How I Tried Content Monetization on a Spicy Platform

Part 1: The Experiment🧪

If I were you, I’d be asking: "Why on earth do we need to know the origin story of your site?" Honestly, guys? I have no idea. I don't have a good answer for you. You’d probably live a perfectly fine life without this information, but hey—there will be pictures, so at least you won't be bored! :-)

Also, full disclosure: as you can see, this site doesn’t even have a custom domain yet and is running on a free Vercel plan. So if you’re here for "girlboss" financial literacy tips or a "how-to-be-successful" Ted Talk… you are definitely in the wrong place. Lol.

The story begins

I had never even visited those sites before, but the sign-up process was surprisingly fast. I didn’t tell a soul about my plan to create NSFW content, but from that moment on, I was stalked by ads from "marketing agencies" promising quick and easy cash. Greed totally took over. I figured I could handle my own account and keep all the profit. I basically went out and bought a giant shovel to rake in the cash and extra-large bags to store all my $100 bills.🤑 (Just kidding. I already owned the shovel.)

Long story short, I started "grinding" for the fans. I went into it with zero chill. I was convinced that as soon as the world saw my photos, I’d steal all the traffic on the platform.

One of my first attempts to get some fans

I was out here doing the most. I spent nights strutting down my apartment hallway at 3 AM, terrified that a neighbor would pop their head out to see who was haunting the building. One early summer morning, my friend even helped me do a full-blown "artistic" photoshoot in a city park.

It was very short photo shot

While other models were posting... everything... for free, my shy photos of my back weren’t exactly breaking the internet. So, 20 days into the experiment: my balance was exactly $0.00📈. My view count was basically flatlining. At that point, I wasn’t even expecting an income anymore. I just felt a bit dumb for wasting my time, and my self-esteem took a hit.

I’ve always noticed this weird pattern in my life: the harder I try to do something, the worse it turns out. This applies to literally everything. I’ll stay up all night studying for midterm exams, only to barely hit the passing grade. I’ll try to get in shape, overdo it at the gym, and end up with a gastritis flare-up. I’ll spend all day cooking a complicated dish—measuring everything to the gram, checking the temperature every minute—only to mix something at the wrong time and have to throw the whole thing in the trash.

Anyway, I was just about to give up and delete my boring, ignored content for good... when suddenly, my view count absolutely exploded...