How to grow an audience on Twitter and use it to make money on OnlyFans

For those who don’t know me, I’m a gay male from The Netherlands who creates porn on the internet. In the last two years I have gained over 85.000 fans on Twitter and over 400 paying fans on my OnlyFans page. In this post I share my knowledge on how to grow on Twitter and use that fan base to make money on OnlyFans.

This blog is divided in three parts: five tips on how to start & grow your Twitter fan base, five tips on how to start & grow your OnlyFans page, and five tips on how to use your Twitter to grow your OnlyFans.

How did I get started?

I’ve been posting adult videos and photos on the web for over 10 years, on websites such as XTube, xHamster, and Tumblr. About 2 years ago, after Tumblr purged adult content from their platform, I created an account on Twitter, which grew in popularity quickly. Upon the suggestion of a friend and armed with about 5000 Twitter followers, I created a page on OnlyFans, a decision I have never regretted. From the start in October 2019, my page has only continued to grow.

With a current fanbase of over 75.000 followers on twitter, I get asked quite frequently by new creators how OnlyFans works and how to grow their own following on Twitter & OnlyFans. I’m happy to help and share my knowledge, but after having told the same tips and tricks dozens of times, I decided it would be easier to create a definitive blog post on the matter. So here goes!

Twitter vs Instagram

I use both Twitter (https://twitter.com/DudeFromNL) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/dudefrom.nl) to build my fan base. Instagram is the less helpful of the two platforms and it’s a constant struggle to grow as adult content creator on their platform, because of strictly enforced NSFW standards. I also find it to be the less interesting platform, as I run an anonymous account on which I only post tasteful, non-explicit faceless body pics. Because my account is faceless, many of my photos are taken down for being too erotic/sexual.

An example of a photo I post on Instagram. Sensual, but not porn.

However, if you are a content creator who doesn’t mind showing his face, Instagram can be a more useful and interesting means to gain fans, because those fans might be curious what you look like naked, and be willing to pay for it.

In my case, I already post myself naked on my Twitter, so it’s less tempting to have a look at my OnlyFans (except for having longer videos in higher quality). Twitter videos are limited in length to 2:20min, where on OnlyFans videos can easily be 20 minutes in 4K quality. The videos I post on OnlyFans are usually between 5–20 minutes each.

Five tips to grow a porn fan base on Twitter

There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are a few tips & tricks that would benefit most.

First, check the basics when you create your Twitter page

After you’ve created your Twitter account, make sure to check the basics to prevent your account from being banned rapidly.

1. Navigate to Settings > Privacy and safety > Your Tweets and make sure to check the box at “Mark media you Tweet as having material that may be sensitive”
2. Upload a proper/safe header image and profile photo without nudity. While Twitter allows porn to be posted (given that your tweets are marked as sensitive in the previous step), they don’t allow your header or profile photo to contain arousing content. The reason for this is that your profile might show up in search results or are linked to from other tweets, and people will see these images even before they confirmed that they want to see Sensitive Material (see image below). I’ve been warning other creators about this for some time now, since Twitter keeps shutting down even accounts with over 100.000 followers because of this. Even a naked ass, or a hand on a crotch might be a reason to suspend your account. They warn once, and the second time they’ll remove your account for good. Better safe than sorry!
3. While on it, check the box “Display media that may contain sensitive content” at Settings > Privacy and safety > Content you see, to see others’ NSFW content.
4. Finally, you might want to prevent your relatives and friend finding your porn account by unchecking the boxes at Settings > Privacy and safety > Discoverability and contacts.

The profile photo is visible, even before people confirm they want to see sensitive content.

Tip 1: Post good content that people want to share

This might sound obvious, but it’s not. Don’t expect people to retweet or like videos that are 3 seconds long, or crappy photos taken in your bed using the flash on your mobile. Take some time to create good content. Clean your room, make sure to have lots of (day)light, and use a good camera. I make my content with my iPhone 12 pro, and it really pays off. Sometimes I use a cheap ring light, but ideally I film with natural light. And spend a few seconds to retouch your photos before posting them. I always apply some basic color correction, and crop photos to remove clutter, or to get a better rule-of-thirds composition.

Tip 2: Ask for interaction in (almost) every tweet

The more fans interact with your content, the more potential fans get to see it. Try to think of a way to ask your fans to interact with your content, by just asking them simple questions. But make it fun! Let me give you some examples:

• Yesterday I met X in Amsterdam. Give this photo 50 retweets and I’ll show you the video!
• When posting a dick pic: I’ll show you mine, now show me yours!
• This is how I like to treat a boy. RT if you want the same treatment.
• When posting a photo of your dick and ass: Like for my dick, RT for my ass.
• RT if I can DM you the nude version of this photo.
• Will give away 5 free trials to my OnlyFans if this post gets 100 retweets!

There are so many things you can ask to encourage engagement: be creative!

Photo by Julio Tirado on Unsplash

Tip 3: Make people stop scrolling by controlling what they see in the preview

When people scroll through their timeline, you want them to stop at your post and interact with it. T̵w̵i̵t̵t̵e̵r̵ ̵h̵a̵s̵ ̵a̵ ̵s̵p̵e̵c̵i̵f̵i̵c̵ ̵w̵a̵y̵ ̵o̵f̵ ̵d̵i̵s̵p̵l̵a̵y̵i̵n̵g̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵s̵.̵ ̵I̵f̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ ̵a̵ ̵p̵o̵r̵t̵r̵a̵i̵t̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵,̵ ̵T̵w̵i̵t̵t̵e̵r̵ ̵a̵l̵w̵a̵y̵s̵ ̵c̵r̵o̵p̵s̵ ̵i̵t̵ ̵a̵s̵ ̵l̵a̵n̵d̵s̵c̵a̵p̵e̵.̵ ̵T̵h̵e̵y̵ ̵u̵s̵e̵ ̵a̵n̵ ̵a̵l̵g̵o̵r̵i̵t̵h̵m̵ ̵f̵o̵r̵ ̵t̵h̵i̵s̵,̵ ̵a̵n̵d̵ ̵u̵n̵f̵o̵r̵t̵u̵n̵a̵t̵e̵l̵y̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵ ̵c̵a̵n̵n̵o̵t̵ ̵c̵o̵n̵t̵r̵o̵l̵ ̵w̵h̵i̵c̵h̵ ̵p̵a̵r̵t̵ ̵o̵f̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵ ̵i̵s̵ ̵d̵i̵s̵p̵l̵a̵y̵e̵d̵.̵ ̵B̵u̵t̵ ̵i̵f̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ ̵2̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵s̵ ̵a̵t̵ ̵o̵n̵c̵e̵ ̵i̵n̵ ̵o̵n̵e̵ ̵t̵w̵e̵e̵t̵,̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵y̵ ̵a̵r̵e̵ ̵d̵i̵s̵p̵l̵a̵y̵e̵d̵ ̵a̵s̵ ̵p̵o̵r̵t̵r̵a̵i̵t̵.̵ ̵I̵n̵ ̵s̵h̵o̵r̵t̵:̵ ̵i̵f̵ ̵y̵o̵u̵ ̵w̵a̵n̵t̵ ̵t̵o̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ ̵a̵ ̵p̵o̵r̵t̵r̵a̵i̵t̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵,̵ ̵t̵r̵y̵ ̵t̵o̵ ̵f̵i̵n̵d̵ ̵a̵n̵o̵t̵h̵e̵r̵ ̵m̵a̵t̵c̵h̵i̵n̵g̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵ ̵a̵n̵d̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵t̵w̵o̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵s̵ ̵a̵t̵ ̵o̵n̵c̵e̵.̵ ̵Y̵o̵u̵ ̵c̵a̵n̵ ̵e̵v̵e̵n̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵s̵a̵m̵e̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵ ̵t̵w̵i̵c̵e̵.̵ ̵A̵l̵s̵o̵ ̵c̵h̵e̵c̵k̵ ̵t̵h̵i̵s̵ ̵u̵s̵e̵f̵u̵l̵ ̵g̵u̵i̵d̵e̵ ̵o̵n̵ ̵h̵o̵w̵ ̵t̵o̵ ̵c̵r̵o̵p̵ ̵p̵h̵o̵t̵o̵s̵ ̵b̵e̵f̵o̵r̵e̵ ̵p̵o̵s̵t̵i̵n̵g̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵m̵!̵

EDIT: since May 2021, Twitter stopped cropping photos!

Left: the most important part of the photo (his dick) is cropped off. Right: post 2 photos at once, then they aren’t cropped much.

You can use this “annoying” crop effect also in a fun way, and stimulate your fans to click the photo by simply stating click for dick or click for a surprise.

Tip 4: Post your content under tweets of big accounts

A lot of content creators post tweets where they ask their fans to comment with a photo. Check out the example below: this is a nice way to get a lot of eyeballs on your content. Or, when a creator posts a photo of his dick with a text “Ready to play!”, you could post a photo of your ass and comment “Play with me!”. This is an example of a reply that is relevant, playful, and will likely not offend the original poster. But make sure to post only relevant photos. Just randomly posting your photos under tweets that don’t ask for a photo is considered spamming and can lead to the author reporting your account or worse.

Here is an example of a tweet where the creator asks to post a dick pic. The author has 157.000+ fans, and his tweet already has 410 comments, so a lot of people get notified of your photo.

To find these types of tweets, use the Media tab of a user in the same thread to see which tweets they posted their photos in the comments. Simply click on another’s username and then click their Media tab.

Tip 5: Exchange retweets (RT x RT or rt4rt)

Another popular technique to get more people to see your tweet and interact with it is to exchange retweets, especially with larger accounts. Some content consumers might find this annoying because they came to your Twitter page to see pictures and videos of you not others and they may be off by a great number of other people’s posts. However, if you don’t overdo it by spam retweeting every post you can and apply some basic rules, it can be very rewarding.

An example of a typical RT x RT “conversation”.

What it is? Well: when I post content that I want people to see, I copy the link to my tweet and DM that link to other large accounts, asking for a RT x RT. Simply put I ask them to retweet my tweet, and send me a link to one of their tweets in return, which I then retweet.

A lot of successful porn creators do this. However, I decided long ago to apply two basic rules when doing this:

1. I only RT content that I like. Content I might have retweeted otherwise even if the author didn’t ask me to.
2. I never retweet promotional tweets. So no tweets that talk about discounts of the authors OnlyFans page or tweets with $, %, or DISCOUNT in the text. This prevents your timeline from becoming a large advertisement wall.

A few times per week I go through my timeline and un-retweet all posts that are older than a day or two. This makes sure that if my fans scroll through my timeline, they mostly see my content, and not that of others.

Five tips on how to grow your OnlyFans page

These are some tips on setting up your page, growing it and maintaining it.

Tip 1: Register using a referral link from a big account

The so-called referral system of OnlyFans is a way to let users register their page using a unique link from an existing user. What this does, is that a small percentage of your revenue (5%) goes to the one who sent you the link. 15% of your revenue goes to OnlyFans, and you get the remaining 80%. If you would have registered without a referral link, OnlyFans would get 20%, and you’d still get 80%. So for you, it doesn’t matter at all. But the one who sent you the link has a good motivation to help you become popular. Your referrer can help you grow your page by retweeting your tweets, connecting you with other creators or giving you shoutouts from his page. IMHO it would be a waste to start an OnlyFans page without a referral and gain your followers all by yourself. Note: the 5% for your referrer only applies to the first year. After the first year, the 5% referral revenue goes to OnlyFans. Your cut will always be 80%.

Want to start your own OnlyFans page, and you don’t have a referral yet? Feel free to use my link and send me a DM on Twitter (DudeFromNL) when you do: https://onlyfans.com/?ref=12317855. I’m happy to help you out! Important: this code can only be used when registering a new account. If you already have an OnlyFans account, you cannot apply a referral code anymore. But you can delete your account and register for a new one using my link.

Tip 2: Spend a bit of time setting up your account (check the pricing, apply a watermark and enter a good bio)

Once you registered your account (with or without referral link), you first need to verify your identity and bank account. This usually takes about 1–2 days and this process is pretty straight forward. After you’ve done this, there are a few things you want to set up:

• Check your username and make sure the username matches your display name. Ideally, this would be the same as your name on other socials such as Twitter. By default you get a username such as u12345678, you don’t want that.
• Check if a watermark is applied to your content. Ideally this is onlyfans.com/USERNAME (not display name). The default is usually fine.
• Set a price. I would suggest starting somewhere between $5 and $9, and maybe later increase it a bit. If you are really famous already and you’re sure that a lot of fans are willing to pay for you, you could set a start price of $15 or even more.
• Enter a biography, tell people what to expect when they sign up. This text is displayed to people who stumble up your page and who might be convinced to sign up. So spend some time here!
• Enter a welcome message to thanks your new fans for subscribing. This is also a good place to introduce yourself a bit and start connecting. I use this text to stimulate my new fans to go ahead and like a few of my posts.

Tip 3: Post good content and work to increase your likes

Now you’re ready to start adding some content. I would suggest starting with about 10 photos and 5 video’s. You want to make sure that once a potential fan comes to your page they see you only have 2 posts. Keep in mind that two numbers are always visible: the number of posts and the number of likes. So you want to work on these numbers!

When I look at competing fan pages and I see 10 posts with 20 likes total, I click away. In the photo above you can see that I currently have 270 posts with 15.3k likes (about 57 likes per post). This gives a potential user a good feeling of the quality they can expect. There a few tricks to increase the likes on your page:

• Stimulate your existing fans to like your posts in exchange for a unique photo. I did this in the past, where I would create a personalised video recording for each fan who liked 50 or more of my posts. Simply post a message on your timeline, in which you explain that likes are important for you and ask for their help. Mine was something like “Hey! I have about 8k likes now and I would love to have 10k. I have 100 fans, so that’s only 20 likes each. Please help me out by liking all my posts. Send me a DM with your first name when done, and I’ll record a unique video for you to thank you.”
• Another is to exchange free trial links with other beginning content creators to like each other’s posts. Under Promotions you can create those links. DM another content creator on Twitter and simply ask them “Hey wanna help each other out to gain more likes on OnlyFans? I’ll send you a free trial to my page if you send me yours and let’s like each other’s posts.”. This is only useful for starting pages, so ask someone who has roughly the same amount of posts as you have (just check their page; remember the number of posts they have is always visible). Those free trial links are also very useful for give-aways on your Twitter, see below.

Tip 4: Connect with your fans, let them get to know you

Try to build a relationship with your fans. Here are some examples:

• Make sure to reply to their DM’s. They pay for you, so never ignore them.
• Send your long-term fans a DM to thank them. If you create a message, you can for example select all fans that subscribed over 3 months ago and send them a unique video or photo.
• Gain back previous fans by creating a discount only for them. Go to https://onlyfans.com/my/subscribers/expire to create a promotion and ask them to come back (I want you back, here is 30% off to check out my latest content!).
• Stimulate your fans to enable renew (automated monthly re-billing). Currently, only 190 of my 424 fans (45%) enabled renew. This means that I lose 234 fans each month. So if I want to grow, I need to convince at least 234 potential mew fans to sign up for my page. So the more fans enabled renew, the less people I need to convince. How do I do this? I send out unique content at least once a month to all my fans who’ve enabled renew. When I compose a new message, I can select all fans who enabled this. I communicate this in my welcome message and I regularly post a message on my timeline “I’ve just send this video to all my fans who enabled renew! Want to see it too? Enable renew, DM me you’ve did and I’ll send it to you too.” (I post a small teaser or a still of the video on my timeline so they see what they are missing out on).

Tip 5: Exchange shoutouts with other content creators

Another good way to grow is to exchange shoutouts with other performers. DM another performer on Twitter and ask if they want to s4s (shoutout for shoutout) on OnlyFans. They might ask you how many paying fans you have (it would make most sense for both parties if you are similar in size) and how many likes. When agreed to do it, send them an introduction text, a few photos or videos and a free trial link to your page. They will send you yours. Usually, I leave those shoutouts on for 3 days (you can control this when first posting shoutout content).

A typical shoutout: on the right you see that the post will vanish after 2 days. I tend to start such a message with Promo, to make it clear for my fans what it is.

However, keep in mind that — similar to RT x RT — it can be considered spamming by your fans. So don’t overdo it. I apply some simple rules here too:

• I stick to 1 shoutout at a time, and no more than 1 per week
• I only exchange with pages my size or bigger
• I never do it with free pages (because I focus on fans who don’t mind paying for good content)

And it pays off. Below you see that about 14% of my fans found me via another performer.

I sometimes ask my fans how they found me. You can see that about 14% comes via a shoutout.

Five tips on how to use your Twitter to promote your OnlyFans

With both your Twitter account and your OnlyFans page setup, let’s start promoting your OnlyFans!

Tip 1: Promote a single video in multiple posts

When I record a good video that I like to promote, my goal is: a) to let as many people as possible see the tweet, and b) convince people to sign-up for my OnlyFans. A typical series of tweets I would post then are:

1. I post a still of the scene, or just a sexy photo with me and the other model saying something like “Met Braxton Boyd today in Amsterdam and we had great fun! Give this photo 100 retweets and I’ll show you!” (apart from growing my fan base with this, it gives me 1–2 days time to edit the videos).
2. After the 50 retweets I post the first 30 sec teaser in which I describe what the teaser shows: “Ugh, NAME is such a good sucker! Damn… I loved how my cock felt in his mouth. RT if you wanna have a taste of my cock too! Full vid: LINK TO ONLYFANS”
3. I post another 30 second tease, for example where we fuck. “Posted over 20 minutes of us fucking each other in endless positions… it was so hot! Wanna see it? I’ll DM the video to some lucky retweeters! Or watch it now: LINK TO ONLYFANS”

Tip 2: Use trial links for ballots

As explained before, you can create free trial links. You can use these for ballots on Twitter and that’s very helpful. These links are a great way to get people to retweet your content.

1. So when you post a teaser of a full video on OnlyFans, you could write something like “Sexy Braxton Boyd used all his skills to please me. And fuck he’s good! The full video can be found on my OnlyFans: LINK. PS: I will give away a free subscription to my OnlyFans to 5 of the first 200 retweets”. Note: 200 is a lot, if you have 1000–2000 fans, I’d suggest sticking to 40/50 retweets.
2. After the 200 retweets I pick 5 winners and send them the link via DM. However, this is another opportunity to connect with your fans. They are happy they’ve won, so they are willing to help. Use that! I would send them something as “Hey, you’re one of the 5 winners of the free subscription to my OnlyFans. Here is the link: LINK. You would do me a huge favor if you would spend a few minutes to like all my posts on OnlyFans, this helps me out massively. Thanks so much and enjoy my content! ❤️”

Here are some examples of such series (NSFW):

• Me with Braxton Boyd: Tweet 1, Tweet 2, Tweet 3, Tweet 4
• Me with Sexy Mixed Guy: Tweet 1, Tweet 2, Tweet 3

Tip 3: In between videos / collaborations, keep posting

I try to post a sexy / funny photo or video at least once per day. The goal here is mainly to grow my Twitter fan base. This can be super simple stuff, such as a quick photo just after I took a shower. Or a short jerk-off video outdoor, while I go for a run. Don’t forgot good light and a good camera. And keep in mind to always search for a way to encourage interaction, let your fans do something with your tweets. Some examples:

• When I get a new pair of underwear I make a quick photo, saying “Love these new pairs of underwear! What’s your favorite? Show your favorite ones in the comments”
• When I work from home, I compose a photo of (a piece of) my laptop and coffee on my desk, and my cock out my pants. With a text as “Could use someone under my desk to suck me between Zoom meetings. RT if you would volunteer”
• Or I post a photo where I look very masculine (muscles tensed, a hard erection) and a text “You know who’s boss! Comment your best ass pic if I can hurt you, I’ll retweet the ones that make me horny”

Have a look at my Twitter page and see many more examples. Don’t just copy/paste; be creative and find your own tone of voice and make it personal.

Tip 4: Split your fun tweet from your ad content

I learned that a lot of people don’t like to share tweets that contain an OnlyFans link. They basically don’t want to help the creator “spam”. To counter this, a lot of content creators nowadays tweet the video/photos with a line of text first, and then add a comment (this becomes a collection in Twitter) with the link to their OnlyFans.

See this example by Troye Jacobs. The first tweet is great, and gets a lot of traction (667 retweets, 6713 likes). Fans who want to see more can find the link below it in the comments. The tweet probably would have gotten a lot less traction if the links had been placed in the original tweet itself.

Tip 5: Be creative with promotions

People love a discount, so be creative in ways to give away a bit of discount once in a while. For example: 20% discount for the first 20 new fans once you reach 2000 followers on Twitter. Make a cool photo where you write down 2000 on your body and announce it on Twitter. Remember: your fans probably don’t like to retweet it, so think of a way to make them. Either your photo must be so good that they will retweet it anyway, despite your spam. Or just add something like “2000 fans, that needs to be celebrated! 20% discount on my OnlyFans for the next 20 fans! And I’ll give away 10 free passes to today’s retweets too!”. In this example, people who have money will go for the discount, and the people who don’t want to pay will retweet.

Those were 15 tips and I still haven’t told everything!

Well, this post turned out a bit longer than I planned. What do you think? I’d love to learn! Did I miss anything? Would you like other tips & tricks? I’m happy to update the post or write a follow-up based on your feedback in the comments. Ready to start your own porn career? I wish you all the best! Oh, and if you do, please register your OnlyFans with this link to thank for me for sharing my knowledge with you: https://onlyfans.com/?ref=12317855 ❤️

If you like this post, please give it 50 claps (by keeping the clap button pressed down).

Cheers and good luck!
DudeFromNL

PS: special thanks to Sean (@seantkin on Twitter) for your help with editing my post!