There are many reasons women and men may want to venture into creating there own at-home "movies" to sell. Ranging from people who have already created their own porn and would like to make some money from it, people who are getting into adult modeling and want to widen their platform, those who just want to do it for fun without thoughts of money, and many more. Before you take the plunge into buying equipment, planning videos, or selling them, try to make sure you know at least some of the negatives effects that come with it:
1: Your platform will take percentage cuts.
No matter what platform you choose to spread your content on (ManyVids ,ELM, PornHub), they WILL be taking a percentage cut from you. That percentage varies with each company but most will take 20% to 40% of the money you make regardless of how much content or money you have made. That can be especially annoying when you may have made a video cost $10 dollars, that not only will you only get $6, it's also harder for videos to be bought the more expensive they are. To solve this you can add the companies percentage into the price of the video, for example $14 dollars instead of $10, though now it's less likely for that video to be purchased in general. You can also create your own website to host on, but that does guarentee traffic unless you already have a fan base 100,000 strong.
2: The entire process is super time consuming.
Many people may think all you have to do is turn on a camera, do your thing, post it online and wait for the cash to roll in, but in reality it's a much longer and harder waiting game than that. Not only do you need to make videos, you also have to get your makeup or "stage" set up, record at least 2x more footage than you think you need, so there's enough to edit them, then post them, take pictures, post them, post tweets, post on Instagram, post on Snapchat, reply to fan mail, create custom content, sell items and even enter contests. Whoever said this was an easy way into money, is not being honest with anyone. This is hard work, of course if you love something, you'll do the hard work anyway.
3: Entering the online adult industry is a big investment.
Another misconception about filming amateur porn is that you can just grab your phone while your getting it on, record it, and that's good enough to get you paid. It's not. No one is going to pay for your grainy, low-def, bad audio, unedited video, as much as I wish I could say they will, they won't. You need to invest in (preferrably) a laptop with at least 4GB RAM, a DSLR camera or HD (720p or up) webcam, lights, stage props, outfits/costumes, makeup, and decent video editing software for sellable content. If you don't already have these items, you can expect to pay $400 and up for a nice setup, if you want the best things for your content, they sky is the limit when it comes to price.
4: Your going to be doing a lot of self marketing.
Depending on which platform you decide on, you will have more or less responsibilities when it comes to marketing and advertising your own content. They absolute least marketed platform would be your own, by yourself. This would mean making your own website and only using social media (ie. Snapchat, IG, Twitter) to advertise your content, unless you are already well know or have 1,000's of followers, this is the worst option when it comes to quantity of customers. Then there is using a amateur hosting site like ManyVids which connects to your social media accounts and they post when you do, this defintely gives a boost to who will see you when they might not have if you were marketing alone, they also have things like contests, AMA's and live cam sessions on the main page to give thepeople a platform for new customers to find them. If you have money to throw, you could also pay for ads on very popular porn sites like PornHub or RedTube to get huge amounts of views.
5: You may not get noticed or popular.
Some people seem to think as long as you are showing your genitals, you are guaranteed to make money online, but this just isn't true. There is a whole list of things that make a popular amateur porn star and not all of us have those things, which is fine. There will always be someone thinner, curvier, taller, and more popular, but that doesn't mean you can't get a place in their spot. Maybe you can break a mold, be totally different, and make it to the top anyway, it's not impossible! But you really have to prepare yourself for the chance of not making it to the top, and maybe at the most you'll just get a little side spending cash, but I really believe the people who are in this for themselves and to have fun, won't mind if they don't get famous.
6: Your content will always have an amateur look.
One thing that sets back amateur actors compared to the professional pornstars is the look of the content that you will create. It's quite an obvious difference regardless of whether or not you're using more professional equipment compared to a cell phone or low-def camera. The style of filming, the look of the lighting, the background, the makeup, the outfits, the cast, are all easy pretty easy to spot when it comes to the difference between an amateur film and a professional film. This isn't necessarily a bad thing especially because amateur films are becoming more and more popular, however people who do want to see professional will not come to you. So be prepared to lose that part of the market when going into amateur porn versus professional porn.
7: Improper Self Care
As we can see by how much time investment making amateur porn takes, it's also kind of implied that you don't have much time for self-care. A huge difference when it comes to professional porn versus amateur porn is self care. Very professional producers and studios will have you adhere to a lot of strict rules and regulations when it comes to what's happening on set. You only do it a few times a month, maybe 7-10 times at most, you have eveything set up for you (lighting, makeup, camera equipment), you get tested and use protection, and you have a lot of resting time in between. You can send your own tweets, IG posts and Snapchat and do personal social media marketing as you please, but most of the marketing of professional porn is done by the company, so you have a lot more resting time when it comes to professional versus amateur.
It's also easier to forget to take care of your own body when doing amateur content. You're working so hard and you might say, 'Oh let's just do this scene again', and want to push yourself to keep going, even though you may be hurting in some way, whereas professional companies may ask you to stop. The mental stress of having to remember to keep up with all this stuff, to be able to post all the time, and also the stress of showing your own body to complete strangers is a stress on itself. It can be hard when you're making content at home, to find a safe space to separate yourself from these activities that you're doing. If you decide to get into this industry, do make sure you think about this side of it and find a place you can seperate from work. Try to find certain times of the day for content related things, so your whole day doesn't become work. Know not to go overboard, maybe set goals for yourself not to go over a certain amount of time, and really try to focus on health, over money or content.
The adult industry is not an industry that I would ever push someone to into doing, advocate for someone to do out of necessity, or say 'You should do this for fast money'. I don't believe in that. I believe those who really want to do this, will do it anyway, regardless of how much money is made or time is spent, and money should never be a factor when it comes to your privacy, boundaries, or morals. If you are in this type, any other type of forced sex work, or need some other help, I've listed some resources for help under the hosting recommendations. In this list, I didn't mention the more well-known things such as security issues, privacy issues, getting caught or outted to your co-workers, family, or friends, but these things have also been talked about in other articles when it comes to talks about porn safety. This list was also not meant to divert anyone who really wants to do this, it's just that you should always know what you're getting into before you do it. I will also be writing 7 positive sides of doing amateur porn, because it's really not all bad.
I hope this helps you come to a more informed decision.
Source:
Personal Experience
Hosting Sites:
ManyVids: https://www.manyvids.com
ExtraLunchMoney: https://extralunchmoney.com/
iWantClips: https://iwantclips.com/
Customs4U: www.customs4u.com/
YouKandy: https://www.youkandy.com/
Clips4Sale: https://www.clips4sale.com/
SMUTR: https://smutr.com/
Pornhub: https://www.pornhub.com/
Help:
National Human Trafficking Hotline: 1 (888) 373-7888 : https://humantraffickinghotline.org/
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1 (800) 656-4673 : https://www.rainn.org/
National Hotline for Missing & Exploited Children: 1 (800) 843-5678 : http://www.missingkids.com/home
National Runaway Safeline: 1 (800) 786-2929 : https://www.1800runaway.org/
The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1 (800) 422-4453 : https://www.childhelp.org/
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1 (800) 273-8255 : https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration : 1-800-662-HELP (4357) : https://www.samhsa.gov/
CDC National AIDS Hotline: 1-800-CDC-INFO (1-800-232-4636) : https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/default.html