I make $100,000-a-month on OnlyFans, here’s why I warn other women against joining

Elia has revealed many of the realities that women will face if they perform on the site (Picture: Elia Hills)

An OnlyFans (OF) model has revealed why she’d ‘never encourage’ another woman to join the platform.

Elia Hills has performed on the subscription website for the past year and says it accounts for the vast majority of her $100,000 (£75,000) monthly salary.

The 19-year-old, from Oklahoma, explained that despite it changing her life, she believes ‘glamourising’ OF to young women is ‘wrong’ because, for some, joining would be the ‘worst’ decision of their lives.

She said: ‘I would never go to another woman and encourage or promote OF to them.

‘I think it’s a really hard decision that a woman has to make on her own. It could be really detrimental to her but it could also be really good.

‘It depends on who she is and whether she has a plan and is willing to stick to it.

Elia says that, for some women, joining the site would be the ‘worst’ decision of their lives (Picture: Elia Hills)

‘She is the only one who knows herself 110% and will truly know if she can make a success of it and deal with the workload, trolling and stigma.

‘I can’t know that, which is why I’d never encourage another woman to do it.

‘Instead, any woman thinking about OF should know the facts about what it entails so they can make an informed decision.’

So, what are the main challenges she has faced?

Working 100-hour weeks

Elia explained that to turn an OF account into a money-making operation, models will have to sometimes work up to 100-hours-a-week. (Picture: Elia Hills)

‘OF models have to work really long hours,’ Elia explained. ‘They’ve also got to look the part, talk the part and act the part, with minimal support.

‘Subscribers are creatures of habit and if you’re constantly offline and unresponsive they’ll go elsewhere.

‘So if you’re not online all the time and don’t respond at the drop of a hat, many will go to someone that does.

‘This is exhausting, especially if you’re juggling a full-time job, a family and other life commitments, but it is the reality of being an OF model.

‘Realistically, you’ve got to spend 40 hours a week on the site and probably another 20 making content for your other socials.

‘You might have a full or part-time job on top of that which puts it at around 100-hour weeks.

‘It’s not possible to work at this level for very long so you have to hope you can stomach it and it takes off before you’re burnt out.’

Learning technical skills quickly without help

Elia claims that in order to be a success on the site, models have to make a huge commitment and be prepared to deal with backlash and stigma (Picture: Elia Hills)

Without the money to hire editors, videographers or SEO specialists, Elia said most models, herself included, had to learn everything themselves while also trying to build an audience and often holding down a job.

As well as the OF content, some models make humorous or provocative videos that are shared across other platforms in the hope of going viral and leading to more people being drawn to their OF page.

‘These take hours to go from an idea to a 10-second post and often fail to go viral,’ she said.

‘To make them, you effectively have to become a scriptwriter, a director, a videographer, an editor, and a presenter and you’re completely on your own.

‘It’s also worth remembering how many views you need to make it worthwhile.

‘At the start I was so happy when a video got 1,000 views. Then you realise that if you want to make a living from it you need your videos to consistently get hundreds of thousands of views.

‘I genuinely enjoy making content and talking to people about topics like LGBTQ+ rights and women’s careers, which made it easier, but there was no guarantee any of it would have paid off.

‘Videos often take a long time to produce so when you create something that no one watches, it’s really disheartening.’

Being shunned by friends and family

There is still significant stigma about performing on the site, Elia said (Picture: Getty Images)

‘Going on OF didn’t ruin any of my friendships or relationships with family. If anything it showed me who genuinely cared about me,’ she said.

‘But I know that isn’t everyone’s experience. Some people lose relationships with parents, siblings or close friends.

‘I know of some women who have lost husbands over it. Going forward, not everyone will be willing to date, marry or have children with an OF model.

‘If you’re a private person who keeps people at arm’s length, they’re going to see and know a lot about you. You’re never going to have the same level of privacy.

‘For mums, there is also the possibility of children being bullied if images or videos are shared in their community or school.

‘People might not let your kids play with their kids, exclude you from clubs or groups or assume untrue things about you.

‘And once you’ve done OF there isn’t any going back. Even if it’s only for a really short period, the label sticks and is hard to shake.’

Receiving horrific abuse online

Trolling and online abuse are part-and-parcel of the role, Elia said (Picture: Elia Hills)

‘Once the money starts coming in, so does the attention, and not all of it is positive,’ Elia said.

‘People want to find out everything about you and if they can’t, they’ll often just make things up in horrible comments.

‘I read them and they don’t really affect me, but I know that’s not true for everyone.

‘You have to remember you’re a performer and some people won’t like you. If someone makes threats or does something illegal, you should report it immediately.

‘But there isn’t much you can do about most trolling apart from ignoring it. If you can’t do that, you should ask yourself “is this for me?”’

Have a long-term plan

Elia said that having a plan of what you want to achieve from the site in the long-run is essential (Picture: Getty Images)

‘I went into OF because I wanted it to pay for my college tuition,’ Elia said.

‘That goal has since changed but it gave me a figure I wanted to earn and the motivation to keep chasing it when things got tough.

‘That’s why, if you’ve decided to do it, I’d write down what you want to achieve from it then work out how much you need to earn to make it worthwhile.

‘I’d also start planning what you’ll do with the money if you make it. It’s easy to waste it or assume you’ll earn the same amount for the rest of your life.

‘That’s unlikely to be true so I would look into saving as much of it as you can so it can help you realise your overall plan.’

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