talkmagic.co.uk

Hi does anyone use corporatemagicians.com and do you get much work from it.
thanks for any feedback

Used to when I was a more generic magician. It's a very busy site with lots of magicians listed. In 12 months I got one enquiry (which didn't turn into a booking).

I've had similar feedback from other magicians who have reported a disapointing number of leads.

The feeling seems to be that there are too many people on there now.

Johny,

If you aren't confident with, or satisfied with, your own promotion and advertising, go to a local agent. He'll likely charge you 15-20% per booking, BUT he will get you work, its in his best interest. No job, no fee for the agent. With Duncan's site you pay 60 quid a year to be on the website but no guarantee at all of any work. He doesn't care if you don't get a job out of it, he's already got your money.

A local agent isnt always thats easy to find!

Magic Chris wrote:A local agent isnt always thats easy to find!

Be your own agent. Tis the best way for most agents are but lazy bones.

Do agents necessarily have to be local?

Be your own agent. Tis the best way for most agents are but lazy bones.

I am I was just being an a*se

Thanks for all you feedback
johny

Hi,

How much work CorporateMagicians.com generates for each individual advertiser will vary a lot, depending on many factors including your photo, text, website, age, sex, looks, outfit, smile (no smile!)... and so on. Some advertisers renew year after year, and tell me how good it’s been for them, and some don’t. It is a very competitive market. The cost has been kept to very reasonable £60 per year, to allow everyone to have a fair crack at the whip. I was a full time professional for many years, and wanted this site to be truly affordable for everyone, from the semi professional, just starting out, to the seasoned pro.

Tenko writes “He doesn't care if you don't get a job out of it, he's already got your money” but that clearly would be a very short-sighted way to run any business, let alone a directory. It is to my advantage if you get work, as then you will renew your advertising. It’s as simple as that. About 90% of advertisers renew each year. CorporateMagicians.com has been running very successfully for 7 years now.

Corporate magic is a very competitive field, far more so than the children’s market, but it can also be a very lucrative one. If £60 per year (£5 per month) seems too expensive then maybe you are in the wrong business. Really. To appear on CorporateMagicians.com for five years costs £300, surely the very minimum anyone should charge for a single corporate booking these days. In other words one gig pays for 5 years advertising.

Some performers take no advertising at all and simply work through agents and recommendations, and there’s nothing wrong with that if they are happy with their annual income. During my time as a professional magician one audition resulted in 1 year’s work, and another time being seen by an agent resulted in many contracts in Japan, and so on... but I was lucky in that I had an act. If I’d been trying to earn a living through close-up I guess I’d have tried to secure a residency or two first of all, to generate a constant stream of money. Then I’d have had the freedom to take, or not take, other work, and to build on the more lucrative side of the magic business, the corporate side.

Right now if I was starting out the first thing I’d do is decide how much I wanted to earn per year, before expenses. For example let’s say £60,000. I’d then spend 10% of that amount trying to do it! In other words I’d spend £6,000 a year on advertising across the board... brochure, business cards, photos, showreel, website, internet, and yes 60 quid a year on CorporateMagicians.com (That’s just 0.1% of £60,000!)

When I was 18 and working in the magic department of Hamleys toy shop in London at the end of the 70s earning just £40 per week (take home £27 – help!) I spent £93 on a hat stand that I’d seen in Selfridges because I knew it would make the perfect table base if I cut it in half. Two years later I auditioned for my first cruise ship and ended up in the Caribbean for a year... complete with that hat stand by now made into a magic table, earning five times what I’d been earning just two years before!

In other words think a little bit bigger. If you believe in yourself then speculate to accumulate. In a few months I’ll be launching a new business (not to do with magic) and have spent hundreds of hours on it so far, together with a few thousand pounds. It is unproven. It may not work. But I’m giving it my very best shot and maximum effort. I think it will do well. I could have launched it 6 months ago with little effort, but am instead putting the extra work in, to make it as good as possible. I am also ploughing money in to it.

I’ll be paying a lot more than £60 per year to advertise it - from day one.

So, back to CorporateMagicians.com. If you are good to very good (at minimum) then have a think about advertising your services on the site. One contact may result in thousands of pounds worth of work, but don’t expect to get three enquiries per week! It is a very competitive market there’s no doubt. Treat it as a long term investment and see what your return looks like after 5 years. I know performers who have flown all over the world, appeared on television, and worked in some of the world’s finest venues all from one click on http://www.corporatemagicians.com.

(Hope this post wasn’t too long – I’ve probably used up way too much bandwidth!)

Best wishes,

Duncan Trillo