Be the Super Hero Producers Seek

37 responses so far ↓

• 1 Marcus

  I have been a member for about a year. I have booked 1 gig out of it. Which makes it worth it because it is cheap. I have had better luck with http://www.gigmasters.com but it cost’s more.

  Marcus

• 2 Richard Hatch

  A colleague locally told me he got several gigs from gigsalad in December, and found it more cost effective than gigmasters. I signed up about a week ago, so too soon to have seen any bankable results, but I have noticed my gigsalad page is quickly raising in the rankings when you google my name and magician. Since I share my name with the first winner of Survivor and a television actor, I’d almost say that alone is worth the cost of membership in my case!

• 3 Barry

  You mean that’s not you? Dang…

  That’s a whole other benefit for belonging to these sites that have lots of links – you get yourself in good company according to Google spiders and algorithms.

  Of course, if someone is Googling your name and magician it’s pretty clear they are looking for you. The trick is to get your name up by the top when someone googles ‘corporate magician’ and we can talk about that.

  I recently made one small change on my promo reel on YouTube and within a day I was on the first page of you tube for ‘Corporate Entertainment’. There’s power in them keywords!

• 4 C.J. Johnson

  I joined in January to promote our game show business (not my magic or hypnosis) and haven’t gotten any calls yet because of GigSalad, but all it takes is one gig that wouldn’t have happened otherwise and it’s worth the paltry $149.00 for two years. I’m sure it’ll pay off.

• 5 Cindy

  GIGSALAD: waste of time, hardly any referrals, and those that came in were of the cheap birthday party type.

  GIGMASTERS: fakey “star rating” system where you can pay them extra money to get your “star rating” improved. That’s not honest, and tricks clients who think the star rating is about quality, not cash. (Part of the rating is based on how many dollars of bookings you do through GM, and you can pay them money to count bookings you DIDN’T do through them.) Just make it on quality, guys!

  PARTYPOP: Most gigs come through to you without any way of knowing they came from PartyPop, so you have to ask. But $180/year makes it worth it, for the help it gives in bringing your website ranking up, and the number of people who find you there.

  Still waiting for that perfect site!

• 6 Brandon Smith

  I’m on both Gig Masters and Gig Salad. I like the look and options on Gig Salad. It seems like a more modern layout and more user friendly than Gig Masters. Also I like that you or the client doesn’t have to pay a booking fee to the website as they do on Gig Masters.

  I’ve been on both for about three months and have booked three shows (including a corporate trade show) from Gig Salad. I’ve yet to get a booking from Gig Masters and only one phone call from it. Gig Masters also sends me listings for clowns even though I’m not one. But I checked balloon twister so I get every request for balloon twisting clowns because of it.

• 7 Corporate Entertainment Ideas

  I use both, but you cannot rely on putting it up and hoping you get business. You must pro-actively link to the site to help with search rankings….

  Also you must look at it like a website, change the content around see what works, don’t just let it sit there do testing to see what works best for you.

  Most Importantly spend time and make sure and classify yourself in “abstract” categories so you never know when someone may be looking for something related and WOW there you are

• 8 Jim Saylor

  I have been with gigsalad for 6 months. This month alone I have booked three magic shows through them. While not high paying shows, they have repaid my anual $100+ fee six times over.
  I agree with what “Corporate Entertainment Ideas” said: you must regularly update your information on gigsalad. The more catagories and venues you can list in, the better your odds of working. Also have people who have hired you or watched you perform write good reviews for you on the gigsalad site. Five star reviews show potential clients that others like what you have to offer and are worth considering for their event.

• 9 Frankie Sands

  For what it’s worth, I joined Gig Salad on 8/13/10 after a friend who advertises on Gig Masters and just began using Gig Salad told me about it. He used to get a lot of leads from Gig Masters, but said they have dried up and that their customer service is terrible. Can never get anyone on the phone. I am a Singer and do vocal impersonations of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Bobby Darin. As of today, 11/22/10 I have gotten 27 leads from Gig Salad. Naturally not everyone booked. Some I couldn’t take because I was already booked, and others were looking for something very cheap. However, I did book two of them and three more are in negotiation. I think this is an excellent return on investment and I have the Premier Membership which costs $19.99 a month. Also, I agree with an earlier comment on this thread about Gig Salad being more user friendly. Indeed it is. It looks much warmer and inviting than Gig Masters and now that they have been around for a few years and have done some web advertising I think you will only see performance improve. I also think performance depends in large part on the type of service you offer. It may work better for some than for others.

• 10 Mike Weakley

  Thanks for starting this thread Barry. I just joined Gig Masters a week ago. Have received 6 leads so far, and I booked one of them. That alone more than paid for my 3 month membership. I will definitely be renewing for 12 months next time.

  Have been considering joining Gig Salad, but most of the people I know & asked seemed to like Gig Masters better. But after reading all the above posts, I’m seriously considering giving it a try now. Party Pop was also mentioned. Anyone else have any input on this site? Are there any other similar sites out there?

• 11 Corporate Event Planning

  PartyPop is okay, they have a very nice search engine base for most of the commonly searched “party” terms. (Mostly because somehow they are linked on EVERY citadel radio station site.)

  But the “party” term traffic they go for is for smaller gigs.

  GigMasters is your best bet for higher paying gigs, but Gigsalad gives you a link to your site, and you mighy get lucky.

  You cannot rely on these services solely, because technically they are loosing “google power” Google is getting smarter by the day, and huge directories like this are starting to loose their weight due to there is a huge push for ultra relevant results right now, and Google resulting another way to search seems counter productive to me…… and it seems they are beginning to feel the same way!!!

  Your best option is beginning to put stock into yourself and your own “brand” instead of relying on the internet marketing of a company who is not really looking out for your interest.

• 12 madd mike

  I have gigsalad and i love it! for the price you cant beat it! plus you can have multiple services instead of just one on gigmasters, gigmasters is a rip off!!!

  GIGSALAD RULES!!!! LOVE IT!

• 13 Jordan Rivers

  Avoid all Gigmasters and Gigsalad.. all do not back up your band. If there is a problem.. you get slammed not the client. furthermore going out on gigs on gigmasters. the client knows they can write all kinds of bad stuff about you.. so if you have a nasty client then you have to suck it up.. dont let these bastards ruin our live music scene.. if we all stand up and say NO to misrepresentation.. then more people will book directly with the artist themselves.

• 14 jaymes

  I tried them and they are nothing more than a phone directory. I placed a request with them twice and my response was if you don’t hear anything from the vendors in 72 hours call them directly.

• 15 Barry

  Hi Jaymes,
  Seems like a lot of people feel the same way you do about GS. I know some people have had success.

  More than what GS can do for anyone, it boils down to how we handle the leads we get from all sources. We can blow their socks off, or we can ‘hope they get it’.

  Wishing you the best – if you don’t hear from me in 72-hours, oops… See ya.

  Barry

• 16 Mark

  I have never liked Gigmasters. For me, it’s basically like a priceline type site. All the referrals i got were cheap people looking at booking us for $300, lol, what a joke. EVERYONE who contacted us from Gigmasters were basically looking for the cheapest deal possible. Partypop? Same thing, we get lots of referrals, but all looking for the cheapest rate.

  If you like to be booked for around $300-$400 a gig, than, this is perfect for you. As for us, it was a huge headache. In fact, we stopped responding to referrals coming from gigmasters, they were all the same…price shoppers.

• 17 Charlie

  I have been on Gigsalad for a year.

  The customer service is excellent.

  However, I have not booked single gig. A few leads, but all duds. It could be said that there are many solo jazz guitarists like myself, so “too many fish in the sea”, but I am still not impressed.

  I have had the most success (getting gigs) from doing wedding shows.

  Once I have my own site, I am dropping Gigsalad.

• 18 RoJo

  I’ve used a gig salad for 3 months and I am happy with them. I play solo piano and sing.

  It is nice how I receive emails from potential Gigsalid leads, which potential clients fill out in a form letter type of format.Gigsalad does not take a commission fee, but they possibly retain all that customer lead info for their records also. I consider that a fair deal.

  Gigmasters cost a little too much to join and the musicians on their website entertainers look very unprofessional (or at least hobbyists).

  For those that complain about a gig salad, please let us know what type of music & entertainment that you perform. if you are a 60-year old-midget hula dancer in rural north dakota (without any promo pack, pictures,…), I really doubt that you’re going to get a lotta gigs from any site.

  bottomline, gigsalad works for me, and they rank fairly high in the search engine entertainment listings…

• 19 Ralph Gordon

  Gig Salad is the best web site by far I’ve been booked faster than another web site for all kinds of gigs from weddings ,partys,corporate party .
  Keep up the good work Gig Salad
  Jazz man Ralph Gordon

• 20 Jenna miller

  Best online booking agent! I have booked many many many gigs thanks to Gigsalad! They are amazing and if you need any help the customer service is phenomenal! I think gigmasters is a waste of money… You will get maybe one gig request a year! Go with gig salad!

• 21 Mandi

  I have had good luck on gig salad. I book at least 1 to 2 jobs most weeks through their site. No complaints here.

• 22 Barry

  Wow Mandi… good for you. I’m sure there is a sweet spot as far as marketing and price that is the perfect match for GigSalad. I think you’ve found it!

• 23 Frans Ouschild

  I have been a caricature artist for the last 10 years and have to compete with many others in the area who have 20-30 years experience. I tried GigMasters and after a few months I found out on my own you have to make deals with the customers in order to get their business. I have been starting to get more 2 & 3 hour gigs from them, but I have to tell the customers to contact me personally thru e-mail or phone to save us both extra fees, and they usually will contact me. However, there are a few other caricaturists who ALWAYS get the big 4 & 5 hour gigs. Hmmm. I like GigSalad and am considering joining them because (for one) even just a free listing has jumped up to the 1st or 2nd page when someone google-searches my name, and it has stayed there for quite some time. I am wondering what paying them a monthly fee would do?

• 24 Barry

  Frans – there are a few things you can do to compete with the competition:
  - serve your clients more value.
  - collect stellar testimonials
  - pitch them differently than everyone else
  - over-deliver
  - ask for referrals
  - follow up after the gig with a note

  Those are a few that come to my instantly. It’s a skill and I hope you did the 7-day course I offer. More ideas in there.

• 25 Spinnabel Lee

  I’ve been using GigSalad for about 8 months now and have gotten 4-5 gigs plus more inquiries for gigs I couldn’t accept due to other committments. Oh, and this was with the free membership, which only gets me gigs locally…I’m about to upgrade to a piad membership since it’s still cheap and gets me extra gigs through no extra marketing effort on my part!

• 26 Eric

  I really like the layout of the website. I will give it a shot. Does anyone know if this site is a google recognized backlink? Would be great to get a gig as well as a link to my webpage.
  Again the layout is very attractive and I will bet it makes users stay on the site longer.

• 27 Lacy

  I use both GigSalad and GigMaster. Depending on your rates you can usually justify the membership cost after one or two bookings. One year GigMaster was particularly slow – I contacted them and they waived my membership the next year to keep us as clients. Don’t forget to take advantage of their coupons.

  I wouldn’t say that either GS or GM is a primary source for clients, but their sites tend to come up fairly high in google searches so I keep our profile there for that reason.

• 28 Vince Brocato

  Actually, considering paid membership on Gigsalad. Recently booked a gig and I’m on an upaid membership.

  Also, thinking of getting rid of my web site? Not sure if a personal website helps in getting jobs? Any input would be welcomed?

• 29 Barry

  Hi Vince,

  Congratulations on the Gig Salad booking. I think they are very useful for gigs in certain areas and fee ranges.

  The discussion of getting rid of a personal website – I’d recommend a make over. Right now your site is all about you. I hope you did my free 7-day course. Your site, in order to begin a relationship that can lead to a booking, must enter the conversation a prospect is having in their own head. Nothing on your landing page gets into what’s going on in a viewer’s mind. It’s about what you enjoy, what you do, where you’ve been, and what you bring with you.

  Zoom out, look at your site through the eyes of a prospect, and publish copy that helps them see that their event will be less special without you – then you’ll forget about getting rid of your site

  Welcome aboard. There’s 52-weeks worth of marketing strategies at http://www.getmorecorporategigs.com/join-now

• 30 Barry

  Also, Vince, your “About Us” page should be marked “Testimonials”.

  Internet surfers (prospects) are fickle and literally dying for a reason to click away from a site and move onto the next one. The job of your site (copy and photos) is to give them a good enough reason not to flea.

• 31 Jim Glass

  Hmm, very interesting. At first I thought Barry might be a shill, but the follow-on comments reinforced his experience. The solo guitar guy comment made me laugh, because, yes, there are a *lot* of those guys, but not a lot of great ones.

  My 8 year old Microsoft Jumpin’ Jive Orchestra does 9 to 10 gigs a year because we take Nov-Dec off. Yes, we all have day jobs. ;0) I’m not sure we want more gigs, but if we did, Gig Salad might be the way to go. Networking personnally is the still the uber gig source for us.

• 32 Barry

  Hi Jim,

  Network will always rule over anything else. This is little more than a business of personal relationships. So many entertainers try to trick, or coheres a buyer into a gig. Even if that ever works, it leaves a gnarly taste in everyone’s mouth.

  Your gig sounds great. What a blessing to have a group of people that agree to leave the day job for 2 months of gigs. Puts a huge smile on my face – I love the way you’re playing it.

  Barry “the shill” Friedman

• 33 Ventriloquist Comedian

  My conclusion is that Gigsalad is excellent if you take gigs at a few hundred bucks a pop. It’ll be like finding a pot of gold if you receive a lead that is high-paying… Corporations with a descent budget who can’t afford to leave anything to chance (as far as offending their employees, etc.) are not going to go anywhere near GigMasters or GigSalad (in general, at least).

  Cheers!

• 34 Terry Anderson

  GREAT SERVICE!!

• 35 Jason Alan

  I book around 20 shows a months from this site. Seriously! Why do I think I get this many? Write now on the site I have 51 reviews ranking me at 4.9. The next closes in my area, 3. If you are saying it doesn’t work, how many reviews do you have?

• 36 Barry

  That’s a great point, Jason! Social proof always trumps whatever we can come up with the say about ourselves. Well done and a great tip!

• 37 Christine Barger

  I like gigsalad a lot. I like that they list their budgets for their event, which gives you a heads up as to what they are looking for.

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