Hi, hey, hello. Hope you had a restful and restorative long weekend, with lots of time outside and off screens. Now, without sounding too ominous—let’s plug back in.

–Hannah Doyle

Fashion Creator Explores the Operations of OnlyFans

🌶 Saucy Victorian Ankle Pics 🌶 is one way to get attention. 

Last week, historic fashion YouTuber Bernadette Banner cataloged her experience starting an experimental OnlyFans. For seven days, she posted two Victorian-style ankle-baring pictures per day to see how many people would pay for them.

The answer was quite a few. Banner earned 1,200 fans and $613, which put her in the top 11% of OnlyFans creators during that period. 

“I have a feeling that this isn’t reflective of an average accumulation across a career of OnlyFans because there’s inevitably a spike in the beginning of anything that you launch online—especially if you are pushing it out to a group of pre-existing followers on pre-existing platforms like I’ve done,” Banner said in the video.

Still, she found out that being an OnlyFans creator is a lot harder than it looks.

It took over two days to plan, shoot, and edit 14 photos. 

“OnlyFans work is quite a surprising amount of work and very time-consuming and I completely understand why people make this their full-time job,” Banner said.

By the second day, Banner had over 700 fans and had made $112 solely from tips.

OnlyFans creator Ariel Demure commented on Banner’s video, “Hearing Bernadette’s validation of how SURPRISING the amount of work goes into producing content, as well as inspiring me for future shoots, has moved me and really warms my heart. This is truly a work of performance art.”

Our Take

Banner’s experiment shows a glimpse into the amount of work it takes not just to create on OnlyFans, but to make a livelihood on it. While in this case, OnlyFans was an experimental platform switch, it shows the value in thinking outside the box—what if Babish tries to build an audience on the Whisk recipe platform? Or Mandy Lee starts a Depop? 

Is Being a VTuber Better for Your Mental Health?

Last week, Twitch dedicated its homepage to VTubers—creators who use CGI virtual avatars to present their image and identity—as part of its VTuber Takeover week.

It inspired many to consider VTubers’ role in the future of the creator space. While the concept of VTubers reads to some as dystopian, other creators advocate for a virtual future. According to proponents: 

• Virtual avatars allow disabled creators to better express themselves. 

• Avatars also keep your IRL identity hidden, so you can function in the real world without being noticed. (Amouranth told Business Insider that if she could do it again, she’d start her career over as a VTuber for safety reasons.)

But VTubing has cons, too: How do you verify the creator behind the alias? If a team runs one avatar, like Lil Miquela, how are brand deals orchestrated ethically?

Our Take

The detrimental mental health effects of being a creator have been well documented. For some, VTubers could be the answer to that problem. Our expectation? VTubers won’t replace IRL creators entirely, but as the VTuber space becomes more sophisticated, it’s likely the VTuber share of our industry grows significantly.

Sponsored by Shopify

How to Make Money Promoting the Products You Love

Our friends at Shopify just released an awesome new tool for creators: Collabs.

If you’re familiar with affiliate marketing, this concept will be familiar. When you are part of a brand’s program on Collabs, you get a unique tracking link so that you earn commission on each sale you drive to a brand’s store.

With millions of merchants already on Shopify, odds are your favorite brand is already on the platform so you can start getting paid to promote products that you’d authentically endorse to your audience.

The Collabs feature is new but through this link you can apply for early access.

Creators Sound the Alarm on Favoritism

YouTube’s trending page is ablaze with gaming streamers alleging the platform engages in rampant favoritism.

CoryxKenshin sparked the conversation with a video suggesting his Mortuary Assistant video was auto age-restricted while similar content from peers like Markiplier wasn’t. 

Markiplier offered Kenshin support, releasing a video that tested the boundaries of age restriction (the video has yet to be taken down).

Jacksepticeye followed suit with an age-restricted test video and a more formal commentary addressing the situation. 

Our Take

On a platform that is so community-driven, major creators can affect change. While this camaraderie feels like a win, we’ll be waiting for the other shoe to drop—when will YouTube issue a response?

👀 Creator Moves

• Good Good Golf is hiring video editors. DM @maxtheputnam on Instagram with relevant clips.

• Dylan Lemay is looking for a social media intern for his Catch’n Cream ice cream shop. 10–15 hours a week, based in NYC. Send your bio and portfolio to [email protected].

• Mark Rober’s Crunch Labs is hiring for a social media producer and a production assistant.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Twitter is *finally* releasing an edit button (to Twitter Blue subscribers).

• Why Pokimane is taking a break from streaming.

• Do you consult therapy-Tok?

• Spotify and Apple set royalty rates with music publishers.

• MrBeast Burger opened its first physical location—and it broke the world record for most burgers sold in a day by a single restaurant.

• Superpeer is a new tool that allows creators to easily set up paid live streams—and they’re looking for creators to test out their new offering with them.*

*This is sponsored advertising content