5 Things Your Magic Website Must Have
I’m a David Regal fan. On his website he has a tagline that I love, “Magician, Writer, Jew.” I once tried to do a similar thing, but I couldn’t limit it to three things, and anything more than three didn’t have the . . . well . . . rule of three. It just didn’t sound right. But if I did have a Regal-esque tagline, it might be something like, “Magician, Writer, Programmer, Puzzler, Meat Eater, Mormon.”
See . . . it just doesn’t quite flow does it? The one I want to focus on this month is programmer . . . more specifically, web programmer. I’m not a web designer. I’m a web programmer. I let someone else figure out how the thing looks. They’re the architect. I’m the construction worker. I build the stuff. I solve problems with code and web browsers. However, in all the years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve been heavily involved in the design process of many sites, and have picked up a few things over the years. With that in mind, let’s talk about a few things your website must have.
You do have a website don’t you?
I’m just going to assume that the one guy left on the planet who does not have a website is not a subscriber of Stone Cold Magic Magazine and therefore will not be reading this article. For the other 7-ish billion people on the planet, here are some things to consider.
1 Contact Information
Don’t laugh. I’ve been to website where I could not find a single phone number, a link to an email, a web form for questions . . . nothing. That’s extremely frustrating. My guess is that they had the contact information somewhere on the site, but I just couldn’t find it. That’s just as bad as not having it. So make sure you have a clearly label contact page. Put all the ways that you are comfortable publishing.
- Phone Number
- Text
- Address
You don’t have to put all of those. Each of you will have different levels of paranoia about what you publish. But for Pete’s sake, put some contact info, and put it where it can be found.
2 Biography
No, you don’t need a history channel documentary done on your life to put content on your site. However, as a magician you need to have a bio page. For larger companies, they’ll typically have an “about” page. For a one man show (i.e., a magician) you are the product and the company and the brand, so tell people about you. What awards have you won? How long have you been doing magic? Where have you performed?
Tell any significant experiences or short (very short) stories that got your where you are today. You don’t want a bio that scrolls 200 feet below the fold, but a few (4 – 5) well written paragraphs that tell who you are and possibly why they should hire you (without actually saying “here’s why you should hire me”) will suffice. And . . . man o man . . . you’d better have a professionally shot photograph of yourself on that bio page.
3 Testimonials
You must have testimonials on your site, again clearly labeled. People need to know that your audiences have enjoyed watching you. If you don’t have any, get some . . . go back and read Can I Get a Witness! Amen! from the July 2009 issue. Meanwhile, get some quotes from friends, family, etc. until you have some more “legitimate” ones. The moment you start getting real ones from real clients, get rid of the “friends and family” ones.
These days, there’s no excuse not to have video testimonials on your site. Every phone had a video recorder any more. Most of them have a one-click upload to YouTube or Vimeo. It’s just a simple matter of embedding those videos in your site.
4 Performance Footage
You are the brand. They are hiring you/your act. Give ’em a taste. Again, these days . . . so easy. Have a friend film clips of you performing and some audience reaction shots. Edit them together in a simple software like Corel Video Studio. Slap some music on there and upload it to YouTube.
These days, this stuff is pretty simple to do. If you’re not sure how to do this, I guarantee you know someone who does . . . a neighbor kid, a random teenager . . . they’re out there.
5 Social Connections
This is really an extension of the “contact” page. However, you want to give people a chance to follow you and get to know you. If you have a blog that’s relevant to clients, link to it from your site. You’ll also want to link to your LinkedIn profile – if you don’t have one, get one. It’s today’s “resume.” There are a ton of social networking sites out there, but only a few of them are truly relevant to your potential clients.
LinkedIn is a must. Facebook and Twitter are also good to link to, but it depends on what type of things you post on there. If you’re confident that you’re not posting/tweeting anything that you wouldn’t want a potential client to see, then link to them. It’s good for them to “see” you on a personal level. I wouldn’t link to your Pinterest account or just about any other social media sites. Stick with the main ones, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blog and . . . maybe . . . just maybe . . . Google Plus.
You want people to be able to interact with you, particularly if you post info about your shows and your clients on these networks. The client gets a little bit of free advertising if you mention them on your social spots. You may want to tweet out upcoming dates or specials that your clients/visitors would want to read about. It’s all about staying in touch with people . . . connecting with them . . . connecting . . . isn’t that what we, magicians, do?
Bottom line folks, if your website doesn’t have these five things, then you don’t have a website. Sure there are a couple of other things you may want on the site, but if you prominently place this five things on your site where they can be easily recognized and easily found, you’ll be miles ahead of the competition.Until Next Month . . .