Alliances - Helpful or Hurtful?

[dj4sale]

Jim asks:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'>Does a conglomerate like this...or the WeDJ-NAME-Fame DJ School actually BETTER the industry? [/b][/quote] Well we-dj has given me grief, Name is only good for the insurance + could not get a straight answer at their forum in Niagara Falls prodj + nice forums Zero leads and FAME DJ School...Don't get me started!

As far as ADJA- too many undertones. DJ Intelligence- not smart for me and siscjockeys.com + Zero leads.

Most of these have something to offer. For them to gather together is a sign that all are struggling.

sale :cuss

[merl]

I had a paid subscription to one of these sites and never recieved one lead. I do however recieve leads from some of the wedding sites, so until I actually gain a gig from advertising with them, the only way I`m benefiting is by this forum. I do however find a benefit in this. I have given up on actually gaining busines from this type of marketing. Most of my gigs have come from doing a good job and earning word of mouth advertising.. I now have only pay per click advertising. This forum is the best thing I`ve found as far as benefitting and I am glad that they started it, so I am not here to bash the big guys...

[DJKoolSkip]

If there was a place to learn and to help others learn with no holds barred and nothing expected in return and no camps to join, wouldn't that be nice?

It would have to be a place the money issue would not surface and DJ's in one area of the country charging $2000.00 didn't care that there were $400.00 DJ's who were just as good in other parts of the country. I guarantee that there are first year DJ's out there who could teach me a few tricks and vice verse. This place would bring both together to share ideas with no agendas other than to make us all better DJ's. If the consequence was that there were better DJ's all over the country - GREAT !

I think the "price" issue would resolve itself naturally over time as the best DJ's started comanding higher prices as a natural progression of a good busines plan, not because of a movement.

But, what do I know? :shrug

djskip [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

[SirWolfy]

Bob made a very interesting observation, that I would like to add, is not only affecting the ADJA. I see it strongly affecting another organization as I see them slipping further and further away from what is good for the many to what is good for a certain few.

The aforementioned resignation hasn't been the only one within the aligning camps and I fully suspect that it won't be the last.

Profits at the expense of customer service or lack of focus on their memberships definitely goes against the grain for me!

[merl]

O.K. you guys, This may sound rediculous, but we are supposed to be here to help each other out. Besides these big sites, what are some good advertising and promotional ideas out there? I find sales to be the hardest part of the business. This business is saturated with competitors and some do much better than others, usually just like anything the rich guys win. Anybody have any good ideas ti help out the little guy?

[Jim Casey]

Hey Merl...welcome to DJ Source Online

As funny as it would sound, in Maine we formed a "conglomerate" of sorts with our Maine Disc Jockey Network at www.maineweddingdj.net

We are all single-operators trying to compete with the multis...except...we are among the higher priced companies

Netwroking is the best way to move up the ladder in this industry. Otherwise, you will get stuck in a "woe is me" pattern and never get ahead

[Professor Jam]

After re-reading many of the replies I wanted to find the "root" word that is more or less responsible for flipping the word networking into a negative...

What I come up with is:

Exclusive

I recently witnessed a situation where a vendor, a valued industry supplier of music, was censored from participation within an industry community and when miss-information was posted this company was scrutinized by community leadership for publicly correcting the information. The companies account was eventually removed and is now an outcast so to say leaving members to only see the views of the company with the exclusive arrangement…

I'm a believer when you enter into "EXCLUSIVE" arrangements you "ALIENATE" all other resources... As an example if you visit CLICK HERE TO VIEW I have an extensive Vendor Link area where any legitimate industry resource can be listed and within the press release area of the site you will find news from official event sponsors and non-sponsors. Supporters of the program are given advanced features and placement; however all are viewable and shared without blinders... Has the no-exclusive deal approach cost me money? Sure, I’ve had some companies walk away from sponsorship because they could not obtain an exclusive deal… Because of this will I censor mention of the company from within our community… NO… And in the future if they consider participation they are more then welcome. I've been to some networking forums that if you type the name of some companies all you will see is *****.com censorship at its best and this is the type of networking I believe that does nothing to better the industry…

As I said… When you give one (1) the exclusive you alienate many others…

[Jim Casey]

Please let me add that I do not censor ANYONE here unless you break the TOS

We do not accept any advertising outside of the few banners you will see from the people who keep us up and running for free

Jam...I think the exclusive word hit the nail on the head.

[merl]

Thanks for the welcoming Jim. I appreciate your honesty and thank you for the advice. I think it`s a great idea to start a network here in mid Michigan and would greatly enhance our (single operators) share of the business. We have one multi company here that actually books about 73 gigs per week. It was started by a couple guys about 20 yrs. ago, and I`m sure they worked hard to get where they are. However I do love what I do and have never had a negative complaint, but sales are still tough in a small community. Great advice and I will try to implement it.

[starzdj]

Hey guys,

I was invited by Todd at FreeDJ America so thanks to him especially. I only leave posts on boards when I see something that really gets me interested.

I am a member of ADJA, WEDJ, ProDJ, Name, FAME and lots of other groups.

Anything that I learn any small bit from is worthwhile. I HATE POLITICS! IN the words of Rodney King… why can’t we all just get along! (Yes, he is an idiot, but his statement is genius).

I go to monthly meetings in AZ and the ADJA videos came out from those meetings. The content is good and helpful and it is great to meet other people. Yet, I have personally been bitten by the politics at least 3 times.

I go anyway…. The content is good.

I am a member of NAME – mostly for the insurance.

I am fairly active on the WEDJ boards and we are probably one of the top 5-10 heaviest users of Gigbuilder.

FAME is a good course and if you quit bitching about the video production quality and listen for content you will admit it is a good school.. Will you agree with EVERYTHING. OF course not… It is a course to guide beginners and if you already have your routine down you may disagree. That is fine. Take what you can from it and disregard the rest.

I get 100 times more leads form WEDJ than any of the other sources and there management tools are leaps and bounds better than DJ Intelligence and DJAdmin. (Yes I have tried them all)…. If it is so good why do I try others…..
Well frankly ,,,, WeDj is very bad on the customer service side and living up to promises and resolving issues….
But they have the best product out there…. It’s just very frustrating at times.

What’s the point…. Try to better yourself in any way you can. If OTHERS want to play politics that is their issue. I will never hold office with any of these groups nor desire too, because they know I will not leave the others.

Bottom line, why are you a member… if it is politics then go for it and pick your alliances… IF you are there to better your relationships, your own skills, your networking and to learn about our industry then do not worry about the politics and take what you can from it. But every good thing may have some bad points and on a case by case basis you have to decide to stay or go. Live with your decision and rock the boat a little when you do not agree or the politics go too far. Don’t sell out.

There – my 2 or 3 cents. I feel that if these organization get stronger with alliances; that is fine. Knowing the guys in them, I can tell you they did not get involved over money, but if they make a little while doing this they deserve it for the hours they put in for me and for you for free… Do you really want them to work their butts off for you and me putting meetings and contents together while their personal businesses suffer and they lose money? Why should they not get some money for what they are doing? Honestly I never use any of the discounts because I do better negotiating on my own. But others don’t do that and they get the benefit of the work these folks are putting in.

OK, disagree with me… you’ll only prove my point that you’ll never get everyone to agree and that you have to take what good you can out of the organization and live with the rest or quit!