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VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!
Established November 10, 2004
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains
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 Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 10:20 am Post subject: |
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It IS odd that folks would google for local voice talent, but it happens. Why, I don't know. I have an e-learning company here in Atlanta that was googling for local voice talents, they found me, and have been using me for years.
And this is all well and good, as is social media, and the online sites, but it hit me yet again today that possibly one of the best resources that YOU can easily control is personal contact. Example:
Today my phone rang:
"Hey, Scott, it's Andrew -------, with ----------- law firm, how ya doin'?"
- "Hey Andrew, good to hear from you my friend! What's up?"
"I've got another couple of audiobooks here the firm would like you to narrate. Can you take a look at them and give me a price range?"
And so I did, and thus began working on two more audiobooks.
Andrew used to be one of my personal bankers at Wells Fargo. Like just about everyone else I know, Andrew knew what I do for a living because I made sure to tell him. Andrew left the bank and went to work for a law firm. A few years later he began calling me. First to do the firm's voicemail messages. Then the audiobooks. And so on.
Like many of you, so much of my business has come from PEOPLE I KNOW. Some of it from other professional voice talents, but SO much from just acquaintances who heard what I did, got my card, and then - at some point down the road - called me.
I'm going on year 7 of being the voice of NPR Atlanta. Got it that same way.
Google's great. Good relationships are the best. And as I said above: YOU are in complete control of those!
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.
www.voicebyscott.com |
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Mike Harrison
M&M
Joined: 03 Nov 2007
Posts: 2029
Location: Equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia, along the NJ Shore
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| Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the kind words, folks.
| Bish wrote: | | I Google "SEO companies"... I have always been able to say "If you're so good at this stuff, why aren't you on the front page?" |
Exactly. They're doing what so many self-proclaimed VO 'coaches' are doing: telling us what we want to hear when they have little or no experience to back up their claims. Feh.
Perhaps part of the reason my site ranks well is, as Scott said early on, I have had an online presence for over a decade now. I put my first site online in 1999, and it was more of a novelty then; it was before I was laid off from my last full-time job. When the layoff came in late 2004, I was lucky to have bought all my gear, and I had many years of experience, but I lacked business and marketing know-how.
So I put all my efforts into morphing the website into one that focuses on VO. And I learned as much as I could about SEO from Google Webmaster Tools. A programmer or code writer I am not, so I did what I could.
But the most important thing I learned was that it really didn't accomplish much to promote my name; what I needed to promote was the services I offer. In other words, only people who already know me would use my name in an online seaarch. But, as they already know me, the search is silly. I want to be found by those who don't know me for the services I provide.
So I began thinking like a person who wants to hire voice talent: what words would I type into a search engine in order to find, say, a male narrator with ISDN? Or, if I were a European or Asian producer, an American male narrator?
I even considered that a person who has never before hired voice talent would probably use different words than an experienced (ugh; I hate the term) 'voice-seeker.' So I thought about everything I'm capable of providing and thought about every possible way of describing those services... and in all possible combinations (non-English-speaking folks will phrase things differently than we do) to come up with my keywords/phrases.
One thing the Googlebot is wary of is 'loaded' page text; copy that's not much more than a means of getting all of one's keywords onto the page. One of the manuevers gamers use. Google instead likes copy written for humans to read. Unfortunately, that means we wind up with perhaps more text on a page than we know people will want to read. But nobody is forced to read anything. As long as a web page makes it easy for visitors to find what they're looking for, the amount of text doesn't really matter. Still, though, we don't want to go overboard.
So, while there's tons about SEO I don't know, I can say that what I have learned has served me pretty well. I earlier pointed out my lack of marketing prowess, but I can say this with all honesty: easily 95% of my clients found me through my website. I hate making cold calls and I'm not exactly a social butterfly.
_________________
Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.
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BobbyH
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by BobbyH on Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lee Gordon
A Zillion
Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6866
Location: West Hartford, CT
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| Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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Most of the people who "find me" on the internet are newbies who contact me to ask for advice on how to break in to the business.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains
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| Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Well, again, I guess I'm just lucky in that I'm one of those where the ones who have contacted me - cold, via Google - have often (not always, of course) turned into paying customers, and to a great extent, repeat customers.
Most of the newbies or aspiring folks who e-mail me do so after seeing me post on forums, although I DO occasionally get the ones who Googled. But honestly, those have been few and far in-between, thank goodness.
BTW, I have also picked up several overseas clients who found me via Google, including a production house in Russia that sends me small things every couple of months.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.
www.voicebyscott.com |
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BobbyH
Guest
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| Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by BobbyH on Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Rognog
Flight Attendant
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Posts: 807
Location: New Jersey
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| Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:11 am Post subject: |
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I'm on page one for "male voiceover" and the first result of page one for "Explainer Video narrator". I rank so high on male voiceover because of many years of blogging. That, in my experience, is one of the best ways to ensure good search results. I show up first on Explainer Video narrator because I was one of the first talents to keyword my site that way.
The lesson: show up early and often so you can show up early and often!
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Tom Dheere - The "H" is Silent, but I'm Not!
www.tomdheere.com |
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Bruce
Boardmeister
Joined: 06 Jun 2005
Posts: 7979
Location: Portland, OR
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| Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:46 am Post subject: |
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All I know for sure is when I was paying for Google ads I came in pretty high in some categories. When I stopped the advertising I plummeted like a rock.
There's your frikkin' Google SEO strategy.  
B
_________________
VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005
I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. . |
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JBarrett
M&M
Joined: 19 Feb 2007
Posts: 2043
Location: Las Vegas, NV
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| Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:52 am Post subject: |
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Fascinating thread! On my end, one of my few regular clients found me via an online search of some kind back in February. He called me to pitch his project and see if I was interested, and has been connecting with me at least monthly to record new material ever since. He pays fairly and promptly, and offers to pay extra for pick-ups when he reworks the script after the fact. Top-notch guy! Seeing that he lives in another part of the DFW metroplex, I hope to connect with him in person one of these days.
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Justin S. Barrett
http://www.justinsbarrett.com/ |
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jsgilbert
Backstage Pass
Joined: 27 Jun 2008
Posts: 468
Location: left coast of u.s.
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| Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 11:30 am Post subject: |
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SEO is a wicked little game. Google recently switched their SEO scheme to something called Penguin and for 4 organic, fairly cool search terms I dropped from 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 5th to "where the heck am I?"
And it's only going to get worse, as Google is deemphasizing keywords and many backlinks and moving towards an "influencer" strategy, in order to try and defeat black o s.
This isn't to say that everybody's going to lose positioning or that keywords and backlinks will be irrelevant, just that new algorithms and strategies will be put into place.
The best advice is to "seek engagement", use site maps, use video, take advantage of Google authorship, Google+, and YouTube and fresh and engaging content - and don't forget that email (when done right) still has the best SEO going.
Everything is moving towards online search. When's the last time you used a phone book or called 411?
_________________
j.s. gilbert
js@jsgilbert.com
www.jsgilbert.com
"today is the first day of the rest of the week" |
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains
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| Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Well, regardless as to whether my stalker thinks some of us may be Googling ourselves, all I can say is more work came in today from yet another (overseas) client who found me via Google.
YMMV, but I find I get a new job/client about once every 3 months or so, on average, from someone just random googling.
_________________
Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.
www.voicebyscott.com |
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dbeers
Contributor
Joined: 20 Jun 2013
Posts: 28
Location: Los Angeles
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| Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2013 12:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Scott Pollak wrote: | all I can say is more work came in today from yet another (overseas) client who found me via Google.
YMMV, but I find I get a new job/client about once every 3 months or so, on average, from someone just random googling. |
Which begs the question: Does Scott just have a better website?
If it's not SEO, then it must be something people are seeing or hearing on his site. Maybe it's the intoxication of the drink! |
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Jeffrey Kafer
Assistant Zookeeper
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Location, Location!
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DougVox
The Gates of Troy
Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 1706
Location: Miami
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| Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:48 am Post subject: |
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| jsgilbert wrote: | | SEO is a wicked little game. |
Indeed.
And as if updates to Google's search algorithms and the changing relevance of keywords, backlinks, etc. aren't enough, there's lots more to consider.
Any SEO "expert" who claims that they can get you to #1 in organic (unpaid) search results, or even to the fist page is not to be believed.
I'd even be careful about making claims like "I'm in the top 3" or "I'm on the first page." There's a logical explanation as to why we end up at or near the top of the results when we search for ourselves. (And they're the same reasons why we're less likely to show up at or near the top when someone else searches for us):
Google results are different for everyone. They're based on a ton of factors.
Location. Using your IP address and other factors, Google tries to detect your location and gives you personalized results based on that location.
History. Your Google search results are based on your previous searches. In fact, if you're signed in to any Google service, your results are also personalized based on your web history.
Google+ Plus, if you're signed in to your Google+ account, your search results now include "Personal Results." So if a friend has +1'd your voiceover site, then your page is likely to come up higher in your search results. (Even if you're not signed in, Google's search results are still personalized based on your web browser's cookies.)
Algorithm tests. It's said that up to 40% of all Google searches are part of Google's algorithm variation testing. So if you and a friend are in the same room, both signed out of Google, and both using the same IP address, you're still likely to see different results.
Yes you can turn off of search history personalization, but since most people don't, there's still no way to know (and only somewhat effective ways to influence) what someone else's search results might look like.
That's not to say that good, grassroots SEO, not to mention consistent, quality blogging, aren't worth the time. They are. But there's no way to game – or even predict – the system. Google's way too smart for that.
_________________
Doug Turkel (tur-KELL)
Voiceover UNnouncer®
UNnouncer.com |
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Lee Gordon
A Zillion
Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6866
Location: West Hartford, CT
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| Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:02 am Post subject: |
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| DougVox wrote: |
Google+ Plus, if you're signed in to your Google+ account, your search results now include "Personal Results." So if a friend has +1'd your voiceover site, then your page is likely to come up higher in your search results.
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Perhaps we should have a "Plussing" party, and all go around +1-ing each other's websites.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice
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