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Billy Bo Special user 627 Posts |
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GG New user UK 86 Posts |
Look's good to me, got all the info, would be interested how you get on with it. Best of luck.
GG |
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Father Photius Grammar Host El Paso, TX (Formerly Amarillo) 17161 Posts |
Looks pretty good, Steve, easy to navigate, to the point, very readable. Should do the job for you.
"Now here's the man with the 25 cent hands, that two bit magician..."
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TheAmbitiousCard Eternal Order Northern California 13425 Posts |
Your avatar picture looks very "professional", however your site does not.
the fonts, multi-colored backgrounds, etc. look cheap. If you're doing kids shows, that does not mean you need to have a multi-colored site with big huge letters. I'm not sure what you're after but : I would look at other "entertainer" sites to see what they do. I would not look at other magician's sites for examples of what good websites are. Most of them are horrible. I would use standard fonts and colors with a single theme throughout. If you're serious, you should pay someone to make a really nice website. Then modify it from there. for something simple, check out Daryl's or Bill Malones' website. Not great but not bad. John carney's is not bad but not great, either. Doing a great site is not easy but you have to start somewhere. Learn from what others are doing well as you surf the net, bookmark what you like, and come up with something you love. You should also get professional photos done for your website. For action shots, try for more with you and great reactions from spectators at the same time if possible.
www.theambitiouscard.com Hand Crafted Magic
Trophy Husband, Father of the Year Candidate, Chippendale's Dancer applicant, Unofficial World Record Holder. |
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EVENT Regular user Israel 170 Posts |
I agree with what Frank said "Your avatar picture looks very "professional", however your site does not"
Your site is little messy and not comfortable. One of the most important things is your contact info, the purpose of your site is too make people too hire you. Please don't make them to search and click two buttons for get your contact info. |
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kOnO Special user 548 Posts |
It might be just me but I can not read your site on 1 page without having to scroll over. The font seems too large to all fit on 1 screen.
Looks like a nice page except for that. kOnO
It is a lot easier to get older than it is to get wiser.
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Mediocre the Great Inner circle Rich Hurley 1062 Posts |
Frank and Kono make some very good points. To expand a bit:
I think the print is way too large, and the navigation buttons are the humongous! Wow! Why so darn BIG? Personally, my preference is for the home page to be one or two screens maximum height. The top of the page should fit nicely on the average monitor and you should size your pages to be 640 x 480 or 1024 x 768 (pixels). Also, one of my pet peeves is a button that takes me to "coming soon". Why have the button? Either put something of value on the page or don't have the button. It's really annoying! It’s very easy to add a button (and page) later. Remember, people will typically spend a very short time on your website. Make every impression count. Here are some nice magician websites that I think are good examples. Not for you to copy, but to get the general idea of what I'm saying. The size and layout of each page is appealing and easy to read on one screen. The information is easy to see in a quick impression…. Not too much scrolling required! http://www.deandill.com/home.html http://www.johnnyacepalmer.com http://www.whithaydn.com/ http://www.sylvesterthejester.com/ http://www.magicbeard.com/articles.php http://www.richhurleymagic.com/ (shameless plug) Hope this helps...
Mediocrity is greatly under rated!
-------------------------------------------- Rich Hurley aka Mediocre The Great! www.RichHurleyMagic.com |
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Maro Anglero Loyal user FLORIDA 248 Posts |
Steve at this time that I had viewed this it was 6 to 113, the viewer have it, you know about what you said before, Now you see what you got me doing, keeping score
Maro
For the Magician: The hard must become habit, The habit must become easy, The easy must become Beautiful
Doug Henning |
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billfromoregon Special user 608 Posts |
Having just gone through the torture of putting together a website myself, I applaud you for the effort. I considered building the site myself, but in the end opted to let websites4magicians.com do the actual layout. He (Jonathan Levit) is very professional and reasonably priced. You can see examples of his work at his site, and they are all very professional, elegant and easy to navigate. I have to agree with what Frank and the others have said, the site looks unprofessional and the font is way too big. It is not inviting, and would probably not help you get hired for many gigs. I will also agree that professional photos make a huge difference (the photo shoot I just did cost me $380.00, which is a lot of dough, but in the end I am glad I did it, as it makes the site look much better than had I taken the pictures myself, even though I did just buy a 7 MP camera for X-mas). I would also recommend changing the font style for the party tips section (and any others that might have that same font style), as it looks so generic. Also, I sent all my text for the site out to friends and relatives for editing, proofing, suggestions, etc. and made fairly major changes to my original work. I didn't take it (too) personally, and wound up with better material thanks to their input. I am assuming that you did the actual layout yourself - if this is the case, you are obviously capable, and could do some redesign and rework the site till you come up with something that you like. While it may seem that we are picking on you, I think that we are sincerely interested in helping you to get the best site possible. In the end, it is your site and your opinion is the one that matters. I will attach my website, and feel free to make any comments you wish about it (I was actually thinking about doing the same thing you did, but have been too lazy (and chicken)to actually do it). Best of luck -
Bill bendmagic.com |
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Mediocre the Great Inner circle Rich Hurley 1062 Posts |
Yea, Websites 4 Magicians... very nice! I like their work. I did not realize that was Jonathan Levit... but he's a great guy. Very talented and a real people person... great suggestion.
http://www.websites4magicians.com/pages/......les.html
Mediocrity is greatly under rated!
-------------------------------------------- Rich Hurley aka Mediocre The Great! www.RichHurleyMagic.com |
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Billy Bo Special user 627 Posts |
Ok thanks for your advice so far. The size of the page I agree with but when designing it the size looked fine. if anyone knows how to reduce the page sizes without going through the agony of doing it all bit by bit please pm me. please remember this is my first site and ive seen a lot lot worse. the proffessional pictures will come soon but laws about taking pictures of kids in england is quite delicate. if you cant get my contact details in 1 click maybe get your eyes checked not to be rude. thanks in advance
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wol Loyal user Norfolk, UK 238 Posts |
The site looks good but could be great. Try previewing in as many different browsers as possible to see how it looks. Make it centred so when viewed on bigger screens it sits nicley! Limit the pallette when it comes to colour and fonts to make it easier to view, I have only done two sites but I have a lot of help from some professional friends!
http://www.kempo-ju-jitsu.org.uk I did this for mt dads martial arts clubs http://www.knockoutonline.co.uk this one is for my business. If you want any help PM me!
Keep passing the open windows!
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Mark Powell Special user UK 504 Posts |
Quote:
if you cant get my contact details in 1 click maybe get your eyes checked not to be rude. Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I think EVENT was referring to the fact that, on loading your website, you first have to click on "Close-up" or "Childrens", then scroll down the page to click on "Contact" - that's two clicks. Something that struck me was that, on the "About Me" page, there seems to be a line of text missing halfway down, just after "... close up magic is perfect to add" and before the paragraph "Steve D's magic...". |
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Chris Becker Veteran user New York, NY 371 Posts |
Naaahh, I don't know, Steve. I think there's quite some room for improvement... The design totally surprised me especially because of your avatar, which looks kinda professional.
Speaking of it, the picture, while o.k., is not ideal in my eyes. It's also one the main elements of your website and then you don't even look at your guests!?! The pictures are in my opinion a very, very important element of every website. You can tell immediately whether someone is a professional or not based on the pictures he uses. I did most pictures for my good friend's Harry Lucas website. It is one of THE best magician's websites I know. Check it out at http://www.harrylucas.com Best, Christof Oh, and Harry will perform his new mentalism act in the FISM competition. It rocks!
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<BR>Cards don't cheat people. People cheat people. |
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Billy Bo Special user 627 Posts |
To be honest too many pictures of yourself not actually doing anything just looks like your into yourself a bit too much. the photos were took in a living room, table in background with a couple of kids which is how I usually perform. I don't often turn up to a party where no one has turned up and a nice photo studio to get some pictures done. the size will be looked into but the line about performing since 2002 will stay. yes people will know I'm young from the pictures but if they guess I'm too young which I look they may think I have no experience whereas with that line they can re-assure themselves
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Chris Becker Veteran user New York, NY 371 Posts |
Do you REALLY want to stress you've been performing magic for 3 years? I'm sure you are very good but - just trying to help!!! - 3 years does not imply you have a lot of experience - to the contrary. From your profile I can see you're an adult, most magicians I know started out in magic when they were 5 or 6 and began performing when they were 10. I was late, started at age 9. We might be terrible magicians but if you want to suggest to your clientele that you have a lot of experience, perhaps you should not give them that number!?!
Don't take it badly! Just trying to be honest. -Christof
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<BR>Cards don't cheat people. People cheat people. |
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TheAmbitiousCard Eternal Order Northern California 13425 Posts |
Well Steve, The results are in. What's your next step?
www.theambitiouscard.com Hand Crafted Magic
Trophy Husband, Father of the Year Candidate, Chippendale's Dancer applicant, Unofficial World Record Holder. |
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clamon86 Special user 508 Posts |
Several years ago I took a web designing class and learned alot. A website is there to show someone who you are and what you have to offer. It has to stand-out, but has to be informative at the same time.
Think about it this way, when you are surfing what is the avg time you spent viewing one page. Defintely less than 1 min. Maybe 30 seconds or less. This means that you have about 30 seconds(maybe more, maybe less) to make a good impression. You are trying to sell something, and in this case its yourself. Think about the information you put on the site, and word everything carefully. I regard to the actual website and the not the information here are a few things to consider: Who is your target audience? Who are you? Who do you want people to percieve you? What do you do? What is your personality like? What are some of your character traits? What type of magic do you specialize in? You may or may not have answer to these questions but that's the frame of mind. Some suggestions: -try to leave as much blank space as possible -try to make everything organized even the color of the site shows alot. Choose your target market and that will determine. I see it like: Crazy and wacky colors are for teens, primary colors are for kids, and more bold, dark, and plain colors are for adults. Your site seemed seemed to me like more of a children's site with bold purple and blue, and the stars on the side. You want the font to be not to small so that people have to struggle to read it, but not to big so that people will be blinded by it. Look at other magician's sites and see how it's laid out. The majority of the public are lazy. Think about all the little things. To much scrolling is not good, because people want to see all the info when they get to the site. Think again as if you are surfing the internet. When you are browsing and find a good site, you have less than 1 min to find exactly what you need and then get off. This is why graphic designers and web page designers get so much money. Cause for some companies the website is everything. Site like Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Penguin, Ebay, are popular websites cause they are easy to navigate through, clear, organized, and there is blank space. Right now Google is the most popular website around the world, look at there website. Over 60% is white, the search feature is very acurate, and it takes just a few seconds to get exactly where you need out of about 8 billion or something. I'm sorry if I have typed to much, there is just so much to consider when making a website, and I get excited about it. anyway, there is a lot more to consider, but my hands are tired. hope all this has helped or struck a nerve and remember the KISS rule |
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Chris Becker Veteran user New York, NY 371 Posts |
Right on clamon! Excellent advice! Except for Google, which covers only 4% of the net... ;-)
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<BR>Cards don't cheat people. People cheat people. |
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clamon86 Special user 508 Posts |
Thank you
4% is a pretty good amount if it is what you say. The net is the electronic world which is pretty big. Its just a great example of one of the main reasons the site is so successful, and has become the #1 used search engine right infront of Yahoo. Even themagiccafe.com is pretty nice. There's a lot of green blank space, and the homepage is organized in tables and is easy to read. When the search was up it was reasonably eas to navigate, and because of the different sections and threads, magicians can get exactly where they need to go quickly. and when a thread is placed in the wrong section is corrected. One last thing about the magiccafe example. The front logo. Magicians helping magicians, open 24 hours. That is very catchy, and magicians now that there is help at everyone hour in the day. That is why there are nearly 24,000 members. |
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