Ignore the typo but I’m STREAMIN’ TONIGHT! 🖤✨ It’ll be a nsfw stream, 18+ only (as always). I’ll be drawing for around 2 hours on my private picartoTV channel. You can access it by subscribing to the first tier on my SubscribeStar creator page. (Link)
Since I have seen a lot of recent talk about adult creators moving from Patreon to SubscribeStar.adult, I decided to write up a post with a few simple pointers for setting up a creator page, so hopefully anyone trying to regain lost income can get there faster.
First, though—The term ‘Not-Safe-For-Work’ tries to fit us into the linguistic framework of sexwork-bashing. From here on out, I will be using the term ‘adult creator’ instead—Since for a lot of us, this IS a job. This is Work. Not only that, we’re running a fucking business.
Patreon has, to its benefit, a prestigious name & sleek web design. But since adult creators who made such large scale platforms as these a destination are being ousted, we’re left with additional burdens of proving ourselves. We have to not just be creators, but community-intensive entrepreneurs.
The only other platform I know of that hosts adult content, for now, is Subscribestar.adult. Throughout this post I will list pieces of advice that helped me progress towards my goals as a creator on the platform. After a long period of stagnation, I tried a different approach, and was able to reach more people. A small breakthrough can make a small creator feel like they’ve hacked something, but in reality I haven’t hacked anything. I think these tips follow principles of marketing that are good to have in your business toolkit, generally. Be as transparent as possible so that your subscribers can discover you.
Bios: Use your creator bio for a 1-2 sentence description of what you’re currently working on/posting. Be very specific and frank about what you post—it’ll only help you draw in your crowd! Keywords are important so that anyone browsing at a glance can know if your work might be for them. This advice is mainly for creators who don’t have ‘Free Trial’ set up. I personally have no experience using the Free Trial feature on SubscribeStar.adult.
Keywords & Tags: I love you, but we all know this website hosts ‘porn’ ’nsfw’ and ‘nudes.’ Don’t be ashamed to literally write ‘Boobs’ ‘hypno’ ‘cannibalism.’ Your people will find you and the ones who don’t enjoy that will leave you in peace.
My Icon, Banner, Bio, Tags, Goal, and the beginning of my Subscription Tiers.
Subscription Tiers: When your creator page loads, this is the first thing a viewer will see, right after your bio. I recommend not using verbose explanations for the tier descriptions, but weaving a light, enticing narrative. Again, though, be concise and clear about what each tier offers.
Goals: You can make multiple goals at once on your page. I have one Big Goal—I don’t want to crowd my page with multiple smaller goals because I think it looks chaotic. Some creators opt for their first goal to be $150, since SubscribeStar’s payout limit when you start your creator page is $150–a pretty big expectation for anyone just starting out on a new platform. On this, one solution is offered: Depending on the laws where you live, the mods may be able to lower it to $50 if you send them a polite email.
Welcome Media: It’s best to think of this space as your would-be subscriber’s visual directory. The web design of SubscribeStar.adult is different from Patreon. When I started using it, I found it frustrating to adjust to. I don’t know if it’s easier on desktops, as I don’t have a computer. Welcome Media can be an image or video showcasing your work AND your posting schedule. Having both on my Welcome Media has worked well for me since I started using it. Imagining your page from a stranger’s perspective, one can see why: Knowing how often a creator posts, especially for each tier, is important, and it doesn’t hurt to have that information somewhere more eye catching than your Subscription Tiers. It also helps optics to have your text color theme match with SubscribeStar.adult’s color theme—Use an eyedropper on their logos to get exact matches.
Welcome Media that shows art style and posting schedule.
Public Post: You don’t have to do this, but it’s helped me. My pinned public post is an intro to my current ongoing webcomic project. It contains a brief synopsis of the plot, content warnings & tags, a webtoon-esque “comic trailer” to showcase the art style, the character dialogue, the main couple’s (fucked up) relationship dynamic, and an embedded links section.
Icon & Banner: If you are an e-famous adult artist using SubStar.adult who has a recognizable name and you’re already making a living, or if you are a writer, this advice is not really directed at you, keep rockin’.
First, I think it’s helpful for viewers to see a creator’s style showcased in their Icon—a neat logo can be sexy, and a fetish in its own right. A hot character you draw often, or two, or three, works just as well. When people browse SubStar’s creator directory they see three things: Icon, Bio, and Keywords. Consider this part of the creator page as a sexy Victorian ankle flash, getting your viewer’s attention as they scroll for just long enough that they read your bio and click into your page. You’ve achieved one crucial step of establishing yourself that way if you don’t already have a billion followers elsewhere. Next, your Banner is a space to artfully & tastefully showcase the main fetishes in your work, your mysterious vibes, or your hot characters. With this, you reward viewers who clicked on your page with the knowledge that they have come to the right place and are safe now with an understanding and benevolent pornsmith.
Posting: Adding this part on 11-30-23 because I was tired the night I blogged and forgot. Subscribestar.adult has a file size limit on your posts when you create your account. I believe the limit is 20MB per post. If you need more file data for your posts, email Support a request to increase the file size limit. I did this and got 45MB of file data.
Why did I write this post?
Two reasons.
I want you to have an easier time than I did trying to make income on this platform, especially if you just lost a month’s worth of it from puritanical wage theft. I’m so sorry that Patreon pulled the rug out from under you. They did the same thing to me last July when one of the mods interpreted my cope art as being criminal and terminated my account, and my month’s income, without warning. They labeled my work as being bad for sexual abuse survivors when I myself am one. I have never felt more impugned and castigated over literal drawings. I am not interested in ABDL, but I don’t judge. I have my own creative outlets and have been called every single word in the book for it. Don’t give up. Hopefully this advice ends up reminding you that what you have is better than what Patreon has.
I think specific fetishes should be easier to find on adult art-focused websites. How often do you hear your emotional support pervert lament that finding their kinks by other creators is impossible? I don’t think this is for lack of them not existing. Mainly, I think it’s because internet purity culture, cringe culture and strict payment processors have trained adult artists to fear their own labels. On SubStar.adult, that concern is significantly lessened because it’s an adult-only platform. There are always going to be immature adults who scoff at your Tags, but they’re immature adults on a cartoon porn site. How likely are they to be sending screenshots of your bio to their buddies if they’re tacitly outing themselves as some other kind of online horny person? …What were you doing at the SubscribeStar.adult, Goody Proctor…?
It took a couple of years before I started learning how to use this platform’s features to share my style of erotica with others who like the same things. My Subscribestar.adult creator page has been growing quicker than it ever did these last couple of months after I started considering my public facing page from the subscriber’s perspective. I am always trying to fine tune things: my art, my graphics, my advertising copy, to become better at meeting minds with other pervs looking for Undead Gay Trans Horror Boobies. If I play my cards right, I have a chance to meet the goal I promised myself I’d reach by 2025. Wouldn’t that be something. So, If you lean into a specific passion, you should advertise it, because it will help you stand out here. You earned recognition and survived on the orange website that has openly hated fetish porn for years. Don’t give up!
I sincerely, sincerely hope this advice post helps. You all have my blessing.
Worms,
Pom
The creator account got banned! On July 6th 2023, Patreon Support terminated my account without warning, due to my art allegedly violating community guidelines, which state “Patreon has zero tolerance for the sexualization of minors and sexual violence.” Little Death is a survivor story at its core and I actually started the comic to liberate myself from feeling shame about my sexual agency as a survivor now in adulthood. I have tried to reach out to Patreon Support to ask about my ban, but Patreon Support ignored my requests for further information. Support instead repeated their zero tolerance policy, refusing to engage meaningfully with my words, over the course of several weeks as I attempted to contact them. Because my account was terminated suddenly, I wasn’t able to contact any of my patrons who weren’t already in my private discord server.
To those who lost my account and didn’t know where I went, I am so sorry. I was too concerned for my privacy to write publicly about it. Because Patreon’s Trust and Safety Team behavior made me feel unsafe with inappropriate accusations, and since the ban occurred a week after they requested my ID, I was and still am concerned about how Patreon plans to use my personal information depending on what I write about them. The account termination was not made in accordance with any written ‘violate our community content guidelines this many times and we’ll suspend you for good’ rule, any transparency in their process, or willingness to understand diverse perspectives, so I have no trust in their word. They also took down an alt account I made to support my friends who still use the platform.
Options for how to handle this situation are being considered. I want to support my peers on Patreon and be exonerated. I also have pressing issues like keeping the lights on at home and continuing to make the art that’s important to me. I’m continuing Little Death and exploring ideas for future comics I want to do. I used Patreon’s platform for 3 years to earn a living off my art, but that’s no longer an option. I kept my Subscribestar.adult account as a mirror posting backup in case this ever happened. I continue to do the same Tiers and Rewards there that I had on Patreon.
The thing that bothers me the most about having my account terminated is being cut off from the community of Patreon and losing the support that 3 years of my hard work went into building!!! This all still feels deeply unsettling to me. It especially rankles that I invested so much in Patreon that I put a link to my creator page in the physical print of Volume 1. I’m trying to move on and let go of what I had. The good news is that I’m still here, Little Death is still here, and you can still support the comic if that’s something you wanna do!
Worms, Pom Poison
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