club promoters
yo anybody in here do club promoting along with dj’n, i got an offer to do promotion also along with the dj’n which means more money 
lol.
but i want to get some tips from yall i know how to talk to people and convince them to come somewhere, and i am already getting flyers made.
but anything else
I am interested in seeing what you guys come with with replies to this thread actually, i know nothing about promoting 
By reading this you agree to send JesC $14.95 via paypal j/k
Promoting and djing @ the same venue is hard but very rewarding. Either you fly high or crash and burn with your own night (Im being honest I’ve had 1 event bomb on me)
Hot girls! If you have any girls friends that are hot, have them Host the event. Have them bring there friend and take care of them at the bar. That usually brings in alot of guys, which spend stupid amounts of cash at the bar when there are girls there. If thats not available get 1 or 2 Go-Go dancers, ive seen them get paid like 50 bux for 2 or 3 hrs @ the club.
The 1st night, have a good drink special that run 1hr longer than any other club or have a open bar from 9:30 to 10:30 if possible. Also work something out with the club/bar owner to hook you up with drink tixs so you can hook some people up with free drink. Let say the 1st 10 people that show up that are not your friends get a drink on the house.
Have all your friends to show up on the 1st night so it looks packed. Friend support always help out, and you see who your true friends are when you open up a club.
Also try to get weekly guest dj’s from the area to either open or do a closing set. If you get a very well know DJ hook him up and give him the prime spot. 12-1 am
Free CD giveaways every week helps too, I usually make 10 cd’s per week for my sunday night in L.A. and it does help to keep people coming back.
Try to get a photographer to take pictures, if money is tight any decent digital camera will do. So have a friend take pics of everyone that shows up, and be prompt on posting the pixs on your myspace page or whatever social site you put on the flyer.
If you plan to charge, do it from the get go. Being that if the place is free and its starts getting good then you charge, it usually turns people away. But try to reward people that get there eariler, like a free b4 11pm or something like that.
I have also seen this work, when you have a cover, “with paid admission 1 shot @ the bar” make sure its the cheap stuff vodka, tequila, whiskey…
Also if you plan to promote your gigs on myspace, I recommend a program called “Friendblaster” its a pretty good program that lets you add friends and what not. But the neat feature is to send auto bulletins every 30 mins or whatever you set it to.
On you myspace bulletins make sure to add a playlist of the music you plan to play, I use IMEEM.COM you can find my mixes on the site, and it lets you tag them to have music embedded.
Getting paid, now that can become tricky. I would ask for a flat rate. Lets say $150 to DJ and once the bar meets a certain dollar amount you get a % off the bar. Be it 5, 10, 15%
Also promote your event on Craigslist, its free and you also have college students on that site looking for something to do.
Sorry that I was long winded but I do alot of promoting and I enjoy having events. I usually get a turn out of about 100 people on sundays (small dive bar) which is good being that before I started they would only get 5 to 10 people.
Goodluck and tells us how it goes, plus if you club blows up I better be a guest dj @ ur club!
PS:Remember to proof read you flyers for typos, make sure the date, address, location, & numbers are correct. When you think your done, go have a smoke (not weed to be in the right state of mind) and take a 2nd look at it, then have a friend double check it on you.
wow good looks man pretty much how we are doing it with the pay, i get the money from the door and the club gets the money from the bar.
I do have a friend that does pics if i throw a little cash at him if he would be down for doing it.
i got another guy who is a graphic design major and he is using the flyers he makes for me in a project for class so flyers are free,
and great tip with the guest dj, i am cool with a guy who dj’s on the radio here in town which i know he will do it for me since we are still real cool and he might put it out on the radio.
hehe yeah i remember someone on the forums saying they accidently put the wrong address on their flier once, by the time they realised it was too late and the night flopped 
So if you were reading that thinking its not possible - think again !
Amen to JesC! I used to Promote clubs before I got stiffed by one of our dj’s then had to get on the decks and learn to dj on the spot with the mixed CD’s i had in my car. Then fell in love. Anyways everything JesC stated worked for me when I used to promote.
take advantage of the internet. social networking sites and club/rave forums are a promoters best friend. In my experiences as a promoter they’ve been much more helpful than flyers.
Create a facebook event. invite all your friends, then tell all your good friends to invite all of their friends… and so on so forth… You may risk coming across a little strong but it’s worth it in the end, do what’s necessary to get the word out. There’s nothing to be gained by being a passive promoter.
Find your local club/event forums (clubvibes etc.) and promote the event on there. Even better, make friends with the people who frequent those forums so that they’ll go the extra mile to not only come support your shows but they’ll also get the word out to their friends.
Be friendly, be willing to meet new people. Friends = Fans = Supporters = Succesful Events.
Good luck.
Yeah, JesC pretty much said everything I was gonna…
Good post JesC. I have to agree with everything you said except these points… not that I disagree really… but I have a different take on it.
So, I’ve successfully, managed to start off free. Then after a few months, charge a small cover, but make it free before a certain time. Then increase the cover. Then start moving the Free Before time earlier every few weeks.
That’s one strategy… If you can work it though, I would keep the entire door… you may have to pay the club a hundred or so for security… and have them keep the entire bar. You’ll make less money at first, but it’ll really pay off when your party starts taking off.
yea facebook is where its at, its all we use as well as stickin posters in obvious places
re: FACEBOOK… here’s an idea to try:
get onto facebook, and have a contest saying that you will give out 10-20-30 whatever amount of free passes to the party. But in order to qualify, you have to set your Facebook status to the event name of the party or just copy and paste the event link to the facebook page..
passing the word on facebook spreads like wildfire…
A promoter friend of mine in Winnipeg does this… he uses facebook to spread the event and his parties are always packed with people.
That works for MySpace as well. I’ve been debating on doing that for the next party I’m planning.
I hear you about charging a small cover, under 5 bux is cool. Anything above that you have to do it from the get go. I’ve seen clubs make the promoter charge when the event is 18+ being that they dont make money at the bar off of them and charge the promoter for security & rent for the night.
Keep in mind that the bar makes 300% off the beer they sell & 900% off the booze. So your best bet is to work something out with the bar. I’ve seen bars/lounge/club give the promoter 50% of the bar sales! Of course after a certain dollar amount is met.
JesC pretty much nailed it on the head.
Also, if you have a large school/college, get a street-team together. You and 10 of your friends head to the college every day you can (literally PLASTER them every day for a month if you can) and hand out flyers to kids during afternoon hours (3-5pm works well). But be sure to let everyone know not to just hand out flyers but to chat people up and talk to them. People respond better to ‘making a friend’ than just getting tossed a flyer. Of course when class gets out and the quad is packed, you wont have time for convo.
Also, if you can muster the courage, get the same street-team to hit cars, other clubs and outside of the venue EVERY night. (flyering your own venue is essential. You and two other people stand outside at closing time, and hand a flyer to EVERY person that walks out that door)
When you flyer cars, put the flyer on the driver side door, NOT the windshield.
When you flyer cars near other clubs or in their lots, be sure to be careful, most clubs WILL call the cops or have security bounce you (and they wont be nice about it, I’ve gotten roughed up, or even had my tires slashed by angry club owners)
Because of the advent of the social network marketing, people underestimate the benefit of guerrilla marketing and street team marketing.
GO on my son!!
Yeah Monika, I forgot to cover the whole street team about flyering up.
The only thing I would say about passing out flyers is not to pass any on the same night as your event. Lets say you have a event on friday and you goto another club and pass out your flyers on a friday night, I put money on the fact that there will be a fight (verb/physical) being that other promoters look at like you trying to steal there business.
The best thing to do is promote hard on wed, thrus, sat, sun @ clubs/bars/& local hang outs.
Also if you are going to pay people to pass out flyer keep tabs on them. If you have 10 people passing out flyers drive around to the clubs and make sure that they are doing there job, and not just dumping them in the parking lot and taking off (ive seen this too many times)
This is the hardest part about having a reliable street team. People are much more likely to take the fliers, go to a few stores and drop them off and go to a club, throw all of the fliers on the bar where they are summarily thrown away, and say the worked for their free admission shrug
And then you’re out money and time. The most valuable resource we can have as promoters are reliable street teamers. Find them and treat them well cause they’ll make your life a lot easier.
the winning formula is a combination of the two. for my events we do posters, hand out flyers at clubs/bars, as well as use social networking sites to advertize.
But I’d have to say the most effective way is definitely the social networking sites for how easy it is to use vs. pounding the pavement oldschool style (which is quite time consuming).
I’ve found the best way to handle this, is to randomly pop up at each location and help for a half-hour or so. remember, this is business, they’re doing a job, and you’re managing them. If you pop in and show them you’re into it, they will be too.
They’ll also pick up some tricks, and you have an opportunity to give them pointers!
This helps refine your street team and you get the best out of it.
I’m not saying to not use facebook/etc.
But I guarantee, give me one month and a street team of 10 people, and I’ll bring in 2-3 times more people than just facebooking would.
i believe you.
but obviously you gotta use both methods to get the best turnout possible. it doesn’t make any sense to use one over the other when they are both effective means of advertizing.