Scott
I was a member for two years, and my experience with gigmaster was exactly the same as yours they were far away, low paying, infrequent gigs. There is one gentlemen in my area who is really cleaning up on nothing but low ball jobs that nobody else will take.
Good luck

Can someone explain exactly how gigmasters works? it sounds to me as if a gig goes into a Pool and everyone gets to see it and bid on it, Is that correct?

Gigmasters has HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE customer service.

And the way gigmasters works is you have a profile with video, pictures, etc and people look for entertainment for their events. They fill out information about the event and it sends this information to a few performers (10) and every performer bids on the event.

The problem is that you will sign up for the 3000 mile radius and even if you sign up as a motivational speaker then you will get bids for kid parties. Overall, their service sucks.

I don’t really want to be in the position of defending GigMasters but the few times I’ve had to contact their customer service they responded in a timely manor.

As to how it works, if you go to their help center they explain in detail their rating system, search results, etc.

This is how I would describe how their rating system works. It is based on three things.

1. Total bookings through GigMasters (the more money you make for GigMasters the more GigMasters likes you.)
2. Total bookings through GigMasters the past 6 months (you can’t rest on you laurels.)
3. Client feedback (This encourages you to do your best. Win-Win, You look good, GigMasters looks good.)

I personally feel there are some pretty smart business people at GigMasters.


Al,

Remember, the client feedback is very important. So, a lowballer won’t last long in the rating system if he doesn’t get good client feedback.

This thread has some good tips on how to succeed with GigMasters:

http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=44

Good stuff on that thread Ken.

Oh yes Ken
This gentlemen does a fine immitation of Chris Capehart's act, and gets great feedback to go along with his $150 show. In case you haven't noticed I'm not fond of his efforts to move the bar down.

That thread is a year old now and my position on Gigmasters has changed from what I previously wrote. I dropped my membership with them because I realized I hadn't booked anything with them in almost a year. When I wrote my post on that thread, up until that point I had pretty good success with them. A bunch of holiday shows for 2008 and a company event for March 2009 that paid over $1,300. Then it seems that everything got very quiet. I booked another company event for this past September about 5 months prior and that was the last one. So from April 2009 - January 2010 nothing came in. Well only one inquiry came in for 2009 holiday shows, which I turned down because I was already booked. So I never renewed my membership.



Benji,

You're just upset with Gigmasters because they wouldn't give you a refund when you asked for one AFTER the 30 day mark. Had you asked for it on the 29th day, you would have gotten it.

Yea they don't give you your money back, AFTER the trial period expires. Oh so horrible LOL.

I think those of you who see this as some sort of "Magic Bullet" of marketing are quite disapointed. Those who seem willing to work the system seem to have much better results.

I would still never do it myself as the concept is 180 degrees opposite of what I try to acomplish. I am not a Gigmasters fan or appologist. But it is what it is guys.

So guys,

Outside of the Gigmasters realm, what other event/performer booking sites do you recommend?

PartyPop? GigSalad?

Has anyone tried changing their location in Gigmasters to a more populated area?

Location isn't really a factor. I have mine set for a 100 mile radius, which covers two large cities and several smaller ones. But, for whatever reason, 95% of the shows that are offered to me are 70 to 120 actual miles away. Which isn't a problem for larger shows. The fee warrants the travel. But for shows like birthday parties, I'm quoting ridiculous prices to make it worthwhile. Needless to say, I haven't won any of those bids.

All I need to do is book one show, and I've got the gigmasters fee covered for a couple years. But I've gotten tired of responding to these smaller long-distance shows. Now I just choose the "I'm already busy that day" option.

------------
MagicB1S
When someone comes to gigmasters and asks for a quote, that information is sent to 10 other performers. They call it auto-added- 10 performers are automatically added to the quote process. That's great for gigmasters -- more performers responding to the RFQ means they are more likely to book the show and make some money. However, for the performer it means lots of competition (not necessarily a bad thing). The client will tend to go with the lowest price -- all things seeming equal. Part of the problem is that there are good performers out there that don't charge what they are worth. That lowers the bar for everyone else. Well, I don't want to play that game. This isn't a sideline for me, I'm running a business and feeding my family doing this.

I had a very short experience with PartyPop. You sign up then a sales rep calls you. I've heard it's very difficult to cancel with them, so I wanted to see how the experience with the sales rep went. Not very good actually. A big part of their sales pitch is that they have better SEO than anyone else, that they are using "technology" that no one else has. Fascinating stuff since I've been in the SEO biz for over a decade. When we checked some keyword phrases, my website always outranked their site and in some cases so did Gigmasters.

Domino,

I also had a very persistent rep call me from Party Pop every day until I already told him I decided to go with Gigmasters.

Gigmasters and I have done very well. I usually get the gigs from the leads that I want. My main issue is that it's too infrequent! Seriously, it's usually about 1 gig per day. And I had signed up for the 3,000 mile radius. There's only 1 or 2 people looking for entertainment in all of the US through GM for that day???

I fee like I'm getting less leads. I try to pull 1000% efficiency and professionalism in all my bookings. I'm usually the first to respond since I do have an iPhone and get instant emails.

Just a little frustrated.

Everyone is frustrated. We're still in a rough economy and bookings are down for a lot of performers. That doesn't mean there isn't work to be found. There is still a lot of work out there, it's just that passive marketing, like Gigmasters, SEO, etc., is bringing in less work because there aren't as many people looking to hire acts. So the resourceful professionals have to be creative in finding markets and adapting to them.

I'm today's 'Featured 5 Star Performer' on Gigmasters' homepage

w00t.

Eli

I just joined Gigmasters and did not realize that besides the membership fees, I now have a booking fee to deal with. New to them so unsure if or how many bookings will justify the total amount of cash I put out. I'm cheap and openly admit it, especially when I don't have a new lousy trick in my hands to show for it. I have really had success with other booking companies where I pay nothing. Will give this a try, hope something comes of it. Also, should the client pay the booking fee or do I?

PS: Got 29 days for a refund. Perhaps if nothing else, a refund and my name more on google. I received this guarantee for the first week also:

" I can even personally guarantee that you will receive at least one quality request from a client through our site in your first week. If you do not, let me know and I'd be happy to refund your membership fee!"

Real agents don't have sign up fees. They are commissioned salesmen. This is apparently a directory list.

Bob Sanders
Magic By Sander

Yes, it is, but unfortunately some think of this an an online or virtual agent. It's not. It should simply be considered a source (it should be one of many) of lead generation. It's value is it fitting in longterm as part of your overall marketing efforts. Decomposed or anyone thinking that they will just give it a week or a month, should not even attempt to use this (or waste their money) as that's not what this is designed for. To think that you simply pay a small fee and you have more inquiries or bookings than you can shake a stick at is simply not correct. It should be an investment in longterm results. Typically even a few bookings and the web placement in searches is well worth it's value. It is also most effective the more unique your act or type of performance is. If you are a magician or DJ (two of the most populated categories) you will simply be another in the mix.

I perform mentalism and have many other advert sources Mindpro (different websites etc). Just seeing if this one is worth it. One "magician" in my area has 2 stars and no video albeit some photos on his GM page. He told me he barely makes enough to pay them once a year. He said the gigs he gets he has to lower his fees. Currently his minimum is $175.

On the fees there is a 5% commission fee GM charges. You can pay it yourself or pass it on to the client.

Respectively submitted,

Decompossed

I win about 1 out of every dozen or so I bid on in GM. Yes, I've seen where a lot of guys in the area will decline to bid on a gig where the requester indicates their budget as being rediculously low. However there is one really young guy who seems to love to consume these cheap jobs. So far it has been worth the investment.

To speed my bid submission process, they recently modified the site to allow you to save a bid template so you don't have to retype or cut and paste your info every time. That has really helped. I also download the bid requests to a .csv file and import them into Act! This way I can follow up with them the following year.