Blog Post Written By: Melrose Michaels
There are many ways to focus your efforts and grow your adult business when planning for 2024. However, the three topics I focus on in this blog are diversifying revenue streams, building a robust professional brand in community engagement, and leveraging data analytics and SEO. I’ll also share habits or hacks that will set creators up for the most success in the New Year.
Diversifying Revenue Streams
Diversifying revenue streams is essential because, as we all know, our industry tends to be an unstable one, mainly due to legislation and stigma. But knowing this, it's crucial to ensure your livelihood by diversifying into different adult niches and platforms. Relying on a single source of income can be risky. Adult content creators should explore multiple revenue streams such as sponsorships, affiliate marketing, selling merchandise, expanding to additional platforms, and growing their businesses into different adult lanes.
When I say sponsorship, this can mean anything from selling sponsored social media posts to brands trying to reach your primarily male demographic or audience. Think of things like Blue Chew or Motor Bunny, for example. But you can also sell sponsorships if you've built successful mainstream channels such as YouTube, TikTok, etc. When selling sponsored posts or sponsorships, note that you will need the analytics and insights to support why the brand should work with you when pitching a partnership. We will discuss analytics later in this blog, but you have that data readily available and organized before going into a brand meeting.
Something you're going to hear us talk a lot about very soon is affiliate marketing. This is where you get paid for the traffic you bring and the audience you can leverage for platform products or services. Knowing that you can drive a stream of income just by driving clicks can be a potent source of revenue for adult creators. Because our traffic comprises actual fans, we tend to have high-quality traffic. When you compare it to other affiliates in the industry trying to drive traffic from banner ads, dating sites, and more, knowing you have this upper hand means you should be searching for marketing opportunities on all of the platforms you post content to, stream on, and sell services on. I won't go too deep into affiliate marketing here because, as I mentioned, we will be going over this thoroughly very soon, but starting to understand how powerful this can be as a diversification method will be necessary to how sustainable of a business you are building as an adult creator. So make sure you take the time to research and understand all the ins and outs of affiliate marketing.
Selling merchandise can be a lucrative way to diversify your adult business as long as you understand the caveat that you must have a large fan base to do this effectively. So many creators, myself included, have launched merchandise, whether manufactured or print-on-demand, that flops because we just need a larger audience. There is a time and place when it is appropriate to sell merchandise, but the average Creator needs to do this sooner and gets discouraged. Selling physical products such as merchandise is a numbers game. You must have a large enough fan base and audience to get effective conversions on physical products. I advise holding out on physical merch until you have or above 500k followers on socials. It can work for some smaller than that, but they would be the exception.
Last but certainly not least, you should consider diversifying which niches of adult you are actively participating in and which platforms you post or distribute to. When I say diversifying in terms of adult niches, I mean the types of pillars you have within your adult business. For example, my fansite pillar would be my OnlyFans and Fancentro platforms. Next, I have my live cam pillar, which would have been Stripchat or Eplay live streaming (when I was live streaming). Then there is my sexting, video, and audio call pillar with SextPanther. These are different types of adult niches and offer varied services to my fan base. The more self-explanatory way to diversify in adult is by ensuring you are on various platforms. Even though having a fan site is a single pillar of my business, I distributed it or diversified the platforms I posted to by having both Onlyfans and Fancentro. The same can be said for my live streaming; I make sure I go live on both Stripchat and Eplay.
One of the most exciting things I recently diversified into was a platform called Slushy, which is like an adult TikTok that earns you money and grows your audience simultaneously. You will hear much more about them starting this month because I'm confident they will become a major player in the adult space in 2024. In fact, I like Slushy so much that they just became an official sponsor for SexWorkCEO. More to come on them in the weeks that follow!
The overall importance of diversification is understated. It increases earning potential and provides financial stability within an industry that often denies that opportunity. This is why it's so important to focus on diversification going into 2024 as an adult creator, and the strategies we just discussed are the ones to focus on to help you achieve precisely that.
Building a Strong Personal Brand and Community Engagement
In the digital age, a personal brand is crucial. Content creators should focus on what sets them apart and consistently communicate their unique value proposition to their audience. If you don’t know what a UVP or unique value proposition is, we did an entire episode on that a few months back, so check it out on our Twitter space playlist if you’d like to revisit it. The point is that engaging with your audience through comments, social media, and live interactions can foster a loyal community. This community supports your creator projects and becomes a foundation for future endeavors. The most powerful thing anyone can build in this day and age is a brand. A solid brand lets you price whatever you offer at whatever dollar amount you want it to be because your fan base or audience's loyalty to what that brand stands for is what they're buying into, which is often priceless. If you aren't focusing on building a safe-for-work and not-safe-for-work brand, this is your sign to start doing so. In the coming years, I believe it will be imperative to have SFW channels, not SFW channels, to find long-term success in this industry.
Leveraging Data Analytics and SEO
Understanding your audience preferences, behaviors, and engagement patterns is vital to creating content that resonates and reaches a broader audience. Utilizing tools for data analytics can provide insights into what content performs best, optimal posting times, and audience demographics. You should be doing this across your social platforms as an adult creator and on your adult platforms themselves. OnlyFans has some platform analytics and data, as does almost every other platform we distribute today. Making sure you are checking that data and planning strategically around it will be vital to your business's future success.
Optimizing content for search engines (SEO) also ensures better visibility and reach, attracting new followers and opportunities. You do this by using alt text on your social posts and choosing keywords wisely in your Twitter or Instagram captions. Anywhere you put text on the Internet is searchable or search engine optimized, so make sure you do so with intention. Adopting these strategies can help you survive in a competitive landscape, thrive, and grow your businesses effectively and sustainably.
Now, I want to talk about the habits or hacks that will set creators up for the most success in 2024 regarding productivity and consistency. We all know those are the two things we struggle with most as adult creators. They are the two things I am most asked about in DMS across our social channels or personally when attending events and expos. So, let's discuss what we can do and the steps to ensure we're productive and consistent going into the new year.
Affiliate Marketing
This one will sound familiar because we just discussed it in the first part of this blog, but I want you to develop a habit of diversifying your revenue streams versus just the strategy of how to do it. Make it a habit to seek out affiliate links with every platform you join and keep them in a list on your phone, your notes app, or somewhere readily available and accessible. This way, when you post that you're going live or that there's new content somewhere, you can pull your affiliate link right from your notes app for creators or fans to sign up. If you make it a habit to use affiliate links whenever you promote your content or wherever you're going to be, it builds your affiliate network as a byproduct. The most important thing about building your affiliate network and diversifying into this revenue stream is that the sooner you start, the bigger it will be.
We already discussed how you should rely on something other than one income stream within adult. However, what often needs to be noticed is that every time we self-promote as adult creators, we have an opportunity to double dip within the affiliate marketing niche of diversification. The sooner you start this and your adult content creator career, the bigger it will grow. Affiliate marketing pays you per click long after you've stopped being a creator. Many affiliate partnerships are for the lifetime of the person you're driving to the platform, meaning that if you start webcamming live using affiliate links to drive your fans to the cam site, those fans, no matter who they spend on, you will still be earning money long after you've stopped webcamming altogether. This is how you build a sustainable adult business because you build upon your traffic, fan base, and audience instead of only building upon your content. And that’s where the forever money gets made.
Leveraging AI and Automation Tools
With technological advancements, AI can assist in various aspects of content creation, from idea generation to editing and distribution. Chat GPT, Opus for vertical video editing and distribution, and Genesia AI are some AI tools I'm actively using between my companies. Chat GPT is helpful for various things, like creating social media post captions, generating ideas, and more. Even though it's not adult-friendly, there is another AI tool I will tell you about. Opus is a website that will take long-form videos and AI edit them into vertical short-form content. I've explored this primarily within Sex Work CEO’s content, but it would work for anything. And finally, a recent discovery within the App Store is an app called Genesia AI. It is one of the best AI tools that performs well with explicit language or sex talk. It is in the App Store now, and because it does allow explicit language, we're not sure how long it will last there, but it's worth a try. Aside from the AI tools, you should be focusing and building a habit around automation tools. These tools will help you schedule content to publish, which will assist in you being consistent and productive in the new year. By automating routine tasks, you can focus more on the creative aspects of your work, like making the spicy content itself!
Batch Processing and Time Blocking
This strategy involves dedicating blocks of time to similar tasks to increase efficiency. For instance, a day can be set aside for recording multiple videos or writing several blog posts, followed by another day for editing. This approach minimizes the constant context-switching that often leads to burnout and inefficiency.
Finally, the last habit you should focus on adopting is a content calendar and social media planning system...
Adopting a Content Calendar and Planning System
Consistency in content creation is key to building and maintaining an audience. A content calendar helps plan out posts in advance, ensuring a steady stream of material. This can be as simple as a Google Calendar you update and plan your content with, something in Notion, or a productivity tool like Asana. This approach also aids in balancing different types of content and aligning posts with relevant events or trends. The best way to ensure that you're creating consistently is by planning that content creation in advance. And remember, we have a completely free PDF download of a free content scene planner in our shop
waiting for you!
Final Thoughts on 2024 Adult Business Success
Regardless of these three habits, it's vital for you as an adult creator to stay adaptable, continually learn new skills and tools, and actively engage with your audience to understand evolving preferences and trends. Things change at the speed of light since we're in a digital age, and it will be necessary to your career and business that you manage to do the same. Some of the things we've spoken about in past Twitter spaces are already outdated, and we are constantly doing our best to keep up with the ebbs and flows of being a one-person business or brand. I hope this blog's tools and strategies will set you up for success in 2024 and beyond. Here’s to a prosperous new year!
If you enjoyed this blog, you'll really love the Twitter Space we did focusing on this topic.
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