I am at a Crossroads

[Daryll]

Difficult to explain , but I`ll have a go , I will be 55 in a few weeks , collecting a long lost pension ( not a great deal :( ) , all grey hair and more aches and pains than I thought I had places.:D
Disco bookings this year are appalling , only three , one regular pub venue , one friend’s wedding and my regular NYE spot , two web sites which attract zero bookings , registered with loads of web sites, but to no avail , don’t get me wrong , I love what I do ,and I will continue for the foreseeable future, but the zest has gone , the buzz is now a gentle rumble in the background , I am not going to give it all up yet , but I may scale back , just taking the odd local gig to pay for the van ( and everything else to do with the disco which is still outstanding...:D ) , guess I am not looking for too much advice ,whatever I decide to do will be based on me and the wife having a chat ,but I wonder if others go through this patch , it would be different if I were 20 or 30 years younger , but the arrow of time marches forward.
It is getting to the point that at midnight I want to be tucked up in bed , not starting to pack up , and have a hour`s drive home.

Cheers

Daryll

[Excalibur]

Daryll, I think I have an idea whereof you speak. When you're not busy, you lose the incentive, you get used to not having a disco on a Saturday night. ( And you soon find out how execrable telly is on a Saturday night. :( :( )

Addto that a few ( relatively ) low paying boring gigs, and you can soon lose the will to live. And then, you pick up some better payers, and have a couple of storming nights, and suddenly your perspective changes.

Don't look to me for advice, I'm asking a lot of the same questions.

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Firstly, sorry that you feel the way you do at the moment and that work is on the quiet side.
The main thing first of all is - Are you in a position where you can survive ok without the Disco side of things altogether or by doing limited Discos? If the answer is yes then I wouldn't worry about it so much. At 55 (which isn't old at all!), you've obviously worked a fair few years so enjoy the break.

If the answer to the question is No, well you just have to ride with it. Things always pick up and it's only just February. I am sure all will be well.

I think that at some point most of us go through a dodgy patch. The hard bit is coming out the end of it but I am sure you will.
As for being tucked up in bed by Midnight - I know what you mean, especially in this weather!

[Daryll]

Are you in a position where you can survive ok without the Disco side of things altogether or by doing limited Discos

The basic answer is Yes , my day job can pay for us both to live , the disco pays for itself and pays for holidays etc , I dont want to give up all together , limited discos are fine with me , after all I only secure around one a fortnight anyway , so dropping that to 10-15 a yaar will not make too much difference.

And Peter you are right , Saturday night on TV is not good.


But to look on the bright side , my next gig is on 25th Feb , at a local pub , surprise 40th , 6ft ceiling , cramped is not the right word...:D , but a good crowd .

Daryll

[Charlie Brown]

How well are your websites performing on Google?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

How well are your websites performing on Google?


two web sites which attract zero bookings

Concentrate now Charlie.

[Charlie Brown]

Concentrate now Charlie.


How well are your websites performing on Google?


two web sites which attract zero bookings

Daryll may have two websites which aren't getting him any work but it doesn't mean they're doing good/bad on Google?

[Excalibur]

Daryll may have two websites which aren't getting him any work but it doesn't mean they're doing good/bad on Google?

Which was what I took Charlie's post to mean. The sites can be attracting lots of hits (ie, performing well on Google ) but not generating bookings, ( ie performing badly in real terms. ) .

[Daryll]

I know very little about performance , SEO etc.

stats from crimson tide.

http://www.crimson-tide-disco.co.uk/logs//index.html

Stats from daryll.dj
http://daryll.dj/logs/index.html


Make any sense ???

[Charlie Brown]

Make any sense ???

No. :D

Let's wait for Martin. ;)

[Excalibur]

No. :D

Let's wait for Martin. ;)

Good idea, Charlie. :thumbs_up:

[Charlie Brown]

Good idea, Charlie. :thumbs_up:

Huh? :confused:

Peter, are you implying that you refuse to shed any light on Daryl's websites? I was under the impression you're a Search Engine Optimisation king? :D

[Megamix]

Maybe scale back, be fussy about the gigs you take on and maybe you will enjoy them more?

[Charlie Brown]

Maybe scale back, be fussy about the gigs you take on and maybe you will enjoy them more?

I don't think that's the problem.

It's getting Daryl the gigs in the first place.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

The thing is do you have the energy and desire to drum up the bookings for yourself Darryl? Get on the social media bandwagon etc.... Maybe working for other folk might be the way forward here?

[Charlie Brown]

Get on the social media bandwagon etc....

You mention this an awful lot Neil. What exactly do you do differently to posting pictures/comments on FB and keeping it updated?

[DeckstarDeluxe]

You mention this an awful lot Neil. What exactly do you do differently to posting pictures/comments on FB and keeping it updated?

Loads, everyone has a different approach and it depends what your business model is. I could write for days about the subject however I don't want to hijack this thread.

[Daryll]

Not hijacking at all Niel...:D
Please continue , I am intrigued

Daryll

[yourdj]

This post reminds me of one of my fav songs. Clapton before he became a bit crap.
Bruce still has it look at BBM.

Cream - Crossroads (Farewell Concert - Extended Edition) (5 of 11) - YouTube

Why choose to make do - thats your insecurity talking. Go for it and have some money for retirement!

You need to get a specialist on board to sort your marketing, perhaps look at you (the service you provide) and the clients you wish to attract and go for it. Look at it in terms of a tired business (Woolworths perhaps back in the day) but make the right decisions and you will rocket.

I know a couple of people like yourself who were struggling but are now and really going for it.
Paul the party DJ who is 50 odd is now earning a minimum of £600 a night and is at least booked once a week on average.
Lots of those are his £900 a day bookings too.

Hang about with the people you aspire to become as you will gain lots from that.
lots of old schoolers frown at face-book, websites and networking meetings (definitely at workshops :D) but time will be the teller of that story :)


Good luck :) and don't give up.

[Charlie Brown]

Not hijacking at all Niel...:D
Please continue , I am intrigued


Ditto. :)

You don't have to share all your tricks but a couple of pointers would be helpful.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

As I said its a subject that I could go on and on about but its impossible to cover in a post. I approached each platform with no knowledge and learnt as I went along. Twitter however has put me in contact with so many people I wouldn't of known otherwise however the one thing I've learnt is that just posting "me me me me me" is just a plain turn off, twitter allows your own personality to come across and thats what people buy, not your pile of class d's or your fancy martin lighting.

[Jonathan Ford]

I'm still not sure I get social networking. I joined Twitter in December, and have made one post to date...simply because I have nothing interesting or amusing that's disco related to say. What do you actually do with these sites? On my personal FB account (which, incidentally I've deleted countless times but keep having to reactivate because medical students don't seem to comprehend that they can communicate with each other, organise events etc. without the bloody thing!), I post around once every 6 months. I figure no one is particularly interested in my commute, my lunch, that interesting rash I saw or a ngeative photo of some woman with a red dot on her nose. What do you actually do????

[ppentertainments]

I have only been on Twitter a couple of weeks and its great, far better than facebook for business imo. You are a person, people find out about YOU and most business dealings are in private. As Neil says though it is about YOU.

Linkedin is another avenue I am exploring and after 2 days gained a nice corporate booking and is great for finding out about business seminars.

Sorry to go off topic

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Linkedin has generated a few leads but no bookings as of yet. I think if your looking to expand your b2b then its a very useful tool.

[huggy]

well daryll also felt like you a few years ago i am 49 now.thought i was to old to continue djing till i went to a private party and heard the dj who was totaly lost.experience is pivitol in our type of job you either have it or you dont .i am good at what i do and will continue for a while yet .i started back only 4wks ago after being away for 3yrs havent got much work either but i will try my best to rectify that keep going my friend i wish you lots of luck . by the way this is my first post i live in central scotland and my name is hugh hya to you all

[Corabar Entertainment]

well daryll also felt like you a few years ago i am 49 now.thought i was to old to continue djing till i went to a private party and heard the dj who was totaly lost.experience is pivitol in our type of job you either have it or you dont .i am good at what i do and will continue for a while yet .i started back only 4wks ago after being away for 3yrs havent got much work either but i will try my best to rectify that keep going my friend i wish you lots of luck . by the way this is my first post i live in central scotland and my name is hugh hya to you all
Hi there. Please have a read here: http://www.forum.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11711

I look forward to reading your newbie thread. :)

[paulg]

Difficult to explain , but I`ll have a go , I will be 55 in a few weeks , collecting a long lost pension ( not a great deal :( ) , all grey hair and more aches and pains than I thought I had places.:D
Disco bookings this year are appalling , only three , one regular pub venue , one friend’s wedding and my regular NYE spot , two web sites which attract zero bookings , registered with loads of web sites, but to no avail , don’t get me wrong , I love what I do ,and I will continue for the foreseeable future, but the zest has gone , the buzz is now a gentle rumble in the background , I am not going to give it all up yet , but I may scale back , just taking the odd local gig to pay for the van ( and everything else to do with the disco which is still outstanding...:D ) , guess I am not looking for too much advice ,whatever I decide to do will be based on me and the wife having a chat ,but I wonder if others go through this patch , it would be different if I were 20 or 30 years younger , but the arrow of time marches forward.
It is getting to the point that at midnight I want to be tucked up in bed , not starting to pack up , and have a hour`s drive home.

Cheers

Daryll

I'm with you 100%. For me, I've paid off the mortgage> I don't smoke, I don't really drink much either. There's just me and the missus and we are both low maintenenace!, plenty in the bank and on some nights I think...why bother? Christmas brought things home. Night after night after night after night. A big bag of money built up at home (now banked!) but I gradually got more tired shifting about what is a fairly hefty set up. I couldn't wait for the last gig. Then again, a bit of a rest in January and a week or three in the sunshine and I feel good to go. Maybe that's what you need too?