As I leave the house for a walk with my dog on a murky Tuesday morning, I am accosted by a neighbor who happily shouts from the street: “I heard you have OnlyFans now!” I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made some terrible mistake.
OnlyFans has – how should I put it – a reputation. Like many online platforms, it matches content creators with their audiences. But OnlyFans is known primarily for one type of content: sex.
When friends and acquaintances hear that I, a 43-year-old father of two, have set up an OnlyFans account, they are intrigued. When I explain that I only post non-sexual and very safe and sound work content, the next question is, “Why?” In their minds, it’s clear that “having an OnlyFans” means doing sexy things on the Internet for money.
OnlyFans, a British band that it earned $658 million in pre-tax profits last year, I want to shake up that image. For every college student raising money by sharing nudes, there’s a robust housewife sending home improvement tips or an emerging musician posting their latest songs, at least if you look at the accounts highlighted on company blog.
“Everybody’s dancing on the rest of social media where they’re like, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t show people your penis on here and you shouldn’t say crazy, wild shit,’” John Hastings, 39, a Canadian comedian, tells me over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. However, on OnlyFans he still has people sliding into his DMs just to say “I want to see your feet, I’m not here for fun.”
Like all the safe and sound working creators I talk to, Hastings has a presence on multiple social networks, from Instagram to X to YouTube. The audience on OnlyFans will usually be smaller than on other sites, but followers are often more engaged and – importantly – need to have a bank account linked to their profile, ready to open with rewards.
“It’s definitely a different world compared to the people who are on my other social media platforms,” says Dudley Alexander, an R&B artist who releases music under the moniker Never mind.
Alexander, 33, joined OnlyFans in 2019, before the site’s profile skyrocketed when the Covid-19 pandemic caused many activities that previously took place IRL to move online. As such, he has pioneered the work-safe OnlyFans scene and has amassed over 67,000 likes on his page. (OnlyFans only publicly displays a user’s number of likes; the number of followers, which is usually higher, is hidden.)