I just joined this website under Stage Magic, Family Entertainer Magic and Stage Hypnotist on Monday and already got a lead for the Stage Hypnotist. The only problem is that if you don't buy advertising you don't get to get the lead information. Not knowing this, I hit the Yes I'm interested link and sent a email through their system to the contact saying I would be calling in a few days. Of course, with the email that I got back I won't be since I haven't bought advertising.

So, does anyone have experience using them and making money with the site? They also make their money by having you pay a commission on the honor system to them from work you book from their leads. Seems the free members weren't paying their commissions and so free members only get a shot at the leads if the paying members don't book the lead within 72 hours.

I'd be interested in hearing anything good or bad before I commit my money to this site.

Thanks

Martin

I do shows for them occasionally. He charges 20% + you have to pay a rather hefty monthly/yearly fee per area/per category you want to receive leads from, of which most turn out to be duds. Fortunately, I did a good job for him the few times I did shows for him while trying out his free trial, so he'll still slide me an occasional show close to my area even though I refused to pay for his service. The **** of his service is he only sends you the leads and you are responsible for making all the long distance calls and selling the shows yourself, so he has absolutely nothing invested. Kind of smart really, but yet greedy.

To answer your question though... I would have to say it probably isn't worth it all in all. He does get mad leads, but the problem is that most times there are at least 5 other magicians calling and hounding the same clients and I've found that they seem to screen their calls after awhile. Then if you do actually get them on the phone you can just tell they have been pitched to death by magicians. Most of the leads are for kids shows and other low budget venues.

If you have a few hundred bucks to play with to get in a bunch of states and categories, give it a try, but be ready for a lot of wasted time and long distance calls and leads that are picked over.

By the way, I generate quite a few leads myself and I have been passing off some gigs to other magicians throughout the United States, so if you're interested in getting some shows in your area that I am unable to do, please feel free to send me an email and be sure to include your city, state, zip code and phone number along with a brief description of your act and your experience or a website address. If something comes up in your area that is not feasible for me to do, I will book the gig for you and only charge 20% commission.

Yours In The Art,
Aedryan
http://www.methyus.com
aedryan@methyus.com

I am not sure I like that system the way it is set up. I would think you could do better yourself is you set up good marketing as well as a referral rewards program. I have done this already and have seen a tremendous growth in my gigs over the last few months.

Kyle

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that when you get leads from them, 9 times out of 10 the client may or may not even be looking for a magician. The client will be looking for various types of entertainment and other "vendors", anything from dyno-jumps to DJ's. A lot of the times it will even say on the lead that "This client may or may not be looking to hire a magician". So, in those cases, the client has definitely been bombarded from every direction with calls and the leads leave you confused as to what the clients budget is and what type of show they want. The lead may say their estimated budget is $30,000.00, but you'll find that means for a list of entertainers and "vendors" as long as your arm.

It is my assumption that he captures every search the visitor searches on his site and every page they visit and many of his leads are generated from searches. I am not 100% sure of this, but it seems that way a lot of times.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Yours In The Art,
Aedryan
http://www.methyus.com

Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.

Kyle

Aedryan:

Thanks for the information. I think I am going to pass on the paid version of the site. It would cost $1500 a year to get national coverage in the three areas I signed up for. Just for Stage Hypnosis Shows it would cost nearly $800 for the national coverage. I would much rather have them contact me directly from my website that have to try to compete with the 9 others who had already responded ahead of me.

I'm going to concentrate my funds into direct marketing my services myself.

Thanks

Martin

Martin,

A MUCH better use of your money... besides, It's traceable and accountable!

ATF is largely a huge waste of time and effort. I used to get tons of leads but they were worse than if I just went door to door lookin' for possible leads myself.

NOT good at all!

Just one guys experience.
Deano
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I booked 3 shows through them.

Cool... You are the FIRST I've ever heard of out of hundreds of guys in the system.

GREAT!

At least someone is getting gigs... Woo Hoo!

Rock On!

I'm paying for New Jersey only ($15 per month). Which is great because it seems like I'm the only on in NJ who's doing it. Plus, I get some leads from NY and PA.

It's my 3rd month. I booked 3 shows in the first two. I hope it stays consistent.


Now, do you really want National coverage? I signed up for national when it was free. Then, I realized that I would never book a small show 2000 miles away. It was just clogging up my mailbox.

Know your target market, and concentrate on them.

Woo Hoo! CONGRATULATIONS on your success brother! I love it when guys beat the odds! YEAH!

PARTY ON!


Well spoke.

To be honest living in Texas there are no places 2000 miles away. I booked Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. When I added up the monthly cost to cover the cities in the areas I had covered, it made more sense financially to book it for national coverage. I'm glad you got the response out of it, Salazar Magic, but my emails always tell me there were 9 or more who had already asked for lead data by the time I had asked. I just believe that if all those High Schools in Oklahoma want Stage Hypnotists for their Proms and Graduation, I'm better off putting the money into marketing directly to them for the business than hoping I beat 9 others out of a lead that 10 people are pushing for the buiness.

Can you imagine from the clients perspective having 10 entertainers hounding you for business. I've read the tips they give to those wanting to book. There are 10 entertainers hounding these poor souls. Not my cup of tea.

Martin

The ones I booked, I didn't call. I simply wrote an email directing them to my website. A couple of days later, my phone rings.

I guess I'm lucky I live in a place where 25% on the nation's population live less than 100 miles from me.

Not getting many leads now, but I guess it's just the time of year.

I too have booked numerous shows through them. Like Salazar, I simply sent them an email briefly describing my services and directed them to my web site. I let them make the next move.

All in all I feel it's better than nothing, but still nothing to rave over.