This is a great question because most fans do not get shut out of an event because they can’t get into the system quick enough.  They are often unable to get tickets because they did not know ahead of time that tickets would be on sale.

Here are my suggestions for making sure you are successful at buying tickets for your next event:

• Sign up for my RSS feed and / or weekly newsletter.  I will send out a weekly reminder of the biggest events going on sale for that week.

• Sign up for the newsletter for your favorite artist or team.  This can easily be done at their website.

• Sign up for a Ticketmaster account.  Once signed up, click on Account Settings, and Manage My Alerts.  You will have the option to sign up for 4 different types of alerts.

  • Weekly Ticket Alert allows you to select up to two major cities, and an unlimited number of broad categories like theater, rodeos, concerts, wrestling, and football.  It does not get into any specifics – just broad categories.  This weekly alert will give you a heads up if anything is going on sale in either of your cities.

  • Performer Alert allows you to pick all your favorite performers.  So instead of a broad category like Concerts you can pick Madonna, Justin Timberlake, and Smashing Pumpkins.  Again, if any of those performers go on sale, you’ll know.

  • Team Alert allows you to select your favorite teams, such as the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, and Miami Heat.  When tickets go on sale for your teams, you’ll be the first to know.

  • Venue Alert is simply selecting event locations like the Staples

    Center or Bank of America Stadium.  This will give you extra coverage if you forget a team or performer - you may still get the alert if you also picked the venue they will be performing / playing in.

• Join a Broker website like www.eventexperts.net or www.presalenow.com.  Both of these sites are expensive in my opinion ($22-$30 a month.)  I wouldn’t join these sites unless you plan to sell tickets for profit.  There is a ton of free information for the regular fan.

Thanks for visiting!  Please send us any questions you have and we’ll do our best to answer them!