Thread: GigMasters Sale

Gig masters is offering 50% off new members. The economy must be really bad. I am thinking of trying it. The code is ENTERTAIN if you want to give it a go. Let me know if the code works for you.

PS You may now use my refferral code: M35507

I just signed up today with the special promo. Let's see how it goes...,r:;

I signed up during the 30% off sale a few months ago, and got one gig from it. I re-signed at full price because even one gig every three months would give me some profit, but the next three months I got nothing. So in 6 months, I got one gig from Gigmasters. This time when the renewal came up, I let it lapse.

hmm - I may try this out. I have been thinking about it for a while now..

I'm debating on giving this a go... maybe I will do a 6 mo trial.

I did 3 months just because I'm still skeptical

Have to admit, I'm getting a lot of traffic to my press kit, though!

I did Gigmasters once and was not impressed at all - I got nothing out of it, and didn't like the whole bidding scene. Also I did not like the fact that I got tons of useless leads who did not want belly dancing, and had totally different ideas.

Party Pop on the other hand proved to be worth it - I got gigs out of it and had one that keeps giving more and more (repeating customer every few months). And overall I like the lay out - I can put my pictures, videos + text, and clients may look at my website and contact me if they wish, and that's it. That's how I like it.

PartyPop is the next one I'm trying - it seems to get better reviews than GM.

It is a little concerning that you can see what other people in your area are charging .w.:

I just signed up for this to give it a go (and gave you a referral Andalee)... we'll see what happens. :)

Thanks. I did 6 mo for $50, so if I get one gig out of it in six months it will have more than paid for itself. We'll see. Let's all keep each other posted.

I just got a lead for a gig about 75 miles from home. Sounds like they reached out to 8 others in my area, but I nibbled to see what might happen ..g.:

Andalee - I just did the 3 month thing. If it turns out to be worthwhile it'll pay for its own renewal, but I'm not sure as performance opportunities in the immediate local area aren't as regular as in larger cities.

Satin - Wow... that's fast!

Originally Posted by MaryRaks

Andalee - I just did the 3 month thing. If it turns out to be worthwhile it'll pay for its own renewal, but I'm not sure as performance opportunities in the immediate local area aren't as regular as in larger cities.

Satin - Wow... that's fast!

Yes, but I do have a history of being a rampant overcutter. Let's see if my pricing strategy works on a "bidding" site ,r:; I'll keep y'all posted!

Satin, I just wrote this on your FB but I thought I elaborate:
my issues with GM were:
1. you get a lot of gig requests but not high quality ones. You get all happy that in 3 days you got 4, but then you may or may not realize that these are clients who send out mass-requests. often to other 15 bellydancers, magicians, clowns for their 3 year old's b-day party, and have a budget of $75. Or they want a stripper but also include the bellydancers. Or psychics, gogo-dancer, impersonators, all kinds of stuff, to them, this is entertainment. And then on top of it they are 75 or miles away.
I have never gotten anything from GM (in 3 months) but lots of 'promising' requests.
2. because they usually don't know what a belly dancer is like, or differentiate between them, they'll take the cheapest one, so if you one person charging less than u, or agree to pay the booking fee, you loose again. And you get to see it for real, after they chose, you see that they choose the cheapest, and you will frustrated. If a client does not choose me, I don't want to know who they decided on.

With partypop you may not know that you are getting clients, because when they contact you, they may not tell you where they found you (I usually do not routinely ask them that question). But I look at my webstats ALL the time, and it showed that most of the people that actually visited my website from partypop did hire me. I don't know the stats about the ones who just looked at my page and called me. Overall I remember I had about 1600-1900 visits quarterly to my partypop page (you do get a report.)

So anyways, these are 2 different type of avenues - if you have the funds, why not. I actually do not currently advertize with PP, I will renew it in the near future.

let us know how it works for you!

Originally Posted by Marianna

I did Gigmasters once and was not impressed at all - I got nothing out of it, and didn't like the whole bidding scene. Also I did not like the fact that I got tons of useless leads who did not want belly dancing, and had totally different ideas.

Party Pop on the other hand proved to be worth it - I got gigs out of it and had one that keeps giving more and more (repeating customer every few months). And overall I like the lay out - I can put my pictures, videos + text, and clients may look at my website and contact me if they wish, and that's it. That's how I like it.

I think this is very region-specific. I have had a lot of luck with Gigmasters, and none with Partypop lately. Partypop was better when there were less paying dancers on the site. Now there are 4 pages of paid ads in my area, so the odds that a client will see my page are slim. I agree that there are a lot of "bad" leads on GM too, but I often get good ones mixed in there. Enough for it to be financially worth it, anyway.

I do not like the "bidding" thing, though - especially since they send you an email when you didn't get the job, telling you who did get it.

I used to do really well with Gigmasters but I have not booked anything with them in months. I think that is because it has become more popular, and so, like partypop, there are now pages of dancers listed in my area. Because gigmasters allows you to see other performers bids I also know that there are many dancers bidding below, or at the extreme low end of the going rate.

The thing about Partypop was that there was never any way to track what leads you got from them since the pages list all of your direct contact info and link to your own website. I used to try and ask where people found me sometimes but usually the best I would get was a vague "on the internet" :)

If someone decides to book you through gm, can you turn them down if the job sounds iffy? I always screen potential clients very well over the phone to try and weed out the pervs. I am concerned there will be more perv potential going through a booking site like this.

we hated it, and had our link disabled before we expired.
your price is up there so all other bidders can undercut.

Originally Posted by stardancer

If someone decides to book you through gm, can you turn them down if the job sounds iffy? I always screen potential clients very well over the phone to try and weed out the pervs. I am concerned there will be more perv potential going through a booking site like this.

GM gives you the client's contact info, so the ball is pretty much in your court to call them prior to the event. At least, that's my understanding

What is the proper protocol for contacting a prospect on GM, anyway? Do most of you call the person to introduce yourself/follow-up? Or do you just submit the bid and leave the rest to the Gig Fairy?

also what a didn't like on Gm that posting a link to your site is a no-no. Some people tried to do it as www.suchandsuchdancer dot com, but I'm sure when they found out she got in trouble.

Originally Posted by Marianna

also what a didn't like on Gm that posting a link to your site is a no-no. Some people tried to do it as www.suchandsuchdancer dot com, but I'm sure when they found out she got in trouble.

Yeah, this is another sucky aspect of GM. I'm sure most prospects are savvy enough to Google the dancers they sent leads to, but if I'm paying a buttload of money to be on a directory site, I'd at least want the benefit of a good, solid link!

I'm so glad I signed up with zero expectations. GM definitely gets mixed reviews!

And it's kind of stupid on their part, because as soon as you accept the bid they reveal the client's email address. It's a piece of cake then to just contact the client via email and send them your URL.

I think the whole point for GM not to let us use our weblink is to completely rely on their page and ensure that the client will pay the booking fee if they hire us. They think that -most of-the bellydancers / other entertainers don't have their own website, so the GM page is the only one with their info and contact on it. (they don't realize that clients can google us). Although most of them probably will not spend extra time/effort to search for a certain belly dancer on the web if they already found their page on GM.

The fact that you can have the client's email address after the fact they hired you is fine, but the above reasoning, I think is the idea behind that you only get it after the fact.

Like I said, it's too much hassle, and money spent with no results for me.

Yeah, what's already leaving me cold about GM is that it eliminates the ancient art of client-vendor interaction. My biggest selling point, from what clients have shared with me, is that I make them feel like they're in good hands. It's a little more difficult to sell yourself when you know that a customer has fired off the same lead to 13 other dancers and may or may not really even be interested in you, per se.

If a client finds me on a Google search and decides to call, then half of the battle has already been won (on a psychological level, that is!). They already reviewed my site and like what they see - now, the next step is for them to either balk at my prices or say "giddy up!"

think of gm technique like this: belly dancer jumps up and down, waiving both arms: pick me!! pick me!! pick meeeeee!

LMAO! What's that sound? Look, Marge, it's little birdies!!!

*cheap!* *cheap!* *cheap!*

Just had a GM inquiry this morning that led to a very polite 15-minute explanation on why cutting my set length in half will not result in a 50% discount. I have a feeling it's gonna be a looooooong 3 months! ..l;,

Look at it this way, I have not gotten anything from it yet. However using their "analytics" I was able to find out that if someone types "Raleigh belly dancer" in yahoo's search, then gigmasters is the number one result. This is good because 1) I am not in Raleigh, I'm in Durham so that gets me exposure in another close-by city, and 2) there are only 2 local belly dancers on gig masters and we charge the same rates, so our chances of getting picked are pretty high. It's not like we're in a bidding war with 5-10 other ladies. ;-)

This is actually the main reason I signed up. When you have a new website, it's always nice to get yourself listed on sites that are at the top of Google searches, so people will still find you while your organic rankings develop.

I've gotten 4 leads so far, 2 of which I've turned down and 2 of which are in limbo. But Google Analytics shows that more people have been visiting my site since I signed up for GM, and the traffic boost has been consistent. We'll have to see if this effect is lasting, but I'm guessing people might be Googling my site after seeing my profile on GM.

And yes, I do think your overall GM experience will be far more productive if everyone in your area charges the same ,r:;..c::

I just sign up for it for 3mo, I have had 2 events to bib on, but one was given to me even though it was 2 days after the event. I have many dancers in my area so I don't expect much.

Satin how do you find out how many people come to you site?