Online ticket sales

Cracker Funk

Cracker Funk

Anybody sold tickets online before? What's the best way?

I'm hosting a one-night screening of "Antihero" in January. I've looked into online ticket sales sites, like tix.com, and will probably go that route, but I'm wondering if there's a better way. Tix charges $1 per ticket, and that seems a little steep to me.

I was contemplating some way for people to be able to pay me, directly, via paypal. My problem with that is that I have no website-building savvy, at all, so I think setting up a purchase/payment page would be out of my league.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
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It should be fairly simple. Do you have a web hosting site already?


I'd suggest setting up your web page using Joomla (there's a shitload of free templates that are customizable), then simply add one of many Joomla extensions for Paypal. It's "click, click, click" and it's done.
 
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Joomla is a CMS, so it will simply facilitate using your site for things like eCommerce, but there are also free templates that you can play about with.

But the same is true of pretty much anything like this. With Wordpress of Blogger you can easily set up a page and put a PayPal button on it. I would just point out that unless everyone who is buying a ticket knows and trusts you, I would be apprehensive about using the Paypal system.

Sure some of these ticket sales website's will take a cut but they offer two important factors: advertising and validity.

Personally I would never contemplate buying a ticket for something off a website that's just hooked up to a PayPal account, simply for security reasons. But if you know all the people who are going to be buying tickets then that shouldn't be a problem. I don't know any US ticket sales sites but I'd certainly invesigate that avenue a little further before settling on setting up your own sales method.

I'll have a poke about and see if anything springs up...

EDIT: http://www.neptix.com/sell/
 
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Thanks, Nick, but I'm not quite sure I understand your apprehension with Paypal. I thought the entire point of Paypal is that it's secure. Paypal allows you to use your credit card for online purchases, but the website you're purchasing from will never see your credit card number. Paypal is the only company that has access to your credit card, and they're pretty darn secure (and, they give refunds if the product is never delivered).

Cool website, Charles.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Thanks, Nick, but I'm not quite sure I understand your apprehension with Paypal. I thought the entire point of Paypal is that it's secure. Paypal allows you to use your credit card for online purchases, but the website you're purchasing from will never see your credit card number. Paypal is the only company that has access to your credit card, and they're pretty darn secure (and, they give refunds if the product is never delivered).

Cool website, Charles.
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No, I agree on this. When I pay for anything online I insist on PayPal.

My point is more that if I go on a site and see someone saying that if they pay me $10 via PayPal I will send them a ticket to my movie, I'm a little apprehensive.

My problem is simply that in doing it that way I am sending the money straight to your bank account without any form of official recognition of receiving something in return. Sure, you can put in the little PayPal box 'Cinema Ticket' but I would imagine that people who are just casually browsing would be worried about sending money across with only the promise of receiving something in return.

This is just my attitude though. I added a link at the end of my previous post, which is probably similar to tix.com but it seems a pretty decent way to go...
 
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NickClapper said:
No, I agree on this. When I pay for anything online I insist on PayPal.

My point is more that if I go on a site and see someone saying that if they pay me $10 via PayPal I will send them a ticket to my movie, I'm a little apprehensive.

My problem is simply that in doing it that way I am sending the money straight to your bank account without any form of official recognition of receiving something in return. Sure, you can put in the little PayPal box 'Cinema Ticket' but I would imagine that people who are just casually browsing would be worried about sending money across with only the promise of receiving something in return.

This is just my attitude though. I added a link at the end of my previous post, which is probably similar to tix.com but it seems a pretty decent way to go...
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Oh, ok I see. Thanks.I think I'm gonna have them print their own ticket, sent via email. Either that, or they get their name on a list at the door. Or, maybe both.
 
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Uranium City said:
We used TicketLeap for our premiere last October with no problems.

A majority of our pre-event ticket sales were done right from the venue's box office website, though.

What's the venue?
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Thanks.

Yeah, I'm still considering using ticketleap. $1 per ticket seems to be the least expensive I can find. We're screening it at a local movie theater.

http://www.byrdtheatre.com/

I'm assuming most sales will be at the box office, but I want to give people the option of an advance sale.
 
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Brown Paper Tickets

http://brownpapertickets.com/

You're welcome.
smiley_tiphat.gif
 
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Great looking theatre Cracker. I love those old cinemas...

Will you be considering an online screening for us folks in the United Kingdom and other foreign territories? That would be cool...
 
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NickClapper said:
Great looking theatre Cracker. I love those old cinemas...

Will you be considering an online screening for us folks in the United Kingdom and other foreign territories? That would be cool...
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Yes! A realtime streaming extrravaganza! There could be a realtime interview with the director and crew, then the main attraction, then a question and answer period with the director afterwards. You can charge for access to the online event. sweet!
 
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Thanks for the link, Zensteve.

The Byrd is such an awesome theater! It's in it's original condition, except for having paint re-touched and what not. Beautiful paintings and decorations everywhere, with a giant chandeleire. The surprising thing is that the screen is actually decent size, and the audio sounds rather good.

The problem with the theater is that it's in it's original condition. The seats are tiny and super-uncomfortable. The bathrooms are tiny, and super-gross. If they could fix those two things, it would be Richmond's premiere theater, and I'm confident people would wait in line to see first-run movies there. It's also in a really cool nieghborhood.

In it's current state, though, they are Richmond's second-run theater, which is also a cool thing, because they only charge $2 admission.

The event is Jan 25th, at 7PM. Anyone who's Facebook friends with me should've gotten an invite (though, I assumed it was more of a token invite, cuz I'm not expecting any Indietalkers to make the drive).

Will I screen it online? Perhaps. Perhaps not. All depends on the success-level of getting into festivals, etc., and what happens from there. Honestly, I have no clue how small or great the chances are of getting into festivals like SXSW and Seattle International. On the one hand, those are extremely competitive. On the other hand, this movie is pretty good. Are my chances one-in-ten? Or is it more like one-in-ten-thousand? Honestly, I have no idea what is going to happen to this movie.

Whether I get into those bigger fests, or not, I will be submitting to smaller fests as well, in an attempt to get regional coverage all over the place. So, hopefully, it'll be coming to a festival near you.

Thanks for the interest, and for the help figuring out ticket sales.
 
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Will I screen it online? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
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Would a private online screening, in a secure site with password protection hurt your festival chances at all? Might be a good source of income. I'd be down for it... Maybe it'd get you some good word of mouth and a nice 20-100 USD passive income per day.

You could also tour the movie like a band. Tons of new ways to do things in this era.

Do you have an official facebook page for the movie? Not so hard to add paypal to a website or facebook page. Just assign each ticket a 6 digit number or something.

I have a feeling you're going to do well at some point...
 
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