General Advice for Models
Making money from photographers who pay you out of their own pockets is not a career and is not "Professional Modeling". Although you are being paid to model, so by definition you are a professional, it is extremely unlikely that you will earn enough to make it a career. It can be a nice source of additional income, but unless you are working on projects for real clients that result in "tear sheets" to add to your portfolio, its not classed as being a professional model by the industry.
If a photographer is offering to pay you always think "Why?" What is the photographers motivation for paying you... will he make money from these photos... Is he or she shooting you for "stock", shooting for submission to magazines for publication or are they shooting you for their portfolio and there is no intention of trying to earn money from the shoot.
If they don't intend making money from the shoot, is he or she simply paying you because of your looks or because they want experience of working with you?
Both photographers and models that are serious about their career know that to get ahead, they need to work with professionals... there are no quick routes to this for either. Remember, one "wow" photo for model or photographer will be far better than dozens and dozens of snap shots.
Not every photo taken in a shoot will be a wow photo, in fact, just the opposite. I have learned that usually the wow photos come towards the end of shoots.. I almost always disregard the first hour of shooting as "throwaway" time. I have rarely had a wow shot from this early in a shoot. In fact, when shooting with someone new to modeling, I don't expect to get a wow shot.... I have had them, but 
more usually, it all starts coming together in the second shoot.
Remember, just because you have been on a shoot with a photographer doesn't mean that you must include photos from the shot in your portfolio. You portfolio is not a scrapbook recording everyone you have been photographed by or every outfit you have been photographed in.. create a scrapbook for this, but don't use your portfolio! Remember "more is less" and only wow photographs go in your portfolio. This is also true for photographers. If they have dozens and dozens of photos of one model ask yourself why, have they only done one shoot or are only the photos from one shoot good enough? When looking at a photographers portfolio, look for consistency across the portfolio and for range of models and settings.
If you are new to modeling and have registered with one of the modeling web sites and you have sent a photographer registered on the site a "Hi.. I really like your work and would like to work with you TFP to get some portfolio shots" message and they haven't jumped at the chance to photograph you, always remember that after years of hard work and investment in equipment, he or she has to ask "why should I work for free with this person?" (in fact "free" is a loose term... there are costs for any photographer working for TFP or TFCD... studio time, their time, cost of getting to a location, editing your photos, paying for prints or CD's) There are dozens of beautiful models and he is usually paid to work with them, that after all is why they are in business. Most photographers, me included, will give up some time for TFP or TFCD if it is to test some new equipment, try a new lighting set up, or we see someone that we think has a look that we would like to include in our portfolio.
Starting Out.
Getting in front of the camera for the first time can be intimidating... even the professional models get nervous at the start of a shoot, don't worry, it normal and natural. Most also worry about posing, again, don't worry. If it is your first couple of times, we don't expect you to come with a range of poses all planned out and be able to switch from one to another with ease. A good photographer will take you through this and help to get you going. It will help if you look at some of the poses in fashion and glamour magazines to get you going, so at least you know not to stand there looking like you are just about to have your passport photo taken! One of the most difficult things to master is what to do with your hands so that they look as though they are placed naturally. Again, look what models do in magazine shots.
I usually have a folder of clippings and photos of different poses.... even photographers dry up sometimes when giving directions... so it's always handy to have as a reference. There is no reason why you cant do the same, if you see shots with poses you like, keep them for reference or practice them in front of a mirror... everyone else does! Many experienced models will look at magazines in between setups to draw inspiration from.
Take a look at Types of Modeling so you can get an idea of what you want to do
