If you’ve ever had to travel on biz and you didn’t have a wireless card in your laptop, you’ve no doubt been in search of free wi-fi (like my friend Bob Souer was on his recent trip to Vegas but his was more like an expedition than a search).

While there’s money that can be made on almost anything internet, smart restaurateurs and cafe owners hooked up free wi-fi in their establishments and promoted it. It’s not always easy to find either because smaller establishments don’t always think to find free wi-fi directories and submit their information.

Chains like Panera Bread let people come on in (assuming they’ll spend some money while they are there, as wi-fi patrons should). I was talking with the manager of my breakfast place, Bagel Jay’s, and they’re planning on adding wi-fi for customers as well (a little late to the party maybe, but welcome on in!) And unless your some totally ignorant student (and granted, there are a few of them around) you’re unlikely to loiter their all day. 

So I’m in Charlotte last week and I need to get connected and I must have had a brain fart of something because I thought ‘oh I’ll go to Starbucks, they have free wi-fi’. Uh – no they don’t. They also consistently make fairly poor hot chocolate (which is a critical point of difference if you’re not a coffee guy). So since it was lunch time, I left Starbucks and looked around this very nice mall-like set of stores in Sycamore Commons in Matthews, NC and saw a sign that said “deli”. Well when I got closer, I saw it said McAlister’s Deli. I’d not come across this name (turns out it’s a chain, nothing wrong with that) but it looked like a fair amount of people were eating there so I walked only to see a sign on the door that said “free wi-fi”.

Well the food was great, prices were fair, the service was outstanding, I made a couple of business contacts with a few patrons (who also had laptops, I might add), the wi-fi was strong and free and you won’t see me in Starbucks anytime soon.

Tags: commentary, internet, marketing, technology // 2 Comments »

(Read the FULL PRESS RELEASE here)

Oh, I know it’s the 21^st century but my blogging knowledge has really always been more about the “words” and less about the technology. But I came to understand that blogging without technology is like painting a white canvas with white paint…what’s the point? So I decided to finally embrace blogging technology a bit more.

The target date for all this was November 1, 2006 when I unveiled the redesigned the audio’connell Voice Over Talent. My web hosting company was led to believe by their software provider that the blog module the software company provided would offer me everything I needed to be a technically proficient blogger. Everything else the software provider had “provided” in the past had worked smashingly, so I hade no reason for concern…I thought.

There was very little “technology” in the blogging software I had until this weekend and this new blog version. Aside from looking nice, not much else of that old software resembled a blog. It was a web page with text and headlines. Crap.

The software provider, who evidently didn’t get much call for blogging from previous customers, wouldn’t be able to “upgrade” the blogging software until sometime this summer…maybe. Double crap!

The only sure solution, I determined, would be to use a 3^rd party provider and try and develop a style sheet that had the look of the web site with usable blogging technology. That would be a lot of work, triple crap!

Well, much like an all night birth, the morning finally came and all that pushing (by me…I can be sorta pushy) has given birth (through the efforts of Rare Earth Interactive Design…many thanks) to a bouncing baby blog that, while it will constantly evolve and develop, really meets all my needs.

I hope you enjoy the words and the technology.

Tags: commentary, internet, marketing, media, technology // 2 Comments »

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

Here’s the thing, I do voices for television commercials and narrations for TV documentaries but the truth is I really don’t watch much TV. There are no shows that really grab my attention. It’s a personal preference I guess.

Tonight though, with some in-laws in town, I fired up the laptop and wireless and watched (sort of) TV. Tonight’s choice was a bunch of CSI’s on Spike TV (I like some of these shows…they’re well written, especially later episodes where they don’t seem as blatant in their exposition of the “what & why” of a forensic tool they’re using).

But the epiphany wasn’t so much in watching CSI as it was in the promos and ads on Spike between Acts. Violent, bloody horror films, TV shows and CSI: NY promos (Spike prompting that show as the “ballsier and bloodies CSI) were on for at least two minutes of every break. Movie titles like Black Christmas, Vacancy, Disturbia, and Shooter (uh, sorry, no links to this crap, folks). Or the heartwarming TV story of Ultimate Fighter 3 -5. What crap!

Next time you come across a guy or teenage boy (Spike’s target demo) who has “issues” or seems a bit screwed up, ask them what TV shows and movies they watch (let alone what video games they play). The answers wouldn’t surprise me, I don’t think.

Oh, and lets not blame the networks or studios (entirely, anyway)….if they thought they could make money broadcasting 24 hour crocheting, they’d show it. But somebody is buying and watching all this violent crap. Some parents aren’t monitoring what their sons are watching, when they should be turning off the television and introducing their kids to a book.

So turn off the violence, look at something more peaceful. http://www.technorati.com/profile/audioconnell

It’s a personal preference I guess.

Tags: commentary, commercials, media, rants, tv // Comments Off on what else is on TV?

Editor’s Note: In the daily observation of life around him, the author occasionally feels the need to point out ridiculously inane behavior and general thoughtlessness. These are called “Rants” and this is one of those times.

Well, this will likely put me in dutch with some of my broadcast news friends but I can’t sit quietly about this any longer cause it BUGS me…radio news reporters and anchors should NOT be doing commercials…period.

Now before you cry discrimination, the TV news people shouldn’t either but I’ve not seen that happen. I have heard it far too often for my liking on the radio. It’s wrong.

While there was a time in radio and television’s history where news people often read live commercials, that practice dissolved as broadcast outlets’ news divisions evolved and the integrity of the news department became sacrosanct. Today, radio news departments have to scrape and claw for the money they need to do proper field reporting with decent technology while being first and accurate with the story in an amazingly short production window. In such an environment, salaries wane and integrity teeters.

At such a critical time when broadcast corporations often seemingly replace “public trust” with “shareholder’s investment” the news divisions and their leaders should not muddy the waters regarding their market’s perception of their talent by allowing those newscasters to read a murder report one moment only to have that same reporter’s voice heard on a pre-recorded car commercial the next. Not on their station or any other in their market.

What about out of market spots or corporate narrations for videos or even audio books? I have no problem with any of that. But in a local market, if you’re a news voice you cannot be a commercial voice. News integrity means never having to say “24 months interest free financing on approved credit.”

Tags: commentary, commercials, marketing, media, radio, rants, tv // 4 Comments »

Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writer Jeffrey Kelley recently wrote a good synopsis of how some companies in and around Virginia are successfully including podcasts as a part of their marketing mix. 

Kelley noted that companies that use podcasting as a way to inform and entertain their audience, without producing a glorified commercial, have the best chance of engaging the listeners in their target markets.

Here’s a quick excerpt: 

“It’s kind of a marketing thing because we’re showing our perspective on technologies we help clients implement,” said Will Loving, the Henrico County firm’s chief operating officer. “If someone listens to it, they can actually learn something from it and use it in their day-to-day work.”

That’s precisely how podcasts should be done, experts say. If made correctly, a corporate podcast can become a marketing and public-relations tool, but it shouldn’t look or sound that way.

Steven Hearn, a former Richmonder and president of podcastGO.com, said the programs should be considered “infotainment” — in other words, listeners should learn something, yet stay amused.

You can read the entire article from the Richmond Times-Dispatch web site here.

Tags: advertising, internet, marketing, podcasting // Comments Off on corporate podcasts done right

“Paul, if these weren’t actually letters from actual viewers, would I be able to do this (flap, flap, flap)” – D. Letterman

“Peter, I’m a voice talent (and) I’m considering becoming a premium member of voice123 (as I see you already are). But, I’m wondering about recovering the 195.00 fee.

Does voice123 really turn into work? I’m capable of my own production work, and would put the time into doing many auditions per week. But, does it really pay? Do you get often stiffed by clients? Do you end up doing endless auditions with few results, or is it really all they say it is? I appreciate your time in answering.

Thanks in advance
Doug”

Hi Doug:

Voice over job sites are like any investment.

Are you ready to lose $195?

That’s the question you have to ask yourself when you invest in a site like Voices 123 or Voices.com or those like them.

Here’s another question: how much is an hour of your time worth? You’re going to do a lot of custom auditions and hear nothing back. Likely 90% of the time you won’t get the job. When you dollarize your time, that’s a lot of money wasted. Are you ok with that?

Want another question?

Are you ready to bid on often significantly low balled voice projects created by people who often care less about your voice and more about your price?

Are you willing to join a process where an announcer who sounds like crap will get the job because he’ll do a five page narration for $50 and “the experience”?

Whittling it all down to the naked truth as I see it, past the marketing hyperbole, I believe these questions are the questions YOU have to answer for yourself.

The answer for me was ok, I can swim here. If the water’s too cold (a project with a lousy fee, too many bidders, even poorly written) then I don’t swim there on that day.

I’ve made enough money to cover my expenses on these sites and then some. I also have enough other business from other sources (thank you God!) that I don’t have to rely on these sites. And because of that busier schedule, I may look at not joining back up because I don’t have the time to do custom auditions for these voice-over Wal-Marts.

Does that sound a bit jaded? Maybe I’m guilty as charged but everybody who’s ever worked in broadcasting has a dash of that sprinkled on them.

I recently had the good fortune to meet the owners of Voices.com and they are sincere people trying to run a challenging business in an honest manner. So then in fairness I will refer to them as the Target of voice overs (a retailer I visit far too frequently in my accountant’s opinion).

A shorter, even more curt way to answer this might have been “you’ll have to answer that for yourself.” Or as my Mom said on occasion “you won’t know unless you try.”

Good luck.

– Peter

Tags: commentary, technology, voice 123, voiceover advice // Comments Off on from the voice-over mailbag