Good Morning Readers,
It’s a windy and dusty day here in Cairo, Egypt. I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been writing as much, it’s not like I’ve been on a beach ignoring you guys, but the truth is it took quite some time and research to put together The Voiceover Pavilion directory. Thankfully I have some good friends with some writing skillz who were able to step and and help fill part of the void.
The Aftermath
Like any new website it will take a few weeks for people to get used to the way things are done on TVP (I originally wanted to call it Taji’s Voiceover Pavilioin… but thought it was too narcissistic so I opted to call it The Voiceover Pavilion).
Although the website is pretty simple … I still think that because I set it up I might be assuming that everyone else would be able to follow my strange way of thinking… so I’ve setup a simple tutorial to tell you how the site functions.
First thing’s first
Registering
To submit a listing on TVP you need to register an account. Registering is for free and the main purpose it serves is to block any potential spammers from trying to post spam links etc. But since I am constantly working on expanding the capabilities of The Pavilion I will eventually be adding functionalities that will only be available to registered users.
Adding A Listing
Adding a listing will require that you hit the big button on the top right of the screen labeled Submit listing. You have to be logged into your account to be able to submit the listing and once you click that button you will be taken to a page that lists the features of the 4 packages that are currently available on the site… the page looks like this:
once you choose a package you will go to a page that will show you the questions that will collect the data for your listing.
Things That Are Confusing People
A few of the questions seem to be confusing folks so I’ll try to explain them as best as I can… but I’ll go through the whole list just to be thorough:
1. Homepage URL : Your website URL. If you don’t have a personal website then you may list your voices.com or your voice123.com profile page.
2. Email Address : This is so that clients can contact you directly if they like the demos you have listed on your profile page.
3. Business Address: This tells the client where you live so that in case they are interested in hiring you to record in their studio they know how close you are and how hard it would be for you to travel to attend a recording session with them.
4. Telephone: Sometimes clients are in a hurry and can’t wait for you to check your email. So listing your business phone number might be a good idea for them to be able to contact you directly and maybe leave a voice message.
5. Blog URL: Listing your blog URL (only in the Prestige Package) allows you to increase your readership. Also subscribing to the prestige package means you can list both your website and your blog in the same listing instead of separately.
6. Voice Demo: This has confused a few people. What I need from you is a link of your Voiceover Demo. I don’t host people’s voiceover demos or else I’d have to raise the price of the subscription to accommodate demo hosting capabilities. So I make life easier … if you have your demo hosted somewhere I can stream it form your listing… that means that people can come and listen to it from your listening and decide whether they would like to contact you or not right there and then. So what I need from you is to send me the link to your mp3 files. If you don’t know where the mp3 files are stored on your site or your developer decided to use a flash player that hides the demo’s location then you’ll need to contact them and get them to give you the right links.
7. Twitter Username: These days it’s all about communication and social media. Although not everyone who looks through your profile will hire you… but maybe they want to keep you in mind for another job… or maybe they want to hire you as a voice coach… so listing your twitter account… not such a bad idea!
8. LinkedIn URL: This is another one of those things that confuses people. What most people are doing is going to their linkedin account and copying the URL from the browser and then using that as the link. Unfortunately that’s the wrong link. What you actually need to do is go to google… type your name and linkedin and search for that… you will get a URL for your public page that is accessible by people who are not part of the linkedin network. That’s what you need to submit.
9. SaVoa Membership Number: If you are a member of the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists then why not tell your potential clients that you have been accredited. This gives you an edge over other artists and might be the deciding factor between who gets the job and who doesnt.
10. HTML Description – Talk about what you’re good at… what you’ve worked on… who your clients have been… this area is for you to explain yourself and connect with the profile visitor.
11. Multiple Categories – For those with the Prestige Package you can put yourself into 3 different voiceover categories. If you are a VO artist as well as a Voice Coach as well as a casting agent… then you can list yourself in all three categories and get three different voiceover related business coming your way!
12. Image Uploads – You have a logo you want to show off? You want to show the client what your studio looks like? You want to show your glamor shot? Do so here!
13. Featured Listing – A featured listing is one that gets priority over other regular listings during searches. Featured listings also get showcased on the Pavilion’s front page and promoted further than the other packages.
That’s It for now.. I’ll be including this article at the Pavilion to help out new members and will be including other tutorials like how to edit a listing once it’s submitted.
Be good to each other.
Taji