Morning Compadres,
Today’s blog post title is based on a lyric from a song for a band called My Morning Jacket. It was recently featured in the animated series American Dad… and I found it appropriate to use for this post since we’re talking about Voice Over community sites on the web.
Very recently I got an the following email:
Meet and join to the better website for Voice Talents
Hello,
Visit the www.ChooseAVoice.com and meet the website that was build in fit for you to disclose yourself.
We don’t talk only your language, we also talk the language of your client (in english, spanish or portuguese).
We currently have over 2,500 registered users. The project began in Brazil, and is giving very well there and giving return to the registered voice talents. Therefore, we decided to expand, so that the voice talents around the world have the opportunity to have a site really dedicated to their disclosure.
Here are some advantages of being registered in ChooseAVoice:
– We speak your language;
– Your homepage is really made for highlight you, not the site;
– Even with the free signup, you disclose yourself and receive proposals WITHOUT ANY MIDDLEMEN OR FEES;
– You can upload up to six audio demos and up to 3 photos;
– You can register unlimited YouTube videos in your portfolio;
– Customize the text of your page, including the 3 languages supported by the website, with a very easy and atual text editor;
– You decide to display or not your personal information, such as telephone number, e-mail, website, birth date, etc;
– If you want to contribute with us, you have the possibility to change the header on your personal page for one of our more than 50 types of header, customize the font of your name and the color of your page, and have access to an exclusive visitor access graph on your profile;
– Our contribution amounts are the lowest in the market!
These are just some advantages. Visit the ChooseAVoice now and create your better new website.
See you there!
Regards,
Staff ChooseAVoice dot com
ChooseAVoice
Now a few things kind of stand out about this email:
- Its terribly written
- It has a Brazilian variation (which means that there is a high possibility that the company is originally brazilian… hence familiar with Produlz who own and run voiceover-casting)
- It’s a competitor to voiceover-casting
- It’s an unsolicited email.
Now compare that to another website I stumbled on recently… I was doing some tracking via google analytics to see who is refering people to Taji’s Voice Emporium. And I stumbled on yet another website that follows the same paradigm as voiceover-casting.com.
The website is called Everydemo.com and it has the strangest verification system. It also has a very odd blog posting policy… you either blog or you’re out. I’m somewhat perplexed as to why any voice over promotion site would want to force its voice over talent to write even if they a. do not have the inclination to do so or b. aren’t very good at it.
Now the thing about these 2 websites that is different to voiceover-casting.com is that VOC (voice over casting) has been operational long enough that they have gotten into their own groove and are far better looking (as a site… I’m sure Fernando is a handsome Brazilian specimen but we aren’t talking about his looks just now) as a site than the others.
Not that a site should be judged just by its looks at this point… but rather we’re talking about functionality, usability and their ability to promote their registered talent.
You Be The Judge
I’ve supplied you with the links… its your choice whether to go and try these new services out and see if they measure up to your expectations or if you would rather develop your VOC persona.
In this article I have not included voice over universe because I have already discussed their service in a previous article and although they are somewhat similar… they are not exactly the same.
The Website move
As discussed before the site will move at the end of the year… currently I am testing the new site on a subdomain on my servers. Please remember that once the move is made the only way to access Taji’s Voice Emporium is by going to www.vocieemporium.com
Be well,
Taji
The reason you are required to post is to promote yourself instead of blaming EveryDemo on being “another” pay to play site that doesn’t work.
We’ve provided voice pros with promotional tools and modifications to promote them selves as voice pros. Lets face it…I say this a million times as a consultant…..voice work wont fall to your feet, you need to work for it, work for it by telling people what you do as a voice talent.
When you post on EveryDemo.Com, it displays your demos and profile information on the right side of the post. Because of this content your posting, that will be the result of being found on any website system. You should look into (“SEO” Search Engine Optimization”)
Regards,
Keith Farrell
Hello Keith,
Thank’s for visiting my blog, I’m glad to see that your google alert is working (or your pingback or whatever alerted you to this posting).
Here’s my suggestion for replying to blog posts written by voice over artists in the future:
1. Don’t ever try to ridicule a blogger because he is providing you with a means to promote your business. Take any form of promotion that you can get and add good PR (that’s public relations… in case you didn’t know what that meant) to it. I could have very easily ignored or deleted your comment. Instead I’m letting you promote yourself and explain your policies albeit in my own twisted way.
2. Forcing your voice over clients or members to write blog posts is not really a good policy. Take it from someone who a. writes his own voice over related blog b. has read many other people’s voice over related blogs, Its just not a good idea to force people to write. Yes their SEO will increase with multiple references to articles in their name in search engines but ultimately out of every 1 great blogger that might come out of this… you’ll create about 20 that SHOULD not write and hate your for it… it will also mean that many will get frustrated and just go elsewhere. So unless your real goal is to create a race of multi-talented voice over artists/bloggers then you should change said policy. Also if their articles are garbage and the client actually reads them… this might be a reason why they don’t hire them.
3. I say it a million times as a Creative Director, Advertising professional and Voice Over Pro. Pay for promotion and don’t waste you’re time with something that requires a bit of dedication and the philanthropic spirit unless you have it in you, because in essence you are doing research, investing time and writing up articles and posts for free (not including side ads). Yes part of the price is self promotion… but that is a small part.
4. Maybe it would be less redundant if instead of having 200 voice over artists write up mandatory voice over posts you can automate your website to ask them about the last project they worked on so that your website automatically posts that (with their name as a tag) as well as have a person specific availability calendar or schedule calendar to show potential clients if that person is available or not. Also you can fix up the registration process while you’re at it. (see what I’m talking about with the whole philanthropic spirit thing… I’m giving you ideas to improve your website for free… you can act on them… or your competitors can. The first one to it is the innovator)
5. Everyone and their grandmother are familiar with SEO (I wrote an article about it last june… read it… might be helpful http://voiceover-casting.com/emporium/flash-vs-seo.html) how about suggesting other methodology like compiling a series of ways to promote them through google adwords advertisements that is different than what they probably already have going or have weekly webinars where you take the time to answer your member’s questions and use your voice over consultancy experience in a more productive way vis-à-vis your members.
Ok I’m done, I think I’d rather go do something else now.
Taji
Hi Taji, how are you?
First, sorry about many errors in e-mail. This was edited and you can see new release at http://www.chooseavoice.com/mail/meetchooseavoice
Other texts on site will be edited very soon. This weekend!
About our company, yes, we are brazilian, but without relation with produlz. Our native language is portuguese. Our English is poor, yes, but our desire to promote a great site for all is great!
About competitor of voiceover-casting, well, we are a website to promote voice talent. We are here to add other way to promote VO, not for competitions.
Finally, about unsolicited email, sorry again. But we don´t saw other way to tell it for you and others voice talent.
Regards,
Marcelo Gomes
Choose a Voice
http://www.chooseavoice.com