are you trying to say OMP won't make me famous? Darn.

It's absolute fact! It's what I've been saying for the 12 or 13 years I've been activ on the internet. but no one listens, no one wants to hear it.  So hopeful models, go ahead and attend that convention, pay for that space on a virtual agency web site, get yourself a net manager and sit back and wait, you are certain to 'be discovered'! All of those major agencies are searching just to find you! Once they do you'll become rich and famous overnight. BTW, Barnum was right!

With legitimate agencies receiving thousands of submissions per month, why on earth would the out surfing the net for models? A web site and/or participation on a forum may well help you get net gigs, but will NOT get you signed with Ford.

Fiction.  Yeah, there is some fact to it, but a lot of it is supposition based on what the author thinks should be true, instead of what is true.  And look at the sources they quote.  Frank Longo, the "professional photographer".  Anybody remember Frank?  If you do, could you possibly think of him as an expert on how major modeling agencies work?

And they cite a "guide to scams" by Quickbooks Nationwide.  Quickbooks Nationwide IS A SCAM.  Their "guide" is cleverly worded to distinguish them from all the other scams.

They quote Look as a "top NY agency".  Uh, right.

There is one quote from Next, but the quote doesn't say that Next doesn't use the Internet to recruit models.  It just says what other top agencies have said about the quantity of submissions they get per day or week.  You can make an inference, if you wish, about what you think that would do to their interest in recruiting online - but that's a long way from actually having any facts.

The whole article is written by someone who does not understand the dynamics of the industry, apparently has never worked in it, and tries to apply his version of "logic" to a system that operates in decidedly non-linear ways.

Here are some things I know from personal experience:  Top agencies do in fact recruit from at least two, and possibly three online model listing sites.  (No, OMP is not one of them).  The sites they use are congenial to real agencies (OMP is not, just as MM is not) and actively market to them, and make it easy for them to find what they want without having to review a lot of dreck.

Yes, most of the claims by websites that agencies recruit through them are BS.  There really are lots of scams out there.  But that does not mean that no websites are used, or that everything making the claim is a scam.

My answer to all this...because I have positioned myself to help others here and not looking for models for my shoots, I have come to a different version.

Since I do use the agencies only and have developed a relationship with them, what I see on-line has once or twice led me to introduce certain models that I feel fit the criteria of what my friends are looking for.  I have scouted around 6 models already and sent them onto interviews with top agents or have also offered guidance to reach the right people.  However I only do this for those who already have experience and do fit the height requirements and in my professional opinion bring something to an image...a personality and brightness that opens a room, male or female. 

Perhaps as photographers if we do share similar type friends, then why not help those others that we want in our books...that's what works in the business and is the same for all agencies...for instance a model is walked into a top agency by a photographer in NYC...it happens all the time.  So why not here...on-line.  Yes I do believe that all these models who believe that sites like this and OMP and others will advance their careers, but they are not looking at building relationships with talented photographers either.  And those photographers are not all on sites like MM and OMP.  Those pros use other sites that cater more to the advertising and fashion markets.  Sites like:
workbook.com
blackbook.com
lebook.com
photoserve.com
portfolios.com....my host site.

For starters, a models should just go to the top agencies first and if not, then move on to smaller ones who may be able to "think" you resemble a famous model and they can track you to follow the clients of the other one.  It's a business out there, not creating art or images for the sake of a pretty face or hot body...those are the tools, but there is so much more once one is involved with having representation.

So if after all the research brings you to not having an agent...then that does say something. So then don't expect that answer to change on-line on sites like this and OMP.  My sister-in-law is the head booker for Click in NYC...she hardly has the time to view my recommendations I send from this site, let alone search on-line directly.  And when those models had the chance to talk to her and other agents I send them to they realized the difference of the playing field and knew that they had some homework ahead of them...and if they were taken or not I do not know as of yet.  The reality is, it's hard and I do not know who they have either that may compete with new people...so many factors to consider here.   Which brings everyone back to MM, and the society of models and photographers who try to create something here.  I do not see this as a place for business, but rather that something like a job may happen, like hanging out at a Starbucks for an hour or so and meeting the right person at the right time.  Yes you never know who you'll meet, but you can't go here thinking that this is the answer to not making it in the "real" world...but don't get me wrong ... this also is a very real world and I have been painstakingly trying to get my organization to become aware of this site and others like it.  I am a board member of the APA..Advertising Photographers of America...others know them well, but for some photographers, this org. and others like it, pretty much created the rights we now have a creative artists and these orgs. (once your a member) offer all kinds of business forms, like model, property etc releases, amoung the many seminars.  I am not wanting to recruit, but only making you aware to where the pros are. And please don't argue about where the pros are...it's just one example here.


Yes these scams do exist, but I would not give up on the web so soon.  It's a changing world and if you can position yourself in a way that stands out, then maybe when these top agencies start hiring others just to comb the web and re-title what that means as an agent or scout...you just may be in the right place at the right time.  Only recently am I seeing more and more professionals on MM that I personally know and who I am aware of...and at times I am surprised because like myself and my thoughts about all this, they too are starting to think in this same fashion.  Maybe we will all be in for a big surprise, so instead of ping ponging all this stuff, maybe we should all start to think like pros more and that this site just may be a leader in the next few years...only we as a community can make it so.

with kindness and thanks for letting me rant once again.
PixelFisher...Ken

Eric.... if anyone believes the internet is going to make them famous they um.. deserve getting nowhere.... *edited to fix that sentence*

I think alot of it is pure laziness and not wanting to actually hit the pavement.

Rather cruise the net.


Rachel

Eric.... if anyone believes the internet is going to make them famous they um.. deserve getting nowhere.... *edited to fix that sentence*

I think alot of it is pure laziness and not wanting to actually hit the pavement.

Rather cruise the net.


Rachel

Hehe. I knew all of that, and I have said as much before. No one wants to listen. And it's because of the one or two exceptions to that general rule that there are so many hopefuls on the net.