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making money on bent box?
I am a still and video photographer here in Las Vegas. I have been posting still images (and videos but that is a different topic) on Bent Box (based in Holland) for a few years. Clothed and nudes. I pay the model for the shoot and own all the rights. Has any model or photographer able to make money on this site. I do make money but mostly on the videos) There is one photographer here in the US, that posts hundreds and hundreds of images of the different models and charges a somewhat small fee. He told me he kind of breaks even. Tony Sep 27 22 10:23 am Link Desert Video wrote: I looked into it during Covid. There's no money in it. There MIGHT be, but it's a massive volume business that requires constant upkeep. IMO, it's just not worth the effort and the owners of that site know it. Sep 29 22 06:21 am Link I tried it for 6 months and broke even, if not took a small loss. I make more money selling polaroid's on eBay than I ever did on Bentbox. Oct 01 22 05:43 pm Link I've been posting content on Bentbox for several years now. Never broke even. Not even close. Though I have to admit, I'm terrible at staying active on social media to promote and market my work. Every 3-4 months I get a payout from Bentbox so I get a little extra pocket money now and then. One of the problems I've been having lately is when I inform models my intent to publish the images we shoot together on Bentbox, and they balk at me. Earlier this year I worked with a model at a workshop and she asked that before we shoot, I sign a document that I would not publish the photos on Bentbox, which I obliged. And just recently a model literally minutes after agreeing to shoot with me, dropped out of the shoot when she saw that I have a Bentbox account, saying it was "too vulgar" for her. So now I'm wondering if having a Bentbox account is becoming a liability for me. Anyone else have this problem? Dec 19 22 11:41 am Link I looked at bentbox about a year ago when someone told me about it. I looked all through the site and didn't see anyone selling images of men. So, I never pursued it. It also looks like people are pretty much giving their work away on a site like that. I don't understand how they can make any decent money selling things for so low. Dec 20 22 02:23 pm Link I've been active on Bentbox for almost five years and I've done much better than I expected initially. The site administrator says I'm a "super user." I won't say publicly how much money I've made, but it's enough to pay competitive model fees and buy an occasional piece of new gear. However, if I took a hard look at all my expenses including travel and use of my home studio, I'd be showing a loss. More on that later. Like any sales platform, Bentbox has pros and cons that might make it a good or bad fit for you. I enjoy helping people learn to use it, so let me pass along a few of my thoughts for those photographers who are interested. There are lots of models on BB too and I've been told they can make more than photographers, but their strategies are different. To be successful on Bentbox as a photographer requires a large volume of content. When I upload a photoset, it is called a "box." I can put whatever price I want on that box. If someone buys a copy, Bentbox keeps about one third of the $. They send out payment once a month, but only if you have over $100 in your account. Each photoset I offer for sale doesn't sell many copies, but I have over 300 published boxes that buyers can browse through and purchase if something catches their eye. You can take a quick look at my page here if you like: https://bentbox.co/beyondboudoirphoto Now here's my opinion on what kind of photographer will do well on Bentbox and which ones should give it a pass. The ideal candidate would have a large body of work with release forms already saved up when they are ready to start. The best time to do this is when you retire from your regular career and have a lot of time on your hands. You will spend many hours in front of your computer compiling your images into attractive sets that you upload to Bentbox. If you are fairly new to the idea of selling nude images online and just want to upload an occasional batch of photos, you are not going to score enough money to make it worth your time. If you have a regular job that keeps you busy, you won't have enough free time to be successful on BB. If you don't like promoting yourself on social media, you are not going to be happy on BB. If you have a spouse who feels threatened by nude photography, you won't do well. From what I can tell, content that is more explicit sells more often and buyers are willing to pay more. I love shooting art nudes, but the market for that genre is smaller. There may be exceptions I'm not aware of, but If you don't like creating fairly spicy content, you won't do well. Now a word about creating content while losing money. If you get tired of shooting, get injured, or just too old, your BB account will still keep selling your work forever or until the site goes down. To some degree this depends on you promoting your work on social media, but it's impossible to say how much. In any case there is a potential for long term passive income. I've learned an enormous amount about Bentbox and this industry niche. Sometimes I think I should teach seminars, but I'd be telling most participants to avoid it. That's not a very good business model! I do enjoy meeting up with local photographers and models and dumping a bunch of knowledge on them. It's fun watching them try to absorb it and I usually get a free meal out of it. LOL Dec 20 22 03:39 pm Link Beyond Boudoir wrote: You don't see the inherent conflict between those two statements? While you do bring up a point about possible future sales past the point you stop contributing to BB, At some point you have to make a reckoning of your real expenses versus revenue in a particular time frame. I would be surprised if you even covered all of your model fees off of Bent Box unless you are trading content with the models. My experience with BB was that it wasn't even worth the time to upload old content to the platform much less pay a model fee for new material. Dec 21 22 03:50 am Link Axel Kuo wrote: Your pictures are your pictures. Why mention it to the model at all? Dec 24 22 07:09 am Link Beyond Boudoir wrote: This is the key to success. I learned this from selling on eBay. When I started out, I had 300 photos in my store and sold a couple every two weeks or so. When I took the time to post more, building my store to over 1200 phots, I started to get daily sales. Content is King. The more options that you give people; the easier it will be for them to choose. Dec 24 22 07:16 am Link |
