Episode 138, March 31, 2014

Guest: Joe Davis from voiceactorwebsites.com

George on gear in or out of your booth

Dan’s Tip of the Week on VO Education

0:03:30 Thanks to sponsors, Harlan Hogan, VO Xtra, and Edge Studio/VO Studio Tech

0:04:00 “Shout-outs” needed for the Third Anniversary show on April 21. 

0:04:58 George rolls his “Whittam’s World” (Episode 15) about equipment 

in or out of the booth. George gives details on where to keep your 

computer and other gear. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=mfMi8URfLg8&list=PLpWTD2BQBdrKqkKsnsWMWc4FYrh3mXBpH&index=16 to see 

it again.

0:13:00 Discussion between Dan and George about what gear in the booth. 

0:14:52 Break

0:16:30 Dan’s rant on VO education. Everybody learns from somebody.

Acting, technology, and business are the three phases of the VO biz. You never stop 

studying.

Education for profit? Nothing wrong with that. There’s no certification for teaching 

VO acting. No one person can teach it all. Webinars? The question is what is the 

information being presented worth to you? Making you a better voice actor is in 

their interest. The all-in-one organizations offering guaranteed success—RUN! See 

WoVO’s best practices. http://www.worldvo.org//?s=Best+Practices&x=0&y=0

But never stop learning!

Dan and George discuss. Dan says his peers have taught him much, with the 

foundation coming in his school days. Next week’s roundtable will include some top 

coaches. 

Q: Does WoVO offer accreditation? A: No, though WoVO will soon offer home studio 

certification. 

Coming up: how to make your website better.

0:25:57 Break

0:27:30 They’re back with Joe Davis. Joe demonstrates branding by wearing a Dan 

mustache. Joe talks about how he came to the business. His friendship with Dan led 

him to learn about VO. 

He began thinking about making web design fast, affordable, and relevant for VO. Joe 

and Dan now have a business, http://www.voiceactorwebsites.com/

Dan noticed websites can be a pain, with somebody else in charge.

Joe thinks a website’s goal is either for branding (where you’ve had contact with the 

clients prior). For those sites, search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t as important. 

Example: McDonald’s—lots of graphics, nearly no text. Not good for SEO. http://

www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html

The other type that brings in new traffic. That type needs to have a lot of text. 

Example: Dan’s site. http://www.homevoiceoverstudio.com/ It’s got lots of text which is 

good for SEO. “Flash” can’t be read by SEO. Example is Dan’s VO site, which can’t be 

seen on an iPhone.

So you need to decide your need before you start. 

0:37:00 Branding discussion. For Dan, his site is like a business card.

0:38:40 Joe asks what is a brand? A brand on livestock was a way of know who

owned which cow. Ultimately, it’s something people think of someone or something.

Example: Pepsi logo. Sometimes a brand gives you an insight into a company or it can

give a feeling.

For the website Joe runs, he spent hours building a logo with a headset and a mic. And 

that turned out not to work since VO’s don’t use headsets so much.

It might be best to bring a brand or logo to your website development, rather than have 

the web designer do it. 

0:43:20 Dealing with SEO and keywords. What is all that?

When you go to a search engine and type in words, the search engine gives different 

weight to different terms. SEO includes on-page and off-page factors. If you don’t have 

the words “voice-over” on your page, you won’t get found. 

Most webpage viewers don’t go beyond the first page of a search result. Something 60-

85% click on the first three choices brought up by a search engine. 

Pay-per-click: Google makes its money by selling advertisers who appear above the 

search results. The client sets the amount per click up to a ceiling amount. 

This is why most of us won’t make money via our websites since there are deep 

pockets getting the most out of their SEO.

Google has 10 spaces for the 1.3 million looking for voice work everyday. So if you can 

identify your niche visually and in text at your site.

0:51:15 Harlan Hogan spot. Harlan is having an April Fools Sale, one day only on April 

1. 

0:53:59 Audience questions.

Q I just bought a domain and I’m trying to “host” it via WordPress. If this OK?

A Yes. This is a good way to manage your site yourself. Joe tells the history of site 

management. You can “host” your site through BlueHost. You can have more power 

and flexibility by hosting yourself. Hostgater is another ($10 a month). 

George uses SquareSpace. His site includes an embedded element (SourceConnect 

Now). Joe said you do need to be careful that your embedded content is a trusted 

source. The other caution: the more you put on your site the slower it loads. It should 

load within 7 seconds.

1:01:10

Q: How do you handle multiple websites?

A: Depends on what you want to do with each site. You probably need a very different 

brand for each function if you have a different site for each. If all your sites talk about 

the same thing, keep the branding the same. 

1:04:08 Often there’s a bar across the top. Then a call to action and services in the 

upper right.

English speakers read in an F pattern, looking top left first, then across, back, down, 

and across: define the brand first, then call to action, down the side your menu, and a 

way to contact on the right. Sidebars are moving to the right to enhance SEO.

1:06:20 

Q How much change control do I have?

A Depends on the web design system you’re using. 

1:08:25

Q What about mobile sites?

A More than 1 billion use mobile devices to access the internet. Having a site that 

works is important. You can build a site specific to mobile devices or a responsive 

design. In those, the site changes as it shrinks.

Responsive design is better for SEO. Duplicate content gets punished by Google. You 

can also get reported by a competitor.

1:12:19 

Q How important is it to have a blog on the website?

A With WordPress you can have both managed on the same system. Google loves 

fresh content and old content and domain names. If update regularly, that’s good. 

If you’re not doing it at least once a week, you might want to remove your dates so 

Google doesn’t think you have an abandoned blog.

1:14:48

Q What about registering a domain with wix.com?

A Joe doesn’t have experience with Wix. The more you use a template service, you’re 

limited, but it can be easy to use. If you want more flexibility, then hosting yourself is 

just as expensive.

1:16:52

Q Single page website vs multi-tab site?

A It depends on the goal of the site. The more pages the better if you want to bring in 

natural traffic. Long single pages could get hit by Google if they’re too long. 

Google likes organized content with “bread crumbs.” 

George asks Joe about podcasts. Joe says it requires an audience with specific 

interests. 

Now days we can build websites quickly and inexpensively. 

1:24:04 Joe’s final advice: buy domains associated with your domain name and then a 

Break.

1:25:38 They’re back. Email your questions to Joe.

Announcements:

Clickers! 

Donors thank yous. Subscription donations possible!

The YouTube Channel includes EWABS Essentials, with the “best of.”

Next week: Voice Over Coaches Roundtable.

April 14: DARK. A break.

April 21: Third Anniversary with Voice Peeps. Send a video shout out and put up at

Dropbox.

May 5: Marketing Roundtable

1:31:30 George tests two mics.

1:33:19 End of show