Amber Spanks a.k.a Amber Dawn, is one of the most sexiest and talented adult performers I’ve ever seen. I talked about how I first discovered her, in my review of her incredible premium Snapchat that she used to operate and also touched on the stellar content on her personal website.

When I speak of talent, I’m not talking about taking 7 dicks in the ass or stuff that by some may be considered talent. Amber’s talent lies in her acting ability, her improvisation of dialogue, her facial expressions and gazes, her ability to be convincingly submissive or dominant - the way she fellates her guy is so damn beautiful to watch and just has to be observed.

I know being gorgeous and having an innate sexiness isn’t necessarily a talent but she also has been blessed with those attributes too.

Her husband’s skill for photography also lends to her content, for the longest time, being one of the standouts in terms of the overall filmic quality and aesthetic. Plus his own physical contributions to the videos, from administering spankings to being the lucky cock entering Amber’s orifices, also adds reasons to my argument of her beingg a bigger star than she currently is.

So I wonder why she maybe isn’t as recognised or as popular, as someone with her looks and talent should be. It might be a personal choice to not be overly in the limelight but I think there are some other reasons that I will list now.

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“Membership 1.0 and 2.0”

*Note- Membership 1.0 and 2.0 etc, is just my way of describing the types of memberships that exist, for the purpose of this write-up.*

Memberships/subscriptions and buying individual content has always existed in the world of adult content making, before Clips4sale, ManyVids etc, there were companies selling DVD’s and even further back, tapes were sold to consumers in specialised shops or sent by mail. With subscriptions being mainly something that happened in the 80's, with adult magazines and cable channels.

Today in the internet world, subscriptions and content buying is obviously easier and more instant. Membership 1.0, refers to the original online porn subscription, which would be the traditional porn sites where you paid a price to view their entire catalogue. Examples would be major sites like Brazzers but more specifically to me, sites from individual porn creators who either built their own sites or used companies like ModelCentro to house their individual sites. Some of these sites downloading is also included, or only at a slightly higher subscription price.

When it comes to solely buying individual content, there was and still is a bunch of sites that cater to that, including those who sell it independently. One that has been around for a while would be something like, Clips4Sale.

Membership 1.5, is a site like ManyVids, the only site that I can currently think of, that facilitates talent (or studios) to have videos for individual sale as well as a membership to view all, or selected videos on their page.

I remember ManyVids then adding something else around 2018, initially called MV Crush, that was set up to be more of an intimate experience between the fan and creator. You signed up for this membership to receive extra clips, teasers to up and coming content as well as being able to communicate in the DMs - basically anything the creator wanted to post. The previously mentioned ways to purchase content co-existed, in a separate space, with this additional fanclub model.

This was an added incentive for a super fan, who wanted more than just the content their favourite creator made. No different to super fans of a musical artist, subscribing to that artist's fanclub, in return they’d receive ‘free’ stickers/posters, priority and discounts on concert tickets, behind the scenes footage, first to see details on album releases etc.

A natural thing happens within any industry where someone introduces something to kind of disrupt or maybe streamline a process. Fan sites instead of being something solely extra for a superfan to consume additional content, started to become the de facto thing for creators to use, including those without an initial fanbase… Membership 2.0.

From my perspective, this type of membership in an attempt to merge the two existing models, instead blurred it in a negative way, which was heightened during the lockdown with the popularity of OnlyFans. And has since spurned a lot of copycat sites, and even made existing fan sites change the way they looked and operated, to be seen in the same light as OF.

This membership 2.0 model, specifically OnlyFans, had a few aspects of it that rubbed me the wrong way and put me off using it, when the masses seemingly flocked to it.

Like I said, there was a sort of blurring, with it being classed and structured like a fan site (which I previously described as being an extra incentive for fans to see more) but operating like a site that primarily sells content. It was clearly marketed to those with an initial fanbase, because that would obviously bring about easier conversations than a newbie, who didn't have that and would be starting at zero. That's why, celebrities and influencers/those with a strong Internet presence did very well and were heavily promoted on the OF's front page, and others just managed to get by.

I feel like ManyVids had/has a clear distinction between a fan club and the regular model, that worked.

Why I’m not a fan of 2.0

The main reason is probably the secretive and vague manner in which they allow creators to operate, as they've built a structure that is open for scammers with ill intentions or agencies to exploit. This ranges from the nature in which selling content is presented (PTV/PPV), the option to hide an entire feed, to even the way bio’s are written. Its pretty much unregulated, in terms of protection for consumers - but super regulated in terms of content and practices they allow, to not get shut down or get their banking platform removed.

- PTV’s

Having content for sale is cool, I’ve bought tons of videos individually, in different ways and on different platforms but in this 2.0 version, a popularised element that I find weird is the blacked out and non transparent pay to view (PTV) feature. I don’t know why most of these types of sites created the option to have it completely blacked out and not show previews, they might as well have removed the time stamp that shows the length of the video too.

The major clip/video sites that sell individual content, for the most part have accurate descriptions with some kind of preview - a fair compromise - but this model has allowed scammers to conceal the video plus add vague or misleading descriptions. It is something that I don’t think would have been so widely tolerated pre lockdown, when folks could go outside to touch grass and real cheeks.

The fan sites that have a no refund policy, also contribute to this culture. i understand they have to dissuade scamming ‘fans’ who buy content just to request a refund, but taking the time to review a case where a member has a complaint, like FanCentro does, will be the remedy to that - or simply just ensure correct content descriptions AND previews are added from the offset. Again, clear checkboxes would be a good feature to add. (e.g. is full nudity shown, is your face shown in the video/picture, is it a complete scene (cumshot/climax etc)

- Ownership

Continuing on from PTV's is the other issue I have, you not ‘owning’ a physical copy of the content. With the current way, buying content that you can’t technically even physically ‘own’ doesn’t make sense. On most of these platforms, any video purchased is kept on the site, they don’t provide the digital file, that you can have with sites like ManyVids and some others. That’s always been an important factor to me, because what happens when a site decides or is forced to cease being a thing, similar to the way OF almost abandoned explicit material, what would happen to content you’ve paid for.

That’s why I use sites like MV, if I really like something that I’ve paid to stream I can then buy the individual video too. The same on a premium snapchat, if I like a show that a model posted, I can always ask to buy a copy of it, a copy which I can watch in my own time offline, without having to log into an external site to see.

I feel that part of the reason that some creators are cool with the customer not having a copy is due to piracy, which I get but its still not a valid reason. Site rips and leaks is always going to happen, you can only have measures put in place that somewhat help, after the fact, watermarking, using companies to take down stolen content, putting out enough ‘free’ content online to dissuade people from filling the void, etc. As a consumer, buying a copy of a model’s content makes me more connected with them, as a fan, in the same way buying an artists discography makes me more connected to them than just streaming it online.

- The feed

It makes sense that any actual content on the feed/timeline of a fan site is partially obscured, prior to subscribing, but giving people the ability to hide their entire timeline is a poor decision from the developers of these platforms. Again, this is something used by non -creative scammers to hide the fact that the last 10 posts on their feed are ads. Most fan sites, (eg Patreon or FanCentro) apart from OF, don’t seem to have this function for creators to enable.

From watching this landscape, I've noticed that the popular independent creators, who are the most proud of their work and love what they do, tend to be the most transparent and less covert in their operations. They love and are proud of what they do and create, and like any true creative, want as many people to see it as possible. Their feeds (not the content) is open and their PTV's are descriptive and have previews, as they have no desire to shield their content.

- Profile Bio's

Creators shouldn’t be allowed to have vague or misleading descriptions about what they offer, in their bio’s. A platform with this type of membership model, especially OnlyFans, should have standardised checkboxes in the bios that list exactly what type of content one will expect to see on there, including if the videos that are on the feed are teasers, full length or locked. The media section showing the amount of videos on the page is misleading, as a 2 second GIF loop is considered a video, a locked video also shows up in the tally of videos on the page.

There are models who are very upfront and honest but there are lots more who are not, and take advantage of the current way that it’s operating.

Even something like talking with a creator (not sexting), something that should be the most basic incentive given to a member, often times has another monetary barrier, with tipping being the only way that you could maybe get a reply. Even in that though, the promise of talking to the person you are subscribed to, in recent years, has even been shown to be a fallacy. With some models (mainstream or not) signing with agencies who even handle that aspect of it, again with OF seemingly turning a blind eye to this, even though it’s supposedly something that’s against their terms of service.

- The Culture

This seemingly short lived, new way of consuming content birthed from the lockdown has influenced a generation of newer 'creators' into thinking this is the norm and everything, even if its trash, can and should be sold - and that people, no longer in lockdown will pay a silly amount for a generic 30 second clip.

I think a lot of this kind of sellers culture, from OF opportunists, also furthered and strengthened the culture of the non buyer - validating their boring talking point of, "Why pay for porn, if I can watch it for free?" Some of the actions listed above strengthen they argument, I personally received DM's of people either in submitted reviews or when informing me of OF scammers. One actually made me aware of the whole phenomenon of not actually communicating with the person you subscribed to.

I’ve seen some IG models turned OF ‘creators’ boasting in interviews of essentially scamming people on their accounts in the ways I’ve mentioned.

My Preference of Membership/Subscription

The original subscription model that I’m used to and is my preferred way, has always been ones where you pay for access to view all the content, sometimes allowing for downloading too, at the same price or sometimes for more money. Memberships in it’s current form don’t really interest me as much, as I’m in a space where the allure of speaking with a creator regularly is not really a desire anymore - especially with the added notion that you can’t even be certain it’s actually them that you’re talking to. I’m much more into just seeing quality content.

ManyVids and independent individual sites are great for this type of consuming of content and where I look to. In my opinion, fan memberships should provide a different experience and be somewhat separate from the other membership model.

There are some creators that I see trying to readdress the headache of this current model, by having a higher priced OF subscription with everything available to see on the feed - essentially creating a membership 1.0 model, but also allowing fans the ability to communicate and pay extra for customs or whatever else is on offer. But they also have an account that is an open subscription, where PTV’s are the only option, so you only buy what you want to see, equivalent to the traditional sites where it’s solely content that is sold. Sometimes trying to change the wheel is not always necessary, the original and separate models worked for a reason.

I think the bubble that the pandemic brought is already starting to normalise, and creators who received the benefit of that inflated time are having to readjust knowing it was one of those moments that won’t happen again, unless another lockdown is imposed. There is no way I could personally justify subscribing to a majority PTV creator’s fan site where they have a subscription fee that is similar or higher than what I would pay to view another creator or studio’s entire catalogue, including the future content that they will drop during my subscription.

No amount of weird memes comparing subscription sites, the viewing of digital content, to the real interaction of a strip club will ever change my mind.

The perfect scenario for someone like me would be a fan membership site that integrated all the various membership models in a transparent and straightforward way. A subscription that showed all of the full content as soon as you subscribe, as well as the random/normal clips that you would expect to see on a fan based membership. Videos that I like, can still be bought, with an additional link provided for download… a membership 3.0.... or I'll just stick with ManyVids.

Influencers are generally considered to be anyone who has amassed enough of a following, that they can leverage to make branding or sponsorship deals with companies, or create their own business. With the semi-recent advent of being able to directly sell and distribute your own porn, some influencers who realised that a good portion of their fanbase follows them because of their sex appeal, have capitalised on that.

In realising that they can have an extra revenue stream, some of these influencers used platforms like Patreon to only post slightly risque/not fully explicit content, stuff that could be considered to be more artistic- as a way of maintaining a safe public image and to keep working with commercial/vanilla companies.

Others, went straight to the explicit side. A few years back, when Premium Snaps first became popular they gravitated towards that, then with the recent surge in popularity of OnlyFans (and the lockdown), a lot of influencers and celebrities jumped on that bandwagon.

Lena The Plug did a similar thing- even resulting in her, a non traditional pornstar, being nominated for a Pornhub award. I remember first seeing Lena working and appearing on the Snapchat for Arsenic TV (a SFW media company), to her then being around certain influencers and media personalities, gaining some viral recognition before becoming a Premium Snap seller and Camgirl.

If you have a desire to go into online sex work and have a certain look or appeal, building an audience as a vanilla model first is probably the smartest way to go about it. Due to most platforms having guidelines regarding adult content, a lot of models who tried to build followers while already being in the adult word often find themselves getting shadow banned or having their accounts terminated. (Though as sex work is slowly becoming more normalised, this is changing. Certain adult stars are now getting verified on some social media platforms)

There’s also another type of way to do financially well from independent smut peddling, straight out the gate- become a famous pornstar! The influencers and celebrities of the adult content making world are pornstars. They gained a huge following and fanbase, largely from working with the big powerhouses of porn. People like Riley Reed, Lana Rhoades have millions of followers and because selling your content is far easier than it was years ago, they are finally able to truly cash in off their fame.

In a reverse way some of the more famous pornstars are also online influencers- making brand deals, selling products and promoting companies, just like their vanilla counterparts. Some, like Rhoades for example have also become Youtubers, with vlogging type videos that have millions of views.

Sometimes, when browsing through various Twitter threads, I see a small section of indie models complaining about famous pornstars’ successes on platforms like FanCentro or OnlyFans, citing that they have an unfair advantage because of their popularity. I always feel that if you have a legitimate passion for what you do, provide great content as well as market said content properly, you’ll gain fans and buyers.

Most of the featured reviews on this site have been of independent models as I much prefer ‘amateur’ style content in general and I’m sure there are others who think similarly- so there’s enough niches for all to make money, dependant on your mindset.

The majority of models welcome or don’t seem to mind that porn stars co-exist on the same platforms, as they obviously know that they're legitimate sex workers too. I’m sure that they also realise that those stars bring considerable traffic to the platform, which can benefit them too. But, I'm not sure that these sentiments seem to be universally shared when it comes to vanilla influencers who enter the adult space also.

By now everyone is familiar with the controversy surrounding Bella Thorne and the outcry that came from people using OnlyFans.

I’m not overly familiar with Ms Thorne, I remember seeing a headline of her doing something with Pornhub, a while back; As soon as there was talk of her joining OnlyFans, (I again saw some disgruntled models complaining about her entering the space) I assumed that Bella would only be providing titillating pictures and videos and doubted she would release anything explicit, at least not initially. So I was kind of surprised to hear of people paying the amount that they supposedly paid for her pay-to-view content. Then the screenshot of the supposedly real interaction between Bella and a buyer emerged and I saw the alleged lying that she told the guy, to get that sale and understood why the content buying community would be pissed.

The only wrong that I saw from the incident, was not that she was a celebrity coming into sex work but that she sold content under false pretences. Like I mentioned, I watched a few influencers start turning to selling sexy content at the beginning of lockdown. They would use the OnlyFans name and brand recognition to entice people to come to their profile but would leave clear statements on there, that it would only be provocative or implied nudity and nothing too graphic. Which is obviously the correct and ethical thing to do.

The scamming or false advertising has been something that most people who buy XXX content hate and are wary of. It's something that has happened well before Bella Thorne and by those purporting to be sex workers. Those incidents should get the same vitriol and anger from legitimate adult content creators because it puts off potential buyers and gives justification to those that refuse to pay for content. The truly toxic among the 'creators' have even tried to use the climate of women empowerment as a way of dismissing guys' complaints when they've been scammed, trying to justify the behaviour as something empowering- or that fellow workers are above being criticised or held accountable.

One of the reasons my site was created a few years ago was to prevent buyers from being caught out by lazy models or scammers. Legitimate models and performers have always supported the site because they are proud of their content and the work that they do, and want to show it off to potential buyers.

As it turned out, the outcry was short lived as the claims of pay changes only affected workers in certain countries. When that correction came out (see here), there was crickets or at least not the same amount of noise that arose when the original story emerged and they thought they were affected.

I believe that these changes were going to happen anyway. I don't think that Onlyfans' business model could continue that way and was probably something they only wanted to initially introduce, as a way to gain a large amount of models (plus, issues with tax might have sped up the change). A company needs to retain a certain amount of funds to be able to issue refunds if necessary, so that’s why most if not all adult platforms have a longer waiting time for models to get paid. I touched on the possible reasons why this super average platform was so successful, a little while back, and it was because of these type of strategies that they used, early on.

They have a track record of it, another tactic they used to gain users was through incentivised signups. But I think it was earlier this year when OnlyFans made a change to their affiliate program. Initially, a creator would get commission for life from the person they signed up but they later reneged on that and informed creators that it would now only be for a year.

Which makes me believe they were always going to implement these new changes at some point anyway, first trialling it in the countries where it’s currently being implemented before making it the standard for all. I’m sure they realised, they would probably get a bunch of people moaning but, ultimately, they would still use and promote the platform, like creators did with the changes to the affiliate program. Once you have a healthy amount of creators that use and depend on your platform, creators would have to accept the changes... or go to another platform with less traffic and recognition… and most won’t.

Bella’s actions may have accelerated their decision and was possibly used as a smokescreen to divert most of the backlash towards them. But all users who scam or post content that requires refunds to be issued share the blame too, because like I said, it has been going on long before she joined the platform.

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'Live' snaps and Instagram live

So, you've added a model's public snap account from a code you saw from a shoutout or on a takeover etc. A pretty good way of knowing that it's a scammer is if every post is uploaded from the memories feature and they never post anything 'live' and even if they do, they never show themselves on there. They often record stuff from a legit model's premium or public accounts and repost it, changing the payment details in the process.

In the same vein, Instagram live can provide you with a way to see a model in real time, and get a legitimate response from them. However, this still isn't a way to tell if the model herself is trash and won't run with your money then block you.- but that leads me to the next point.

Being verified on legit (3rd party) sites like Manyvids, FanCentro, AVN Stars, etc.

This is a good way to check if a model who you think is legit, really is. The operators of those type of sites confirm a person is who they say they are, to be able to sell content on their platform- in a way that social media platforms don't. Contacting the model on a verified site will allow you to ask them directly if any payment details you received was actually from them.

Them being on a professional site also shows that they will have a certain commitment to not do anything dodgy because it could impact on their reputation and therefore sales.

Full list of legit sites for customers and models can be found on this page.

Recommendations from models you trust

Probably one of the better ways of getting a premium. If there's a model with whom you already have a great premium account with, getting one they recommend will be a good choice. It could also be someone you've seen them working with on snap shows too.

When I say recommendations, I'm not talking about models who's pages are littered with unverified snapcodes, from every 'model' who asks for one. Some models are more discerning than that and with them, you'll often see the same few models being recommended.

Contents

Part 1: Lifetime Vs Subscription (2016)

Part 2: Premium Snapchat Popularity (2019)

Part 3: Premium Snapchat Vs OnlyFans (2020)

Part 4: Back On The Snap (2021)

Part 5: A Snap Story (2022)

Lifetime Vs Subscription (Sep 2016)

The concept of premium snapchat or private snapchat is still relatively in its infancy, especially compared to the legit website based porn and clips for sale type that proceeded this and is still in existence, irregardless of the tube sites that now populate the adult space. It's a growing avenue of porn and a lot of models have made a lot of money in a short space of time, selling it as a one off payment/lifetime option.

Some models, both new and old, have started to use subscription type payments for their snap services. This method of payment is usually used by models with whom snapping is seen as another viable stream of income (as opposed to just a quick hustle to cash in on guys' lustful tendencies) or as a means of solely promoting their other xxx content.

Those models must have also realised that solely providing a lifetime option isn't really sustainable, especially given the fact that you have to add people to your private account, to view the stories, and I think as it currently stands you can only add around 2500 people before snapchat says you've filled your quota. At least with reoccurring memberships, those that don't want to continue paying can be deleted, leaving space for potential new subscribers.

Ultimately, it's probably better for both parties- models can generate a more regular income and by way of this, members should get a better service because the model will be more incentivised to consistently provide good content, to retain their paying viewers. Another benefit to members could be that tipping would feel like less of a requirement or something that you're made to feel guilty for not doing, occasionally being made to feel you're being treated second rate to someone who can afford to tip. Tips can then be given for extraordinary shows or really specific requests.

There's a couple of accounts that I joined, where the models already had subscription type payment options but one model, for example, implemented the change for all current members and newcomers- albeit with at least a good month+ of prior, daily notification of the coming changes. Her fee took into account that this wasn't a common thing amongst other premium accounts and she set the price at $2.50 per month, with the initial lifetime fee now being the one time signup fee. Others started this type of system after I joined too, but only made the changes for the subsequent new members.

With the increase in subscription snaps, some models have opted to use merchant snap sites or adult content sites (eg sexysnaps.me or Manyvids) that help models by dealing with subscribers, cutting down the time they have to spend verifying individual purchases or chasing up those who forget to include their username, when purchasing. These snap sites can automatically renew subscriptions and inform the model's when someone's membership hasn't been renewed- so they can remove them from the snap account.

Other models choose to do it manually, using spreadsheets or other systems to tell them of expired membership.

XXX snap, is becoming more like adult websites in terms of providing content for a reoccurring fee. But it's also becoming/become like that in terms of piracy. I'm not talking about screenshots or members saving individual snaps via the DM's (the latter I think is a silly reason for models to ban on a premium account) but by those who use replica Snapchat apps, to copy whole stories. They then use the content to open fake private accounts to scam people (pretending they're a model) or in some instances, dissatisfied customers will put it on the net out of spite to 'hurt' the model(s).

(From what I've seen, this has mainly affected those that have offered lifetime premium for a very low price.)

Subscriptions could possibly fuel content stealing further, but if the content and interactivity with members is good as well as competitively priced, they'll still be making money- even if there is a slight decline in new members. As I mentioned previously, the ability to talk and share stuff with your favourite model(s) is a big plus for this snap thing and stolen content that's uploaded somewhere, can't replicate that.

I don't think a subscription is unreasonable, all depending on the price which should be reflective on the content provided (locations, costume, time/length etc). Higher priced subscriptions were more justified with legit website porn, because you took into account overheads ranging from website hosting fees, lighting, editing software etc, those factors don't really apply as much to Snapchat; but still, even in the world of 'free porn', you can't expect a model who solely works via Snapchat, to provide continued great service for 'a lifetime' @ $20....

However, the models who have created a paid for, private/premium account, where 90% of their content is mainly promotion of their videos or cam shows- with the remaining percentage being mild titillation, teasing and everyday snaps, a one time fee is adequate and a subscription in that scenario wouldn't make sense.

Premium Snapchat Popularity (Mar 2019)

A lot of the the things I wrote about, above, still hold true and some have also come about as I expected.

The world of Premium Snapchat has really taken off in the last year or so. Models/adult stars who used to either legitimately not know or those that used to feign ignorance/be completely dismissive about private Snapchat accounts, now have one and promote it constantly.

I feel like one of the reasons it got bigger was definitely due to Snapchat's Memories feature, which wasn't a thing when I first started using the app and early premium models didn't have the luxury of this feature. It's arrival has been a good and a bad thing- it has allowed great models the opportunity to still post their past snap stories on days off or upload video content recorded outside of Snapchat, while still continuing to make and post new content the rest of the time. It also allows for promo videos or info snaps to be posted with ease.

The bad is that it has allowed scammers and/or lazy models who are just trying to make some quick money, to post the same 1 or 2 stories repeatedly, while most of their effort will go into promoting their inferior product. Thanks to the people who take the time to write into the site about some of their experiences of the false advertising and/or scams.

I talked on lifetime vs subscription previously. Models still sell lifetime as an only option while others offer both options, with the lifetime usually being at a considerably higher price. Some only use subscription/re-occurring payment options (monthly, yearly) while others go back and forth between the two. The latter tend to use lifetime offers when doing special deals to attract new customers, going back to monthly prices after the offer is concluded.

Generally the ones who offer lifetime at a cheap or discounted price, I assume do it with the intention of getting the buyer to later upgrade to a premium which comes with more added benefits (DM/Phone sexting, accepting dick pics, picture requests) or at least be more encouraged to occasionally tip, if the shows are consistently good. (Also in some cases it's done for models to appear in the best sellers list on Fancentro.) Subscription options were already starting to be implemented the last time I wrote about it but it's becoming more straightforward and common, with adult online sites helping to make collecting and sending funds easier.

In the first write up I mentioned some of those sites that help models with subscribers and currently Fancentro has now become the place to go for this. Even attracting more current and established adult stars, such as Sophie Dee, Asa Akira, Eva Lovia, Lisa Daniels and others, to use the platform. Manyvids also is continuing to do it, while some models use other more niche companies that utilise similar billing systems.

I'll go back to the piracy issue. It was always going to be something that would happen, just like any other content (adult or vanilla) put out on the net. It's probably set to increase as more popular performers and former internet "influencers" have taken up XXX snapping, causing adult Snapchats to become more mainstream and popular- plus screen recording has become more accessible.

Another good thing to evolve from the earlier days of premium is that models are now promoting themselves on Snapchat- meaning that the models are promoting amongst themselves. Almost all the models I routinely watch have other models takeover or promote their Premium Snapchat on their own premium account and vice versa (In some cases paying for it too). In the earlier days, a lot of the takeover accounts were usually run by guys, some of whom where cool but also some who apparently liked having a fleeting and fictitious power over the models. I only know this because some models at the time told me of some of the account owners requesting nudes to allow them to promote on their platform.

The model 5ucia, who has retired from making adult content, pioneered a lot of things in Premium Snapchat content creation but among them was being one of the first that I saw to create a dedicated account just for models to perform takeovers- an account that was only for her premium members to view. Majority of takeovers I see now are on models' own premium accounts or separate accounts created by models for their premium members. This obviously helps them to cut through the people who have no real intention of buying, directly to those who are more likely to do so.

So this is a positive evolution for models but it's also good for the premium viewing audience because you can source premium content that is more likely to be legit because models will be wary of who they allow to have access to their premium account. Obviously the quality of the model's content will still be subjective but at least getting scammed will be less of a likelihood. (Read here for more tips that I wrote a while back). Also, the earlier days of dedicated, public takeover accounts were more restricted, for fear of the account being deleted which routinely happened but with this method, takeovers can now be more explicit, with models showing what they get up to on their premiums, rather than just insinuating what they would show.

The only bad I've experienced with it, is that it can sometimes get spammy. After a model's takeover, some of them fill up my snap inbox with info on their premium too.

Premium Snapchat Vs OnlyFans (Mar 2020)

The selling of access to Snapchat accounts, is still a popular form of viewing adult content but it's popularity has been slightly overshadowed by the emergence of OnlyFans, in the last couple of years. Some of OnlyFans' relatively quick success could be attributed to a few things.

Possible reasons for the popularity

1) When I first heard of the platform, the general comments from models were that they were happy with the fast payouts and that they took less commission, which is a fair praise and something that should be the case, as I assume that OnlyFans has less overheads, generally- compared to a platform like Manyvids that produces their own content and has camming capabilities etc. I have however heard from models that there have been issues in not being able to withdraw their money or accounts being closed due to false reporting of inappropriate content, from a member, resulting in any funds being lost and refunded to all their subscribers.

2) Another reason could be that Onlyfans has designed a very cam-esque culture of tipping for most of the services (even if you are subscribed), which could attract a certain type of model.

3) The way OnlyFans provide models the incentive to promote their success. I have repeatedly seen models posting promo for their OF accounts by showing screenshots of a notification from OnlyFans admin telling them that they are 'in the top 1% of all creators', I'm not too sure about what type of data is required for the algorithms to come up with the percentage, but I've seen too many models with that 'top 1%' statistic for it to be credible or have enough validity to influence me to subscribing. I mentioned in the last write up that it's the same with FanCentro's top influencers list or possibly even Manyvids top video sellers list, these lists can be manipulated through offering free or reduced content prices and subscriptions- and most times isn't a true indication to how good the actual content is. My thing has always just been my personal like or interest in the model(s).

(They even send similar notifications to customers- I received one saying 'you are a top 5% fan of model X' 🤷‍♂️)

3b) Something else that promoted their success, which is a common marketing method that other platforms do too, is the promotion of sales, 'Yay! Another Subscriber' or other similar type, 'content has been sold'' promotion- usually in the form of automated tweets, is something that you'll see scrolling through a lot of model's twitter pages. But with OnlyFans it seemed to hit differently with the added attraction of some models taking screenshots of their OnlyFans dashboard, displaying the supposed money they had made, in a short period of time.

Reasons for switching

1) Some models have talked about their reasons for abandoning Premium Snapchat or at least venturing more towards OnlyFans. They've mentioned Snapchat being harder work but that is somewhat of a falsity, only if they're saying that in regards to the ease of putting out content. Since Snapchat's Memories feature was introduced, it made providing snap shows infinitely more easier- and the majority of snap models use (or some abuse) this feature often.

2) It might only come down to OnlyFans being a reoccurring payment platform- but that still doesn't make sense, as sites like FanCentro/ModelCentro offered and still offer that service for Snapchat (As well as archiving of past snaps).

​Subscription/reoccurring payments has never been an issue to me, I mentioned in the very first write up in 2016 that offering solely cheap 'lifetime' premiums with no higher level options, wouldn't be sustainable- especially as a sole means of adult income. I've noticed some models having a passive aggressive resentment for customers who bought their 'lifetime' at a relatively cheap price which is unprofessional, as they set the price and even though I believe tipping should be encouraged, it's not an obligation. In reviews, I've talked about often tipping (money, gift cards, wishlists etc), buying content from the model directly or from their other platforms and said it's a thing that should happen, if a model's snap content/service is great- or they themselves are cool people. Expecting tips outside of that is a weird thing for me to understand and that's why I get OnlyFans' appeal to some models.

3) The problem of screen recording was also an issue that I heard mentioned as a reason to divert from using Snapchat but again, it's an issue that is always gonna be a thing no matter the platform. Most video content put online has the potential to be pirated, big budget movies or even movies and shows from Netflix get lifted and put online for free. OnlyFans, even before their supposed hack, was not exempt from this. One model that I was subscribed to and another that I just follow on social media, talked about their anger in discovering their stuff online.

On model's social media pages, I've also seen posts warning their followers of the copycat fake OnlyFans pages, impersonating them, with obvious intent to scam money from people. Again, it seems to be one of those things that happens but OnlyFans has a verification process so I'm surprised that that it does.

4) I guess the main reason for being wary of Snapchat is in it not being adult friendly and sometimes deleting model's accounts, due to reports from bitter models or disgruntled customers.

That's where OnlyFans excelled, they didn't prohibit the use of sex work on their site, like other mainstream platforms did (Patreon) and some still do. Like I mentioned above, some accounts have still been closed down due to reporting and I'm not sure if OnlyFans ever tries to investigate if the reports are factual before automatically deleting the account; But for all intents and purposes OnlyFans is not an adult platform, they just allow adult content on there and I wouldn't necessarily go as far as saying they're pro-adult work either because any public promotion that I've seen from them has been in promoting the vanilla influencers who use the platform- even though I'm sure that at least half, if not the majority, of their income come from the adult content creators. I always thought that Snapchat should've allowed for verified XXX models to use the platform in a similar fashion that Twitter does- shadow banning with the intention of not letting underage users easily come across adult accounts (from suggested friend adds), instead of just deleting the account.

Experiences using OnlyFans

​I've noticed that some models have adapted the promo methods initially used on Snapchat, by creating free accounts where potential customers or just 'connoisseurs of free porn' can subscribe to look at previews of the videos and be sent (sometimes bombarded with) messages containing locked videos, that can only be viewed after the required amount has been paid.

I've subscribed to models' paid accounts and the free promo ones. For me, they don't really differ much in terms of experience. On the paid subscription accounts, some models still spam the DM's with the same locked videos that were on their free account. Some of these videos where highly priced while being very short (but that's subjective as the content could still be worth the money) what's bad is when they've purposely left vague or misleading info about the contents of the video- to elicit purchases from 'their fans'. I'm also not a fan of the option to tip for your messages to be read when you're already on a paid subscription account and/or are buying locked content. Manyvids had a great way of handling this by only allowing customers to send messages to a model- if they are an MV Subscriber, they purchase content from a model or if the model contacts them first, which is a fair system. I understand models get a stupid amount of messages from people with no intentions of buying but subscribers or buyers should be able to communicate freely, within reason.

My preference

Unsurprisingly, for me, it's still all about Premium Snapchat, although the general consensus is probably the opposite- well at least for now. Recently, AVN launched AVN Stars and I saw a trend of model's moving there and openly encouraging others to do the same- and in another couple of years something else will probably come out.... probably Premium TicTok accounts. All platforms serve their purpose and have their own unique selling point but only Snapchat has that instant accessibility and intimacy that I've often described a fondness for. On there, even though you know there are other customers on the model's account you're not conscious of them or vice versa, unless a model mentions them. The same can't really be said for OnlyFans and other platforms because you're reminded when seeing the comments and likes received for a video, that's uploaded on the public feed.

But that Snapchat experience I'm talking about is also dependent on the model's level of engagement and interactivity, regardless of the platform. There have been models who were unprofessional on Snapchat too, especially when uploading videos became a possibility, causing the adult snap world to be saturated with quick money and no content having, type models. I'm sure there are models who do offer great content and a great service on OnlyFans and I'm sure there are customers who solely enjoy the OnlyFans way of receiving their XXX content. I'm also sure there are models who just understand that intangible thing or value that Snapchat has - when used properly - and will still be there to cater to me and my fellow snap folk.

Back on The Snap (Oct 2021)

In this latest instalment of the Future of Premium Snapchat, I want to talk about the seeming resurrection of this form of adult content viewing.

With the 2020 OnlyFans bubble bursting from the ending of lockdowns, and due to the uncertainty that OF (and any adult subscription with Mastercard as a payment processor) has shown, I've seen a noticeable increase in the return of models who seemingly abandoned Snapchat during the 'everything OF' period- some only using snap to promote their OF, during their exodus.

In the past couple of months or so, OnlyFans spoke about plans to get rid of explicit content. They quickly reneged but the damage was done and some people finally saw what I and others had been talking about when discussing OnlyFans. I talked about it in the previous portion of this expanding article and also in a separate article, Why Fancentro is Underrated and OF is Overrated.

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."- Maya Angelou

That quote is partially true but in this instance it's very true. OnlyFans gave multiple signs of not being for the creators that helped popularise their platform, even outside of the credit card issues- I won't list them here but check out the articles I just mentioned.

Anyway back to snap. For the past few months, I've noticed premiums being promoted more again. In 2020 it was mainly a sea of OnlyFans links on Twitter, now i see "i sell Snapchat" in the bios and more selling it through FanCentro as they were looking for alternatives for OF- and FanCentro just so happens to have the best system for selling snaps too.

Aside from trouble with subscription sites, I think another big reason for people coming back to or joining Snapchat is that if you ever collaborate with someone, like a partner who is not really a performer, on sites like OF, you will still need to provide ID of that person and that person will need to make an account on the platform too. I can understand that being annoying to models, especially if you've had content previously on there that will have to be removed; and I can also understand the reticence or unwillingness for a performer, who is not really in the adult world, to have to give their ID to a random company. Snap alleviates those extra hurdles for models.

As anyone who reads this knows, by now, that I'm a fan of premium snaps... when done correctly- so more models doing it, or returning to it, is not a bad thing necessarily..... just as long as long as its a genuine XXX snap experience and not a vehicle to promote other sites.

Possibly see you in a few months for this continued story of Premium Snapchat.

A Snap Story (Oct 2022)

Took a little longer than the few months I said in the previous instalment. This article has spanned 5/6 years, and I think I can finally bring it to an end. To me, Snapchat or specifically adult premium Snapchat doesn't have the same vibe that used to make it special. In various entries to this article I've documented how its changed over the years, in particular the moment when Snap introduced the memories feature and my mixed feelings on its introduction. It was simultaneously one of the greatest things that snap introduced but also the worst. It helped the highly creative models to elevate the type of content they could upload on snap, as we'll as allowing their incredible work of the past to be replayed and not forever lost. But it also allowed those not so gifted in content making or just indolent, to continually replay the same average content. I definitely feel that that a lot of models wouldn’t have used Snapchat if the ability to upload wasn’t there, which would’ve been a great way to filter out those not built for the level of patience and creativity that was initially required.

Snapchat used to be my primary place for watching content, often opening the app solely to watch the models I subscribed to but in the last year or two, I found myself watching the SFW content that Snap curates more than the porn. It could just be me growing or it could be that the quality and passion isn't there anymore - probably a mixture of both.

I think my feelings are shared by models. A few months back, I was talking to a former snap model who was one of my favourites that I also reviewed in the past, and I shared my nostalgia of that time and she agreed with my sentiments. It was a different time, where premium snaps were a thing in its own little bubble, before it changed and brought with it those who didn't see it as a viable platform before the change.

Some of the current crop of models seem to be migrating from the platform again. The first time being when OnlyFans started to become popular but this time they are going to Telegram. They have a distain for Snapchat too but their reason for leaving is not the same. A lot have been victims of account deletions, and Telegram so far seems to be more stable and adult friendly. I also think part of the reason for moving is that Telegram prevents people from screenshotting or screen recording their content, on their phones, something that Snap doesn't do. Its not completely the case, there are ways to bypass that undetected, which I obviously won't share here. Most are just effectively using Snap to promo the accounts outside of the platform.

I think premium Snapchat will still be around to some degree, I do have a couple of models on there that are great and still view their content from time to time.

It has been great to be able to document the happenings and some of my feelings about the world of premium Snapchat over the years and this will probably be my final entry, but I think it's the right time. I appreciate you following it with me.