DJGold

DJMMC · Joined: June 15th, 2007 Posts: 23

Ok guys & gals. I am a single opt. My wife does not help me, I have no roady or children. Sooo my advertising money has to be spent wisely.

This year there have been a FLUX of new directories and search sites. Which one works? Which do you choose? Do you actually do your research to find out if those sites are WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES FOR YOU??? I bet more than half of you do not do that research. How often do you check your ads?

Here's two examples of what I found amazing to me:

One EXPENSIVE wedding planning site to advertise (weddingsolutions.com) actually told me they do NO ADVERTISING except for a few key words to send poeple to their site. After researching them, I found ONE keyword that put them in the top listing on Google. How many people think thats worth up to $120 a month (plus pay per lead)? Just curious. They rake in alone in VA over $6,000 a year in advertising costs and they can't spend their money on advertising? yikes

Another website I called (Bride.com) said they DO NO ADVERTISING PERIOD. Hey, at least she was honest! Whats with that???!!

TheKnot quoted me a $500 a month Featured Listing. WOW! I was only interested in that package because a lower one would bury me. PLUS, I havent heard anything positive from DJ's who advertise with them.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. So, what works for you? Who is scamming us and who is working your money?

I would love to hear from you........

My Top 3:

Respond
WeDJ
All Wedding Planning

My bottom 3:

PartyPop
Direct Catering
Gigmasters

Joseph Ivy · Joined: August 16th, 2006 Posts: 133 Location: Glendale, AZ

I really think that this is a regional thing. I suggest asking everyone you know that is engaged or has been married in the last year to share with you what sites they advertise on.

Also, I suggest looking into bridal shows and magazines. If people see you in a magazine, see your website, and see you at a bridal show, it will do a lot for your credibility. You will be able to put 'as seen at "The Best Bridal Show In The VA" on your advertisements.

I know from personal experience that advertising dollars don't always translate into web traffic and web traffic doesn't always translate into bookings. I am becoming more and more convinced that the best way is to do your advertising research yourself.

SteveCie

This same question is appearing on several different forums. It is simply the time of the year. Booking season is extensively over, the graduation parties are all done, and the summertime bookinglull is well underway. Deejays aren't seeing any serious booking activity and now have a chance to look at their budgets etc.

It's important not to over react. But it is prudent to look at how you are spending your advertising dollars.

Some of the well known sites might not be translating into direct bookings for you, but soem of them contribute to ancillary bookings.

What am I talking about?
Many of these bridal web sites will cause your name to come up high in the web search engines, thus providing you with name recognition.

Today's consumer is very astute. They will look into several options for their needs. If your name consistently pops up on differernt searches and sites, it can only benefit you.

The trick is not to waste a lot of dollars needlessly.

As you said, there are many many wedding web sites out there.
Check yourself out on the ones you are currently subscribing to.
Are they causing your name to come out in the search engines?
Arethey causing you any direct bookings at all?
These two components are essential in you deciding yay or nay to use a particular site.

I find that it is a regional thing.
So far...
GigMasters.com, WeDj.com, are the only two sites that work for me.
They are each affordable, cause me top rankings in the search engines, and they give me direct bookings.

Here are a few of the sites I used and decided to cancel....

WedAlert.com
WedPlan.net
Decidio.com
AllWeddingPlanning.com
Respond.com
Yellowpages.com

djmc

SteveCie wrote:
So far...
GigMasters.com, WeDj.com, are the only two sites that work for me.
They are each affordable, cause me top rankings in the search engines, and they give me direct bookings.

Here are a few of the sites I used and decided to cancel....

WedAlert.com
WedPlan.net
Decidio.com
AllWeddingPlanning.com
Respond.com
Yellowpages.com

Except for Wed Alert & Yellowpages.com---- my list is IDENTICAL to Steve's...GMTA.

No more lead services!

Focusing exclusively on Direct referrals thru my web site, and keeping only WeDJ & Gigmasters.

phatlen · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:27 pm Post subject:

For what it's worth, we've tried Wedding resources (expensive), online yellow pages (expensive), newspapers (expensive) and not been pleased with any of them.
We now have a listing in the Yellow Pages Book, our own web page, a listing on wedj.com and a listing on liveacts4you.com and are quite happy with the results.
We feel it's a necessary evil to have a listing in the Yellow Pages Phonebook for legitimacy...some folks use it as a resource instead of the net or as just a secondary check.
Our own website works very well for us.
We have a gold membership with wedj.com for approximately $220 per year and it works very well for us.
liveacts4you.com is completely free and we have a listing and video on this site as well.

djmc · Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 9:19 am Post subject:

My WeDJ listing comes due this week.

I'm going to DOWNGRADE to "Silver" ($100 less).

jwg · Joined: September 15th, 2004 Posts: 1089 Location: Erie, PA

To be honest, I only use my Gold Listing for SEO.

djmc

jwg wrote: To be honest, I only use my Gold Listing for SEO.

I've done my homework, and it appears that Silver ($100 less) produces the SAME search engine optimization benefits.

My cost-cutting won't spare WeDJie World, I'm downgrading to SILVER because:

1) only using WeDJ for SEO purposes, don't care about WeDJie World leads.

2) Gigbuilder CRM (Client Relationship Management system) is free.

With the extra $100, I'm going to buy a "Silver" in WedExperts.com as an experiment, to see if there will be more SEO benefits:

a) if Scott & Brandon have used a different hosting IP server address

b) Alexa toolbar tweeking (SEO trick from WeDJ) should work in a similar manner, if the hosted domain is completely different

c) WedExperts should reach PR3 on the next Page Rank update. Links from WedExperts won't have the same "Link Juice" as WeDJ, but it should increase YSE (Yahoo Site Explorer) and GWT (Google Webmaster Tools) LINK COUNTING, which nearly always results in higher SERP. (search engine ranking position --nonsponsored).

mrochester95 · Joined: June 19th, 2008 Posts: 2

I've had some luck with referrals from http://www.gatheringguide.com/ec/bands_djs_entertainment.html in the past, but I'm just starting out myself so I'm not sure if that's the kind of site you're looking for. In terms of just getting my name out there it's been pretty helpful, especially on the local level.

MusicMachine · Joined: June 27th, 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Blountville, TN

Selective refferral payments can be beneficial. However, top of mind awareness with the venues, caterers, bridal shops, etc. is priceless. I try to visit every wedding vendor in my area at least once every 60 days. If they see me, they remember to refer me.

mrochester95 · Joined: June 19th, 2008 Posts: 2

Absolutely! Visiting in person is invaluable. Good point.

djmc

I've found that "online back-scratching" can be quite effective....

AND it saves a lot of gasoline & TIME.

I can review a Wedding Venue in the time it takes to put on my bathrobe & slippers-- brides read my commentaries in "Yelp.com" and they contact me for their DJ service.

Many brides say they "Ignore the venue recommended lists" because they say they feel the companies all PAID $$$ TO BE ON THE LIST and they don't want to pay extra % to the venue if they don't need to.

Back to topic.

WedExperts IS working....I'm getting phone calls, direct web site hits and e-mails from my Silver listing. PLUS about 367 new External Links counted by Google. Looks like it was $110 well-spent. Much better than having only a "GOLD" in WeDJ--- having SILVER in one and SILVER in the other is paying off, both in the organic search and increased exposure thru WedExperts having high ranking (right behind me at #6 for "Sacramento Weddings" in Google