Before we get into specific platforms, let’s go over the general “do’s” and “dont’s” that apply to marketing yourself anywhere on the internet and in general as a sex worker.
Do not “pedo bait” or participate in racist behavior.
Using terms like “teen”, “barely legal”, and/or simply pretending to be a minor is not welcome in the sex worker community. Even if you are actually 18 or 19, encouraging that type of audience to you is unsafe for you and the community as a whole.
Using terms like “PAWG” and “snow bunny” or “BBC” as a non-Black person is unwelcome and all have ties to racism.1 Similarly, performing the “ahegao” face as a non-Asian woman or feminine presenting individual who are reclaiming power, is not welcome.2
- White Creators: Please stop using “Phat”, “PAWG”, “BBC”, and “Snow Bunny”! ↩︎
- How the “Ahegao” Face Became Harmful ↩︎
Never use Artificial Intelligence for content creation!
Even media you generate with your own using AI is being created using stolen art that the AI was trained on. Yes- that includes text based AI like ChatGPT. Those were trained on writing from authors without their permission and continues to “learn” from people feeding it, usually, misinformation. Not to mention, AI servers require mass amounts of water to cool every time you prompt it and those same AI servers pollute Black communities.
AI does have ethical uses though! For example, text to speech screen readers, like we use on this website, or voice to text programs used by medical professionals are run by Artificial Intelligence. AI even has the ability to detect cancer cells before they fully develop. Will we get to the point where public use of AI can be done ethically? Not while billionaires are in power/exist, sadly.
Ensure you are not mistaken as a bot or catfish account!
Sex work is an incredibly busy job, especially if you only have a limited amount of spoons each day. It’s tough to stay on top of every task. Nevertheless, it is crucial to keep yourself in check regarding coming off like a soulless, repetitive bot to your audience or the platform itself.
What’s acting like a bot? There are many examples of common things bots do that you might not think is a big deal:
– not including your age, basic info, and verified links in your bio
– having multiple different accounts with all the same bio information (this is sadly very bot like and will make your accounts prone to being mistaken as fakes of you)
– only showing up to drop a tease-y thirst trap a day with a cheesy, overused line as the caption
– never replying to any other sex workers or potential new buyers/subs
– participating in mass tagging other creators (most platforms view it as spam behavior and it’s the fastest way to lose an account)
You don’t have to tell the public intimate details of your day-to-day life (only do so if you feel comfortable and truly enjoy it!). However, talk a bit about your hobbies, what’s on your mind (be it just random observations or a political statement). Rave and nerd out about your favorite show/album/game, tease a few content plans or other things you’re working on, some sexy stories and fantasies… all of these will help you show yourself as an authentic, all-round attractive, fun person and distinct you from other creators – making it incredibly tempting for people to check out more of your work!
Most importantly, by posting like someone would their personal account on your work account, you limit the chances of your account being flagged as spam. Having only one account is risky, but it also makes you look more real which means a lot to social media platforms that have flagging in place for spam. Instead of just making “back up accounts”, that scammers will also create using your content, create accounts with separate purposes (hobby account, spam account, etc.).
Don’t forget to watermark your promotional content!
The importance of watermarking cannot be stressed enough! By doing it properly, you will be able to protect yourself from theft. Even when theft happens, because it will, you will at least be able to drive some traffic to your content via the information you add to your watermark.
A good course of action is to either use a watermarking mobile app to quickly apply to your content before you post like eZy Watermark that’s available on iPhone and Android. If you have an iPhone, save your watermark to Files instead of Photos to ensure the transparency works as the Photo Gallery tends not to save transparency. The following links are the the paid versions of eZy Watermark as they are only $4.99 each one time fee and very easy to use as well as includes batch editing.
Keep in mind that there are tools that can strip the watermark from your work quite flawlessly – always assume that content thieves will use it. Make sure to place your watermark in a way that cannot be removed without mangling your picture or video.
Do not put your watermark in the middle of a leg or arm or on top of a plain background as it can be easily “smudged” away in any photo editing program.
Most people recommend either putting a large transparent watermark over the entire image or place a smaller one somewhere along the outline of your body in a busy area that won’t be as easily removed with software.
Delete older posts from your media tab every now and then!
To prevent people lingering on your profile and taking advantage of your uploads without paying/tipping, it’s good to delete some older posts every now and again. That way, you can also weed out the ones that didn’t gain much traction. After all, you can always eventually re-post anything you deleted! Mastodon has a built in system that allows for easy auto deletion of content, however- it’s the only one so far.
Interact with the community when you can! When you receive comments – do your best to reply!
The best times to post are pretty universal across all social media and are based on the heightened activity of the user base (time zone map):
- morning: 0600 to 0900
- midday: 1200 to 1400(2PM)
- early evening: 1800(6PM) to 2000(8PM)
Boost some posts you like and/or fellow sex workers, leave someone a comment or participate in discussions – this will humanize you and let people know you’re real! As a sex worker, personality matters just as much as looks, if not more, so don’t be afraid to show it.
That said, if someone crosses your boundaries, is spammy, acts rude, or sends you an unsavory DM – don’t be afraid to block and report them accordingly!
You do not need to post nude/uncensored promo content if you don’t want to!
Many famous creators have never once posted a nude on their social media, even ones that most feel obligated to do so on like Twitter. 🪦 Barely showing anything for free will easily create an incentive for people to buy from you.
That said, promoting nude can be advantageous for gaining a lot of traction and engagement fast! Nudity is very eye-catching and many porn consumers love to see what a creator looks like before subscribing/buying from them. Furthermore, many communities on Reddit are strictly nude-only!
On the other hand, platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram do not allow nudity, lewds, or anything that can be sexual in nature which seems to be a wide range of things. 😬 On SFW social media platforms, you will have to get creative with teasing your audience clothed.
Share your old posts to your feed and/or story ever so often!
Especially on platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon where there is no algorithm, sharing your own posts is encouraged and will not flag your account as spam unlike other platforms like Twitter.
Don’t use fancy fonts because it limits your search reach!
Unfortunately, fancy fonts are not read by screen readers or search engines like normal text because they count as “mathematical” symbols. This means that anyone that searches social media will not pull up your posts and anyone who uses screen readers will be unable to handle your posts because it sounds atrocious!
You 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 it's 𝒸𝓊𝓉ℯ to 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲 your tweets and usernames 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖜𝖆𝖞. But have you 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙙 to what it 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 with assistive technologies like 𝓥𝓸𝓲𝓬𝓮𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻? pic.twitter.com/CywCf1b3Lm
— Kent C. Dodds 🌌 (@kentcdodds) January 9, 2019
Ensure to provide ALT text for your picture and video posts to increase your search results!
Adding ALT text to the media you post makes it more accessible for people with screen readers and also improves it’s reach through searched terms. Not all social media platforms has the most obvious options to include ALT text, so we will go over each specific platform’s ALT text options in the linked articles below.
Finally, to each specific social media platform! Click on the platform you want to learn about below (opens in a new tab):
Blueskycoming soon!FikFapcoming soon!Instagramcoming soon!Mastodoncoming soon!Redditcoming soon!RedGIFscoming soon!Twittercoming soon!YouTubecoming soon!
Want to write one of the articles for a specific social media platform to be added above? Let us know!