7 Off-Season Income Ideas for an Event Website
Crystal posted this on April 10, 2008
cc danielle_blue, courtesy of Flickr
A great question arrived at the Idea Cafe’s CyberSchmooz forum about a month ago (time flies!), asking how to expand an annual art show’s income beyond the 3-day event. Edward (the owner) says it best,
I am wondering however if there is another component, other than another event, that I can add onto a business like this that would still fall under the umbrella of this 3 day event. Since the website gets a good amount of hits maybe I can sell something on my site?
My question is: Do I work on ways to add more components to this or do I focus on making this 3 day event the biggest and best 3 days of the entire year?
Edward’s feels he can pull his event off only once a year. I suggested he at least consider a holiday event in December, and promised I’d “chew on” ways he could leverage his website for income the other 362 days of the year. My much-gnawed answer is:
DO BOTH
by providing the value of the real-world event in an online venue
For the artist/vendor, Edward’s art show is an opportunity to display and sell their work while connecting with art enthusiasts. These attendees benefit similarly: they can explore a variety of art in one place, meet the artists, and buy their work.
With those things in mind, here’s how Edward can promote his annual art show and earn year-round income with a restyled website:
Sell display space to artists
Because he has decent site traffic, Edward could easily sell ad space for products and services aimed at artists and those who like art. Sold as a monthly subscription, the advertising could appear throughout his site, on a sponsors page, or as classified ads. Tiered pricing for a range of ad sizes (e.g., banners, buttons, and text links) would widen the appeal.
He could also build a directory and sell profile pages to participating artists. I imagine a single page for each artist with a bio, photo of the artist, photos of their work, where their work is currently showing, their URL (if any) and contact information. Artists without a website may appreciate an affordable, no-maintenance online presence with existing traffic. Artists who already have websites may benefit from a secondary source.
Sell art to site visitors
As the art show coordinator, Edward is in an ideal position to be a broker for the artists. He’s already a bridge between the artists and the art-lovers, so it should be easy to get buy-in on the new role. The mechanics of this could get sticky: contracts with the artists, policy setting, etc. But it may be worth it to earn a nice commission while the artists benefit greatly from the off-season virtual gallery.
With appropriate license from the artists, he could have an online gift shop for direct sales of appropriate reproductions. “Appropriate” being high-quality postcards, greeting cards, and catalogs—as opposed to mouse pads, mugs, and keychains. Print products are my first and only choice for this because they’re affordable, popular, easy to manufacture, sweetly profitable, and simple to ship.
Sell the event to everyone
With a photo gallery of the previous year’s event, Edward could give website visitors a taste of the weekend’s fun months in advance. He shouldn’t need to take the photos himself or hire a professional photographer. Artists and participants might be eager to submit their own photographs for a bit of online presence and a photo credit. He can host the photo gallery on his own site and also start a pool on Flickr.com and request submissions.
He could also sell event gear. He’ll need new imagery each year, but a contest held among the participating artists should yield worthy work to feature on tote bags, t-shirts, and other stuff. At the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, I met people intent on maintaining a complete set of annual event gear. Poseurs can buy gear after the event and pretend they attended 
I imagine a display of the artists’ submissions would be a crowd pleaser at the event and online.
And if it suits his ticketing arrangements, he can sell/reserve event tickets online. Even if that’s impractical, he should surely sell/reserve vendor event space online. If site visitors can buy conveniently while they are excited by all the good stuff on his site, it would add to the trickle of income he could be enjoying the entire year.
Et tu? Got more ideas for Edward and getting all year earnings from his 3-day event? Lemme know down below!
Also, I’m taking tomorrow off to get the jump on my semester. I’ll be back Tuesday with a review of Location Independent Living’s X Marks the Spot. Thanks! ~CW
Tagged with: business ideas · event · income streams
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Interesting post. I’ve run into a similar issue with a client who runs a site that monitors snowmobile trails. This service is obviously somewhat less useful in the summer months, but I’m sure there are still ways he could bring in some revenue/hits during the off season.
Creating an online social network of sorts would be an interesting idea. If you can get a group of discussing past and future events and other similar events you could provide some real value year-round. Of course, as with most things, if you don’t get much participation it ends up looking somewhat pitiful, which is always a risk.
Best,
Kyle / OnYourBusiness
Kyle Claypool / OnYourBusiness’s last blog post..Sun Tzu on Leadership - Part 6 of 6
Howdy Kyle! Yeah, in this context a chat or a forum may be more trouble than it’s worth. It would need to be moderated, and like you said, without a regular flow of people it would look painful.
Maybe he could start with a scaled down version, like a guest book? Less expectation for a full-fledged discussion. If it gets very busy, he can bump up to a convo-board.
As for snowmobile trail monitoring…do the trails need year-round maintenance? Or am I totally wrong on what “monitoring” entails
Good point. Opening up a site to the public always presents certain risks and headaches. If done right it can be a tremendous tool, but very few people do it right.
And no, the trails get closed down in March. It’s a site for snowmobilers to check conditions to see which trails are in the best shape to ride. I would imagine ski resorts have a similar issue - how do you utilize your website in the off season when your business is very seasonal?
Kyle Claypool / OnYourBusiness’s last blog post..Sun Tzu on Leadership - Part 6 of 6
@Kyle–Ahh, ok! Hm. Well, people turn to him for leisure sporting conditions…so what’s sporty up there when there’s no snowmobiling? He could shift/transition his site’s focus to reporting on non-winter leisure opportunities.
But to stay focused on snowmobiling…he could report on new trails, new snowmobiling equipment, etc for the upcoming year. Also, same as for Edward, photos of happy snowmobilers will allow folks to reflect on a fun winter, and look forward to next year.
But it is tough. I mean, an off-season site would need to be a sort of portal to work year-round. And research and maintenance takes time…
Online contest to give away an artist table? Or tickets to the event? This would require some marketing in order to get the word out to the Arts community and Arts buyers. Would build traffic and create buzz. Leads to more income from ads, display space and ticket sales, and more eyes on his website to make selling vendor spots more lucrative.
Chris P.’s last blog post..My single favorite new feature in WordPress 2.5 [Techno File]
Hi Chris! LOVE the online contest for the artists to win a coveted item…that would be quite buzzworthy in a way the art show itself may not be. A contest for free tickets would be great too. Best, if he can automate or delegate the contest management (it’s pretty routine), he won’t add much to his existing workload.
Thanks for the brainboost!
Bzzz < —my brain buzzing…
Crystal,
Great post! The only thing I can add (amazing, I know) is that a blog is a good addition to almost any site these days. As the time gets close he could do more posts about the prep, headaches, funny moments, coups in terms of who is coming, etc., but the rest of the year could be profiles/interviews with artists, topics from an art/business perspective (newbies are bound to be interested in how to get to a stage where doing something like this could work for them, and everyone likes to peek inside other people’s fishbowls), tips about making X type of art work in your home or business, or even reader photos of things they purchased in their new habitats… just thinking quickly.
Kyle’s comments remind me of my parents, who run a motel in up-up-up-state New York, where snowmobiling is huge. They originally thought they could motivate snowmobilers and other winter sports fans to choose their place (which they do), but have found over time that summer is far busier for them. Seasonal businesses are a fascinating puzzle to work on!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: Want Profits? Don’t Be Cruel
Given that your best future customers are your current customers, he should make the effort to capture email addresses. Then publish a regular newsletter regarding the local art scene: reviews of new artists, guest editorials from artists participating in the show. There are lots of ways to keep it interesting.
Ads can be sold in the newsletter. It can be used as a vehicle to sell art directly to subscribers. “Available for a limited time and only to ABC Gallery Newsletter subscribers.” (Yet more evidence of why I don’t write copy for a living.)
It will stimulate return traffic to the web site which will generate more value for advertisers.
Most important it will contribute to the success of the next event by making sure everyone knows about it.
If he has enough traffic he can sell space to an ad networks and / or generate revenue from affiliate marketing networks.
James Hipkin’s last blog post..Landing Pages - Best Practices
Hi Queen Kelly! Two things: 1) I eagerly anticipate your additions to my posts! Your comments shift my brain into overdrive, even when I’m already running at max capacity
2) This is you “thinking quickly”? Whew! I’d better strap myself in on days that you’re taking your time… 
Thinking about your parent’s hotel, I can totally see how they would be a popular destination in the summer. I dream of being a “sunbird”—splitting my time between the mid-Atlantic US and Canada so I can enjoy Maryland’s snowy (but brief) winter but escape its humid hotbox summer for Montreal’s mild, delicious summer and gazillion festivals.
And what a heap of excellent ideas for the art show’s off-season! I think of a blog as a 3-5 times a week effort, but you’re right…He could easily post a short bit just once or twice a week, or a longer weekly update. Folks will stay hyped all year, and it will bring a steady flow of traffic to the site. Also, a blog would get spidered regularly by the search engines in a way a regular site may not. Benefits all around, and I’m not hitting them all.
The best part is, the blog wouldn’t have to be a huge creative endeavor, but more like responding and reporting. Once he posts a shout out on sending in photos and news and such, his event’s community will contribute a healthy chunk of his content. While setting it up will take a bit of time, I wouldn’t expect this blog to be time-intensive…maybe 2-4 hours each week?
Hmmm… In fact, I like this blog idea for a site of mine that’s overdue for a redo…
As ever, thanks for sharing your clever-as-heck ideas!
Hi James! I really like the idea of a regular newsletter, especially in combination with Kelly’s blog idea. I imagine the blog content could be easily repurposed as a newsletter via Feedburner’s email subscriptions.
However, I think it would be better to use my favorite direct email app: iContact to manage the newsletter, so Edward could get nitty gritty with the advertising. Your idea about selling the art directly would make it worth the small monthly fee, especially if he offered sponsored emails for artists who want a spotlight for selling specific pieces. He could earn a bit on sending the email and also his commission.
I hadn’t considered an ezine, and shame on me for it. It will add a few hours of work to his week, but it’s worth it for the likelihood of increased traffic and the handful of income streams you thought up. Besides, he could delegate the bulk of this work to an assistant.
Many thanks for your stellar ideas!
And also the mention on your blog in the
Customer Relationship Principles post.
Always glad to contribute a nudge. Your post gave me lots to think consider as I pull together ideas for a business of my own…
Crystal,
Shh don’t tell my local clients… I just generally dream of getting out of DE. No part-time about it. I miss the cold!
Yeah, thinking quickly. I’ve had lots of practice writing (and talking) far more… I’ve always got to restrain myself on the web!
2-4 hours a week sounds about right to me (heck for anyone who’s not trying to make money directly from their blog that’s probably about right). Maybe one longer post and two short ones so people come to expect it but don’t feel like oh, no, there’s another one…
You keep doing thought-provoking as heck posts (which I know you will), I’ll keep trying for a clever-as-heck back-at-ya! That’s pretty much how I decide who stays in my inbox. If it isn’t stimulating my own thoughts, what am I reading it for?
I’d better go write something that hopefully does that for my readers. Home early to apply daytime brainpower to some posts that have been stumping me.
Until later,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..What If That’s All You Have to Say?
@Kelly—Been going back through comments for any I may have missed responding on, and came on this from you:
“2-4 hours a week sounds about right to me (heck for anyone who’s not trying to make money directly from their blog that’s probably about right). Maybe one longer post and two short ones so people come to expect it but don’t feel like oh, no, there’s another one…”
Very funny to me that I brought BBB around to this format you laid out, though it takes me longer than 4 hours to write ‘em up. A worthy goal, though.
Thanks for ideas that stick!