There's money to be made online

A  26-year-old woman, who goes by the name Seven, was introduced to My Girl Fund (MGF) through a friend who had started her own tattoo parlour with the money she had earned through the site.  A full time bartender and part time photographer based in Oregon, USA, Seven’s dream was to start her own photography studio. She decided to take a chance and signed up on the site. That was two years ago. Today, she has made almost enough money to open her studio, aside from putting some into her savings and claims that she hasn’t looked back since. “It’s actually become a regular part of my day. I have more friends on MGF than I do on Facebook, or Linkedin,” she says.

Launched in 2008, My Girl Fund is an adults-only social network that allows men to interact with women, share pictures, personal messages and video chats. However, there’s a slight twist: At MGF, the women are paid a chunk of the site’s profits, aside from the money that they receive from their online boyfriend.

The ‘girlfriends’ receive contributions from the guys in the form of credits that they can cash out into dollars. All girls start out earning 65% of every dollar. Their payout share increases by 2.5%, with every 5K they earn. At 50K, they reach 90% payout. The girls can cash their money at any time with the click of a button and are charged $2 for the same. It’s the only service fee that MGF charges. “The money is surprisingly good considering that I don’t have to put in daily shifts on camera or run my own web store to make it,” says Seven.

The money that each girl receives varies with the kind of ‘entertainment’ she provides. While ‘entertainment’ here is largely subjective and does include NSFW (not safe for work) content, many men use the platform to pour their hearts out. As Seven stresses, “I don’t do anything for guys on MGF unless I get to know them a little bit first. It’s not like a cam site, or a clipstore where I perform, or send risqué media to anyone who asks me.”

A whole new adult world
Stefan, the director of business development at MGF, calls it a ‘unique community’ for men who are frustrated with the lack of intimate attraction on other social networks. “We developed the MGF community because we saw the limitations in both, mainstream social networking and online adult entertainment.” In spite of the nature of online interaction — MGF founders call it ‘social intercourse’ — female members, in fact, range from young women in college earning tuition fees, professionals seeking more out of life and even single mothers who treat MGF like a full time job.

To keep the fun quotient alive, there are lots of contests on the site that are organised by either the girls or the guys. The site holds their own too, like the weekly Tumblr photo contest, video, Twitter contests and more. Last year, a ‘Free your face’ contest, where women submitted their make-up free pictures, was met with huge success.

Privacy concerns
Today, there are over 6000 women (from the US, UK, Canada and Australia among other countries) on MGF and almost 10,000 men sign up every day. Interestingly, MGF gives paramount importance to privacy. Female applicants go through a rigorous verification process and have to show valid proof of age. Background checks with IP addresses and email searches are conducted and sharing of personal contact information is strictly prohibited.

Pointing out the site is not a dating or hook-up site, Stefan say, “We don’t use words like ‘meet’. We use words like connect.” Moreover, privacy settings debar non-members from viewing girls’ profiles. “I feel safer and far more anonymous on My Girl Fund than I do on my other public  social networks. I worry about Facebook’s graph search way more than I ever do about MGF,” says Seven.

According to the founders, MGF is successful because it satisfies both the genders — guys who are looking for more personal interaction with their objects of desire and women, who are looking for creative ways to earn money in safe but non-traditional ways.