Hello everyone. I have been out of touch for a while now but I'm back.

My question is: What do you think of my website, video, and name? What do you feel I should change, add, remove, etc?

Thanks all for your input.

Mr. Oblivious
The Worlds Greatest (?) Magician

Posted: Mar 18, 2011 2:23am
Oops forgot to put the website down.

http://www.Ungawamagic.com

Hi, Brent: Overall, it seems to fit your style and your act. Just a couple of suggestions.

* Change the navigation buttons to rectangles. Everything else on the site looks clean. The splatter shaped buttons look out of date.

* Kill the ads on some of the pages. You're trying to sell your act, not other magic tricks or magicians in other cities ... or Netflix, which is popping up. It's distracting.

* The video starts out well and moves at a good pace. But it's too long. Try to cut it down to 3 minutes. I would also start it out with the first effect, then do your title screen, then go back into the gags and effects. But web videos don' work if they're longer than 3 minutes. The rest is just wasted. Because few people are going to watch it. The music fits well.

I like the name. Sounds like you're doing well.

Hope this helps.

It looks good. The children certainly seem to be enjoying the show. I would, however, change the "about us" page. I would take out the part about the 15 years away from magic. You may want to include information about what you are hoping to accomplish in the lives of children through your magic.

It looks fine. I spotted "Error Loading JQuery." on the top right side and it is also a good idea to enter Copyright info at the bottom of your website. For example;

"Copyright 2011 XYZ.com All rights reserved"

Just a thought, you might want to incorporate a color scheme that expresses your personality.

Maybe light blues for a light professional but fun spirited?

I'd also suggest, from something I very recently realized, photos of the kids having fun and laughing, something a parent would love to see. Clients are more intersted to see what their guests would be like. A shortcoming I saw with my own website that I'm currently in the process to rectify.

Were on the same path my friend, this website thing is killing me.

Hoping for mutual success!

I'm going to disagree here. If I'm being honest, I think your website is awful. A website in many cases is going to be your "first impression" with your potential client. If I was doing a search for "Magicians" in your area and I came upon your website, I would quickly hit "X" and move on to the next name on the list.

Why?

Because there is nothing visually appealing to keep me at your website. It looks like it was created by someone who knows very little about web design. It lacks a good flow and structure. It doesn't look professional which means in my mind, that YOU are not professional.

Also, if I'm being honest, the video of you isn't good either. You don't "look" like a Magician. You look a guy who hit the magic shop before the show, bought some props and you're standing there doing a show in your street clothes (kaki's and Hawaiian shirt). There's nothing exciting about that. Very dull and boring.

Please understand that I'm in no way commenting on your talent or performance. You could be the best magi on the scene today, but I'll never know that b/c based on your promo materials, I would never book you.

Take a look at my website: http://www.lylemagic.com

It's very simple, not too busy, and is very user friendly. When you first get to my website, it's exciting and tells people that I'm a pro. It will make people want to stick around and navigate thru the differnt links on my site.

I think you should contact someone who can build you a great website, get some good promo shots of yourself and if you don't have any good footage of yourself performing, then don't have a video demo on the site.

I would contact Bizzaro. He redid my website and is a very reasonable. His email is smappdooda@hotmail.com

Best of luck to you...

Christopher

Thanks for your feed back to every one. I am going to get rid of the ads. The blotted buttons I will get rid of also.

My question is to Christopher Lyle. also I am taking your advice into consideration, but I need you to elaborate on some things.

If you were looking for a magician what kind of magician would you have been looking for? Adult? Children? Family friendly?

What does a childrens magician look like? Steve Daly does his children show with a hawaiian shirt. Children like fun things. What is more fun than a hawaiian shirt? I won't do a clown.

Have you watched the video at all? To me it sounded like you watched it and disliked almost everything about the video.

About your site. I have looked at it and there are some aspects I hate about it. I am saying this because not everything appeals to everyone.

If I don't have a video of my self doing something why would some one book me? Some people do not have the funds to spend $1,000 or more to get some one to shoot video for you and edit it.

Hope this was not harsh. Was not ment to be. Just need more detail from why you don't like something.

Hey There,

You mention that you are in Minnesota. I think part of the problem here may just be regional. (I lived for 10 yrs next door in WI)

I think the "sad sack" act is very midwestern. Nothing wrong with that. Play to your market. But slick coasters may not "get it".

I think your website is nice in a midwestern homey sort of way. Honestly, I looked at it not to critique your magic but trying to think as a potential employer, and what stuck me most about the clips is how much fun the kids were having. I think that's your bets selling point and I think the video does a good job. My only critique (as someone with some TV and Film training) is a common one with "homemade" videos, which is that it might be a bit long. (Editing your own stuff is hard, even for pros.) You might want to try, as an experiment, doing a video with JUST what you consider the two best audience reactions in the film, and show that to people to see if they like it more.

The rest of your site is attractive but why is "Contact Us" higher then "Book us" on your list? That smells a bit of insecurity. A wise man once told me "Always put what you want the viewer to do up front".
I'd move "Book Us" to where "contact us" is now, and change "contact us" to "Have questions?" and put it a the bottom.

From what I hear my video is too long. I will shorten it up. Cyberqat I will change every thing you say and ponder the things you have said.

I am thinking about doing away with the red and going with a maybe a light blue or warm blue.

This all depends on the type of event I was hosting. I'm not sure if I understand this question?





This all depends on YOU. Who are you trying to be? Do you have an established character or more of a style? If it's appropriate for your character to wear such an outfit, then I guess it would be ok, but then I'd have your entire website "themed" around that idea. Since it's not, you just come off as sloppy and unprofessional.

When I perform for children, I wear a suit. I have a bright yellow suit, a bright red suit and a bright blue suit. They're all very LOUD, BRIGHT, and VIBRANT! The primary colors. My set will change with the suit I wear so everything contrasts off of my outfit.

When I do Corporate Work, I'll either wear a black pinstripe suit or a grey pinstripe suit.

If I'm booked for a more "edgy" bunch, then I'll wear jeans, a button down and my black suit jacket.

For Festivals, I wear black slacks and a bright bowling shirt.

The fact of the matter is, I look professional and when people book me, they can see that. When I look at you, there's nothing "exciting" about how you look.

Like I said...if you stick to a THEME and your outfit matches your website and it's all about The Hawiian Shirt, then awesome. It could also be the TYPE of shirt you're wearing. That shirt is pale blue and looks very boring. Find a Hawiian Shirt that's very bright and exciting to look at.

Like I said tho, right now, it's not, and so it looks sloppy and not at all fun.



I did watch it. The kids were reacting very well to your material and they found you extremely entertaining. Awesome! Like I said, I wasn't commenting on the performance aspect, just the look of it in general.



If you have strong marketing materials, such as a website that highlights you and your act, nice photos (both head shots and live shots) then you don't really need a video. Always better to have NO VIDEO than a POOR ONE.



You're right! I don't either. My videos are FREE! Here are my video demo's that I use to sell my act. These are all "homemade" video's, but I know quite a bit about editing so I can do all of my own post work myself.

Sleight of Hand Promo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvtwlqqdj......eo_title
Stand Up Promo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3DYAOCGr18
Razor Blade Teaser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0sDLuOj4Wk&feature=related

All of these videos were shot on a nice camcorder. Nothing high end...but a good one. The trick to making good promo videos is making sure the person watching it will watch it to the end. Most people won't. I usually won't unless something grabs my attention right away and that rarely happens.

Hope this helps you out a bit...

Christopher

If you live in a college town, and have the balls, go down to your local college and ask around or put up a sign saying that you are looking for a film student to help you with some promo video. The deal is they get to keep and sue a copy for THeER portfolio, too.

Back in my college days, film wasn't cheap and you could get help just by paying for the film. Godo news is its a lot cheaper now. If you have to, throw $100 in to sweeten the pot, assuming you cab. But you may well not have to.

Cyberqat nice tip nice tip indeed. I will look into that.

I would look at Christopher's video as an good example. Opens with effects, quick cuts, good choice of music for his character. Puts his title screen AFTER an effect. It's the first 10 seconds when you lose people on a web video and I see so many people try to open with a title sequence. This ain't TV or the movies folks. Start with a title slide, and you've lost 80 percent of your audience. This is according to actual studies (see previous link). To be even more effective, I'd have ended it at 1:20 after the razor blades, or put another 20 seconds of fire effects and ended it with the woman's reaction of candle-through-the arm.

This is NOT meant to be critical of Christopher's video; it's to help answer @blva888's original question about HIS video and what I know about the need to keep web videos short. This is something I've been learning about over the past five years, and what we've measured in audience metrics.

Christopher does have a nice, clean site.

And @blva888, better on the buttons (with the tix) but I'd still go for something simpler and try not to be too fancy. My web design friends tell me cleaner is better these days -- and that's how they tell a new web site from one designed in 2005.

I think what you're trying to go for in the comic department is what makes the colored banner work. I'd play around with the fonts on the main body, especially the head on the home page. Maybe @cyberquat is right, and it's a regional thing but I'm also not sure about the head font.

Also, click on links of people on the forum. I've seen some pretty sharp looking web sites, including this kid. He's using free templates, and there's nothing wrong with that if you're doing this DIY on the cheap and you're not a designer. As @cyberquat said with the videos, you might also look for someone majoring in web design, even at the nearest community college. They use it for their portfolio, you get design help.

Oh, and Tommy -- he has a good promo video. He might get away with the title screen first because in only lasts :05 -- within the 10-second window. Still, I would have opened with the shot of doing the magic for the row of cheerleaders, then hit the title screen. But this guy's web site is worth checking out as an example of an easy, inexpensive approach. Great thing about the web, it's always changing and you can update your site anytime you want.

Sometimes it's easier to see examples of what works. And these are just my thoughts.

Also, I would put a Facebook button where the guest book is -- guest books are also kind of 2005. FB is the world's No. 1 site and that's where people will find your web site, if you link to it from your profile. Seek out people who you want to hire you and send them friend requests, or in your case, suggestions they like your page, then they'll get to your site from there. If you're not on FB, it's like not being able to be found on Google. I found your FB page by Googling "ungawa magic" and you popped right to the top. So your SEO is pretty strong. Good job.

I'm not a big fan of telling people how to dress. I like to dress it a tux and look "the character" of a magician. But in comparing the photos to the video, I think the red shirt is a better look than the shirt in the video. Of course, you and Christopher talking about Hawaiian shirts and bowling shirts made me go looking and I may just buy this one for some gig in the future. Ha!

I hope you'll find some useful information in all of this late-night rant, after getting off working the night cop reporting shift and a couple of beers. But I kind of know about this interwebs stuff and really want to help.

Ron

Ok done some more changes. Let me know please. Thanks for the comments good and bad.

Posted: Mar 31, 2011 12:19pm
Well I done a lot of major changes to my site. Please have a look and comment good or bad.

Thanks

Better...but here are my thoughts...

The HOME PAGE needs to be just that...a home page. Lose the video of you on that page. Make another page called Video and stick it there.

Keep your home page simple...

Have your performing name and under that stick your tool bar. Have your contact information and have a nice publicity photo of yourself.

It is looking MUCH BETTER than it was...

Thanks Chris. I will think about moving the video. maybe put the pictures that I have on the home page now in place. There not good nor bad, but can be better. There the best ones I have so far I believe.

Great changes. Much better. I agree with Chris' suggestions.

I really like the focus of your site - you are a children's magician, nothing more and nothing less.

Shorten the video, reaction from the kids is overdone a bit - I get the message. You want to get to the comments from the teacher quicker.

The FAQ page did not shoe up on my iPad. Answers were black text on a black background.

I would take off the offer to volunteer from your website. Volunteering is fine, but if I am going to pay for a show I don't necessarily want to know you are giving the same thing away for free. I believe in volunteering, just wouldn't advertise that right next to your services.

Nice of you to provide a link to Tyler. Not sure that helps you, but it is nice. (and having taken lessons from him, I know your magic must be 1st class)

Good luck,

Hudson

55Hudson I am going to use your comment as a some what testimonial to help me if you don't mind. "having taken lessons from him, I know your magic must be 1st class"

Here's a subjective suggestion, try applying the inverted pyramid to your copy, specifically on the home page.

Assume that whoever is reading will only read half of what you wrote, so put the meat on the first two paragraphs. Major rule in copywriting and writing in general, Keep it short and simple.

It's a simple, effective and almost cheap hook to put two or three quotes from people on your top half. People you've worked for who have nice titles would be preferable. "Mr Magicman was entertaining and very professional blah blah" John Doe, Important CEO
"Mr Magicman blew my top off!" Natalie Portman

People trust what other people say about you more than what you say about yourself.

A rough guide if I may:

Right off the bat, talk about your main selling point as a performer and what makes you unique. Your first paragraph should answer "Why you and not him?"
The second might answer "If I take you on, what good stuff do I get?"

Especially with web copy, less is more. Nobody likes to read much in front of a bright, glaring radioactive mind frying screen.

I agree with moving the video. Gives your surfers a reason to surf. Leads them to look at other pages too.

Hope that helped!