How to sell tickets online for a theater performance

9 replies
Before I do any hard research on this, I thought I should ask my fellow warriors beforehand.

Im not familiar with setting up online stores or managing tickets sales. With that said, I need some direction from anyone who's done this before. The stage play im working with has a home website and wishes to include links to a ticket purchase page.

Im thinking, this can be handled via pay-pal, but on the other hand I think ticket purchases might be handled slightly different and require a third party for management.

Thanks Warriors
#online #performance #sell #theater #tickets
  • Profile picture of the author butters
    Originally Posted by Thecostofexperience View Post

    Before I do any hard research on this, I thought I should ask my fellow warriors beforehand.

    Im not familiar with setting up online stores or managing tickets sales. With that said, I need some direction from anyone who's done this before. The stage play im working with has a home website and wishes to include links to a ticket purchase page.

    Im thinking, this can be handled via pay-pal, but on the other hand I think ticket purchases might be handled slightly different and require a third party for management.

    Thanks Warriors
    You got it wrong! You should do hard research first and then come here if you get stuck! It took me two seconds to find companies which can list your tickets and sell them... Viagogo is one, getmein is another, there are hundreds of them! Just search, how to sell theatre tickets online. Just put in the effort for research and don't look for easy answers.
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    • Thanks Butters, yeah I tried to take a short cut this time hoping Id get someone who actually experienced using one of those services to sell tickets.

      Still, if anyone can provide a personal review of a ticket supply company I'd be appreciative.

      Otherwise Id just have to dive in with no expectations

      Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author sparkah
    do a twitter and facebook search for your area and cross filter using the terms "want to see" + theater.

    It's better than Craigslist's WANTED section.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Chicas
    I would suggest trying Craigslist, and if it's for a show that people don't really know much about, then include a link to a webpage where others can learn more about the show, specially with videos, reviews, testimonials, etc.

    This is a tough market that I've worked in during my teen years. There is a lot of "who you know" and a lot of giving away tickets to gain traction.

    If you are talking about high value shows that put out thousands of dollars in promotions then the tickets can sell themselves in Ebay or CL. I would be careful with 3rd party sites, a lot of them don't give you back enough money to make a profit or even be worth your time.

    And yes, Paypal is probably the best way to go, and even better would be to sell the tickets in person.

    Understand your local market, the network, and the people in it and you'll have better luck. All the best.
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    • Profile picture of the author TinkBD
      And a point to be considered...

      Does the theatre have assigned seating?

      That will add a certain measure of complexity
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Originally Posted by bigd213 View Post

    This is available as a standalone website or as a plugin for WordPress. Sarahs Seminar
    Obvious and lame attempt at self promotion.... :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author David Mansfield
    Unless your show features celebrities or some other wow factor people won't travel. So focus on targeting a specific geographic area around your venue - realistically the vast majority of your audience will most likely come from within a 30 minute travel time of the venue.
    The actual fulfillment system is less important than the ability to contact past bookers of similar shows. As such the question you should be asking is which vendor has the best email list, or ideally which 'vendors' as just going with one could be very limiting.
    TinkBD is right - if you have to have assigned seating, you'll be very limited. General Admission could be the way to go depending on genre of show ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author adenicol
    I know this is several months late but I use wordpress for my sites and I recently had to design a site which had tickets to their event. I found a plugin called eventespresso which has worked pretty well for them. There is an iphone and android app as well so the user can buy and print their tickets and then have them scanned in at the door.

    it works with Pay Pal and the nicest thing about it is that there is a free version and then a paid version, but you only have to pay once...not every time a ticket is sold.
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