I have been on Gigmasters for a year and I have not booked one thing the whole time. I am not sure what the heck the problem is. Are my fees to high? Does my page not read well. I would love it if someone who is doing well on there would have a look at my page and tell me what you think.

Here is the link http://www.gigmasters.com/magician/SteveBarcellona/

My membership is about to be over and I am trying to figure out if I should re-up.

HELP!!!

I was on a year and only booked one show. Lots of lookies but that's it.

It is probably because you have so much competition. I do not think it is because of your fees. I would advise a better video too.

Steve,
Took a look at your page and decided to PM you. In your market you should be getting something...
Tom

Steve,

You didn't book one thing but how many inquiries did you receive. How many of the inquiries did you actually talk to? Did they call you or you call them? I'm very curious.

I took a quick look at the Gigmaster's page and scanned through the top 20.

If you look at the guys who are getting booked they:

• have fees that start at a range from 125-175 (one guy at 250).
  
• those who are getting booked recently are performing birthday parties.
  
• those who do birthday parties are getting corporate functions.
  
• those who are doing only corporate functions or bigger shows are booked far and few between.
  
• one performer has niche that has the most bookings (i.e. Elvis).
  

Grant it that some bookings will come from Gigmasters, but clients will come directly to you.

Just from a marketing perspective by looking at the top 20 you are targeting a tough market through Gigmasters, but it is still good to have that presence.

I am no expert in this field (i.e. marketing), but I would recommend the following:

• New promo video, short sweet, emphasizing the fun and excitement.
  
• Video testimonials from other gigs as opposed to the promo
  
• List your gigs that you don't get from Gigmasters too.
  
• Your missing that unique selling point that separates you from the next guy.
  

In considering whether you should continue your listing, that would be a personal decision. I would look at how many leads I am getting from this method, how much of my marketing dollars is going to this source and how much return I am getting compared to my other marketing sources.

One final thing, I would probably question Gigmasters, is why is #1 Corporate Comedy Magician showing up twice in the list.

These are just things I would consider in deciding if I would continue listing.

I would also be interested in Tom's advice it could help the general community here.

Hope this helps.

Steve,
Hey, just two quick thoughts I had. I don't have any experience with GigMasters, so this is strictly based on what I saw when I clicked through to your page.

Your text is all about banquet parties and strolling magic, but your video is a family stage show. That's not the best way market to people looking at your page! That's like a children's entertainer with a video of their corporate walk-around. Your text says you specialize in "close range" "sleight of hand magic," yet your video shows something else.

Also, it looks like you've only done one show before, the one in the video. If you've done more than one show, make your demo video show it! Your video is long, but needs to be more fast-paced, more exciting! It also needs to show more than one venue. Ideally, you should show the venue that appeals most to the market you're trying to market to! Show videos of you performing sleight of hand magic at various banquet parties, cocktail hour, etc.

Make these changes, and you'll be doing a better job of being consistent in your ad, which might help! Best Wishes! - Kevin

I will throw my 2 cents in here.
I agree with most of the above.
Starting with the video I agree it shows your stage show yet you do mention that you specialize in closeup. However, I don't really have a problem with that as it can easily be solved by mentioning that you perform both close up and stage then include several pictures. You only have one right now and that's kind of boring.
Get pics of gigs where you are performing close up action shots!

Someone also mentioned that you should have video clips from more than one show and I kind of disagree with that as if you can great, but the consumer does not pay attention to that as much as us magicians. I had several magicians write me and tell me that I need video clips from more than one show - funny thing is that my video is form multiple shows it is that I carry my own lighting and curtains so all my shows look alike.

Anywho the point is with a bunch of pictures from other events that will help a lot.

Next you need to remove the list of events you are available for and either put
Available for
YOUR NEXT EVENT

Short and sweet and lets the buyer know that you are available for everything without the big long list

Finally if you want to specialize in walk around and close up then you need to reword a lot of things to drive home that point.

Hope this helps

sam

I've heard that gigmasters doesn't get many people money.
Has anyone here had luck with Gigmasters?

I was on Gigmasters for about 6 months. I had a lot of inquiries, but booked nothing. The people who booked those shows had cheaper (sometimes much cheaper) rates. Also, there were no inquiries from my area, but a lot from Milwaukee, which was a 2 hour drive. Most of the inquires were for birthday parties.

Well, they offered me a free 3 month trial, since I booked nothing before, but so far the results have been the same.

Bruce

I want to thank everyone for the constructive comments. I really apprecitate the time you took to give me your thoughts.

The video is the best I have right now. I have done many shows I just never asked if I could video it and use it for promotion. I know it is not the best from a lot of perspectives. I can certainly tighten it up.
It comes form a club show.
Here is a lesson I will pass on. Just pay a real video person to do it for you.
I thought the quote was too high, so I tried to do it myself and it looks like CR*P!! Next time I will just pay.

I need to get some close up material also. I do both close up and a club type act.
I don't have a family or children's act at this time.

Good comments I will take it all in and use it
Thanks

As a mentalist I've done well with Gigmasters. Last year in a 2 month period I booked over $2,000, of which one show was $1,200.

This year it's been slow, however I am receiving inquiries for the spring & summer, so too early to see if I got the gigs based on the follow up calls.

In my area I have no real competition performing as a mentalist, so if someone wants a mentalist, I'm going to get the job - and that's without a video. While that sounds great - little to no competition - there's not the same demand for mentalists as there are for magicians.

I've done a couple of shows in trade for a video. One was shot by somebody who knew what they were doing, the other was a single camera set up at the back of the room. I was able to get usable footage from both of them. This is a good way to get videos made low cost.

My wife, Angie, is on Gigmasters and makes a killing, which can be seen by the number of gigs and testimonials and her high rating. One of the strong selling points is the testimonials. The other is the promo video.

First, check out her page:
http://www.gigmasters.com/caricaturist/A......aturist/

I produced the video (that's my main line of work), which you can watch on the page.



You are spot on, but I'm sorry you had to learn this the hard way.

Knowing which buttons to push is not the same as being able to tell a compelling story visually.

As usual, nice work Scott.

Does anyone understand the "Stars" formula?
How exactly, do you get stars?

Steve,
The "Stars" are awarded on a percentage basis. You get points for the number of bookings through the system, the total amount of dollars contracted, (both within a six month period) and the total number of feedbacks left and the feedback ratings received.

To get stars, you need to schedule work through the system and get feedback. There has been a lot of discussion about this. If you book a lot of shows at a low fee, you can actually rate higher than a high priced act that earns more yet contracts fewer shows. The system isn't perfect, but that is the way things work.
Tom

Hello ScottRSullivan!

Do you ever do critiques of promo videos? I'd love to have you take a look at ours and offer some pointers. Perhaps in trade for one of my books or lecture notes?

MrGreggy and AbbieCadabra videos

Thanks!

Greg,

I took a quick look at it and I've got to say I'm very impressed. You hit the nail on the head perfectly with several things:

LOTS of testimonials
The audio of real people doing interview style testimonials just rocks. This is one of the most powerful ways to persuade potential clients. I LOVE including testimonials in videos. Well done.

Happy faces & sounds of laughter
The audience reactions, the kids on stage, all good. Smiles are infectious and when you see a lot of other people having fun, laughing, and smiling, you can't help but start laughing and smiling yourself. And if they are smiling at the end of the video, you just hooked them emotionally. And that's more powerful than any left brain list of features.


I'd love to talk to you more about this in more depth. There are some ideas I'd love to discuss with you about the video. Give me an email or PM anytime.
Scott