Content Content and More Content

[notsoltd]

Anybody here heard of Gary Vaynerchuk? The dude is an entrepreneurial genius and has a lot of solid advice to share.

One of the things he stresses is that you have to produce content upon content upon more content. You should post 5 videos a week and interact with your fans consistently.

Gary built his fathers wine business to a $60 million per year business and he did it by hammering out content in the form of wine reviews - the dude had unlimited content this way because there are always going to be new wines to try and talk about.

So here I am, as a magician, trying to take his advice and I'm finding this INSANELY difficult to do. Let's pretend that I'm trying to promote my site. I have plans to but haven't started. This site is geared towards magicians and therefore I literally have the unlimited content advantage - product reviews, deck reviews, ideas for magicians, tutorials on public domain material, the list goes on.

Now lets flip the switch - lets say I'm trying to promote myself as an entertainer with a site (and YouTube channel) geared towards getting gigs and performing for lay people. Obviously I can't just blast out content in the form of magic product reviews so that leaves these questions:

What the hell kind of content do I produce for lay people that could be consistent?

I've also debated this idea in my head - as a magician, we have similarities to music artists. Our show is akin to an artists album and each routine is akin to a song on that album. So, perhaps, instead of creating a continuous stream of content, I could treat it as if I'm creating music - spend time working and honing a routine with a story and message and then drop it as an artist 'single.'

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on creating content as an entertainer and personality (to generate views and fans) as opposed to just putting out content that a lay person could give two s**** about.

Sorry this turned out to be a longer post than expected.

 

[Stu-pendous]

This is definitely something I find myself pondering over a lot.
I fall into the self promoting to get gigs category.

I know plenty of magic routines so that's not an issue for me. But I always struggle in picking things to perform for camera to put on instagram/youtube. I tend to get over critical with it and think "this routine has been done to death" or "is this interesting enough for a short video without any other context?"
Every now and then i'll get a creative boost that will inspire me and then I fall into a slump again.
I'm definitely interested in seeing the responses here.

 

[TylerScottIllusionist]

This is definitely something I find myself pondering over a lot.
I fall into the self promoting to get gigs category.

I know plenty of magic routines so that's not an issue for me. But I always struggle in picking things to perform for camera to put on instagram/youtube. I tend to get over critical with it and think "this routine has been done to death" or "is this interesting enough for a short video without any other context?"
Every now and then i'll get a creative boost that will inspire me and then I fall into a slump again.
I'm definitely interested in seeing the responses here.

My best piece of advice I ever received about marketing your content to get gigs is to forget the magic, and focus on the people. People don't actually care about magic, people care about people. What I would recommend producing is different promo reels appealing to different demographics but the essence of the video is people reacting to your magic. That is what event coordinators want to see that way they can feel confident in hiring you to entertain their guests for their venue.

 

[Maaz Hasan]

...
What the hell kind of content do I produce for lay people that could be consistent?

I've also debated this idea in my head - as a magician, we have similarities to music artists. Our show is akin to an artists album and each routine is akin to a song on that album. So, perhaps, instead of creating a continuous stream of content, I could treat it as if I'm creating music - spend time working and honing a routine with a story and message and then drop it as an artist 'single.'

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on creating content as an entertainer and personality (to generate views and fans) as opposed to just putting out content that a lay person could give two s**** about.

Sorry this turned out to be a longer post than expected.

Quality is greater than quantity, especially where magic is concerned. Pumping out content that isn't its best is just gonna get you nowhere. Make a suitable schedule that revolves around you, not your fans. Magic is an art - it could take weeks, months, years, or even decades, to perfect a trick. It is significantly easier to write a review, which is literally just this man talking about how good a wine is, where as you need to talk about specifications, performance, ease, use, tools, on top of how good a trick is, and more.

My thought to you is this: Look at your audience. Do you want to make content for magicians, or laymen. If your making content for magicians, one, two, maybe even three videos a week would be great. Here, you would focus on reviews, performance, recommendations, etc. However, if your gearing yourself to the laymen, know this: You cannot produce in depth magic content. They will not enjoy it at all. You will have to start producing either a) easy magic tutorials or b) magic performances (both of which will generate you some form of hate eventually, even though 95% of the stuff will be positive).

However, you've mentioned being an entertainer, not just a magician. Why not let that be your focus? The life of a magician, as opposed to magic in and of itself.

Whatever you choose, Good luck!

 

[obrienmagic]

Yes! I follow Gary, Thai Lopez, and Grant Cardone. They have a lot of solid advice on sales and just getting yourself pumped up in general!

As you may have noticed, I have been increasing my level of social media output recently (as a direct result of what these guys have to say. Gary suggests you "document vs. Create." This means you can take videos of yourself during your journey rather than trying to come up with content.

For a lay audience this can be in the form of magic videos of you working at gigs. Bring a friend a long to document you working other events. This way your clients can get the full experience. May be a great idea for showing off your MO to your prospects.

 

[notsoltd]

My best piece of advice I ever received about marketing your content to get gigs is to forget the magic, and focus on the people. People don't actually care about magic, people care about people. What I would recommend producing is different promo reels appealing to different demographics but the essence of the video is people reacting to your magic. That is what event coordinators want to see that way they can feel confident in hiring you to entertain their guests for their venue.

This is an interesting take and something that I didn't entirely consider. It's how David Blaine got so popular, by turning the cameras on the people and their reactions. At the same time, I feel strongly that the magic is just as important. You wouldn't see a musician saying "the music isn't important, it's about the people." While it IS about the people (and how the music makes them feel), it's also largely about the music and it's crucial that it's good. I think the same has to apply to magic. I think it'd be healthy to have a good mix of reactions and videos about the people, videos about you (as the magician, day in the life sorta thing), as well as magic-centric videos that highlight YOUR art.

Quality is greater than quantity, especially where magic is concerned. Pumping out content that isn't its best is just gonna get you nowhere. Make a suitable schedule that revolves around you, not your fans. Magic is an art - it could take weeks, months, years, or even decades, to perfect a trick. It is significantly easier to write a review, which is literally just this man talking about how good a wine is, where as you need to talk about specifications, performance, ease, use, tools, on top of how good a trick is, and more.

To be fair, wine reviews can get in depth as f***. Where it comes from, how the grapes are smashed, where different flavor profiles come from, price comparisons etc etc. Imo, not much different than a magic product review. The beauty here is that, if I were to make one of these the basis of the videos I produce, I INSTANTLY have ENDLESS content. Which is good for building a brand and getting eyes on you. I do agree that quality has to come before quantity. I'd much rather do two quality videos per week than six shitty ones.

My thought to you is this: Look at your audience. Do you want to make content for magicians, or laymen. If your making content for magicians, one, two, maybe even three videos a week would be great. Here, you would focus on reviews, performance, recommendations, etc. However, if your gearing yourself to the laymen, know this: You cannot produce in depth magic content. They will not enjoy it at all. You will have to start producing either a) easy magic tutorials or b) magic performances (both of which will generate you some form of hate eventually, even though 95% of the stuff will be positive).

This is why I've tried to build my things separately. I have a platform geared towards magicians and a platform for just my name, which is still in development, and will be geared towards laymen. Regardless of the target audience, there's going to be hate. Just gotta brush it off and move forward. I remember shortly after I released Ziplocked I found like a 15 page hate thread about me on some obscure forum xD lol let em hate.

However, you've mentioned being an entertainer, not just a magician. Why not let that be your focus? The life of a magician, as opposed to magic in and of itself.

I love this. The focus is still on the magic, and myself as a magician. But I don't necessarily have to constantly put out fooling magic videos (it'll get hard after a while). Instead I can just be me and share what I have to share to the world. Performance and reaction videos are always great and then I can also put out videos of just pure routine for the layman through the screen to watch.

I was a bit worried this wasn't going to get any responses, but I'm liking this discussion we got going so far!

 

[Maaz Hasan]

Let me Know how it goes!
You mentioned your "personel" platform is a YouTube Channel? May I ask what it is?

 

[notsoltd]

Let me Know how it goes!
You mentioned your "personel" platform is a YouTube Channel? May I ask what it is?

Most definitely! www.youtube.com/magicbyrob is my channel that I plan to gear towards lay audiences. My website is still under construction and I can't share it right now, but it'll be here soon.

My platform for magicians is at www.wizchron.com and I do have a YouTube channel for that, but it's being a nightmare on my phone right now and for some reason the YouTube link isn't /wizchron like I thought it was lol.

Yes! I follow Gary, Thai Lopez, and Grant Cardone. They have a lot of solid advice on sales and just getting yourself pumped up in general!

As you may have noticed, I have been increasing my level of social media output recently (as a direct result of what these guys have to say. Gary suggests you "document vs. Create." This means you can take videos of yourself during your journey rather than trying to come up with content.

I totally forgot about document vs. create, I'm glad you brought that up! It could give solid content when you reach your limitations creating or are working on creating something that takes a while.

 

[UrbanEntityTV]

Anybody here heard of Gary Vaynerchuk? The dude is an entrepreneurial genius and has a lot of solid advice to share.

One of the things he stresses is that you have to produce content upon content upon more content. You should post 5 videos a week and interact with your fans consistently.

Gary built his fathers wine business to a $60 million per year business and he did it by hammering out content in the form of wine reviews - the dude had unlimited content this way because there are always going to be new wines to try and talk about.

So here I am, as a magician, trying to take his advice and I'm finding this INSANELY difficult to do. Let's pretend that I'm trying to promote my site. I have plans to but haven't started. This site is geared towards magicians and therefore I literally have the unlimited content advantage - product reviews, deck reviews, ideas for magicians, tutorials on public domain material, the list goes on.

Now lets flip the switch - lets say I'm trying to promote myself as an entertainer with a site (and YouTube channel) geared towards getting gigs and performing for lay people. Obviously I can't just blast out content in the form of magic product reviews so that leaves these questions:

What the hell kind of content do I produce for lay people that could be consistent?

I've also debated this idea in my head - as a magician, we have similarities to music artists. Our show is akin to an artists album and each routine is akin to a song on that album. So, perhaps, instead of creating a continuous stream of content, I could treat it as if I'm creating music - spend time working and honing a routine with a story and message and then drop it as an artist 'single.'

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on creating content as an entertainer and personality (to generate views and fans) as opposed to just putting out content that a lay person could give two s**** about.

Sorry this turned out to be a longer post than expected.

Without character, there is no content. You must first have to create a character that people can relate to. And come up with different scenarios on how to present to your targeted audience. The first thing I would do is not watch a magician's YouTube, though guys like Chris Ramsey are pretty sweet! I would look at all the famous YouTubers and see how they market themselves, how they present their content, and that should give you an idea of how you market yourself.

A guy like Chris is a creative consultant and performer for various venues, his material will probably not be like yours. Here's what I think you should do.

Since you are trying to use YouTube to get gigs, then you should go to some parties and perform for free to get good footage, and use YouTube to advertise to your potential clients. Therefore when you are actually working gigs, you can get some footage to use from that gig to market for your next client or clients.