WEBSITES FOR VOICE ACTORS: Why Your Website Isn't "Working" for You And How And Why You Need To Fix It Immediately

by Dan O'Day

If you're a voice actor, which of these describes your website?

• You created it yourself, but in your gut you know it's not doing the job for you.

• It was built it for you by a friend or relative who's a "techie" but probably doesn't know anything about marketing. So your website sits there, doing little if anything for you.

• A "professional," very "artistic" Web designer created a fancy site that looks great. It's good for your ego, but for some reason you're not getting much traffic...and little if any new business from your website.

The voiceover field is too competitive for you to be handicapped by a website that isn't helping you attract more auditions and assignments.

Unless you plan to scramble for every VO dollar that's spent on the cheapest voice available, you need a website that's a vital part of your marketing plan.

I'm going to teach you "just" two things.

1. EXACTLY what your site needs to attract "organic" search engine rankings -- (meaning you don't pay for it ).

2. EXACTLY what to do to convert more of your Web visitors into paying clients.

100% Non-Technical

If you're intimidated by the technology, relax. This will be 100% non-technical. A voiceover website SHOULD be all about marketing, not about the bells & whistles your Web person loves to throw in.

Bad News: Your "Web Guy" Will Hate Me

Don't be surprised if after this audio seminar your Web designer hates me. I mean, SOMEONE is creating all of those incredibly terrible, wasteful websites for voice actors.

They just don't know better. But after you learn what I teach in this audio seminar, YOU will.

In this audio seminar, I personally will teach you:

• How to identify your real online competition

• Why you need to think a lot more about your voiceover site's usability

• The only three things you need to know about visitors to your voiceover website

• Why site maps are the sign of a badly designed voiceover website (Note: Site maps created for SEO purposes are good. But they needn't be visible.)

• One extremely important test of any voiceover website

• The Web User's Mantra

• The Reversed Type Trap

• The key Usability Factors for any voiceover site

• The two speeds of the Internet. (Most voiceover websites are on the wrong speed.)

• The worst thing a voiceover site can do

• Why your voiceover website almost certainly should not have a splash page.

• The one question to ask of every page of your site

• Exactly how long 30% of your visitors will wait for a page to load before giving up and leaving

• How to increase the satisfaction of your site's visitors by managing their expectations

• How scrolling marquees harm your website

• Why and how you must maximize the user's Ease Of Navigation

• The folly of Mystery Meat Navigation

• The two things every page of your site should have (but probably doesn't)

• Why your Web designer should not allow your online text to expand to fill the screen

• Why blinks & animations annoy users...But how you still can use them effectively

• How to write for online reading

• The three questions your visitors have when they land on your Home Page

• Where and how to offer your contact information. (Most voice artist websites get this wrong, and it hurts them.)

• The first question to ask when designing (or redesigning) your voiceover site

• Determining and then delivering your MDA

• Why your site should not use Frames

• How to test your site

• How most voiceover websites misuse flash animation

• How to protect your site

• Linking strategies. (Most voiceover sites get this all wrong.)

• Case Study: How one voice actor increased the number of people who listened to his demos by 40% -- with less than one minute's work, without spending an extra penny, and without increasing the number of visitors to his website

• What you should not say in your bio. (Many voiceover artists get this completely wrong.)

• Helpful and harmful ways to use video on your website

• Five ways your "artistic" Web designer is driving away potential clients