, you need to focus on the sales process, especially in private messages. That’s where the real earning potential is.

Step 1. Get in the right mindset for OnlyFans

If you’ve already tried OnlyFans but didn’t see real results — or if you want to increase your income — start by checking whether you’re actually set up for consistent work. OnlyFans isn’t something you can easily combine with a full-time job, so go through this checklist and be honest with yourself:

Set realistic expectations. Working on OnlyFans takes around 6–8 hours a day on average, and in the early stages it can easily stretch to 10–12 hours. You also shouldn’t expect big money in the first few months — you need time to find your audience and bring them into your account.

1–2 months	3–6 months	6–12 months
first money starts coming in	a few hundred dollars per month	$1,000+ per month

Before you start, be clear about what you want to get from this work — just like when launching a business or a new project. Map things out: how many hours you’ll work, what tasks you’ll handle and when, and what income goals you want to reach over time. Make sure those goals are realistic — setting the bar too high is the fastest way to lose motivation and quit. These questions can help:

• How many hours a day and days a week can I realistically commit on a consistent basis?
• What income would feel “good enough” after 1, 3, and 6 months — and what would I personally see as failure vs. success?
• Do I already have an audience, or will I need to build one from scratch?
• How much time am I willing to spend chatting with subscribers every day — and am I actually comfortable with that?
• How much content can I produce regularly without burning out?
• How long am I willing to keep working without seeing noticeable results?

Once you answer these honestly, you’ll be able to set realistic expectations. And if those expectations feel acceptable to you, you’ll be far less likely to lose motivation right at the start.

Get the basic gear you’ll need for the job. For photos and videos, you’ll need some props — they make your content more engaging and appealing to subscribers. A solid starter kit looks like this:

• a rubber dildo;
• a ring light or tripod;
• two lingerie sets;
• lounge lingerie (a robe or pajamas);
• casual outfits (for example, a top and short shorts).

Starter kit for working on OnlyFans. Keep in mind that even homewear should look sexy — go for short or tight-fitting shorts rather than oversized clothes.

To produce high-quality content, you’ll also need a smartphone with a good camera, a streaming webcam, or a professional camera. Ideally, you should have two devices: one for live streams and another for shooting photos and videos.

Build up a content reserve in advance. You should have a batch of posts planned for the long term, plus separate content ready for private chats. This way, you can keep posting consistently even if something unexpected comes up. And in DMs, you’ll always have ready-made pieces you can monetize. We recommend starting with the following content pack:

• Intro content: a striptease video and promo photos for first contact
• 30 photos in different locations, poses, and levels of explicitness
• 4 short videos (1–2 minutes each)
• 2 sexting sets: a sexy clothed photo, step-by-step undressing photos and videos, a masturbation video, an orgasm clip, and a short “thank you” video for the fan
• 3 longer videos (5–7 minutes each)
• 30 casual lifestyle photos and videos for Stories
• 22 short-form videos in an adult TikTok-style format

For smoother day-to-day work, organize your photos and videos in advance. Sort everything into folders and upload it to cloud storage — this way, you’ll be able to publish content and send files in private chats quickly and without hassle.

Make your account visually appealing. It’s your first point of contact — the place where you hook a potential subscriber and turn their interest into future income. A few practical tips:

• Use a bright profile photo with your face facing the camera. Your face should be clearly visible — these photos convert much better than dark shots or profiles without a face.

• Put a body-focused image on the cover photo. This helps spark curiosity and encourages visitors to explore your page further.

Examples of well-designed OnlyFans profiles: a clear, well-lit face photo for the avatar, and a body-focused image for the cover.

• Write a strong bio. Briefly introduce yourself and describe the type of content you create. Then list what subscribers can expect to see — and обязательно add one or more calls to action, like subscribing or messaging you directly.

Turn rebill ON 😘 for freebies + nudes in your inbox 😍💦Hello)) I’m Yana, 20 y.o. I’m top-blogger( Inst- 34K; TikTok- 1,2M) and top- 0.% creator inOnlyfans- subscribe to find out why🥰 I’m perfect for you if you like 7,5, cute and petit babyface girls🤤I love to talk and create interesting stories in your DM😈Also i create a hot content every day🔞The best CUSTOM content for you- price on DMHere:Non-censored 🔞Exclusive every-day pictures / vids of me 🔥1-1 messaging 🥰DM surprises 😘Tips are rewarded🤓& much more 😈I answer EVERY SINGLE DM! Enjoy!If you want something custom- let me know

• Set up a campaign. In this section, you can run a fundraiser for a personal goal or promote a content bundle — it’s an extra touchpoint that encourages users to tip.

Some creators use wishlists and publish them as campaigns. This creates a kind of “choice without a choice”: the fan is donating anyway, but it feels better knowing exactly what their money is going toward.

Once all the prep work is done, it’s time to focus on sales. Subscriptions, PPV posts, and tips can generate some almost passive income — but it will be limited. The real effort and real money should go into private chats. That’s where most of the revenue is made.

Step 2. Build a story around your account

Every potential customer goes through three key stages. If you want them to pay — and keep tipping regularly — you need to guide them through each one:

1. Attraction — this is when they first discover you. Your content needs to grab their attention and make them click through to your profile. This stage is driven by marketing and promotion outside of OnlyFans.
2. Engagement — this is when the user starts learning more about you and getting interested. Here, it’s important to reveal parts of your personality, not just your body. Emotional connection is what keeps their attention — and sets the stage for monetization.
3. Sales — at this point, the user is already invested in you and your persona, and is ready to pay for content — either one-off purchases or ongoing spending.

We’ll focus on two stages: engagement and sales, because they’re closely connected. It’s important to understand that people buy on OnlyFans only when three factors come together at the same time:

They’ve noticed you — through ads, promotion, or some kind of buzz.

They trust you and feel connected — this happens when you share similar values, preferences, or personality traits, and the person feels comfortable with you.

They’re horny — this is the result of a well-structured sales and communication strategy.

To build trust with a potential buyer, you need to tell a story. Write posts that gradually раскрывают you — or the persona you’re playing — so the reader wants to learn more. These posts should be pinned to your profile. Here are a few tips for writing them:

1. Keep the story short. It should be easy to skim without deep focus or effort.
2. Add emotional tension. Create intrigue so the reader wants to know what happens next and is eager to move on to the following post.
3. Have a clear main character. This can be you or a character you’re presenting. The key is that they feel real and easy to imagine.
4. Avoid unnecessary details and keep it structured. Start with how it all began, move through the key events, and finish with a climax and takeaway.

Example post to reveal personality — about how the model started taking photos of herself

In your story posts, make sure to show your personal perspective. Write about how you felt in those moments, what you were thinking, and how the situation affected you. If you’re not writing about yourself and are creating a fully fictional persona for the account, keep a consistent storyline so the character feels natural and believable.

It’s best to write around 25–30 personal story posts and pin five of them. Here are some topics that usually get strong engagement:

A post about your dream	A post about trying a new pose while filming a custom
A post about a dream that didn’t come true	A post about buying a new vibrator
A post about the most unusual sex you’ve had	A post about your relationship experience
A post about your first sex	A post about how you feel about gifts
A post about what makes you special	An opinion post about sex without commitment

When your profile has enough engaging content, it becomes much easier to monetize your account. At that point, you can focus fully on sales.

To make content creation easier, you can use AI tools — for example, ChatGPT.

Step 3. Get ready for sales in private messages

For people to buy your content, it’s important not to sell it directly, but to build virtual relationships instead. In DMs, you should keep the conversation light, flirty, and create the feeling that you’re their girl.

Over time, these virtual relationships will allow you not only to sell content, but also to ask for money for things like a new dress — or even just for everyday expenses. In general, communication should follow this structure:

1. Get to know the subscriber better.
2. Gently offer inexpensive content as a first try.
3. Sell more premium private content.

After repeating this process regularly, the subscriber will start to trust you. At that point, they’ll pay for content consistently — and you won’t need to put in much effort to receive tips and payments from them.

First, set up a welcome message. It should greet a new subscriber and spark their interest. You can do this by sending a free photo or a short video.

It’s best to include a question or a call to action in the welcome message — this makes it easier to start a conversation.

Right after that, move on to getting to know the subscriber. Try to learn more about them. You can hook them with a light joke about their name — for example: “Aaron, is that your superhero name? Tell me your real one” — or start a conversation around their hobbies or interests.

You can open the dialogue with light flirting or a question that invites a response. Sometimes, simply asking “How’s your day going?” is more than enough to get things started.

Conduct a detailed profile questionnaire. This will help you sell to the subscriber later. Find out their name, where they’re from, how old they are, what they’re into, and what they do for a living. After a few minutes of active chatting, ask for a photo — and make sure to react positively to it.

It’s important to give plenty of compliments during the process. This makes the subscriber feel valued, more open to communication, and eventually more willing to buy.

Don’t just ask questions — share things about yourself too. The conversation should feel natural, and the subscriber should gradually become emotionally attached to you. A few useful tricks:

• Tell life stories that relate to the subscriber’s interests. For example, if they’re into fishing, you can talk about how you went fishing with your dad as a kid — even if it’s not true.
• Send “real-life” photos, like “I got so caught up talking to you that I spilled my coffee.” These photos can be prepared in advance for different situations, but they create the feeling of live, personal communication.
• Constantly show surprise and admiration for the subscriber’s hobbies and achievements — this helps them feel important and special.

Over time, the dynamic will change as emotional attachment forms. Signs of this include frequent messages, lots of emojis, and longer replies. After a few days of this kind of interaction, you can try introducing sexting.

Step 4. Run sexting sessions

Sexting is erotic chatting where you turn the subscriber on and offer private content. During this kind of interaction, it’s realistic to close up to 10 sales worth $100–500. And you don’t even need to create fully custom content for it. Here’s the general flow:

Ease into sexting. Do it naturally — through a game, playful flirting, or dirty jokes during the conversation. You can use an arousing scenario, for example: telling a story about cleaning your place, sending a photo in a maid outfit, and then fantasizing about how you’d “take care” of the subscriber.

The most important thing is that the transition feels organic. The other person shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to squeeze money out of them. To make it work, it’s best to follow a few rules:

Don’t sell directly — focus on stimulating the subscriber’s fantasies instead.

Between sales, send plenty of emotional messages to keep the mood and excitement high.

Increase prices gradually: $7 → $12 → $15 → $20. Sharp price jumps can push people away.

Share some content for free: prepare photos and videos in advance that you’ll send during the chat.

Develop the subscriber’s fantasies. Pull them deeper into the process so their arousal keeps growing — this increases their motivation to buy. A simple flow can look like this:

• Start the conversation and send a couple of warm-up photos. Send them for free — if you don’t chase immediate profit and focus on turning the person on, you’ll end up making much more overall.

• Talk about how you’re getting turned on and draw out an emotional response — then send the first PPV for a small tip. For example, a clip where you start taking your clothes off. You can start at $8–15 — it’s an easy amount to spend, and it helps warm the subscriber up.

Lead the subscriber toward a purchase gradually — first show yourself in lingerie and support it with dirty, teasing messages, then send the PPV

• Describe how you’re feeling in a few sentences so the subscriber feels desired. Hint that you’re still wearing lingerie. Lead them to ask you to take it off — then send a PPV with you removing it.
• Once again, talk about how turned on you are. Tease them by describing how badly you’d like to be with them. Ask how they’re feeling too, and ask for an intimate photo. Praise them as much as possible and describe what you’d like to do to them.
• Keep supporting and developing their fantasies: describe scenarios — how, where, and in which positions you’d like to have sex with them. Every 10–20 messages, back it up with a PPV video.

• Keep an eye on the level of excitement. On average, within a single chat you can sell several teasing intimate videos, masturbation clips, and a finishing video.
• At the end, make sure to praise the subscriber for giving you such an experience.

1. Start the conversation and intrigue the subscriber.

2. Turn them on and guide them toward the first purchase.

3. Tease them and develop their fantasies.

4. Sell a masturbation video.

5. Sell a finishing video.

At the end of a sexting session, keep the subscriber’s emotions going. Praise them and thank them for the unforgettable experience. Make sure to give plenty of compliments and switch to light, casual topics. The key is to keep the conversation alive so the subscriber doesn’t feel like you were only interested in their money.

The next day, message them again and say thank you. This makes them feel important and increases the chances they’ll tip again.

To maximize profits, write out several sexting scenarios in advance and prepare photos and videos ahead of time. This way, you can handle multiple subscribers using the same structure. Once your subscriber base grows, you can hire a sexting assistant to help.

Step 5. Set up your marketing

Marketing for OnlyFans works in two directions: attraction and engagement. Through paid campaigns and external traffic sources, you bring new audiences to your page — and grow the number of subscribers you’ll be able to monetize later.

At the same time, acquiring new subscribers is much more expensive than retaining existing ones. That’s why it’s crucial to keep your current audience around for as long as possible. This means consistently posting new content and actively engaging in private messages.

Both tasks can be handled by a model promotion agency — such as OnlyGuider. We set up marketing with an average ROI of 324%, meaning you get $4 back for every $1 spent.

Contact OnlyGuider

Attraction. You can bring in new users from external sources — social platforms with recommendation algorithms or paid ads. First, it’s best to focus on a few key platforms:

• Reddit. Post photos and videos in NSFW threads and actively join existing discussions. To make sure the audience is as targeted as possible, find the right niche subreddits. For example: r/AltGirls, r/BigBoobs, r/SmallBoobs, r/Amateur, r/VerifiedModels.

You need to post often and at scale — around 5–10 posts per day to see results. Natural-looking photos and GIFs perform best. Light flirting works well too, for example posting a photo with a caption like “Which one suits me better?”

Make sure to carefully read subreddit rules. Many of them require verification through r/LetsVerify.

• X (Twitter). NSFW content is allowed on the platform, and you won’t run into issues as long as you mark your profile accordingly. Using the platform’s settings, you can link your X account to your OnlyFans and post teasers of your OF content.

In addition to OnlyFans announcements, you should post your own photos, videos, and GIFs — as well as short posts meant to spark discussion. Use NSFW-related hashtags to increase reach, and the platform will start recommending your profile to users with matching interests.

To get extra impact from X, create a pinned post with links to all of your platforms

• Vertical video: TikTok and Instagram Reels. Promotion on these platforms isn’t built around direct sexuality, but around intrigue. NSFW content is heavily restricted, so you need to rely on safer formats: seductive looks, Get Ready With Me videos, fitness content, and similar ideas.

The goal is to hook the viewer without showing explicit content. You can hint at sexuality — for example, working out and doing squats in front of the camera, or leaning forward in clothes with a deep neckline. What matters most is that the viewer eventually clicks through to your profile and follows the link to your OnlyFans.

To avoid breaking platform rules, more revealing content can be posted in natural contexts — for example, filming yourself at the beach, by a pool, or in a spa. Content like this usually can’t be reported and stays within the guidelines.

Engagement. The main rule is to always stay in touch with your subscribers. Post new content regularly and send broadcasts in DMs to your existing audience. Here’s what you should focus on:

• Share your life and your personality. Post about your daily routine and upload Stories. Subscribers will see you in their feed — and some of them will eventually move into private messages.

Share your emotions in posts. This doesn’t just remind people about your account — it also helps build emotional attachment.

• Send out broadcasts. Message subscribers you haven’t talked to in a while. Start conversations about movies, hobbies, free time — anything that can spark discussion and later lead to sexting.

You can open the dialogue with a light joke and then smoothly turn it into a conversation.

• Run promotions. Sell content bundles and launch campaigns. Sale announcements and special offers can be sent out via mass messages in DMs.

A broadcast message from Eva Elfie — it was automatically sent to subscribers before Christmas.

Step 6. Boost your monetization

You can earn more by focusing on exclusive work with your highest-paying fans. According to statistics, the top 100 biggest spenders on OnlyFans generate nearly 20% of total revenue. This rule applies to individual creators as well — big spenders can easily cover most of your income, so it’s worth working with these “whales” one-on-one:

Communicate warmly and personally. Talk to high-value donors in an engaged, intimate way — like someone close to you. Regularly ask about their life and share details of yours. It’s important for a strong emotional attachment to form — that’s what leads to large, recurring tips.

Create personalized content. Dive into your donor’s fetishes and carefully note everything they like. Over time, you’ll be able to offer truly exclusive content. For example, personalized signs or videos where you say their name during orgasm.

One of the options for exclusive content for a subscriber

Go live on video calls. Users are willing to pay a lot for personal, real-time interaction — you can hint at this option if a client asks. During these calls, you can simply chat, or — for an additional fee — act out your subscriber’s fantasies.

Keep in mind that OnlyFans rules don’t allow moving clients to external platforms. So talk about it indirectly: for example, shorten the platform name and just send your username — like “my Snap: nickname.”

With truly close interaction, a single high-value donor can bring in several thousand dollars per month. That’s why it’s important to identify subscribers with money early on and carefully collect information about them over time.

Mistakes to avoid

Ignoring private messages. Many beginners focus only on subscriptions and feed posts. As a result, they miss the main source of income — private chats. Without active communication, flirting, and gradual PPV sales, it’s almost impossible to reach high earnings.

Posting content randomly, without a story or persona. Uploading random photos and videos with no clear narrative lowers engagement. Subscribers pay not just for a body, but for emotions, personality, and a sense of closeness. Without a well-thought-out account story and personal posts, monetization becomes much harder.

Selling too aggressively and raising prices too fast. Direct “buy this video” offers without proper warm-up, as well as sharp price jumps, often scare subscribers away. Sales should be gradual: first trust and arousal, then a careful offer of paid content.

Don’t try to figure out hundreds of small details on your own — trust OnlyGuider. We’ll show you how to maximize income from your OnlyFans account, attract new subscribers, and set up sales so your profits stay stable and high.