10 ways you could be making more money from your event listings

Sep 1, 2022

DAVID HAYNIE
CEO | CitySpark

In this flash session in San Francisco, we will discuss calendar monetization opportunities and revenue best practices gleaned from 10 years of powering local calendars for more than 1,000 publications in communities of all sizes.

Audiences consistently rate community calendars and local event information among the most desired elements on local media sites. In order to meet this expectation (and associated opportunity), publishers often feel they are faced with a difficult choice — either heavily invest in staff and resources dedicated to populating and maintaining a sufficient calendar or offer a sparsely populated calendar, with an ‘if we build it, (I hope) they will come’ approach. These choices leave little staff bandwidth, or drive insufficient engagement, for generating revenue from these efforts. Not surprisingly, neither approach has proven to be entirely sustainable, and revenue is often fleeting. Fortunately, those are not the only two choices.

Before revenue can be considered, however, it must be emphasized that a critical mass of local event listings is the foundation of any successful community calendar. This can be attempted by staff (at a high cost, both in terms of dollars and opportunity cost), or by leveraging available services and technology to do the heavy lifting. However, without a requisite level of local content, engagement and its accompanying monetization will be difficult to achieve. Once content has been solved, revenue can be addressed.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Join David's flash session, Friday, October 7, 11:30 a.m.-noon or 3-3:30 p.m.