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TFP Blues: A solution?
I often hear models complain about not being able to find many paying jobs. I often hear photographers complain about models wanting to get paid. I often hear photographers complain about only booking TFP's. Lets face it.. 95% of the paid jobs a model will get from the internet are either: A) Modeling for a photographer who owns a paysite. B) Modeling for a photographer who is also a content provider for paysites. C) Modeling for a 'collector' who really has no intention of doing anything with the photos other than showing his buddies the hottie he just shot. *Note: Collector doesn't necessarily mean a bad photographer. It just means he does it for the enjoyment. On top of that, 99% of the above paying jobs will require some form of nudity, or at the very least pretty darn close. *Disclaimer: These Statistics are not scientific in any way. Now this causes a problem for most of the "I WILL NOT DO ANY NUDITY/PAID WORK ONLY" models. I have a solution, and photographers may like this too. Use the photographers as a resource. Not a conquest. 1) First, set up a Yahoo group, My Space account, MSN Group, Your own website with your own domain name (www.modelname.com). And anywhere else you can think of. And be active on them. I'm willing to bet you'd even be able to find a neighbor, friend, family member or whoever to help you with your website if you don't know how to do it yourself. And if worse comes to worse: Web Design for Dummy's and a copy of Dreamweaver and you're good to go. 2) Do TFP shoots with all of the photographers who gladly offer this. Whether they are hobbyists, collectors, and anyone else you can think of. Use these photos to update your sites constantly. 3) Promote the hell out of yourself. Get fans, thousands of them. There are thousands of ways to promote yourself. When you go out for a drink.. hand out business cards. And keep active to keep them coming back. Make yourself the next Cindy Margolis, Anna Lieb, Jen Hilton. 4) Your goal is to get enough fans who worship the ground you walk on and will buy all your stuff. Prints, calendars, coffee mugs, pens, keychains, collector cards, behind the scenes videos, etc. And trust me, they'll buy! 5) Then, once you have fans up the ying yang.. Start shooting with photographers who will give you stuff to sell. Work out a deal with your photographer that you will buy prints from them at $X.XX/print to resell. Work out a deal with a local printer that will get you the coffee mugs, mouse pads, calendars, etc. 6) Sell, Sell, Sell! Sell at conventions, sell at the swap meet, If you're hot enough this shit will fly off the shelves. Everyone's happy. Photographer gets paid, you get paid, And best of all.. You set your own skin-o-meter limits! 7) Once you get big enough, promoters will seek you out for their own promotions and THAT's who pays you. Car shows, Ring Girl, magazines, you name it. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but is it really? When you consider all of the work that goes into chasing the elusive paying photographer? Sep 08 05 02:42 pm Link I know of quite a few local models that have done just that...some even have pay sites (nude or non-nude) and from what they tell me they make a thousand on a month where they are lax on promoting and up to 5K on a month where they are pushing the hell out of their site/group/stuff. It works! It's just a matter of time...specifically, how much time one has to put into it! If you have a full-time job, go to school full time, volunteer for your local shelter, etc., it may not work for you. But if you have nothing BUT time on your hands...work the hell out of it and you can make a small fortune. Sep 08 05 02:49 pm Link Toya Michele wrote: I'm not even necessarily talking about running a paysite. You can sell tangible items.. Whatever you want to sell. If someone will pay 1000's of dollars for a wad of Brittany's chewed up gum, surely someone will pay $20 for an autographed print of Model X Sep 08 05 02:53 pm Link That is correct. Its all about a good look and lots of Marketing!!! I have been working with a few models, creating teams that produce great images. More should team up. M Sep 08 05 04:42 pm Link I don't personally regard "the shoot" as the income generator. My business model places the value on the results. The session itself is strictly the means to an end. I like to refer to my non-paid content shoots as TFR (trade for rights) where both the photog and the model get to use the resulting photos (and/or video) equally. In this type of trade, the model or her producer/webmaster receives a disk of all the raw images (at least the ones not featuring my thumb or foot  and both parties select, process, and use the most appropriate shots for their particular purpose. Neither party can resell the images under an exclusive agreement, which pretty much limits the resale market, but that's not the primary purpose of these shoots. I have taken more than 30,000 images over the summer under this type of agreement and neither the girls nor myself have spent a dime for the actual work. The money is better spent on cute outfits, salons & tanning sessions , blank media, and hard drives. A few of the girls just want the shots for their portfolios or free modelling sites like this one, but most are developing content for their own pay websites, whether non-nude, nude, or hardcore. I find it humorous that the "professionals" who hang around sites like this openly deride and dismiss people like me and my clientele as common pornographers, but I don't lose any sleep over the opinions of self-righteous elitists. We all get up at noon (if we feel like it), everyone's rent gets paid on time, and none of us find it necessary to take any crap from anyone else on the planet.  That's what life is all about, right? Sep 08 05 05:27 pm Link I really like the whole idea that you're going with this. I've personally done a few shots for a non-nude pay site for a friend of mine and it has been tossed around to replicate something like that. The biggest problem I'm finding as a photographer is that I have no income to build off of. I want to be a photographer, but before I can do that I have to work both of my other paying jobs. I don't always have the extra cash to put aside to buy clothing, pay for MUAs, etc. I suppose my question is, where do I, as a photographer, start in this great equation? Sep 09 05 10:01 am Link elementsofrain wrote: I'm not sure if you're asking me how you would get paid... or if you are asking how you could get started in something like this.. Dec 09 05 01:26 am Link John you hit the right note like Ray Charles on this one man...You got the right one bay-bay!! Dec 09 05 01:37 am Link Wait...people (ok, let's be honest, men) actually pay money to join a non-nude web site...I can't even see the point in joining a nude pay site...If a guy want's to see hot girls in swimsuits, can't he hang out at the beach....or.....here? Men are freaks! Dec 09 05 01:45 am Link David Moyle wrote: Yeah. but you cannot masturbate on the beach.. did I just say that? Dec 09 05 01:47 am Link John Jebbia wrote: Yep you did and I'm bring my cam for blackmail pics!! Dec 09 05 05:57 am Link Your approach is very good, but it is a lot of work. If people are willing to put in the effort, the results will happen. Always. I have done a number of "TFR" shoots as well, and it usually comes out terrific for both parties, esp. those ladies who want some light bondage/Damsel-in-distress images for their paysites. Dec 09 05 04:43 pm Link I've worked with a few models who are living, breathing marketing machines. While some of the details differ, they're doing essentially what you describe. Generally it took a couple of years of constant effort to get to where they are. They're a pleasure to work with; they know exactly what they want.. which includes enough diversity that any photographer already consistent with their general market niche has plenty of creative leeway... and they're able to communicate effectively. Every time we shoot, they're thinking out loud where they can market this particular set of images. Sometimes it's for $$, sometimes it's for print exposure, but they never stop thinking. But... relatively few are doing this. Dec 09 05 09:37 pm Link Doing what you have described is my dream... Now, I need to get started! Dec 11 05 06:47 pm Link Ken Mierzwa wrote: I love women like this, as opposed to "take my pictures for the sake of taking my pictures" sake. Which is why I "stopped" doing TFP. Dec 11 05 07:20 pm Link You have some good points here. In my tfp/tfcd shoots the models sign a normal release. I can make money from the shots if I so choose. However, I always agree to split the money made as a result of a TFP/TFCD shoot 50-50 with the model. I also offer some of them their own website which could be a money maker for us both. I do the web design, host it on my own server. All the model has to do is pose and I do all the other work and we split the profits. Dec 11 05 07:26 pm Link John Jebbia wrote: The only issue is, selling stuff like chewing gum that has been chewed, personally worn garments, especially panties, can actually land you in jail and or get you heavily fined. There have been several instances in recent years in the governments attempt to stop adult material, in which they have arrested even amateur models who have offered their panties and such for sale and charged and convicted them of selling and transporting(sending through US mail) hazardous waste. So, selling used panties, chewing gum,etc, anything that at one time someone wore or used that could have at one time carried something that could spread in one way or another . One girl in particular got a year in prison and about 250k in fines and actually had to serve all her time and pay the money. Dec 11 05 07:31 pm Link David Moyle wrote: The non nude websites are becoming as popular as nude sites. If non nudity did not sell, explain the sports illistrated swimsuit issue outselling all magazines combined that month year after year, their calenders, posters, old style pinups(they sold tons of pinup mags back then too)non nude burlesque clubs, non nude exotic dance clubs like they have in florida which make damn good money,etc. Dec 11 05 07:35 pm Link John Jebbia wrote: Actually in the land of the Dutch you can,lol. Over there it is actually legal to have sex in public. The cops over there are talking about how it is getting out of control actually, yet it is completely legal. Dec 11 05 07:36 pm Link Glamour Boulevard wrote: I'm not sure if this holds any merit, but I think part of the allure of the non-nude website is that people join them and hope to catch a "slip" or something like that. Dec 11 05 07:49 pm Link John Jebbia wrote: It is definitely the tease factor, some enjoy a little more to the imagination than they would get on a nude site. and some of us think clothed sexy stuff or revealing outfits can be ten times hotter than having it all uncovered. It is also the " I feel like I know her" thing. Which is why amateur adult videos and magazines have been outselling major production professional adult videos for at least the last 15 years. They feel the amateur girl is much more approachable and attainable than the pro girls. Dec 11 05 07:53 pm Link |
