Ethan Stock, Zvents CEO and Founder, was recently captured at The Kelsey Group’s “Drilling Down On Local ‘08: Marketplaces” Conference. In his presentation, Ethan discusses Zvents’ business model and how time-based promotions are an essential online marketing tool for all local merchants to get consumers in through their doors.

With the overwhelming and startling growth of local advertising revenue, Ethan Stock explores how Zvents is leading the evolution of local search - showing its impact on the advertising industry and what trends to expect in the future.

Check out the video below!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

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Somewhat surprisingly, mere flyers for your local community event are more expensive than you might consider. Sure, the cost is still insignificant relative to other forms of advertising but consider alone, the time spent formatting a poster in Word or Powerpoint let alone bringing it to Kinko’s to have them take care of it for you.

Your event listing on Zvents not only syndicates the details through our Media Network (promoting your event in most local media and related websites), we design and deliver a poster format with all the pertinent details.

Make no mistake, we realize this is a minor convenience but a convenience none-the-less! Just click “Print” from the event’s page on our site we reformat the design with the pertinent details of the event using an image, description, date and time, and address and phone number which you can print by the thousands to plaster around town. But wait! There’s more! We’ve integrated the same map users find when the discover your event through our site and allow you to choose from nearby restaurants, parking, or bars/clubs to highlight on the map helping your guests join the fun.

Can’t wait to get started? List an event now

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We’ve been cooking up new ways to promote local businesses and events, and we’re thrilled (exhausted and relieved!) to announce that the Enhanced Listings beta period is officially open.

What are Enhanced Listings?
A new way to make your event or venue listings stand out from basic listings, and benefit from enhanced features and design options.

By upgrading your Basic Listing to an Enhanced Listing, you can:

• Tailor your marketing messages with special offers, news and announcements and promo codes
• Appear prominently in search results with a colorful, highlighted listing
• Increase brand awareness by adding your company logo
• Upload a video ad, commercial, or virtual tour
• Stylize your listing with colorful custom graphics
• Enhance your brand experience by removing advertisements or user reviews

We offer two packages - and Enhanced Detail Page package and a Search Results package. You can also add additional upgrades, such as removing ads and user reviews, or adding custom graphics to the border on your listing.

Here’s an example of an Enhanced Detail Page Package for Sibby’s Cupcakery in San Mateo:

The Search Results Package highlights your listing in search results:

For a limited time (a few weeks, most likely), you can create Enhanced Listings for your business, venue or events - for free! Join the beta now.

And remember…every listing created on Zvents is shared with our growing 250+ Zvents Media Network partners too.

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Chuck is an industry guy we’re anxious to meet, not the event marketing industry, internet marketing. Not only can he add some appeal to the (to some) dry topic of online marketing but he is so talented as a musician and rap artist that he has our recommendation as a performer at one of your events. Let’s let him take the stage first while sharing some tips on how to leverage paid search marketing:

Working 9 to 5 with Houston, TX interactive marketing services provider Pop Labs, Chuck moonlights as founder of Mo Serious Entertainment. While he is more likely to appeal to those of you looking for online marketing speakers, his talent seems to shine on stage; he’s worth a look whatever your need.

Chuck, if you are ever in San Mateo, give us a call, we’d love to help.

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What’s that saying for the month of March, “In like a lamb, out like a lion”? While this usually applies only to the weather, March was a great month at Zvents, and a more appropriate saying for our March is “In like a lion, out like a pack of lions”!

In addition to the six partners we launched a couple weeks ago, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of four more media partners:

The Charlotte Observer: Serving Charlotte, North Carolina

Greenwich Time: Serving Greenwich, Connecticut

Santa Cruz Sentinel: Serving Santa Cruz, California

Stamford Advocate: Serving Stamford, Connecticut

Cute lion cub photo courtesy of Arno & Louise.

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Last week we wrote about Eventbrite as an inexpensive and easy-to-use event registration and ticketing service. Yesterday, they announced the beta launch of the Eventbrite Partner Affiliate Network, which enables affiliates to earn money by referring event publishers and promoters to use the Eventbrite service.

While ticketing affiliate programs have been around since about, oh, Day 2 of the Internet, Eventbrite’s program puts a new twist on the model - an affiliate receives a cut of the revenue on every ticket sold by an event publisher who signs up for the Eventbrite service through the affiliate’s web site

If you become an affiliate partner, here’s how it works:

1. Run Eventbrite ads on your site.

2. An event promoter or publisher sees the ad, is intrigued by its promise of easy and cheap event registration and ticketing, and goes to the Eventbrite site.

3. The same event promoter learns more, says “Hey! This makes my life easier and helps me sell more tickets to my event”, and signs up to manage one of their upcoming events through Eventbrite.

4. Let’s say the event is a music festival, and 3,000 tickets are sold at $50 each through Eventbrite. The service fee for each ticket is $1.25. As the referring affiliate partner, you receive 35% of all the service fees collected (3,000 x $1.25 x 0.35), so you earn $1,312.50.

Eventbrite also offers a traditional ticketing affiliate program: if you sell tickets to their events, you earn a commission for every ticket sold through your site.

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It has been an exciting week here at Zvents! Zvents turned 3 on March 19th, and six new media partners launched the Zvents Media Platform and joined the Zvents Media Network, including:

Chico Enterprise Record – Chico, CA
Chico is home to California State University, Chico and Bidwell Mansion State Park, one of the 25 largest municipal parks in the country. Interested in learning what’s going on in downtown Chico? How about where to the country’s largest collection of yo-yo artifacts? You’ll find it all now on ChicoER.com.

Daily Democrat – Woodland, CA (who wrote a great article about how Zvents helps the Woodland community find “Things To Do”
Also called “the City of Trees”, Woodland is known for its architectural treasure of Tudor, Victorian, and and Mission Revival homes, some of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Planning a visit? Make sure to visit the world-famous Hays Antique Truck Museum, recognized for being the largest museum of its kind in the world.

Monterey County Herald – Monterey, CA
One of the top tourist destinations in California, Monterey is home to the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Naval Postgraduate School, and hosts one of the most popular jazz festivals in the country, the Monterey Jazz Festival.

Ukiah Daily Journal - Ukiah, CA
Located in southern Mendocino County, Ukiah is a charming small town known for its grape vineyards, pear orchards and hot springs. Don’t miss the Ukiah Country Pumpkin Fest, where you can see some HUGE pumpkins!

Ruidoso News - Ruidoso, NM
Ruidoso is the largest community in Lincoln County, and the economic hub for the region. There are several art galleries exhibiting work by local artists, and learn more about the Wild West’s more infamous characters at the Billy the Kid National Scenic Byway Center.

Lubbock Online – Lubbock, TX
Cowboys, music and Buddy Holly - just a few things that make Lubbock famous. Make sure to visit the Buddy Holly Center, a tribute to the Lubbock native who made rock n’ roll history, and to other notable West Texas musicians.

Welcome new partners!

And event promoters, that’s six more channels where your event and business listings are automatically promoted!

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