Can we make trivia into a side gig?
December 20, 2020 7:27 PM Subscribe
Since the first US lockdown, my husband and I have been hosting Bar Trivia via Zoom and quite frankly we're very good at it (both the questions and the MC-ing). We got our first request for a gig this evening, did it, and it went fantastic! So well, in fact, that I kinda want to monetize it now. Is this a thing we could do? How do we market this, and what problems am I not seeing? (We are in Pennsylvania US )
We started this back in April, when our area of the US was on LOCKDOWN lockdown. We for real only though it would last a few weeks, but due to popular demand, we are still running it! We got our first request for hosting a party tonight, did it remarkably well, and looked at each other like yeah. My questions are: How does one market such a thing? How much seems reasonable to ask for fees? Is this a stupid idea altogether? I don't know what I don't know, so I hope that the multiple questions will be pardoned. I thank you all in advance very much!
We started this back in April, when our area of the US was on LOCKDOWN lockdown. We for real only though it would last a few weeks, but due to popular demand, we are still running it! We got our first request for hosting a party tonight, did it remarkably well, and looked at each other like yeah. My questions are: How does one market such a thing? How much seems reasonable to ask for fees? Is this a stupid idea altogether? I don't know what I don't know, so I hope that the multiple questions will be pardoned. I thank you all in advance very much!
Best answer: I belong to a trivia league online where many people do exactly this. It's not a stupid idea at all, but know that in many places there is competition. Here are the things that they tend to do
- Have airtight tech. Bar trivia is a little catch as catch can often (like the bar pays the host because they bring in business) but if people are paying you directly, they will have higher expectations. I know places that use Kahoot for people "ringing in" and there are other options but try to get something that will work reliably.
- Have a website or a way for people to see what you do, see a sample round, have testimonials. I see many of these groups (at least one of which is run by a Mefite, probably many more) on facebook as well
- Offer to do custom trivia for events (this is often where there is some real money) which can have custom categories
- Be careful about video/audio options (again, once people are paying you, you'll have a harder time just claiming it's fair use for a fun free thing)
- Stick to time limits pretty well, like have X rounds of Y questions each that lasts about Z time.
- Prizes! These can be tougher in COVID times so spend some time thinking that part through.
If you're not already in the Online Trivia League Featuring Many Mefites, feel free to contact me or another MeFite if you'd like to possibly join.
posted by jessamyn at 8:40 PM on December 20, 2020 [12 favorites]
- Have airtight tech. Bar trivia is a little catch as catch can often (like the bar pays the host because they bring in business) but if people are paying you directly, they will have higher expectations. I know places that use Kahoot for people "ringing in" and there are other options but try to get something that will work reliably.
- Have a website or a way for people to see what you do, see a sample round, have testimonials. I see many of these groups (at least one of which is run by a Mefite, probably many more) on facebook as well
- Offer to do custom trivia for events (this is often where there is some real money) which can have custom categories
- Be careful about video/audio options (again, once people are paying you, you'll have a harder time just claiming it's fair use for a fun free thing)
- Stick to time limits pretty well, like have X rounds of Y questions each that lasts about Z time.
- Prizes! These can be tougher in COVID times so spend some time thinking that part through.
If you're not already in the Online Trivia League Featuring Many Mefites, feel free to contact me or another MeFite if you'd like to possibly join.
posted by jessamyn at 8:40 PM on December 20, 2020 [12 favorites]
Just last week I did a trivia night via zoom for the birthday party of a friend. It was run by a guy who evidently does exactly this as a business, the sister of my friend knows him and procured his services as the birthday gift. He ran things pretty darn smoothly and was personable and wrangled my cranky nonsense quite well. He stuck to pretty tight time limits for rounds but was very generous about restating things and making sure everybody had good audio and communication before starting in on another round. He also was very quick on muting folks. He’s LA based. He seemed like the sort who would be open to questions and some east coast time zone competition. Here is his website, you can tell him the cranky woman from Rachel’s birthday party sent you.
posted by Mizu at 9:01 PM on December 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Mizu at 9:01 PM on December 20, 2020 [2 favorites]
If you happen to have any friends through trivia who work at big tech companies, reach out to see if they are looking for trivia facilitators for team building/morale events. I'd say I've been invited to multiple dozens of trivia events in my 15 years as a software engineer, always run by a professional trivia person who customizes the topics to the audience and runs the show. They are still going strong in the pandemic.
posted by potrzebie at 3:34 PM on December 23, 2020
posted by potrzebie at 3:34 PM on December 23, 2020
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posted by jenfullmoon at 8:23 PM on December 20, 2020 [1 favorite]