== Tips for those Looking to Do Online Vendor Fairs ==

[ravish30]

Bella and I just recorded a show with Kelly McCausey for wahmtalkradio.

http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/

It will be available to listen to some time this coming monday (tomorrow) so make sure you tune in on Monday.

We talked about what makes a good fair and what makes a bad fair along with tips a Vendor should look for before signing up to do a online fair.

Bella and I just did a Vendor Fair Orientation Chat 2 weeks ago teaching newbies what a fair is all about etc. You would be amazed at the women who want to do fairs but have NO clue on what to do.

Here are some Tips.....The GOOD Stuff to look for in regards to a Vendor Fair:

#1. Convenience....are the times posted for the Vendor Fair Time Slots, convenient...what I mean is this....are the time slots great ones that can be utilized by all time zones?

Example: a 9am to 12 noon EST time are NOT good time slots because West Coast Shoppers are still in bed or busy that early in the morning.

#2. Is there a Fair Buzz? Are you seeing Fair Advertising? Are you seeing others talking about it? Does it have a previously established success rate?

#3. Fair Spots should run 30-60 minutes in length. Anything under 30 minutes is a joke in my opinion. I once attended a fair that the vendors had 10 minute spots....are you kidding me? By the time they got done with their intro....they cut them off and moved onto the next vendor. Anything over 60 minutes loses the customers attention.

#4. Be prepared ahead of time. Type up what you want to say, the specials you are running and so forth. Proof-read it and then copy/paste when its your time to present.

#5. Will there be staff or owner of the fair in the chat room at all times? This is important because you will get losers who run around who invade chat rooms to cause trouble. So make sure the fair host or staff will be present should problems arise. PHYSICALLY present in the chat room! Not available via PM, IM or email.

#6. Incentives for Fair Shoppers! Will there be contest drawings? Fair only specials? All of this helps to attract shoppers to the event.

#7. Is there a back up chat room? When we hold fairs we have a back up chat room available should the host server go down. This is also an important fact that is often over looked. I also prefer fairs that the owner uses a PAID chat room. They are more reliable, have nicer features and if trouble makers show up, they can be booted and banned.

#8. Rules and Guidelines for Vendors. I think this helps to run a cohesive fair. Vendors should know UP FRONT what their responsibilities will be. Vendors should have to agree to them before signing up.

#9. Reasonable Vendor Fee's aka the costs. I think it should be less than $20 per spot.

#10. Reputation...extremely important! There are way too many website owners doing these vendor fairs and not properly promoting them! They are taking your hard earned money and it ends up being a handful (less than 5 people) in the fair and they are ALL vendors!!!! This tee's me off to NO end when I see this!

Ask around...see if others have done that particular fair and find out if it was successful for them! The more you ask...the more you find out!

#11. Variety...again this is important! You don't want to attend or participate in a fair that doesn't have a variety of vendors on board! The more variety, the more shoppers it pulls in. I once attended a fair that had 4 MK consultants in 1 1/2 days! Then there were 3 other cosmetic companies also being presented during that time...too many cosmetic consultants! So make sure there is a variety. I like to see fairs that limit it to ONLY 2 reps per company and that those reps can NOT present on the same day.

#12. Is this fair being held on a professional looking website? I get irritated when I see these fair owners charging for fair spots but hosting the fair on a freebie website and using a freebie chat room or the website is not professionally done. Customers upon entering a fair site or chat room should see professional looking sites! You want customers to take your business seriously!

#13. Is there Vendor Orientation Chats before the fair begins? I feel this is helpful too, especially to newbie vendors! Orientation Chats should occur to explain to you the process of the fair, your responsibilities and so forth. We hold optional Vendor Orientation Chats before our fairs.

#14. Is there sufficient Pre-Fair communication between the vendor and fair site owner? Are they keeping you informed on things before the fair starts? I feel this is important too...way too many times I see NO communication between Fair owner and the Vendor.

#15. Are you added to the Fair Schedule Promptly? How often is the public fair schedule updated? I had a friend who did a online fair and the fair owner took 9 days to add her to the fair schedule!

#16. Are you provided with free banners, buttons and fair ads? We provide free banners, buttons and ads to our Vendors so they can help us advertise the fair as a WHOLE. This is great advertising and should be utilized. We require our vendors to help us advertise the event. The more we all pitch in to help advertise the event, the better the turn out and success!

#17. I also believe Vendors should be screened. Is this fair site owner allowing anyone and everyone to be a vendor? Are they checking out the Vendors to make sure they are legit?

So that is a few of the things you should look for with trying to find a good fair.

My next post will deal with some things you should stay away from.

[ravish30]

Now for the BAD and the UGLY LOL

Things that I think are BAD in regards to Vendor Fairs....

#1. Fair Site owners NOT promoting the event! The ONLY place you see it being advertised is on the fair owners website! I believe it should be advertised online and offline and I also believe that vendors should help to advertise the event. (see my previous post)

#2. Presentation times...stay away from Fairs that give you less then 30 minutes to present your show.

#3. If the owner, host or staff member is not going to be in the chat room at all times...then I would avoid that fair.

#3. No back up chat room....well, they don't get my business either.

#4. What is this fair host/owners policy regarding spammers who enter the chat room and take away from your presentation time? This is important because lately we see a lot of people coming to fairs and spamming people with their biz info and they are NOT a paid vendor!

#5. Fair Vampires? Okay...so you want to know what they are huh? Fair Vampires are people who run around attending all the fairs they can find online to simply JUST play the vendor games! They play to try to win all the prizes that they can...they have NO intention on purchasing anything and make a career out of crashing fairs to just play the games and to win prizes....what is that fair owners policy regarding that? Do they immediately remove these vampires? If they are hosting the fair in a FREE chat room...mostly likely not. Most (90%) of free chat rooms do not have booting and blocking power.

#6. Is this fair site holding weekly fairs? If so, I stay away from them because too many fairs means customers and YOU get burned out! You want to be known...but not like that! I limit myself to a few online fairs a year....I don't do them weekly! I find that these weekly fair sites are not being promoted properly and really there is NO buzz about their big events. There is one weekly fair site online that I am totally disgusted with as the ONLY people who show up for it are Vendors! Ugh!

#7. I also do NOT like the fair sites that the ONLY advertising going on is by the Vendors!!!! I think the advertising should be done by both the fair site owner and by the vendors.

#8. Ask the fair site owner STRAIGHT UP where he/she is advertising this event? Then go check it out to make sure you are seeing ads for the event and NOT ads for the website itself! I ask this and way too often they tell me where and I go and check it out and low and behold its banners and ads promoting their website and NOT the fair itself!

#9. Fair Hours...morning eastern standard time fair slots are not good slots to have. West Coast people are still sleeping. I find the late afternoon, early evening and late evening slots are best.

#10. Fair Clique Groups....ugh, I hate seeing these! What do I mean? Well at some fair sites you will find a few girls who ONLY buy from one another period! They don't buy from the newbie vendors! We all do the fairs to support one another period! Again, I know a fair site that is famous for this and other bad behavior!

#11. I think the fair site should provide you with a fair button, banner and ad so that you can help advertise the event and do so for FREE.

I could go on and on! LOL

So make sure you listen to wahm talk radio on Monday to hear our opinions on all of this!

http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/

I am also working on a nice lengthy checklist and article about this subject that I hopefully will have finished next week.

[ccarroll]

Great tips Shelly!

And I loved the show! Bella sounded scared LOL

Chris

[ravish30]

Bella is on the timid side until she gets to know you. She is very soft spoken but enjoyed doing the show with me!

Shelly