When most people think about side hustles, they picture selling vintage clothes online or ride share, crafting something and selling it on Etsy or Amazon.
But for 23-year-old Avalon Saph, known to her fans as Lana, her most lucrative gig comes from something far less conventional: selling videos of herself farting.
“I’ve been paid like 200 bucks to send a guy a video of me just farting on camera,” Lana reveals to news.com.au’s new Sex, Lies and Streaming podcast. “No smell. Nothing. Just a video of audible farting.”
In episode two of the podcast, host James Weir meets Lana and her boyfriend Ryan, while they are at an adult expo in Las Vegas, where she turns heads in fishnet lingerie and a fur coat, and opens up about the cheeky business of monetizing her most natural bodily function.
While the concept might sound out of the box to outsiders, for Lana, it’s all part of the job. She’s a stripper by trade, and about a year ago, she decided to join the world of OnlyFans, the platform where performers can sell custom adult content directly to subscribers.
Thanks to her entrepreneurial spirit, she was able to break (wind) into a very niche kink.
Lana and Ryan, both from Toronto, Canada, met in high school but only started dating three years ago after reconnecting at a bar. Their relationship is open, polyamorous and built on humor, with Ryan often making cameos in Lana’s content as the “man behind the woman”.
“Like anytime I’m making content, he’ll be in the background, just laughing,” Lana says.
“Sex is supposed to be fun. If you’re not laughing through it, what are you doing?”
Ryan admits he often finds the process hilarious.
“Anytime she’s making content, I’ll be in the background laughing. It’s kind of meta. There’s this second layer of humiliation for her fans because they like that another guy is laughing at them too,” he says.
Lana reveals her subscribers range from curious newcomers to long-term “pay pigs”, the submissive fans who pay to be dominated or humiliated online.
“Sometimes they just want to be called names while they send money,” she says matter-of-factly.
While fart videos are among her most unusual requests, they’re far from the only ones.
“Some people are into cream pie videos, others want humiliation, others have very specific kinks,” she explains. “If it’s safe and it’s something I’m comfortable with, I’ll consider it.”
But the real question is, can farts pay the bills?
Right now, Lana still makes most of her income from stripping three to four nights a week. She says she’s earned about $130 to $195 a month through OnlyFans.
The truth is, content creators on OnlyFans don’t get the full amount that the subscribers pay. So she has to side hustle, her side hustle, to get the full amount to release her digestive tract.
“OnlyFans takes 20% of whatever you make,” she says. “So, the real money comes from selling privately to fans.”
Her fart video, for instance, was sold directly, meaning she kept the full $130.
As James jokes in the episode: “OnlyFans didn’t profit off your fart video … you really showed it to the man.
“You’ve got to take ownership of your own farts.”
Lana’s experience mirrors that of countless creators chasing the OnlyFans dream. Brett Musette, an ex-Army veteran who transitioned from traditional studio porn to DIY content, describes his brutal early months on the platform.
“I think back to like my first or second month when my payout was only like $130, $160,” Musette recalls. “And I was posting it on every platform I had, reaching out to people … a lot more work for a lot less money.”
Ryan might not partake in the fetish, but it was his idea to “monetize” her farts in the first place.
“It was a long-running joke because Lana’s farts are nasty. And, so we were saying, you, you really gotta monetize.”
And he’s fully on board with her Girls Boss attitude, “You’ve got to take ownership of your own farts. They’re yours, babe.”
Despite the silliness of the subject matter, Lana’s attitude is pragmatic. She and Ryan are fully aware that they’re operating in a fast-growing digital economy, built on parasocial connections and niche fantasies.
And they handle it all with humor. How could you not when you’re selling farts for a living?
“We definitely have a big sense of humor in our relationship,” Lana says. “We’ll find anything funny. We’re always cracking jokes.”
Launching today, Sex, Lies and Streaming pulls back the curtain on the billion-dollar creator economy, exposing the brutal economics, power games and human cost behind the online sex industry’s digital gold rush.
Hosted by news.com.au journalist and cultural commentator James Weir, the six-part series follows controversial British creator Bonnie Blue during one pivotal week in Las Vegas that could make or break her career, while meeting the wild cast of characters who live and hustle in her world.
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