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EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
I never really understood why magicians (and not only magicians) make phony rating web sites, the ones that look like they are some sort of evaluation agency who critique their local markets' entertainers and assigns them grades and ratings. Also, the imposter makes themselves look like David Copperfield when compared to the other performers whom they put down heavily to increase their own value.
I love how they try to mask themselves from looking so obvious. A simple WHOIS search points right to them 100%. Ugh. -E |
theinternetguru Elite user I hacked the Café but I still only have 426 Posts |
This is a very shady tactic. Hard to believe a legitimate business of any type would do this. So you see some fake ratings sites built by a particular magician that rates that magician highly compared to some others? So he seeded his own phony ratings site with false listings, and then rated himself at the top? That's incredible.
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EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Absolutely. It's been up for months. I also talked with two other magicians who were mentioned in this shady site by phone. They're considering getting laywers.
The reason is because a certain combo of keywords has provided it to get great SEO, which is detrimental to the mentioned performers. This particular site has a Hall of Shame, where he mentions why the listed magicians are bad a choice and why clients should stay away from them. Horrible. -E |
theinternetguru Elite user I hacked the Café but I still only have 426 Posts |
That would be an easy law suit, simple to prove that the ratings were falsified.
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Devious Inner circle 2120 Posts |
I'm totally clueless on this one. Would you please post an example for me to view etc....?
Thank you in advance men. |
EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Devious -
I PM'd you the URL. -E |
theinternetguru Elite user I hacked the Café but I still only have 426 Posts |
This site doesn't even look good. He didn't follow a typical corporate template, it looks like a sham, imo. If you go to the About Us page on his personal site, it's visually identical to the ratings site, lol. If you're going to try to pull off a sham like this, you'd think you would do a better job of it. I doubt many people are going to be fooled by this.
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EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Still. The ethics...
-E |
Nash Inner circle Hong Kong ~ USA 1101 Posts |
Who the hell would ever do something like that? Post the link and let that bad apple be known.
I teach leaders the magic of curiosity and empathetic communication. keynote Speaker | Seattle magician
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stempleton Inner circle 1443 Posts |
Checking the domain owner info, it seems as if the "technical director" and address of this "objective" review site belong to the top "elite" rated performer. Hmmmm...
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EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Haha. Yes it's quite funny. But to a naive prospective client, this would be one of the first in the listings with the correct broad keywords. What a horrible weapon.
(FYI - This is one of my out of state competitors for MD. I am in PA, with a lot of work in the same market he's trying to take over. If I see my name on it....it won't be a nice confrontation.) -E |
EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Okay I'm getting blown up with PMs about the URL.
The site is http://www.MarylandMagicians.com. I'm sure it won't be up much longer after this post has been discovered. You'll figure out who it is. Also, be sure to look at the Hall of Shame link at the bottom. -E |
Bill Hilly Elite user 449 Posts |
I checked out one of that Elite's top claims: CBS recently named "Illusions by Vick" a Top 5 Magician!
Sounds impressive. It looks like the CBS Television Network considers him one of the 5 best in the country. But it wasn't the CBS Television Network. It was a local (large market) CBS affiliate: http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/ It also seems that http://www.marylandmagicians.com site owner gets upset when anyone else does something that could be considered less than completely ethical. http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......forum=44 As far as the CBS claim goes, he's just trying to put the best spin on a positive recognition. Nothing wrong with that, in general. I personally think the details show a little deception. That thread about P&H... Many nation-wide companies do that same thing: maintaining a minimal office or a mail forwarding in another city. Radio and TV stations have been doing that for decades. It's a way for them to get a license in a saturated area by going to an outlying town. As long as their signal is "city-grade" in the town listed on their license it's legal, even if their real office & studio are in the bigger town miles away. But, if I was one of the ones named to look bad on that site, I'd sue. I'd sue LARGE and make it VERY publicly known who was doing what and why with regards to those tactics. Since those ratings are one person's opinion and not the tally of a recognized rating agency, it is clearly a case of a competitor using underhanded tactics to destroy another business. At my age, I don't have the time to p!$$ around with such punks. I'd stop him, and stop him HARD. -B.H. |
EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
Billy - You sure did do your homework here. Overall, it screams desperate. I hope the mentioned magicians in his site actually see this post. One person who exchanged his disgust with me was Eric Henning. He is more than p*$$ed off.
-E |
Bill Hilly Elite user 449 Posts |
Eli,
I agree completely - desperate, and dirty. It was easy to check. I just copied the CBS statement and did a Google search that brought up the local TV station's article. It's a great accolade, don't get me wrong. I just have a problem with the implied national importantce. Deception in a magic show is what it's all about. Deception in advertising is a crime. When I learned who he was I remember seeing that other thread. I enjoyed the irony. The radio station info came from my years as a broadcaster. If it was that quick and easy for me to find the deception, why would one think a corporation wouldn't check out at least one's biggest claim to fame? There's another one in Pennsylvania claiming to be the states Top Entertainer. Yet when asked, he never said who gave him that distiction, or when. Another, also from PA, claims to be America's #1. I can tell you first-hand knowledge that neither of those two meet those claims. What if there was a web site showing all these B.S. claims and exposing the truth about the ones amking them? That would be interesting reading. -B.H. Never played at The White House. Not rated #1 by anyone except my fans and family. Never got any "Top Awards" from my local magic club. Never even auditioned for A.G.T. Having no extraordinary show biz claims to anything except 40 years of entertaining audiences. |
EliTheIllusionist Regular user York, PA 191 Posts |
I think I recognized who said they were #1 lol. Not the other though. I usually like to keep on top of competition but I haven't done so in a long time. I try to keep myself apart from competitors. Everyone starts to blend together after a while.
So what in the world can we do to get that site down for good? It's awful. -E |
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