If you’re new or looking to overhaul your pricing structure because it’s time for a change, this is a great place to start. Here’s a template you can download to follow along, we’re going to go through everything on it in order.
Everything can cost money. On the fan sites, we sell a lot of stuff. Most of it is the usual, obvious things: photos, videos, sexting. But what about other stuff? What about that guy asking you to read the first chapter of his novel in progress or that other other guy who wanted you to copy and paste your sexting session with him into a Google Doc and share it? (These are both real-life examples we have dealt with… more than once.)
Your time and attention is of value. When you are reading someone’s attempt at a novel or watching a ten minute video tour of someone’s redone backyard (also a real-life example), that is time you could be sexting with another fan, selling videos, promoing yourself on Reddit, spending time with your friends, and so on. There should be a cost to your time because it is incredibly limited.
Attention Pricing
Regular Conversation. You need to get to know your fans. That’s how you bond, form relationships, keep subscribers, and sell them content. So there is some amount of free conversation. But at a certain point (and we’ve all been there), someone has been talking too long (hours, days, weeks?) and hasn’t tipped or purchased a single thing aside from a one-month sub. You need to ask for a tip. How much is up to you.
If they’re asking about your personal life, it’s a personal question. That’s of value. They need to tip to know if you have a boyfriend/cat/what type of car you drive.
If they’re telling you about their favorite bands and sending you a ton of links of songs to listen to and asking you what you think, they need to tip for your time to go do that. You’re a busy person and they’re asking you to sit down and spend some decent amount of time listening to Insane Clown Posse or whatever. You aren’t their girlfriend, you are a vendor in an online marketplace. They need to tip for your attention and time. (We will have a blog on how to do this later on.)
Sexy Conversation. This is stuff like “What’s your bra size?” and “When was the last time you masturbated?” It’s not sexting, but they are absolutely getting off to it. If they’re getting off, they need to tip. If it’s a short answer (like the bra size), it should be one price, but if it’s a long answer to something like “What do you think about when you masturbate?” it should be more. The more you have to write, the more you should charge.
Sexting Pricing
Sexting. Some people like drip sexting (charging per message, per photo, per video clip as you go) and some people like doing blocks of time (15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc). You can offer both, one, or some entirely different structure that works for you. Whatever you do, you should have that written down here.
Live Sexting. Work out in advance what you will offer and what you will charge. Have boundaries. Like, “I offer 30 minute live-sexting sessions where you receive X-amount of photos, X-amount of videos, and/or X-amount of voice memos during that time. This costs $XXX total. Anything over X-number of photos/videos/voice memos will cost extra.”
Sexting Appointments. Here at BonerGhosts, we have found that many fans will say they want to sext at a certain date and time and then they don’t show up. Get a deposit. 50% of the session cost? 15%? A flat $20? Your call. Do you want to have a larger deposit for live sexting (I would, personally). Then do that.
Opening Their Stuff
Non-Sexy Picture and Video Opens. Some fans will send pictures of their entire lives, videos touring their workplaces, videos touring their homes. They’re excited to share with you. They’re bonding with you. Do you charge for this? Do you eventually charge for this? How much?
Sexy Picture Opens. If someone sends you a picture of their dick or them flexing in a mirror, you don’t have to open it for free. They have a boner. They want your attention. They want you to open it and coo over their penis or torso–even if they don’t want a dick rating, they want something from you. You should charge to open these pictures. How much?
Sexy Video Opens. You’ve just received a masturbation video. It’s ten minutes long. Are you really going to watch that without a tip? Know how much you need to sit there and watch a guy jerk it for ten minutes so you can go “wow, you sure jerked it, you jerking jerker” at the end. (We do price based on video length, but do what works for you.)
Dick Rates. How much for a text dick rating? What does that include? What about a voice note/audio memo? How long will this memo be? What about a video dick rating? How long will these videos be?
Your Content
Photos. How much for a single picture? Is there a discount if they buy a bundle of pictures? What is the discount for 5 pics? 10? 20? You should have this written down somewhere.
Videos. The rumored baseline for videos is $1/min. We have seen much cheaper and much more expensive. We suggest having a base price for your standard video type (whatever that is) and then you increase or decrease based on the video you are pricing. Meaning that if most of the videos you release are solo masturbation with a vibrator and you price those at $1/min, then you release a video of you having sex with two other people, it should probably be more than $1/min because it’s new, exciting, more work, and so on.
Live Calls. These are one-on-one videos–depending on the site you are on, you sometimes cannot see the fan, but they chat to you. If you hate doing them, have a price that makes it worth it to you. If you love doing them, maybe a lower price so you can do more. Get a deposit if you’re booking them in advance. Make sure you communicate the price in advance and get paid at the start of the session.
Physical Goods
Worn Items. Do you sell panties? Bras? Socks? Shoes? Shorts? Sex toys? First off, know that selling worn/used items with biological material on them is against the ToS on almost all fansites because it isn’t precisely legal to mail them (because of the biological material). So take that into account before you start selling them. If you decide to sell them, then price them so you aren’t taking a hit. You theoretically need to replace the item. There is the shipping cost. Then you have to take into account the site fee. If you sell a pair of shoes you love that you paid $100 for $150, the sites take 20% ($30 in this case), then you’re shipping shoes ($20?), so you’re breaking even. You just spent all these time taking with the fan to sell them, then getting a box, going to the post office or Fedex, waiting in line, to break even?? And they were your favorite shoes?!?!?
Any physical good you are mailing has costs. They might be small costs, but there are costs. Make sure you are covering them.
As always, this is a reminder that what you are doing takes your time and attention. Your time and attention have value. Value yourself.
Check out the rest of our Pricing Guides or go back to the BonerBlog!