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Marketing magic
- Thread starter Martineau
- Start date
Generally, I try to post the media to as many places as possible. The more views it gets, the higher chances you have of it being purchased. All the social medias work great for this purpose. Even Theory 11's forum offers a small opportunity to advertise something you published on the Wire. YouTube teasers when used sparingly *cough* Ellusionist *cough*, can be quite beneficial in getting your product known to the public. It's all about how you approach things, be bold but don't over do it.
Personally I'd say let it become known by becoming known yourself and letting people find out you sell some of your tricks. But I seem to be in a minority these days.
I may be being cynical here but it seems to me like most magicians currently are creating magic in order to sell it. They don't seem to worry about being good performers and building a reputation on their signature tricks. They don't seem to worry much about whether an audience will enjoy their creations. They worry about whether their creations will sell well.
I don't ever consider selling a trick when I am creating it. I create things in order to fulfill a need for a performance, and later consider the idea of releasing it to the public if I would no longer have much need for it myself. With the ease of self-publication, and now the Wire, I think new magicians are being taught, essentially, that magic is intended to be created for other magicians. We're constantly told that a trick must fool other magicians and that if it only fools laymen it isn't a good trick. Except most of what I do would not fool a magician and laymen love it. I don't care about magicians liking my material because they are not my audience.
I don't ever consider selling a trick when I am creating it. I create things in order to fulfill a need for a performance, and later consider the idea of releasing it to the public if I would no longer have much need for it myself. With the ease of self-publication, and now the Wire, I think new magicians are being taught, essentially, that magic is intended to be created for other magicians. We're constantly told that a trick must fool other magicians and that if it only fools laymen it isn't a good trick. Except most of what I do would not fool a magician and laymen love it. I don't care about magicians liking my material because they are not my audience.
I believe what you're describing is the conflict of "Magician's Logic". The pressure to perform better or on the same level as other magicians can often compromise a performer. It's like the standard Pass argument, "Magician's Logic" states that it's an unnecessary move and not practical for laymen situations. When in reality, any decent performer knows when to perform a pass on the offbeat, you barely even need to be good at the move. You could basically cut the deck right in front of their faces and they probably wouldn't think anything of it if you act as if it's not a big deal.
What you're talking about has sort of been perpetuated by the Wire, because now ANY magician has the opportunity to publish their material. It isn't about putting out something good anymore, it isn't even about sharing one of your worked routines. It's about publishing your ideas purely for the novelty and experience of publishing material, and many magicians are conflicted by the desire to make tricks for the sake of selling them. It's a bit of a trade off between what they think is best and what they think will SELL best. Unfortunately, more and more people are moving to what they think would SELL best rather than what could actually benefit the community in one way or another. The focus of the magician community feels like it's moved from the laymen to the magicians, which is completely backwards; it should always be about the spectator in the end of the day.
I publish quite a lot of material on the Wire and quite frankly, it's too much. But the things that I publish are flourishes mainly; I don't have a magic routine that I've worked and played with nearly enough to justify asking the community for money. I feel like if you have the material and you're proud of it, go for it. See what happens. But, your goal in making a trick should never be to make a quick profit. If that's the case, 9/10 times, the trick would barely even be a finished concept and you'd be ruining your image in the process.
What you're talking about has sort of been perpetuated by the Wire, because now ANY magician has the opportunity to publish their material. It isn't about putting out something good anymore, it isn't even about sharing one of your worked routines. It's about publishing your ideas purely for the novelty and experience of publishing material, and many magicians are conflicted by the desire to make tricks for the sake of selling them. It's a bit of a trade off between what they think is best and what they think will SELL best. Unfortunately, more and more people are moving to what they think would SELL best rather than what could actually benefit the community in one way or another. The focus of the magician community feels like it's moved from the laymen to the magicians, which is completely backwards; it should always be about the spectator in the end of the day.
I publish quite a lot of material on the Wire and quite frankly, it's too much. But the things that I publish are flourishes mainly; I don't have a magic routine that I've worked and played with nearly enough to justify asking the community for money. I feel like if you have the material and you're proud of it, go for it. See what happens. But, your goal in making a trick should never be to make a quick profit. If that's the case, 9/10 times, the trick would barely even be a finished concept and you'd be ruining your image in the process.
Well, there are more of us than the under 30 crowd wants to think. . . ;-)
Why are you so eager to sell something you have an exclusive on, right now?
I know Mentalists that pay thousands of dollars for a couple of sheets of paper, just so they have an exclusive impossibility for their show; it's the same as comedians buying lines from professional comedy writers. I even have people throw money in my direction from time to time because I've had an epiphany of a routine that would work well for them given their personality and performance style. They don't always agree or take my suggestion, but they always appreciate getting first dibs on something unique.
I'm helping a new name to the scene make his mark (Homer Arcana -- ESP Arcana). Very few people in the general magic world know this guy at all and yet, he's been a consultant for Alain Nu, Jerome Finley and others for a few years now; it actually took Alain a great deal of effort to get Homer to publish this particular manuscript, which I have given honest kudos over. . . it's awesome! Know what's attached to it and soon to follow makes it even more awesome but the point is, Homer just loves Mentalism and isn't out chasing $$$ signs or false fame. He's earned a reputation as a thinker and philosopher and then as the innovator that puts his personal beliefs into the product he's created.
I've been involved with magic forever it seems but it's only recently that I've decided to go that next step and market physical props, the first hitting the market (all going well) in September of this year (there about). Not everything has to do with Mentalism in that I did traditional magic for decades -- big illusions and family programs and so there will be a lot of stuff from that world. . . effects that haven't been seen in more than 20 years and which were MINE, no one else had them.
I could make a long list of effects made famous by other magic legends like Shimada's Dove on Cane or Peter Pit's Long Salt Pour that were kept exclusive until the artist was both, a legend and prepared to move to that next stage in his/her life.
I Do Understand the sad fact that many in today's magic culture believe that theft is their right; if you don't publish your effect & method and get it established as your own, then anyone can publish it and call it theirs and screw you out of bragging rights and in some instances, the legal right to perform your own effect. It's disgusting that magic (all industry) has become this unethical and immoral but it is a reality we must deal with and which leaves us with that quandary when it comes publishing and marketing an effect and which brings us to the next, proven step -- submit your idea to a noted publication like MAGIC, GENII, TOPS or even an on line source like VANISH so that an official publishing date can time stamp the piece, giving you historic credence should anyone else produce a similar effect.
But I Don't Make Any Money That Way! Screams the greed driven ego. . .
Not at first, but the more contributions of this sort you make the bigger your name becomes as a recognized and trusted innovator and thinker. Within reasonably short time you will be seen as a "go to" person by others and so you can become a consultant (unpaid initially but in time cash offers will come) and with a bit more time you'll be able to publish an eBook explaining a single effect, that people willing pay $60.00 or more for simply because they trust what you have to say vs. the $25.00 you MIGHT get on the same material right now, in that no one knows who you are. . . $60.00 and lots of sales or $25.00 and nominal sales at best? Which sounds the more logical?
There's a person on this forum who asked me and a few other notables in the Mentalism community about a routine he's been selling on the side. He's miffed over the fact that the pros have slammed the material and called it impractical and incomplete while he's managed to get positive kudos for it from the dozen or so folks that have purchased it. But he's not seeing the bigger picture, he's seeing only what he wants to see, allowing his ego to manipulate him vs. his gut -- his ability to accept constructive criticism that would result in a superior product, had he followed it. This is the other side about taking your time before releasing a piece, it allows you to work ALL the bugs out and turn it into a miracle vs. a trick.
Let me answer that with another question. Who the hell are you and why should I care? If you can't answer that, then no amount of marketing is going to help you.
- Email lists
- Forums
- The exposure site's like AlfaMagic give you
and so on...
The shameless self-advertising got me to click on the link in your signature. Ordinarily I would do this through a PM, but apparently you have disabled the ability to receive private messages on this forum. So here we are. Anyway, I went to your site and just as I finished being underwhelmed by the layout, the page was gated by a pop-up squeeze page with an obnoxious YouTube video and a demand that I give you my email address just to look at your page and the products you're selling. Give me one good reason why you are entitled to that information. Give me one good reason to believe that giving you my email would not be followed almost immediately by a metric ass-ton of spam. In other words, why in the hell should I trust a site that demands privileged contact information just so that I can actually look at the content?
First off, is your product even worth marketing? Is it original? I can tell you right now chances are very good that if it involves a deck of cards, AT ALL, then chances are good it's already been done before. Unless you've got the time spent studying older material, knowing who has done what, etc. but I digress.
I'd contact a few people who have been around the block. Let them review it first. Then go from there.
As for that Alpha Magic site. Complete scam. I'd not trust them with a dirty rag. Their account only has 17 posts here and is obviously created to fish for website hits from this forum.
I'd contact a few people who have been around the block. Let them review it first. Then go from there.
As for that Alpha Magic site. Complete scam. I'd not trust them with a dirty rag. Their account only has 17 posts here and is obviously created to fish for website hits from this forum.
Not long after my post in this thread yesterday, I noticed that he posted two threads in the Review board. Both of them were advertisements for products he's selling. So yeah, he wants hits, and he's also trying to shill for more money and get more people to sign up for his phony site.
I just now Googled the company's name and the only page I was able to find was a single Wordpress site claiming that it was created by a 16-year-old computer genius (who apparently can't even bother to design his own website) and that it is now an "empire." An empire with only a couple of PDFs for sale, gated behind a squeeze page that demands your email address just so you can look at the store. Somebody give this parasite the heave-ho.
