Thread: The Verdict on Gigmasters?

I'm considering trying Gigmasters, but it seems to get mixed reviews. Lots of requests for hula dancers, plus I'd imagine that a "bidding" situation probably fosters some nasty undercutting. Then again, some people love it!

I'm looking for any type of feedback: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Who'd like to chime in?

I tend to get odd stuff that's WAY out of my area - you know - I need a dancer for three hours for a high school prom in western Mass. Oh, and we have no budget for entertainment....

I won't be renewing my membership....

Us, too. Lots of far away gigs and a few local. Of those we bid on we have gotten zero actual gigs.

I think the limitation of the bidding form is difficult. As a troupe, we charge different prices depending on how many dancers, how many sets, travel time, etc. The bid form doesn't take any of that into account, so it isn't a full picture of what we offer.

I also think a lot of people plug in, since they can for free, but don't always follow up on what they get there. SO lots of bids=very few to no actual employment. So far, we have NOT gotten our money's worth.

Ewww. That sounds terrible!

I was tooling around on Gigmasters to see if any of my buddies were on there and find it quite odd that when you search CT dancers, people from Philadelphia, New Jersey and even Vegas come up. How's that determined? Do they automatically pick a 500-mile radius or is there a way you can ensure a more targeted search? Can you weed out the hula dancer requests?

The whole bidding thing makes Gigmasters sound kind of like eBay....w.:

Anyone have a good experience on there? I'd be open to Gigmasters if there were a way to tweak the settings. I'm in the market for some nontraditional ways to procure gigs.

Hi Satin, There is a company called Decidio.com that works like Gig Masters and PartyPop. You could try that first and see how it works. You get a free listing and then you can upgrade for the more expensive one.

With this system people request quotes that get sent to you as "leads" and it tells you everything as far as location, budget, date needed, etc. Then you pay $1 to purchase the lead to contact the requestor directly. I have never gotten a gig from it, but I think it is good exposure.

The only problem is that I can't get my free reciprocal link to work because I use googlepages and it blocks the robot script reader from Decidio.

Another one to try is gathering guide.

Good luck.

I have had good luck with Gigmasters. You can choose the specific distances and categories for which your are available and I use the gig-bidding form to specify my prices and set timing. You do not see what any other dancer bids, so there is no bidding war. I use the open text field to describe other options available to the clients.

While I don't get a lot of gigs through gigmasters, the ones I do get tend to be very well-paying corporate functions.

When I signed up, I was required to select geographic areas that were within X miles of my location. You could choose, for example, 50 miles or 3,000 miles or more. I selected 100 miles. I have never gotten a gig on which to bid outside that area.

Gigmasters, as with any entertainment business, can only send out what it gets in. If the Gigmasters-using GP in one's area isn't interested in hiring BDers for 3 months running, then that's how it is.

I'm in the greater Los Angeles area and I average probably 3 gigs to bid on per month; sometimes there are three in one week and nothing for another 4 weeks but, again, that's just how it is. I guess.

I have never been hired by anyone through gigmasters, but I think the potential is better there than through newpaper/magazine ads. I worked for an entertainment agency (Syd's Singing Telegrams!) back in the late 1970s/early 1980s and had gigs all the time. That, of course, was before the internet and before there was a BDer on every corner!

I'm considering going back to a no-bid entertainment agency; still "freelance" in that the dancer can pick and choose his/her gigs, but potentially less chance for undercutting.

Deborah

i got good results from Gigmasters in the past, in the last 6 months..not too many belly dancing gigs...the ones I got are far, but if they pay what I ask I am willing to go far, which is hard to find nowadays...so I still keep it open, but might consider to drop if I dont get more gigs from them in the next 6 months or so.

I think Gigmasters is quite a racket. Think about it: they come up at the top of the search engines, allow people to submit requests to tons of performers all at once, and charges you for the work you get from them! When I first started using GM (kind of reluctantly, but it almost seems like you HAVE to be on Gigmasters and Partypop), I agreed to pay the 5% booking fee on behalf of the clients (which you also have to do because every performer does it) without realizing that there was a $20 minimum per show. So it costs about $20 per month and $20 per show, which is better than some agencies' fees, but still seems a little lame. On top of that, I have had people find me on Gigmasters and hire me independently, but while it saved me $20, it obviously did nothing for my ratings. You can also take a normal show that you booked outside of Gigmasters and pay GM the $20 to convert it to one of "their" gigs in order to boost your ratings. It's just another case of having to wait a while or pay extra in order to see results. I've had it for maybe nine months or so and have gotten four shows out of it. So, yes, I have made a profit, my ranking is decent, and I will continue to renew my subscription... But I do get lazy about responding to the shows I probably won't get - those who noted that there are some pretty irrelevant requests and that many clients don't follow through with booking anyone were right on - and could probably be using the service better. In the end, anything that gets my name out there and increases my web visibility/booking potential is a good thing as long as it's not a total money pit!

Serafina