How to get bookings?

[funkymook]

When I started out I delivered 3000 flyers door to door, handed some into venues, fish and chip shops, left some at the dentist or anywhere I could.

I checked gumtree daily, posted my own ads and searched the Internet for agents to send my details to.

Made mix cds and asked almost every nightclub manager if they would take a listen and consider me.

Built a website and spent hours promoting it on other sites and still am.

What I'm saying is if you want it you need to go and get it, all of those methods got me some work, some much more effective than others but try hard and you will succeed.

Can you expand on that please....

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

Can you expand on that please....

I don't think it'll help for 2 reasons:

1. If he's specific way of bringing in tonnes bookings, he's not going to go and broadcast to us who whilst maybe on friendly terms, are ultimately still competition: If standing on the Main St with Scotland's Party DJ Call Now tattoo'd on my backside brought me tonnes of bookings and I let it out, guess what everyone would be heading to the tattoo shop for.

2. Aside from that, it's swings and roundabouts, I do next to nothing on the lead sites like Amp DJ and NaD whereas I know guys in the same sphere of operations that rake the gigs in. Likewise, they can't get a bite on other avenues that I do very well from: what works for him might not work for you or anyone else...

[ukpartydj]

Can you expand on that please....

As you can imagine things have changed since I started however looking back at my diary in my first 6 months I did 31 gigs

15 gigs came from 3 separate DJ agents
10 gigs came from my own website / directories that I listed on for free.
3 gigs came from Needadisco
1 gig came from Flyering (however I think 4 bookings came of this just later in the year / following year)
1 gig came from Newspaper Advert
1 gig came from Mix CDs given to nightclubs
0 gigs came from gumtree

Average price of £145 for the first 3 months
Average price of £162 for the last 3 months

The newspaper advert cost more than needadisco however needadisco took up a lot more of my time.
Mix CDs were the biggest waste of my time, nightclub/pub managers seemed uninterested and the pay wasn't great anyway.
Gumtree never really worked for me, although other DJs I know have said they get work via it.
I am able to create websites myself and believe I'm quite good at doing so (considering it's just a hobby) therefore I've invested a huge amount of time and still do into making them as effective as possible.

For an easy life I'd get in with an agent or multiple agents, or even just make contacts with people like your local quiz DJ - the more people you know the more people you can say "I'm short of work, anything comes up let me know" to. Even now I still rely on other agents for filling midweek dates and last minute unfilled dates.

[funkymook]

I don't think it'll help for 2 reasons:

1. If he's specific way of bringing in tonnes bookings, he's not going to go and broadcast to us who whilst maybe on friendly terms, are ultimately still competition: If standing on the Main St with Scotland's Party DJ Call Now tattoo'd on my backside brought me tonnes of bookings and I let it out, guess what everyone would be heading to the tattoo shop for.

2. Aside from that, it's swings and roundabouts, I do next to nothing on the lead sites like Amp DJ and NaD whereas I know guys in the same sphere of operations that rake the gigs in. Likewise, they can't get a bite on other avenues that I do very well from: what works for him might not work for you or anyone else...

No one else is reticent about how they go about getting work on this thread (those with that mindset just won't post). I'm sure David won't mind saying what worked best for him and what didn't.


Edit: See, told you (cheers David)

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

No one else is reticent about how they go about getting work on this thread (those with that mindset just won't post). I'm sure David won't mind saying what worked best for him and what didn't.


Edit: See, told you (cheers David)

True but if for example Gumtree had brought in dozens of gigs, he might be less forward in letting us all know that lest he fancy fighting it out with all the local competition that notice it.

[ukpartydj]

True but if for example Gumtree had brought in dozens of gigs, he might be less forward in letting us all know that lest he fancy fighting it out with all the local competition that notice it.

You've got a point I do not let my local competitors and people who I think are unaware of certain good methods into my "secrets".
But I can tell you that always updating, always checking competition always making sure your advertising is current and constantly thinking of new ideas has been key to getting my gigs.

I'll give one away for free - the scrims I put over my speaker stands, I've had 2 clients come up to me and say they made me stand out. I know they're not everybody's taste but nobody has ever commented on my moving heads!!!!!!!!!!

[Jim - Scotland's Party DJ]

You've got a point I do not let my local competitors and people who I think are unaware of certain good methods into my "secrets".
But I can tell you that always updating, always checking competition always making sure your advertising is current and constantly thinking of new ideas has been key to getting my gigs.

I'll give one away for free - the scrims I put over my speaker stands, I've had 2 clients come up to me and say they made me stand out. I know they're not everybody's taste but nobody has ever commented on my moving heads!!!!!!!!!!

Exactly. There's nothing wrong with sharing info but there's nothing wrong with keeping certain cards close to the chest.

I love my black scrims. Just now I'm not actually using them but I'm working out some sort of system where I mount some lights onto speaker stands (with no speakers) so I can use them again because I like the look so much