I'm trying to start up a promotions company in the area

I'm trying to start up a promotions company in the area

Hi guys, I'm trying to get into the promotions biz in the Newcastle area. I'm starting uni there this year and I've created my own social network site which will primarily be targeting all other students (and general 18-30's generation) in the region. I'm originally from the area.

Our goal is to host our own club nights in the town but because we have no contacts and little experience we want to start small. Our site is where all promoters can advertise their events to a captive audience so we would like to talk to interested promoters and maybe get involved behind the scenes with some events ourselves.

I think there is the potential for a lot of cross-promotion for anyone who is interested. If not then maybe just pointers on how to get started?

Greatly appreciated, Adam

so its bit like this website crossed with facebook?

yeah, but also crossed with a few other sites that are good like collegehumour etc. I kinda started the site because i was bored a fed up with facebook, my site specifically targets our generation whereas fb (although useful) is generic and appeals to noone.

I also want to be big on events (starting with club nights, then weekend trips to amsterdam etc, then trips to ibiza etc and then hopefully festivals) and maybe even a fashion line at somepoint. Ambitious, maybe too ambitious.

I'll give you one piece of constructive advice before things get a bit more serious, change the name because it's fucking shite

Well that's a matter of opinion.

Everything about the site (including the name) has been based on what the users have wanted.

Feel free to offer up opinions of the site and its features or whatever and we'll take it on board but its a bit late for a re-branding i think.

I admire you're ambition, you can never be to ambitious (although some people may say otherwize) but thats usually because they have none to begin with

Not exactly what you came on here to hear lol but hope all goes well anyway, I'm sure theres someone around who can help out

Just had a quick look and I'm not sure what to make of it to be honest. I know its in its early stages but the layout reminds me of mujao.com. which has died on its arse... thats if it even built an arse in the first place. It all just seems a bit basic and boring at the moment.

As for promoters advertising their events. will there be a cost involved?
what style of club night are you wanting to do (music styles, type of venue etc)?

Not quite the response I was expecting but grateful for the advice anyway!

(about the design)
It actually takes a lot of effort to make a site full of features look basic and that's what I want, sites that are cluttered or too 'busy' generally don't fair well. The overwhelming response so far has been very positive.

(about music/venues)
My passion is trance (pure and unadulterated). But our events arn't set on a single genre, our users will hopefully be varied and therefore all genres are on the cards.

you can make a site look basic and good though or you can make a website look basic and dull. The colour puts me off for a start.

I can see where the idea has come from its like all the social networking sites mixed into one. Which is a good idea and could work well as long as its not just full of men perving on women? Will it have privacy settings?.

As for promoters advertising their events. will there be a cost involved?

Have you considered what night you will run your events? have you looked into what clubs nights are already in Newcastle and what they are doing? as your probably going to have to do something different to what is already there.

hahahaha i was not expecting some uber K00l rabbits on the homepage.

it sounds/looks more like a swingers group for oddballs

Isn't what your trying to do already being done by dontstayin or resident advisor?

if you cater for commercial and specialist music will they not just abuse each other?

scouse house crew v indie kids for example

"The name is a little weak " - love it or hate it it's already sparked debate here which is what a name should do! It means there's more people talking about it and means people are less likely to forget it.

"Will it have privacy settings?" - yes, there are a few different types of friends you can have, you can have different privacy settings for each. FB is getting flamed for their privacy (or lack of) so we are taking that on board. And sleezy old men are not allowed! The general rule is, no kids, no old people.

"will there be a cost involved?" - Any member can create events and make them available for all to see and join. At some point we will set up a 'featured events' space where you could pay a small fee to get more exposure to your events.

"have you looked into what clubs nights are already in Newcastle and what they are doing?" - I've been out of the region for quite a while so need to start doing a lot of research on this.

"What about taking photos at local nights for free and posting them up on your site?" - that's actually a really good idea.

"it doesn't show you whats being posted by your users or if there's any activity, which may put people off from signing up" - fair point. Our intentions are to have many rooms (or forums) with many threads so i don't think this would be feasible, there's a lot more going on than forums too. However, a couple of photos or people in clubs could be a good addition.

"As for starting an event... that depends which side of the fence you're on" - you've kinda hit the nail on the head, the site is divided into 2 halves, the 'Naughty side' and the 'Nice side' so the nice events could be the commercial nights (probably to students on weekdays) and for the naughty I'm even considering trying to organise some raves maybe down the docks or somewhere the cops arn't gonna find. I have some mates who do their own raves down south which are pretty mental. Could be tricky though, especially not knowing the people or place well enough.

"When you're up against massive national brands playing monthly at digital" - that's right, so you can either try and make a local night 'survive' or you can work your bollocks off and get national recognition and then compete in the big league. I think just trying to survive is a waste of time and effort.

We are not putting on events and then trying to find people to go to them, we are finding people who want to go to events and then selling them ours.

"Regardless of what you do, if you're going to pull it off there's lots of hard work involved and I wish you the best of luck" - thanks. We're gonna need it.

cheers fella!

The photo idea could be a good one you could build up an online user base through the photos tagging etc and then hit them with events. The privacy settings sound good, i like the fact you can set different settings for different people depending on what you want them to see. You can do that with facebook but its a right fuck on.

You still nedd to change the colour scheme though

Be sure though that numbers dewindle over the years and the young ethusthtic clubbers who stay on board become cynical seen it all before types, who put down now members and lament for better days.

In between been actual quite funny sometimes.

As for your illegal rave idea, we don't have docks we have the quayside, if your going to try good luck to and get clued up on the law regarding section 63 about excesive noise especially in a bulit up area and also read up on the Criminal Justice act if your help promte such events.

No sane free party organisers would use Facebook or a similar site to tell poeple about party especially with what happen on Squatjuice.

Partys off the beaten track happen up here quite regulary so don't make the mistake a lot students do by not getting to know locals, they may have funny northern accents and take the piss but by enlarge know what they are doing regarding venue's and partys as they are here all year round so get them involved as well.

Good luck, but be realastic and set up a decent business model you have a lot of compation and to get poeple to chose your site over one as established as facebook is going to be hard.