Olympian Alexandra Ianculescu Shares 5 Tips For Starting An OnlyFans & Anyone Can Do It
Romanian-Canadian Olympian Alexandra Ianculescu is funding her Olympic ambitions with OnlyFans, and she's sharing her tips and tricks on how to make a successful account.
Ianculescu is a 31-year-old elite athlete who started out her career as an Olympic skater and has now set her sights on joining Team Canada in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as a cyclist.
A gruelling training schedule, equipment and top-tier diet take time and money to maintain, so Ianculescu started her OnlyFans account back in 2021 to help fund her lifestyle as opposed to slaving away working part-time jobs.
Ianculescu's OnlyFans account gives her fans a behind-the-scenes peek into her life with racey pics and life updates that are authentic to her everyday experience, whether that's a steamy fresh-out of-the-shower selfie or a travel update regarding a race.
Her account has allowed the Canadian athlete to pursue her dreams at full capacity by taking care of the bills, and after two years online, she spoke to Narcity about her insider knowledge of the craft, and how you don't have to be famous to make money.
If you've ever considered adding another passive stream of income to your household or quitting your job to work on OnlyFans full-time, here are Ianculescu's tips on getting started.
How do you set boundaries on OnlyFans?
Having an OnlyFans account doesn't mean you have to make porn or show everything.
You can really advertise and sell whatever you are comfortable with, and when it comes to setting boundaries for yourself, Ianculescu says you should start slow.
"I set my boundaries two years ago, and I'm still living within them. I'm proud of myself for that because it's so easy to make so much more money by going along with what other people want, but then you're selling your soul."
If you don't want to sell fully nude pictures of yourself – don't.
Ianculescu says there are so many different accounts online, and people who want something specific that you don't want to do can simply go find it elsewhere.
If you end up changing your mind in the future, holding out might even benefit you in the long run and drive up your prices.
"Start where you're at would be tip number one. Let's say you're fully comfortable to show everything. I would start with less because then you could charge more for showing it all."
Do you need a professional camera for OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a visual platform, and if you're selling photos, you want them to look good!
But that doesn't mean you need to invest in a professional camera or book some fancy boudoir photo shoot.
Ianculescu says that beginners really only need a big mirror, an extra lamp, and a tripod with a ring light.
"I bought one of those tripods with the round light. I bought an extra lamp at IKEA, and I bought a big mirror at IKEA," she explained.
"I would set the lamp strategically in parts where it would make my abs look good. Because I didn't have the aesthetically pleasing house that all these other models have."
Ianculescu says she used the lighting from the extra lamp to make her body look better in photos, and the mirror was perfect for selfies.
For more poses, she says you can set up your tripod with your phone on a timer or just take a video and hold the pose for longer so you can screenshot from it to make content by yourself.
How do I grow my OnlyFans account?
Ianculescu started her account with a built-in public platform thanks to her Olympic career, but you don't need a platform to make money.
Ianculescu says creating an Instagram dedicated to finding customers is key, and all you have to do is customize it with hashtags in order to reach your audience.
So depending on how comfortable you are, you can either use your own Instagram and include your face or create a new one with a stage name or your face, according to Ianculescu.
"Take some bikini photos, or obviously PG-rated photos that Instagram is not going to block. Put it out there. You know, you can do your cheesy quotes like 'I'm bored' [or] 'Come play.'"
When you're posting your content, Ianculescu says you need to use hashtags like #onlyfans, #thongbikini, #spandex, #footpicture, #lycra, and #beachbabe to reach potential subscribers.
From there, Ianculescu says you need to make your OnlyFans account affordable or free.
"The second tip would be to create your page for very, very cheap or make it affordable so it's easy for people to be inclined to see what's there or make it free," says Ianculescu.
"People will be more inclined to sign up for your page if it's free, because then you can sell the posts."
Once you have some subscribers, the Canadian athlete says you need to stay consistent and respond to messages.
"If you can maintain the consistency of posting multiple times a day at the beginning and keeping your audience engaged, then I would post more to show them what you're capable of."
How do you find your niche on OnlyFans?
If you want to find your niche on OnlyFans, Ianculescu recommends taking a look at your distinguishing features and working with what you've got, whether you have tattoos or fake boobs.
"If you are a tattoo enthusiast, there are people that love that. You know, you can be creative and be like, 'Well, what other tattoo do I have in here? Do you wanna see what's in between my legs?'"
But if you don't have a feature that you can pull from off the top of your head, Ianculescu says your subscribers will actually tell you what they're interested in, and eventually, your niche will naturally flesh itself out.
How hard is it to make money on OnlyFans?
If you're looking to make money, Ianculescu says it's all about marketing your photos well and being consistent with posting and responding to messages.
First off, the Olympian says you should make your account free or as cheap as you possibly can because people will be more inclined to subscribe initially, and they'll probably forget to cancel their subscription because it costs so little.
From there, you can sell photos for a set price, and Ianculescu says it's all in the way you describe and sell your content.
"This is one of the more important tips. The main way that you word things is how you get people to buy items," she says.
"When you sell a photo, and you put a price tag on it, it actually shows up blurry. So until they pay for it, they don't see what it is, and so you have to really describe it in a catchy way to make them buy it."
To sell packages of around five photos, Ianculescu recommends buying cheap lingerie and costumes customized to your fans' desires.
To find out what they want, she recommends putting out polls.
"If you don't really have an idea of what people like, then you can ask because then you give them what they want," she tells Narcity.
"I'm not into wearing a nurse outfit because it's not my style. But I will gladly play bad nurse for you if you pay me $100. I take my photos, I send them out. But then I make $1,000 from it."
Should you get help from an agency for your OnlyFans account?
Once your account is doing well, Ianculescu says you should avoid taking any help from agencies offering to respond to messages for you for a cut of the action.
"There are agencies that will reach out to you. I would recommend not going with them because you just lose your money," she says and adds that she isn't with one so that she can still have that personal touch.
"I can't stress enough, do not give away your money because this is your body and you're working for it. Maybe take an extra hour out of your day that you do have and reply to those messages because you can't be too busy for this if this is how you make your money."
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Une story d'Hélène Boudreau.
