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Something about online sex work you might not be aware of: one of the reasons OnlyFans is *so* overwhelmingly popular is that they "only" take 20% of your earnings. A clip site like ManyVids takes 40%. When I sell a video for $20 on ManyVids, I get $12 before taxes.
It's a huge gouge and as a freelance creator you have to put up with it, because, haha, what else are you going to do? PayPal (and other commonly used payment processors) will shut down your account and steal your money if you try to sell your content directly.
What about setting up your own website? Well, because of anti-sex work laws like FOSTA/SESTA, credit card companies don't want to touch your dirty slut money. If you want to sell adult products legally, you're using a "high risk" payment processor, which is WAY more expensive.
You're stuck with three options: accept the gouge and let exploitative sites get rich off of your content, risk using PayPal or something similar until you're inevitably banned, or go through the complicated and awful process of setting up your own high risk payment processor.
Other "high risk" industries include online gambling and firearms sales. "High risk" payment processors are not set up for dealing with individual sex workers - they exist to interact with huge and lucrative businesses.
Sites like ManyVids try to foster a pro-worker image by having monthly giveaways to their highest earners. But of course they can afford to! What's a $500 a month giveaway to a company that's taking 40% of every sale from every sex worker using their site?
BY COMPARISON, Patreon takes 12% of their creators' earnings maximum, and that's at the "Patreon Premium" level which comes with all kinds of additional perks and support. Sex workers are at an *enormous* disadvantage.
And keep in mind, all of this is before taxes. Earning $30k from OnlyFans sales means that, after OnlyFans takes their 20% cut, you have $24k. After that, assuming you're based in the United States, you're filing a 1099 form as a freelancer. It adds up!
This isn't even mentioning the difficulties of advertising your content in a social media landscape that's increasingly hostile to sex workers. Good luck promoting your onlyfans on instagram or facebook. Tumblr banned "adult" content years ago. Twitter is unreliable at best.
Online sex work is difficult and workers are penalized every step of the way, both financially and socially. On top of these obstacles, the most popular adult sites are buggy, inconsistent, and hard to learn. But what are you going to do? There is literally nowhere else to go.
