When surfing the web, I still find it interesting how a search to one site or blog begets another and then another. Then, as in this forthcoming example, when you find something interesting and you want to credit them…you have to do some hard and fast remembering.

So here goes, real quick. I’m reading Chris Brogan’s blog the other day and he profiles a friend of his from the web, Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibrary TV. On Gary’s site, like on this newly revamped site, Gary features his social network links so that if you’re on the network as well, you can link up.

Or as he titled it, “friend me up”.

That darn phrase has stuck in my head for more that 24 hours (that’s part of my “stickiness” test). I don’t know if Gary created it or stole but now I’m claiming it as part of the title of my social network section to the right of this post. –>

If you’re on any or all of these networks, click on, sign in and “friend me up.” Thanks.

Tags: blogs, commentary, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I simply have no idea how the woman does it but Stephanie Ciccarelli at Voices.com has come up with another very niche and cool blog post featuring an interview with professional golf voice over talent David Cook (well I suppose the fact he’s a Voices.com member might have something to do with it).

Yes, I said professional golf voice over talent.

“What the…?”

Just read it, it’s a very nice short story.

Tags: blogs, commentary, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Well, it’s a blog and a podcast so you can’t really taste it but to say “see the difference” seem so ordinary and that’s nothing like what I want this blog and podcast to be about.

So, we look different.

The reasons for the design change were many:
• Finally inaugurating a podcast, I thought such a big shift in communication deserved a new look. Hey if CBS did it for Katie Couric and NBC did it for Meredith Viera, well I certainly play in those leagues! 😉

• The other look began to strike me as a bit cluttered and that was certainly my fault. I was adding widgets and elements that individually looked attractive, but when I stepped back seemed visually confusing

• Some of the newer blog templates had features the old one didn’t

So what should you notice about the changes here?
• A big change is the name. What was once called voiceover blog on! is now called voxmarketising. That name was conceived for the podcast because congeals my favorite subjects: voice over, marketing and advertising. Then I quickly realized:

a. Those are the same things I blog about
b. Why confuse readers and listeners with two different brands and if you add the audio’connell Voice Over Talent web site, three brands.

So it seemed to me branding them voxmarketising – the audio’connell blog and voxmarketising – the audio’connell podcast will be easier. Plus people will just call it voxmarketising after a while and know it’s a blog and a podcast. Aren’t you sorry you asked?

• Less graphic stuff but easier navigation (and more to come). This stuff is still being worked on but you’ll notice for example you can connect to me easier on all my social networks under the heading “social networks and links”. So if you haven’t connected with me, please do. Recent posts can viewed more quickly

• Better marketing for the podcast. By clicking on the ever present album art, people can immediately go to the voxmarketising podcast page

• Easier to subscribe. This is oh so important, especially as I build the podcast, and it will continue to get better, but be on the lookout for improved subscription tools

• Updated blog links. Boy had I fallen behind on this. Some links were old or dead (people just stopped writing for like six months so I dropped their blogs) and some new bloggers hadn’t been added. If you’re one of the new ones, return the love

So, it’s a fresh face with some new tools and some old favorites (me, I hope) still around. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Tags: blogs, podcast, podcasting, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

The question has been buzzing around my brain because I wonder if I am writing too many words? Should I edit my posts more for length? These folks say maybe.

Editing is not a bad thing.

Are readers put off by long posts? Is just the shape and the length of the post enough to make somebody want to click off (and is “click off” a new kind of social media vulgarity that I just ignorantly/innocently spewed forth? Hope not, if yes, sorry.)

I have a short attention span sometimes, so does that mean that all content has to be boiled down to 10-20 words to be read, let alone understood by most readers?

Is there too much rambling in my posts? Am I writing with the voice inside my head, a voice which many readers (regardless of my demos) have never heard when maybe I should be writing with a more informational style, like a journalist?

Blogs serve a myriad of purposes: creative and emotional outlet, search engine optimization tool, community builder, credibility enhancer and on and on.

I want to build the on-line presence for audio’connell Voice Over Talent and SEO-wise, this blog is one tool that helps that happen. It’s also good that I have a great deal of experience and a great many contacts in the fields of voiceover, marketing and advertising so that I have many resources and topics about which I can write and podcast about.

And I think the posts are interesting (including the posts that have nothing to do with the above).

So while I write about topics that I think will be of interest to my friends (known and unknown) in those industries, I guess if I am honest, I am writing for me.

Well, and you, because you and I are really the only two people who read this stuff. And thanks for that 🙂

Let me know what you think (and I am not fishing for compliments either, just taking the reader’s “pulse”, if you will).

Tags: advertising, blogs, commentary, internet, marketing, podcast, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
11 Comments »

Two radio stations who were a part of my radio life both made news last week and since I read it in the same file on All Access, I thought I’d mention it here.

In Dayton, Ohio WGTZ-FM the now formerly Z-93 has changed its format from heritage Top 40/Mainstream to it’s a Jack-ish Adult Hits format. Now calling itself “FLY 92.9”.

I worked for four years in the Dayton radio market. WVUD (now WLQT) was an adult hits station when I worked there (it had been AOR for a time before that) known as “Hitradio 100” and later as “Today’s Music, 99.9 FM”. What made WVUD interesting was it was a 50,000 watt station owned at the time (no longer) by the University of Dayton. It was NOT a college station however. The management including the GM, Program Director and sales staff were all long time radio pros. But the on-air staff was students and that’s what sold me on the school. I was on the air there within my freshman year and never looked back.

At the height of our ratings success, a station that had been known as WING-FM (and the calls were really the most memorable thing about the station at that time) turned the wheel and came gunning right for us. Z-93 was balls to the wall top 40 and commercial free for 30 days, knocking WVUD and Hitradio down a notch or two. Licensed to the town of Eaton, Ohio someone came up with a tremendous script for their top of the hour ID: “Z-93, WGTZ-FM. Eaton, Dayton and Springfield…Alive!” Say it out loud with the right inflection and you’ll catch its brilliance. But now after more than 20 years, change has come and Z-93 is no more. Oh and they fired the entire air staff (crappy SOP). It’s not so much about mourning for me now but rather, the memories.

And to prove how much I am outta touch with the local radio market here, WECK-AM was sold by Regent Broadcasting (which bought WECK and a cluster of other station stations previous owned by CBS Radio) to Culver Communications. Culver Communications owns WLVL-AM in Lockport, New York and it’s the only local radio station I ever worked at — for one week.

Yes you read that correctly. I worked there for one week where I summarily quit and was fired at the same time. Why I’d be glad to tell you the story. I got the job to handle the afternoon drive show (which was quite an honor in what was primarily a one stop light town – kidding) and had been training there all week. The pay might have been a bit above minimum wage but I was fresh outta college and oh well.

But at the end of the week, my dear aunt who had been sick died AND my Mother broke her arm – like, within 24 hours. This was going to be a testy week, schedule-wise and I called my program director to explain and ask for some time off. He said no and that I was unprofessional and if I needed time off I didn’t need to show up for work and I advised him that the station’s transmitter might fit slightly snugly up his posterior cavity (or maybe I was nicer but its what I shoulda said and isn’t that one of the nice parts of blogging, to rewrite your history as you so choose?)

But in all sincerity I hold no malice towards the station because life unfolded and I did pretty well for myself and my family. I think it’s terrific that local ownership (a rarity these days) now runs two stations and I am oh so hopeful that Dick Greene (who owned the station when I was there but I never got to meet – I guess he waits until the second week to greet the new folks – good plan) really makes a go of them. WLVL has been doing OK for years – more power to him.

Tags: blogs, commentary, radio, university of dayton, WVUD by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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While I was in Boston the wiki mail came down from Jay Moonah that registration is now open for Podcamp Toronto 2008.

The date for Podcamp Toronto is February 23-24, 2008 which may not work for me as that’s the week that O’Connell Part Deux is deux, uh, I mean due. We’ll see.

But at any rate, if you are nearby, you should attend Podcamp Toronto and I hope you will.

Tags: blogs, commentary, podcamptoronto, podcast, podcasting by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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