One of my side gigs is promoting concerts. I’ve been doing in on and off since I was a kid. I play gigs too. Honestly, if you want to play gigs and have anyone show up you need to have some degree of understanding promotion.

I joined my first band when I was 13. This dirty longhaired kid walked up to me while I was at the roller rink and asked me if I wanted to be in a band. I had long hair. I told him I only played clarinet. He told me that meant I was the keyboard player. I had a tiny monophonic kids keyboard at home so I said yes. From then on, it was something right out of Beavis and Butthead. We even looked the parts. To this day I wonder what my life would have looked like it I had leaned against the Ms. Pac Man machine instead of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one.

Things have changed a lot over the years when it comes to putting on concerts. It used to be that you got a ton of posters printed and you put them up everywhere. That still happens to some degree but a lot of it happens online. I’m old school though. There’s just something about a physical flyer that a Facebook invite just doesn’t match.

I had to search far and wide to find an online retailer who could deliver as quickly and cheaply as I needed to turn a profit. My allay came from a strange corner. I knew Vistaprint as the “Free Business Card” people. I must have had 20 different cards back in the day, all courtesy of VistaPrint.

I never would have guessed it but it turns out that Vistaprint is HUUUUUUUGE! They can create and fulfill orders incredibly fast and efficiently. I have learned to watch for the deals I want and then to order all at once. They always have deep discounts on one product or another,

As a bonus, they give you store credit for every new customer you refer and they give the person you’ve referred a discount as well.

I have a concert coming up and I could sure use some more handbills. Why don’t you follow this link and check it out: http://reward.vistaprint.com/go.axd?ref=40T53B