You see what they are doing from your point of view. You see this situation from one point of view. Yours. Interesting.

These sites are designed to show all entertainers are the same. They are all interchangeable based only on price. It is their stock in trade.

I am not at all about getting your concern about "endless worthless quotes that have to be changed later," or your perception on getting quotes and changing quotes. I do not understand why your are having a problem with giving a quote as required? That is the whole concept, the prospect posts their information on their event, the lead is offered to the qualified performers, and the entertainers respond with their interest and quote. I am having problems with seeing fault with this?

I also have never heard of or seen anyone change their quote after it being submitted. That would be suicide on the system. There would be no purpose for this.

I have different problems with this as it encourages shopping based primarily on price but never about giving a quote. It helps you qualify leads without wasting time on non-applicable leads.

The package you took will not allow you to see how the system works with the full package.

That assumes the person gives enough accurate information to send a quote. Obviously can't say anything about thebash specifically, but I can tell you on Yelp or even Gigsalad people making requests without any useful information about their event, or even information that doesn't accurately reflect their event is extremely common. If they had more requirements for the client to fill out information that may not be a problem. But, as I've experienced countless times, (and I mean quite a bit) the information is often not enough to give a real quote without more communication.

I keep bringing it up, but Gigsalad specifically seems to get that. Their system assumes you'll request more information before giving a quote. Also the quote is constantly editable without issue.

Even the one mentioned received earlier today was almost nothing. It was essentially just a time and date (new years Eve) and a budget (which I assume is optional) But from this the gig could be almost anything. Most importantly, there's no way to know if they were seeking close up magic or a stand-up /stage show. (In this case I'm already busy on Christmas eve so it doesn't much matter)

Without knowing any of that there would have been no way to give a real quote. This is quite common with other services as well. But, with Thebash having their phone number behind a "quote wall" that incentives folks like me to send a meaningless quote just to be able to ask for the missing information, seems like that would cause problems.

I don't think I've ever sent "a quote" on GigSalad - you are saying the Bash forces you to send a quote to reply? That's frustrating.

I don't see the problem unless your price changes or fluctuates gig to gig. Also, your profile should detail the type of magic you do so they should have an idea. To most uneducated buyers they don't know or understand the difference in styles or formats of magic.

Also, when I was on Gigmasters and with students I coach, we/they will get a "budget of $300 on their listing and we easily will book their events for $1,100-$1,500. Again, you have to understand the system and the process. They don't know what they're doing. Of course they are going to put a cheap or low amount, as they don't know how to shop for entertainment, what entertainers cost, how to book them, and are not educated on the shopping process. This creates great opportunity for you the entertainer. Don't get hung up on their listing, you can clarify it and get the "more info" you are seeking when you speak to them, which is what you should want in the first place.

I still don't get and have never heard of changing price quotes or the mentality behind it. The lead usually includes most of the information you would need to know. If not, that too creates opportunities for you.

I have worked with hundreds on these systems and this concern or issue has never come up. You get their date and basic info, and you give them your price. Then you want to reach them in person by phone. That's it really.

You are making it sound like a bait and switch of some type.

That's the thing, as any number of folks could be sending quotes, they may have never seen my profile. The kid's birthday guy, the mentalist guy, or the corporate stage guy could have been the person they are trying to reach. But "magician" "7pm Thursday" "budget $500" really tells me very little if they didn't decide to add other details.

Is this a birthday party? If so for a kid? Toddler? Adult? Not just the price might be slightly different, it might not get a quote sent at all. Is it a strolling affair? A stage show? If so what sort of audience?

Any of these things could be on 7pm Thursday. And the amount quoted, or if I would quote at all would depend on the unavailable information.

Meaning, getting to them is the only real concern. And with the only block between me and them a quote, it gives incentive to give a high end quote because it's easier to lower a price than ask for more than quoted.

Perhaps it works well for you and your students, and I'm sure I'll get by fine with it. But still, it's somewhat annoying.

I will say, Thebash certainly has some active users though. Looking at that lead a good number quoted decently fast. A bit faster than what I've seen elsewhere. This might be because it gives it to performers it a wider area than just Phoenix so it's somewhat exaggerated.

Shouldn't you have to give more accurate information so they know exactly what they are shopping for? You're the one selling something, isn't it incumbent upon you to let them know exactly what it is you can do? I see SO many of these ads that just pepper the thing with how much and how diverse they are and what they can and can't do.

And again the question about why use these sites in the first place when this is such a common problem according to you?

You aren't giving them any information, you're just one of many making contact. They likely never saw your profile before you sent the quote.

It's not exactly a problem, once you get them on the phone or through messaging it sorts itself out without issue. Which is why having a barrier to that is annoying. But, it's not game ending or anything.

Wouldn't it be better getting them to your site by better SEO and not having to worry about all the nonsense?

Well, that's certainly a good avenue. But in my view it leaves money on the table. Yelp and Gigsalad have been pretty good for me so it wouldn't make much sense to not utilize them.

That being said, thanks again to Mike for the GPT he provided. So far I've gotten my website from a not so good 68/100 score in the estimator to an 82. So that is really a pretty neat tool overall.

How is it leaving money the table exactly? You get them to your web page instead of theirs.

In reality you’re leaving money on the table your way.

I don’t think you understand what is happening.

I think this thread actually highlights something important that gets missed when we focus too much on the mechanics of any one platform.

Every industry has aggregator sites like this. They exist for a reason. They’re useful for newer performers, for people rebranding, or for times when you need filler work or want to test something new. In that context, they make sense.

The problems start when they become a primary strategy rather than a supplement.

Used as a filler, they can absolutely leave money on the table if you ignore them.
Used as a foundation, they will always cap you, commoditize you, and create friction—because that’s how the model works.

A strong marketing plan with perpetual campaigns (even when you’re busy) will outperform aggregator sites every time. The difference is that the marketing plan takes longer to build, while platforms feel immediate.

From a purely technical marketing standpoint (not entertainment-specific), the real leverage is upstream of these platforms:

Focus content around buyer intent, not performer intent

- Search your own services in tools like Perplexity as if you were a client, not an insider
- Strip jargon and anything that assumes industry knowledge
- Look at the sources AI is using to answer those questions, that’s now your SEO/content roadmap
- Reinforce it with proper schema (think of schema as Velcro that helps machines “grab” your topics)
- Support it with light, consistent digital PR that shows how you solve the problems people are actively searching for

That combination pulls in buyer-intent traffic, not browsers.

Once you’re consistently capturing even a small percentage of that market traffic, then it makes sense to optimize messaging and conversion at a higher level. Without enough inbound signal, it’s hard to know what’s actually working.

So to me, this isn’t really an “either/or” conversation.

Platforms can be useful when used intentionally.
But long-term stability, leverage, and pricing power always come from owning your visibility, your message, and your inbound demand.

That’s just how markets work, regardless of industry.

@Fedora, Be careful letting GPT rewrite your site. It TECHNICALLY does a decent job, but it loses your voice and tone.
I let GPT outline content, then use Claude with a few attached documents to write
The documents I attach
- Client Avatar (Focus on the Emotional STATE and Empathy Map MORE than demographics... Ensure you have NEURO Persuasion and Personality Analysis as this will dictate how content gets focused)
- Your Tone of Voice (Use perplexity, and a transcript of you explaining something pedantically that that emotionally charges you is related to your business, ask perplexity to extract the STYLE, TONE, and VOICE from the transcript so that AI can write and sound like YOU)
- Your OFFERS (What you do, its Feature / Benefit.. Answer the PRICE question even if the answer is "It depends on the event", preanswer objections in this document as well)
- Market Analysis of the area you serve and how it reacts to your NICHE

With that, you ask Claude to "Help me write X, in my TONE and Style, speaking as a market expert about the offers to the ideal client.. Be sure to take a contrarian position that helps to elevate the ideal client and encourages them to work with me."

----
I actually have 2 custom GPTs that I have trained like this and built the outline and rough draft that I then get Claude to clean up. Both have my tone and style spot on... (HOPE THIS HELPS)

Mike it isn't much different from using ticket wholesalers. Yea they fill the room so you can sell popcorn, but you are giving away 80% of your possible ticket revenue in order to do so. Many tourist towns with shows have fallen prey to this.

The funny part is that with boiler rooms gone, all they do is internet work. Work that if the shows put 5 man hours into THEY could capture and sell those tickets and claim that 80% for themselves. As you said this is a bad business model, and it is so no matter where it is applied.

Instead of using them as "filler" they use them as 85% of their sales. Put that money that is sacrificed to wholesalers into a good SEO and marketing campaign online and you will eventually end up selling as many seats, at 80% higher price! Nobody has the nuts to do it. They are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.

Like you said about these sites they have a purpose. They should be used for that.

Something happened today that highlights that issue.

This morning I got the notification for a Bash lead. Well, unfortunately, based on the time and city it was in, it would conflict with another show that day. The lead was a kid's birthday by the way.

Normally, in any other circumstance I would simply ask them if the time could be moved up half an hour or an hour so it would fit. But with The bash, I would have had to send a quote first. A quote for the unworkable time. Meaning if they just accepted it immediately without my talking to them first I would have been double booked. So, I decided to just pass on it.

But there's a twist. Just before I hit the decline button, I got an email. The same lady had just sent a request on Gigsalad as well! (Folks using multiple services at once is extremely common, which is why I'm not a fan of the thumbtack system) Because Gigsalad has messaging, I just asked if the time could be moved, she agreed, and then booked it.

Essentially, what I was about to pass on through one service I booked through another. This is obviously inconvenient for the vendor. But worse, the bash is actually losing money on it. As the client booked through someone else.

Anyway, just a really odd coincidental thing.

Maybe they think they are losing less money than the work around of not booking through them?