How to price custom content requests, and when to say no

A lot of first custom requests pay less than a takeaway. Someone wants something made just for you, it feels flattering, you say yes before thinking it through, and then it eats an evening. If you are trying to work out how to price custom content, start from that evening, not from the number in the message.

Custom content can be the best paid work you do, or a slow leak of your time dressed up as a compliment, depending on how you price it. The difference is almost entirely in how you price them and what you agree before you start.

What a custom actually costs you

The mistake everyone makes is to price custom content by the finished minutes. A five minute video is not five minutes of work. Here is roughly what a typical one takes, start to finish:

Step	Time
Reading the request and agreeing the brief	10 minutes
Outfit, hair, make-up, setting up	30 minutes
Shooting, with a few retakes	25 minutes
Editing and exporting	20 minutes
Sending it and the back and forth	5 minutes
Total	90 minutes

Your numbers will be different. Time yourself on the next two or three and you will know.

A simple way to price custom content

Once you know the hours, the sum is short:

price = hours × the hourly rate you want ÷ 0.8

The divide by 0.8 is there because the platform keeps a cut. At the time of writing the two big subscription sites both take 20%, which is covered in my post on running OnlyFans and Fansly at once, but check your own dashboard. So that 90 minute job, at £40 an hour, is 1.5 × 40 = £60, and £60 ÷ 0.8 = £75.

And that £75 is before tax. Custom work is income like everything else, so set some aside. My post on how much to save for tax has the sums, and HMRC’s guide to working for yourself covers when you need to tell them about it.

How do you pick the hourly rate? A good floor is whatever an hour of your normal posting earns you. Price custom content below that and you are paying to make it.

Publish a custom content menu

Haggling is exhausting, and it gets worse the more you do it. A menu for your custom content ends most of it before it starts, because the price is a fact rather than an opening offer.

Keep it short and give starting prices rather than every possible combination:

• Photo sets: a starting price for a set number of photos.
• Videos: a price per minute, with a minimum, so a thirty second request still covers your setup time.
• Extras: saying their name, a particular outfit, a specific setting. Each one adds time, so each one adds to the price.
• Rush: delivery within a couple of days costs more, say a quarter on top, because something else in your week has to move.

If they want an outfit you do not own, the outfit goes on the bill too. You will probably never wear it again.

Take payment before you start

All of it, up front, on the platform. Not half now and half later, and not a promise.

Payment off the platform is never worth the discount someone is offering. You lose the platform’s payment protection, you lose the record of what was agreed, and depending on where you sell, it can break the terms you signed up to. Read your platform’s terms before you even think about it. Then do not do it.

Agree the brief in writing

Before you shoot anything, write back what you are going to make in one message: length, outfit, setting, anything said, and when they will have it. Ask them to reply to confirm.

It takes a minute and it saves arguments later. If someone says it is not what they asked for, you can point at the message they agreed to. It also helps if a payment is ever disputed, because you have a record of exactly what was ordered.

Agree what a revision means, too. A small change, like a different crop, is fair to include. A reshoot is a new custom.

Saying no to a custom content request

Some requests you will not want to make, and that is fine. Write your list of things you do not do once, in a note, so you never have to decide in the moment with someone waiting.

Then keep a saved reply. Something like: “That is not something I make, but here is what I can do”, with a link to the menu. No explanation, no apology. The hate comments and burnout post has more on why you never owe anyone a reason for a no.

Some requests are a no every time:

• Anything that gives away where you are. Your street, the view from your window, a local landmark, the name of your town. Customs are one of the ways people try to piece together where creators live.
• Anything to look like a real person. A fan’s ex, a colleague, someone famous. It is a privacy problem for them and a legal one for you.
• Anything that breaks your platform’s rules. Your account is worth more than one request.
• Anyone who will not pay first, or who keeps adding “one more small thing” after the price is agreed.

Watermark every custom

Whatever the price, custom content goes to one person, so if it turns up somewhere it should not, you want to know whose it was. Put a small mark on each one that is unique to that buyer, like their username, low and awkward to crop. My post on finding leaked content covers what to do if one ever surfaces.

The short version

Time the whole job, not the finished minutes. Price custom content from your hourly rate, then add the platform’s cut on top. Put it on a menu, take the money first, agree the brief in writing, and keep a saved reply for the ones you will not make. Nothing here is tax or legal advice, just the rules worth setting before the first takeaway-money evening.