Time to start advertising, but one small annoyance ...

[Centre Stage Discos]

So, people have been cancelling their Christmas gigs, such is the concern about another possible lockdown.

I really can't see a lockdown happening, but da word on da street is exactly this. Some hotels in the area have seen as much as 50% cancellation, I am told. (Reliable source!)

As for our own bookings, well, they're coming in, slowly but surely, but they are all coming in via our website, which is clearly working for us.

GoogleMyBusiness is slow, but I expected that. Yell is a more feeble version of GMB, but it's still worth having an entry. However, the biggest disappointment has been the agencies! (Surprise Surprise!)

After your kind suggestions, we weighed up all the alternatives and opted to join two. One being the MDJN, which has produced nothing. The other being Poppop, which has also produced nothing. Why did we choose Poptop? On the strength of a good friend who has had dozens of bookings through them.

I have to say, Poptop's system is quite buggy and there are many errors in our listing (Discos from £90 being one of them.) We have had weekly telephone calls with them to try to rectify the problems. They have been too keen to lay down their own rules which are not helpful to us. They have modified the listing info, including adding their own spelling mistakes.

The text in our listing is not actually ours anymore. They rather rudely suggested that our own text, which was absolutely fine, was not up to their standards. So they literally messed it up. The few "Shortlists" we had (don't get me started on those damn Shortlists) suddenly stopped coming through after this. The numbers of shortlists we have can actually vary from day to day!

Photographs. (Grrrr!) Their screening and rejection of so many photographs just left us bewildered. They were perfectly fine. OK, some we have are old and blurry, so we took new ones. We also added some photos from recent events. Yep ... rejected! We even hired a local village hall a few weeks ago so we could take new pics and video footage. OK, we are not professional photographers, but they were better than adequate and even some of these were rejected.

What seems to work for some discos doesn't work for us. There are some shocking photos in their listings. Even some 'services' which are not actually permitted under their rules. How did they get away with that?

We certainly won't be renewing with them, unless a miracle happens.

So, another recommendation came along, and one which was mentioned earlier in this thread. Add To Event! We registered with them yesterday, not expecting our listing to go live so quickly as it's not even complete, and already we are receiving numerous email leads of events. "David H has requested information.", "Scotty B is having a birthday.", "Ciara O is getting married int he morning." Well good for them! But are they actually genuine? Because the sincerity of another agency was recently brought into question concerning their leads.

Being honest, I just don't like this kind of system, so it's probably going to be a NO from us. Buying credits in order to be able to respond to leads which give little information is not the way we would like to do things. No specific figures are given as to how many credits you are to buy and for what they cover. It's such a convoluted system, but does it actually work? I guess we would be replying to 100 leads for £100 and receiving nothing back.

So, very big moan over. (Now awaits the barrage of "Told you sos" etc.)

Scuse any typos. No time to cirrect bad grammer and spilling mistaks.

[DeckstarDeluxe]

Have you looked at needadisco.com ? Only directory site I've heard good things about.

I had some success on bark awhile ago but it was very hit and miss. If you can I'd work on your organic ranking on the search engines now so you don't need to worry about these sites but that takes awhile to bear fruit.

[Centre Stage Discos]

Have you looked at needadisco.com ? Only directory site I've heard good things about.

I had some success on bark awhile ago but it was very hit and miss. If you can I'd work on your organic ranking on the search engines now so you don't need to worry about these sites but that takes awhile to bear fruit.

Thanks DD.

We don't expect miracles overnight, but we now know that our site is working at least. I think we've done pretty well 'considering'.

Agreed, rankings are something which can always be improved and I'll update the website soon in this regard. It's been interesting to see how we appear at Google positions 2 and 3 in one area and then at number 10 or not at all in another. There's definitely something to be learnt from all this. Problem for me is that I don't have much enthusiasm for web design and SEO tricks at the moment, nor the time, but I keep making small amendments as we go along.

We also hear good things about NeedADisco, but the downside is that they supposedly lead to the kind of event we don't want, i.e. the £100-150 a night type. How much truth is there in that?

Add To Event is so damn tempting with all those leads, but that kind of 'credit' system just smacks of the kind of con you'd expect on certain other sites. We will be avoiding, unless we hear some positives about them. Tempting though at £24 for a quick trial.

Cheers!

[Marc J]

Don't forget basic listings on https://www.mobilediscodirectory.co.uk/ are and always will be free

It fell out of favour for a while, mostly because it didn't actually work and was more or less abandoned by the previous owners... but I've fixed it, and am just about to launch a new DJ / Admin side to it and shortly after that a redesign of the front end.

Edited to add: Just realised you have a listing! Keeping this post here, anyway!

[Centre Stage Discos]

Thank you Marc.

Looking forward to seeing the new DJ/Admin side. I will update accordingly.

[Imagine]

We also hear good things about NeedADisco, but the downside is that they supposedly lead to the kind of event we don't want, i.e. the £100-150 a night type. How much truth is there in that?

At the risk of being shot down in flames (sorry Vectis), there's quite a bit of truth in that rumour.

I'm currently a member having done well out of the site several years ago and thought it'd be a bit of a boost to get things going again after the lockdowns. So far, I've not actually bothered to respond to any of the leads that have come in via NaD because the average budget I'm seeing is around the £150-£200 mark (yes, there are some for £300-£400, the £400 being for NYE!)

If I get just one decent paying lead from it, it'll pay for itself. Like everything else though it's a waiting game.

[Centre Stage Discos]

Thank you for this Imagine.

Our base prices are in the £350 to £400 bracket - and we are getting bookings. (We could do with a few more, that's all.) How things are at the moment, we couldn't really afford to do things for much less. We know that it's a fair price for the service we provide.

While I was writing the above paragraph, two more leads came through from Add To Event. Damn! They really know how to draw you in, don't they?

I have questioned whether there is a need to join up to agencies at all, but there's no doubt that some of them work well. Poptop have failed us so far, yet they have been an absolute boon to my friend. So why not us, you may ask? Could it be that our listing is sub-standard? No, I doubt that. I thoroughly check all written work of this kind before posting and go as far as getting proof readers. It was definitely up the required standard and I think it was better than many others on there. So, why should Add To Event work for us, just because it worked for somebody else?

The bottom line is that agencies/websites/listings/subscriptions, etc. work for some and not for others. It's always going to be a gamble and I'm sure that a certain amount of luck is at play too.

But, I have never been known as a giver upper, and I may well give Add To Event a try. Why not? £24 is hardly the end of the world. I'm not usually a pessimist, but I am not expecting anything to come from this because of the kind of system it is.

[Excalibur]

At the risk of being shot down in flames (sorry Vectis), there's quite a bit of truth in that rumour.

I'm currently a member having done well out of the site several years ago and thought it'd be a bit of a boost to get things going again after the lockdowns. So far, I've not actually bothered to respond to any of the leads that have come in via NaD because the average budget I'm seeing is around the £150-£200 mark (yes, there are some for £300-£400, the £400 being for NYE!)

If I get just one decent paying lead from it, it'll pay for itself. Like everything else though it's a waiting game.

There's one in Barnsley in April for a grand for a birthday, birthdays in Scunthorpe and Rotherham at £300, wedding in Rotherham £300, wedding near me £400, 60th in Batley for £200. I have no price filters on my account, and I must say that £150 gigs are a rarity.

In defence of A to E as well ( cos if anyone remembers, I recommended both sites, and I wouldn't have touched Poptop with a bargepole) yes there are plenty of " less than £200/not sure " budgets, I've got four upcoming from there at just short of £300 upwards.

It is a vicious circle with both sites as I said though, without feedback, you don't get work, and without work, you don't get feedback. However, once the pump is primed, it becomes a more virtuous circle, you have to stick in. My first NaD gig was a £500 one many many years ago. One bonus with A to E is that when you get favourable feedback, you can post it to your Facebook page, and webpage very easily.

[Centre Stage Discos]

and I wouldn't have touched Poptop with a bargepole.

Would you mind telling me why? I am feeling like saying this myself, but I am curious about your own (or other people's) experiences. You could PM me if you'd rather.

Thanks.

John.

[Excalibur]

Would you mind telling me why? I am feeling like saying this myself, but I am curious about your own (or other people's) experiences. You could PM me if you'd rather.

Thanks.

John.

Middleman. Extra layer of administration. Commission. I want to deal direct with clients, not faff about red striping money to agents, or waiting for them to send it to me.

I've just had a quick look at the figures, and both sites have cost me less than half Poptop's commission. ( NaD way less than that in fact).

It works for me, may not be for everyone.