Why don't you look at other ways of advertising yourself first before giving YOUR hard earned money away to an agency? They are only doing what you can do yourself without the hard work AND they don't need to get naked! Plus, what if you're 'under the weather' or fancy a day off? Refuse to go out and they'll not use you.

Book a photo shoot, set up your own website and put yourself out there. Like any other business it takes time, effort and advertising.

I can't imagine going to a gent I haven't spoken to.    The only person who can screen clients appropriately is ME.  Also, decide how many clients you need/want to see in a week. I only average three a week but that's all I want for now.

There's loads of information on here about advertising.

I would imagine Lucie came to the conclusion she did (as did I), because you didn't include any of that information in your thread starter - we often have people complaining about not getting enough work having put their rates up (which is the other assumption I made from your thread starter) and turn out to have an Adultwork profile and nothing else.

Either way she was trying to help, and there's no need to be quite so defensive. Back on topic, have you tried asking your regulars/other clients what they think? Sometimes we spend so long getting things how we like them we can miss things, and whilst what fellow prossies think can be some help, they're not the ones who are going to be booking you .

In terms of PMs re agencies, it would probably help if you gave people some idea of where you are?

I do have a couple regulars from my previous persona, but I don't want to tell them I've launched something new with new rates and new services and be identifiable to them in that way. .. So I am weaning away from that and trying something else, but so far it's not really working.

There can obviously be good reasons for doing this, but it's doing it the hard way as you're discovering. You've gone from someone with a reputation good enough to have regular clients to being Yet Another New Escort..

Oh, I'm in London!

.. in a big city with lots of them. You're also charging more than many of them - I'm presuming that's what "higher end" translates as - which is another reason to ensure that you have really good answers to the question 'why should I book you?'.

Sorry, I hadn't realised that this site was outside of England, as I'd only been referred to it by SWers in London. I've only just now realised that, but I should have included it in the first place, anyway - not sure why I didn't.

Even if it was limited, there's more to the UK than London

You haven't mentioned whether you were doing any incalls? If I didn't do incalls I would barely get any work.

I just book hotels for a few days and offer incalls. This will definitely increase your bookings.

On agencies, I am completely indie but used to work alongside agencies as well. I worked for 3 London agencies when touring London and I would get more no shows with the agencies than working indie. I had like 2 or 3 extra bookings, but i quit all the agencies in the end and put extra effort into my own advertising and touring different areas.

Again if you join agencies there is no guarantee of work. And they often require you provide incalls and favour girls that are practically avail 24/7.

I would also take a look at your competition in the area and rates. Clients will pay extra money for agency girls as they expect it to be more expensive than indie rates. They know the score about agency ladies having to pay a cut to the agency. But some clients don't like paying agency rates for indie escorts.

It's up to you what rates you want to charge, but find a rate that you're happy with and will attract more clients. Also London is super competitive.  don't often tour there anymore as there is so much competition. Maybe consider other areas?

Just a few suggestions.

If the OP is trying to get rid of an old 'persona' and start with a new one I doubt she wants to publicly identify herself, or she would have done so already.

We don't expect anybody to reveal their work persona here and it's not appropriate to ask them to. Posting links to your ads isn't permitted anyway; that's what the space on your Forum Profile is for.

When I first wanted to go back into the industry I checked out the local parlours and nearly shat myself because all the girls looked like they were out of a modelling agency. I eventually bit the bullet and phoned the place, guess what, a load of gorgeous but normal girls walked through the door plus some not so gorgeous girls too. They were all just a bunch of ordinary girls, some had amazing bodies, some didnt, but they had profession pictures which is what I saw, I was unaware of skin touching up or air brushing or hair brightening and teeth whitening editing in those days x

Just go for it x

I know agencies get a lot of bad press around here, and what's right for one person will be wrong for another, so I wanted to share my experience with an agency so that others considering this can see how it was for me.

Firstly I think it depends on the agency what size and look they like - I've seen some on line that have photos where the girls look like supermodels, I actually didn't believe they were escorts at first until I read reviews from clients who had used them who never mentioned it being bait and switch so it must be correct.

So the agency I worked for is in Edinburgh.  I phoned up looking for a job and was accepted to start that night.  I expected bookings fairly quickly, as the agency is well established and I thought the lady would be sensitive to the fact that if I'd gone to work for an agency I must be in need of money so would give me a booking to get me started.  Well I was wrong, she made me wait 3 weeks for a booking despite there having been plenty of jobs.  I spoke to a few other girls who worked for her who'd also had this experience, we suspect it's to make sure you're going to stay and be loyal, but we don't really know.

Work wise, I'd see maybe 3 clients for an hour each on a good week, all outcall.  There was only one week I made really good money and that was a total fluke - I went to see a client who kept extending the time.   

Here are the things that looking back stick in my throat about it.

Firstly, the hourly rate was ?160.  From that, the agency fee was ?60.  They had an in house griver that you had to use, and if it was a job within the town he charged ?20 - even if the job was 5 minutes away, and you generally had to use them.  I've been in situations where I've been outside hotels, and there has been a queue of taxis looking for fares, and the taxi would have cost ?5 to my house, but I've had to stand and wait on the driver and pay ?10 one way to get home.  So if you were doing a job in town, you only got to keep 50% of what you'd made, despite you being the one that did 99,99% of the work!  (the 0.01% is taking the phone call!)  The lady I worked for would also sometimes agree reduced rates with clients to get a job, but she always took the same agency fee!  So you had to do a job for less money, which you hadn't agreed to. As I see it, if we take a cut on our normal fee, that should be because WE have decided to give a discount for whatever reason, and that alone.

Also she said all the clients were checked out - they weren't.  Nobody in hotels were ever called back to check they were there, we were sent to houses miles from anywhere in the middle of the night only on the strength of a mobile number.  There were also a lot of knock backs as she would tell them you were whatever they wanted to try to get the job.  The amount of jobs that were timewasters, where there was nobody home, the address didn't exist or they didn't answer the door was unbelievable. I remember being in a house one night at some stupid time like 4am with an extremely weird guy and starting to freak out, she didn't even know the guys name - her answer was 'they never tell you their real name for house calls anyway!' (This was the first nail in the coffin of my time there!)   There were many instances where girls would get to a house to find more than 1 guy there....she even agreed to jobs where there would be 1 girl and multiple guys having the booking together - she even failed to tell a new girl about this till she was outside the door of the house once.  Agencies will pretend they are bothered about your safety, but in my experience they are only bothered about their cut. 

Then there are the hours.  As other girls have said, you really have to be on call all night every night.  I have a day job too, so I was finding it really difficult going to these jobs at 3 and 4am.  Most of them are last minute, so you would be at home in bed asleep at 3am, she would text you with a job and you'd be expected to get up and ready and be with the guy within 30 minutes.  If you didn't wake up for the text, you wouldn't get any jobs for a few weeks as punishment.

Finally, there are the politics.  I'm sure other agencies are different, but the lady I worked for used to get upset with you for next to no reason, and you wouldn't get any jobs for a while.  If someone new started who'd befriended her or who she liked (I'm just me, I don't play those kinds of games) they would get all the jobs.  So you wouldn't hear anything from her for maybe a week because she was upset with you, then you'd get a text at 3am with a rubbish job for next to no money in the middle of nowhere and as above, be expected to get up and get there within half an hour.

For me, the experience of being indy has been totally different to the agency experience, I'm only kicking myself that I didn't work for myself all along!  I make more money and I chose my own hours, I'm accountable only to me and I make my own decisions for what's right for me.  I also know that my clients are vetted properly!  Also I can knock back anyone I don't like the sound of.  Knowing what I know now, I'd never work for an agency again...I'm sure other girls have other experiences, but if there is a girl with a story of working for an agency and being supported, treated fairly, being able to keep a fair proportion of her income and having a good experience, I'd love to hear it but I never have.  I can understand total newbies saying they feel safer working for an agency so at least they feel they have some back up, but for me, it doesn't make any sense.  I can imagine if you've been indy going back to being agency would be unbelievably tough.

Best of luck whatever you decide to do.