How I Made $500.000+ in 10 Months: An Updated Case Study of AI Influencer Business

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mindludus

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Hey everyone — I’m Ben, a designer building AI-powered influencers.

I’ve been deep in this space for the past 18+ months, and I wanted to share a transparent breakdown of what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and what kind of results it’s bringing in.

If you’re curious, feel free to drop any questions in the comments — I’ll do my best to reply to every single one.

--

Just a heads-up: English isn’t my first language, so I used ChatGPT to help smooth out the writing — but every detail comes from personal experience. And for privacy reasons, I’ve changed the names of the AI influencers.

--

Current Status – July 2025​


Right now, I manage three AI influencers. For this post, I’ll call them Lina, Aria, and Sienna.
(Again, not their real names.)

We’re active only on Fanvue. There’s a Patreon too, but it’s passive — around $1,000/month.
  • Lina makes around $30K/month net
  • Aria brings in about $8K/month net
  • Sienna, the newest one, is earning $5K/month net
All traffic is organic, coming only from Instagram.
Across all accounts, we reach up to 4.5 million people monthly.

--

Tools & Workflows​


I’ve tested tons of tools and workflows. Right now:
  • Lina: Flux on Forge + Fal (online version)
  • Aria: SDXL, running locally with Fooocus
  • Sienna: Also Flux on Forge

In my Flux workflow, I rely on well-tuned character LoRAs.
In SDXL, it’s all about prompt engineering — I’ve even built custom workflows around it.

--

Costs​


I try to keep the setup lean.
  • Two-person chatter team: Covers 16h/day on Fanvue. They earn 20% of all PPV + tips, paid weekly.
  • NSFW content: I spend $500–$1,000/month. One designer handles everything.
  • Instagram: I manage all main accounts myself. A friend helps with secondary ones — I pay him $1,500/month.
  • Investor partners: I sometimes bring in small or large short-term investors. I usually pay back 30% more within 4–8 weeks. Average monthly payout: $3,000.
  • Tools (Fal, Kling, Adobe, etc.): Roughly $500/month.

After all expenses, I’m clearing over $25K/month net at the moment.

That’s the snapshot. If you’ve got questions — technical, creative, financial, anything — just ask in the comments. I’m happy to help.
 
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How did you start it out? Those are some high costs for starting out such a thing. What is the minimum viable product here?
What is the hardware you are using for locally running it?
Is it feasible to do it only with stable diffusion and foocus and post it every day? How did you manage to boost a single profile from it?
 
pedrohba18 said:
How did you start it out? Those are some high costs for starting out such a thing. What is the minimum viable product here?
What is the hardware you are using for locally running it?
Is it feasible to do it only with stable diffusion and foocus and post it every day? How did you manage to boost a single profile from it?
Click to expand...
Hello mate, thanks for your questions.

No, I have those costs right now. When I start for the first time in end of the 2023, I was alone. I spent probably $500 or something in 2-3 months at max.

I have RTX 4090 at the moment for local running.

Sure, I post 6-8 months almost every day with my SDXL workflow. Focus is pretty fast when you have a good GPU, so yea.

I have a marketing background, so social media is something I know pretty good. But main idea is having a good quality, consistent posting, and follow the platform rules to not get banned.
 
And in the beggining, what was the most profitable form of selling? Did you sell Patreon? Onlyfans of the AI models? What was the first source of income you looked for? What is the demography of the customers?

Do you remember what you spent the first 500$ with? Was it on social media post pumping or something else?
 
Do you think it is feasible to rent a GPU instead of buying one? I do have a RTX 4070 Super which I could use for this and have used it before, but I might not have access to it in the next few months.
 
pedrohba18 said:
And in the beggining, what was the most profitable form of selling? Did you sell Patreon? Onlyfans of the AI models? What was the first source of income you looked for? What is the demography of the customers?

Do you remember what you spent the first 500$ with? Was it on social media post pumping or something else?
Click to expand...
Yes, I didn't know about Fanvue, so I started on Patreon. But real revenue boom comes from Fanvue with active chatters.

It started like $1000/month, and go up to $35K/month.

$500 was like some Instagram Ads, RunDiffusion since I didn't have GPU back then etc.
 
I have a question for you if you don't mind.

To what degree do you think sales are affected by the Fanvue platform instead of OnlyFans? people might know its AI from this

For example, using a chatbot to convert people to OF - would this still work with Fanvue do you think?
 
AccountSuperstore said:
I have a question for you if you don't mind.

To what degree do you think sales are affected by the Fanvue platform instead of OnlyFans? people might know its AI from this

For example, using a chatbot to convert people to OF - would this still work with Fanvue do you think?
Click to expand...
You can use OnlyFans with AI content unless you are the creator. You only edit your own photos with AI (faceswap etc.) on OnlyFans. So Fanvue is the "biggest" platform for AI creators at the moment.

But you're right, people know OF much more than Fanvue. So if we could work on OF, it would better probably.

Sure, if you have organic traffic, you can work on Fanvue too.
 
mindludus said:
Yes, I didn't know about Fanvue, so I started on Patreon. But real revenue boom comes from Fanvue with active chatters.

It started like $1000/month, and go up to $35K/month.

$500 was like some Instagram Ads, RunDiffusion since I didn't have GPU back then etc.
Click to expand...
Are your subscribers legitimately believing it is not AI generated, or do they now? Is it that convincing?
Also, same question someone else asked: is it feasible to AI chatting too? What do you have a designer for?
 
pedrohba18 said:
Are your subscribers legitimately believing it is not AI generated, or do they now? Is it that convincing?
Also, same question someone else asked: is it feasible to AI chatting too? What do you have a designer for?
Click to expand...
Depends. But main idea is models are real but they're using AI to edit content. Because you can't say "I'm real" when someone ask in Fanvue, that's a platform rule.

No, AI chatting is good for start if you don't have a good amount traffic. But you need to work with chatters if you want to make good money + have a good traffic.

Lastly, I have my designer for NSFW content creation because I don't like to spend time on it. It's not my thing.
 
Hey Ben,

Thanks a lot for sharing this, it’s super insightful.

I’m about to go into this myself. I have a solid background in marketing, and I currently want to invest in a RTX 4070 pc. Would that be powerful enough to handle everything from generating content to training LoRAs and even video workflows?

Also, do you have any tips for someone just getting started with model creation like me? And are you using your models strictly for photo content, or do you also post videos?

Really appreciate any insights you can share.
 
dondemex said:
Hey Ben,

Thanks a lot for sharing this, it’s super insightful.

I’m about to go into this myself. I have a solid background in marketing, and I currently want to invest in a RTX 4070 pc. Would that be powerful enough to handle everything from generating content to training LoRAs and even video workflows?

Also, do you have any tips for someone just getting started with model creation like me? And are you using your models strictly for photo content, or do you also post videos?

Really appreciate any insights you can share.
Click to expand...
Hello mate, all good.

It should be enough for SDXL generations - I had RTX 4070 Super last summer, and it was good enough.

I can't say anything for video workflows because I didn't run it locally.

I always use online platforms for lora training or video content because it is faster/cheaper since it's not my main expense.

YouTube should have good amount free content. I learned everything online when I start, it took me 4-5 months to get pretty good at SDXL. But I worked 24/7 almost.

I don't like AI videos. Instagram push reels for sure, but it's not a meaningful traffic in my thinking. But I know people are spamming reels and making money, so I can't talk bad about it. It's not my style.
 
daverawcus said:
This a bullshit post

he has included this below in his op to fish for DMs and scam members


Investor partners: I sometimes bring in small or large short-term investors. I usually pay back 30% more within 4–8 weeks. Average
Click to expand...
I'm open to show my revenue proof to any mods or admins who can message me.
 
mindludus said:
Depends. But main idea is models are real but they're using AI to edit content. Because you can't say "I'm real" when someone ask in Fanvue, that's a platform rule.
Click to expand...

Wait. Models are real? So there are real girls which you take videos and photos from, and then you edit them with AI? What is edited with AI on them? Are the original models recognizable? Do the models even know you are using them to feed into AI?
 
How many followers do your models have on Instagram? Does each model have only one profile or maybe more (backup ones)?
 
pedrohba18 said:
Wait. Models are real? So there are real girls which you take videos and photos from, and then you edit them with AI? What is edited with AI on them? Are the original models recognizable? Do the models even know you are using them to feed into AI?
Click to expand...
No. I'm saying you can't say "I'm real".

You also can work with body doubles for NSFW content if you want of course. One of my models has body double, other has AI content 100%.
 
mindludus said:
Hey everyone — I’m Ben, a designer building AI-powered influencers.

I’ve been deep in this space for the past 18+ months, and I wanted to share a transparent breakdown of what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and what kind of results it’s bringing in.

If you’re curious, feel free to drop any questions in the comments — I’ll do my best to reply to every single one.

--

Just a heads-up: English isn’t my first language, so I used ChatGPT to help smooth out the writing — but every detail comes from personal experience. And for privacy reasons, I’ve changed the names of the AI influencers.

--

Current Status – July 2025​


Right now, I manage three AI influencers. For this post, I’ll call them Lina, Aria, and Sienna.
(Again, not their real names.)

We’re active only on Fanvue. There’s a Patreon too, but it’s passive — around $1,000/month.
  • Lina makes around $30K/month net
  • Aria brings in about $8K/month net
  • Sienna, the newest one, is earning $5K/month net
All traffic is organic, coming only from Instagram.
Across all accounts, we reach up to 4.5 million people monthly.

--

Tools & Workflows​


I’ve tested tons of tools and workflows. Right now:
  • Lina: Flux on Forge + Fal (online version)
  • Aria: SDXL, running locally with Fooocus
  • Sienna: Also Flux on Forge

In my Flux workflow, I rely on well-tuned character LoRAs.
In SDXL, it’s all about prompt engineering — I’ve even built custom workflows around it.

--

Costs​


I try to keep the setup lean.
  • Two-person chatter team: Covers 16h/day on Fanvue. They earn 20% of all PPV + tips, paid weekly.
  • NSFW content: I spend $500–$1,000/month. One designer handles everything.
  • Instagram: I manage all main accounts myself. A friend helps with secondary ones — I pay him $1,500/month.
  • Investor partners: I sometimes bring in small or large short-term investors. I usually pay back 30% more within 4–8 weeks. Average monthly payout: $3,000.
  • Tools (Fal, Kling, Adobe, etc.): Roughly $500/month.

After all expenses, I’m clearing over $25K/month net at the moment.

That’s the snapshot. If you’ve got questions — technical, creative, financial, anything — just ask in the comments. I’m happy to help.
Click to expand...
Hello friend! That's amazing and I'm really impressed by what I'm reading. My main question is if the AI models are real people and you just change their face or you start from literally scratch by creating one 100% solid AI model. If it's the 2nd one, then how do you put them in a realistic room for these reels and pics? Thank you
 
AgencyHiring said:
Hello friend! That's amazing and I'm really impressed by what I'm reading. My main question is if the AI models are real people and you just change their face or you start from literally scratch by creating one 100% solid AI model. If it's the 2nd one, then how do you put them in a realistic room for these reels and pics? Thank you
Click to expand...
You can do both, but my models are 100% AI.

For your second question, well, it's the magic of AI. You can look out for "Flux", it's pretty realistic system that you can learn.
 
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