Promotion
/“I was surprised to see your name associated with the [recently released peek wallet] The Peak. First because I don’t usually see you hyping a product and second because it’s not very good. Is there a story behind that?” —WO
No, there’s no real story behind it. I don’t hype other people’s products. I don’t even hype my own products.
I was sent a video of the wallet in action and my response was:
“Damn. I'm impressed. That looks pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal. I can't wait to get my hands on one so I can try it out in the real world.”
I stand by that. The wallet does look exactly like what it’s trying to look like. That is something of primary importance to me. And I worded my response to make it clear that I hadn’t actually used the wallet in real life (in case what I said did end up being used in their advertising).
I was sent one, but I’ve been traveling and haven’t gotten a chance to use it. I asked my friend who monitors the PO Box (and who is also a magician) to open it up and play with it this past weekend. His reaction was what I’ve heard from others: American sized business cards don’t really fit in it, and the peek is hard to see unless you’re in the right light. If that’s the case, I probably won’t end up using it. Primarily because I don’t love this style of wallet stylistically, and so it would have to function perfectly as a peek wallet for me to make it the wallet I carry with me everyday.
I will say, I actually like one of the solutions they suggest for the “size” issue, which involves tearing a business card in half. When I perform, I grab a business card from wherever we are and treat it as if it’s scrap paper. So tearing it in half, and having them write on one half while I write on the other, makes perfect sense. Of course, if you’re using your own business cards, tearing them is probably not a good option.
As far as any types of quotes I may give about a product, you can rest assured I’ll never say anything I don’t genuinely mean. And I’ll certainly never say something positive just because I’m promised a free copy. My momma didn’t raise no whore.
And you’ll have no problem discerning when I like a product. I’m not subtle. I literally write pages every month about my favorite releases in the newsletter. You can get the straight dope there.
I’ve been getting a few more requests than usual from people asking me to mention some release of their on the site. I don’t do that. “Even if I send it to you for free?” Yes, even then.
Now, you still may want to send it to me. And I may like it. And if so there’s a good chance I might write about it in my Love Letters newsletter where I write about stuff I like for the supporters of this site. But if that’s too many “mays” and “mights” for you, then I don’t recommend sending it to me. There are plenty of online magic reviewers who will happily promote any dumb thing they get sent, so long as they get it for free. Seek one of them out.
I am making a change to one of the ways to obtain free advertising at the Jerx.
It used to be that if you have a book or a multi-effect video release, or something like that, I would promote it on the site if you sent along the second best thing in that release to post on this site. I’ve changed that policy. Now if you’d like me to mention your book or multi-trick release on the site, I’d like you to allow me to post the most average effect from that release. This way people will get a sense of your style and what the book/video is like. And they’ll know that you consider 50% of the things in the release to be better than what you’re sharing with them on this site. The new policy goes into effect as of… now.