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If voiceover talents are honest with themselves, we really aren’t as good as we should be about keep our stores clean, fresh and repainted.

As voiceover talents will tell you, our “stores” are our websites, the heart of our voiceover businesses.

What do we miss?

We forget to update information (outside of voiceover demos, which we are “pretty good” about updating), we forget to update SEO information and stories and/or changing out graphics and on and on. We just get lazy.

Then we voiceover business owners get hit with an idea (like a 2′ x 4′ across the back of our heads) about fixing something on the website and we’re off to the races.

And FYI…alot of the stuff we change is stuff many folks would never ever notice or likely even care about…because you’re living your life, not ours.

I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon (first non-football Sunday of the year) but my idea for voiceover website renovation struck me on Friday.

I was talking with my web developer then about an a new idea I had (more on that in weeks to come…tee hee) when I noticed something, when looking at one of my demo pages.

From 2016 to 2022, my logo featured a handwritten font with my tagline “Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent” in a Segoe font.

I created a brain fart of logo in 2023 quickly shifting to my current logo at the start of 2024.

But that Segoe tagline font (2016-2023) was the font I used for my 2020-designed voiceover demo page banners.

So what I noticed Friday was that I had NOT updated my voiceover demo page banners to include the new, correct font from my 2024 logo.

EEEK! ARRRGHH! ZOINKS!! Marketing disaster! (Not really).

And I know you don’t care but this is MY story so just read. It’s a blog for goodness sake. 🙂

So this weekend, I set about redesigning (renovating) all the voiceover demo page logo bars for my website:

I wanted to keep the same general design, fix the “Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent” font and then freshen up the font and color design. You can see ALL of the new voiceover demo banners below.

The last page I fixed was my Political Demo page.

While I was looking at that page, I got to thinking that I probably had not been as clear to the political consultants and political commercial producers who visit my Political Commercial demo page about what spots I will do and will not do.

As I have long stated, while I hold no political party affiliation, I will only voice for candidates or political action committees who support the Pro-Life platform.

In an effort to respect the time of those (from any party) looking for a political voice talent, they need to know that about me right away and adjust their attention as needed.

So I decided I need to create a graphic that highlighted my rule that would sit at the top of the page. That has now been added.

There are a couple of other things I may need to add with the web developer’s help but I feel this was a very productive weekend voiceover project that didn’t require any visits to Lowes or Home Depot.

Well done me. 🙂

THE 2020 vs. 2025 BANNER COMPARISON….                                                     

CHARACTER VOICES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMMERCIALS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-LEARNING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EXPLAINER VIDEOS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LIVE ANNOUNCER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MESSAGE ON-HOLD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NARRATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLITICAL COMMERCIAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RADIO IMAGING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TV PROMO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: blogs, branding, marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Sometimes the random voiceover business thoughts that shoot through my brain are actually pretty good ones.

This week, for example, out of nowhere came the memory that I had seen a few voiceover talents who have actually put their local city time on their websites.

The concept being that voice talents, like me, work with ad agencies, video production and recording studios all around the globe. We need to communicate our time zones with the studios so producers can coordinate recording schedules faster and more efficiently.

So the question was posed (at first in my head) about if and where to publicly share post a voice actor’s local time zone.

I wanted to solicit opinions from my respected voiceover friends (as opposed to my DISrespected voiceover friends – who are often times more fun to hang out with…for that very reason) as to their thoughts on posting one’s local time – if they did it or not and why they did it or not.

Off to the private Friends of FaffCon Facebook page I went. Many voice actors smarter than me reside there.

While many noted they posted it somewhere on their voiceover website (not always on the front page), the idea that had eluded me was to include my local time zone in my email signature. Many folks included that idea in their response to my query and I thought it was wonderfully simple and effective.

I either have very smart voiceover friends or I am just dumber than an ox.

Either way, as you can see from my now revised email signature above, now my clients know what MY time is.

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I really like media and I really like voiceover and I really like audio production and I really like video and film.

But the part I like about all those things the most is the behind the scenes part of it. Most of the time nobody sees you ‘doing the making’.

Hence my on-going love affair with voice acting and deep attraction to radio.

This would also help explain why I have never been a fan of me doing on-camera work. I don’t want to do on-camera acting because I’m not a big fan of me on-camera.

Now I will make silly videos for my YouTube channel (which all the 7 people in remote jungles will ever see) but nothing like proper acting, or spokesperson stuff.

Voice actors should be heard and not seen. And I love that.

Which brings me to social media and these stupid profile pictures we have to post of ourselves. To me, they feel like a lot of work.

In the profile pic I want to look like my normal fun self but also respectable. Nice but not formal. Me but not me.

Relaxed and improvised but completely planned, posed and well lit with 7 filters.

In other words, BS. I’m ridiculous! 🙂

Anyway, the other day a picture got took of me (yes I am aware of the bad grammar, intentional for humor) that I thought looked OK except for the background.

Darn!

Then I found a free background remover. Magic!

Now what? I needed a background for the photo. What to do, what to do??

I decided to plow through the likely hundreds (at this point) of background images I have on this computer and I found some great video color bars.

Oooh fun (I thought), I can use them! It will convey my bright, fun personality (ha!) and subtly reference video and television production (for which I often provide my voiceover services). All that will also be slightly creativity (which, when it comes to me and anything visual, “slightly” is the best I can ever hope for).

Reading that now, I am unsure whether that all shows thoughtful creativity on my part or my narcissistic self-absorption on a level previously not seen.

Am I over thinking my profile pics?

They *do* represent my brand to my business audience…but that brand is basically me, who does NOT want to be in the forefront. Oy!

Back to my photo idea — turns out just slapping color bars behind my head just ended up looking like a vertical rainbow (and not a very impressive one at that).

So I thought, maybe a collage of color bars? Ok, it needs something else

At this point in the creation process, I was starting to take *me* out of the design process and look at this design as sort of 3rd party omniscient. Made me feel less self-conscious.

Ok, (methinks to meself) what about including the word “voiceover” to make it look a little modern, a tad artsy and make it clear to the viewer who this idiot in the Bills cap thinks he is?

Alrighty then, that works.

Thus it was born…a new head shot.

One morning soon, I will wake up and feel this picture is ill-conceived (which was my polite synonym for stupid). Maybe this blog post is too. But I can’t think I’m the only VO who feels this way.

Anyway, for the moment, I don’t hate this new profile pic and it solves the Social Media profile picture issue.

For the moment. 🙂

Tags: commentary, marketing, social media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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You know how we all know stuff that other folks do not seem to know or are at least unaware of at that moment?

And yes…we’ve each been that person that didn’t know or was unaware (I know I have).

So anyway – I‘m just going to throw this out there for small or micro-business owners that might need this reminder – cause we gotta help each other out.

For most print marketing purposes (yes, I know there are exceptions) – print on BOTH sides of a sheet of paper.

What made me post this was (and I think over the decades I’ve posted this message before) AGAIN TODAY got an unsolicited flyer in my mailbox from a window cleaning service (printed on nice paper, attractively typeset, etc.) that was only printed on one side.

I believe that was a wasted marketing and branding opportunity (also I threw the flyer out because this kind of forced, unwelcomed marketing  – jammed in my mailbox – I find annoying as h-e-double hockey sticks).

But now back to the more valuable, overall marketing lesson.

Flyers, business cards, mailer inserts, postcards (that one should be VERY obvious)—point is whatever the printed piece — use the space you are given on the sheet of paper to get your message and branding across to your audience.

This does NOT mean you have to fill the entire document (front and back) with every darn thing. No, no, white space is still your graphic friend.

But you can use both sides judiciously, creatively and memorably to get your brand, message and call to action across to your audience.

If you’re going to shoot your shot…don’t leave any ammo unused.

Hope that helps.

Tags: commentary, marketing, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Voiceover talents are (or should be) always either marketing their services or planning their next marketing effort.

It’s simply part of being a professional voice actor and running a business.

It’s the same for me (or any business really) – trying to come up with inventive and pleasant ways of letting my audience know I’m out here and I am open to work on their voiceover project.

The trick is not to be a pest about it.

My most recent voice marketing project was a textbook case of “marketing as a reminder”.

This is my second year of producing a generic, self designed, free, printed football schedule (8 1/2” x 11”) for my favorite team. I then share it with a targeted portion of my database – who all likely share that fandom with me.

Aside from my logo and contact info – the majority of the calendar is just that — public information about the team schedule that my contacts can save or print out or toss. It’s just what I consider a nice way to say “hi” and promote our beloved team with a tool I’ve seen real estate agents use for years.

I say the following with 100% honesty – I had no expectation that this schedule was anything more than a “friendly wave” to my database.

About a day or two later, I get an email from a long time media buddy who received the schedule, noting that he was working on a project that would need a narrator for and my little schedule reminded him to call me.

He just needed a reminder.

Our reminders don’t have to be fancy or expensive or even a thing – I guess a phone call is a thing but the conversation is not something they can put on their shelf or tack to a bulletin board (but phone calls ARE great, subtle auditions for voice talents).

Maybe the point is to see your marketing efforts – regardless of your budget – as friendly, non-pesky reminders about your voice acting services.

A way to say “hi, when you’re ready, I’m here.”

You may find that they are, indeed, ready.

Hope this helps.

Tags: marketing, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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When you have worked with a vendor in the past who did bad work, but fixed it and tried to make it right, it’s fair that you give them a second chance (especially if you got a free credit on the 2nd job because of the screw ups on the 1st job).

In that second chance, when you speak directly to customer service BEFORE the project begins, tell them about past problems and ask customer service to spot check the project to avoid problem (they say they will) AND YET the vendor screws up the project anyway…because there WAS NO QUALITY CONTROL as promised…that vendor loses credibility as well as the business.

That’s what Moo.com did (erased all credibility with me) on my latest, professionally designed and submitted business card printing job.

Moo was warned about the past printing problems I had with them BEFORE printing started, ignored those detailed yellow flags I gently laid at their feet and went ahead and thoughtlessly botched the 2nd project of 2024 — just like they did the 1st project in 2023.

If you look at the graphic above, the bad business cards on the left side look like the printer jets went in one direction and the card stock in another and card cutter was have none of either.

The cards are the right show the work after the correction (and quality control check….finally) were delivered many days later.

So let this be a warning to ANY small or micro-business owner that Moo.com doesn’t really have a quality control check on small print orders. The embarrassed customer service rep from Moo even said I would likely be better served going to a small local printer on a project like this…except if you look at Moo’s marketing, they think my size business is a good prospect.

In short….

• Moo’s customer service people are great, helpful and attentive
• The actual cards I have had printed (after multiple corrections on both orders) turned out fine
• Moo’s production and quality control team is (in my experience) crap

First I warned Moo to please check my project through to the end.

Now I am warning you of the unnecessary headaches I went through working with Moo on two projects about 1 year apart.

I hope you hear better than Moo.

Tags: marketing, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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