I got this idea off another post and although I'm not a promoter (used to do a bit many moons ago), I think it would make a really great discussion as to how much promotion you have to do to make a 'sucessful' techno night (ie one that breaks even and perhaps even makes you a little bit of money to save you getting a 'proper' job ;) )
As far as I can see htere are only a handful of techno nights in the UK that are sucessful and although they book alot of the more 'expensive' dj's, they have to have got to that stage of being able to do that somehow. It's not about suddenly being able to afford big names, it's the fact that they've built the night well, used the right channels to make people aware of their nights.
I think about The Orbit in Leeds and how they got to that stage of booking all the best world DJ's. They were a sucessful night in my eyes... The problem I felt with them is that they stayed with the same old same old to a certain extent, but hey, who am i to critisize?!! That place went OFF!! Anyway this isn't about The Orbit, it's about what you reckon you need to do to become a successful promoter and what avenues are out there to enable you to do it....
Looking forward to your replies ;)