Thread: Gig Salad!

So just for kicks I started up a free profile on Gig Salad (Book Live Entertainment & more! Hire Wedding Musicians, Party Bands, Event DJs) a week or two ago. I've already gotten 2 gig requests through it! Maybe it's a stroke of luck, we'll see. Granted, it may help that I live in an area with very few dancers and on Gig Salad I'm the only one listed for the entire state of NH. But I just wanted to share how it's working for me and see what other dancers have had for a response through Gig Salad. Did it work for you?

I've gotten some leads through Gig Salad, but so far none of them have been quality. I've been on there for several years, never gotten an actual gig from it.

The most recent lead, for instance, was to dance for 3 guests at a bachelor party about 300 miles away.

YMMV of course.

Well, being that there are about 50 dancers in my area already listed on there, I doubt it would work well for me

I remember the good old days when I was one of 3 NY bellydancers on Gigmasters....now you throw a stick in NYC and hit sequins, apparently.

Lauren, interesting what you say about not getting "quality" gig inquiries. Of the two I have one is for a date further out but is taking a long time to respond to my emails and hasn't called me, so apparently is in no big rush although the event is in a week. The other is a last minute request I am waiting to hear back from. Perhaps it will be similar to your experience and none of them will pan out.

danielabellydance I can see how being in a location that's already quite saturated probably won't work well for you!

Originally Posted by danielabellydance

Well, being that there are about 50 dancers in my area already listed on there, I doubt it would work well for me

I remember the good old days when I was one of 3 NY bellydancers on Gigmasters....now you throw a stick in NYC and hit sequins, apparently.

LOL So true!!

My last minute gig from Gig Salad didn't pan out. I think she had sticker shock when I told her the price. She wanted a standard bellygram (the smallest performance I offer) and I gave her my price, $175 (that's right, I gave myself a raise) I got the "Oh so it's, $75?" "No, pardon me, a bellygram is ONE-seventy-five" "Oh... $175... I'll have to check with my friends" that we all know and love! She took a while to get back to me to tell me they couldn't do it after all, but she is interested in classes so I sent her some info on that.

So a few things I've gathered from this experience:
1) You will get gig requests from people who have never looked at your Gig Salad profile and have no idea what you offer. I put all my pricing and booking policies on my profile but she hadn't seen them. The reason is, I believe, because Gig Salad lets you send out a mass request to anyone in the area who offers the service you are looking for. From talking with her I believe this is what happened and why she hadn't seen my prices. This leads to...
2) Gig Salad makes it easy for them to shop around. If they send out a mass gig request every dancer within the specified area will get it. So the client may hear from you right away, but they will probably wait to see who else responds. If you have under cutters listed in your area, you're very unlikely to get hired because the system is set up in such a way it's very easy for clients to find the cheapest dancer in the area. Don't get me wrong, shopping around isn't a bad thing. But as we all know in our business a cheap dancer is often times "you pay what you get for" but most clients don't know that and don't know what we charge. Sticker shock is a big factor for them.
3) If there are lots of dancers listed on Gig Salad in your area, it may not be worth it because the market is saturated. conversely, if you're the only one in your area it may lead to a lot of requests. The quality of the average request is still in testing on my end.

Last time I looked, I was the only area dancer who was listed on GigSalad. I've been on there for 2-3 years now and I've gotten exactly one gig from it. It was in a distant town with no belly dancers and so the woman didn't mind paying my travel fees. It worked out well. I also got another high-quality lead from there, also from a distant town, but the woman didn't want to pay my travel fees. So, I've come to the conclusion that I get good reach from it and that people from areas with a smaller or no belly dance scene are most likely to find me via gigsalad. I've never gotten a local gig request from it. I'm fine with that though because our local area is so saturated that it is nice to have visibility in other areas...as long as the clients don't mind paying my travel fees!

So neither of the gigs panned out. The second I had to contact again before he told me he doesn't need me. Turns out he's hiring someone from at least 2 hours away. Not sure how that works out because the travel expenses alone would be ridiculous and what he's asking for is like a $250 - $300 show at least. So my guess is he managed to find someone willing to do the gig for "exposure" even though the exposure is hours from her location? *sigh*

And the woman interested in classes has not gotten back to me either. So Lauren may be right about the quality of the inquiries being not so great. We'll see what comes in next!

On that note, I am going to do some research on how to handle clients who are on the fence.

Hi Dima,
I am a teacher/performer in NH too. I literally just joined gig salad last week! As of right now, no leads from it...

I have gotten a lot of people who call looking for belly dancers and when I give them my price they never call me back! I think sticker shock is huge in our area. I find it is helpful to put the prince in perspective or list it on your web site with an explanation as to why a dancer has a specific price.

One web site I was looking at listed a few "did you know that..." and included the price of costumes, compared rates with other entertainment like a clown, and put up her travel rates with a reminder that gas costs money.

Hi Zabel! I think we've met before at the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire a few years back?

Anywho, I have gotten a few more requests from Gig Salad. I think 5 since I signed up. Not one has booked anything. It indeed seems like sticker shock is a major factor. I also get requests from people who are blanket sending it out to every dancer in the area so they probably aren't looking at any of my info or prices. I get the impression a lot of my requests also come from people who thought of the idea last minute, since most send the request a few days before the event. So they haven't thought it through much just tossed the idea out. When they see how much it costs they ditch the idea quickly.

Zabel, we should coordinate pricing since we're in the same area and will most likely get the same requests. That way if they get two quotes that are very similar they will realize that is the average rate for a dancer. Hopefully we don't have anyone in the area listed on Gig Salad who is dancing for a lot less otherwise they will probably get all the gigs in the area. My prices are on my website Dima - Bellydance in Manchester, NH and I'm still tweaking them now and then till I find what works for me. If you want to coordinate drop me an email (info at dimadance .com)

Slight side note, but I know a woman who used to dance around this area in the 90's and charged $40 for a bellygram. She gave up because she couldn't make enough money. Just goes to show if you charge what people expect you to charge ($50 or less seems to be the norm in people's minds) you may book more but you still won't make enough money.

Just wanted to do an update on how Gig Salad has been working for me. It's been about 5 months since I posted my profile and so far I've gotten quite a few gig requests (15 or so?) but not a single booked gig. Every single one has sent a blanket request to all belly dancers in the area. Many that I have left messages for never responded. A few took my price and said they would be in touch, and never were. But I did get two who quickly booked the first dancer who called them (not me, cause I was at work all day) then when I contacted them they told me they wished they hired me because I am local to them and they booked a dancer in another state. When they sent out a request for info from Gig Salad, they had no way to ask for only dancers in this state and didn't realize there was a closer dancer until it was too late. I even got one woman who meant to send her request to one dancer and accidentally sent it to all the dancers in the area. Most requests have been for the typical older man's birthday party but I got a few for musical events and one bachelorette party. A vast majority of the gigs are last minute, a week or less before the event itself.

So overall it hasn't really provided me with quality gig leads, but I could see myself getting 1 or 2 a year from it.

Thanks for the update! This pretty much mirrors my Gig Salad experience.