(Mike Durant • March) I received a URL pointer to a site from one of our members with a request to review it: milaadesign.com The first thing to notice about this front page is that flash graphic. I liked the ‘spooky' feel it gives the site. The most applicable thing on the front page, magically speaking, is a little ‘mind reading' ‘game'. There are actually two variations there. Both are similar to many others out there: ‘Think' of a number, answer a few questions ... seemingly unrelated to the number ... and the system correctly ‘guesses' it. I am sure that you will recognize how they both work pretty quickly. They might be fun for someone that is not familiar with these sorts of effects, but I had already groked them from the initial screen (since they were billed as mind reading)...
The real disappointment is that the rest of the site seems to be an attempt to generate revenue from ‘Google Ads' clicks as well as to sell the eBook ‘Mind Reading Exposed'.
Checking out the ‘links' did not produce any more useful information than I would have gotten by typing the ‘link name' into Google myself. Of course I did not expect to find anything ‘useful' from the magic perspective from links like "Think Tattoos are Sexy?" But I really expected more from, for example, the ‘Mind Reading' link. Selecting that one takes you to a list of ‘links'. Out of the first 10 links, the top 5 were for ‘psychic readings' ... you know the 1-900 sort of thing. Next was a link to a self help book followed by a site called ‘Life Answers' that wants to use numerology to help you cope with life. Number 8 is a site to help you lose tummy fat and finally, at number 9 there is a reference to the eBook mentioned above. Considering that the book has it's own ‘sales' section on the site, I am not sure if I was more surprised that it was so low on the list ... or that it was on the list at all. The others were all worse.
There was one, possibly redeeming, item -- the link to ‘Mind Reading Exposed'. Now I will admit that I have not read the book, so I might be wrong. But the ‘hype' in the ad reminds me too much of the ads in the back of of the old DC comics for X-Ray specs and Genuine Sea Monkeys (I think I still own a pair of the glasses). I did a bit of digging, not exhaustive by any means, but spent some time at it and I could not find a review of the book on line. That makes me skeptical as well. One last thing that makes me nervous ... I read through the entire ad and could not find the author's name anywhere. It was not in the text and it was not on the images of the book's cover. So, all told, I am having trouble taking the book seriously.
In the final analysis, the ‘number guessing' game might be fun for some, but they exist elsewhere and I would rather support someone that is running a site that was more supportive of magicians and less of a ‘honey pot' to try and collect clicks for dollars.
