Thread: Just signed up for Gigmasters . . . UPDATE

I got a 1/2 off coupon via email and decided to give it a try. I got the 6 month basic listing and paid less than what I would pay for 3 months so I thought, why not?

I'd best go update my contract and check for any costume repairs so I'm ready when all those calls come flooding in!

Deborah

I like gigmasters, but just be warned - in order to up your ranking, you need to "book" the job through them, and they take a fee. They claim it's a 5% fee, but it's not - it's a minimum of $20 or 5%, whichever is greater. So, unless you book jobs for $400 or more, you get screwed.... (can I say that on bhuz??)

So far I have been unhappy with Gig Masters. I get nothing but alerts for bachelor parties & stuff that's like 300 miles away--literally. Good luck--I think folks who live in larger metro areas have more success with that service.

Originally Posted by nayastrance

So far I have been unhappy with Gig Masters. I get nothing but alerts for bachelor parties & stuff that's like 300 miles away--literally. Good luck--I think folks who live in larger metro areas have more success with that service.

I've heard that, too. Since I live in the metro LA/Orange County area, it might work well for me. Hope so, anyway! Thanks for the info, nayastrance!

Deborah

UPDATE!

I signed up on, what, Monday, and I just got an opportunity to bid on a job from Gigmasters!

Dang!

I mean, GREAT, but I had to turn it down because I'm doing Sahra Saeeda's Journey to Egypt! And the gig would have been lovely, too. They were looking for a show and a lesson and the party was both a child's birthday and an adult's "celebration of life following heart surgery" celebration. It would have been wonderful . . .

<sigh>

Hope this is an indication of good things to come!

Deborah

hmm. will you keep us posted with any more updates? I'm considering signing up myself, now that I'm officially ready to gig!

btw, don't feel bad - Sahra is TOTALLY worth it. ;)

Originally Posted by nasila

hmm. will you keep us posted with any more updates? I'm considering signing up myself, now that I'm officially ready to gig!

btw, don't feel bad - Sahra is TOTALLY worth it. ;)

I'm honored you asked me to continue updating my Gigmaster saga; I hope to have many more opps in the next few months . . .

I'm really flying high right now! Not only did I get this gig opp from Gigmasters, but I just found out that my daughter won a 1/2 tuition scholarship! With this scholarship and another large one, that's more than $76,000 (yes 76 thousand dollars) over the next 4 years! If she hadn't gotten this scholarship, I wasn't sure how we were going to pay for her schooling. Yay!

I'm just jumping up and down all over!

Deborah

That's fantastic news, Deborah!!



Khalida

Originally Posted by khalida777

That's fantastic news, Deborah!!



Khalida

Thank you so much!

Deborah

Originally Posted by nayastrance

So far I have been unhappy with Gig Masters. I get nothing but alerts for bachelor parties & stuff that's like 300 miles away--literally. Good luck--I think folks who live in larger metro areas have more success with that service.

You can uncheck the bachelor party box when you select what kind of jobs you will do, and you won't get alerts for that. Also, you can limit your travel range.

Originally Posted by casbahdance

I'm really flying high right now! Not only did I get this gig opp from Gigmasters, but I just found out that my daughter won a 1/2 tuition scholarship! With this scholarship and another large one, that's more than $76,000 (yes 76 thousand dollars) over the next 4 years! If she hadn't gotten this scholarship, I wasn't sure how we were going to pay for her schooling. Yay!

I'm just jumping up and down all over!

Deborah

OMG, that's awesome!!!

Wow, congrats on the scholarship!!

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

You can uncheck the bachelor party box when you select what kind of jobs you will do, and you won't get alerts for that. Also, you can limit your travel range.

Yes. I've done that. I still get alerts for those jobs though. That adds to my overall dissatisfaction with the service.

how much is the sign up cost for the service and what is the link ?

Originally Posted by Devona-Ankhsunamon

how much is the sign up cost for the service and what is the link ?

gigmasters.com is the url. (I don't know how to do that link stuff)

You can start with as little as 3 months for under $60; 6 months is about $110; one year is more. I was originally going to do the 3 month service when I got a coupon for 1/2 off the 6 month, so I went with the six month.

Note: the site is not easy to figure out, for me, navigationally . . . you might not have any problems at all!

Deborah

I got that email too. Interesting to hear everyone's take on it. Still deciding if I wanna take that step.

I signed up for Gigmasters with the coupon for a 3-month trial. So far, I'm not happy with it. I was able to successfully opt out of the bachelor party option, but I've now bid on a number of gigs and landed precisely none of them. This may be related to my "overcutting?" post of earlier today. What are people in my area (NYC) actually charging on Gigmasters? I'm bidding market rate.

I wonder, also, if some of the problem is that people ask for a dancer for absurd lengths of time - 1.5 hours, 4 hours. And then there's little way to actually have a conversation with them about why that's not done and what actual performance lengths are.

The other thing I dislike is their policy of sending "Final Outcome" emails, where you find out who got booked for the gig you didn't get. I think that fosters bad feelings between dancers. And I think we all know that ALL bellydance communities are small and incestuous, no matter how large the city they're in. It's best if dancers don't feel directly pitted against one another.

When I signed on to Partypop, it paid for itself. It hasn't done recently, but its overall track record was better than Gigmasters. Is there some secret to Gigmasters that I don't know about?

- Leela

Got my second gig opp yesterday and I was available so I bid on it. That was Friday, so that's the second opp since Monday! Keep 'em coming!

Deborah

I tried Gigmasters on a 3-month trial. Several inquiries, dutifully submitted info, and......nothing.

~~Kimahri

Just got gig opp NUMBER 3 -- that' three in one week.

Had to pass on this one but, hey, it's an opp.

Hope this keeps up and somebody wants a dancer when I can actually do the gig!

Deborah

Originally Posted by Kimahri

I tried Gigmasters on a 3-month trial. Several inquiries, dutifully submitted info, and......nothing.

~~Kimahri

I've only been available for one of the three gigs that have been sent to me and haven't yet heard back from that one.

Do you have problems with a lot of low-balling in your area, Kimahri?

I've looked at the other BDers who come up in my radius area and we all seem to be competitive with one another. Then again, I'll have to check separately for what folks are doing in the San Fernando Valley . . . Hope nobody's doing 30-minutes shows for $100!!!

Deborah

Originally Posted by casbahdance

I'll have to check separately for what folks are doing in the San Fernando Valley . . . Hope nobody's doing 30-minutes shows for $100!!!

I was recently contacted outside of gigmasters (via email) to do a child's birthday party, show and mini-lesson and I quoted $175 for 10-minute show and 15-minute mini-lesson...thinking it was kind of lowball offer, but that it's the ideal gig for this mama. Never heard back.

Originally Posted by flimflamgirl

I signed up for Gigmasters with the coupon for a 3-month trial. So far, I'm not happy with it. I was able to successfully opt out of the bachelor party option, but I've now bid on a number of gigs and landed precisely none of them. This may be related to my "overcutting?" post of earlier today. What are people in my area (NYC) actually charging on Gigmasters? I'm bidding market rate.

I wonder, also, if some of the problem is that people ask for a dancer for absurd lengths of time - 1.5 hours, 4 hours. And then there's little way to actually have a conversation with them about why that's not done and what actual performance lengths are.

The other thing I dislike is their policy of sending "Final Outcome" emails, where you find out who got booked for the gig you didn't get. I think that fosters bad feelings between dancers. And I think we all know that ALL bellydance communities are small and incestuous, no matter how large the city they're in. It's best if dancers don't feel directly pitted against one another.

When I signed on to Partypop, it paid for itself. It hasn't done recently, but its overall track record was better than Gigmasters. Is there some secret to Gigmasters that I don't know about?

- Leela

Leela, you can click on "Quick Quote" for each dancer and see what we are bidding.

As far as getting insanely long show requests - I get those too, but I always bid "per set" instead of 'for the time period requested" and then explain why I won't perform for as long as they are asking in the space where they tell you to "sell yourself". It seems to be working.

I don't get "final outcome" emails - maybe I opted out of that and didn't know? I seem to remember getting one a long time ago, but not recently, and it was only that once. Do we know if there is an opt out feature for that?

I don't know what your "overcutting" post was, but I'll go look for it.....

Gig opp #4 came in today. I was able to bid on it. We'll see . . .

Deborah

I've been on the fence about signing up for Gigmasters. Some people get great results, but when the site's based on bidding, I'm a rampant over-cutter, and the average consumer's looking to pinch pennies....it just sounds like a recipe for aggravation, for me. Especially when you receive the final notification via e-mail that Suzy Nippletassels scored a 2-hour gig at a rate of $100.

By the time you factor in the subscription cost, the "booking fees," and what seems like a pressure to keep your rates semi-competitive for what sound like unreasonably long sets, does anyone have any truly positive experiences to report? Is it good for getting several slightly cheaper gigs, but not so good for the bigger, better paying ones? Has anyone landed a super lucrative gig on there?

I'd love to see a Consumer Reports style breakdown of Party Pop paid listings vs. Gigmasters vs. a regular independently owned local entertainment agency. Hell, I'd go out on a limb and be the guinea pig if I didn't have a slew of bills at the moment.

Any of you tried 'em all?

Originally Posted by SatinWorship19

I've been on the fence about signing up for Gigmasters. Some people get great results, but when the site's based on bidding, I'm a rampant over-cutter, and the average consumer's looking to pinch pennies....it just sounds like a recipe for aggravation, for me. Especially when you receive the final notification via e-mail that Suzy Nippletassels scored a 2-hour gig at a rate of $100.

Today's gig opp was a request for a one-hour show for a co-ed "bridal shower" type thing. I've done many of these and if you can get the guests to stay with the program for more than 10 minutes, things are going really well.

So instead of bidding on a one-hour show, I bid on a 20-minute show. In my message to the hire-er, I mentioned that in my extensive experience this type of party does better with a much shorter time frame than one hour and included a bid for a 10-15 minute show. I hope the local Suzy Nippletassels in my area isn't as stupid as the one in your neck of the woods, Satin!

Deborah

I have an ad with partypop.com -which has worked for me. You pay a yearly fee ($180) they take no commissions and they come up first in google (ex. type in "belly dancer + city")

Gigmasters have sent me several emails trying to get my business, but I think partypop offers me a better deal

Three more gig opps this week . . .

Not available for any of them!

Deborah

Wow, Deborah - there must be a lot more activity on Gigmasters in our area than when I tried out a trial membership with them last fall! I dropped mine because while I did get some notices of gigs to bid on, they all seemed to be an hour's drive away or more, so I never bid on any of them. Some of them were also just silly, like "we need a bellydancer for four hours". The one time they sent me one that sounded interesting and was in my local area (within 30 mins. drive) it turned out that I got the notification after the date of the gig was over! When I called to ask them how/why this happened, they explained that from the date that the client posts the request, it takes them several days to process it . Maybe they have rectified that problem, but what I told them was that by that time, the prospective client has probably moved on and located a bellydancer some other way!

Originally Posted by Lilladancer

Wow, Deborah - there must be a lot more activity on Gigmasters in our area than when I tried out a trial membership with them last fall!

I have had NOT ONE request from an Orange County location. Orange County is such a wasteland . . .

Deborah