How to Upsell Your Fans Without Sending a Price List

Blog Post Written By: Melrose Michaels

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I have made more money from one fan in my DMs than some creators make from their entire subscriber list in a month, and it was not because that fan was rich. It was because I knew exactly where he was standing and exactly what to offer him next..

Most creators treat their inbox like customer service they have to get through before they can get back to the real work.. and I want to change that completely, because your DMs are not a chore. They are the highest paying room in your entire business and most of you are leaving a significant amount of money sitting in there untouched every single month..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbC1VOcgb48

The Shift that actually changed my income

For years I was obsessed with growth.. and my income did not move the same way the numbers did, which made me feel like nothing was working. The shift took place when I stopped asking "how do I get more people in?" and started asking "what is actually happening to the people I already have?"

it is important to understand that your subscriber count is the top of your business, not the business itself.

Think about a real store.. the number of people who walk past the window does not equal revenue.. the revenue happens when someone steps inside and a real person helps them find the thing they did not know they wanted.

Every fan already in your DMs raised their hand, came through the door and said yes at least once... growth gets people through the door.. but your inbox is where they actually spend.

What fans are actually buying

My fans are not subscribing for my content, they are subscribing for access to me. Once I understood that access is what I am selling, I stopped thinking of myself as a content vending machine and started thinking of myself as someone who is building real relationships.

The content is how fans experience you, feel connected to you and grow closer to you over time, and when I started investing in my fans as real people, learning their names, remembering their lives and paying attention to what they shared with me, the money followed the relationship every single time without exception...

I actually wrote about one fan relationship on Substack that really illustrates how layered and genuinely human these connections can get, and what it taught me about showing up for the people already in your world. If you want the fuller picture of what this looks like in practice, you can read that piece here.

The upsell ladder

The upsell ladder is the path a fan walks from the very first free hello all the way up to the most personal and most expensive things you offer.

For most creators it looks something like this:

free to follow, then a subscription, then pay-per-view content, then customs and then real-time video calls at the very top. Each rung is a small yes, and every small yes makes the next one easier to get.

This is not a scheme to extract money from people... it is a map that deepens the relationship over time. Each rung offers more access, more closeness and more of you. The fans who climb it are not fans you tricked, they are fans who wanted more and you gave them a clear path to get there.

Keep notes on every fan that matters! What they like, what they have bought, where they are in their life, anything they have shared that helps you remember them as a person. When you open a conversation already knowing someone had a rough week or that their dog just had surgery, you are not selling anymore.. you are a person remembering a person, and people spend very differently with someone who makes them feel genuinely seen...

Stop sending price menus

The moment you blast out a price list of everything you offer, you have turned yourself into a commodity..

as you move fans up the ladder, build value before you ever name a price.. let them know that customs are something you only do for people you actually trust, that they have to get to know you first. That single reframe makes the sale bigger and makes the fan want it more because now it is something they had to earn. The fans who are not interested in that approach were never going to be quality long-term fans anyway. filtering them out early is not a loss

How to keep this sustainable

This can absolutely become a second full-time job if you run it with no system, so here is how I keep it manageable.

Your high-touch personal energy goes to the fans at the top of your ladder, the ones who have earned it by climbing it. Newer fans get warmth and they get a system, but your top fans get the real you.

Use templates as a starting line... I have bridge messages for each rung of the ladder and I use iPhone keyboard shortcuts to pull them up quickly, personalize them for the specific fan and send. It is a system that lets you scale without losing the personal touch that makes the whole thing work... and block specific time for your inbox instead of living in it around the clock.

The exact line I use to bridge sexting into a first custom

After building a fantasy with a fan in the DMs for a while, I do not pitch them a custom directly. I plant a seed. I say something like: "You know what would be even better than us playing right now? Me actually filming it just for you. Imagine pressing play on the exact thing we just built together, filmed specially for you."

and then I stop.. sometimes they say yes immediately.. sometimes they change the subject entirely.. either way I let it sit, because I am not pushing and I am not begging

What to do next

Build the relationship, read where each fan is on the ladder, move them up one step at a time and protect your energy so the work does not consume you.

The audience you already have is capable of spending more than they currently are. You just have to give them a clear path to do it.

If you want the exact words to use at each rung, I put together a free swipe file inside CEO Society called five upsell messages that move a fan up one rung... get them here

P.S. If you know a creator who is struggling to make revenue in their DMs, send this to them. They are probably just missing the map.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the interview are those of the guest speaker and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SexWorkCEO or MelRose Michaels. Anything said or written is of their opinion and is not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone else.