Sex-skylight in Russia is concentrated in the social networks of bloggers. While some, popularizing the image of "kept women", promote their sex and fitness courses, others diligently test sex toys and monetize through promotional codes and referral links. "Secret" spoke with representatives of two different approaches to making money on sex blogging - Victoria Rakhmatulina and Tatyana Nikonova - about their subscribers, making money on a blog about sex and writing ambitions. And he asked the experts to evaluate the success of the strategies that the girls chose. Viksi666 (Victoria Rakhmatulina): "If someone offers you to sprinkle the garden with your wide shovel - substitute and do not be shy." 28 years old, Moscow She started an Instagram account in 2012. Now 1.5 million people have subscribed to it. Conducts sex courses on oral and manual sex. Wrote the book "How a Woman Wants". She founded the social project “Call Galya” to protect women from unwanted attention. How she started When Rakhmatulina registered on Instagram, she, according to her, was not going to engage in sex blogging. At first, the girl just posted her photos with funny captions and talked about fitness. Then the first video appeared, in which Victoria effectively thrust a vegetable into her mouth. It was on the ability to swallow objects of "any length and diameter" that the girl built a successful business and became one of the most recognizable sex gurus in Russia. If you have patience and skip the Viksi666 installation to the first post, then you will see “not burdened with studies, a cheerful girl from the next doorway,” said PR-consultant Valentina Maksimova. “Behind the image of a sex princess, you can see a rebellious teenager who, from year to year, changes what nature has endowed him with, either with the help of loads in the gym, or with a plastic surgeon's scalpel,” the expert said. About sex trainings Photos and videos with "deep throat" quickly helped to attract attention both to Rakhmatulina's blog and subsequently to her oral sex trainings. The leitmotif of Viksi666 posts is honest and straightforward, said Valentina Maksimova. “For girls, if you want luxurious gifts, then practice doing erotic exercises. Guys are promised to increase their self-confidence,”she said. According to the expert, Victoria resembles a more improved version of the infamous Nastya Rybka, who once organized such courses: Rybka abandoned the concept of sex training in favor of webinars on how to fall in love with a man, and lost. “In this regard, Vika’s strategy is more honest, which attracts the audience,” Maksimova summed up. Victoria launched the courses three years ago, and during this time she managed not only to write a book about it and give a couple of interviews (to the YouTube channel "Tender Editor" and the TV channel "Russia"), but also to train more than 1,500 people. The girl conducts five to six sex trainings in an offline format a month. Most of her students are girls who want to master the deep throat technique. The demand for an online cunnilingus course is much lower. Probably because trainings (held in an online format) are most often bought by girls too - for their partners. Rakhmatulina thought about opening them offline: but it is almost impossible to rinse an artificial vagina, given the structure of the organ, and every time buying a disposable vulva for 5000-6000 rubles is unprofitable, she said. Vixie did not disclose income from sex courses. But in December, Victoria's “deep throat” session cost almost 10,000 rubles. Cooney online course and erotic massage course - 3000 rubles each. About the audience For eight years, Victoria has gained 1.5 million followers on Instagram. More recently, most of the audience, according to her, was male. Now men and women are equally divided: “I have more useful information for girls, I not only post photos, but also write texts”. However, despite the fact that Victoria mainly addresses women, the visual range is designed for men, Valentina Maksimova emphasized. The current statistics of the Viksi666 account, which are provided to advertisers (available to "Secret"), confirms the expert's words: 61% of the audience are men, 39% are women. Most of them are residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Slightly more than half of Rakhmatulina's audience are real people, said Polina Shebarshova, customer service manager of Triko agency. The remaining 48% are “empty and suspicious accounts”. This is not a very good indicator, explained Anastasia Vishnyakova, a marketer at the analytical company BloggerBase. Many bloggers participate in giveaways and mass following (give is a rally held by a star or blogger on Instagram, mass following is promotion by means of mass subscription. - Note of "Secret") in order to gain a large number of subscribers, but such a "winding" audience is not active, the expert noted. This is also evidenced by the coverage: according to BloggerBase, the average reach of one blog post is 213,000 people, while posts gain an average of 42,600 likes and 562 comments, which is clearly not enough for a million audience. Each post of the heroine is a challenge, Maksimova emphasized. “But this is not an attempt to get out of the comfort zone or a search for self-realization, but just a primitive adaptation for the sake of male physiological whims. What is all this for? Firstly, to increase coverage among a new audience, secondly, to demonstrate a model of quick material and / or personal success of a liberated girl, and thirdly, to attract advertisers,”she said. About money on advertising Victoria herself says that she publishes one or two advertising posts a week, most often she talks in stories about events and online conferences, advertises lingerie stores and sporting goods. Victoria refuses part of the advertising. “I myself conduct sex courses and write about fitness, so I don’t advertise these areas so that my“warm”audience does not go to competitors,” she explained. Now a post on a girl's Instagram costs 300,000 rubles, a video - 400,000, a story - 90,000. “While I had 100,000 subscribers, advertising cost 5,000 rubles. There were a lot of advertisers then. But now that the price is high, there are fewer people willing. And quarantine measures have hit businesses, companies are cutting their advertising budgets,”Rakhmatulina says. According to the Triko agency, there are not so many ready to advertise on the Viksi666 page also because the prices are higher than the market, and the indicators of posts and stories coverage, as well as audience engagement, are not good enough for a millionaire blogger. Such a blog is just a klondike for the so-called dark market among marketers: everything that has restrictions in traditional advertising can be successfully promoted in this kind of frank content, said Valentina Maksimova. “Alcohol products, tobacco products, sex toys are only half of the segment of potential customers. This is followed by the services of plastic surgeons, psychologists, sports nutrition, dietary supplements,”she said. But, according to the expert, while Vixie's “brand mission” is at the level of the ideology “train sexually to be successful”, she can hardly count on big federal brands and their campaigns. About social projects Victoria recently launched a social program “Call Galya”. The project brings together bars, restaurants and other public spaces where girls can be protected from unwanted attention. If a girl notices that a suspicious young man is watching her, or on the first date, the guy starts to spread his arms and cheat, she can turn to the employees of the partner institution (the project logo hangs on their doors: an umbrella and a lightning bolt on a pink background) of the project and name the code phrase "Call Galya." Then they will help her: they will call the police, take her to a safe place, take her out through the emergency exit. The first post in the program's account appeared in mid-October, about 6,500 people subscribed to the page in a month, and dozens of institutions across the country became partners of the project. Valentina Maksimova notes that the "social" project in the influencer's portfolio is a strategically profitable investment, but this particular one is a 100% copy of the English social project Ask For Angela, which was launched back in 2016 and was later copied in the USA. About the book In 2019, Victoria wrote the book "How a Woman Can Do", which scored three out of five stars on the "Liters" service. In bookstores one copy costs 500-600 rubles. The blogger's creation, judging by the reviews, caused a violent emotional reaction from readers. “I think Victoria Rakhmatulina is a hysterically funny little girl in the field of vulgar humor, the phrase“if someone offers to sprinkle the garden for you with his wide shovel - substitute and do not be shy, the main thing is don’t fart!” made my day),”writes one reader. Another is indignant: “Typical tasteless nude creation. Honestly, at first I was ashamed to admit that I had read such a fairy, but then I decided not to be silent just so that self-respecting girls and women would not waste time on any slag, even if it is brightly packed. " The girl does not disclose income from this project. According to the press service of the Eksmo-Ast publishing group, the book was published in 7,000 copies. “The demand for opinion leaders, in particular bloggers, is consistently high, and it is often the editorial offices that offer the influencer to release the book on the site of our publishing group,” the publishing house told Sekret. "Nikonova. Online" (Tatiana Nikonova): "I give a more complete picture of sex and the life of women in Russia" 42 years old, Moscow Started blogging about sex toys in 2012. More than 280 thousand subscribers on Instagram and more than 26 thousand on Telegram. Explains about feminism, sex exploitation and domestic violence. Writes a book about sex lumen for children. About how she got started Journalist, sex educator and feminist Tatyana Nikonova started blogging about sex toys in 2012. For an open conversation about sex, I chose Tumbler - other sites were less tolerant of this topic - and became the first blogger in Russia to talk about her personal experience of using gadgets. Nikonova posted links to research on her blog, answered anonymous questions about sex, physicality, gender and feminism, and published reviews and test drives of toys. “I don't think that talking about sex is anything special. There are beauty bloggers who test cosmetics. I am testing sex toys. I was just the first to write about them under my own name. In Russia, there is a large deficit of orgasms, it is necessary to fix this,”she told The Secret. Nikonova's blog had an anonymous form where people could submit their questions. “It turned out that people are not only interested in sex toys. And it's boring to read constant reviews of intimate gadgets. How many toys do people buy on average? Well, two or three, and then something else new in five years. I give a more complete picture of sex and the life of women in Russia,”said Tatiana. Nikonova became a sex educator much more public than other sex activists on social networks thanks to the (presumably still involuntary, and not specially planned) trick of showman Pavel Volya on one of the Comedy Club broadcasts, Polina Shebarshova noted. The reason for the "joke" was a photo of Tatiana with a vibrator, which Pavel accompanied with a comment-wish: that Tatiana should be sent such a giant phallus "so that the test drive turns into a crash test." “The scandal raised after this - both offline and online - certainly attracted a new audience to the blogger,” says Shebarshova. About sex toys and monetization Nikonova's blog is able to monetize thanks to the reviews of sex toys that manufacturers and sex shops send her. She describes the disadvantages and advantages of the gadget, gives safety tips and sometimes offers her promotional codes for the purchase of devices. Nikonova does not disclose the terms of cooperation with sex retailers. According to Tatyana, the price of advertising depends on whether she receives a percentage of sales for her promo code or referral link, as well as on what kind of advertising the customer is interested in: a post or a story. According to the Epicstars platform, which unites advertisers and bloggers, an average influencer receives 10% of the order amount for a purchase using a promotional code. If we are talking about a blogger's personal link (it is often attached in the profile header), then there is already an average of 18% of the order. Unlike Vixie's blog, Nikonova's promotion opportunities are not limited to the dark market, says PR-consultant Valentina Maksimova. “Apart from the obvious advertising collaborations with sex shop products, there is a fertile field for creativity here. Possible integrations with publishers, psychologists, online schools, etc.,”she says. About subscribers 277,000 people have subscribed to Nikonova's Instagram page. The main audience is women, which is due to the feminist mood of Tatyana herself, said Valentina Maksimova. “Girls, mostly 19–25 years old, ask intimate questions to the author and receive sincere and supportive answers,” she said. According to BloggerBase estimates, the majority of the audience - 88% - are women, of which 68% are between the ages of 25 and 34. The average coverage is 32 thousand, and audience engagement has increased by 6.72% over the past six months. At the same time, Nikonova has 47% of a high-quality audience, the rest are mass followers, analysts calculated. The approximate cost of a post for Nikonova is 22,000 - 27,000 rubles, and a story is 9,000 rubles, according to BloggerBase. On average, each post gets 3.8 thousand likes and 178 comments. “Looking at these data, we can come to the conclusion that the engagement of Tatiana's posts is not very high: better performance could have been achieved with fewer mass followers among subscribers,” Shebarshova noted. However, the fact that Nikonova, not embarrassed by possible condemnation, talks about her personal experience of a long struggle with depression, helps her to establish a strong connection with the audience. "Since feminism, depression, psychology are spoken and written in many media and social networks, Nikonova's activity in this field helps her to recruit new subscribers," the expert says. About communication channels Several years ago, Nikonova started a Telegram channel, but the owners of iPhones did not see the picture due to restrictions on materials of frank and erotic content. Therefore, Tatiana created an Instagram account three years ago. Nikonova recently started a page in Odnoklassniki to, as she herself says, “to bring the light of truth.” “I duplicate posts from Instagram to Odnoklassniki. And, as my experience shows, the audience is also interested in this site,”she says. For three months Nikonova gained more than 11,000 subscribers in Odnoklassniki without any investment. According to Valentina Matveeva, in her blog Nikonova "honestly and with dignity tells that a woman has the right to decide what to do with her body." "Unlike Viksi_666, here there are values of acceptance of oneself, one's body, one's desires, and not embedding into the world of male physiological needs and dissatisfaction with one's body," she said. Nikonova raises issues that are urgent for women, but does it quite elegantly, despite to some provocation, Maksimova emphasized. "The fact that the content is intended for adults is periodically reminded only by product integrations with images of toys for adults. Otherwise, it is a fairly ethical presentation," she said. About charity Five years ago, Nikonova opened a charity store with feminist prints Hey Grrl Shop. All the sales proceeds, according to Tatiana, she donated to the center "Sisters", which helps women survivors of sexual violence. However, sales were not very good, says Nikonova, so the store had to be suspended. Instagram, Facebook and VKontakte have not been updated since 2015.“The assortment will soon change and social networks will be more active,” she said. About the book In 2017, Tatiana launched a crowdfunding project on Planeta.ru to raise funds for a free textbook for teenagers on sex education. For a week, she raised a million rubles, and in total she accumulated more than 1.4 million rubles. Nikonova planned to release the book in a year - in 2018. But this did not happen, because, as Nikonova explained, she did not have enough time and energy. “I quit to write the book, I was going to give her the time that I usually spent on the office. What I did not take into account at all was the fact that my blog accounts in social networks (four!) Have grown, the work has increased greatly, you need to communicate with subscribers (and you deserve it), the number of incoming messages from journalists and those wishing to cooperate has increased significantly, they invite me to speak and write articles all the time,”she explained on Facebook. Now Tatiana does not name any publication dates. “The book is in progress, I would not talk about the release next year and I will not name the exact dates. It will not be pop science, but self-help for teenagers, because I see what questions are not sent, and I conclude: people do not know basic things. For example, they do not know anything about the principle of consent,”says Tatiana. What the experts say Each post by Rakhmatulina literally screams: “Look how I made myself a figure! See how boldly I kiss another girl on camera or swallow bananas and other objects! " But whether the archaic image of a "kept woman" will "enter" the audience in the heyday of female leadership, when serious publications make ratings "30 to 30", girls launch IT startups, and feminists have practically broken the stigma of not accepting the female body, Valentina Maksimova asks. In turn, Tatyana Nikonova, not hesitating to speak on frank topics, maintains a calmer blog, notes Polina Shebarshova. “The author relies on provocative content, probably because he communicates with a more mature and independent audience,” the expert says. Unlike Nikonova, Victoria does not touch upon the topics of women's self-development, education, self-acceptance, as well as issues of HIV safety that are closer to the chosen genre. This strategy is short-lived, experts admit, but it is still in demand. This is confirmed by the numbers: it seems that a wide audience is still more interested not in self-knowledge and feminist views, but in the ability to swallow objects of "any length and diameter." Collage: "The Secret of the Firm", depositphotos.com
