I have a problem to solve. I organize specialized in-person and on-line events in the information security and Open Source niches. Managing events is a tough thing to do and any real help is a welcome thing. I've been looking to hire staff to do it for me, but that is only a partial solution. I still need to write event descriptions, set prices, set up promotions, and create PayPal payment links. Hiring someone to just post that information on the web seems like a bit of a fancy expense. Fortunately, I don't have to do it, because I found Eventbrite, who are now doing it for me, for a tiny fee.
Out of so many on-line services that vie for our attention, they are the ones who actually got it right. Instead of building yet another social networking site those guys built a tool for a specific purpose. And so far, I have nothing to complain about. Why would I complain when they are making money for me?
It takes a minute to open an account, then as much or as little time as you need to write a description of your event, define the maximum number of attendees, set up tickets (early birds, regular, groups, special offers, etc.), and once you are ready to announce your event one click will post it on the Eventbrite's site. There are many things to like about it, but the one I love is the way they handle the financial side of things. You give them your PayPal account address and they will automatically transfer the money paid into your account. One simple web form (four fields!) is all you need to fill in to create special promo codes, discounts, and affiliate programs. It really couldn't be simpler. For example, it has taken me 15 minutes to create a page for my upcoming webinar Surviving the War on Business Travel: Don't Let Anybody Steal Your Data. In that time I posted and edited the event description, added tickets, created an affiliate program that pays 50% of the ticket price, posted that information on the web, to Facebook, drank a small cup of coffee and tweeted about it. Evenbrite automatically creates an RSS feed for all of your events (you can subscribe to ours here) and they will add your affiliate programs to their own public affiliate page and feed. Having access to those feeds lets others easily republish that information on their own websites or even automatically join affiliate programs. You will also get HTML code for selling tickets on your site, an email tool to announce new events (just copy and paste email address of the people you want to notify), and they will event help you print the event badges. All that for a small fee that you can add on top of the ticket price or take out of the ticket price.
They also have their own affiliate program, so you can start making money promoting Eventbrite even if you don't host your own events. You can opt out of any such feature (why would you?) or password protect access to it, so you are always in control.
I particularly like the way they handle affiliate program setup. I've been looking for something like this for years and I have always been disgusted by the dodgy spamming, hard to use sites that were set on extracting every single penny from me offering while nothing in return.
You can join Eventbrite for free. They are not in the spam business, they are a legitimate site and I really enjoy using their services, which is something I say very rarely about those Web 2.0 sites. Speaking of which, their site is not quite the Web 2.0 eye candy extravaganza and that too might have something to do with the fact that it works so well. The core Web 2.0 technologies (RSS, Google Maps and Facebook integration) are there and done right, which means less copying and pasting for you.
There are not many webistes that offer a complete solution to real-life problems, but Eventbrite does and I am a devoted fan. Recommended!
DATE: Monday -- Friday, Feb 9 -- 13, 2009
