Goodparty Doubling Their Fees?

[gadget 0]

Ok, so I use it now and again to pick up the odd potential gig to fill in a gap in the diary when I'm a bit quiet.

 

Had an enquiry (from elsewhere) fall through, and had a look on goodparty to see if there was anything to fill up the space...

 

 

Now, logged on today, and their enquiry prices seemed to have jumped from £1.00 to £2.00 for the basic 100-250 enquiry price, and 250-500 has now gone from £2.00 to £3.00. - so 100% increase and a 50% increase respectively.

 

£1.00 aint too much to gamble on for a potential date to fill in the diary (in fact, two £1.00 investments have resulted in repeat bookings), but when the price doubles, is it worth it as much, or will it weed out other DJs? Or is goodparty just looking to up its bottom line?

 

Cheers,

 

David

Edited November 29, 2010 by gadget

[vokf 0]

They were supposed to release a new site ages ago - I'd say they're a little short of cash...

 

I rarely use it - lots of budget gigs for long hours, so not really interested.

 

However, I did pick-up a nice little 70's night in a local restaurant. 3hrs, £180 mid-week.

Many gigs on there want to pay less than that for a Saturday night 4+hrs.

 

So... I don't have a problem paying £1 or £2 for a potential, providing their budget is ok and the gig description is not in txt speak!

 

Its worth noting that Good Party DO offer refunds if the gig was not as described ie they list 250-300budget and they only want to pay £150 etc.

I also had a refund where the advertiser put the wrong date in.

 

 

[gadget 0]

They were supposed to release a new site ages ago - I'd say they're a little short of cash...

 

I rarely use it - lots of budget gigs for long hours, so not really interested.

 

However, I did pick-up a nice little 70's night in a local restaurant. 3hrs, £180 mid-week.

Many gigs on there want to pay less than that for a Saturday night 4+hrs.

 

So... I don't have a problem paying £1 or £2 for a potential, providing their budget is ok and the gig description is not in txt speak!

 

Its worth noting that Good Party DO offer refunds if the gig was not as described ie they list 250-300budget and they only want to pay £150 etc.

I also had a refund where the advertiser put the wrong date in.

 

Yeah had one like that as well - is it really that hard to select the right option?! :wall:

 

Also what if you just cannot contact the person in question, surely you should get a refund for that as well...

 

Cheers,

 

David

[vokf 0]

Yeah had one like that as well - is it really that hard to select the right option?! :wall:

 

Also what if you just cannot contact the person in question, surely you should get a refund for that as well...

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

Yep - agree with that one too. I don't actually have a big problem with GP increasing their fees (I rarely see anything of interest), but in return, I will start to become more expectant on refunds/customer service.

 

 

[greatracks 0]

Yep - agree with that one too. I don't actually have a big problem with GP increasing their fees (I rarely see anything of interest), but in return, I will start to become more expectant on refunds/customer service.

 

 

Agree with all the above. They were supposed to be changing their name to MyGoodParty this summer but it hasnt happened.

There is one on there at the moment requesting a "good dj" who "will get people dancing all night" as she "doesnt want anybody sat down"!. This is a 5 hour wedding gig and the clients budget is.................£100!!.

Would you do it?!. I wouldnt...............!

On the flip side i must admit i have had quite a few gigs off there and the client has been happy to pay what i quoted. Including a couple of weddings at 2 of the most upmarket venues in Devon.

 

[Teez 0]

Come to mention it, Goodparty have stopped sending me notifications... funny as I havent changed any settings...

 

:joe:

[gadget 0]

Agree with all the above. They were supposed to be changing their name to MyGoodParty this summer but it hasnt happened.

 

 

That was supposed to be Summer 2009 :)

 

 

Cheers,

 

David

 

Come to mention it, Goodparty have stopped sending me notifications... funny as I havent changed any settings...

 

:joe:

 

I think if you don't login for a while the notifications stop. Just login again and you'll start getting them again?

 

 

Cheers,

 

David

[vokf 0]

Just seen this on Google (AdWord)

 

Need DJ Hertfordshire?

Throw a great Party. We have cheap DJ Hertfordshire Get a 100% Free offer!

www.GoodParty.co.uk

 

That could explain the low prices, and their need to increase their fees.... Low quality listings (enquries) make it difficult to justify spending money with them.

If they spent more time educating their advertisers (on service levels to expect from DJ's), then the correct rates for area and type of party should filter through.

Currently, their banding is allowing people to expect great service and sometimes 6+hrs of DJing for £100...

 

[Norfolk DJ 0]

 

I get a few giggs with Goodparty, and some have been good payers.

 

I agree that the price bandings are wrong and would prefer to see £150- £300 & £300-£500 as a minimum.

[Raymilkybarkid 0]

I have used them a couple of times but recently nothing.

Purchased the info for a 40th themed party (70's & 80's) right up my street.

I submitted my price as per normal and spoke to the Lady several times sent out contacts and that was the last I heard from her, with the exception of an email to say that I had been under cut !

 

I only use GP to fill in in the quieter periods.

 

But its up to them if they want to increase their fees and up to us if we / you choose to use their service.

GP are IMO driving fees down by advertising cheap disco's / DJ's. But cheap comes at a price....50 quid Sid.. Need i say any more?

 

 

[vokf 0]

I guess the question is;

What is the best way for an advertiser to specify their budget?

 

At one end, there are those running the party on a budget - home made cakes, village hall etc, and the other are advertisers with grand plans in grand places!

 

 

Sites like this could do a little more to steer people towards sensible rates, or at least provide some benchmark service levels they should expect.

 

Personally, I'd be happy to pay more for decent leads where advertisers have been educated (somehow!) to expect to pay a decent rate for decent service.

 

The difficult part is educating people, and also you can't apply a blanket rate (ie £300 for a Saturday) for all areas.

An example of service levels should work better. "£60" guys probably won't have back-up gear, issue paperwork or have any of the boring legal stuff.

Always exceptions - and so involving price is often a mistake.

I'm sure there are £400 DJs who don't carry back-up gear, issue contracts or declare their earnings!

 

Talking about service levels is also prone to confuse or scare clients,

 

When the advertiser start to set their budget, a simple graph of DJ enquires vs budget should help detail some kind of average.

 

All day wedding, budget £150max may have 1 or 2 DJ's applying for details

All day wedding, budget £250max may have 5 or so DJ's applying for details

All day wedding, budget £450max may have 10 or so DJ's applying for details

etc

 

 

This may help with fluctuations due to area.

 

[gadget 0]

Had an explanation by email not that long ago:-

 

"We have doubled the charges on the category 100-250 because we have a negative return of investment when we attract customers from Google.

In average we pay google 4£ for these enquiries, and in average we only receive 3£.

By doubling the prices we hope to get 6 £ and thereby have a small positive profit"

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Dukesy 0]

Why is it, that discussions relating to Dj's charging higher fee's is often encouraged here and meets with praise and honours, yet complaints reign when other businesses decide to do the same and follow our lead .

 

As with anything else, review the situation, gauge the usefulness of a service versus its actual cost, and if you are in the money then its worthwhile, if not don't pay it and vote with your feet. Its not obligatory.

 

I wonder how the Dj's of old managed to earn (quite a good) living before these services came along.

 

In my own opinion, I find it strange that GoodParty have had to resort to Pay-Per-Click advertising to draw in more traffic and enquiries, hence increasing their expenses and changing their business model. They used to do fairly well in their organic SERPS and didn't need to use Adwords and such.

 

I wonder if the number of listings has reached saturation point, where it has far more members than enquiries, with certain regions fairing worse than others, and now has to even the balance with more expensive means of advertising. This was always a predicted fear of mine - that entities like these just saturate the market, and the tab has to be picked up somewhere.

 

 

[gadget 0]

I'm all for raising prices, but at 100% is quite a significant hype.

 

at 4£ (sic), a click, thats a pretty high price imho just to get a clickthrough !

 

Cheers,

 

David

[Dukesy 0]

I'm all for raising prices, but at 100% is quite a significant hype.

 

Depends on the reasons. If a 100% hike was done purely to boost their profits, whilst there would be no wrongdoing on their part, but quite rightly it could be frowned upon and criticised. However if the price has gone up in relation to an increase in their expenditure and running costs, then its a different kettle of fish.

 

When fuel goes up to £10 a gallon, and a big brother to the Pro_Dub License has appeared costing us £1 per track played, we'd probably also need to double our prices too . It wouldn't be profiteering, it would be survival because we couldn't absorb such a rise out of our own pockets and so it would have to be passed on through our fees.

 

I can believe that certain Mobile Disco terms on Adwords are £4 a click, some of the very popular ones for other industries like Abestos Related disease lawyers can be as much as £20 a click!. Lots of Dj's are turning to Adwords, to fill the void that the recession has left, demand for popular terms is high which, and if you want front page adwords presence, then it comes at a price, as everybody is bidding for the same few premium spots.

 

But the question remains - Why Adwords and Why Now?. They've managed pretty well for a number of years with only their natural search engine presence.