How to Sell Adult Videos: Are You Making These 7 Common Mistakes?

A lot of new creators fail quickly because they don’t appreciate the amount of time and effort selling adult content online can take.

The difference between making $20 a month and $20,000 a month is the time you spend on your new business. Because that’s what this will be, a business.

Creators who think they can post a handful of low-quality photos and get rich overnight are kidding themselves.

The truth is that to make good money from your content, you need to work hard and put the hours in but the rewards can be life-changing!

There are lots of sides to this that we will cover in the rest of this article, but just know that you will need to be willing to put in at least a few hours every day, to build your content and your fan base. Those who don’t wonder why nobody is subscribing to them will never compare to those who spend the time to create engaging content and show potential customers that what they have to offer is worth the subscription cost.

You would not believe how many new adult content creators go to the effort of making a new account on a professional adult content platform, completing the verification process and telling all their social media followers that they are going to start selling homemade port, only never to actually post anything for sale.

They think that because their account is brand new and doesn’t have any subscribers yet, they would be wasting their time posting anything at this stage. The thing is, potential subscribers can normally see how much content is on a profile before they subscribe, so why would they pay to see zero content?

It’s like if you walked into a store and asked the cashier why all the shelves were empty, only to be told that they were waiting to have a few more customers come in and look around before they brought the stock out from the back. You would laugh (or swear) and walk out. And it is the same with potential customers of your adult content sites.

When you’re starting out on a new platform, the most important thing to do is build your content as quickly as you can.

The creators who sell the most content are those with the most content.

Failing to plan is the same as planning to fail.

Lots of new content creators will simply take a few uninspired topless and nude photos of themselves and wonder why they aren’t getting the sales they thought they would. The answer is that, no matter how perfectly formed the creator is, if they aren’t offering anything different from the thousands and thousands of other mediocre wanna-be porn stars out there, then they won’t attract subscribers.

To make the most money possible, you need to spend some time thinking about what kind of content you want to make, what you would enjoy creating and how that can make you stand out from the competition.

Take some time to do some research into what kind of content sells best. Categories such as role-play, JOI (jerk-off instructions), taboo, kink and BDSM are consistently high-return styles of content that can help you build a dedicated following and fan base who will become repeat buyers.

Spend a few hours a week dedicated to making new material to sell and keep trying new things. Ask for feedback from your fans and pay attention to what posts get the most attention and interaction, not just sales and tips so that you can always have a lot of video and photo set concepts that you can work on next.

OK, so you’ve posted some popular content on your selling site, you’ve made a few sales or got a handful of subscribers and things are looking like they are going to take off. You’re going to be rich! You’ll be able to get a big apartment, travel the world, buy a cool car and fill your wardrobe with beautiful clothes.

But then your subscribers all leave and sales dry up… Why?

More than one creator has asked us this same question and the answer is always the same. What did you do to keep your customers coming back? What did new potential customers see when they looked at when you last posted? Were you adding new content for people to buy? Showing that you were a serious creator they should follow? Encouraging them to buy more and more from you?

By posting regularly, you can build a community around your content. Your fans will come to expect new posts and stay subscribed month after month to see what you post next.

You don’t need to post something every day (although as strategies go, posting every day is definitely a good one), but make sure you are posting a few times a week at least.

While that can seem like a lot of work, most sites will let you upload a bunch of content in one go and schedule it to go live over a few weeks, so you can set everything up in advance and relax in the knowledge that your posts will automatically go out to your subscribers over the next month. (You still want to check in on your accounts most days of course, but we will cover that in more detail below)

When you have a lot of content going out regularly, you can also more easily gauge what kind of content is most profitable or identify certain subscribers who always send tips or pay extra for your best posts and offer them content they will love.

By constantly posting content, you will soon see your earnings skyrocket and go to the next level.

Some sites do a better job of promoting creators on their homepage or social feeds than others, but some do nothing at all, such as Onlyfans, which has no way for buyers to even search for creators other than typing their user name into a search field.

So it’s vital that sellers promote themselves as much and as widely as possible. We offer free promotion for adult content creators here on this site, but you don’t want to stop there (no matter how fantastic our promotion may be). Creators can build a huge following on social platforms such as TikTok, SnapChat, Instagram, Reddit and more.

By posting teaser content on your social feeds (being careful to obey all terms and conditions relating to adult content) you can market your selling accounts every day to an audience in the thousands. 

Whenever you are making content to sell, make sure you always get a few tamer shows or clips that you can post to your social accounts to show followers what they’re missing out on by not subscribing or buying your content. Let them know when you have new videos on sale, ask what they would like to see in your next photoset, offer discounts and sales and convert free followers into paying fans.

You can also look at collaborating with other creators and making content together to draw in subscribers from each other’s fan base, or just cross-promote each other on your social accounts.

Always be ready to promote yourself, and take every opportunity to convert someone into a subscriber!

It can be very tempting to constantly focus on pushing for more subscribers and wanting to gain new followers. After all, when the numbers go up, we know we are doing something right.

But it’s often said that it takes a lot more work to get a new customer than to simply keep hold of an existing one and that building customer loyalty can give you a huge boost to your overall earnings!

Keeping your existing customers happy and wanting more will do more for your long-term success than always focusing on getting new subscribers.

Knowing that you have a hardcore fanbase who will stick with you through thick or thin because they feel a connection to you and your content will see you past almost any challenge.

Not only that, but you can rely on these fans to engage with your content, answer your questions or polls about what content they want to see and then buy it when you post the content they voted for. (tip: post both options, that way you make sure you have content that anyone who voted is always waiting to see)

To build this kind of loyalty, you will need to answer comments, reach out and thank customers for their support and show them that they are valued members of your community. When your fans see that you care about them and that their continued loyalty and support means so much to you, they will feel a loyalty to you and your content that will keep them subscribing, buying and tipping forever.

Setting up an account to sell homemade adult content can be hard work (see point 1 above). So a lot of creators stay with the first platform they joined forever (normally OnlyFans).

The trouble is, there are a lot of risks in that, more than you might think.

Those who have been in the industry for a few years may remember the time when OnlyFans decided it was going to stop allowing any nude content on their site and tried to go SFW, abandoning the millions of creators who worked hard to build a following on their site and who in turn made OnlyFans the success it is today. Overnight the powers that be at OnlyFans almost ended millions of businesses with no warning.

Luckily the decision was reversed shortly afterwards after worldwide outrage that the biggest platform could do this to its users. And almost all OnlyFans creators made it clear they would be closing their accounts.

But while luckily OnlyFans came to their senses, we have seen multiple other sites be taken offline such as IsMyGirl, Inked Girls and IsMyGuy. Or sites like iFans which after they were sold to new owners, payouts to creators stopped, leaving them no way of getting their earnings, which the new owners seem to be intent on keeping while also refusing to respond to support requests.

Even in an ideal world where all sites can be trusted to stay online and not betray their users, different customers shop on different sites. Some like one, while others prefer to spend money on another.

Some will only use a dedicated website site such as Chaturbate or StripChat, others get their thrills from buying pre-worn intimate clothing (used panties) from sites like Sofia Gray, and others don’t trust the big sites like OnlyFans and prefer to sell on more community-driven sites like AdmireMe or My Club.

It is important therefore to make sure you are selling on as many sites as possible to give as many customers as possible the chance to buy your content.

Not only that however, but creators who sell on a multitude of sites can cross-promote their other platforms. For example, webcam models streaming on Chaturbate or StripChat can encourage their viewers to follow their social accounts to keep updated on your newest content and discounts. Or subscription sites can be advertised on stream so you can turn a one-time viewer into a monthly subscriber.

Or someone buying a pair of used socks from Sofia Gray could be offered a 50% discount on their first month’s subscription to your fan site.

Cross-promotion like this means you can profit more than once from the same buyer and should never be overlooked.