How to Make Money on your Virtual Holiday Arts and Craft Fair

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And the most wonderful business to be in, knowing you get to help people celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and all of the other holidays. However, the warm and fuzzies don’t exactly pay the bills – your holiday craft fair needs to be profitable! Whether you run your own events business or are employed as an event promoter, you know bustling holiday arts events can be magical and money-making. And this year, with everyone looking to spread cheer without spreading the Coronavirus, you may be considering how to make money on a virtual event format.  

It’s easy to understand how a traditional, in-person event can make money, because we’ve all been doing it for decades: booth sales, corporate sponsorships, admission fees, etc. But now that you need to transition your event from in-person to online or hybrid, you might be wondering how to recoup that revenue. Well, you’re in the right place. BoothCentral LIVE Virtual Events exist for this very reason. We’ve specifically designed our platform to help keep event promoters, event managers and their organizations in business. And to do that, you need to make money on your virtual holiday arts and craft fair.

Ideas for How to Make Money on Virtual Holiday Arts and Craft Fair

Vendor Registration Fees

Just like you’d sell booth space for a traditional in-person event, the same is true for live virtual events or hybrid events on BoothCentral: if a vendor wants to be part of the event, they pay a vendor registration fee. With our platform, you dictate the value of the space! So whether you want to charge $50 or $5000 or otherwise – you set the “booth” space fee just like you would if you rented out a traditional expo center or physical venue. Our pricing model is designed to keep your overhead costs down. With a low monthly subscription fee, we make money when you make money: when your vendors register for the event. (Read more details on our pricing model here.)

Also, consider marquee vendor booth placement. On BoothCentral, event promoters have full control over vendor applications, approval and booth placement. Likewise, premium vendor registration and/or sponsorships could secure marquee placement in the top few rows or additional tabs. Consider developing a tiered pricing structure for your vendors to determine their booth location (just like you would do in a traditional event).

Sponsorships

Although they may look different, virtual holiday events can (and should) have sponsors, too. Here are some ideas to leverage sponsorships in a virtual event:

• Naming Rights: “Your Virtual Event Name” presented by SPONSOR. Being connected to an innovative, safe, virtual event provides value to sponsors looking to stand apart from the crowd.
• Advertising Co-op: If you’re a seasoned event professional, you know how critical a strong marketing plan is to your event’s success. Creating sponsorship tiers that allocate dollars to cross-brand promotion is a great strategy. Tying your event’s brand with a sponsorship brand can be a win-win when you leverage each other’s audiences. Additionally, seeking a media sponsor who can provide media placement (digital outdoor, print advertising, digital banner ads, social media posts, etc.) in exchange for sponsorship recognition can be a great way to get added impressions without extra expense.
• Live Stream: From logo placement, naming, commercial breaks, product demonstrations, Q&A session and more – your live stream is a key feature of your virtual show and a valuable asset to execute sponsorship dollars.
• Prime virtual booth location: Just like marquee vendor booth placement, you can fulfill sponsorships with premium placement of virtual booth space.

Category Exclusives

In a traditional show, you might typically have several vendors or sponsors that offer a certain service or product. For a virtual show, you could provide added value by allowing them to secure a category exclusive: for a price. Perhaps a sponsor wants to stand out as the only community bank, or an artisan as the only chocolatier, or another vendor wants to have exclusive throw pillow status – you can make it happen for them, which in turn, benefits shoppers who get to browse a wider variety of offerings. 

Admission / Ticketing

Charging admission to a virtual event is a growing trend. Most popular with nonprofit virtual events and virtual B2B trade shows where a higher-priced admission tends to be expected – demand is growing to charge nominal fees for admission to consumer events, too. Consumers are used to paying to attend in-person holiday events – but they are not yet accustomed to paying admission for most virtual events. If you feel that ticketing would not be a barrier to entry for your show attendees, ticketing is another revenue source for making money at a virtual event.