Great Magic Websites Featured in the PressInside MagicMagic News Updated Daily for the Professional Magician

Forbes profiles the excellent magic site MagicTricks.com in their latest news letter and really gives all of us webmaster types inspiration and hope. On the other hand, Melanie Kerr’s MKMagic.com continues to be advertised in the big-time magic magazines and yet appears to be abandoned. There are secrets to be learned from both sites.

The business analysts at Forbes look at how different non-traditional web businesses have made the move to the web. To those of us in the magic world, it doesn?t seem counter-intuitive. Actually magic shops seem to be moving almost entirely to the web and bringing competition to the moms and pops out in the real-world saddled with real-world mortgages or rents.

The article notes:

Peter Monticup’s most mystifying feat in a long career of mystifying feats is this: that he ended up the owner of a dot-com. Monticup is a guy who eight years ago ran a business that didn’t use a single computer. Yet today, after more than three decades of operating magic stores that never reaped more than $100,000 in sales, he’s the owner of a Web business that employs as many as 10 people and has been growing 30% to 50% a year.

And when you go to MagicTricks.com you can see why it is such a success. Unlike a magic discounter that sells just above the wholesale price with service that ranges from spotty to pretty good. The site is dedicated to the Art with a real excitement about the history and the craft rather than just moving the latest trick at the lowest price.

Visiting MagicTricks.com is like eating chips, you can’t stop. Soon your bloated, sprawled on the floor with greasy fingers and the firm resolve to never spend 23 hours in a row on one site. But, you won’t be able to help it. You’ll go back to see the new articles, or historical…

The article notes:

Peter Monticup’s most mystifying feat in a long career of mystifying feats is this: that he ended up the owner of a dot-com. Monticup is a guy who eight years ago ran a business that didn’t use a single computer. Yet today, after more than three decades of operating magic stores that never reaped more than $100,000 in sales, he’s the owner of a Web business that employs as many as 10 people and has been growing 30% to 50% a year.

After writing this article, I found a second article about MagicTricks.com’s method to building a site that works and makes money. It really is a neat step-by-step to follow. Check it out here.

On the other hand, one of the biggest mysteries ? at least for me ? is how MKMagic.com stays in business or on-line. Melanie Kerr has been part of the advertisers for the three out of four of the big, expensive magic magazines for quite a while. In fact, when Inside Magic first started on the web, back in the late 2001?s, we did an article about how her site was visually impressive but didn?t seem to be working.

The site had cgi-script errors that kept us from signing up for the MKMagic club and getting the full-color pictures of Melaine each month. The same errors are there after about a year and a half. The content hasn?t changed, the links are dying and you still can?t sign up to get the pictures or the membership.

When you read how Mr. Monticup constantly works to keep his site up-to-date and add new content daily, and yet he watches every penny spent on advertising, if makes you wonder how Ms. Kerr can continue to take out quarter and half page ads in the high-priced magazines.

I am not suggesting anything improper here. It could be that the editors of the magazines would rather have a picture of Ms. Kerr displayed in their magazine than blank space or an extra couple of paragraphs. It makes sense, I guess. If anyone has any information about how to keep advertisements running even without cash flow, please let me or one of the three people on the Inside Magic staff know.

We have added MagicTricks.com to the Inside Magic Links of Fame. If you have a link you’d like to add, drop us a line or go to the Links of Fame yourself by clicking here.