We get asked a lot how to start in amateur porn – and we love to give advice and are super happy if we inspire people to do so, because it’s so much fun (and also we got inspired some day – mainly by the “XConfessions” Series of Porn Short Movies by Erika Lust).
This blog post will grow over time driven by our experience and your FAQ, so feel free to send feedback and questions! To do so, best is probably to follow us on twitterand use the messenger there.
We’ll try not to bore you with long memories and anecdotes, but to keep it tl;dr and to the point.
2017, during my last pregnancy, I was constantly horny, we watched porn and had mind blowing sex all day, so we just started filming ourselves to watch later. He tried everything to get bigger loads to impress me (it worked, here’s how) and I reallystarted to LOVE being filmed getting cum sprayed 
<3
Just for fun, we decided to show others and see if they’d enjoy it. Back then, the place to post for beginners seemed to be Tumblr, so we uploaded some 10sec clips and images there and grew to about 150k followers (!) before Tumblr decided to ban NSFW content from their site about a year later. Sigh. But we had so much fun there, made a lot of friends, and decided to try out other platforms as well.
The last paragraph looks like boring memories? The point is: Think about what you’re going to do. If you’re in a relationship you want to keep and grow, discuss with your partner and put FUN and consent FIRST: You don’t want to end up copying styles, having to fuck 2 more times this week to pay rent, and do things you’d normally hate just to get 20$. People seem to see in all of your content if you’re LOVING what you’re doing and like that. Do it from the heart and 1st for yourself.
If amateur porn is sex work for you, a job to make money, there’s nothing wrong with that and the following best practices also apply, but be sure first what you’re doing. If it’s a job, you’ll become annoyed and frustrated at times, like in any job. Be sure you can handle this emotionally. Just think that through and make a choice. For us, it’s the 1st variant, we’re doing this as part of our relationship and sex life, we don’t do live shows and custom videos, but that’s all up to you. Be prepared to decide, always be sure you’re on the same page with your partner(s).
Finally, here’s the list of best practices, tips and tricks
HOW TO START: TECH
It takes at least a camera, an idea what to shoot, and the guts to do and upload it – that’s pretty much it
A few things can be improved right before the start: We use two GoPro Hero 7 black, because we love the “action sports” style and to film each other – the GoPro is small and has great image stabilization. It lacks the “professional/cinematic” bokeh/image style. If you’re into that, buy a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a good wide angle or zoom lens (we recently upgraded to the Sony Alpha 6400/6600/7iii range – but this is not a camera comparison page – GoPros are great for spontaneous scenes and we carry at least one wherever we go, but if you have more time or less light, use a “real” camera. There’s so much content out there, image quality is an obvious way to stand out.
We edit our clips in FinalCut Pro and we strongly recommend to use a good video editing software for that. Footage looks much better after some finishing touches, color correction and skin tone color grading.
We (still) have to blur our faces because of jobs, so we use the “SliceX” Plugin for a tracked blur or pixel mask.
But regardless of what gear you’re using, the most important thing is LIGHT, and LOTS if it. Skin tones look best in daylight, a cloudy day or in some shade to avoid hard shadows. All cameras will produce best results in shadow-free daylight, it’s called “PHOTO”graphy for a reason. Second best is ENOUGH artificial light, but avoid buying the cheapest lamps, you’ll have much more work adjusting colors in post production as they flicker or add annoying green or pale yellow light to the scene.
If you’re shooting handheld, use a gimbal, a camera that has good stabilization – or at least do that in post (will crop the image!), but really the WORST are shaky, grainy phone videos of blurry dark genitals. Just saying 
HOW TO START: CONTENT
some say you should do everything, we think you should find and start in a niche (like we did with cumshot and outdoor scenes), and take it from there to the next. People banging all day in front of cameras, so it’s hard to be known as yet another couple doing that – find something you can stand out with and get known for, even if it’s details – you’ll always be “the guy with the big loads” or “the girl who loves doggy” even in your next niche – “now they’re doing anal” or “great new lingerie scenes”.
Even though we recommend a niche, as said, you can try everything, copy styles, find inspiration, but
MOST IMPORTANT in amateur porn: Do what you LOVE. People will see that and love you for that. Professional porn looks like people doing a good job, but mostly a job (with rare exceptions). We think that’s the main difference (next to all kinds of phantasies like “could be our neighbor” or “I know her from work”).
Produce quality content, always do the best you can. Even if it should look like a video made with a mobile phone, give it some light, focus on the things you want to be seen and tell, always do better next time. Quality content will spread automatically, sometimes like crazy. Invest a little extra effort, it will pay eventually.
WHERE TO START: PLATFORMS
WARNING If you want to keep your privacy (as we do), DON’T use Facebook or Instagram in both of your lives – these apps spy on you and it WILL happen that your “secret account” Insta app (even on another phone!) will notice another device in the same WiFi often (like Facebook on your work phone) and you’ll find your NSFW identity recommended as a “new friend” to your coworkers. JUST AVOID THAT. If you’re fine with that, insta is a great network, just keep pix SFW.
In general: Watermark ALL of your content – the’ll be stolen, cropped and blurred, but at least some stuff will be shared with readable watermarks and will be advertising you on the long run.
If you watermark, choose a stage name that’s easy to google or (even better) point to your own domain. You can register domains with an escrow service to keep your privacy. You can decide on content there later, maybe just redirect it to your main social media profile or put up a link list. It should be something you can’t loose – like a domain or a unique name. You can get any profile on free sites shut down without prior notice, don’t render thousands of “ads” on content pieces out there useless. So think of a good name
In general, if you start with your own website, nobody will know and use it. So you should start on existing platforms – free and paid porn pages, and social media networks still allowing NSFW content. People are out there waiting for new content daily, just be where they are.
Social Media
Twitter is packed with all kinds of porn, amateurs and actors, but as it’s a “get followers first” network, it’s hard to gain a following. But once you have followers, it’s growing. Make an account, find people to RT your stuff, like and follow others, it will get better every day. Just make sure you only use SFW profile and header pics and mark your twitter account as “sensitive/adult” in settings. They’re tolerant, but not following the few rules will result in a ban quickly. Also toggle the switch to “I want to see sensitive content”. Start by following people, search for hashtags (also NSFW, twitter will limit results) find out who they are following, RT stuff you like, tweet own stuff, sometimes tag people you’d like to see (and eventually RT) your stuff, even ask some accounts to RT your stuff. Only do so for your TOP tweets.
Video clicks 3 to 5 times better than pictures, you can upload video directly to twitter (up to 2:20 minutes long, 720p)
Reddit is massive, great for porn, and kind of working like the other way around compared to twitter – there are “SubReddits” already packed with a niche audience (and niches can be reeeeally narrow there, like “guys cumming twice”, “female POV”, GirlsFinishingTheJob” or even “PeachFuzz” meaning the tiny hair on, well, peaches and other parts of your body – here are some lists of NSFW subreddits to give you an idea: NSFW Subreddit Directory and List of NSFW Subreddits
That being said, if you know what niche you’re in, tons of people are already waiting to LOVE your content. Some Subs have more than aMILLION members, so if you play by their rules (some subreddit admins behave like grumpy janitors, but they must constantly face a shitload of spam…) you’ll have success there. DON’T EVER ADVERTISE ON REDDIT IN ANY WAY. Some subs also restrict use of watermarks EXCEPT your bare reddit username. So make content for these subs, mention your username, and use your user profile to advertise a little more. Your profile, of course, is free to use for ads of any kind. Just don’t overdo it, it’s not reddit culture.
To post pictures on reddit, some subs allow direct upload, but standard is to post to imgur first, then post the (direct) link to the imgur hosted pic to reddit as “link”. Some subs, also your profile, allow direct image uploads. FLAG IT HIDDEN/MATURE ON IMGUR! Sometimes they delete sensitive content faster than changing tabs back to reddit
To post videos on reddit (of maximum 1 minute length!), upload the video to redgifs.com or another host to turn it into a GIF (even with sound!), then post the LINK of the redgifs GIF to reddit and it will show up auto play. Check the subreddit’s rules for allowed image/video hosts.
You can always post links to your PornHub, XVideos or xHamster stuff, but most of them will show up as tiny thumbs in the reddit stream.
Also here, make sure you flag your Reddit profile asNSFW and in settings, state that you want to see NSFW content, otherwise even searching for XXX keywords will result in zero results.
Create an additional subreddit r/YourStageName to build it before anybody else grabs it. There will be not much traffic in the beginning.
When Tumblr pulled the plug, some others like MeWe, FetLife, Sharesome and bdsmlr tried to fill the gap – try if they work for you / in your niche, but don’t expect much. Can be fun, though.
I promote fellow creators who make good cumshot related content on my FREE OnlyFans.com/glazedgirls – it’s free, I appreciate a shoutout in return, but it’s for accounts of all sizes, also newcomers.
Models tell me they get TONS of new subscribers. Fans are happy, because OF is not searchable for kinks.
Sign up there (free), check what’s on there (400+ models already are!) – and write me there! Very looking fwd!
Free Porn Sites
they seem to be your enemy on 1st sight, because they’re huge and free for the user (who might end up NOT paying for anything you do) but missing out on them is like not being there and not having a strategy to handle reality with brick and mortar retailers ranting about amazon. These are the world’s largest internet sites full of people watching porn – you have to be there. Some of them even pay a share of the ad revenue they make with your free clips, and like on YouTube, the top publishers make a ton of money there. Even in the top 100 or 200 there’s money to be made. So if you make great content, you’ll be there
Our strategy right now is posting less there, mostly teasers and only some HD full clips, because we’re building our following on paid sites which is more sustainable than betting on the ad rev share lottery, but up to you. Like said, the top few make a ton.
PornHub – the biggest porn site, they definitely pay the best ad rev share. Really be there. Their sister site ModelHub is a clip store, you can upload to PH and sell on MH at the same time with a single checkbox. PH also offers a “fan club” for models and a “Premium section” for members. You can classify your clips as “free”, “for fans” and “for sale” – Their “Premium” section allows members to watch clips in HD for a monthly fee, if you allow your paid clips to play there, you get a share of the money made. Overall probably the best of all free sites, but a HUGE meat market with big competition.
Registration is easy and straightforward, upload your ID and agree to their T&C, that’s it. Payments are always on time.
xHamster – quality traffic (similar to PH) and friendly, active community (messages, comments) – they now do pay a small ad rev share, and have tons of traffic. If you sign up as a studio, you’re allowed to put ads to your pay site around your content, that really works. Their “PREMIUM” clip store doesn’t work well.
Registration is a little weird – to become a model you’ll have to upload ID and agree to T&C, but “Account verification” requires a picture of you showing your face that will be published. If you don’t want to do that, it’s totally fine to post stuff in your “unverified” account (so do we, as we can’t show faces!).
Try to sign up as a “Creator” from the start, it allows you to place banners to your pay site(s) around your content!
XVideos – they operate a full network of sites with a LOT of traffic, and will publish your content on all of them. They pay ad rev share, but way less than PH. You can also make money from plays on their premium “RED” network, which is OK, but also less than on PH.
Register with ID and agreed TOS, you’ll have to upload a “verification video” that will be public but don’t have to show your face, so we did and it’s fine.
Paid Sites
There are many pages you can make money on, some of them are like “stores” to sell your videos, panties, cam shows, services, etc. while others are “Subscriptions/Fan Clubs” where people pay a monthly fee to get new content regularly or watch for free from the archive – and every combination of these. Most of these pages take a commission, most of these seem to be best for certain niches. Try at least to sell on all of them until stay with the most promising 2 or 3. These sites are also different in terms of architecture – some are platforms/directories with a significant amount of traffic coming from their main page, others are depending on you bringing the traffic via your social media etc. and work as “store software” only. Like the difference between amazon (a huge directory full with people who want to buy) vs. shopify (a nice piece of software for a store that nobody knows until you know how to get them there)
All In One: Store + Subscription + Extra Services
ModelCentro this is where we ended up with our homepage – they offer a store for people who want to buy single favorite clips, a subscription for customers who want to watch all and get updates, cam and tel sex (which we don’t use yet), and a blog (as you can see :). Best of all: A real “Homepage” with your own domain, and previews so people know what to expect. So we recommend to check all features and sign up as a model here – at least try
MyDirtyHobby is around for ages, offers a video store, camming, chat, paid messages, and seems to be really popular in Germany (which is a big market!) – focus seems to be on models who do live stuff and chat, content upload is lengthy and requires SFW previews – but might be worth a try. Check it out here
Cam Sites
we never did live camming, so if you have experiences to share, get in touch! It obviously helped many models to start their career!
Subscription Only
OnlyFans is around for quite some time, has a nice minimalistic “twitter/follower” style design and a friendly community. You should really sign up and try – most people already heard about that, it has been in the mainstream news, so it’s a great way to sell XXX content to 1st time buyers – and it’s easy to become a fan there.
As OF doesn’t recommend anything like “who to follow” on FB and Twitter, you’ll have to promote your OnlyFans on your own – via social media, shoutouts with other models etc. – AND you’ll have to put your NSFW previews and teasers somewhere else, as they don’t allow it as header or profile pictures.
A good way to start may also be setting up a “free to follow” profile and sell single pieces of content (you can add a price tag to posts and messages) or run a free profile in addition to a paid one. Make sure fans always feel special, post exclusive content only for them and be helpful, interactive, and productive
For us it’s one of the most important places to be – so Sign up for OnlyFans here
There are other similar pages like AdmireMe etc., but we don’t have any experience yet. Share yours!
Store Only
ManyVids (our recommendation) – clean, structured store. Focus seems to be on solo girls, but also for us, it works. At least try, they’re one of the best and well known. Sign up here
Clips4Sale – not only the interface looks like it, it’s one of the oldest clip stores. Focus seems to be on fetishes of any kind, try it!
IndieBill closed as of Nov 2020. Sad.
ModelHub – PornHubs sister clip store page. See above. Sign up here
Pages we tried with little success are video stores SideDaddy.com, iWantClips.com and the recommendation page Sharesome.com – happy to hear about your experience on these
Conclusion
0) pleaseuse the links in this blog post to register on these sites – we get a small buck if you do, it’s a nice way of saying “thx” – thx
1) register a domain if possible
2) sign up at least to ModelCentro (all features) OnlyFans (fanclub) and ManyVids (clip store) as your main media outlets. You can start OnlyFans for free to test the waters (some content can still be sold as Pay Per View!)
3) if you register a domain, use it with ModelCentro, as it’s a fully featured adult paysite. Or make a list of all your profiles as the starting page, you can even configure it as a redirect to your OnlyFans or fansly.
4) watermark all your content with your domain or unique, “easy to find and remember” screen name
5) use the tube sites like xVideos, PornHub and XHamster to promote a mix of full vids and teasers. make it a creator’s account to earn ad rev share.
6) use Reddit and Twitter as Social Media (also here, a mix of freebies and teasers – you can promote the same clip in a tweet “free to watch” on PornHub and 4K “to buy” on ManyVids or ModelCentro!)
7) take it from here, make, measure, learn, repeat. Expand to other platforms, niches, etc.
8) have fun and success best of luck!