I was on Google tonight and came across a web site tonight, of reasonable design, offering voice overs for under $100 and quick turnaround.

Competition is fine but low-ballers like this individual and his compatriots disgust me because I think it cheapens our industry and further confuses potential clients on price.

Searching further on the site I see this person (whom I do not know) is actually within a couple of hours drive of me and has a number of misspellings on his site.

In spite of my disgust I find myself beginning to type an email explaining his misspellings because it looks unprofessional.

Then I stop.

While at first it seemed like the right thing to do, I decided that someone whose business model I do not at all respect does not deserve professional assistance from me as I might normally do for someone in the industry I consider a peer.

I may have become an elitist voice over talent. Not elite, elitist.

Doesn’t he have a right to run his business as she sees fit? Maybe she’s got small children to feed.

But deep discount voice over pricing is wrong and I know this down to my very core.

Should I have helped this person with an email about the errors I easily found or should I have walked away, like I did, because I think his business model is a bad one?

I need clear direction on this. I may ignore your advice in the end based on pure Irish stubbornness but for the moment I know I should listen.

Please state your case below. Thanks.

Tags: branding, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
13 Comments »

No, as far as I know the service isn’t going out of business but it has lost its position as part of my social media mix. I closed my account.

I’m not mad at them nor was there any kind of dust up between us. My Space didn’t meet my needs. My peers and prospects didn’t use it and I actually felt awkward navigating through it. It really is a much younger skewing service.

I tried My Space because to me Social Media channels need to be experienced to be judged…assessing them without participating in them leaves a lot of room for error. Even though I knew My Space skewed younger from the outset, I also knew that at one time Facebook was a younger skewing service. It evolved into something much more purposeful for my professional and personal life.

My Space didn’t fit me. That’s OK. Every Social Media channel is not for every person and that’s the key take away here, especially if you are new to the scene. Social Media is an ever evolving space and the multitude of its channels, through which we all participate, also evolve.

Each of us who participate in Social Media need to occasionally step back, review our usage and either add or delete to our Social Media mix as we see fit. And as for the channel’s themselves, the fittest will survive.

There are still plenty of places where we can get together – I hope you’ll join me on:

Linked In

Facebook

FriendFeed

Twitter

Naymz

Tags: commentary, internet, social media, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

Today started of kind of depressing. Cold and rain have come to stay and we even had a dusting of snow that ultimately melted…all combining into my least favorite weather.

Add to that the sync between my phone and my computer is on the fritz, so I wasn’t expecting to much from this particular Wednesday.

But I am about to prove that what you think you know about a day ain’t necessarily the whole story.

Late today I was on Google and I checked the listings for voice over talent, a primary listing in my field. And I did a double take.

Right there, under the paid ad as the first organic listing was audio’connell Voice Over Talent’s web listing.

Number 1. Click the picture to see the page.

It’s a nice feeling. And I enjoyed it for the moment. Heck, I am enjoying it now. I hope I don’t sound like I’m bragging. I know better.

Search engine listings, even on the mother ship, can be fickle things and positions change constantly. Yet it was nice to see a ray of sunshine on my screen today as the weather turned gray.

Thanks to all of you who visit. Thanks even more so to those of you who visit and hire. Everyone on the site appreciates you attention and your business.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, google, internet, marketing, search engine marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
9 Comments »

What’s the fun of having a blog if you can’t put out a classified ad every now and again.

International Voice Talents, the foreign language division of audio’connell Voice Over Talent, has some new projects simmering that will require some additional voice talents.

We need professional male and female voice talents who speak any of the following languages:

* Chinese (Standard Mandarin)
* Hindi
* Portuguese

If you are an experienced, professional voice talent who also speaks English and one or more of these languages fluently and also has your own professional recording studio, please send me your demo and contact information (in English) to peter at audio’connell dot com.

Please note: these are the only demos we are soliciting for so do not under any circumstances send me a demo for any other reason. I don’t care how good you think you are or if you have some fantasy that we’ll discover your talent in another category if your demo just gets listened to “accidentally”… don’t send anything other than the ones we are requesting, please.

Thanks very much!

Tags: announcers, commentary, international voice talents, voice talent, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on help wanted – new international voice talents needed

BUFFALO, New York, October 20, 2008 – – John Zink Company, a Tulsa, Oklahoma company that specializes in making equipment and systems used to cleanly burn fossil fuels burn and/or reduce end-process contaminants, produced an industrial video presentation on the vision and mission of the company. audio’connell Voice-Over Talent’s Peter K. O’Connell served as narrator for the Zink corporate video featured on the company’s web site and in the company’s offices which also include locations in Luxembourg and Japan.

AUDIO SAMPLE
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/Media_Release_Audio_Samples/080930_audioconnell_Zinksample_copyright2008.mp3]

A professional voice over talent and audio producer for over 25 years, Peter O’Connell is president of audio’connell Voice-Over Talent, a worldwide, English language-based voice talent organization. Mr. O’Connell also operates International Voice Talents, a company featuring professional foreign language male and female voice actors.

Both companies provide voice talent for commercials, animation, corporate narrations, documentaries, broadcast voice imaging, audio books, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH). Industries served by the two companies include advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses around the world.

Mr. O’Connell also owns Voice-Over Workshop, which provides professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.

audio’connell Voice-Over Talent, International Voice Talents and Voice Over Workshop are all a part of O’Connell Companies.
-30-

NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice-Over Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here

Twitter

YouTube

LinkedIn

Google+

Tags: media releases by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

The periodic table of elements is a staple of most high school educated Americans. Likely the rest of the world has learned about the table in kindergarten.

But I have not every seen the table segue into the branding and marketing arenas until now.

Kudos to Kolbrener USA for this very creative and insightful take on their periodic table of marketing and branding.

Scroll around, you may get answers to marketing definitions you were embarrassed to ask about.

Tags: advertising, branding, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on thinking creatively with existing tools