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How to make 15-20K in 4 hours..EVENTS!

sWALK90

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So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...

While in high school-2009 and college-2013 I stayed in the small city of Beaumont TX. I was well known around the town and i used social networks to my advantage. When i started it was just Facebook and twitter. I think i have 3 Facebook profiles with about 5000 friends on each. One personal and the others were for my group in which I added the people in the cites around Beaumont.

My group had about 4 key players including me and a bunch of people who just wanted to be apart of it because everyone knew us. The key players were all older than me by at least 3 to 5 years older so i kind of looked at them as my mentors. But we had a group of people similar to me as far as being known. We had the age groups of my age +6. We threw mostly parties but also a few events and this actually help me meet a lot of people and pay my way through college while learning how to market stuff.

All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful
 
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Cmilll6

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So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...


All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful

so You're kind of like a promoter? i would like to be apart of one of these events.....im willing to put in money and see how it goes
 
Last edited by a moderator:

sWALK90

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[edit]moved to this posting- Now i graduated i have moved to a bigger city, Houston TX and started working my slowlane job and kind of left it alone. I just turned 25 and sort of tired of it. +I drink almost every weekend now ..all the free drinks i kind of got use to alcohol

Now i just go out and party like a regular person in which i see other ways people are doing it. A lot of people have turned this into fastlane by themselves or with teams. You have the solo people who utilize malls with their flyers and radio ads and stuff for not only events but for their fastlane businesses too. Like i have a buddy who sells hair and does hair expos and then there is car shows in which people use the same strategy.

i was going to go more in detail with it ,but i think that is enough to get the picture. You know like throw in a bar,and sections,and over priced items..theres a lot more ways to bleed money out of people before a event an very easily when they are intoxicated but i think i have typed enough for tonight....

I will hopefully be able to use this and my experience to transition to the FASTLANE!
-I know how to get people to a place
-I still have all my social accounts..i mostly just use IG now tho
-I know how to build a social account...and how to promote it
-I am your all around IT person..program,web design,web development..repair...ect


Just need to figure out how or find a product/niche..im thinking eCommerce,,
Im 3/4 through the book..i will start my progress thread when complete.
Any questions?


so You're kind of like a promoter? i would like to be apart of one of these events.....im willing to put in money and see how it goes
Yes you could say promoter/event planner ...but I don't really do it any more since I've graduated and moved ...unless it's homecoming at my undergrad school

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 
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Daniel A

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Duuude! I am so glad you brought this up.

I know a few people who have done this and I attended a few of their events.

I'm in college and this is something I was seriously considering doing myself. :D

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

I didn't see any pictures (I saw them now. Must have added recently, thanks!), but I'm looking forward to your future writings!

I'm off to bed now. I have one final in about eight hours and several assignments to get done, haha.

At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

I was going to ask about this. Violence would be a major concern if I do eventually host events. The ones I went to seemed to have had about the same number of people, but way more cops.

QUESTIONS:

Do you use Eventbrite for your ticket sales? If not, how did you do it?

How do you find vacant venues?

How do you find and get cops or security?

Did you get a DJ from within your college (fellow student) or a "professional" DJ? How did you find and hire them?
 
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Ninjakid

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So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title .
524bfd2a1605fb449a000003.jpg


Nah, but it worked. I clicked it.
 

sWALK90

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@AgainstAllOdds
Why'd you get away from promoting? If you're good at it, keep doing it. Cut out the partners. Hire employees (or interns).
On a good night you made $18,655. Without partners, you need 3 of those events a year to be living okay. 10 events and you have a nice life. Then grow from there.

Employees/interns would be the people who would pass out flyers for me and we just flat rate them a certain amount after the events. I left it alone because i Graduated and moved to another city to find a job(slowlane mindset..graduate college,go find a job, get married..[not yet])....and now im making a nice amount so i just kind of left it alone...plus the late nights+ alcohol+girls all over you are a drain after a while. I now have a girlfriend who i met a few years back and she wasnt liking it too much...

Also: Did you take a cut of the bar profits?
And did you run Facebook ads targeting individuals that have attended similar events? That's easy marketing right there.

No i did not because it was kind of a deal for both sides because the venue holders realized how much money we were making vs the 800-1200 they were making and they wanted a percentage instead of a set amount. So to make it equal we let them keep all bar money that way everyone made a nice amount of money in the end and that made a good relationship between us and the venue holders. No i didn't run any ads via facebook i just keept posting it on my wall and tagging people in the flyers....i knew nothing about adsense at the time.
 

BellaPippin

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I am also very glad you brought this up. I have tried to set up an event for much fewer people and it didn't work. Maybe you can give me some feedback?

In your opinion, is it a deal breaker to make them pay in advance? I notice you and your friends took all the risk up front. Now that I think of it, $350 is not that much to lose (well, right now that is a lot of money to me, but putting it in perspective, it's not a big amount at all). Did the venues make you guys pay in advance? Where you always sure that people would show up? In my case I was doing it alone and I would have had to put some $600 up front and then pray for them to show up. How do you guys handle that risk, or be so sure that just flyers are enough to get people to come? Do you do anything else besides sharing it around social media?

My audience has potential to scale if I get it right in the state I'm in right now, but I need to make it work here first and surprisingly haven't been able to find many resources of this kind.
 
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sWALK90

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I didn't see any pictures (I saw them now. Must have added recently, thanks!), but I'm looking forward to your future writings!

I'm off to bed now. I have one final in about eight hours and several assignments to get done, haha.
Good luck,i just finished all my finals last week! Yea i double posted and dont look like the pictures were here but I edited it and they show now.

I was going to ask about this. Violence would be a major concern if I do eventually host events. The ones I went to seemed to have had about the same number of people, but way more cops.

You know alcohol and a lot of people dont mix...hell even without alcohol i have seen people argue over dumb stuff..so yes always have cops/ security...normally about 30 mins before the event is over the cops call for backup ...being that they are doing their job and making sure everyone gets home..its no cost to us ..

QUESTIONS:
Do you use Eventbrite for your ticket sales? If not, how did you do it?

No ....the few times i did printed tickets,(not through eventbright) people made fakes and i had to make everyone show receipts-disaster. We were able to find a place to make plastic like credit cards and we used those as tickets sometimes. Get around 20 made and say we had 100.

-"all presales sold out in less than a day!!...jam packed event"..then we see the people start posting them on Instagram and twitter ..free promotion...

Most of the time we just made everyone pay at the door..Eventbrite,stub hub,ect would be a way to fastlane it....and reach more people..

How do you find vacant venues?
GOOGLE will find you anything...also being from the area i was familiar with a lot of the places ...

How do you find and get cops or security?
You can call the police station and request them at whatever they charge ,or you can get cards and numbers when you just see them walking around..
-"hey would you mind working a event for me...i need a total of 2 or so cops, do you know anyone..?"
just build a relationship with them that way if you need them they will always be there...i normally give them extra at the end of the night.

Did you get a DJ from within your college (fellow student) or a "professional" DJ? How did you find and hire them?
Depending on the occasion. We normally used fellow students but one of the people i started with actually became a DJ so we used him most of the time.(why i said we paid him more) Sometimes we could call people from other schools and get them to come down to ours. All dj's have booking info in their bios...
 

CPisHere

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I love how simple this is, yet most people are too afraid to fail to try it - which is our opportunity.

What are some ideas for taking this idea and doing it for something outside the college/bar scene? You could do it for a 1,000 different things.
 
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Bigguns50

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@sWALK90 .... Providing some great inspiration here and a nice contribution to the Forum ! Congrats on success in doing your thing. Everything you posted is solid.

I have some experience in this area and I understand why you got out of it. In order to continue, you need to stay close in touch with your market, and preferably you are your market. It's a tough business to run long term.

Love the raising the rates at the door as the night went on. I experienced this and it was crazy.

When I was involved...we ALWAYS had problems with fights. Security was serious.

Again...good job and contribution !
 

sWALK90

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I am also very glad you brought this up. I have tried to set up an event for much fewer people and it didn't work. Maybe you can give me some feedback?
Why didnt it work?
Didnt profit or no one showed up?

In your opinion, is it a deal breaker to make them pay in advance? I notice you and your friends took all the risk up front. Now that I think of it, $350 is not that much to lose (well, right now that is a lot of money to me, but putting it in perspective, it's not a big amount at all).
No i have seen alot of people go the pay in advance route with presales,event tickets,ect to pay all the cost up front and then charge double for the people who pay at the door because that is all profit after you paid it all with presale money.

-The more people taking the risk the less you pay out of pocket but the less you take home after the event because its more people to split it with.
10 people pay 100 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses are paid and you leave with $1000 a piece
- The more risk you take the less people you split the money with at the end.
2 people pay 500 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses you both leave with $5000 a piece.

Did the venues make you guys pay in advance? Where you always sure that people would show up? In my case I was doing it alone and I would have had to put some $600 up front and then pray for them to show up. How do you guys handle that risk, or be so sure that just flyers are enough to get people to come? Do you do anything else besides sharing it around social media?
-Its a lot of shady people in this business...i always paid in advance. You pay after and they might give the venue to someone else that night or try to charge you higher once they see what you made. If you do pay after i would ensure you have everything in writing!
-Yes i was always sure....if you always keep your customers happy they will always come back. We had nights with rain and freezing temperatures and we have made money.
-If you do something alone it will be hard but possible....you would have to use social networks,radio(costly),event sites,free before certain time,uh contest..word of mouth ...flyers up everywhere..ect to your advantage.
-I have tested everything..we did a party off only radio,one of only socials,one of only flyers in person and all have been successful. For just flyers we went everywhere and tagged every car in parking lots and everyone inside with flyers .
 

sWALK90

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I love how simple this is, yet most people are too afraid to fail to try it - which is our opportunity.
What are some ideas for taking this idea and doing it for something outside the college/bar scene? You could do it for a 1,000 different things.

You can do this with anyyyythhing...weddings...book seminars...summits..shoe conventions....concerts.....comic conventions..sports...ect... its being done all around but no one notices. When you go to sport events....shows...concerts and pay $40-$90 a ticket ...its the same concept..
 
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Rawr

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Nice hustle. I was doing this with college parties/keg parties at my house sophmore/junior year. Best time of my life.
 

sWALK90

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so, you're a millionaire?
No lol but its a very easy way to make money quickly. . i did it in school to pay for college and I lived off it while working part time at heb seafood lol ....

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 
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sWALK90

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@sWALK90 .... Providing some great inspiration here and a nice contribution to the Forum ! Congrats on success in doing your thing. Everything you posted is solid.

I have some experience in this area and I understand why you got out of it. In order to continue, you need to stay close in touch with your market, and preferably you are your market. It's a tough business to run long term.

Love the raising the rates at the door as the night went on. I experienced this and it was crazy.

When I was involved...we ALWAYS had problems with fights. Security was serious.

Again...good job and contribution !


Yea ..i mean my school was basically all Houston students and that's where im at now so im still pretty strong as far as my market but them late nights are rough..and take a toll on you after a while... and thanks! Hopefully someone can use this and be successful with it .
 

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Oh.... @sWALK90 ... I forgot ... The reason I clicked on this thread was to give my opinion on the Title.
Sorry, but I don't like it one bit. I was thinking "No..this IS B.S. You don't make that much money in that amount of time." Now....after reading your posts, I get it...but...it's still a bit misleading because it doesn't take into account all the work you had to do to get people to your venue.

Now....the purpose of the Title is to get people to click it. I did not click it for the reason you had in mind. I think this style is outdated....or I'm just tired of seeing such titles. Which makes me wonder if they really are effective. But...I could be wrong. ( btw...I don't care if I'm wrong or right. It's all about learning). I'm only giving you the 'targets', or potential customer's point of view. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination in copy.
 

Michał Kóska

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Did you have an insurance? Just in case someone got hurt? How about the venues? You looked for something like empty warehouses or rather nice ones?
 
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Why didnt it work?
Didnt profit or no one showed up?


No i have seen alot of people go the pay in advance route with presales,event tickets,ect to pay all the cost up front and then charge double for the people who pay at the door because that is all profit after you paid it all with presale money.

-The more people taking the risk the less you pay out of pocket but the less you take home after the event because its more people to split it with.
10 people pay 100 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses are paid and you leave with $1000 a piece
- The more risk you take the less people you split the money with at the end.
2 people pay 500 for a $1000 venue...event makes 10000 after expenses you both leave with $5000 a piece.


-Its a lot of shady people in this business...i always paid in advance. You pay after and they might give the venue to someone else that night or try to charge you higher once they see what you made. If you do pay after i would ensure you have everything in writing!
-Yes i was always sure....if you always keep your customers happy they will always come back. We had nights with rain and freezing temperatures and we have made money.
-If you do something alone it will be hard but possible....you would have to use social networks,radio(costly),event sites,free before certain time,uh contest..word of mouth ...flyers up everywhere..ect to your advantage.
-I have tested everything..we did a party off only radio,one of only socials,one of only flyers in person and all have been successful. For just flyers we went everywhere and tagged every car in parking lots and everyone inside with flyers .

Thanks a lot for those valuable answers man.

Why didnt it work?
Didnt profit or no one showed up?

To make it short I got this arrangement for a restaurant/nightclub for $25/person: cover included, one drink and an appetizer. I would pre-sale at $35. I needed to give the restaurant a head count... run ads on Facebook and Facebook groups for my target audience, got like 40 FB RSVPs and a lot of likes but no one actually bought the ticket (started advertising three weeks before, waited till 24hs before event). Since this happened I guess I chickened out to actually call a 40 people reservation to the restaurant and then be out $1000 if no one showed up (right now that's a LOT to lose and didn't even have it, it just seemed like a dumb risk)

I really want to try again because this audience is pretty much exchange students with a lot of money to waste (no room and board expenses) and their main need is socializing and having cool experiences during their stay. I just don't know where I went wrong and don't think I'm gonna have a different result by trying the same thing I did last time.

Edit - Maybe I should establish myself with some free events? I was thinking of making like a free yoga class or something (remember in my case it's not just about nightlife, although I think those could make the most $$$ and attendance) I was wondering if maybe they didn't trust the brand enough to buy in advance. My main thing is that they don't show up, like they look for the bigger better deal at the last minute or something.
 
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Phillipbro

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On one of your pics you have Migos performing? For these type of events how much are you paying the performers (Migos)? I have a few friends here who are into promoting here in Toronto. I've thought of using Facebooks new local awareness advertisement feature to get tickets for these type of events.
 

sWALK90

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Oh.... @sWALK90 ... I forgot ... The reason I clicked on this thread was to give my opinion on the Title. Sorry, but I don't like it one bit.Which makes me wonder if they really are effective. But...I could be wrong. I was thinking "No..this IS B.S. You don't make that much money in that amount of time."
Hmm....the idea was to pull people in to read ..bait....and it worked...1,027 views and i posted this yesterday morning.So did the other guy @The Rom Cam . Look at the other threads dates vs views..we did pretty damn good compared to the others. .. seems like the words How and a number amount makes people view your thread!

upload_2015-12-15_14-36-29.png

Now....after reading your posts, I get it...but...it's still a bit misleading because it doesn't take into account all the work you had to do to get people to your venue.
Hmm.. i dont consider that work..
1.book venue\cops\dj 20 mins (can be done off text)
2.send money\idea to designer to make prints 10 mins.
3. Go pick up flyers from Houston 45-1hour drive
4.Pass out flyers while going to class....2 seconds im in route to class so only takes a couple seconds to hand a flyer to someone.
5.The other people who just wanted to be apart of it gladly passed out flyers for me so i didn't really spend to much time on campus
6. All i did was post the flyer or pic on my social networks 3 times a day..that only takes 5 mins thanks to copy and paste

Really it was less than 2 hours for majority of the partys.

( btw...I don't care if I'm wrong or right. It's all about learning). I'm only giving you the 'targets', or potential customer's point of view. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination in copy.
Im no expert myself ,we are all here to help...
well im sure some are,and some are just trying to take and not give...

Business wise: So if i were selling a product,or placing a ad on a site, i would of had 1027 views just from the title...so no telling how many i could convert into sales...probably just a few but just a few is better than none. (just thinking out loud) Trying to practice what i have learned since i've been here before i start on my fastlane project.

This is only my 2nd thread besides my new member intro. My first thread was only 266 views in 15 days so..ive made progress!
Hello from HOUSTON,TX
 
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Bigguns50

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Very interesting ! You know....I blew right past the "Ask me Anything" Title :wacky:! Didn't even realize. I think that also gives credibility.

Very nice work !
 

Draven Grey

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So this was my first attempt at a click-bait title ....lets see how many views and likes it gets..i think this is what i have learned is copywriting in my short time being here.(plan on studying that soon)

brain dump btw..no editing ..

the key to making that much quickly is EVENTS!

I have searched the forum and haven't seen anything about events for some reason... its not fast lane for me but it could be for others so i figured i would post it because it may help others. Now i mean you guys can ask questions and i will try to answer from what i know but i am no expert...

While in high school-2009 and college-2013 I stayed in the small city of Beaumont TX. I was well known around the town and i used social networks to my advantage. When i started it was just Facebook and twitter. I think i have 3 Facebook profiles with about 5000 friends on each. One personal and the others were for my group in which I added the people in the cites around Beaumont.

My group had about 4 key players including me and a bunch of people who just wanted to be apart of it because everyone knew us. The key players were all older than me by at least 3 to 5 years older so i kind of looked at them as my mentors. But we had a group of people similar to me as far as being known. We had the age groups of my age +6. We threw mostly parties but also a few events and this actually help me meet a lot of people and pay my way through college while learning how to market stuff.

All we did was book venues/buildings anywhere from $600 to $2000 a night for 5 hours to host events.

Thats it.

Not hard at all once you have a strong social following but i have seen people have success without it. Someone would book the venue for the event (for example we will use a $1200 venue) and we would split the cost between the 4 key players so we are looking at $300 a piece on the deposit. Flyer design and print you are looking at $75 for flyer back and front design and about $120 for 5000 prints. So $200 on flyers..50 each. Everyone drops about $350 a piece maybe a little more $5-$10 because our person that prints our flyers is in Houston TX and someone has to drive a hour to go get them so we cover gas.
[TIP] The more people that put in money means the less risk on losing money but THE LESS YOU LEAVE WITH.(from 18 to 23 i have only took a loss for $15 and that was one time)...explain later

So we would book the venue roughly 3 weeks(or so) before the event for average $350 out of pocket cost. Then we just post the flyers on our social networks every day and pass out the printed flyers on campus at school in between class. Normally you aim for people that you don't see on your socials and try to engage in conversation and get their info...girls i would easily go for numbers or Instagram and for boys i would try to get their twitter or Facebook. Also lets not forget the people that just want to be apart of my group...they don't put up any money or anything but they just pass out flyers ..some to get girls and some to get in free...and other reasons. So we would let them in free of course and were talking only about 6-7 people if they pass out flyers..

Now i will go into detail later on the small stuff if needed but only if asked.

We ask the free people to get there before events so we don't have to deal with them in the line and blowing up our phones ect... Normally we aim with venues with 800+ capacity in which normally we hit or come close to. Depends on several factors...cost..occasion(holiday or not)..type..and a bunch other stuff..

Im using a night party for example but we have done a few day time events such as sneaker conventions, concerts and stuff. So 9PM we try to get there and make sure everything is in place. At least 2 cops(required at clubs,sometimes the building owner takes care of this) they are normally $30+ a hour..usually dont do anything but stand outside..so we also have to have security inside at $15 hour(sometimes we do and sometime building owner has their own)normally 3 or 4 will do.

By 10 PM SLOWLYYYY we start letting people in... girls $12 ...boys $15 for about a hour or so then we raise the price g15/b20 and so on for the rest of the night ..normally wont go over g20/b25 but it depends...do you look like you have money...are you out of ddress code...do we know you or not.

so lets say on average everyone pays $18
-bad night 650 people x $18 =$11,700
-good night 900-1200 people=$16200-21600 ^^(would be higher charge but im using avg of $18ea)^^

By the end of the night we pay the cops=$240
DJ=$540(this is very high compared to others ,but that is what we pay our main one-keyplayer)
the people who passed out flyers $50-$75 = 325
security=240

So as far as cost after the events..we are looking at cost roughly $1345 and then we split the rest between the 3 or 4 people that put in for the party...
-bad night $11,700-$1,345=$10355 is about 2588 each
-good night $20,000-$1,345=$18655 is 4,663 each ..

Now some nights we made a whole lot more and some nights we made a little more but we always made our money back. When i was around i think sophomore of college we cut a couple of older people out and me and my room mate did it our self with the same results and less people to split it with at the end of the night.

I attached a few pictures btw. pictures always help put a story together and make credible lol
Will write more later..

...like if you found helpful
Good concept, and close to how it worked for me. Me and my partner put on our Rock Circus Masquerade event at a similar cost venue, with $18 tickets, and it worked out similarly. Overall, we spent $1200 up front, hired a cast and crew of over 40 people (not including the venue staff), had a full stage set, synched light show, and a full house.

The marketing is where it was different. Flyering did absolutely nothing for us, and that's where most of our up front costs went. We even had an 8-foot creature (tied into the event) that we walked around with at extremely high-traffic and targeted places, including Comic Con, and in front of Cirque Du Soleil (who made us guests of honor the next day!). People flocked to us for pictures, and were eager to take flyers. But in the end, for the 3000 flyers we handed out to people who wanted them and seemed excited, we only had a handful of people show up from flyers. Granted, colleges were empty that time of year. We plan on testing it in colleges next. I imagine that will make a huge difference. In fact, we'll even considering renting college auditoriums for the events.

Facebook ads for a well-tested event is what filled the place; that is, with proper lean canvas, interviews, and split-testing. FB Ads won't always be the best way, but they proved to be best by far for us right now. If we had poured more money into FB ads instead of flying, with our cost per customer, we would've easily sold out. Throw in FB conversion pixel to help help with further targeting, as well as taking control over the things we had difficulties with the venue over, and we would've sold out very quickly.

After more testing, we plan to up the ticket price at the next event too. First, we've teamed up with our acrobats to rewrite the whole event based upon feedback from the first, test event. Then we'll be running a few more test show next Summer before going full force.

And just to be congruent with your post, here are some pictures and video:
http://thesilentstill.com/rockcircusmasquerade/
 
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sWALK90

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Very interesting ! You know....I blew right past the "Ask me Anything" Title :wacky:! Didn't even realize. I think that also gives credibility.

Very nice work !
Yea I just added that when I posted the last post...to see if it makes a difference

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk
 

sWALK90

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Did you have an insurance? Just in case someone got hurt? How about the venues? You looked for something like empty warehouses or rather nice ones?

Nope never had insurance....there was a few fights at some but no one never seriously injured.

It all depends on the purpose....we had Tipsy Thursday in a regular hall that we rented..it was nothing special.
Now for a valentines party we would normally go with a upscale club and make a dress code..
For a homecoming party i rented a warehouse in which we packed it out and had to open the back wall to let more pople in..

Just google venues in your city or ask around if the hotels have ballrooms.
 

sWALK90

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Good concept, and close to how it worked for me. Me and my partner put on our Rock Circus Masquerade event at a similar cost venue, with $18 tickets, and it worked out similarly. Overall, we spent $1200 up front, hired a cast and crew of over 40 people (not including the venue staff), had a full stage set, synched light show, and a full house.

The marketing is where it was different. Flyering did absolutely nothing for us, and that's where most of our up front costs went. We even had an 8-foot creature (tied into the event) that we walked around with at extremely high-traffic and targeted places, including Comic Con, and in front of Cirque Du Soleil (who made us guests of honor the next day!). People flocked to us for pictures, and were eager to take flyers. But in the end, for the 3000 flyers we handed out to people who wanted them and seemed excited, we only had a handful of people show up from flyers. Granted, colleges were empty that time of year. We plan on testing it in colleges next. I imagine that will make a huge difference. In fact, we'll even considering renting college auditoriums for the events.

Facebook ads for a well-tested event is what filled the place; that is, with proper lean canvas, interviews, and split-testing. FB Ads won't always be the best way, but they proved to be best by far for us right now. If we had poured more money into FB ads instead of flying, with our cost per customer, we would've easily sold out. Throw in FB conversion pixel to help help with further targeting, as well as taking control over the things we had difficulties with the venue over, and we would've sold out very quickly.

After more testing, we plan to up the ticket price at the next event too. First, we've teamed up with our acrobats to rewrite the whole event based upon feedback from the first, test event. Then we'll be running a few more test show next Summer before going full force.

And just to be congruent with your post, here are some pictures and video:
http://thesilentstill.com/rockcircusmasquerade/


Yea every event should be marketed differently.
But it seems like the same concept for all.
 
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SweetTooth

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Earlier this year I threw a birthday party for my 20th. Promoted it a month before on the event date on Facebook and had relationships with the house owners and local DJ's, security, bartenders, front door money handlers, and good friends to help promote the event. Charged about $3 for girls and $5 for guys.

Day of event, there was an estimated 250-300 people in our two story house. Had a line going four houses down the road with people.

Then the cops came, they came about three times but the third time (when there was a line outside and the peak attendance of the night) was when it ended. Everyone ran, it caused a chain reaction. The idiots handling the money ran. Somehow the cops got inside the house. The house owner was detained and later ticketed. An underage girl on synthetic acid had to be taken to the hospital (medically she was fine, just had an insanely bad trip). Keep in mind a lot of very serious stuff happened that night that the home owner had to pay for. The majority of people were under 21.

I saw the opportunity though and always kept it in the back of my mind. Your post brought back the memories of that great night haha. The competition out here in Vegas for underground raves and house parties is weak. I used my copywriting skills to blow the completion out of the water. There were other events that night that ended up dead because of our event. I'm friends with a lot of the hosts and well known guys out here in Vegas that through unofficial house parties. I also know tons of DJ's. I think with some professionalism, a lot of money could be made.

I have some questions for you. How do you handle the legal side of this? The cops here crack down on house parties for underage drinking and drugs and noise complaints. How did you pull that off? Legally there has to be the proper licensing, did you have any of that?
 

sWALK90

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To make it short I got this arrangement for a restaurant/nightclub for $25/person: cover included, one drink and an appetizer. I would pre-sale at $35. I needed to give the restaurant a head count... run ads on Facebook and Facebook groups for my target audience, got like 40 FB RSVPs and a lot of likes but no one actually bought the ticket (started advertising three weeks before, waited till 24hs before event). Since this happened I guess I chickened out to actually call a 40 people reservation to the restaurant and then be out $1000 if no one showed up (right now that's a LOT to lose and didn't even have it, it just seemed like a dumb risk)

I really want to try again because this audience is pretty much exchange students with a lot of money to waste (no room and board expenses) and their main need is socializing and having cool experiences during their stay. I just don't know where I went wrong and don't think I'm gonna have a different result by trying the same thing I did last time
.

Did you mass invite all your friends? When using FB events we would mass invite everyone’s friends from like 4+ pages and every time you post on the event walls they would get a notification. We didn’t do this as much because they started making it difficult to add all users but it is still possible with a couple of plug ins or JavaScript.

As far as this event goes..what was the purpose? Dinners are usually personal …some type of celebration, work related, graduation, anniversary, holidays, promotions ect. If someone on Facebook said there’s a dinner @ such & such 8pm on Saturday for $35 and I didn’t know them..i would ignore it.. If I were doing so I would rely more on face to face personal communication. Use Facebook as you did but go around and put flyers on cars, dorm rooms, and get in front of them. Word spreads fast, oh you heard of this, yea everyone is talking about it..yea me and my friends are going, hmm me and mine will too. Make your flyer custom to your audience! Make a site…make a reservation list…get emails, phone numbers…contacts! Make yourself known in person or on social networks before you ask someone to come to a event with drinks and appetizer/food. No one will come if no one will vouch for you.

I would start off with like a mixer or gathering…then have a sign in sheet or something to collect contact information.

I searched mixer flyers and posted a couple for example…


Edit - Maybe I should establish myself with some free events? I was thinking of making like a free yoga class or something (remember in my case it's not just about nightlife, although I think those could make the most $$$ and attendance) I was wondering if maybe they didn't trust the brand enough to buy in advance. My main thing is that they don't show up, like they look for the bigger better deal at the last minute or something.

I think I sort of answered that above too…free events…mixers,gathering ect…get contact information, learn what they like to do, then make a plan to start charging…
amy-lehrman-DLSH_mixer_big.jpg

us-0316-348583-front.jpg
 

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