A rough order of work for your first week. Roughly two hours total, spread out.

## Day 1 — Get findable

**Finish onboarding** if you haven't. See [DJ Onboarding: The Five Steps](/hc/djs/articles/completing-dj-onboarding).

**Check your service areas.** The most common reason a new DJ sees no requests. If your areas don't cover the places you'd actually travel, you don't appear in those searches at all. See [Primary Location and Service Areas](/hc/djs/articles/1786047499-adding-service-areas-and-travel-policies).

**Check your occasions and genres.** These are inclusion filters too. Missing one removes you from those searches entirely. See [Choosing Your Occasions and Genres](/hc/djs/articles/setting-occasions-genres-extras-and-requirements).

## Day 2 — Set up payments

**Complete payment setup.** You can receive requests before this, but you can't take money. It sometimes needs a second pass if a document is unclear, so start it early. See [Setting Up Payments and Payouts](/hc/djs/articles/setting-up-payment-collection-and-payouts).

## Day 3 — Make the profile worth landing on

**Add two or three mixes.** The single biggest factor in whether someone who lands on your profile messages you. Lead with the occasion you most want to book. See [Adding a Mix](/hc/djs/articles/adding-mixes-to-your-profile).

**Write your bio.** See [Writing Your Bio, Including Generate with AI](/hc/djs/articles/1786145596-writing-your-bio-including-generate-with-ai).

**Add a profile picture and cover image.** See [Profile Picture, Cover Image, and Intro Reel](/hc/djs/articles/using-intro-reels-on-your-profile).

## Day 4 — Set your terms

**Set your rate**, and decide whether it's negotiable.

**Set your policies** — cancellation policy, cancellation period, travel cost, requisites. These seed every proposal, so getting them right once saves work on every booking.

**Save your proposal defaults** — your standard equipment text and deposit percentage. See [Saving Your Proposal Defaults](/hc/djs/articles/1786139748-saving-your-proposal-defaults).

## Day 5 — Fill the gaps

**Add your first post.** Recent activity is a signal clients look for. See [Creating a Post](/hc/djs/articles/creating-posts-and-public-event-updates).

**Block out anything you're already committed to**, so you can't be double-booked. See [Creating a Busy Block](/hc/djs/articles/creating-busy-blocks).

**Turn on notifications** for booking requests and messages. Responding fast wins bookings. See [Choosing Which Notifications You Receive](/hc/djs/articles/account-settings-and-notification-preferences-djs).

## Day 6 — Look at it as a client would

Open your profile in a private browser window. Would you book you? Is anything empty, unclear, or contradicting itself?

## Then

**Claim your DJ Link** and start sharing it — it's free on every plan, and it works as your bio link everywhere. See [Claiming Your DJ Link](/hc/djs/articles/managing-your-djfindr-link-and-qr-codes).

**Consider identity verification** once you're on Pro. Clients filter on the verified badge. See [Getting Identity Verified](/hc/djs/articles/1786047501-identity-verification-process).

## What not to do first

Don't upgrade your plan before you've got a complete profile. A better fee rate on zero bookings is worth nothing. Get findable, get bookable, then compare the fee saving against the monthly cost.