One of the UK’s most successful OnlyFans stars has lifted the curtain on the reality of doing sex work as a 9-5 job and claims that if people knew how much work goes on outside the bedroom they wouldn’t be so dismissive of the profession.
Josh Moore, 31, has over 3000 subscribers on the popular porn website and now earns between £30,000 – £40,000 a month. It’s quite the rags to riches tale when you consider where he was ten years ago.
At 21-years-old, Josh was £20,000 in credit card debt and working odd jobs to sustain a meagre existence in his home town of Dover, Kent.
‘I used to have to pay for my petrol with spare coins I found in my car’, he claims, ‘at one point I had to fill up with £2.86 as that was all I had to my name.’
Now, the pornstar lives a life of luxury with his two dogs in a leafy Clapham property that he owns, travels the world at his leisure all only has to insure his appendage for ‘£500-a-month’. But if it was that simple, wouldn’t we all be OnlyFans stars?
‘It’s not all success stories’, says Josh, ‘I think a lot of people think, “Oh, I’m good looking. I’ve got a nice body, or whatever I can do that”, and they try it, and then they fail.
‘It’s because you have to have so much creativity and the ability to brand yourself and market yourself really well on social media. The job is really a hybrid one.’
It’s also a gruelling one.
When he first started out in the industry, Josh worked with professional porn studios earning a wage of £500 per shoot.
‘At the time I thought it was amazing, I thought I was rich’, he said, ‘but I’ve since learned that the big studios use performers.
‘They get a one time fee and then make money of them forever.’
Undeterred by the machinations of the adult entertainment machine, Josh persevered as he realised he had found his calling.
He continued: ‘I always wanted to be a porn star. Actually, ever since I was like a young kid. I remember being sent to the headmaster at school once as I wrote it out as one of my career goals.
‘I always kind of aspired to be and look like those men. They always looked like they were living their best lives.’
About three years into his fledgling career, the adult site OnlyFans was created and new brand of WFH pornstar was born.
The site revolutionised the industry, suddenly creating a new way for the average person to make thousands of pounds selling their own content on their own terms.
Josh explained: ‘It cuts out the middleman you get 80 percent of the profit from your content.
‘It’s been a game changer in altering the nature of the porn world and in some ways has made it a less frowned upon profession as it was previously.
‘Now anyone can be a pornstar and for women its been great as its a very safe way for them to work. There’s no danger from predatory people and it can be done in the home.’
But the reality of being a stay-at-home pornstar is more tedious than you might imagine.
Josh explained: ‘It’s very time consuming and is more of a hybrid job than people realise.
‘When I’m not actually performing, I’m organising shoots, engaging with subscribers, editing content, doing tax returns and maintaining an engaging presence on multiple different social media sites.
‘I have three X accounts, two TikToks, two Instagrams and of course my OnlyFans – it’s a lot of social media work!
Making all the content for these platforms with each having to be different because of different regulations is incredibly time consuming.
‘So in that case it’s very much like any other job.’
But what does a day in the life of an OnlyFans creator actually look like?
Josh explained: ‘I wake up and see my personal trainer in the morning at around 8am.
‘Then I’ll come home and answer all the OnlyFans messages to keep fans engaged. for a few hours.
‘I will then probably have another creator around to my house and we’ll spend between two to three hours doing a shoot together.
‘Then I have lunch, walk my dogs and might shoot a solo video in the afternoon.
‘The rest of the day is a mixture of promoting my brand on social media, replying to fans and editing content – most days I’ll be doing this until about 7pm.
‘It’s a hundred percent full on all the time. I think people think it’s an easy, but its like any other job.’
As with any job there are downsides, although ones perhaps unique to the trade of cavorting with relative strangers four times a week.
Ten years into his career, despite having partners along the way, Josh admits it has been difficult to settle down.
He said: ‘I’ve had many partners over the years but it’s difficult to find someone who can put up with all of this. I’ve come to terms with this after that.
‘For the meantime, I’m going to be single and focus on my career a lot.’
And what about his family? What do they think of his career?
Josh laughed: ‘I’ve never really got any stigma, I think men face a lot less backlash from sexual things like this. My parents have always been supportive of me.
‘They said, as long as you’re healthy and happy, and you’re making money, then we’re very happy for you.’