If you’ve got the heart to perform, the desire to entertain and the will to succeed, then the magic business might be for you. The line of work isn’t considered conventional by most people, but unless you are like most people, this shouldn’t be a problem for you.

You’ve decided to embark on a career that involves connecting with audiences by entertaining them with magic and illusions. You’ve worked on your skills, your presentation and on your show. Now you’re ready to get out there and find people who will want to see you perform.

That can get tricky because with so much competition out there, being good at your show may not be the only requirement to get bookings. And unless you’re prepared to do some more work and to wait for the fruits of that work to pay off, you might be disappointed at the lack of gigs you can get for yourself. But if you’re prepared to go the distance, learning how to find and get performance gigs will eventually pay off with results you may never have initially imagined.

First thing you should know is what kind of audience you’d want to perform for. Are you more inclined to work with children? Or is a more mature, corporate environment more your liking? Don’t be concerned now with what is more financially rewarding. The idea is to get you performing at your best because this increases your chances of referrals and repeat bookings.

Once you’ve established your target audience and you’ve created the best show you can for it, you can go out soliciting bookings for your performance. But before you do, it will do you a world of good to have a video presentation of one of your performances (preferably with the target audience of your choice). This is so that as you approach potential clients, you will be able to demonstrate your skills and how your audience responded to your performance. For a prospective client, being given this kind of information is important as it answers their concern of your effectiveness as an entertainer. Once that has been settled, it greatly increases the chances of you getting awarded the project.

After creating your demo video, you will need to look at your calendar to see what times of the year does your target audience hold most of its events that will be needing your services. If you plan to perform for corporate audiences, it will be best to take note of a company’s annual conventions or sales rallies. Also note the organizers who will be planning such events and call to inform them of your services. This initial call is meant to introduce yourself. (Your demo video will be important here.)

However, that one call should be followed up by at least 2 more over the course of a quarter. Make sure that you’re within the organizer’s radar especially a month before the events you’re targeting take place. If you call too early and not follow up, they might forget about you. But if you call too late, you might miss the opportunity and someone else would have snapped up the gig.

If you are prepared to do some pro-bono work or for a very low fee, then participating in as many events as you can will get you exposed to as many people as possible. As more and more people get to know you and your show, interest may drum up and requests for better paying gigs may come in.

Finally, if you are truly committed to the profession of magic and illusion shows, it will help for you to be a member of magic guilds and societies such as the International Brotherhood of Magicians, the Society of American Magicians, or the Society of Young Magicians. These groups can help you not only with your magic skills but also in getting you recognized in the area you are based in.

With all these information in getting your next gigs, it cannot be stressed enough that you need to be dedicated to this kind of work. It is not the easiest and the rewards may leave much to be desired especially if you’re just starting out.

But if your desire to entertain and interact with your audience is genuine, they will be able to feel that and connect with you in turn. That is by far, the most effective basis of getting asked to perform again - the rewards for which aren’t simply measured in terms of money.

About the author:

Preston Houer has been involved with the art of illusion and sleight of hand for over 30 years. Let Preston show you how to Have Fun With Magic. Visit His Site Today! http://www.have-fun-with-magic.com

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Mention the word Hypnosis to someone and the chances are you will get one of three very different reactions: intense curiosity, nervousness, or disdainful skepticism. But the truth is hypnosis is widely used today not just in medicine but also by top sports performers, business experts, and those in the media to boost their performance and mental focus. Despite this, many members of the public still view hypnosis with fear and suspicion especially when the hypnotist talks about putting the client into a Hypnotic Trance
The first point to make is that, despite the origin of its name, hypnosis does not involve sleep. When a person is in a hypnotic trance, the body may be in a very relaxed state, but the mind is alert and highly focused. It is also a very natural state. All of us experience a trancelike state many times in our daily lives. Those of us who drive cars are very familiar with the phenomenon of driving along a well known route and arriving at our destination-and then being aware that we can t remember the journey at all. It is as if we were on autopilot for the journey, and in a sense we were. We were in what we refer to as a kind of trance.

The same can occur when we are engrossed in a movie, reading a book, listening to music, or gazing into the eyes of someone we love. Time seems to stand still and we are oblivious of the outside world, our attention completely focused on what we are doing at that moment. That to can be described as a trance. Many people also consider a trance to be the state achieved in mediation or when we are daydreaming.

The key difference between those described above and the hypnotic trance is that during a hypnotic trance there is another person the hypnotist who is guiding us into the state.

During a trance, the aim of the hypnotist is to talk directly to the patient s unconscious mind. The conscious mind can act as a barrier to this communication, and so it is either distracted or encouraged to be still.
Once the hypnotist has ensured that the client is in the desired hypnotic trance the hypnotist then make suggestions to the subject. These suggestions are the triggers that aim to change people s habits, boost their confidence, or help them come to terms with their past. Such suggestions are made not to our conscious mind, but to our unconscious mind, the part of the mind that controls so much of our lives.

Ask many people how they think the hypnotic trance is achieved and they will describe the hypnotist slowly swinging a watch on a chain in front of a patients eyes or the hypnotist stares into a person s eye s to put him or her into the trance. While these were once a common method of inducing trance, hypnotists now often rely just on words and guided imagery.

Once the healing suggestions have been made an the purpose of the trance has been accomplished, the final task of the hypnotist is to bring the subject out of the hypnotic state and back into ordinary consciousness.

A common technique is for the hypnotist to count from one to five giving positive suggestions along the way. As he or she counts up from one to five, the client will feel as if he or she is coming out of trance into waking consciousness. The aim is to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Though hypnosis is not the same as sleep. Many people report feeling refreshed and enjoying a general sense of well-being after coming out of a hypnotic trance. Others claim that they sleep better after a session of hypnosis.

ISSUES HYPNOSIS CAN HELP WITH
Stop Smoking
Children s Issues
Weight Loss
Migraine Headaches
Pre-Surgical Hypnosis
Procrastination
Manage Stress
Sports and Job Performance
IBS
ADD/ADHA
Relationships
Restful Sleep
Removing Fears and Phobias
Sexual Abuse Issues
AND SO MUCH MORE

Call today for a free consultation.

Anew Serenity Hypnosis Center
Portland, Oregon
(503) 975-7714

Visit us on the web at - www.anewserenity.com or email us at - chrisitne@anewserenity.com

About the Author

Christine Hunter is a Master Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who practices in Portland Oregon. Christine specializes in helping people of sexual abuse and also provides services for many other areas of hypnotherapy. Christine is a member in good standing with the National Guild and the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association as well as a number of other associations.

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This article is the result of a conversation I had with a
magician about his website. He wanted to know if I could
build him a nice looking site that had his name and contact
information on it. I explained to him the purpose of having
a website and what you want visitors to do when they land on
your site.

Why Do You Have a Website?

The number one reason magicians have websites is ego. They
want to be able to say to people, “You can visit my website
at www.bite-me-hard.com.” When the person visits the website
they usually see one of two scenarios:

• Brochure
  Site
• Typical Magician’s Site - See Part 2 of this
  series for an example.

The brochure site is nicely designed with contact
information and a few pictures. These sites usually look
nice and clean. The issue is visitor conversion. Many people
view the site and move on to another site. They may never
return. You have missed out on the opportunity to build a
relationship with them. The key element often missing with
this kind of site is the ability to capturing the visitor’s
name and email address so that follow up direct marketing
can be done. The direct marketing closes the sale. It is
rare for people to hire magicians as an impulse buy.

The typical magician’s site is wonder to behold. How can one
person find so many different ways to use free animated
graphics on the home page? It is clear that the magician
designing his site learned how to color text, change fonts,
and increase font size. All done in the same paragraph!
Check out my prior article listed above for a detailed
discussion of this topic.

Your website exists to get people to give you their
permission. That’s right, their permission. The goal of the
website is to get visitors to give you their name and email.
Believe it or not this is valuable information that is not
given away freely. The website must be structured to induce
people to trust you enough to give this information to you.

This is why brochure sites and typical magician’s sites
don’t usually work well. If you haven’t built a relationship
with the potential client, then it is unlikely they will
book your magic show. It is like it was in high school. You
can walk up to the prettiest girl in school and say “Do me!”
Chances are it won’t be effective. Your website must
establish a relationship with potential client and gain her
permission. After that you can approach her and say, “Book
me!”

Purpose of Permission Marketing

This approach to marketing is called Permission Marketing.
It has always been practiced but Seth Godin coined the term
with his book by the same name. Buy a copy and Amazon or
your local bookstore. The purpose of Permission Marketing is
to turn strangers into friends, and friends into clients.

I am not recommending spamming people to get more magic
shows. The key elements of Permission Marketing are
communications from you are expected, individualized, and
interesting to the person. Let,s look at the elements in the
context of emails:

1. Expected - People are expecting emails from you
   because they asked you to send them emails through your
   subscription form on your website. Always use a double opt
   in subscription system.
2. Individualized - Every email
   sent by you should be personalized to the person getting it.
   I don’t care if you are sending out ten or one thousand
   emails. Every person should get an email that looks like it
   was written just for them.
3. Interesting - The subject of
   every email must be related and relevant to the reason the
   person gave you’re his permission in the first place. If you
   entice a person to give his name and email to learn how to
   use a magic show to create the perfect birthday party, then
   don’t send emails about a great business opportunity called
   Amway.

Another important feature of Permission Marketing is that
there are different levels of permission. Permission levels
range from spam (no permission) to intravenous (sending
products out to customers without him ordering them). As
people give you their names and emails you start at the
permission scale (just above spam). Your main task is to use
your communications and services to move people up the
permission scale. While you will never likely get permission
to just show and do magic shows uninvited (intravenous), you
can build a base of trusting and loyal customers.

Gaining Permission With Your Website

Your website will impact your ability to gain permission
from visitors. Two general considerations are content and
design. If you have not taken the free Master Course on
Selling Services, I strongly encourage you to do so. The
course covers the topics of contents and design in more
detail. You will find material that you can use on your
website right now.

People searching the web are looking for good information.
They will trust and reward those who give them the
information they seek. Many will give you permission to
contact them again. This opens the door to build trust and
gain a loyal customer. What kinds of content should the site
provide? The simple answer is whatever the person is looking
for.

Let’s assume a mother finds your website considering the
possibility of hiring a magician for her daughter’s next
birthday party. She doesn’t care that you do gospel illusion
shows or trade shows. In fact she might be put off by it. If
this magician does all of these other things, how important
is my daughter’s birthday party going to be? You must view
your content from the visitor’s perspective.

Provide content that she can use. For example, you can
provide a general guide to hosting a magical birthday party.
Let her know if she signs up with her name and email you
will send her a detailed step by step guide to hosting the
perfect magical birthday party. You could also put magic
birthday party invitations on your site personalized to your
magic show, but with space for it to be individualized to
the child and her birthday party.

With relevant and useful content you will begin to build
trust. You will get her to give you her name and email. You
provide even better content and increase her trust. You can
contact her about how your magic show will make her
daughter’s birthday party one to be remembered always. The
key to providing content is to over-deliver on the person’s
expectations. Remember this:

The design of your site is also important. Your site must be
easily navigated. You want visitors to find the information
they are seeking quickly and easily. Graphics add to the
site but can become clutter if you are not careful. It
should have a clean look. Don’t be afraid to use a plain
white background. It looks good and text can be easily read.
I would avoid reverse colors for text. Light text on dark
background can strain the eyes if there is much material
there.

An example of this approach is Learn-Great-MagicTricks.com.
This new site is still growing. It is clean looking.
Information is easily found. The content is useful for
people learning to do magic. Within one month, the site was
listed in most search engines, had decent rankings, was
getting newsletter subscriptions, and most importantly the
site was earning money. The point is that this advice works
and I use it myself.

Copyright 2005 J.L. Siefers, All rights reserved.

About the Author

J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He has written extensively on many topics in magic. He has shown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do great magic tricks.

Want to learn to do magic? Click now to get your FREE magic tricks! http://www.Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks.com

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