NACE - Press Release

After an incredible showing last year at the NACE (National Association of Catering Executives) Conference, the ADJA with help from the Phoenix and Houston Chapters, “rocked” the conference once again this summer.At this years conference, held in Houston Texas, the ADJA pulled out all the stops to impress upon the attendees the value and distinct difference that quality entertainment can provide. ADJA members Roy Dueitt, Paul Olsen and Lisa Walrath all took major roles in seeing that everything happened as planned without a hitch. This allowed the National Directors to focus on collaborating with NACE members and leadership to build a better relationship for both organizations.

While maintaining a great visual presence within the conference, NACE members saw first hand the effects of our vision statement, “when we work together, imagine what we can do!” Through direct dialog and positive representations, many commented that they are going to start looking for ADJA members exclusively for their referral lists. We then took the opportunity to review and highlight the “new” ADJA Code of Conduct. DJ Insurance was another topic that was discussed. More and more event facilities are beginning to understand the value of an insured DJ versus one with no insurance.

The ADJA provided nearly all the musical entertainment for the conference, including themed music, video and other entertainment features for their evening events. We also provided ADJA professionals for all their seminars and sessions giving their educational content a more professional image as we warmed up the crowd for the presentation and acted as the spokespersons for NACE.

The local Houston chapter really pulled out all the stops as they created a customized, choreographed routine to Sexyback called “NACE is BACK”. Through their efforts, ADJA provided music at all the meals, refreshment breaks throughout the day, evening events and even a nightclub style showcase. NACE representatives worked exceedingly hard to make sure that the ADJA was always represented in the best light. ADJA President Dr. Drax worked closely with NACE National Officers to see that the ADJA logo was prominent at every venue and every opportunity. The ADJA was “thanked” from the podium at literally every event.

Here is a comment from one NACE delegate, Andy Ebon. “The ADJA did a superior job of representing its membership on all fronts, at the NACE Educational Conference in Houston. Speaking as a past NACE National Board Member, and a former Mobile DJ, I can say, without hesitation, that the ADJA presence in the NACE Marketplace Tradeshow, its entertainment value at various events, and professional introductions at seminars were all home runs. Individual NACE members are bringing home an exemplary impression of ADJA members for the second straight year. If local members impress them with the same professionalism, it will help cement the ADJA as the industry leader!” More can be read on his blog . . . http://www.WeddingMarketing.biz
Dr. Drax was also named to the NACE Business Partners Steering Committee to better facilitate the relationships between NACE and its business partners. Local ADJA Chapter interaction and NACE chapter development will be a major focus of on-going efforts within the two organizations. This will further cement our relationship with NACE.

ADJA President Dr. Drax stated, “We really came out of obscurity at this years’ conference. That could only happen as a result of the outstanding efforts of the Houston Chapter and other participating members. Those chapter members really stood up and made us all proud. Next time you see or talk to one of them give them a huge ‘high five’ for knocking this one out of the park. To those that sacrificed their time and talents so that the ADJA could shine bright . . . we give a heartfelt ‘thank you!’ You ROCK!”

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ADJA Announces Major Sponsorship of the Industry’s Biggest Event

The American Disc Jockey Association will blanket the 2008 Mobile Beat DJ Show and Conference in Las Vegas with what will prove to be the biggest sponsorship of an industry trade show by a national DJ organization to date. Besides sponsoring the popular DJ All Star Show featuring Tone Loc & Freedom Williams, the ADJA has increased it’s presence to include a complete event sponsorship. This is another positive step forward in the ADJA’s continuing efforts to promote, attract, sustain and maintain their visibility as the industry’s flagship organization for Mobile DJ’s.

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New Music You Might Also Love

Just this morning I read a post at Start.ProDJ.com bemoaning the quality of music so far in 2007. While there is a seasonality to “blockbuster” releases (summer and Christmas holidays), I truly believe the quality remains the same pretty much year-round. Sometimes the good stuff is handed to you, and other times you have to “dig” more for it. Here are some new releases I think you should consider. The tracks I mention may not always be the song(s) that just came out this week, but being “to the minute” current is rarely what makes a great mobile D.J. These are current songs to be aware of, if you’re not already aware of them:

quick cuts (in no order whatsoever)

Chamilionaire with Kelis “Not A Criminal”. The more I hear this, the more I like it. It challenges the stereotypes in hip-hop, and is at a decent 100 bpm tempo, unlike his signature (and Grammy- winning) hit “Ridin’”, a completely different style and tempo. And you can dance to it!

Christina Aguilera “Candy Man”. Christina seems to go for a different look or style with each new song, and this time she’s doing a big band vamp, a la “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. If you’re looking for something fun, try this one.

Beyonce & Shakira “Beautiful Liar”. With both of these red-hot divas on the same song, it’d be pretty hard to miss. They don’t. Put it on, and watch for womens’ hips on the dance floor.

RDB “Wanna Play”. Youth-oriented bi-lingual act that appears to be breaking through. Being marketed to both English and Spanish speaking audience. Nice reggaeton-inspired beat. Don’t miss it.

G. Love “Beautiful”. G. Love has been part of contemporary blues for around ten years, and had several really cool songs along the way. His latest isn’t blues at all, but doesn’t miss an ounce of “cool”. This is a duet (unfortunately I see no credit for the female who he’s dueting with). If you play Jack Johnson at any point during a party (cocktails or dinner, for the “cool” that Jack brings), you can use this song.

Rob Thomas “Little Wonders” Movies continue to be a good source for new hit music. This one is from “Meet The Robinsons”. Not for the dance floor, but quality music, with a guitar line that reminds me of the Edge from U2. I’m hoping that Matchbox 20 isn’t done.

Sarah McLachlan “Ordinary Miracle”. Another movie moment and a new song from an instantly- recognizable voice. From “Charlotte’s Web,” it’s a simple, sincere, and beautiful ballad. Useable as a slow dance, or part of a playlist for cocktails or dinner. Voices like Rob Thomas’ and Sarah McLachlan come on and it’s like hearing from an old friend.

Billy Joel “All My Life”. Speaking of “old friends”, there’s a new “pop” song by Billy Joel, his first since 1993. This is a love song in a big band, even “Sinatra” style. To prove again how odd of a time we are in for the marketing of music, this song was originally available exclusively on the People magazine website (around Valentine’s Day), and then itunes, and this week: everywhere. I fully expect to need this for a first dance before the end of this summer.

Big & Rich “Lost In The Moment”. If you ever accused this column of being light on country music, I’d have to agree with you. But here’s one not to miss. It’s not kind of country-rock lunacy that made Big & Rich famous, instead it’s a great ballad that I suspect will also be used for weddings. Very good.

Silverspun Pickups “Lazy Eye”. This one has bubbled under for a while. A sinewy (and long) rock song with an insistent groove that easily reminds me of “1979″ by Smashing Pumpkins. You might not get hooked by this song at first listen, but after about 3 listens, it’ll have you.

Steve Sharp is a DJ in Southern California who has been spinning since 1981. In addition to running his own successful single-op business, Signature Entertainment, he also creates a weekly radio remix show for Bo’s Saturday Night Party on B95.1 FM. Steve is one of the few people who can not only play the hits, but gets involved in the story behind them and can often tell you who produced, directed and published the song and how their actions affect the music industry.
If you would like to contact Steve, he can be reached at thatdj@aol.com

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SCOOP - B-52 Prodigy FX: All in One Is One for All

The ProdigyFX from B-52: a seamless blend of players and mixer

Technology keeps pushing forward in multiple directions, sometimes all at once, it seems. B-52 Professional, known primarily for a wide range of speakers, including their Matrix series of powered speakers, have released an unexpected surprise in the form of an integrated dual CD deck and mixer workstation, the Prodigy FX. While it is an integrated “plug and play” workstation, do not compare it to other basic CD-mixer combo units. While the Prodigy FX is meant to configure easily, it is also meant to offer performance far beyond basic playback. This is for DJs who want to manipulate and really work “hands on” with their music. If that’s you, read on…

Meet the Prodigy
The Prodigy FX is hefty, and looks built to last. At first inspection, it’s clear that lots of thought was put into creating this piece. The unit can be used on a tabletop or from within the custom flight case that is included, so you’ll have zero accessories to buy. While it’s big in size, it’s not so big or heavy that you’ll need several friends to help you schlep it around. The entire unit is fan cooled and the case designed to support the airflow of the automatic and variable speed cooling fans. Heat kills electronics faster than any other single thing. The harder you work the Prodigy FX, the harder the fans work to keep the unit cool and fully functional. The mixer section uses VCA components, which are known for their durability and accuracy. Indeed, all the controls have a high-quality “feel.”
The unit configures easily. I had it out of its double boxes and “live” into powered speakers in less than ten minutes. As a quick test, I turned the unit off and on with the power to the speakers still live and loud, and there was no pop at all, at any time. Nice. Basic operation is totally intuitive with the well laid-out control panel. CD decks and their controls are located to the left and right symmetrically, with the mixer in the middle, so anyone who has DJed previously should be able to work with the Prodigy FX right away.
The CD decks are slot-loading from the front, so there are no trays or door mechanisms to break. There’s even a “forced” reset, which will eject the disc and reset one side of the unit, in the unlikely event a CD jams inside of it during a performance. For longer laser life, the decks go to sleep if left idle for too long (but you can disable or change the parameters of this protection). The decks can play audio CDs, as well as MP3 CDs natively; you don’t have to upgrade it to make it MP3 capable and it is as feature-rich with an MP3 CD as it is with a standard audio disc. Oversampling and shock memory are included, of course.

Control Yourself
Above the slots is the jog wheel, which is a 5″ replica of a standard 12″ turntable “wheel of steel.” Behind the wheel are the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) controls that unleash a host of effect options, allowing tons of creativity in live performance; I found these to have a level of quality and accuracy I’ve never seen before in an “all-in-one” unit. They’re laid out logically; you’ll only have to read the manual for the nuances of operation-the basic operations are totally intuitive. The effects can be stacked on top of each other, up to four (one per “row”), and can be beat-synchronized!
Three programmable hot starts are on each player, as well. Behind it all is the large, well-designed display, which reads well in low light or bright sunlight, from a wide viewing angle, with adjustable brightness (I found I could generally read the Prodigy FX display better than the screen on the notebook computer that I’m using to write this, especially in direct sunlight). The entire deck control area looks very modern (like an iPod® or maybe a Zune® lCD display), which shows CD text on standard CDs, or tag information on MP3 discs, so you know what you’ve got loaded in your player at all times. Track number (or folder and track number, on MP3 discs encoded that way), time (selectable to elapsed or remaining), pitch (including pitch lock), and BPM (automatically calculated, or manual “tap”-your choice), are all shown here, too. BPM calculates and recalculates in “auto” mode, and if you alter the pitch (or tempo) in either direction, the BPM adjusts accordingly, so the current BPM is always displayed.
Finally, an oval with a slice missing, representing a “needle drop” position, graces the center, reacting to movement of the jog wheel, in order to help you quickly find (without headphones, even), the start point from where you might “juggle” a beat or sound, in the same way a vinyl turntablist might put correction tape on a record, to find his “marks.” In regular mode, the top and sides of the wheel simply slow down or speed up playback with your touch. In either of the two scratch modes, the top of the wheel scratches, while the sides still speed up or slow down the audio. The two scratch modes are: “blue” LED indicating standard, where the “needle” sticks to wherever you manually direct it to be, while the “red” LED mode indicates that when you touch the wheel, you go back to the last cue point, and scratch from there. I believe this feature was first seen on the Pioneer CDJ 800, and makes complex and fast “juggling” simple to execute. Getting really good at it? That’s up to you.
To the right of this all is the pitch adjustment slider, which can be set to 4, 8, 16, or 100%. Additionally, there a button to activate and deactivate the pitch, pitch bend buttons, and a master tempo button. The audio is very good, even when pitch or tempo is altered, within reason.
Loops can be set on the fly with ease, played and later relooped at will, and edited to absolute perfection. Start and end points can be saved to the internal memory. If you save cue or loop points, the next time you load the same CD, the Prodigy FX will remember them. You can store up to 1,500 of them per CD player.

Sound Routing
The mixer section has four channels, and up to three mics inputs, the primary two featuring adjustable talkover as well as DSP reverb, so you can perform effects on your vocals while you do strange and wonderful things to your music mix. The four mixer channels each have 3-band equalization and kill switches in each band, as well as a master trim controls, allowing the DJ to compensate for extra loud or extra soft sources. If the onboard DSP effects on the decks simply aren’t enough for you, each channel has an effects loop, so you can use an outboard effect units, too. It’s as simple as the push of a button. The first two channels carry signals for the built-in CD decks, but can also be selected for other line-in audio sources. The decks themselves have line out jacks as well. If you combine these ins and outs, the DJ is enabled to loop timecode CD audio into (for example) a Serato box, and back through the mixer section of the Prodigy FX, allowing this workstation to control (for example) Rane’s Serato Scratch Live, M-Audio’s Torq, or Virtual DJ software. (One word of caution here: do not use the DSP effects on the CD decks when using timecode discs. The effects will only make the programs “hear” distorted timecode, which could cause all kinds of odd behavior in the programs.)
Both CD decks also offer direct digital outputs, so they can be used for studio or other applications requiring a direct digital output. Channels 3 and 4 are offer selectable line or turntable inputs, and channel 3 also has a dedicated stereo mini jack input, marked “MP3.” If you wanted to use an iPod for dinner music, and later, cut things up on the decks, it’s pretty easy to do, and the iPod can sit out of sight, right in the back of the case.
The crossfader is switchable and selectable (and user-replaceable-another pro feature not often seen on your typical “combo” unit), and the fader curve is adjustable. If you scratch better with one hand versus another, there’s a hamster switch to “flip” sides. In addition to the main balanced XLR output, there’s a separate booth output and volume control, as well as two other sets of RCA outs. The headphone cueing section can be “split” left and right, and/or have the main output mixed into the headphone output.
Wow. I can’t think of a single feature this mixer lacks… all the way down to the “mono” switch. As small of a thing as having a “mono” switch is, I’ve seen even high end mixers that lack this basic ability. In the unlikely event you lose an entire mixer channel, you can use “mono” and the remaining “good” side of the board to finish your event; or if you’re doing a job that’s really small with only one powered speaker, hit the “mono” switch, and you’re good to go.

Prodigy in Action
“In the lab” (ok, it’s my garage) the Prodigy FX got high marks for excellent design, ease of layout, and overall quality. What about “in the field”?
I was called to assist with a Sweet Sixteen party a friend of mine had booked. I decided this was the perfect time to “road test” the Prodigy FX. I set the flight case on an x-stand, tapped into my friend’s board, and was ready to go. With three hours of dancing to prepare for, I assembled and burned two identical MP3 CDs and played off those (6 hours of material on each). With the exception of any requests that I didn’t have the foresight to burn, which I played from Virtual DJ directly (no timecode, this time) my entire night was played from two identical CDs, one in each deck. I ran loops, echos, flanges, pans (left and right to the beat), and mixed, scratched and looped throughout the night. The audience loved it! And it was a blast for me too!

Mixed Messages
For one final set of tests (and a second and third opinion), I invited over a couple of DJs I know locally who are big on beat-mixing, and for being particular about their gear. One was a fan of the American Audio Pro Scratch 2 CD decks, until he switched to the Numark CDX, which is his current favorite. Our other DJ friend prefers the Technics SLDZ1200 CD decks. I’ve watched several times as the two of them have “debated” each other over which one of them had a better set of players, so I knew this would be quite an animated discussion and mix session. The hardest thing to do here was separate their observations regarding “preferences” versus “functionality.” They both found (as I did) the Prodigy FX to be feature-rich, but (for example) they had difficulty gaining accurate control of the “scratch” features, mainly because of the size of the wheel, and the entire console being “too cramped” compared to what they’re used to; as an all-in-one it can’t be separated to suit their spacing preferences. They liked it, but (of course) not quite as much as what they’re already using.

Winning Combination
In terms of engineering and layout, the Prodigy FX is fantastic. It’s both “retro” (with the elements of turntablism) and futuristic, built with the look, functionality, native feature set, ability to interface with outboard effects and timecode DJ programs, and even basic playback of MP3 players, that DJs increasingly need. It is a combination unit of the highest order, featuring high quality and ease of use. The price, while not small, is a great value, compared to what you’d pay in money and time, buying and assembling all the individual items of this caliber, as well as the flight case to carry them in. The Prodigy FX is smart…and did I mention it’s also fun?

Prodigy FX Specs

CD/MP3 Player Features
• Plays all formats of CD, CDRW and MP3 files with full functionality
• Dual mode high resolution touch sensitive jog wheel
• Seamless loop with on-the-fly access to loop editing
• Independent buffer memory anti-shock for each player
• Pitch control & master tempo with up to +/- 100% shift range
• Oversized blue LCD display with wide viewing angle and brightness control
• True instant start for both CD and MP3 operations
• Easy MP3 file search by folder, file name, title or artist
• Onboard DSP effects with multi-mode scratching, auto and manual filter and phase shifting as well as flanger, echo, trans, pan, & reverse
• User-friendly beat synchronization for DSP effects
• Auto BPM or manual TAP tempo
• Three hot cue points
• Three independent memory banks can remember up to 1500 cue points and/or samples
• Integrated fader start
• Slot loading transports with blue LED illuminator
• IPR - Independent Player Reset for each CD/MP3 player provides fail-safe disk jamming protection
• Built-in memory to save settings (memory is upgradeable)

VCA Mixer Features
• 4-channel VCA mixer with flexible input configurations
• Dedicated DSP reverb and talk-over on MIC channels
• Dual rail premium quality Accutrack^TM crossfader
• Effects loop with independent assign button on each channel
• Hamster switch
• Rotary crossfader curve control
• 3-band EQ on each channel with - oo to +12dB range
• Kill switches for low, mid and high on each channel
• Dual mode SPLIT/BLEND headphone monitoring
• 10 segment tri-colored LED metering on inputs and outputs
• Master MONO switch
• CD direct outputs and mixer inputs for use with Serato Scratch LIVE, M-Audio Torq and all other time coded systems

Connections
• 4 Line, 2 Phono, 1 MP3 and 3 XLR / 1/4″ MIC inputs
• Balanced master XLR outputs plus booth, master, record & master digital RCA outputs
• Independent digital SPDIF outputs for each player
• Digital master SPDIF output
• Fan cooling for improved thermal performance
• Voltage selectable power supply for worldwide use

Professional ATA Flight Case Included

MSRP: $2,399.99
Street Price: $1,199.99

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Mixmeister Breaks New Ground

MixMeister is now shipping MixMeister Fusion and MixMeister Studio: two new software packages that introduce the DJ Sequencer as an all-new class of DJ software under the Microsoft Windows environment.MixMeister Fusion is an all-new pro DJ software application that combines the spontaneity of live DJ performances with the pinpoint precision of the best studio production software, and ushers in a new era for digital DJ creativity.

Fusion lets you maintain two, three, even up to eight songs in a perfect beat mix at all times, so you’re free to improvise with effects and shape the music in a million ways. Fusion supports harmonic mixing, VST effects, intelligent looping, MIDI hardware controllers, and more. Fusion is designed to mix complete DJ sets from full-length songs to achieve the functionality of a loop editor or digital audio workstation, and can blend songs together to create stunning DJ performances.

MixMeister Studio is the only digital audio application designed exclusively for high-end mix production projects. Studio gives you the ability to make nanosecond tempo adjustments, shift the key of any song, add beat loops and plug-in special effects, and much more. MixMeister’s innovative visual display allows you to zoom in on individual beats and measures, and make precise adjustments until your mix sounds exactly the way you want. With MixMeister Studio, you can create commercial-quality DJ mixes, and burn them to CD or stream them over the Internet

“DJs will be very happy that Fusion is here because it’s really the ultimate live DJ performance tool, allowing listen-ahead features that are years beyond anything else.” stated Dave Sampson, Director of Marketing for MixMeister. “Studio brings the production studio an all-new way of creating remixes and giving producers amazing results.”

Both MixMeister Fusion and MixMeister Studio MixMeister Fusion offer the ability to manipulate tempo, volume, and EQ in real time, on-the-fly. You can also add effects and experiment with looping features. Both also record all your actions (not just the resulting audio), so you can go back, listen to your mix, and make precise adjustments with studio-style editing capabilities.

MixMeister Fusion has a suggested retail price of $329.95, while MixMeister Studio lists at $169.95 Both are perfect for aspiring DJs and professionals alike. MixMeister Fusion and MixMeister Studio are currently available from most musical instrument retailers, and directly from MixMeister.com.

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Taking Credit Cards

Taking credit cards
You see the question asked constantly on the various message boards about taking credit cards. I’ll leave the debate to the message boards about whether or not to accept them and will give some information about to take them.There are a few options for taking credit cards: physical machine, virtual terminal online, PayPal or other website plug-in.

I’ll start with saying I personally use PayPal for my credit card processing (although I have used another website-more on that later). I’ve never used a machine so I can’t speak from experience on that but from what I’ve heard you can get lower transaction fees with physical machines than some of the online resources. The main difference is a lot of machine contracts include a monthly fee.

A virtual terminal basically gives you most of the features of a physical machine without actually having the machine. You do everything via a secure website or via cell phone. If you do a search on any search engine for “virtual credit card terminal” you’ll find a ton of websites that offer that service. For this example, I’m going to use ProPay.com.

ProPay.com offers a few levels of service, all of which have no monthly minimums. There is an annual fee ranging from $34.95-$399.95 depending on how much business you’ll be getting per transaction/month. I would guess most DJ companies would choose either the premium ($59.95 a year) or Premium Plus ($119.95 a year) which gives a monthly maximum of $3000 or $5000 dollars. With a ProPay account you can accept MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express and fees start at 3.25% for MC/Visa/Discover and 3.75% for American Express.

PayPal.com has a variety of options, including sending a bill via e-mail, virtual terminal and a payment gateway on your website. With PayPal there are no monthly or annual fees (unless you’re using their virtual terminal, which could incur a monthly fee), you just pay a percentage of each transaction plus a flat fee per transaction. The amount you pay per transaction starts at 2.9% and goes down from there depending on the volume of business you do.

2Checkout.com is a service that offers the ability to take payments via your website. 2Checkout charges a one-time $49 sign-up fee along with $.45 per transaction and 5.5% of each sale amount. There are no monthly fees, no minimums or other fees. Since it’s more than 2% higher per transaction than PayPal you might wonder why some people would use 2Checkout. I personally used 2Checkout for a few years because PayPal had the stigma of not being professional. However, there are so many big companies and websites that now offer PayPal as a payment option I personally think it’s very accepted nowadays for businesses to accept payment via PayPal.

Questions

Do you have a question about websites, improving your online presence or other internet related questions? If so, send it to jim@discoverydjs.com for possible inclusion in an upcoming column.

Website reviews…

Since it’s been a while since I’ve had a column, I should probably introduce website reviews to new readers and give a refresher to previous readers.

Every week, I review 1-2 DJ websites that are submitted to me via e-mail (jim@discoverydjs.com). I’ll tell you what’s good, what can use improving and will take an in-depth look at the overall effectiveness of your website. If you’d like your website to be reviewed for a future column please e-mail me the link to your website.

http://www.a2zmobilemusic.com

Good:
Contact information at the bottom of every page.

Suggestions:

Check punctuation & capitalization throughout website.
Remove links to AddMe, Wedding Spot, WeDJ, etc. from home page….create a links page for those links.
Don’t write in caps-it’s considered shouting.
How do I book my DJ page is cluttered.
Somewhere up in the top tan portion of every page you should have your location and/or phone number.
The background on your DJ Intelligence pages is very distracting.
You have some stock photos on your site and a photo gallery but you could use some pictures from your events on some of your pages.
You have some underlined text that isn’t a link.
Make your logo in the top left also link to your home page.
Your keywords in your meta tags don’t have any mention of Dallas, Ft. Worth or any location.
Some text is centered and some is left justified. Stay consistent (I personally think left justified looks better with your design).
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago and lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites and has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

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Let’s Not Get Personal

Last week I covered what to put on your website. This week I’ll be addressing the things you should leave off your site and common design mistakes.Personal pictures: It’s ok to have a family picture on your bio/about us page but anything more than that should be saved for your personal website or blog. Remember, it’s a business website.

Anything that spins or blinks: Have that cheesy spinning mirror ball on your site? Dump it. Have blinking par can lights? Drop those too. Just like clothes change style from year to year, websites do too and animated gifs went out of style five years ago. So, if you still have anything like that on your site, get rid of it-yesterday.
Weather: People can go to a weather website or look out their window if they want to see the weather. Probably one of the most useless things I’ve ever seen on a DJ site.

Pointless links: I’ve seen links to games, movies, search engines and more on DJ websites. Do you really think someone is on your website, goes to your links page and looks for a link to Google? Probably not. They’re on your website to find out information about your services. So, cut out any links that aren’t related to your business. It’s a waste of space, time and for the 1 person who might actually click on them, it could distract them from your site.

Really long pages: If you have to scroll the wheel on your mouse more than two times, the page is probably too long. Think about it from and end-users point of view-how much are you really going to read about a DJ company? Most people will probably read for 2-3 minutes (check your website stats and you’ll see that’s true).

So, make those 2-3 minutes count. Also use that time to engage them with something interactive-e-mail link, contact form, instant quote, music search, etc.
Too many buttons: I’ve seen DJ websites with a button (and page) for every type of event they provide services for. It’s a bit overwhelming to a website visitor to see 25 buttons/links for pages on your site. I personally think between 5-10 buttons is good. Any more or any less can work too but be careful because you could be leaving the website visitor with too many or not enough options.

Pop-ups or banner ads: Usually free hosting sites make you have banner ads or pop-ups-not very professional for a business. Pay for your hosting so your website visitors don’t have to deal with that.

Google Adsense/other advertising: This is really up to each business owner however I personally wouldn’t want this on my site. I do know some people who make some good money from Google Adsense links on their site, however I wonder how much traffic they’re driving away from their website.

Coming soon: When was the last time you were on a website for a large company and you saw ‘Coming Soon’ on a page? I doubt it’s ever happened. It’s frustrating as an end-user and it makes the company look unorganized & unprofessional. Don’t launch a page until it’s ready.

Questions

Do you have a question about websites, improving your online presence or other internet related questions? If so, send it to jim@discoverydjs.com for possible inclusion in an upcoming column.

Website review

Have a website you want reviewed? E-mail it to jim@discoverydjs.com

This week’s website is: http://www.beatmasterdj.com

Good:

Good bio.
Good pictures-nice the way they pop-up.

Suggestions:

You need your location somewhere on the home page.
Add a call to action (phone or e-mail) on the home page.
Add text to the home page.
Site looks homemade. Probably ok for schools/kids but I’d recommend either a template site or hire a designer to make you a site.
Some of your pages that require scrolling you have arrows at the bottom-any way to put scroll arrows on the side?
What’s supposed to be on the music page? Just says coming soon now. Either put something up there or remove the page.
Equipment page: It’s a waste-the main people who will look at it are other DJs.
Very lacking in text. What types of events do you DJ for? How about a company history/owner bio?

Overall this site looks like it was put together in about an hour or two. I’d recommend putting some serious time in on it if you want to make it better.
Jim Weisz has been a DJ since 1999, primarily serving the wedding and school dance markets. Jim is originally from Chicago and lived there until relocating to Dallas in 2003 to take a position with JonesTM (formerly TM Century). Jim has spoken at several national DJ conventions about websites and has also written more than a dozen articles for Mobile Beat magazine about websites and a variety of other topics. Jim can be reached at jim@discoverydjs.com.

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Business Is A Marathon

I recently started training for my next marathon after a month off. I ran a little during that month but without a strict training program to tell me “Run 4 miles on Tuesday” and “Do Hill Work on Wednesday” I took more days off then I ran and I generally relaxed and put on a coupla pounds. So last Monday, 18 weeks before my next 26 miler, I started a new training program. And to kick it off I decided to put a book that had been recommended to me on my iPod® and run with that for a few days. The book is a classic “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey and though I am only about an hour into the audio book (2 runs worth) I have already heard some great things. The person who recommended the book told me he listens to it every year and I can see why. It’s rich in common sense and good, universal advice.One of the things I enjoyed hearing about was “Principals.” Covey says “The situation may change and the practice may no longer apply but the principal will remain constant. (The Principal) will always apply.” After hearing that I turned off my iPod® and thought about how it applied to the DJ business.

When I broke into Mobile DJing in the late 80’s in North Jersey, I was trained by the late great Star DJs. Our style back then was highly interactive. Put it this way: their list of “must have” items for their new DJs included, not only a complete sound system and music library but a sequined jacket and limbo pole. We jumped up on speakers, did five-minute intros to songs and generally tried to be the “Chippendales” of Mobile DJing. That was the practice and the situation (our clients and the times) called for.

But time changes everything and we have found that our Brides ask for a different approach now. They want less interaction and certainly less of “us.” When I train my DJs now, our over all philosophy is to provide a fun atmosphere without taking over the wedding. And my sequined jacket has been collecting dust at the back of my closet for years now.

But the “Principal” has not changed. Mobile DJing (IMO) has always been about giving the client what they want, and providing a fun and enthusiastic atmosphere at every event. Just because I’m not jumping on speakers and bumping and grinding with the hottest Bridesmaid, doesn’t mean I’m a wallflower. I still get out on the dance floor for much of the fast dancing, lead any audience participation that they might want (yes the “Electric Slide” and its offspring are still popular “dance-floor-fillers” in these parts) and keep a smile plastered on my face all night long.

Stephen Covey reminded me of that today and I will be conscious of it in my own events and also when I talk to my staff. The practice of how we DJ has changed over time and it will continue to change (who knows maybe that sequined jacket will be back in vogue someday) but the Principal will never change.

Till next week….

Mike Walter’s emceeing career began in his hometown of Queens, New York in 1984. With an eye towards radio, Mike attended Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1988 where he was chosen from his class of 25 as “Most Likely to Succeed.” After school, Mike helped to develop a staff of DJs from 12 to over 50 by training new recruits and handling an increasingly complex schedule. In early 1993, Mike felt an increasing desire to venture out on his own and by March of that year he became a partner in a much smaller Mobile DJ company, Elite Entertainment. He quickly had an impact on the Elite staff, imposing his high standards of emceeing and DJing. Mike bought out his partner in 1998 and Elite Entertainment has continued its growth (21 emcees in 2006) and sets the standard for excellence in New Jersey. Mike has always believed in training talent from within and his message has helped show hundreds of DJs from across the country that it is possible to grow their companies without sacrificing quality.

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Your Customer Service

I wrote an article a few weeks ago that some people have commented to me about. I appreciate any kind of feedback about these articles so thank you to everyone who reached out.I told a story about John and Sue Park, the couple that owns the Dry Cleaners I frequent. Sue is out on pregnancy leave and I had a less then desirable experience dropping off clothes to their replacement person.

The experience made me think about (and write about) how important it is to teach customer service to your staff but I really didn’t go into any details of how to do this.

So I went back and found some notes for a Monthly Meeting that I have run in the past. This will be the topic of my meeting next month and if you hold regular meetings with your staff, I highly recommend driving this point home to your crew as well. I am aware that one of my DJs could throw an awesome party and have everyone in the room jamming, but if they ignore requests, aren’t approachable to anyone and treat people rudely we won’t get referrals. Word of Mouth is where the future of our company lies.

My meeting next week will start with the following questions. I will throw these out verbally and let a discussion get rolling off of each one:
What is your idea or definition of Customer Service?
Think about a time in your life when you’ve received great Customer Service.
Think about a time in your life when you’ve received bad Customer Service.
Why is it worth it to provide good Customer Service? If you fulfill an agreement between yourself and a client why bother “going the extra mile.”
Is there any compensation, financial or otherwise, for providing Customer Service?
How can you provide your clients with more Customer Service than you already do?
This last point is the question that I really dwell on. It comes from the same logic as Randy Bartlett’s 1% Solution. No matter how much you are already doing for your clients, think about a way you can do more. The last time we had this meeting we kicked around a lot of great ideas about improving our service. I am surprised that I have let so much time go by without having this discussion with my staff again.

The meeting on Monday is going to end with me recommending a book to my staff. It’s a book I read years ago about Customer Service and to this point it’s the best book I’ve ever read on the subject. But this time around, instead of recommending it, I’ve gone to Amazon.com and ordered 20 copies which I’ll be giving out to all my Emcees. The book is called: “Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service” by Ron Zemke. If you want to step up your own game in terms of “WOWing” your clients with service, or if you want to show your staff how to do the same thing, pick yourself up a copy (or twenty.)

Till next week . . .

Mike Walter’s emceeing career began in his hometown of Queens, New York in 1984. With an eye towards radio, Mike attended Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1988 where he was chosen from his class of 25 as “Most Likely to Succeed.” After school, Mike helped to develop a staff of DJs from 12 to over 50 by training new recruits and handling an increasingly complex schedule. In early 1993, Mike felt an increasing desire to venture out on his own and by March of that year he became a partner in a much smaller Mobile DJ company, Elite Entertainment. He quickly had an impact on the Elite staff, imposing his high standards of emceeing and DJing. Mike bought out his partner in 1998 and Elite Entertainment has continued its growth (21 emcees in 2006) and sets the standard for excellence in New Jersey. Mike has always believed in training talent from within and his message has helped show hundreds of DJs from across the country that it is possible to grow their companies without sacrificing quality.

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Feeling Patriotic

I got into it the other day with one of my DJs. He was complaining about a variety of things and I did my best to keep my cool while he ranted about, among other things, “only” having eight events this August. I tried to calmly point out that even though eight was down from his August last year, he had blocked off an entire weekend this year which kind of affected our opportunity to book him.He didn’t exactly see how those dots were connected.

Then he got to another point of contention, that he was booked on a lower end event on one of those Saturdays in August. My DJs get paid on a sliding scale, based on what the event was booked for. So, for example, on this night he was making $300 as opposed to an event that might pay him twice that.

And in one of those beautiful, clairvoyant moments, I stepped out of myself and listened to this conversation from afar. I had to smile a bit, especially being the week of Independence Day, and say to myself: Only in America.

It’s a great country where we can make a solid living DJing events, isn’t it? Throwing parties and working with couples and people who are celebrating great moments. And where else can a guy complain about working for the ungodly wages of $60 / hour and have his boss actually feel bad for him? Only in this great land of ours can an industry leader set his price at $5,000 per event and then, with the sweet freedom of speech that we all enjoy, get lambasted for trying to get others to raise their income as well. I mean, if you spend any time on the chat boards you’d think “Part-time vs Full-time” was as hot a topic as Roe v. Wade.

Only here do couples spend thirty, forty, sometimes fifty thousand dollars on one night of their lives often using borrowed money. And we as an industry hold seminars with the specific goal of getting a bigger piece of that pie. We’re worth more than broccoli we yell and scream. Give us our due!

I’ve never been an overly Patriotic person but when I think about the opportunities that America gives us, especially as small business owners, I am always amazed. So sometime this week, between the barbecues and the fireworks (illegal here in New Jersey) and all those 7/7/7 weddings this weekend, think about our forefathers who bravely signed that treasonous document and basically spat in the face of their King. Think about how their stubborn vision of a new Republic more than two-hundred years later affords us all the chance to make a better life for ourselves, and for our families. And think about the men and women in our armed forces who are risking life and limb to protect those very same freedoms and opportunities.

Think about how all those things come together to form this great country . . . in which we can have this awesome DJ industry . . . in which a guy can be booked on a Saturday in August, making $300 and think he’s being shortchanged.

Till next week . . .

Mike Walter’s emceeing career began in his hometown of Queens, New York in 1984. With an eye towards radio, Mike attended Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1988 where he was chosen from his class of 25 as “Most Likely to Succeed.” After school, Mike helped to develop a staff of DJs from 12 to over 50 by training new recruits and handling an increasingly complex schedule. In early 1993, Mike felt an increasing desire to venture out on his own and by March of that year he became a partner in a much smaller Mobile DJ company, Elite Entertainment. He quickly had an impact on the Elite staff, imposing his high standards of emceeing and DJing. Mike bought out his partner in 1998 and Elite Entertainment has continued its growth (21 emcees in 2006) and sets the standard for excellence in New Jersey. Mike has always believed in training talent from within and his message has helped show hundreds of DJs from across the country that it is possible to grow their companies without sacrificing quality.

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