How Does the OnlyFans Niche Work and How Can a Media Buyer Make Money From It

Blog » How Does the OnlyFans Niche Work and How Can a Media Buyer Make Money From It

OnlyFans is a sub-niche within the 🔞 adult vertical. It’s a growing segment, as the platform itself is seeing an increase in both users and their earnings.

OnlyFans  ☝️ isn’t just about adult content. The platform is full of fitness coaches, musicians, psychologists and other types of “gurus.” Still, the majority of creators are webcam models — and that’s who we’re going to focus on.

There’s already a huge amount of content about this niche, but most of it is overloaded with details. And that makes it hard to grasp the core idea. We’re going to cover only the things that 📌 really matter for media buyers — without the unnecessary clutter.

How do people make money on OnlyFans and what’s specific about this niche?

OnlyTraffic is the ☝️ first CPA affiliate network in the OnlyFans market, working with more than 2,797 models and 8,395 marketers. Marketers can collaborate with creators through a RevShare model and earn from 25% of all fan spending on a model’s page, or choose a CPL format and get paid per subscriber. There’s no minimum payout threshold, and models already have a large amount of unique ready-to-use content.

Marketers are free to test different traffic sources and strategies: popular social networks, short-form video apps, messengers, and SEO traffic, which has proven to deliver excellent results for OnlyFans promotion.

A wide range of metrics makes it possible to accurately measure performance and adjust your marketing strategy to achieve the best results. Here are the key metrics to keep an eye on:

• ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) — the average earnings per user. For example, let’s say a media buyer drives 1,000 users to a model’s page. Out of those, 100 subscribe and pay $5 for the first month ($500 total). Then 50 of them renew for two more months ($500 more), and 10 spend an additional $25 each ($250) on private chats. In total, the model earns $1,250 from those 1,000 users, which means the ARPU is $1.25. In short, if your ARPU is higher than the cost of acquiring a subscriber, you’re in profit.
• Conversion — the percentage of users who switch from a free subscription to a paid one. If this rate is 100%, it means the model doesn’t offer a free plan and every user subscribes for a fee.
• Content — the model’s photos that marketers can review before starting work. This gives an idea of the style and quality of content and helps decide whether it fits their goals.
• 🏆 Top percentage on OnlyFans — for example, if a model is ranked in the top 1%, it means she earns more than 99% of all creators on the platform.
• Commission — the share of payments from the subscribers you brought in that the model agrees to pay you.
• Sources and Countries tabs — these tabs show which traffic sources and countries the model does not accept.

You can also find details such as whether the model posts SFS content, her chatters’ working hours, and the number of active campaigns.

The variety of offers and model types helps you maximize every traffic source and pick the best match for a specific audience.

Marketers can work on a RevShare basis and earn a percentage of fan spending, or they can set up their own CPL offer to run custom traffic campaigns and get paid for every subscriber. Thanks to this section, models can buy OnlyFans traffic from top marketers across different sources.

Marketers who choose the CPL model highlight how 👣 easy it is to track completed orders. This approach is often more convenient since the model or agency pays upfront, unlike RevShare. Each format has its own pros and cons, so the key is to pick the one that works best for you.

Another key feature of the OnlyFans niche is that Tier-3 traffic is not welcome. Even Tier-2 traffic is often discouraged, since users from these regions are less likely to pay for subscriptions or custom content — and even if they do, it’s rarely a long-term commitment. It’s important to note that all models 🙅 apply geo-blocks on their pages, so people from restricted countries simply won’t see the page and therefore can’t subscribe. That’s why the focus should always be on Tier-1 countries.

Models also specify traffic sources they don’t want. Most often this happens when they already handle these channels themselves — for example, if they run their own Reddit or Instagram. In that case, those sources cannot be used.

Traffic Sources: What You Need to Know in 2025

The main traffic sources include Reddit, YouTube Shorts, Twitter, and Instagram Reels. This is a conditionally free approach, built around the following strategy:

• You create a model’s account and post photos and videos on a regular basis. On Reddit, this strategy involves replying in comments and artificially boosting upvotes to increase visibility. On Instagram, it requires posting more frequently — especially Reels — to attract followers. To push traffic further, some people use auto-comments, story views, or even mass DMs, but the last method is strongly discouraged.
• The model’s account always includes a 🔗 referral link to her OnlyFans page. Regular posts feature subtle but consistent calls to action that guide followers toward subscribing.

Reddit is considered one of the top free traffic sources for OnlyFans, especially since it brings in some of the most solvent users. It also has a dedicated 🔞 NSFW section where erotic photos can be posted. However, Reddit is extremely competitive, and each year it becomes harder to generate meaningful traffic. On top of that, the platform continues to tighten its rules, making it increasingly difficult to create and maintain accounts for affiliate marketing.

The main advantage of free traffic lies in the process:

• You create multiple accounts, possibly using different strategies.
• After some time, you identify which sources are bringing in the most profitable users.
• From there, you scale the most effective accounts, consistently posting content, boosting comments, and engaging with the community.

That said, generating free traffic is a highly resource-intensive strategy.

Another category of sources includes push, pop, and native traffic. This traffic is paid, but it offers several advantages over free methods:

• Easy to launch. Most push networks are tolerant of explicit ads, and for them, OnlyFans accounts are considered a “white niche.”
• Minimal effort. Once the campaign is live, all you need to do is publish ads, optimize occasionally, and top up the budget. As long as the campaign runs (which can be several months), the workload stays minimal.

Overall, it’s not wise to rely too heavily on just one traffic source. It’s better to keep testing new ones or even build your own to maximize earnings.

Case Studies as an Example

Let’s look at a couple of cases that clearly show how an affiliate can profit in the OnlyFans niche.

Fan acquisition at $0.26 using premium keyword traffic via HilltopAds

In this case, the affiliate faced declining traffic from Reddit and decided to test the HilltopAds network (push and pop). The ad link led to a landing page offering a 30-day free subscription.

At first, the affiliate used popunder ads from premium sources. After spending $777, he gained 412 fans, 14 of whom spent a total of $215 between December 7 and January 18. With these numbers, turning a profit seemed highly unlikely, so the approach had to be optimized.

Next, the affiliate targeted users searching for specific queries. In this case, the keyword was “OnlyFans.”

With a spend of $297, he managed to bring in 1,132 fans who, between December 27 and January 19, spent $255. That brought the average cost per subscriber down to just $0.26 — an excellent figure that has the potential to generate solid profits in the long run.

$6,055 from 20,000 Fans on OnlyFans via Twitter (X): Three Workflows for Scaling the Platform

Partners built their Twitter strategy in three stages. The initial steps looked like this:

• Launching 200–300 accounts to post tweets with hashtags every 5–10 hours
• Using non-nude content to avoid bans
• Accounts getting suspended within 5–7 days, which made this method ineffective

Because of that, they switched tactics. They created model accounts and added them to retweet groups, where models share and amplify each other’s content. Manual testing showed that this method could bring in 25–30 new subscribers per day from a single account. The team then automated the process to scale up, and integrated Keitaro to track which accounts were generating what type of traffic.

As a result, they developed three strategies:

• 50-to-1. One main model account supported by 50 assistant accounts. The assistants join RT-groups, repost content, and drive traffic to the main account.
• No Name. Anonymous models with face-blurred content. These accounts post regularly, and their profiles contain links to OnlyFans landing pages.
• Clickable Content. Posts with images that double as clickable links, redirecting users directly to OnlyFans landing pages.

In the end, the team built a network of around 5,000 accounts with a combined audience of 8 million users. They acquired 20,043 OnlyFans subscribers and earned $6,055.

Thus, there are no ready-made formulas for making money in the OnlyFans niche. To succeed with model affiliate programs, you need solid traffic management skills and, above all, creativity in finding new approaches. This is especially important since many current methods quickly burn out — retweet groups, for instance, have recently become far less effective.

Alternative Affiliate Programs for the OnlyFans Niche

In addition to OnlyTraffic, there are other affiliate networks that allow you to drive traffic to OnlyFans models. Let’s take a closer look at them.

CrakRevenue

This is a well-known affiliate network with a  🔎 strong focus on the adult industry. It provides opportunities to promote webcam platforms, individual models, and even adult games.

In addition to RevShare, there are also fixed payouts for bringing in fans and generating sales. Another option is multi-CPA is a hybrid model that combines both lead-based payments and RevShare.

AWEmpire by LiveJasmin

This network is essentially the LiveJasmin equivalent of OnlyTraffic. It offers four payout models: per lead (trial or subscription), per sale, RevShare, and a mixed format.

The offers here are not for individual models but for entire video categories — such as Cameraboys, Livesexasian, Mytrannycams, and others. Payouts are made automatically twice a month once your balance reaches the $100 minimum.

Conclusions

OnlyFans is a fast-growing and in-demand niche. Users respond much more actively to it compared to dating app promotions, and the funnel here is both simpler and more profitable. Keep testing different formats and approaches to find the strategy that works best for you and maximize your earnings.