Thirst-Trapping My Way To Readers: An Awkward Saga And Advice

A model explains the photos and why they work, and when they don’t.

I’m not sure how many people know this, but I am a model — yes, a paid one. I’ve been modeling since my early 20s. Back in the day, I was a runway model, a hair and makeup model, a goth model, an art model, and yes, a fetish model.

This was me in my twenties:

Yeah…I was kind of hot. For a while, I was agency-signed and yes, I did a lot of shoots that got me paid. I never quite made it to the big leagues like Ford or Wilhemina, but my modeling work helped me learn a lot about media. No regrets.

Today, I primarily just do plus size fashion, pinup, and a little bit of work with stockings/cosplay. It’s what I enjoy doing and frankly, I occasionally still end up on the cover of magazines or in pages of them.

You might be wondering what this has to do with writing. Well, I’ll tell you an exchange that I had with a friend of mine.

As many people know, I have a lot of friends in the adult film industry who offer me marketing tips.

I’ll say it before, and I’ll say it again. Few people know how to market themselves like porn stars and porn managers do. I guarantee you that if one had a marketing course, I’d take it in a heartbeat.

Porn stars are so much smarter than people think they are. So, I often turn to them for advice. I was talking to my bestie, Lasha Lane, when she overheard that I wanted to grow my Instagram following and Medium following.

“So, why don’t you just thirst trap your way to it? That’s like the basic of getting followers anywhere these days — especially if you look female.”

So…I did it.

I took a bunch of photos of myself in bikinis and the like, and posted them to Instagram.

Believe it or not, it didn’t work as well as I thought I gained like 50 followers over the course of three months. I did get a flood of thirsty messages to my inbox, as well as a couple of messages from men who were “photographers” who had no portfolio to speak of.

I thought, “Hm. Maybe I should re-evaluate how I do things.”

It was then my friend pointed out something very, very salient that my dumbass didn’t figure out. We took a look at my Instagram to figure out what went wrong. Lasha saw it almost immediately.

“You do realize your look is only part of your brand, right Ossiana?” said Lasha.

I gave an awkward pause. Oops.

“Thirst trapping isn’t just about your looks, especially not in your case. You also can thirst trap by writing good copy about your latest articles. You…haven’t been doing that, have you?”

CRAP.

It’s times like this I swear the peroxide gets to my brain. I never really put two and two together. People follow people for different reasons, aesthetics only being one of them.

Here’s my advice.

You need to know what draws your readers in and what your readers want from you. Most readers won’t read anything if you don’t tease them about it with thought-provoking questions and cool titles.

In writing, only writing is a thirst trap.

Well, if you also DIY artwork themed on your writing, that can be a thirst trap too. Regardless, you need to let people know what you’re writing and you need to know how to post it in a way that gets people go, “HMMMMMM!”

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t add a little fanservice if you’ve got it.

As most porn stars know, people really do love aesthetics. If you have the goods, you absolutely can use that for your branding and as part of your content journey.

I’ve repeatedly asked my readers if they want to see more photos of me…and the answer has always been yes. So, I add a photo to every article. People like it. I might end up making a pinup calendar soonish, maybe.