I know this has been discussed in the past, but wondering if people have any recent experience with them - good bad or indifferent?

I signed up for a free listing yesterday and had a sales rep call me today. Told him I would think about it.

The only problem is there is no way to know unless you ask all your customers how did they find out about you specifically. A lot of times they will just answer they found you on the internet. GigMasters and GigSalad will notify you when a individual found you because of their website.

When I first signed up for PartyPop I thought it was similar to Gigmasters and quickly discovered I was wrong. I too spoke to a sales rep who told me that they always get top listings in Google because of "their special technology". While I was on the phone with her I quickly showed her that my websites either outranked PartyPop, appeared where PartyPop didn't or was just under PartyPop in the top 10. So for me and my sites I didn't see the benefit of spending money with them.

If you do a search here for PartyPop, you will see that others have had little success with them and in some cases got a run-around when they tried to cancel.

I signed up a few months ago(June 11th)and have received about 7 or 8 calls from the ad and 3 of those turned into paying gigs. A couple of them were asking for kids shows (which I don't do), and a few asked for quotes, but I never heard form them again.
So it payed for itself already, and there's still 8 months left for the ad to run. I also don't have a lot of other magicians in my area advertising on there.

Justin

I have heard more bad, than good about PARTYPOP. A few of my close freinds said for the money they speant over a course of the year, the pay off was not worth the money they speant with them. This is the same for many other such services.

With so many magicians listed on such sites, one point to consider is this. A lot of people will click multiple magicians just to get quotes with no real intentions of booking. Which ones are sincere in their desires, have many others to choose from. Just because your booking fee is lower than the others, you may not win the bid based on many factors. Some being website design, references, and the overall look of your performance style or show based on what your website portrays.

So the question is this; is it worth it to you? I feel it is a question that cannot be answered by others, but something that you must carefully consider yourselves.

I think PartyPOP is bad for Los angeles magicians!!! SO any LA magicians do not place an ad on PartyPOP! If you have one now... Phone and cancel your ad TODAY! .... (wink)

Any other areas out of Los Angeles it does great in the long run!

Neale,

Have you ever seen a television ad or heard a radio ad for PartyPop? In fact, if you were not in the business you are in, would you even have heard of PartyPop?

If you answered no to those questions, then there is a very good chance that perspective clients haven't heard of them either.

My experience has been that these types of companies seem to market more to an American audience and do not give good results to Canadians although Justin (above) says it works for him.

RJE,

Partypop does appear in the top of search listening in the natural web searches for many of the cities. I think many people have concluded depends on the city you are in.
It does pretty well in LA!


Also, I think many entertainers do not treat their craft as a business.
Hence, they don't answer the phone as often, don't return phone calls in a timely manner, don't track where the calls come from, they don't follow up, they don't have the right promo materials to support their claims or shows... ETC ETC...

Don't forget that these type of services BRINGS the clients to your door. It is the entertainers job to invite them in and SELL them on their services.

Many people say I didn't get any shows from xxx or yyyy, But, I got 7 calls. WELL DUHHHH! 7 calls. It is your job to turn them into bookings and not xxx or yyy!

Yes it probably has been working for me (just got another booking last night from it actually) because when you search Edmonton magicians, it's in the top slots, and I am one of the only (paid) listings (Morris Magic) for my immediate area. If I was among dozens of others, I'm sure it would not be great (although it may help).
It's quite cheap, so really, one gig paid for it, so how could it not be worth it (for me)?

Hi Curtis,

You are correct that it is a business and should be treated as such. True, it would be nice if all we had to do is perform, but such is not the case for the majority of us. And, any of us that do not return calls or e mails promptly is not doing their job.

However, this is not the reason why I stated that PartyPop is more geared to America than Canada.

The majority of Canadians don't live in major cities. In fact, the population of your city is almost 1/3 of the total population of our country and it takes 7 days to drive across our country. The population of your state alone exceeds the entire population of Canada.

This is one of the problems we face with registering for sites that ask us to define our performing area. To be specific, we can limit our prospects to a small population. To be general, we can be overlooked because we don't say where we are.

In this sense, spending money on something like Gigmasters or PartyPop does not make good business sense for a lot of Canadians. To put it bluntly, it is a waste of money. The return, if any, would be too small. Of course, taking out the free listing is always a good idea.

Canadians, especially those that don't live in a major city area, are better off to direct sell to the market they wish to get involved in. We are better off to promote ourselves locally and build up a good reputation through word of mouth and direct marketing.

That is the upside to living here. Since the population is not as large, a performer or act can become relatively well known in certain circles (ie. the people who book fairs, resorts, company Christmas parties etc...). This allows you to work up a solid client base.

In fact, the circles we travel in (and I have been travelling them for close to 30 years) you keep running into a lot of the same acts in similar venues. Without much effort I could list those acts using less than 10 fingers. They are the ones that carved their niche and serviced it over many, many years. They are the ones that are successful and get steady work. They are known. None of them are on PartyPop. I just checked.

All the best.

RJE...
Makes since...

But... there is always that one kick-butt gig surfing the net....

True, but it still all comes down to numbers.

For the same listing fee, you can market to at least 10 million people, while the average Canadian might be marketing to 75 000 to upwards of 500 000 people. (Those living in larger urban areas will of course have a larger market, but still nothing to compare to the size of yours.) That means that your odds of getting any show are at least 20 x's greater than the average Canadians using sites like PartyPop.

And, to invest in a form of marketing that "only" pays for itself is a poor investment. Most of us up here will do far better to put our marketing dollars to use in other more effective areas.

If people can't find you RJE you are the best disappearing act until your creditors find you! heehhe

Partypop is only $180 a year. (I think)

I have had national marketing campaign organizers find me on Partypop and spent 100x's that fee.... Also, lots of casting people find those type of websites when looking for entertainers....

I believe in possibilities. IF you have yourself place out all over the worldwide web, in the media, and marketing yourself this creates more possibilities!

But, smaller areas you can have the advantage! So be the the advantage....

Best wishes!

True again.

It all comes down to having the best plan of attack in marketing that you can. And in every successful plan, there should be a variety of strategies. PartyPop could certainly be one of the strategies for some and be quite successful for them too.

I also have to agree with you when you say that the more places people can find you, the easier it will be for you to be found.

It comes down to what works best for you (taking into consideration where you are in your career, where you are geographically etc...) and what you want to do.

I said this on another thread a while ago, but it might be a good time to remind.

In David Farr's product "Traffic Secrets Explained", he talks about ways of using listing sites like PartyPop and Gigmasters not only for shows directly, but also ways to use them for SEO and to increase some traffic to your own website directly.

So, if you are thinking about these sites purely for direct show bookings, then you might be shortsighted in your thinking.

Although I don't have that product, he's talked about it on teleseminars and at lectures I've attended.

- Donald

Donald,

You hit it right on the nose...

P.S.
We should not reveal all the secrets... We are magicians after all!
WINk

Yes, I almost didn't make that post.

Especially after some have bad-mouthed his products, without seeing them, on other threads.

- Donald

So I live in a city with 800,000+ people, and Partypop has landed me 4 gigs, with the lowest paying one at $500 and the highest at $1250. The $190 for me was well worth it (as I don't have a website live yet). So by your logic, if the ad would reach 20x the population, how could this be a bad choice in terms of advertising? If it reaches a lot of people, doesn't that mean it's a good choice?
I don't know what the return is for a lot of larger centres with lots of competition, but hey, if it lands you one gig that gives you good word of mouth or more business in the future, the return is quite good.
http://www.partypop.com/Vendors/4324540.htm
Justin

Justin,

Reread my posts. My logic is fine. Your comprehension seems to be a little off. Congratulations on your 4 shows.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend. It just seemed like you said that you were more likely to get a gig (20x better odds) if you were in a larger centre because you can reach 10 million rather than only the 500 000 that Canadians can reach. That gave me the impression you are saying it is a good idea, which you clearly do not think.

peace
justin