Hey everyone, made my new website for the 2011 year! I was wondering if you all could explore and critique the site for me.
http://www.wix.com/zecksteinz/z-magic
Thanks,
- Zac
http://www.wix.com/zecksteinz/z-magic
Thanks,
- Zac
Critique Website Please
- Thread starter Zac Eckstein
- Start date
The red hurts my eyes.
The tacky writing like: "Hey"; "Price Sheet''.
Why is there music on a magic site?
I only saw your name once... I need to see it more.
The tacky writing like: "Hey"; "Price Sheet''.
Why is there music on a magic site?
I only saw your name once... I need to see it more.
First thing is the address if it is not something.com or something.net there is a fairly high likely nobody will even bother going to it.
Overall it seemed cluttered and was trying to do too much. Also get all other advertising off the site.
Under the shows tab never quote prices, also those prices are way to low. By pricing yourself that low will actually hinder your work load not help it. Remember you have a skill that not everyone possess treat it as such.
I know you are young however if you want to make magic a viable career choice you need to create a business plan. For example;
When you go to college (if you want to I am not sure) how much money do you need and want to survive. Say you want 400 dollars a week or even 200 if your parents are helping you. Take into consideration the minimum engagement should be 3 hours (some guys do 2). You would earn approx $95 per gig and would need atleast 4 gigs a week to support that, right? Wrong you are forgetting the other expensise items like travel supplies and advertising. (It should cost a good $1000 for a website.)
Not to mention you don't buy a 200 dollar car because you know it is going to be riddled with problems in the same mindset you do not hire a 20 dollar magician.
My advise is to get work first (80 an hour 200 for 3 is a good starting point but ensure you are worth it). Save that money hire someone (graphic art students are good and cheap same with it studets) to create your website.
I have more to add but I am on my phone.
Overall it seemed cluttered and was trying to do too much. Also get all other advertising off the site.
Under the shows tab never quote prices, also those prices are way to low. By pricing yourself that low will actually hinder your work load not help it. Remember you have a skill that not everyone possess treat it as such.
I know you are young however if you want to make magic a viable career choice you need to create a business plan. For example;
When you go to college (if you want to I am not sure) how much money do you need and want to survive. Say you want 400 dollars a week or even 200 if your parents are helping you. Take into consideration the minimum engagement should be 3 hours (some guys do 2). You would earn approx $95 per gig and would need atleast 4 gigs a week to support that, right? Wrong you are forgetting the other expensise items like travel supplies and advertising. (It should cost a good $1000 for a website.)
Not to mention you don't buy a 200 dollar car because you know it is going to be riddled with problems in the same mindset you do not hire a 20 dollar magician.
My advise is to get work first (80 an hour 200 for 3 is a good starting point but ensure you are worth it). Save that money hire someone (graphic art students are good and cheap same with it studets) to create your website.
I have more to add but I am on my phone.
Don't use flash for the core of the site (for many reasons). It's not index-able (for search engines), it's a buggy CPU-hog of a technology, it doesn't work on iPad/iPhone/etc, and you can do virtually everything it does via a decent javascript library like jQuery.
my 2 cents..
my 2 cents..
Hey Zac,
Great start. It's great to have lots of text, and lots of video, (including the video on your landing page) for search results. I also have a wix site, but I got it before I knew much about search engines. I know Wix is a hybrid site, but perhaps you will have far better search results by avoiding flash all together. (someone recommended squarespace to me)
In terms of critique:
-the red is a bit intense, and strains the eyes with the black text (Also clashes with the colors on your head shot).
-Text on various pages are different sizes, try to maintain consistency as much as possible
-All videos play automatically (Both the homepage one and the video page)
-The homepage video is overlapping text.
- I agree, it's probably best to remove prices - I'm not saying you can't have a price structure, but have it available upon request.
-- charge what you feel you are worth, and what works in your area.
-- I noticed you have a corporate show listed, but you mention it's not funny. Just for the record, adults like comedy! If you have developed a comedic show/character, then stick with it and sell it (you can always choose age appropriate jokes)
-the navigation tabs at the top: some are separated by lines and others not (not sure if it's part of the site design or not)
-the drippy text doesn't seem to fit your persona in your videos. It seems more Halloweeny and I think you are going for edgy
- Most of all, choose your target audience for your site. Answer the questions, why do you want a webpage? What do you want it to accomplish for you? Then build your site for that specific group/purpose.
Good luck with your site!
Great start. It's great to have lots of text, and lots of video, (including the video on your landing page) for search results. I also have a wix site, but I got it before I knew much about search engines. I know Wix is a hybrid site, but perhaps you will have far better search results by avoiding flash all together. (someone recommended squarespace to me)
In terms of critique:
-the red is a bit intense, and strains the eyes with the black text (Also clashes with the colors on your head shot).
-Text on various pages are different sizes, try to maintain consistency as much as possible
-All videos play automatically (Both the homepage one and the video page)
-The homepage video is overlapping text.
- I agree, it's probably best to remove prices - I'm not saying you can't have a price structure, but have it available upon request.
-- charge what you feel you are worth, and what works in your area.
-- I noticed you have a corporate show listed, but you mention it's not funny. Just for the record, adults like comedy! If you have developed a comedic show/character, then stick with it and sell it (you can always choose age appropriate jokes)
-the navigation tabs at the top: some are separated by lines and others not (not sure if it's part of the site design or not)
-the drippy text doesn't seem to fit your persona in your videos. It seems more Halloweeny and I think you are going for edgy
- Most of all, choose your target audience for your site. Answer the questions, why do you want a webpage? What do you want it to accomplish for you? Then build your site for that specific group/purpose.
Good luck with your site!
Do not put prices on your website that is something that should be negotiated over the phone or
in person, and your prices are way to low, my hour shows start at $275
in person, and your prices are way to low, my hour shows start at $275
I agree with everything above, and I would also add that you completely re-write the welcome paragraph.
Since this is the first thing people see when they come to site, it needs to at LEAST look professional. Right now, it looks like a teenager wrote it trying to act "fresh" with customers...
Write it in third person, and avoid:
- "How's it going?"
- "There are a lot of things you can do"
- Recommending checking out certain portions of the website
- Satisfied FANS? You don't want to put "fans" into any description of a magician's service.
- Welp? Sounds like you mispelled a word.
- All Caps words followed by 4 exclamations...really?
I made a blunt critique, but in all seriousness, you DEFINITELY need to re-write your introduction. Talk about yourself and how you got started in magic. Make sure your grammar and sentence structure is proper. Sell yourself to them on WHY they should select you above all other magicians to perform at their event. You get where I'm going here...
I know Z-MAGIC is your stage name, but you want people to know you for YOU, not some slogan name to attract attention. It works for Lady Gaga, but not for magicians. Maybe that's just me, but then again, that falls out of the "professional" category.
When you do this, you will have more business, guaranteed. Good luck with the site man!
Since this is the first thing people see when they come to site, it needs to at LEAST look professional. Right now, it looks like a teenager wrote it trying to act "fresh" with customers...
Write it in third person, and avoid:
- "How's it going?"
- "There are a lot of things you can do"
- Recommending checking out certain portions of the website
- Satisfied FANS? You don't want to put "fans" into any description of a magician's service.
- Welp? Sounds like you mispelled a word.
- All Caps words followed by 4 exclamations...really?
I made a blunt critique, but in all seriousness, you DEFINITELY need to re-write your introduction. Talk about yourself and how you got started in magic. Make sure your grammar and sentence structure is proper. Sell yourself to them on WHY they should select you above all other magicians to perform at their event. You get where I'm going here...
I know Z-MAGIC is your stage name, but you want people to know you for YOU, not some slogan name to attract attention. It works for Lady Gaga, but not for magicians. Maybe that's just me, but then again, that falls out of the "professional" category.
When you do this, you will have more business, guaranteed. Good luck with the site man!
Zac,
Before I start on about your site I want you to know I am not being mean. I am being truthful with things I say down toward the bottom of this post.
I am in no way telling you to copy these sites but look at the 2 links I have listed below and try something like them for your site. Both of these sites are very different in the way they look and feel but they are both PERFECT.
joshnorris.com
joshuajay.com
If you notice on those sites they have a ton of pictures of themselves performing magic or they have professional pictures done of them with playing cards. I understand how expensive pictures can be but I would rather see you with the 3 senior picture looking pictures of you in the jacket and white shirt than see the blurry pictures done with what looks like either a webcam or a cell phone. You also have a lot of pictures of people smiling at what look like a carnival or something but there are very few good pictures of YOU making them smile. The reason I mentioned them being at a carnival is because in your services section on your site you talk about stage, stand-up and corporate events but you only have pictures of you performing walk around outside. Another thing about your pictures, you have way WAY too many pictures that look exactly the same. I have gone through about 10 - 15 of them just trying to see what pictures you have and they are all almost exactly the same just with different people in the pictures. I would say it would look 1000 times more professional to have 5 professionally done pictures on your site and 1 performance picture and a professionally shot video of you performing in something other than a denim vest shirt thing with the cut off sleeves.
On to your choice of clothing. I am not saying change your self, but I am guessing "Z-Magic" is your character and I am also guessing that "Z-Magic" is not the magic equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy. So why dress like him? If you are wanting people to view this website and take you seriously as a performer and entertainer then why would you not have everything at its best, including your clothing in your performance videos and pictures? Now don't get me wrong I am not telling you to dress in a tux while doing walk around at a carnival BUT I do think you should have certain clothes set aside for different events. These clothes should not be worn for normal day to day clothes, you want them to look their best. Also, don't be scared to look better than the people you are performing for. I know that sounds horrible but if you are performing for adults (potential clients) wouldn't you want to be dressed to impress these people upon first sight? If you and another magician are both standing in the middle of a carnival, who do you think a crowd will form around faster, you in a denim shirt with the sleeves cut off or the guy performing the same magic dressed in business casual? Through this site you are selling yourself as a product. That being said, would you go to the grocery store and buy the head of lettuce that is wilted and brown or would you buy the head of lettuce that looks like it was just freshly cut and set out for sale?
Like I said above I am not trying to run you or your site down this was just my first impression of your site and you as a product. I know things can get expensive when trying to get things professionally done as far as pictures, videos and websites go, but you can find cheap ways out and still get professional work done. If you contact a local college you may be able to get some students to do the work for you for super cheap. They are only looking for the credits in their portfolio.
BTW, speaking of video. I would ditch the other videos you have on your site and, if you don't go for professional videos, only keep the video you have on your landing page. BUT. I would re-edit it totally. If I was going to hire you I would not want to hear an introduction of you on your video when you should have a good intro in text on the same page. Another thing that makes me unsure if I enjoy you speaking over your video is there are a couple times that you say things that are hard to understand. I also just watched through one of your videos and you mention and explain the hindu force. I am not so sure thats something you want in a video for potential clients to see, especially because you say, "I use that one all the time". Why would you explain something to potential clients that you use all the time? Also, mentioning "going pee" in a video for potential clients to see probably isn't the best thing in the world to mention.
I hope you take everything I said into consideration because I think you really need to sit down and work out your pictures and video more than anything else.
Before I start on about your site I want you to know I am not being mean. I am being truthful with things I say down toward the bottom of this post.
I am in no way telling you to copy these sites but look at the 2 links I have listed below and try something like them for your site. Both of these sites are very different in the way they look and feel but they are both PERFECT.
joshnorris.com
joshuajay.com
If you notice on those sites they have a ton of pictures of themselves performing magic or they have professional pictures done of them with playing cards. I understand how expensive pictures can be but I would rather see you with the 3 senior picture looking pictures of you in the jacket and white shirt than see the blurry pictures done with what looks like either a webcam or a cell phone. You also have a lot of pictures of people smiling at what look like a carnival or something but there are very few good pictures of YOU making them smile. The reason I mentioned them being at a carnival is because in your services section on your site you talk about stage, stand-up and corporate events but you only have pictures of you performing walk around outside. Another thing about your pictures, you have way WAY too many pictures that look exactly the same. I have gone through about 10 - 15 of them just trying to see what pictures you have and they are all almost exactly the same just with different people in the pictures. I would say it would look 1000 times more professional to have 5 professionally done pictures on your site and 1 performance picture and a professionally shot video of you performing in something other than a denim vest shirt thing with the cut off sleeves.
On to your choice of clothing. I am not saying change your self, but I am guessing "Z-Magic" is your character and I am also guessing that "Z-Magic" is not the magic equivalent of Larry the Cable Guy. So why dress like him? If you are wanting people to view this website and take you seriously as a performer and entertainer then why would you not have everything at its best, including your clothing in your performance videos and pictures? Now don't get me wrong I am not telling you to dress in a tux while doing walk around at a carnival BUT I do think you should have certain clothes set aside for different events. These clothes should not be worn for normal day to day clothes, you want them to look their best. Also, don't be scared to look better than the people you are performing for. I know that sounds horrible but if you are performing for adults (potential clients) wouldn't you want to be dressed to impress these people upon first sight? If you and another magician are both standing in the middle of a carnival, who do you think a crowd will form around faster, you in a denim shirt with the sleeves cut off or the guy performing the same magic dressed in business casual? Through this site you are selling yourself as a product. That being said, would you go to the grocery store and buy the head of lettuce that is wilted and brown or would you buy the head of lettuce that looks like it was just freshly cut and set out for sale?
Like I said above I am not trying to run you or your site down this was just my first impression of your site and you as a product. I know things can get expensive when trying to get things professionally done as far as pictures, videos and websites go, but you can find cheap ways out and still get professional work done. If you contact a local college you may be able to get some students to do the work for you for super cheap. They are only looking for the credits in their portfolio.
BTW, speaking of video. I would ditch the other videos you have on your site and, if you don't go for professional videos, only keep the video you have on your landing page. BUT. I would re-edit it totally. If I was going to hire you I would not want to hear an introduction of you on your video when you should have a good intro in text on the same page. Another thing that makes me unsure if I enjoy you speaking over your video is there are a couple times that you say things that are hard to understand. I also just watched through one of your videos and you mention and explain the hindu force. I am not so sure thats something you want in a video for potential clients to see, especially because you say, "I use that one all the time". Why would you explain something to potential clients that you use all the time? Also, mentioning "going pee" in a video for potential clients to see probably isn't the best thing in the world to mention.
I hope you take everything I said into consideration because I think you really need to sit down and work out your pictures and video more than anything else.
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1. Its a Wix site.
2. Its a Wix site.
3. Hire a professional web designer to make you a site.
J.
2. Its a Wix site.
3. Hire a professional web designer to make you a site.
J.
If you need a professional website (registered domain, cusom design, management system, SEO + infinite hours of consulting) contact me via PM.
Steve
P.S: Since you're a magician I'll sneak in a pretty huge discount.
Oh i saw that you forgot to mention that:
IT`S WIX
Go on Deviantart, creattica or csselite. There are tons of CSS gallery´s and extensive sites that cover the basics of a proffessional site. The fact that you have www.yourname.com will get you 90% more business than yourname.wix.com , which shows that your age(which is 18 as i remember from your article correct me if i´m wrong) is equal to what you are as a businessman. The wix url makes you smaller than you actually are and brings out your age a lot more.
M.
M.
To be fair, I assume that once he has a design he likes, then he will pay for a domain. No point in paying for a domain without a site to go with it. And I found wix to be really easy to use and am achieving first page results when you search Edmonton magicians, and I still have lots to add. So perhaps it's not all that bad. (Granted I'm not competing against a ton of competition in my area, but still)
So I'm sure he's just waiting until he has a site he likes.
Hey guys! I just signed a manager and he called a client to make a professional website and everything! I just have to pay for the domain name. Pretty good deal I guess haha, Welp, till next time!
- Zac
- Zac
Actually, they are not perfect, as proven below:
Josh Norris' site - http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://joshnorris.com/
And well, Joshua Jay's site is in Flash, and is one of the few Magician site's that actually warrants the use of Flash.
For those building a website, remember that it is not just the design that counts.
The things you need to take into consideration when building a site:
1 - Design
2 - Architecture
3 - Target Audience
4 - Suitable content for the target audience
etc...
In addition, the architecture you decide on needs to match the amount and type of content. You wouldn't use a flash site for a text heavy site.
Too much is bad, too little is bad. Don't try to do too much with your site, but make sure you have enough to keep a visitor interested. An average user will choose within the first 5 seconds upon visiting a site if they want to stay and check it out (5 seconds is being generous).
Lastly,
COLORS DO MATTER! The amount of colors, the placement of the colors, etc...
The GOLDEN RATIO matters. (this applies to layout and spacing)
Font and readability matters.
Lastly, for anyone wanting to start out in web design, check out wordpress. It is hands on enough that it does not have a "auto-made free hosting site" look to it, and you will get to learn a bit about everything, css, html, php, SEO, etc... Wordpress also has the best online support community for any web building tool out there. Oh, and it is free.
Thank you for proving me wrong in me saying the sites were "perfect". Since I know little to none about actually coding and building a site I was talking from a business standpoint of "perfect". If you go by checking the code of these sites Zac's site is tons better than either of the sites I mentioned, but by looking at the sites as a whole that isn't true. The coding on the site maybe correct, but Zac's site does not serve its purpose the way it should. That being said, what I meant in my original post is the look, feel and content of joshuajay.com and joshnorris.com is perfect. The 2 sites listed are designed to sell a product, which is the magician in this case and IMO they are designed perfectly to sell the product intended, otherwise the magicians may not be as successful as they are. I think Joshua Jay and Josh Norris' success is a perfect example of why a person wanting to be a worker would take the design of joshuajay.com and joshnorris.com into consideration. If Zac is looking to find a job as a magician I think he needs a site built that has the same characteristics as the other 2 sites.
BTW no body is perfect, but these 2 sites are still rather successful.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://theory11.com&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator/1.2
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.penguinmagic.com&charset=(detect+automatically)&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator/1.2
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