I follow a lot of sex workers online. I mean, no shit right? I guess I would being as I am one. There is one particular type of tweet I see, usually from newer clip creators, that always elicits a sigh from me. It's the permissive tweet. Usually in the form of "If I created *whatever content* would you buy it?"
Don't get me wrong. I fully understand wanting to know if you have an audience for certain content. It's just those types of tweets can be where the destructive self doubt earns a foothold. I've seen a fair lot of them include the phrase "I don't want to do it if no one will buy it". Or I've seen that phrase or that attitude in follow up tweets. It also reeks of insecurity and that never sells. You doubt yourself or your content so you are asking the collective followers to either approve or veto an idea of yours. This can be particularly bad if you are just starting out with a small visible following or have low interaction. The low interaction could spur you on to not create content because you feel people don't give a shit about it/won't buy it anyway. Some of these followers could just be time wasters who have no intent on buying from you anyway and will vote based on what free previews they want to see.
I ask why? Why to all of it, why to every aspect of those tweets and surrounding attitude of them.
You are a clip creator and a clip artist. Stop asking for permission to create your art without fear.
I honestly think that better questions to ask would be, "Do I really want to make this clip? Do I have time and money to make this clip? Do I like a certain fetish enough to not only make the clip to cater to it, but deal with the fact that people will probably ask for it more in the future? Is the experience in making this clip going to enrich me in any way?"
Make porn and content you want to see out there. Make something you would buy. The only permission you need is from yourself. Make something that will expand your horizons or something that is fun. Something that you have to learn a new skill or gain new information to be able to do.
I get that it can be frustrating to create content and have no one buy any of it. Some clips of mine on certain sites will probably be on their way out at some point, mainly Niteflirt, because they're very low selling and my main site I'm on gives limited memory space to hold the clips themselves. It feels like a waste of time, and sometimes money, depending on what you put into it. It really does. If you're just starting out, especially if you're mainly a camgirl or phone sex operator and are just starting to delve into the realm of clip creation, it can be very disheartening and even ego destroying. But stop asking for permission to create and just do it instead.
It is my firm belief that the answer to "will anyone buy it?" is always going to be a half-hearted shrug and a "who the hell can tell?"
I've created clips and photo-sets that I know for a fact has been inside of the target audience I cater to. Clips that I have worked hard on and that I took a lot of pride in, more so than usual that is. Some I even put a good chunk of money I didn't have into. Or money in the form of time. I can't take calls during filming or photos for obvious reasons, and there isn't always a guarantee to how long something will take. Some of those clips have never sold. Or are taking longer to sell than I both would like and have expected them to. It can be very confusing and frustrating specifically because some of the clip scenarios have been lifted from fantasies directly from callers brains.
Then there are the clips where everything went wrong during filming. One I've had to film in vertical because of how crappy the backdrop from Amazon was. The sound is off, the lighting is off, and personally I think myself and it looks like shit. But I'm not going through that bullshit again. Or I don't have time to go through that bullshit again, and it's already filmed in its entirety so let's see what we can salvage before thinking about trashing it. There have been clips that I thought were weird and that no one would want to buy. They are some of my best sellers.
You're never going to get the answer you want. You're never going to get the answer you need. You are most likely only going to get concrete results after the fact. Don't let the permissions of others stop you from filming something you really want to film or are excited about. Don't let those dream perversions stay dream perversions.
Creating can be a very scary and doubting process. If the money put into creating is really something that you are worried about, make a low value version of the clip you are unsure of. I'm not saying to make it shitty. I'm saying if you need props or backdrops use stuff around the house, get creative. Don't spend a lot of money. Go minimalist. Rely on your voice and words, rely on your facial expressions to fully convey mood and atmosphere. Use camera angles to hide the fact that you don't have a prop or another partner with you and make it up. It's all fantasy and pretend anyway. Make the clip shorter than the version you originally wanted. This way you make the clip with no big cost or time lost and you get your answers. Then you go from there.
I will say this as my last bit of advice. Whenever I am afraid to make something, whenever I am doubting myself or my work I think: Nothing ventured, nothing gained. This applies to all things really, it goes further than just clip making. There have been times when I have looked at other Findommes and have had a lot of self doubt. Why should I even try? Why should I even post a reimbursement opportunity when I'm sure that no one will actually interact with me or reimburse. But I did it anyway because as long as I didn't, then it would just be a self fulfilling prophecy and nothing would get done. Sometimes I wasn't reimbursed, it happens. You either repost or shrug that shit off and mve on. One time I wasn't reimbursed, but a book was bought off of my wish list that I had been wanting for a while. The finsub liked how bratty and in control I was and it was that particular tweet that caught their attention. Point is I never would have known or gained anything had I never tried or ventured anything in the first place.