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Jul
26
What Penn & Teller Did For Magic
July 26, 2007 |
Are you a fan of Penn & Teller? In case you’re not familiar with them, Penn & Teller are a comedy and magic duo who have delighted audiences while enraging their peers by breaking the magicians’ code and exposing many of the secrets behind the common magic tricks (aka “illusions”). Here’s an example of some of their work - kick back and enjoy (click to play):
Now Penn & Tiller aren’t just critics trying to point out what a scam “magic” is. In fact, they are practicing professional illusionists themselves. They’re just poking holes in the same old tired tricks that people keep trying to pass off as something spectacular.
Why?
Interesting question. See, as Penn & Teller say themselves, most people don’t want to know the secrets. If you tell them, they’ll be literally “disillusioned”. A few, though, will pay attention and become magicians themselves.Eric Bagai has a great commentary about breaking the magician’s code called How to Catch a Bullet, in which he gets at, I believe, the heart of the matter:
Most young magicians spend several thousand dollars on tricks they will never use, before they really understand that it isn’t the trick, it’s the presentation that makes a magician.
What Penn & Teller did for magic, I’m going to do for the world of internet marketing and network marketing. I’m going to expose the tricks and help you with the presentation.
Think The Rich Jerk or Mike Filsaime or <insert guru name here> is doing anything that you can’t do? Or that you have to pay thousands of dollars to learn how to do? Think again!
And what really amazes me is the whole current “anti-guru” trend, in which internet marketers poke holes in the systems of others only to turn around and sell you their system. What kind of hype-busting is it if you turn around and just use hype yourself?
I will never charge you thousands of dollars for my system. I will provide balanced reviews and occasional recommendations of information products and tools that are affordable and valuable and will help you make money. I simply will not recommend a product that I don’t use myself. I will tell you when I’m making money off a link and when I’m not. I will tell you when I’ve bought a product and when I’ve been given it for free (usually, as sometimes contractual agreements prohibit it).
I believe that there are people out there like me - maybe like you - who know that there is money to be made online, but who want to do it with integrity and respect for others, not getting rich off of other people buying into the hype and empty or false promises. I think that between my easily verifiable reputation in other areas (see below and follow the links) and presenting the information in a completely different way, that this site will attract others who believe as I do.
I hate hype. Always have, always will. If you do too, then bookmark this site, or add my RSS feed to your blog reader. I don’t have an e-mail newsletter sign-up just yet, but will soon, so watch for that as well.
Welcome!
More Penn & Teller for your entertainment and inspiration:
- Penn & Teller expose the classic cups & balls trick
- Penn runs over Teller with an 18-wheeler
- Penn & Teller explain why magic works
- Penn & Teller show the 7 basic elements of magic
Disclosure: I potentially derive ad revenue from the videos linked to in this post. Learn how you too can make money by sharing videos.
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Hi Scott, nice to “meet” you. (I was on the Blog i360 webinar with you moments ago). While I haven’t (YET) read your book, I love the sound of your no-hype approach to marketing/selling. A recent post of Seth Godin’s came to mind as I browsed your blog (URL included in the website field as I haven’t figured out how to do a trckback yet!)…
I have heard that persuasive copywriting techniques ala Robert Allen and all the big gurus SELLS, but like Seth I have a problem. As a customer, copywriting like what he refers to just seems so cheap and nasty and doesn’t really leave me with a great aftertaste. Companies, like Amazon, Squidoo, Google, Apple etc don’t use copywriting techniques like this. But then again, they created products so remarkable that people were moved to buy and rave about them, naturally. (I know in Amazon’s case, even back in the days, they employed social networking tactics like forums to spread the word). Or am I just talking rubbish?
No… you’re exactly right, Gina (and welcome!). A huge influence in my work, and really, one of the driving forces behind the social media movement, is the book The Cluetrain Manifesto. One excerpt from it that we quoted in The Virtual Handshake I think really speaks to this:
So I’m very glad to hear that this voice of mine reached you in a human way. Come back, join in the conversation, tell your friends.
[…] Here’s an example of some of their work - kick back and enjoy (click to play): Read more at What Penn & Teller Did For Magic by Scott Allen from Revenue […]
Your mission of uncovering scams and educating the Internet community is noble and challenging. Your analogy to magic and Penn & Teller hits the bulls-eye in the center. Thanks.
Thanks, John. Unfortunately, I’ve been SO busy with my speaking and consulting the past few weeks that I haven’t had time to come do all the cool stuff here that I planned. I *will* get back to it though.