“I don’t think they’d want to read those messages, so it perfectly suits them to just see the money going into their accounts.”
Donatello is one of the people you’re talking to when you think you’re talking to someone on OnlyFans. He is Co-owner of A communications agency Lost Boys Agency.
He and his team send personalized messages with photos from three weeks earlier that he pulled from a hard drive while sitting in bed slumped over his laptop at three in the morning. And it has become so lucrative that they are working on it 24 hours a day with day and night teams.
While OnlyFans has been around for five years now – it was launched by Tim Stokely in November 2016 – it took off in a big way in Donatello native Italy when the world entered into a series of lockdowns in early 2020. Nearly two years on, revenues from platforms like OnlyFans have soared and personalities from different backgrounds – including reality TV and the porn industry – have found huge success in this new economy.
But like every image-obsessed industry, there are still workers behind the scenes keeping the show on the road. We spoke to Donatello about what it’s like to be one of them.
london Daily Post: What does your job actually involve?
Donatello: We manage the OnlyFans and Patreon accounts of several influencers, four to seven of whom are active at a time. That means they publish content – photos and videos – at a contractually agreed upon rate. Their level of fame determines how many times a day we will post for them. Some get one a day, others six. They all get a lot of messages every day, mostly from men, and we respond to them. That means they publish content – photos and videos – at a contractually agreed upon rate. Their level of fame determines how many times a day we will post for them. Some get one a day, others six. They all get a lot of messages every day, mostly from men, and I and my team respond to them on behalf of the influencers. Over the course of the weekend, we get as many as 10000 or so messages.
What demands the most attention in this job?
Over 90 percent of my time on OnlyFans is spent answering messages together with my team. Many of the requests come from men with very specific tastes. They have fantasies about hair, nails or feet. Some even want pictures where the model is wearing a face covering, or surgical gloves. We immediately send these requests to the girls and if it is feasible, they send the photos within an hour.
The point is to keep the customers happy and remember that we are marketing and selling a product. The messages we exchange must move quickly toward a commercial proposition. These guys are used to that and they are there to make a purchase.
How do you get your voice right?
We try to get to know the girls personally, so we don’t start posting nonsense. We also constantly look at their Instagram feeds, look at their Stories, make sure what we say on OnlyFans matches what they post elsewhere. I’ve always enjoyed studying people, trying to understand how they work. Everyone has limitations, so that’s one of the first things I ask them: What are you comfortable doing and showing on platforms like OnlyFans? Depending on what they say, I know whether to be shy or extroverted in the posts. From one girl to another, I try to change the conversation slightly, but the basics always stay the same.
Are you making good money from it?
For each contract, for each girl, we have a fixed fee of 3,000 euros a month. Then I take five percent commission of what they earn for every 5,000 euros. So, for example, if they make 15,000 euros in a month, I take 15 percent, 20 percent for more than 20,000 euros, and so on. For the best-known influencers, we go above 50,000 euros.
Could they even do this job themselves?
If they had to manage their messages themselves, 99 percent of the time they would tell the guys to go to hell. Me and my team have that detachment, we respond to people while asking for respect and referring them to a commercial call. The influencers are very happy my team is doing this work for them and barely look at the amount they are spending on my services. I don’t think they would want to read those posts, so it is perfectly convenient for them to just see the money go into their account.
