We advertising..wedj.com, diskjockeys.com, knot.com..do these work?

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E

espls

New DJ
Nov 28, 2008
2
0
43
Hemet, CA
Hey guys, I don't post much but I need advise. I am picking up my second year in business, over 90 events last year and most of those were weddings. I am taking up my prices and I want to start really getting my name out there. I got the website being redeveloped, I also have pages at myspace, facebook, youtube and all those social networks.

I want to know if sites like wedj.com and diskjockeys.com, gigmasters.com, 800dj.com, www.discjockeyonline.com, www.findlocaldjs.com, 1800djsareus.com and there are about a million more...lol.

Does anyone have listings on these sites?
Do you pay for the premium listing?
Do you get a good return on your investment?
Which sites do you recommend?

I searched advertising in the forum and read some of the postings, but I really want to stick to online advertising, what works what don't. I think I am going to do some google adwords this year to. Let me know what you guys think.
 
Greetings and welcome to ODJT!

We have our business listed wherever we can get a free listing. The only one that we pay for is WeDJ and that is so we can get a break on our insurance.

Your mileage may vary..
 
WedJ and wedexperts.com I pay for, with the Silver Wedj package you get gigbuilder and tools, very handy for getting quotes through your website. Also WEDJ usually rank fairly high in search engines. Like Kirby I also use the insurance through WEDJ. At one time paid for 800DJ, but let it go once I discovered they passed quote requests to other DJs, when a bride was trying to get a quote just from you.
 
You did 90 events, most of them weddings, in your first year and you are looking for advertising advice? I got to ask you...what marketing did you do to get those bookings? I'm not mocking you, I'm really curious.
 
I moved out to California a year ago and I wanted to scoop up the website californiadjs.com when I discovered that someone already had the website I decided if you can't beat em, join em, so I contacted the owner and I subcontract for him. The vast amount of my business came from him who I will continue to work with, but I want to break out on my own and bring in a fair share of my own gigs, at higher profits, eventually some odd amount of years down the line, I will buy out Californiadjs.com If anyone searches for a DJ almost anywhere in Southern California, CADJs comes up in the top 3 if not as a sponsored link
 
congrats on the instant success!
I too, register for any of the free ones I can find.
personally, I don't feel like paying for ANY of them...
if they can find me work, I am willing to send them a check.
but none of them have panned out into an actual job to date.
I'd say doing a good job at the 90 weddings you did last year
is the best advertising you can get.
and it's FREE!
some of them only charge you if you get a job thru them
others charge you for a premium membership, regardless of the success.
they say "you get what you pay for..."
I say you should "pay for what you get"
and not what you DON'T get!
 
Advertising on any flat surface for free is good. From my experience I wouldn't pay for a mention on any of them but I don't live in your market either.

Look at what ohers are doing and see what is successful then take that and put your own spin on it.

Any advertising on the web is good for SEO for your site if nothing else
 
I'm cheap...I go for only free listings. It's worked well so far for me. However, I do attend a local bridal show each year...I've added a second show this year. Between the freel listings, the bridal shows, and word of mouth, I'm sitting pretty this year. :)
 
I am choosy about which freebies I list on. I had one freebie change a listing on me where it strongly implied that I did karaoke and video,(allegedly to improve SEO!) I do neither! But that change explained why I started getting inquiries for those services, as I have never listed those services as being available from me and very seldom got those kind of calls.
 
Does anyone have listings on these sites?

We used to hop on board every listing site we could. Some are now defunct.

Do you pay for the premium listing?

No, Sir. Absolutely not. Like a YP listing in a crowded market, it's a waste of money.

Do you get a good return on your investment?

To be honest, not a drop. We have yet to book a client who found us through a vendor listing site.

Which sites do you recommend?

Weddingwire seems to be helping some of the folks who have used it. It hasn't been of much help to us because Weddingwire insists that we are in the Philly area. We've gotten no inquiries from Delaware.

Your best advertising is still old-fashioned shoe leather. Get out and visit prospective venues. Hand out biz cards and brochures whenever you can.

Hope this helps. :)
 
I am a Silver Member with Wedj.com and a Gold Member with 800dj,com. I get about 80% of my gigs through these two. The nice part about Wedj.com is that you get gigbuilder for Silver and Gold members. 800dj.com is more pricey but I get 3 times more alerts from them than I do Wedj.com. But for the $11.95 I pay for Wedj.com I can use the gigbuilders for all my gigs. Gigbuilders will help you manage your business organize your calendar and send automated reply to potential clients. And the discounted Insurance through WEdj.com is a Plus Too!!
 
DjRonnieG said:
I am a Silver Member with Wedj.com and a Gold Member with 800dj,com. I get about 80% of my gigs through these two. The nice part about Wedj.com is that you get gigbuilder for Silver and Gold members. 800dj.com is more pricey but I get 3 times more alerts from them than I do Wedj.com. But for the $11.95 I pay for Wedj.com I can use the gigbuilders for all my gigs. Gigbuilders will help you manage your business organize your calendar and send automated reply to potential clients. And the discounted Insurance through WEdj.com is a Plus Too!!
Click to expand...

Hey Ronnie...where is Sheldon located? We're right outside of Springfield.

:)
 
Hey Kirby,
I'm about 154 miles from Springfield. go north on 55 to Chenoa, go east on US- 24 for about 75 miles. I'm 3 miles from the Indiana state line.
 
espls said:
I want to know if sites like wedj.com and diskjockeys.com, gigmasters.com, 800dj.com, www.discjockeyonline.com, www.findlocaldjs.com, 1800djsareus.com and there are about a million more...lol.

Does anyone have listings on these sites?
Do you pay for the premium listing?
Do you get a good return on your investment?
Which sites do you recommend?
.
Click to expand...

Only WeDJ.com gives adequate ROI (return on investment).

All the others you listed are/were a waste of money! You might as well flush your money down the toilet!

Like Wolfie mentioned (above), it is futile to buy paid listings in a crowded market-- particularly in Inland Empire (where the unemployment rate is over 10%).

The new buzz word is Social Networking and Online Reputation Management.

Facebook, Yelp, My Space, Linked In, Naymz, etc etc etc.

These new ways of promotion are NOT traditional advertising.......they require a lot of "Paying Forward" (you have to establish a credible reputation in that particular community).

Just putting up a Facebook page isn't enough. You have to establish a presence through networking. I don't use FB because its more for college students like my daughter who goes to UC Berkeley.

Just having one happy client write a review at "Yelp" is not enough. You have to build a reputation by writing reviews of other businesses. (Brides see my list of Wedding Venues in Yelp.com and they call me for DJ services)

Finally, you have to build lots of LINKS to be successful.
Links are usually FREE but they are time consuming and require special HTML code called "anchor text."

I like to play "monkey see monkey do" by running a View Source on successful web pages.

Copy & Paste the tags from sites that are googlicious, and make them your own.
 
For those who get insurance via wedj...what is the cost of insuring through them or the company they work with?
 
For a Bronze member it is $44.95 a year or $5.95 monthly Silver is $110.00 a year or $11.95 monthly. And the insurance is $170.00 a year for basic liability coverage. Gigbuilder is only offer to Silver and Gold members. So if you are thinking about being a Bronze membership remember for just a little extra you get the management tools of Gigbuilder. This is a business expense write it off!
 
DJMC said:
I don't use FB because its more for college students like my daughter who goes to UC Berkeley..
Click to expand...

That's interesting......I am over 30 bookings through FB since May 2007 and not one was a college student.....

DJMC said:
Only WeDJ.com gives adequate ROI (return on investment).
Click to expand...

That is interesting also....I havent book a lead through Wedj in ages. I get ladsquite often but they never seem to pan out anymore
 
I know what you are saying! For the longest time Wedj had hit a dry spell. But in the last 4 to 5 months I have booked 7 Weddings and two graduations parties.:sqwink:
 
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