How to be a Model in a SL Magazine?

[Miyuki2112]

I was wondering how people become featured in a Second Life Magazine particularly Fashion or Lifestyle magazines. Is there are requirements or qualifications in order to be a part of it? If you know the answer, just reply to this thread. Thanks in advance! 

[HarrisonMcKenzie]

No idea, but I imagine it would first require finding a magazine that people care about (I know that I don't care about paying money to look at other people's avatars), then having a knock out avatar, followed by getting in with the magazine's creator.

[Zeta Vandyke]

I have no experience in this field, but I would expect that for magazines and blogs the owners just use alts? Create an alt, get a few bodies/heads/skins, and you have your model that you can work with as you like without having to deal with a real life person.

For live shows its a different thing, but have no idea if live shows are still a thing in SL

[Klytyna]

4 hours ago, Zeta Vandyke said:

For live shows its a different thing, but have no idea if live shows are still a thing in SL

They still happen, they are a key component in the more successful "pay me lots of money for worthless sl modeling lessons" scams, end of the course, you arrange a catwalk show for your 'graduates' so they wont realise you ripped them off for 1000's of ls for naff all...

As for appearing in SL Magazines... a knockout avi is not required, what you need is an Avi that's Fashionista-Fascist-Fanblogger.net compatible, with this seasons fashionable mesh body, mesh head, and clothes (not last seasons, obviously, how quaint), and then you suck up to the Magazines owner/publisher/photographer (which may well involve a rather more "hands-on" form of sucking), in the hopes they will generously agree to feature you, at your own expense in a prim magazine that almost nobody will ever read...
 

[Orwar]

Step I: Build a backdrop

Step II: Put on some fancy stuff

Step III: Take some selfies

Step IV: Blog

Step V, A: Contact store owners, refer to your blog, hope some will want to advertise through you.
Step V, B: Realize it's a stiff competition out there, that pretty much anyone with a decent rig can bump up their graphics for a shoot and learn how SL photography and basic Photoshop, and that most people enjoy dressing up - so that the chances of getting any revenue out of your hard work is probably quite unlikely.

There are a lot of blogs out there for fashion in SL, I know some people who do it and I really think you must see it as a hobby, rather than an income. If you just want to be a model, well, Klytyna is right.

[Skell Dagger]

I can only speak for the one SL fashion magazine that I bother reading (L'Homme) and that features the same 'top male models' in every issue: the same ones who headline SL catwalks at Menswear Fashion Week, who are blogger managers for the biggest SL fashion brands, and who get thousands of views and hundreds of likes on every Flickr image they post.

In other words: it's not WHAT you know...

My advice, if you want to be part of the SL fashion scene, is very much the same as Orwar's: Get a blog or a Flickr account, dress up your avatar, take pictures of it, add the Flickr pictures to RELEVANT (important word, that) groups that include ones whose stores you feature in your images, and just enjoy yourself. Do it for fun, because - believe me - once you start blogging 'officially' it soon turns into work.

[Janet Voxel]

Also, if you blog, you’d have to have a certain number of visitors to your blog or a certain number of followers if you use Flickr to be considered for a lot of things.

The thing to remember is nobody is a professional on SL, so the “magazine” is really just somebody’s hobby. It’s really better to start doing pictures yourself and teach yourself the ins and out of photography. That way you’ll have an easier time telling who’s legit. It’s all a hobby, no matter how many hits a blog is or how many followers somebody has, there’s more people that have never heard of them. With something like Flickr there are people that like your pictures because you liked theirs; not because they’re good. There’s also people you can pay to boost your followers and likes. So don’t take any of it seriously.

Do it because you enjoy doing it, not for anything else. As was mentioned before nobody really cares. Just have fun!

 

[Skell Dagger]

18 minutes ago, janetosilio said:

Also, if you blog, you’d have to have a certain number of visitors to your blog or a certain number of followers if you use Flickr to be considered for a lot of things.

I'm a contrary sod. My blog's review policy states (among other things) the following:

Quote

 

Some creators require a blogger to send proof of a certain number of regular views on Flickr, or a certain number of readers in the form of stats for their blog. I want to re-iterate here: I will not do this.

I blog solely for the love of it, and I will not  post my fashion images to 500 non-relevant groups just to ensure that I get 500+ Flickr views per image. Nor will I re-upload the same image again and again in order to do so. Nor will I add 5000+ people on my account so that they notice me and auto-add me back. I have had my Flickr account for far longer than I’ve been blogging SL fashion, and I use it as a way to keep up with people I’m interested in, not solely as a marketing tool.

[...]

So, in short, I blog fashion because I love fashion. If you only want me to blog for you because I can show you that X amount of people read my blog, as opposed to wanting me to blog for you because you like what I do, then I’m probably not the blogger for you.

 

[Janet Voxel]

I’m not saying everybody does it. I’m just saying what the common practices are.

Hit dog will holler.

[Skell Dagger]

No hits landed, I assure you. That's been my policy right from the start.

[Rhonda Huntress]

1 hour ago, Skell Dagger said:

add the Flickr pictures to RELEVANT (important word, that) groups

Flickr has changed their policies recently that now limit the number of groups to which you may submit a photo.  Relevant is more important than ever.

[Skell Dagger]

Just now, Rhonda Huntress said:

Flickr has changed their policies recently that now limit the number of groups to which you may submit a photo.  Relevant is more important than ever.

About bloody time too. I've seen far too many people adding their pics to completely irrelevant groups. When I visit the SL Pretty Boys group, I want to see pretty boys, not female fashion shots.

[Janet Voxel]

12 minutes ago, Skell Dagger said:

No hits landed, I assure you. That's been my policy right from the start.

Ha! I think we’re misunderstanding each other, I’m just saying the favorite/group thing is a sore spot especially in the photography community. Somebody was going to say something about it.

Also, I remember when people used to remove their picture, change the date several times a day so more people could see it. They cut that out too.

Edited November 27, 2017 by janetosilio

[Skell Dagger]

Ahh. Crossed porpoises

But yeah, the whole SL 'professional fashion' industry is clicquey. That's why I stay well out of it and, uh... plough my own furrow. *koff*

[Chase01]

14 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Do it for fun, because - believe me - once you start blogging 'officially' it soon turns into work.

/signed

*sarcasm alert* Its so rewarding to be a blogger for some brands. Go on vacation for a week in RL and watch some of them drop you for not being at their beck and call 24/7. Yup, that sometimes happens.

[Chic Aeon]

I am with Skell on this so far as the Flickr thing (where you can actually BUY those views if you so desire BTW) and some of the blogger group rules. I won't play either. I am "still" in a few top name fashion groups but I am also "grandfathered" meaning that "of course the rules don't apply to me" LOL.   Others, I just left.  Still others I never reapplied as I didn't feel I was blogging their products enough, but I am still on the lists and still blogging occasionally. I still post more or less daily with multiple posts per day this time of year. 

And to the OP, there ARE I think still some fashion magazines that hold model contests where you send in a photo (often themed) and hope to be chosen for the article. Doing research on that would be helpful for sure. 

Also there ARE plenty of magazines that actually do USE models (not alts) as I have been in them and I also did photography for a couple magazines. Just saying.

There is certainly a difference between fashion MAGAZINES and blogs, but quality photography is a first step. 

Practice Practice Practice. 

 

[Akasha Sternberg]

First of all :

say farewell to the plan to become a SL model- those times are long gone, spech with mesh bodies ... Paid Photoshoots were a rare relict of days long gone when I was where you are now...

I went to a few castings and when they didn´t like my interpretation of edgy (me: horrorpunk-ish outfit vs them: "Lady Gaga in her breakthrough days avantgarde" high fashion expectation) I stuck to blogging and had ...I´d say some success on  an ...advanced medium level.

BUT!!!!!!

Secondly: As much as I loved (and  miss...) blogging... it is quite time consuming. Don´t get me wrong, not the post itself... You get that done in somewhere between 30 mins and 2 hours depending on how much your styling inspiration senses are tingling. Let me shock you with my past:

It´s 2012, lil Kasha is blogging furiously (or well Alex is dressing Kasha up and putting her into poses and on props to create images most "blogger stars" would only laugh at, plus Alex cares eff all about fashion on herself but loves it on Kasha XD). That means:

shopping = hmm...Icould use this for an .... outfit.... oh and if someone asks me to blog ..... I could use this.... - 50€ cashed in, 5 mins, 50 boxes later....(happened ever so often I´m afraid my SL Inventory is a 4digit amount of€... maybe even 5 digit - bet I could buy a new car from it...I drive a polo) - I only learnt way too late about groups like SL frees and offers,Fabulously free, you name them...And freebies were ....of shhhhhhhhh quality only starting to improve.

Styling, pics, stylecard and the actual blog post ... like I said: ~30 mins up to 2 hours

now to the fun part: PROMO!!! Flickr (what @Skell Dagger said... RELEVANCE!!!!!!), inworld groups, moolto.com,tumblr, I crossposted on blogspot and wordpress because some weren´t able to see my blogpost one and that´s a wish I was happy to fullfill ,Facebook (the SL community is HUUUUUUUUUGE there and I kid you not .... there are 100sof SL fashion GROUPS, the designers´pages and whats not.... so all in all the promo  was up to 3 hours ever so often...

Now that is for ONE entry... one outfit...If you did several in a day and promoted them all at once you could bet one post got the attention and the others got a  small part of it from the specific designer´s groups .

There were days when I put out 3 posts...maybe 4...

I can safely say I blogged myself into a RL burnout... a small one but nevertheless...

That was before I had sponsors...and I did have some sponsors. Most of them surprise-contacted me (including one person that was a... Madonna of SL fashion for me...stardom wise...she fell off her chair when I told her that XD)

After a break of a couple of weeks I returned to blogging until I went through a major RLbreakup, moving and all that, started again for a few months after returning to SL then had to vanish...poof.... due to RL again.

I´m afraid I burnt a lot of bridges when I poofed and I regret that badly. But then I couldn´t go back into blogging even if I wanted to... Not for years... I´ve just started a new job training so time is limited, money is limited, too (I can´t afford a parcel´s rent and blogging without your own home is a pain...) plus my PC is 10+ years old and ready to be retired...I hope to do that in January, finally. Good girl deserves it! My Laptop is broken but will be repaired in 1-2 weeks...BUT blogging ..nahhh too much of a pain on it...I love taking pics but even the styling isn´t as comfortable as on a desktop pc with mouse and keyboard (I use an usb mouse on my laptop...but you get the point eh?)

There are different levels of bloggers and yes, I did all that for fun, too, so I can safely say Skell is right (again listen to him...chances are good he´s got a point or is completely right!) and for the modelling part...well maybe @Klytyna´s post was exaggerated a bit but it´s not as much as you would  think it to be...

Oh and hm... what about trying as a writer for said magazines? I don´t really have experiences there but if your goal is to be FEATURED that could be a way, too?

Be creative and btw - any progress?^^

 

[Talligurl]

I suspect the easiest way to become a model in a magazine, is to start your own magazine. 

[MirandaBowers]

Alternatively, if you don't quite have the time to start up your own blog or brush up your photography skills, you could try to network with other bloggers/photographers and have them photograph you. Then you can use that collection of shots to send to the folks running these magazines and try to get your name/face out there. Don't let rejections slow you down. Try and try again. Good social skills can take you a long way