January 2007 Archives

I subscribe to a fantastic e-zine called The Publicity Hound written by Joan Stewart. In each week's issue, she posts a question to "help this hound", and the question this week was from another voice talent who wanted to know how to drive traffic to his web site. I answered with 20 suggestions on Joan's blog but am including my answer here these ideas may help other people. Also, I am adding 5 more ideas that I didn't include in my original answer.

As another voice-over talent, many newcomers to the industry ask me the same question. I have written essays on my blog in which I point out that voice-over is a business that requires a marketing plan. Like any business owner, the talent should determine where s/he fits in the marketplace and develop a marketing plan that targets the primary prospects on a steady and consistent basis.

Numerous ways exist to contact the prospects and depend on a person's time, budget and creativity. If the goal is simply to drive traffic to a web site, obviously, getting a link to your site published in a popular e-zine like The Publicity Hound will do the trick!

One need only look at my voice-over studio to know that I am in love with Paris. The Eiffel Tower is my favorite thing in the world. I wear a gold Eiffel Tower charm on a bracelet, and I have numerous Eiffel Tower figurines in my house. The highlight (no pun intended) of my collection is a tall, lead crystal Eiffel Tower that sits on a lighted mirrored base. The base has colored LEDs, so the sparkling crystal shimmers in a rainbow of color as the base slowly turns.

A dear friend didn’t know that I had bought this crystal Eiffel Tower when I was in Las Vegas. As a birthday present, she surprised me with a smaller version of the one I had bought. It even sits atop a lighted mirrored base just like the one pictured here.

Granted, the peddlers swarming beneath the Tower’s four lacy pillars wouldn’t know those things about me as Drew and I exited the Tower on a recent visit to Paris. They would only know that I had been up in the Tower, and they should have noticed that I was carrying a shopping bag. Since it was dark, they may have been unable to discern that the shopping bag was from the Eiffel Tower, indicating I had purchased souvenirs at the Tower gift shops.

Just like at the Great Pyramids, these people all rush up to you, shoving their wares in your face and shouting prices at you. In addition to the ever-popular Eiffel Tower key chains that we have seen (and bought) on previous trips, the new craze was hand-held, flashing, lighted Eiffel Towers. A girl who loves the Eiffel Tower as much as I do and already has 2 lighted crystal Eiffel Towers is a likely target market for such a thing. At the time, though, I was most interested in dinner since it was very late, and we had to get up early for our flight home.

The seller’s approach has everything to do with the prospect’s interest. People shouting prices at me just make me want to hurry along to get away from them, no matter how much I might like their item. As Will Newman points out in his excellent article in the Early to Rise e-zine, you often have to use the word because and appeals to prospects’ emotions if you expect to make sales.

One of these flashing light vendors started walking with us. Like the guy at the Pyramids, I’ll give him points for trying to create rapport with us. He even attempted to follow Newman’s advice to play to our emotions, but he made a critical mistake.

I know I promised another article that was inspired from my recent trip, but I had to pass on something I just read that will help you move forward in your voice-over career. It's a new year, and many people have spent part of the day setting goals and reflecting on events of the past year. Every New Year's Eve, I write in a special journal about my plans and hopes for the coming year. I have goals for all areas of my life, especially in my voice-over profession.

However, I have learned that I don't want to spend too much time looking back over the past year. It's easy to fall in the trap of forgetting my many accomplishments for the year. My mind instead wants to dwell on things that didn't happen the way I envisioned or at all. I want to stay focused on my current plans and keep marching ahead!

I just read Wayne Dyer's new book Being In Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires. He makes a strong point in chapter six that made me realize yet again the detrimental effect one's thoughts can have on one's voice-over career.

Dyer and others have said You become what you think about all day long. He writes:

Maybe you:

Right. I could continue on with a long list of things that maybe you didn't do, but that would be negative thinking. Why don't you write down a list of everything -- big and small -- that you DID to move forward on your voice-over goals? When I look at my list, I feel fantastic! I see that I took advantage of unexpected opportunities, and I have momentum carrying me into the coming year.

I re-write my goals and plans on an on-going basis. Magical things happen when you write down your goals....but that's another subject for another day.

I wanted to write today to encourage you to start your new year by looking forward in your voice-over career, not back. Looking back tends to crystallize your thinking and can cause you to get stuck. It's a new year, so it's time to move ahead! Decide what you want, and then decide that you have the power to attain it. Once you start thinking those types of thoughts, you will start taking the actions necessary to make your dreams a reality.