i think that i might do that from now on!!!!!!! that is a great idea.

thanks
ben winter

No problem.....I have many "tricks up my sleeve" that have helped me build a fairly good business....why not share a couple of them *smile*

It's all relevant, sure it might seem like a lot to put a few hundred into advertising but if you get a couple of shows off of it then your expenses are covered and it's all profit from then on.

I point I'd like to make regarding yellow pages. I've had discussions before on other forums about it and from what I can gather US yellow pages don't have as big an impact as the UK one. In the US there are a few yellow pages and people don't seem to get as much business off them. In the Uk there is one yellow pages, it's a national institution, everyone has it by there phone, for new business it is the best option at the moment.
(This may change,I'm noticing more and more bookings coming through my site they may well take over in a decade.)

Most of my business come from word of mouth, if you have a good show it spreads like wildfire.


George

I have found in my years of working magic that there is a thing called Return On Investment (ROI.) That's where for every dollar you spend you can make more than what you spent.

Yes it does cost money to advertise, but how do you make money unless people know about you? An example; I spend about $600 a year on new effects, but I make several thousand dollars a year because people know that I have a new show every time they book me.

I spent $104 a month for yellow page ads last year. However I found that I booked $400 a month because of the ads. Not bad a 4 to 1 return on investment.

Do magic.
A few days ago I was picking up some pizza, while I was waiting I was playing around with cards (my hands always need to be doing something, anyone else?) and a guy asked to see some tricks, I ended up giving him a flyer. Same thing happened yesterday in a doctors office. Carry business cards/flyers EVERYWHERE. Now when I say flyers, the ones I made are not like the ones you post places and on cars. Its just that I want to say more than a business card. I mean it sells me more than a business card, and its harder to lose, colorful, funny, interesting etc. It also explains a little more about what I offer and who I am.

Word of mouth is the best, but you do have to put work into it to get it started. Just remember that mothers are going to be the ones with the mouths, so get the word to them to spread. Others have already listed great suggestion for these places. Dont rely on the kids saying, hey mommy I say a magician today his name was ___ and I want him for my birthday. When your parents asked you how school was you said fine. Send them home with a animal balloon or party bag with a flyer or business card attached.

Think of a stunt to get yourself noticed. You dont have to go as far as strait jacket from a crane. Next week Im going to do magic in a sumo suit as magic sumo. Now tell me you wont remember that!

I could not work like this. I spend $$$s a year replacing my old effects. My show would never have reached the standard it is now if I kept chopping and changing the effects. After 5 years honing one show I am mid-way thorough the process of building a second show. Having 2 shows will be handy for repeat audiences but I think having loads of different shows or constantly changing effects would make the quality of my show suffer and actually lose me thousands rather than make me extra.

George

George, your way is excellent and I do follow it myself. However, I follow that in my stage, busking, and caberet show where the audience changes every performance.

This forum is for KID'S SHOWS. It is an entirely different venue that stage, busking, or caberet. Here you may have the same kids at three different parties in one month!!! They will get bored and start to yell out "I saw the secret!" after the second time they see the same old stuff.

If you have the same show for 5 years on the birthday party or day care circuit, you certainly don't have too many repeat customers.

Paddy

Quite the opposite Paddy, I took my ad out of yellow pages last year because the word of mouth and repeat bookings where more than enough to make a living and I couldn't be bothered speaking to all the price searchers.
If you have a great show the kids want to see it again and again, every kid has a disney video they have watched 100s of times. Often when I do a new trick that I'm testing for show 2 the children will come up and ask about the one I didn't do.

The thing is YOU yourself will be assume the kids will be bored watching your show for the 3rd time and this will show in your performance. If you treat a crowd of kids that all know your show like a completely new audience they will react like one. Of course, there will be the odd kid who'll want to tell everyone what's going to happen but you can put a stop to that and it's a small bridge to cross in comparison to creating a perfect show.

Also, it's unlikely to get the same crowd of kids 3 times in a month, if your advertising was wide-spread at the start. If you have, say, a hundred circles of folks who recommend you then it's unlikely you can fit 3 in from the same group in the one month unless you're doing 300 shows a month. I occasionally get a freak occurence and get the same group twice in a month, this is why I started to create a second show.

That's the way I work it and it works for me. A lot of top children's entertainers (such as Terry Herbert) also advise to have one show and work on that and would actually suggest that even having 2 is a bad idea!!

All the best,
George

P.S.I'm talking about children's shows, I don't do cabaret or busking.

This is an oldy...just thought I would bring it back out since new folks to the kids show section seem to be asking a lot about advertising...maybe you can get some information from this old thread!

My teacher told abunch of teachers I did magic shows and I started getting booked left and right.

Try Craigslist.org. I just got booked by looking on the website.

Just curious, which section did you post under?

If I had to guess I'd say under talent in the gigs section

And to continue curiosity, I gotta ask how many people post there?