I want to be a model - do I need a web site?

ABSOLUTELY NOT   NO!

Let's break this down very simply,

Any legitimate modeling agency works hard to market you and does not make a dime until they actually get you work.

Why would an agency want to invest their time and money to market you if you are marketing yourself via the web and cutting them out of the transaction?

A model needs only 2 marketing tools - period. A top notch comp card and portfolio.

If you have ever seen a comp card or looked at the ones displayed on my web site - you would have noticed that they don't even contain the models phone number or email address. You will also notice that there is extra white space at the bottom of the back of the card. This is so that agencies can place a sticker with their name and contact information on the bottom.

Legitimate mainstream marketing jobs are NOT cast via the web. And there is ONE very simple reason - ACCOUNTABILITY.

If a company is about to invest thousands and often times millions of dollars on a new advertising campaign - do you really believe that they would risk going to the web to find a model? Even if they had the time to waste sifting through thousands of people who claim to be models, how do they know the person is who they say they are? How do they know that the person still looks the same as their photos and hasn't changed hair color or gained weight? How do they know that the person is capable of providing the personality needed for the shot? How do they know the person will show up on time or even at all?

Modeling agencies not only provide the service of finding the right person for the job - they provide accountability that with tremendous amounts of money and resources on the line - the model who is selected will not only show up on time, but be able to carry out the job.

The flip side of all of this is that as a model - the main reason you want to work with agencies and not the Internet is ACCOUNTABILITY!

If you have a web site or post your pictures at some model listing web site, not only are you inviting every pervert and idiot to contact you, but how do you know if the people who have contacted you are legitimate? How do you know the job that they are allegedly hiring you for is legitimate? How do you know that the address you have been given is not some serial killers base of operations? Who do you go to when and if you are not paid?

A modeling agency provides you the assurance that the job you are being sent to is legitimate and that you will get paid for it. The agency also negotiates the parameters of the job so that you are not asked to do something you are not comfortable with.

So the moral to the story is:

Keep your photos off the web unless they are being posted by a legitimate licensed modeling agency or in the portfolio of the photographer who took the photos for your top notch portfolio.

I recently began working with a young girl who asked me if a few glamour workshops that she had attended as a model could have a negative impact on her career. She told me she had only been to three of them. A quick search of Google turned up more than 15 websites by amateur photographers who had photographed her at these workshops as well as a marketing site for the workshop owner.

All of the images by the amateurs were not very flattering and the workshop promotes nude glamour images (which this girl had not done)

So the problem is number 1 - guilt by association and number 2 - lots of unflattering images.

Any company with a name to protect is not going to want images like this circulating of a model that they are considering hiring to represent them and they WILL go to the web to look.