Bemodel Review
September 5, 2010 Leave a Comment
Bemodel is a fashion/glamour networking site for those who want to be apart of the industry.It is intended to be a tool for photographers, models, makeup artists, hair stylists, and others. Bemodel was first opened to the public in May 2009.
For a full disclosure I want to point out in this review that I was a beta tester of this site, and I have met the site owners and creators a couple of times over the years. And so while writing this review I am not as completely detached or impartial as I would like to be. I really wanted this website to succeed because I had/have a connection to it.
Currently, I feel this website is the worst out of the free fashion/glamour networking sites that I have used and would recommend to spend your time elsewhere.
With new money pouring in from investors the site was redone in early 2010 and my review will focus on the site after the changes were made.
First off, when viewing the site one sees the sleek design with the color black playing a prominent role in the color pallet. It is a good thing that it is very easy to look at because it is terribly difficult to find anything. The site structure is very poor and even though I was very familiar with the old layout, the new layout was even more confusing and irritating to try to navigate.
The creators of the site often said that it would never be a pay service, and they would make their money through advertisements on the site. Well that changed a 180 degrees because it seems now as if most of the options on the site are to collect some sort of revenue. For instance, the portfolio section, like shown in the second picture on this page there is an option to create a portfolio website through Bemodel. Excuse me? Users already get to post a few images for free anyway, similar to modelmayhem, so why would there even be a thought to bring a registered domain to bemodel? That is just one example, there are all sorts of add-on possibilities it can be dizzying. And honestly, most of these options aren’t even good options.
To complicate matters even further the site can’t even retain members any longer. And how is one supposed to network if members don’t stay around? To evidence this all one has to do is to check out the forums. At one point there was a picture of the day contest, and people were posting with questions or problems they had and others were sharing knowledge they have accrued. Not anymore. The forums are barren with posts still remaining from the previous version of Bemodel. There doesn’t seem to be any new posts since the layout change.
I had high hopes for Bemodel since I had a hometown connection to the site. Now I just use it as a link for my website, and a business card for my photography. I would recommend skipping this site and using others where it is easier to use, and the owners don’t alienate their users.
