New website

[Mike Weakley]

I finally joined the 21st century and have a presence on the world wide web! Please check out my website & tell me what you think.

https://www.StiltFun.com

Please don't hold back. I really want to know what y'all think. This website stuff is all brand new to me, so there's alot I still need to learn. I welcome all your opinions. Thanks!

[bsarafian12]

New Website

I think it looks very good. You seem like the one to go to if your looking for stilt walking!!!! Awesome job!!


Bruce Sarafian

https://www.JugglingUSA.com

[jugglery]

Stiltfun.com

Hi Mike,

I submitted a reply two days ago. I have no idea where it went!

So, I will try to recreate it.

First, welcome to the digital age. A website can be a powerful tool. Please promise that you will use it for good, not evil.

You must have redone your photo on the home page. It looks a lot better than it did a few days ago. Good job with that.

It does, however sort of float there in a a sea of nothingness. The white background doesn't do you much good, here. I would get some surrounding color and move this photo out of the center.

For a pleasing layout, you want to have a track for the eye to follow. If you put things centered, the eye just sits there and doesn't move. It isn't interesting to have things smack in the middle.

Make your home page a one-stop shopping center. You should have your video on this page (somewhere near the top). Video sells - especially for you, a very visual performer. Don't make the potential buyer have to click to find the video. You have a lot of room on this home page. Put the video here!

You should also have a testimonial on the page. People read captions and quotes. Use them. People also believe other people more than they believe sales copy.

Put in at least one credit, here, as well. Ringling or the White House or Cirque Le Monde (although not as many people know what that is). Any of your bigger credits will make you stand out if it is featured on the home page.

This may be a personal thing, but I just don't like it when a professional performer calls himself "professional". Of course you are professional! Use your valuable space to advertise some other aspect or benefit. "Hilarious" or "fun-filled" or "like nothing you've ever seen before". To me, those tell me more about what you do than "professional". I expect professional. But, perhaps this is just some quirk of mine.

On your bio page, put captions under the photos. As I said, people read captions - and so do search engines, so make them content filled, like Mike Weakley - stiltwalker with Ringling Bros. - or anything that you think might get you noticed in a search.

Great quality shots in your video. It must be a nice camera. Crisp focus.

Your video starts with "Mike Weakley presents", but doesn't finish the sentence. Presents what? Stiltfun! or Stiltfun.com!

Pack the first 30 seconds with the good stuff. A variety of stuff. It is more than 90 seconds in that we see your funky wobbly legs move. I like that visual, but I have to wait too long to see it. Put some of your balloon creations up front. Put video or stills of your other characters up front. Put at least one shot of everything you do in the first 30 seconds. If you don't, half of your intended audience will never see it. Make the first 1/2 minute lively, engaging and showing the full range of your talents. That will make people want to watch more. But even if they don't, at least you have shown them a small, broad sampling of all that you can do.

Right now, watch your video and stop it at :30. You will see footage of you waving your arms with the cute girls and you balancing a spinning plate. Those are good, but it is a lot of time on those two segments. You do so much more. Make people excited to see all of the skills you have.

I would love to see what could be done with starting the video with the two kids looking up in awe at you. It pans up to see you making the balloon. There is a space to the right of the screen where you could put the graphic "Stiltfun, with Mike Weakley".

Don't forget the call to action in the video. "Hire Stiltfun for your event" or "contact Mike Weakley now!" Don't forget to put your web address in the video.

On your contact page, you have your email listed. When people click on that, they open up their email software and send you a message. Or they open their email program and get lost in the forest of messages that they haven't read. A safer thing is to construct a contact form for them to fill out on your page. They don't leave your site in order to contact you. You don't want them to open up their email while they are supposed to be looking at you!

Marketing can be a challenge, but it can also be fun and rewarding. I hope you will be able to embrace the challenges and reap the rewards.

Steve Russell

[Dynamikemagic]

I had no idea you did juggling until I saw your clown stilt picture. If you are a professional juggler, show clippings on your video. Also show a different video with clippings of you at children parties.