Online teaching sessions?
 

What do you guys think, should I start doing online teaching sessions for rather cheap prices? I'm a little tired of seeing Aaron Fisher and Ellusionist doing and advertising those and in my opinion not helping as much as they could (especially because most of those magicians are true classic artists who seem to be a little stuck in the classic world of magic, if I'm very honest).

From experience I know that I can help people quite a lot. And I'm getting a little annoyed by the tons of people that expect me to have all time in the world to have a video chat with them and to help them out with whatever, whenever they want to.

So this is specifically on magic teaching, through Skype and private Tinychat sessions. So no hanging out sessions, which of course will be for free and only attempted whenever I got time for it and whenever I feel like it.

Let me know what you guys think. ^_^

Well, to be honest, i think the video chat thingy was partly our( your supporters and the people who believes in your magic) fault( i did remember a few people in the past saying something like "if you want to be proven wrong, you just have to ask Mark to show you it in a video chat session" or something of the sort).

And about the online sessions, as much as i like the idea, it might be a bit hard for a lot of people( you know, with the time zone and all), tho if you want this to be another DSZ style product( only available for a lucky few who found it on time), then it's a fine idea( tho selling a whole course with one online session every once in a while and then have those available for download for those who bought the course is also good)

It's a great idea! As long as you don't charge overpriced amounts of money. So how is this going to work? Are you going to be teaching people extensively? Or just starting with the basics and whatnot?

... but on the other hand... NO MORE HANGING OUT SESSIONS? D:

I think it is a very good idea! But for people who live in other coutries with very diffrent timezones may miss out (cough australia cough) if you do them, so maybe you should also record them and send them to people who are not avaliable if you do it that is.

Yeah, sounds great!! Do I get a discount? ;)

Just out of curiosity, are you planning on a 1 to 2 hour session?

Don't worry about the time zones, I will be able to do those all day and night long. Also, I don't expect tons of people to attempt those.

Basically, I will have people ask what they want to learn or improve on. If I can help them, I will. The sessions will be for either 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours or 2 hours per session. A short summary including the lessons will be shot and sent as a private video afterwards.

I was originally thinking to ask $0.50 per minute, but maybe this is too cheap? Cheapest you can get at Ellusionist is $49.95. Maybe I should ask $0.75 per minute, that way an hour is $45 which is still the cheapest then. Sounds reasonable?

David, don't worry about the hang-out sessions. Read the top post again. It's just that I will be doing less of those.

And Albert, you're one of us. You may as well be doing such sessions yourself. ;)

i think that's a good idea, but i have no comment on the price.

It all sounds pretty good to me. I'd be very careful with the small print though and make sure you get it right. The last thing you want is someone asking for all their money back just because you had to pop to the toilet or go and cook some bacon. If anything, you should charge more for that sort of tutorial! Some people are so ungrateful.

Yay, I know. Thanks. Although, I would've never thought of cooking some bacon in between.. stop giving me bad ideas! :p

The name of the program will probably be eMprove. Improve, e = self-explanatory, M = magic. You guys like that? :rolleyes:

Nice pun indeed, i like it( not that my opinion matters much...)

So if you do this, what will you teach people? WIll you say what will be taught each lesson or not? Will people pay for private lessons and then say I wanna leanr confidental (or any other tricks) and you will go okay this is what you do.... or will it be based on improving things they already know?

eMprove is good.. improve, empower, empire-crushingly-good-sleight-of-hand, e-commerce (?) internet, M is for Magic and of course Mystery Mark, and of course.. bacon! It makes sense and sounds good as a title. But seriously, I think it sounds great. Such a good one in fact I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already nicked it?

Well, people can ask whatever they want but I have to agree with it first, before any appointment or payment is made. People could ask for help with their passes for instance, or with controls, or color changes, or presentations, all granted. But if they want an hour of me personally teaching them how to make 'The Flash', I won't agree with that. ;)

It will be mainly on improving things they already know, to make the best out of those. If another, new technique is needed to improve, I will teach them that too. And of course I'll throw in a lot of my modern magic theories and subtleties.

Glad you guys like the name! eMprove it is! :D

5,000 dollars for a 2 hour intense tutorial for 'Smooth!' Actually that is a ripoff... for you! 2 million dollars it is then!

so Mark... you're saying that if say, i, know how to do the smooth color change, but not very well, and then i show you that i actually know, you, may be, would agree to teaching me the Smooth so that i can perfect it if i pay you for one of these sessions?

Sure, but there is a risk you're taking then.. because you pay for the session before I see you do it. This means it may end up with me helping you perfecting the technique in question which may not be exactly like 'Smooth'. It's not that 'Smooth' is the answer to every color change or alike change.

true, but it IS the subject of interest of a lot of "matured" magicians like myself. But wait... i thought you saying:
means that they can show you the things they want to improve on before the appointment and payment is made? or did i understand it wrong?

Well, yeah, basically they could show it in a video before any appointment or payment is made, but not on webcam because that is only after the appointment and payment. If they can make a video of it and it's close enough to 'Smooth', further help on 'Smooth' will be provided. If it's not close enough, it might end up being 'AToMS' or something alike.

Please realize that this is not about learning a specific effect. However, if you have problems with the 'Pass', it's likely that I will end up teaching you the 'Practical Pass' or some of its subtleties to have you improve on the 'Pass'. In case you're having trouble with an effect you purchased, you will definitely be helped too.

You really wanna learn smooth dont you la0o9?

oh i see what you mean now Mark

@Kieran: yep, it's my current goal as a magician, with one mean or another, to know the secert behind it, and be able to perform it perfectly, tho i know it's NOT the answer to everything, it's one of the more impossible things that could happen in someone's hands without the need of aid, and that's what makes it alluring for me