Free Ticket Classifieds Blog

Tips and Tricks to Market Your Tickets at FreeTicketClassifieds.com

Guest Blog at Free Ticket Classifieds?

Mar 4

Posted by admin in Free Ticket Classifieds News | No Comments

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The secondary ticket market is one of the biggest online industries in the United States with literally tens of thousands of events and millions of tickets offered by thousands of ticket brokers. Although competition in this industry can be fierce, there are so many events and so many tickets to market and there is plenty of room for success and growth. As such Free Ticket Classifieds would like to foster a community of ticket sellers that are willing to share there successes, failures, and ways in which they promote tickets both at Free Ticket Classifieds and via other online means.

We are looking for Free Ticket Classifieds (FTC) users to submit articles regarding their marketing strategies, how they use of FTC, or anything relevant the secondary ticket industry. By writing for FTC you will not only be helping out our community but you will also be establishing yourself and your company as a leader in this competitive market.

While we feel that Free Ticket Classifieds is one of the best tools many brokers use to effectively reach customers and promote their respective ticket inventories, we are always looking for ways to improve and welcome your thoughts and feedback. If you are interested in writing for the FTC Blog please contact us!

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Competing with Craigslist?

Feb 10

Posted by admin in Free Ticket Classifieds News | 8 Comments

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This post may be a bit unrelated to “Ticket Classifieds”, but I’ve often been asked by others who are looking to tap into the online classifieds market about what it takes to make it and can Craigslist.org be surpassed as the undisputed “King of Classifieds”. Before I delve into this question further, let’s identify some of the top online classifieds sites out there (Alexa Traffic Rank in parentheses).

  1. Craigslist.org (#38)
  2. Gumtree.com (#936)
  3. Backpage.com (#1021)
  4. Kijiji.com (#2953)
  5. Oodle.com (#3066)
  6. USFreeAds.com (#4,762)
  7. Yakaz.com (#10,083) 1.2 M
  8. Classifiedads.com (#10,263)
  9. AdlandPro.com (#10,433)
  10. Vast (#18,939)
  11. DomesticSale.com (#20,766)
  12. Recycler.com (#28,071)
  13. Sell.com (#29,400)
  14. ePage.com (#31,067)
  15. uPillar.com (#79, 591)
  16. FreeTicketClassifieds.com (#82,145)
What you notice from this list is that you have Craigslist (CL), then a huge gap between the next closest competitor.It would seem that CLs grasp on the market is pretty insurmountable until you consider the fact that Craigslist has 40+ for sale categories, 30+ Jobs categories, personals, and their forums spread across hundreds of cities. So when you consider Craigslist has at least 100 different sections in at least 100 different major cities (10,000 total sections), their 50 million monthly visitors (US) equate to roughly 5000 visitors per month, per category, per city. While that is still a fair amount of traffic and is not evenly distributed, it clearly illustrates that it is feasible to break into the market by simply focusing on a particular niche or geographic location.

Even more promising is the fact that other popular sites like GumTree.com, Backpage.com, and Oodle.com all have significant traffic spread out across the same categories and geographic locations. You take their traffic and spread it out across all their categories and cities and you are talking approximately only 200 vistors per month! While it’s important to remember that these are just averages, it just goes to show you the tremendous opportunity there is for new online classifieds websites if you focus on one niche. Remember, Craigslist started as a local classifieds site just for the San Franciscon Bay Area.

At Free Ticket Classifieds we feel we are well on our way to becoming (if we aren’t already) the “King of Ticket Classifieds” as indicated by our continued increases in traffic and growth. While the ticket categories at Craigslist may still be getting more traffic in major US cities, there is no question that we have surpassed internet giants Backpage.com, Oodle.com, Kijiji.com, and Gumtree.com. Further, our current Alexa rank of 82,145 represents traffic for roughly 1/200 of the US classified market. Factoring that in, our relative Alexa rank would be around 410! A few more months of steady growth and FreeTicketClassifieds.com is poised to take over Craigslist as the largest and most visited online ticket classifieds website.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Top February Events

Jan 31

Posted by admin in Ticket Rankings & Trends | 4 Comments

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It’s no secret that January and February are some of the slowest months for ticket sales.  During the fall and winter NFL Tickets and College football tickets sales surge but with both seasons over, there is a large void in the ticket market.  NBA, NHL, and NCAA (basketball) seasons are in full swing but demand for regular season tickets is generally low and the playoff and March Madness are still a long ways away.  This is also the time of year that many concert performers take a break and gear up for their summer tours.   Although this is the time of year that many of these highly anticipated tickets go on sale, conversion are usually greatest as the event date nears.  So with that in mind, what are the top upcoming events for February 2010?

2010 San Antonio Rodeo (February 4 th to February 20th) – ATT Center

The 2010 San Antonio Rodeo will feature some of the hottest pop and coutry artists performing live at the ATT Center in San Antonio.  The 2010 Lineup includes notable recording artists such as Lady Antebellum, Tim McGraw, Selena Gomez, Foreigner, Rodney Atkins, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, Alan Jackson, Toby Keith, Gary Allan, and many more.  Free Ticket Classifieds already has some great tickets available to many of these show in our Texas Concert Ticket Classifieds.

Super Bowl XLIV (February 7th, 2010) – Sun Life Stadium, Miami, Florida

What list of top events in February would be complete without the Super Bowl?  The Super Bowl is perhaps the biggest event in the world and these tickets are in high demand.  With the high demand comes a large tickets price – face value tickets start at $900+.  While Super Bowl tickets are not likely to sell at large volumes, the high point price makes selling Super Bowl tickets highly profitable.

NBA All Star Game (February 14, 2010) – Dallas Cowboys Stadium

TicketCity Tickets

Of all the major sports All Star events, the NBA version is perhaps the most in-demand and anticipated events.  This year the NBA All Star Game will be held at the new Dallas Cowboys Satdium and all 85,000+ tickets have already been sold.  The large amount of tickets available and large demand should mean that a large volume of tickets will be sold to the All Star game itself, as well as, the NBA All Star Rookie Challenge and NBA All Star Saturday events.  The NBA All Star Saturday will feature the Shooting Stars competition, the Skills Challenge, the Three-point shootout, and the Slam Dunk contest.

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games (February 12 th to February 28th)

While Free Ticket Classifieds primarily features tickets from events in the United States, the 2010 Winter Games will be held just over the border in Vancouver Canada.  That means lots of people from the US will head north to see Olympians battle for the gold in many popular events.  Some of the most popular events include Mens Ice Hockey, Snowboarding, Skiing, and figure skating.  Also extremely popular are the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.  To Post or view Winter Games ads check out our Winter Games Ticket Classifieds.

John Mayer – Tour Begins February 4, 2010 in Sunrise Florida

John Mayer’s high anticipated tour will kickoff in early February as he travels through Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Canada, and winds down the month with big stops in Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York.  Look for John Mayer tickets to fly off the shelves as each date approaches throughout February.

Black Eyed Peas -  15 February show begining February 4, 2010

Like John Mayer, like Black Eyed Peas will kickoff their 2010 tour in February fresh off several Grammy Awards. Fergie and crew will begin the tour with a sold out show in Atlanta.  February will also feature shows in popular cities such as Miami, Tampa, Nashville, Columbus, Raleigh, Charlotte, Washington DC, New York, and Boston.  This tour should sell strong throughout the month.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Super Bowl XLIV: Indianapolis Colts vs. New Orleans Saints

Jan 24

Posted by admin in Free Ticket Classifieds News | 6 Comments

Peyton Manning and Drew Brees will battle it our for the Super Bowl XLIV title!

Peyton Manning and Drew Brees will battle it our for the Super Bowl XLIV title!

Well, the AFC and NFC Conference Championship are complete and we now have our Super Bowl 44 teams set.  This year the New Orleans Saints will face off against the Indianapolis Colts in what should amount to one of the best Super Bowls in recent memory.  Not only do you have the post-Katrina New Orleans story, but you also have the battle of 2 of the best Quarterbacks in the NFL with Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.  What’s more is that the NFL Championship will feature 2 of the highest scoring offenses in NFL history.  While this game may not be a defensive battle this shootout should have the gamblers and fans on the edge of their seats all game.

For those in the ticket industry, the Super Bowl marks one of the biggest sales opportunity of the year.  With tickets prices averaging around $2500 a ticket big profits are to be made.  Even more some Super Bowl Luxury Suite tickets are some of the most expensive tickets ever going for almost $300,000.00!  Sell a couple of those and your year is probably set.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Using Keywords in your Ticket Ads

Jan 9

Posted by admin in Ticket Posting Tips | No Comments

It’s been a while since our last post (before the holidays) and we thought it would be time to focus today’s lesson on a simple and often overlooked technique to get your ticket ads more traffic – use good meta keywords!   Although meta keywords alone are no longer a major factor search engines consider when ranking search results, they should not be left off the page as they help direct the search engines as to what terms in your post are important. In fact, we feel they are so important they are mandatory when submitting your ticket ad.

Often overlooked, well crafted keywords can bring even more highly targeted traffic to your ticket ad!

Often overlooked, well crafted keywords can bring even more highly targeted traffic to your ticket ad!

When posting an ad it’s always a good idea to put together a mental list of the most important search terms.  When you make your list, start by looking over the ad copy on the submit ad form and ask yourself, “what terms are users likely to use when search for tickets to your event?”.  Pick  the terms that most accurately describe the event and tickets for sale and are likely to be used in internet searches.  Because of the uber-competitiveness of the current search engine placement landscape in the ticket industry, pages need to be very focused on one or two specific keyword phrases in order to have a chance to get a top ten placement.  For example, an ad about 2010 Winter Games snowboarding  and hockey tickets doesn’t have much of a chance to get high placement for either “2010 Winter Games Hockey Tickets” or “2010 Winter Games Snowboarding Tickets”.  Essentially, your keywords would have to be all over the place and this dilutes the value of each keyword.  This is why we do not allow (nor recommend) generic ads.  Each ad posted should represent a group of tickets to a specific event and your should be able to describe that with 4 keyword terms or phrases.

So now that we have covered the basics of keywords, let’s try some examples.  Let’s say you are looking to sell tickets to 2010 Winer Games Snowboarding Events- what are the key terms that best describe the event and the ticket that are for sale?  Let’s make a list and answer the 4 basic questions that are critical to ticket ads:

  • What is the event? 2010 Winter Games Snowboarding
  • When is the event? 2/15/2010
  • Where is the event? Cypress Mountain, Victoria, British Columbia
  • Where are the tickets? Category A Reserved

Now after having answered those basic questions, you have your finely tuned keyword list:  “2010 Winter Games Snowboarding, 2/15/2010, Cypress Mountain, Victoria, British Columbia, Category A Reserved”.  Now you’ve just told the search engines what are the important terms in your ad!  It’s that simple.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Recent (and future?) Upgrades at Free Ticket Classifieds

Dec 16

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At Free Ticket Classifieds we are always looking for ways to improve our site and enhance the user experience. To that end we have made a few changes and are working on even more. The change we recently made was by altering the look and feel of the “Featured Ads” that scroll above the content on all pages. Previously the featured ads showed 4 ads simulataneously and was a bit difficult to read and consequently didn’t quite grab the attention of ticket buyers.

To fix this we modified the scrolling featured ads to show on 1 ad at a time and enlarged the text and picture. To accommplish this and keep everything uniform, you will have to include a picture in your ad if you want it to appear in the “Featured Ads” (Premium Members Only!). The feedback we have gotten from this change have been extremely positive but we always welcome other opinions.

While we are not ready or necessarily considering major design changes we have been tinkering with an entirely new layout. If you are interested in taking a look the work in progress simply look at the top of the right sidebar. There you will see a pull down menu that allows you to select a theme. Select “Aperture” to take a peek. The new template is fully functional but there are many flaws that don’t quite display properly. Any thoughts and feedback on the new look are appreciated!

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Converting Traffic into Ticket Sales

Dec 10

Posted by admin in Ticket Posting Tips | 4 Comments

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If you have been listing your tickets on Free Ticket Classifieds you will probably notice each ad gets quite a bit of traffic (especially if you upgraded your account to a premium membership!) thanks to our search engine optimization efforts. However, traffic does not necessarily equate to click-throughs or sales. Since roughly 85% of our traffic comes directly through search engines many ticket buyers are shopping around looking for the best deal. Since pretty much all the ticket infomation is included in the ad most buyers have no incentive to click-thourgh unless they are VERY interested in purchasing the tickets. Don’t think of this as a bad thing – essentially you are getting highly targeted traffic from visitors that are interested in purchasing tickets. Below are some tips to help you maximize click-throughs and sales:

1). List tickets at competitive prices.

Some of the tickets that get the most traffic are also the same tickets that are the most expensive. You may get a lot of traffic by posting an ad for a Taylor Swift concert but you may be much more successful selling tickets to a Weezer concert. Ultimately sales are most important so focus on actually selling tickets.

2). Put some thought and effort into each ad.

Users can usually tell which ads are posted hastily with a copy and paste template that provide little in terms of details. This is your chance to be a salesperson and tell the user why they should buy from you. Not many people have a favorable view of ticket brokers and human element can go a long way towards gaining the trust of ticket buyers.

3). Make it clear how to purchase the tickets.

People have a short attention span and will move on to other ads if you do not make it clear how to purchase the tickets. If you plan to coordinate the sale through email, encourage users to click the reply button. If you want them to follow a link, make sure the link stands out from other text in the ad description. For links, the most successful method seems to be placing a hyperlinked “Buy Now” button in the ad description. To place a button in the ad description just use the following HTML snippet:

<p><a href=”http://YOUR LINK HERE.com”><img src=”http://YOUR IMAGE LINK HERE.jpg” title=”Your title”></a></p>

If you want us to host your button image let us know and we can upload it for you.

While these suggestions have been proven to be successful it’s most important to do what works for you. Feel free to expirament with different ad copy to see what gets the best results. Ultimately, the best way to be successful is to sell a quality product and offer good service at a good price.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Top 10 College Football Bowl Games 2009-2010

Dec 5

Posted by admin in Ticket Rankings & Trends | No Comments

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Today is college football’s Championship Saturday and football fans around the nation will be eagerly awaiting the outcomes of the Big 12 and SEC Championship games .  The action that takes place on the field today will determine which teams are going to the BCS National Championship game and what teams end up going to the BCS Championship game will influence who will be invited to all the other major bowl games.

Most in the ticket industry know that the College Football Bowl game season is one of the biggest sales opportunities of the year.  This year will be no exception as popular teams like the Texas Longhorns, Florida Gators, and Alabama Crimson Tide will all be vying for a birth in the championship game.

While the BCS National Championship game will surely be a big seller, the following Top 10 bowl games should also attract eager ticket buyers (predicted teams in parentheses, bold denotes confirmed):

  1. BCS Championship Game (Florida Gators vs. Texas Longhorns)
  2. Rose Bowl (Oregon Ducks vs. Ohio State Buckeyes)
  3. Sugar Bowl (Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Cincinnati Bearcats)
  4. Orange Bowl (Georgia Tech vs. TCU)
  5. Fiesta Bowl (Iowa vs. Boise State)
  6. Cotton Bowl (Oklahoma State vs. Mississippi)
  7. Alamo Bowl (Texas Tech vs. Michigan State)
  8. Sun Bowl (Cal vs. Oklahoma Sooners)
  9. Chick-Fil-A Bowl (Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech)
  10. Capital One Bowl (Penn State vs. LSU)
  11. Holiday Bowl (USC vs. Nebraska)
  12. Emerald Bowl (Boston College vs. Stanford)
  13. Maaco Bowl (Oregon State vs. BYU)

Ok, so we included a few more than just 10 Bowl games- with such a lineup of potentially great games it was really difficult to narrow it down to just 10.  Be sure to check out the many great deals on these college football bowl games over in our NCAA Tickets section.

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Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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Top Holiday Tickets

Nov 27

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It’s “Black Friday” and if your not rushing out to the stores and fighting the crowds to find that perfect Christmas present, your probably contemplating what to get that special someone.  Top on many holiday wish lists are some of the hot sports and concert events that will be taking place in 2010.  Base on searches and views, here are some the hottest tickets this holiday season…..

  1. Taylor Swift Tickets
  2. Rose Bowl Tickets
  3. Lady Gaga Tickets
  4. BCS National Championship Tickets
  5. Bruins vs. Flyers Winter Classic Tickets
  6. Radio City Christmas Spectacular
  7. Orange Bowl Tickets
  8. Miley Cyrus Tickets
  9. Fiesta Bowl Tickets
  10. Sugar Bowl Tickets

Some events that just missed the list include John Mayer, the 2010 Masters, and the 2010 Winter Games tickets.  While many of these tickets are not cheap, Free Ticket Classifieds is featuring some great deals on these tickets- especially for the upcoming bowl season.  So if you are still looking for Christmas gifts feel free to browse the largest selection ticket classified ads on the web at Free Ticket Classifieds!

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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College Football Set To Take Center Stage

Nov 22

Posted by admin in Ticket Rankings & Trends | 2 Comments

The Texas Longhorns will be looking to take home the Big 12 Championship trophy and a trip to the BCS National Championship Game.

The Texas Longhorns will be looking to take home the Big 12 Championship trophy and a trip to the BCS National Championship Game.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and that means college football is on the mind of many sports fans and ticket buyers alike.  For many NCAA teams this upcoming week signals the end of the regular season and the beginning of the bowl and championship season.  After the conclusion of Saturday’s games, the participants in the major conference championships are set and tickets are a hot commodity.

In the SEC, the Florida Gators will take on the Alabama Crimson Tide in the title game on December 5th at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.  More than the SEC Title is on the line as the winner will likely earn a birth in the BCS Championship game.  Ticket to the SEC Championship are already one of the most search for tickets at Free Ticket Classifieds.

The Big 12 will feature two college football powerhouses in the Texas Longhorns and Nebraska Cornhuskers.  This year the title game will be held on 12/5/2009 at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Texas.  Longhorn fans are sure to be abundant with the game being played in their home state.  If the Longhorns win they will likely face the winner of the SEC Championship in the BCS National Championship.

For the ACC Championship,  the Clemson Tigers will square off against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on December 5th, 2009.   The game is big as the ACC Champion will go on to the Orange Bowl.

Although the Big 10 does not play a championship game,the Ohio State Buckeyes pulled out a victory over Iowa last Saturday and will head to the Rose Bowl to play the PAC-10 Champion.   The PAC-10 Champion will be decided on December 3rd as the Oregon State Beavers will take on the Oregon Ducks in Eugene.

Tickets for the above mentioned games are already in high demand and will be dominating the ticket market for the next few weeks.  We expect strong traffic and sales for these games that will lead us to selection Sunday.  For those veterans of the secondary ticket market, Selection Sunday is the #1 day for sales for the entire year as frenzied college football fans are ready to make holiday travel plans to watch their favorite team shoot for a National title.

Ticket Summit 2010: The Venetian, Las Vegas
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