Double Dutch

Which orchestra was voted the best symphony orchestra in the world?

Eminent music critics asked themselves that same question at the end of  2008. They narrowed the list down to twenty. Last year, the renowned British music magazine “the Gramophone” published the results.

The famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra ended up in second place. But who came first? The New York Philharmonic? The “Wiener Philharmoniker”? The Chicago Symphony?

AN EARFUL
I just spent a few hours on-line listening to YOU… my colleagues, my competition, my inspiration. It was both frightening and enlightening. As I was clicking away part of my day, I was amazed by a number of things, going from Pay-to-Play to Pay-to-Play. This is what I found:

1. Anyone can sign up for a voice-over site these days, on three conditions:

a. you have to have a voice
b. you have to have a credit card
c. you have to have a computer and a mic

2. Fifty percent of the advertised ‘talent’ can’t interpret a simple script;

3. The same people don’t seem to know the first thing about recording either;

4. Amateurs who put themselves out there as voice-over pros, have a lot of guts, coupled with a deadly mix of unrealistic expectations, a lack of experience and the funds to invest in a pipe dream;

5. As I wrote in another article, foreign voices are often not as advertised. We still have Flemish speakers posing as Dutch talents, German speakers who are really from Austria, and Australians pretending to be Americans. Whatever happened to quality control?

6. Don LaFontaine is still very much alive, but he goes by many different names these days. Or is just every other American male voice-over talent riding on his coattails as they are trying to emulate the master?

PAYING THE PRICE
I must say that I don’t envy the voice-seekers who have to sift through over one hundred auditions to find the perfect voice for their low- or no-budget project.

Then again: they asked for it, so we shouldn’t feel too sorry for them. It’s the price you pay when you’re asking every Tom, Dick or Harry to tape a custom demo for that cheap frying pan you’re trying to sell on late-night cable television. You often get what you pay for… frying pan, voice-over talent, it doesn’t make a difference.

What do I make of all this, you may ask? Well, here’s what I think (and feel free to disagree)…

Having a microphone, a MasterCard, a laptop and a fantasy doesn’t mean one should be allowed to join a professional site, no questions asked. We have websites for amateur dog breeders, amateur sports people, amateur musicians… why not design a site dedicated to amateur voice-over artists? I bet you’ll make a lot of money in the Odesk-market segment. It could be a kind of Bargain-Bodalgo.

Don’t get me wrong. Hobbies are wonderful things. My neighbor takes great pictures, but he wouldn’t dare to advertise himself as a professional photographer, nor should he. National Geographic would immediately show him the door.

A friend of mine is not a bad trumpet player, but if he were to audition for a real job in the music industry, he would never make the first cut (and he knows it). Apparently, those stringent standards don’t seem to be in place in certain segments of the voice-over industry. Why not?

THE PROBLEM BEHIND THE PROBLEM
As long as some sites make most of their money through subscriptions, more members means more money. It’s a business model, not a charity. It’s a model that essentially values quantity over quality. The only way to go, is to grow.

Let’s be honest. The voice-over market is pretty much saturated at this moment. You don’t need a degree in economics to realize that a greater supply in a weakened market can only mean one thing: tumbling prices.

The best way to speed this process up, is to have suppliers engage in a furious bidding war. Darwin would have named it: “Survival of the Cheapest”. Isn’t that exactly what is happening? And if you don’t believe me, why is it so hard to buy products that are not “made in China”? Before we know it, all of us will be replaced by IVONA speech synthesis technology. It’s almost as good as the real thing and I bet it’s a lot cheaper.

NO CURE NO PAY
If it were up to me, I’d rather have a performance-based No Cure No Pay-system in place. Out with the premium, platinum and titanium memberships. From now on, voice-over sites should get paid when I get paid. And the only way I get paid, is when voice-over sites do their job and connect me to reputable voice-seekers that are ready to pay reasonable rates.

Perhaps that will make the Pay-to-Play’s more accountable and selective in terms of whom they’re willing to represent. Perhaps that’s the way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Let the dabblers do their thing. As long as they stay in their own league and stop messing with my market.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS
Secondly, I’d like to see these websites publish and uphold certain professional standards, very much like SaVoa’s accreditation criteria. Accreditation comes from the word ‘credo’, which means “I believe“. Although related, ‘credo’ is not the same as ‘credit’.

Our belief in someone’s talent should be based on professional principles, instead of on the spending limit on their credit card. So, let me ask you this:

1. In your experience, are you aware of any professional standards that are promoted and actively upheld by Pay-to-Play sites?

2. If the answer is “yes”, are you happy with these standards, and are they well-advertised and implemented?

3. If the answer to the 1st question is “no”, do you think that voice-over sites should adopt, publish, promote and maintain certain standards?

4. Should talents be denied membership, if they don’t meet certain basic criteria of professionalism?

5. Would it make sense to create a special category for amateur voice actors, or even a dedicated website? Or do dilettantes have no business being in our business?

6. What’s the best and most fair way to compensate P2P’s for their services? A subscription fee? A percentage of  what you’re making for a particular job?  A combination of both?

AND THE WINNER IS…
One question remains.  For that, we return to the quest for the best symphony orchestra in the world. The votes have been counted. The sealed envelope is opened as the audience collectively holds their breath. And the winner is….

the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam

Why? Because their standards are higher. After a grueling audition process, the Concertgebouw only hires the cream of the crop; well-trained people playing the very best instruments. No amateur fiddlers. The Gramophone’s editor James Inverne, put it this way:

“It is hardly possible any more to recognize particular orchestras by their individual sound. I think that with some orchestras, and the Berlin Philharmonic amongst them, that’s a bit of a worry. Whereas with the Concertgebouw you always know it’s the Concertgebouw. And I think that’s what has given them the edge amongst our critics.

Maybe it’s occasionally very slightly rougher than what the Berliner Philharmonic can produce, but it doesn’t matter, because they’re like a great actor bringing their own charisma and their own personality to every work, and always giving you the sense of the spirit of the work.”

Now, that’s what I call music to my ears! I’ll gladly pay to hear them play any day!

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

My next blog is a little more lighthearted, and I’ve invited Steve Martin, Peter Cook and Cyril Ritchard to add some  fun to the pirate party!

Technorati Tags: amateur, amateur voiceover talent, Best symphony orchestra in the world, bidding, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Dutch voice over, Dutch voice-over talent, foreign voice talent, Nethervoice, No Cure No Pay, on-line voice-over casting sites, Pay-to-Play, quality control, SAVOA, standards, voice-over, voiceover, voicover accreditation criteria

She was a world famous news anchor. In Holland, that is. With a population of only 16 million, it’s easy to be a celeb in the lowlands. In fact, one in five individuals is probably (in)famous for something… You might have heard of André Rieu, Famke Janssen, Doutzen Kroes, Paul Verhoeven… all of them big fish who eventually escaped the small Dutch pond.

On this particular morning, our beloved news anchor showed up to make some money on the side. A local charity thought that the appearance of a TV-personality would please the crowds and bring in some much needed cash for a homeless shelter. I was there to see the limo arrive thirty minutes late. Strangely enough, I didn’t recognize the person stepping out of the town car. Dark glasses covered her sleepy eyes. Then I remembered that she had presented the late night news the day before. And without any make-up, she had suddenly aged about 25 years in 2 point 5 seconds.

As she was escorted onto the stage, the audience, made up in part of homeless people, got a good look at her pink Chanel outfit, Fendi handbag and high-end jewelry. Yes, it was clear that this woman was in desperate need of the extra cash she was about to make… Then again, I shouldn’t be so judgmental. Her vacation home had just been featured in one of the lifestyle magazines, and I’m sure the monthly mortgage payment was weighing heavily on her haute-coutured shoulders.

HERE IS YOUR HOST
All of this went through my mind, as I stepped up to the podium at a local synagogue to host a special concert. It was more than a concert, actually. It was an emotional reunion of two musical sisters. One of them had made her way to the United States and the other had chosen to stay behind in Russia. And now, for the first time in many years, the two performed together on one stage.

To me, hosting an event is a natural extension of my voice-over work, as well as a welcome change. Most of us do our jobs in solitude and in dark, oxygen deprived places. We are the invisible voices, addressing invisible audiences. We throw things into outer space, and we will never know where they will land and how they are received. It’s like writing a cookbook, without ever seeing people licking their lips as they get ready to taste our delicious dishes.

Hosting is different. It’s a perfect opportunity to connect with a crowd and get immediate feedback. Let me tell you this: nothing is more frightening than the sound of a joke falling flat on its face. Nothing is more exciting than the sound of roaring laughter, after you’ve delivered a great punch line.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Now, before you conclude that being an emcee is all about me, let me stop you in your tracks. It’s not. Rule number one in the book of hosting is as follows: never take the focus away from the event and the performers. Be warm and welcoming; keep your remarks to the point and make them short and sweet. Find a happy medium between being entertaining and informative. If you manage to do that, you’re well on your way to making hundreds of new friends.

For those of you who’d like to give it a try, here are a few other pointers:

• Do your homework. Find out what group of people you’ll be addressing. Don’t make references to “Gilligan’s Island” if your audience is under 25. And don’t mention Zac Efron, unless your audience is made up of yelling teenage girls. Stay away from politics. Get your facts right. Know the names of the performers and/or speakers, and know how to pronounce them correctly. Find out what they will be performing and dig up some short anecdotes or little known details. Have enough material in case you need fillers.
• Arrive early. Dress for the occasion. Don’t wear a tux to a folk concert. Familiarize yourself with the location. Know where the emergency exits are. Introduce yourself to the staff, the sound technicians and the stage manager. Test the sound equipment. It usually does not work. Check the order of the program and find out about last minute changes.
• During the show: be the glue that holds the event together and the oil that keeps things moving. Briefly introduce yourself and engage your audience from the start. Set some ground rules (e.g. switch off cell phones). Be animated and avoid clichés such as “without further ado” or “give it up for…”. Leave those to the FOX network. Don’t play favorites. Introduce each performer with the same level of enthusiasm. Never, ever make fun of them.
• Don’t be on stage during the performance, and please pay attention to the act or the speaker.  You never know what you can use to build a bridge to the next performance. It also shows that you’re not just a talking head, but that you’re interested in what’s going on. Keep track of the time as well. It’s your job to make things start on time and end on time.
• Be sure to publicly thank everybody at the end, and make some brief, final announcements. After the audience is on their way, thank everyone involved personally: the performers, the staff, anyone who made this happen.

THE BIG LET-DOWN
Let’s go back to the charity event for the homeless for a moment. I have to be honest with you. Without sleep and without teleprompter, the celebrity news anchor was absolutely hopeless. The fact that she arrived in a limo and was dressed in designer clothes, had not earned her much credit with the homeless. She might have been good working the camera, but she certainly wasn’t, working the audience. Her intros were taken straight from the program. Anyone could have done that. And as speaker after speaker tried to move the masses, she was sitting in the front row, sending text message after text message, looking utterly out of place. When the event was finally over, she left through the back door, running away from the fans who had hoped to take a picture with her.

HAPPY ENDING
Luckily, my concert ended on a happier note. I think it was a C-sharp. At the reception following the performance, I discovered another benefit of event hosting. My pro-bono appearance turned out to be tremendous free publicity for my services. All of a sudden I was on the local map! Some people even told me: “You should do this for a living!” But wait, it gets even better. The videographer, who had been recording the entire performance, hired me on the spot for a movie he was shooting. You’ve heard me… a motion picture! Yes my friends, I am now world famous. That is, in Easton, Pennsylvania. My home town.

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

PS Do you think that amateurs should be banned from voice-over sites? Read about it in my next installment of Double Dutch.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, emcee, host, hosting, Nethervoice, news anchor, Paul Strikwerda, tips, voice-over, voiceover

Humor and humiliation. It’s a weird combination and yet, it’s the basis of every slapstick. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, they all made us laugh because they made someone else cry. It’s that cake-in-your face humor, the poke in the eye joke, and the dignitary forced to parade around town in his underpants that never seems to get old.

Embarrassing people is funny business. Especially if we embarrass  those who were born without a funny bone. Sometimes it can be an effective deterrent too.

THE CONTINUING SAGA
If you’ve been following recent revelations on the limited success of Pay-to-Play sites, and the question that started it all “What happens to our demos?“, you must have noticed that this storm still hasn’t subsided. Today, voices.com Stephanie Ciccarelli wrote a two page “Clarification on the Status of Job Postings” on Vox Daily.

At the same time, voices.com has made changes to their SurePay system to prevent abuse from customers, specifically credit card fraud. And as you know, that’s not the only kind of abuse that’s going on in our industry. On the LinkedIn Working Voice Actor Group, a colleague wrote about a lead she got from a P2P site. The voice-seeker said they wanted to hire her, but instead they used her scratch track and turned it into a commercial. The next day they had it airing all over the country. The talent never got paid and she only found out about it after friends alerted her when they heard her voice on the radio.

This is what I would like to know:

• Apart from the bad guys, who should be held responsible? The talent, because she didn’t watermark her scratch track or charge the voice-seeker for recording a demo?
• Is the Pay-to-Play site to blame because they were responsible for the lead?
• Would this have happened had this been a union job?
• Would this have happened had the talent used an agent?
• What can be done to make sure other voice-talents don’t fall into the same trap?

SCAMS GALORE
Of course trusting, law-abiding citizens like you and I are getting ripped off each and every day. This Double Dutch dude does double duty as a translator, and I got burned once or twice by a client writing out a bad check. I ran to the nearest Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint, but all they could do was lower the rating of the translation agency.

However, as a member of Translatorscafe.com (a P2P site for interpreters), I have a not so secret weapon at my disposal. It’s called: “The Hall of Fame and Shame”. This is a members-only area, filled with feedback about unreliable agencies, dirty rotten scoundrels, reputable translators and anything in between. Before I take on a new job, I always enter this Hall to see what I can find. It’s by no means foolproof because not every agency is rated, but I backed out of a job a few times, because I discovered that I had been contacted by a bad apple. The thing is: con artists are notorious repeat offenders, and as soon as they are found out, they move on to another unsuspecting victim.

It’s important to note that this Hall is for people on the demand as well as the supply side. Some translators are less talented than others. Some let a computer program do all the work while they are having all the fun. Some miss their deadlines and ‘mysteriously disappear’ from the radar screen. All of that is exposed. Apart from the bad and the ugly, there’s also lots of good stuff going on in the Hall. People sing the praises of interpreters and agencies alike. In that way, the Hall serves as both a carrot and a stick.

EARLY WARNING
Wouldn’t it be great if we had such an early warning system in place in our industry? You can find hints of it on certain sites, but as far as I can tell, there’s no database that’s filled with red flags and smiley faces. There’s no blacklist of known crooks that have stolen our demos, taken our money or conveniently forgot to pay us. Translatorscafé knows who they are. How about Voices.com?

Or are these sites just a funnel instead of a filter? Is this simply beyond their control? Should we just pay them a yearly fee and trust that nothing bad will ever happen? And when it does, are we condemned to fight the thugs on our own? Donna Summers (voplanet) wrote to the working voice actor group:

“(…) you guys chose not to use agents when you joined the P2P’s. You wanted to do it all yourselves, including negotiating, booking, and monitoring your auditions and jobs. P2P’S get you the auditions and you still complain! Save that big 10% you pay an agent to deal with these issues for you. And now you expect someone to jump in and save you from the big bad ad agents? You can’t have it both ways, Talent.”

Is she right? Are we paying the price for not being willing to pay an agent? How about those of us who can’t get one? Agents are highly selective, especially in this economy. And are agents immune to scams? Let’s ask the victims of Bernie Madoff! Steven Spielberg, Jeff Katzenberg and Elie Wiesel all fell for his scheme. I’m pretty sure that all of them had good advisors.

My point is this: we can’t always prevent bad things from happening. Part of this world is still a nasty and dark place. But it’s what we do after the fact that matters. Let’s put something in place that can serve as a deterrent and as a reference. Our weapon: a “Hall of Fame and Shame”. Our punishment: public humiliation!

PARTY TIME
One final thought. Every year my street has a much anticipated block party. In fact, it’s one of the oldest in the nation that is still going strong. This year’s highlight was not the moon bounce or the Chinese auction. Any idea what was? You guessed it: it was the dunk tank.

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

Technorati Tags: auditions, Hall of Fame and Shame, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, pay to play sites, scam, translatorscafe, voice-over, voiceover, voices.com

On June 8th of 2009, something occurred that had never happened before in the history of mankind.

Hyères, the oldest and most southerly resort on the French Riviera, was the scene of an attempt to break the world record in Static Apnea, the discipline in which a freediver holds his or her breath for as long as possible. The old record of 10’12″, set in 2008, was held by Tom Sietas of Germany.

The challenger, Frenchman Stéphan Mifsud, was determined to destroy it forever. Some called him a hero. Others thought he was a self-destructive lunatic. Few believed that he could do it.

AIDA is the International Association for the Development of Freediving. Their website offers a lot of in-depth information about various disciplines, such as “free immersion”, “constant weight” and “dynamic with fins”. However, it does not answer one fundamental question:

Why do people do these crazy, death-defying things?

After all, no one is forcing them to risk their lives in the pursuit of…. what exactly?

THE ETERNAL QUESTION
Whether we realize it or not, as (voice-over) actors we are constantly struggling with the very same issue: what motivates people? Day in, day out, we’re analyzing dead words on a piece of paper, and as we’re attempting to breathe life into lackluster letters, we wonder:

- for whom is this written; what drives them, why would they listen to me?
- what character am I portraying; what is making me tick?
- what’s the ultimate purpose of this message?
- how can I infuse that purpose into my performance?

We have to ask ourselves similar questions when it comes to our own writing. Take the copywriting we do for our personal website or blog, for instance. It’s easy to say that, in order to bring visitors to our site, we need to serve them a fresh meal of mouth-watering content (see my previous installment). But who has the recipe? Chef Gordon Ramsey?

TIME IS TICKING
Every day, all of us have a limited amount of time at our disposal. In order for others to spend some of that precious time on our website, we need to give them something special; something of value. It has to be something relevant and new that you can’t get anywhere else. It boils down to this: we have to feed a need. In order to tap into your reader’s needs, ask yourself:

What’s my audience hungry for?
What pains and problems do they have?
What issues do they care about?
What solutions are they hoping to find?
What am I passionate about?
What do I have to offer that’s unique and applicable?
Why should people trust me?

If you can answer these questions, you are well on your way to create what webmasters refer to as “sticky content”. Sticky content gives users a compelling reason to come to a site, spend time on that site and come back for more. Things that stick make people click.

Websites that are able to improve how long they can keep visitors engaged, are enjoying improvements to their search results in only a matter of months. On top of that, it helps build trust in your business and search engines will start to trust you too.

A FRAMEWORK
In 1947, Percy H. Whiting published ‘The Five Great Rules of Selling’. In it, he came up with a simple 4-step structure that can turn content into something sticky.

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action

Let’s break it down into bite-size pieces. The first thing you need to do is…

GRAB ‘EM BY THE BALLS with a HEADLINE that gets your readers hooked. Be provocative. Ask a controversial question. A short while ago, I had a chance to test this out. I could have picked: “Where do our custom demos go?” as the title of one of my recent blogs. Instead I wrote: “Are your auditions sucked into a black hole?” In a matter of hours my readership skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. Apparently, my heading had hit a raw nerve.

Once the reader is on board, it’s time for you to describe the PROBLEM (step 2). This is where you share some experiences, facts… your personal struggle. It is your chance to bond with your reader; to show the extent of the problem and the need for a solution.

Once you have created an interest in that SOLUTION, it’s time for step 3. Here’s where you write about what you have to offer; in particular about the benefits of your product or service.

This part should answer the age-old question: “What’s in it for me?” It’s a good idea to throw in compelling reasons as to why what you offer actually works. Think of testimonials and real world examples.

If you’ve done your job, your readers should be all dressed up by now. But where can they go? No sales-cycle is complete without a call to ACTION. Whether you want your visitors to email you, subscribe to your newsletter or buy your latest audio book, you have to let them know what the next step is.  “Download your free e-book.” “Subscribe to my blog.” “Sign up for my training.”

Of course there are many techniques to arrange your writings in ways that will get the attention of your readers. And we haven’t even addressed what you should write about. But all of that is completely irrelevant if you don’t do one thing: get started!

YOUR CHALLENGE
In the fall of ’09, the Internet turned 40. In October 2004, Technorati had indexed 4 million blogs. Four years later, this number had gone up to a staggering 133 million. Bloggers create about a million posts every day. 77% of active internet users read blogs. Blogs are represented in the top 10 web site lists across all categories.  Need I go on?

This is the big question: How do you cut through so much noise and get heard? Lewis Green, the CEO of marketing firm L&G Business Solutions puts it this way:

“To break through and get noticed, we need to understand who we are writing for and exceed their wants and needs. Not much different from running a business, and if we are a business blog, we better write for the readers, not for ourselves.”

As a freelancer, you might not be a freediver, but now is the time to get your feet wet and start creating sticky content that outlasts anything the competitions has ever written. But it takes preparation and determination to get to that point.

BREATHTAKING
Just imagine sitting stationary underwater, holding your breath…. for an eternity. After a while you can hear your blood pumping, and the pounding of your heart becomes almost deafening. Your lungs are about to burst and yet you have to stay still as sheer panic is taking over every single thought.

Could you do it? Would you?

On June 8th, Stéphan Mifsud did not break the world record.

He absolutely shattered it.

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

Technorati Tags: AIDA, Dutch voice talent, freediving, Freelancing, how long can you hold your breath, How to create sticky content, increase web traffic, Nethervoice, Paul Strikwerda, Percy H. Whiting, Static Apnea, Stéphan Mifsud, sticky content, Technorati, The Five Great Rules of Selling, Tom Sietas, voice-over, voiceover

Having a website is not an accomplishment. Nessie the Hamster has one. Famous dead people do too. I have even seen sites in loving memory of unfamous dead hamsters! Some of those websites get more visitors in a day, than you hope to have in a year.

Here’s my question: if you have a personal website and you’re not getting any traffic, what’s the point? You might as well give the money you’re sending to your Internet Service Provider to a worthy cause, such as the Don LaFontaine Voice-Over Lab.

If, on the other hand, you want to use your online presence to your advantage, you better roll up your sleeves and get to work! (Unless you’re too busy auditioning for that $100 narration of a 300 page audio book…)

iCrossing is a digital marketing agency with specific expertise in social media and 12 offices worldwide. Last year, Nilhan Jayasinghe, their VP, wrote a paper entitled; “Optimizing for users, not search engines. Building a sustainable brand in a connected world”.  He says:

“As search engines become more sophisticated, they will increasingly incorporate user data to validate their results. The numbers of people visiting a site; the time that users spend on a site; the depth of their engagement; whether they return over a period of time; how many people add it to their social bookmarking tools such as Digg; all will potentially be taken into account.”

If you’ve read my last blog, you already know that the new Google is going in that direction. And where Google goes, others follow. In my opinion, there are at least two things you must do to take advantage of this development. These are the things that will drive people to your website; keep them there and make them come back:

1. Start writing for people, not for search engines: offer fresh & relevant content.
2. Stop “telling & selling”. Instead, engage your visitors and begin a dialogue.

Here are a few ways to do it:

1. Offer FREE STUFF. Paradoxically, some companies are making lots of money by giving things away for free. It’s called the “freemium model” whereby some content is offered at no charge, while premium content is not. Seattle-based Big Fish Games distributes more online games than anyone else, at about 1 million a day. You can try almost any Big Fish game for free; but there are add-ons that players have to pay for.

A few months ago, our colleague Peter O’Connell made his e-book “The Voice Over Entrance Exam” available at no charge. I’m pretty sure that this brought new visitors to his website. It did something else too: it established him as an expert. Here’s a third bonus: free resources get links. Isn’t that what I just did?

2. Contests & Awards are another way to drive people to your site. Videovoicebank.net organized a contest, and voice-overs were invited to share their professional horror stories. Not only did the Videovoicebank-team manage to engage their community; for days, visitors could enter their email address and vote for their favorite story. I wonder what they’ll do with those email addresses…

3. Provide a resource that will benefit your target-group and (of course) offer it for free. Veteran VO-artist Mahmoud Taji compiled a voice-over directory of casting websites for “the benefit of established and up-and-coming voice over talent who want to secure more voice over work through the Internet.” He asked everyone in the industry to help out, and this is just another example of how to get people involved. So far, Taji has a list of 239 sites, and you might add a few to the directory.

4. Quizzes and Games on your site are a fun way to make people come back and spend more time with you. British talent Emma Clarke is the voice you’ll hear for a majority of the London Underground lines. Her website is terrific and it has games, spoof audios and even an online “Emma flip book”.  One of my favorites is a fridge magnet game where you can move the words around to make your own sentences and phrases – and have Emma speak them for you.

5. Actress Amy Walker (above) became an overnight sensation when her YouTube video 21Accents went “viral”. “These days, it’s not unusual to see a search engine like Google pull up a YouTube video in its top 10 results,” says Linda Girard, co-founder of online marketing consulting firm Pure Visibility in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “The best way to maximize this trend is by uploading your video to various sites and attach good, searchable terms to the clips in order to get those high rankings.” (source)

6. Then there’s the old trick of offering limited Deals & Discounts. Bristol-based voice-over talent and SAVOA-member Alison Pitman offered a promotion of 25% discount on all message on hold voice-over recordings. Particularly if you’re also offering individual coaching and voice-over classes, never miss an opportunity to throw in an early bird special or a web coupon. Irresistible offers turn browsers into buyers.

7. Develop an ongoing relationship with your visitors (colleagues and clients). Answer their emails. Follow up with them. Ask them for feedback. Use social networking sites to connect. Take an active part in your community, online and offline. Send email newsletters using a service like Constant Contact or Aweber. It’s all about building your brand and positive reinforcement.

8. Blogging benefits business. Internet marketing company Hubspot surveyed over 1500 small businesses. They found that those with blogs attracted:

1. 55% more traffic
2. 97% more inbound links
3. 434% more indexed pages

Blogs are a very effective way to create valuable content; to connect, to interact and to build relationships based on trust. Nilhan Jayasinghe put it this way:

“The closer that Google and others get to reading real interaction, the better they will become at separating the sites that look relevant from the sites that are relevant. Inevitably, it will become ever more difficult to fake the quality of a web page.

Given that this is the case, by far the best way to rank highly for a given term is to offer what the search engines are getting progressively better at finding – content that is genuinely useful to those people searching for that term.”

How to come up with quality content is going to be the topic of my next installment! In the meantime, how did you manage to increase your web traffic? What worked for you and why? What was a waste of time and money?

Paul Strikwerda © 2009

www.nethervoice.com

PS What makes people click? Click to find out!

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