Hey guys,
I was wondering what you all think of my website. If you have any questions, comments, corrections, or if anything is missing, please let me know. The website is a work in progress. I have been developing it over a year and a half, and it has come a long way.
The main thing I know it is missing is a logo. I had a nice one before, but I am working on developing a new one. I felt the old one looked a little too old school.

Here it is: http://www.AdamMichaelMagic.com

Thanks a lot,
Adam Michael

I would re-arrange your hyperlinks. Have your Bio last, your client testimonials/pics/show info at the top, and everything about you last.

Remember that clients don't care about you, their main concern is how you are going to change their event.

I would also add some of those "performance photos" to the "reviews" page, that way it doesn't look boring. The clients will be able to read what others say and also look at happy pictures.

And where is the "Call To Action"? The clients don't see a place where you tell them, "I'm here, and I'm going to make your party spectacular! You better call me now!"

You need some sort of teaser to get them to call you.

And what else do you offer that no one else does? Why would someone want to book you as opposed to me?

These are all questions to get you thinking, and also add them to your phone script when people call.

If you'd like more information, please PM me.

Thanks!
Josh London

I have known Adam a long time; he is a fantastic children's performer, in addition to having great sleight of hand skills. Adam, I think you need to put that logo back on the site. I know we talked about it briefly, but now that I see how empty it is, you should probably put it back. It added a lot to the site. I agree with rearranging the links. We'll talk next time I'm in town. In the meantime, I'm sure there are many people here with great advice about website design; many have helped me a great deal.

I changed a bunch of stuff. I did go back to my old logo, some more text, and took some of joshlondon17's advise.
Anything else I should change?

~Adam Michael

Add key words and meta tags in your source code, so that Google spiders will index your site.

Size the overall table to fit a standard page, or centered on a standard page. I get scroll bars at the bottom of each page, which is an inconvenience for a user to scroll each page side to side.

The column for latest news would look a lot better as a horizontal scroller below your logo on all pages.

Keep the logo. Size it down a bit and center it.

Move the tag line "High quality entertainment..." to center below the logo and above what would now be the latest news scroller.

Is the dark blue column necessary (at your navigation menu)?

Photos section - Some have borders, some do not. Consistency is key.
"A special thank you to my fantastic clients who have submitted photos of their magical experiences. If you have photos of my performance that you would like to share, feel free to contact (link) me."

Clients section - Doritex logo is overlapped by Eastern Hills School.
Again, the border thing.

Colour change all links on mouse-over (suggestion).

Show information section - Remove the border around the description and photo.
Border issue again, and size and center all photos in the same way. Even a little smaller. The images seem to take over the whole page.
Move the "Restaurant owners click here" link". It is interrupting the flow of the page.
Balloons and Walk-around IS a show; just needs to be described as a more connected and exclusive show on a personal level.

Reviews - Put the review, itself, in italics. The person reviewing in normal font. No borders and separated each review in some way.

Balloons - Borders around the photos are inconsistent again. Size them down a bit and, if possible, crop out the date in the one photo.
Edit "Adam has been twisting a ..." to "Adam has been twisting balloons for..." Technical or trade terms are not understood by the layperson.

Biography - Which one are you in the picture? Insert a small image of yourself in the top left corner of your biography, wrapping the text.
Borders on the images again, and I would suggest sizing down the images on all pages.

By the way, being born at a young age....is that meant to be funny? If so, make it a joke. The rest of the bio is serious, so the joke doesn't stand out.

Contact - Layout needs some work.
Remove the phrase about leaving a message. Most of us are familiar with answering machines and generally don't need an explanation. It may deter people from calling if they already anticipate that you are not there anyway.


These are only observations and suggestions. I know it's a lot, and I don't mean to sound critical. I think you are well on your way to a great little website, and I hope you get results from it.

Have you considered a contest of some sort to generate leads? As an example, you could offer something for data received. Each visitor submits their name, address, email address, and birthday on a web form. This gives you a mailing list and a list of birthdays. Send out cards on each person's birthday. There is a lot you can do with data like this. Get creative.

Hope what I typed here helps in some way.
Invoice is in the mail.

Will//

Hi Adam,

I think your content is good. If you work on the layout and design aspect of your site, it'll be super!

Also, proofread! Check your grammar. On your "Deluxe Birthday Show" page, you wrote, "For a birthday party, Adam is THEIR for an hour." Replace "their" with "there."

And in your Balloon Cobra section, the very last photo caption reads, "KNOW you have a Scary King Cobra." I think you mean, "NOW."

Keep it up!

Looks nice.

Good work so far. I would use fixed-width for the page size. I have a 17" wide screen, and it looks a bit odd. I would recommend a 900 pixel width for each page. Keep up the good work.

All of you guys are great. This is really helping a lot.

In your walk-around magic part, in the show information section, you state
"This is not a show." I would take this out. You are doing a show, but it is a close-up show for a few people. Don't diminish what you do.

Change the order of your pages.

Home, Show Info, Restaurants, Balloons, Photos, Reviews, Clients, Biography, Contact.
Keep the performance stuff together.

I love that picture of the little girl in red with the wide-open mouth holding the sponge ball! That sells me. That is the absolute best picture you have.

In the Restaurant section, you make quick points to "Where does magic fit at your restaurant?" and then repeat them with more info. Just use the ones with the info. Get rid of the duplicate first points.

I agree. I would leave out the phrasing about leaving a message. Your answering machine would take care of that.

Have less on your first page. The restaurant advertisement at the bottom takes away from the first page. Put it on your Restaurant page.

"I love that picture of the little girl in red with the wide-open mouth holding the sponge ball! That sells me. That is the absolute best picture you have."


Definitely makes a great statement.

The reason I wrote it is not a show is because, when laymen thinks of any kind of show, they think on stage, props, and a big audience. You would be surprised how many people do not understand the concept of close-up magic. I will try to reword it, so that it is easier to understand.

That picture of the little girl is my favorite also. I have been trying to make it my avatar for this forum for two days, but I can't get it to work.

I don't think I should advertise the restaurant that I work for on the "restaurant owners" tab. The restaurant owners tab is meant to get me more jobs at more restaurants. But if I advertise for Buffalo Wild Wings on that page, to me that is like saying, "I do magic and balloons to help draw customers to your restaurant. Hire me, but you can't because I already work at Buffalo Wild Wings."
It's a little bit of a stretch and exaggerated, but that is the way I see it. I hope you kind of understand what I mean.

I will change the order of the tabs to what you said, though. Thanks a lot.

~Adam Michael

Hi Adam -

Another way to word that same message is to say:

"This is not actually a stage show. This is a personal, close-up presentation between Adam and a few guests, performed inches away. The impact of the magic and balloon twisting is incredible when it is literally done right in your hands, one-on-one! Adam will do several mini-shows during an hour, mingling from group to group, but the length of his service doesn't have to be as short as only an hour.

This is high impact, close-up entertainment -- perfect for restaurants, company picnics, fairs, field days, or other similar events."

Hope that this helps!

- Donald

P.S. Optional sentence (it would be fine if you explained it on the phone only, rather than on the website): "Guests can be seated or standing... Adam will come directly to them."