I responded to a posting on Craigslist requesting Fashion Photographers and Style Writers or bloggers in New York City. The companies name is FIDOO.com. I filled out their online questionnaire, which really just probed my relevant industry contacts. Upon completion I received an automated reply that scheduled me to arrive at their office location within the Chrysler Building on the 26th floor. Mind you, these are rental offices by Regus Office Suites for small businesses.
Upon entering I met an adorable Asian girl who offered me documents and release forms to fill out. So, I sat down at the conference table to greet five other applicants. All were causally dressed. Two guys appeared to be Photographers/Videographers and the women appeared to be writers. The fella to lead this conference meeting was a casually dressed African-American male who never gave his name. He was short haired and fair skinned, and never removed his dark sun glasses. Very mystique fella. Basically he's proposing fashion content creators to submit industry related editorials or blog stories for a flat rate pay of $1000 per five articles each week. All submissions must forfeit exclusive copy rights of all intellectual properties. Payments are received on a weekly basis, he states. He claims to be a start-up PR firm. Basicly, this marketing approach is what's known as "Ambient Marketing". Utilizing social networking content to attract readers and gain advertising revenue for media relations placement, or product placement. What makes this character suspicious is that he hides behind sun glasses. His legal documents are illegitimate stationary. The release form positions the signatures on a separate, unrelated document. He utilized rental conference offices. And he asked me to leave because my questions intimidated him. Basic questions... Like, how often do we receive pay? Who are your clients for PR? He also wanted everyone to sign a release form and stand before a video camera and tell who they are.
Note: none of this is illegal or substantiates a solid scam. But I caution others because this is an operation that potentially coheres creative content developers to sign off exclusive rights to content and never get paid.
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