VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Jason Huggins]

OK! I got an answer. I went right to Bob and asked if his guys could just code that, and he let me know that it has been implemented. You do, however, have to use their popup player code to make it work (or tweak it to make it work with the way you want to implement it).

Bob updated the code on their example, and he is going to be putting a video together about how to do the autopopup player integrated with the zamlink from an email signature! Keep an eye out for the new tut on his website.

For now, if you are interested in implementing it, shoot me an email and I will forward you our email string with the info. It's probably not exactly appropriate to start putting a bunch of code in a VO thread

[ChrisMezzolesta]

This speaks to Bob's willingness to work with talent & not just shove an idea down our throats...he has tweaked VZ considerably, for the better, even since I started using it in February. I think that in listening to our needs & adapting to those needs, VZ will (or at least OUGHT to) become a viable player, if not a leader.
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

[melissa eX]

Bob is extremely responsive to talent suggestions. He's implemented a couple of mine and is always willing to figure out a way to help you do what you'd like to do with the player.

[Adam Verner]

Nice! Jason - go ahead and email me the details, or code or whatnot.

I'm not sure if his solution would work on my site, as the built-in Zamplayer pop up function does not work, I'll have to see.
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Adam
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adamverner.com
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twitter.com/adam_verner
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[Bish]

I've just implemented the VoiceZam player on my site and have become a convert to the principle. I know enough about coding to be dangerous, so I thought I'd have a go at the pop-out window (as I'm using Squarespace). I think it's quite an elegant solution, but managed to get a little confused with my coding... so I tried it straight to see what the problem was. It seems to be working fine with the regular code, and the window pops-out nicely (apart from one small issue with the location of the "X" closing icon... which was easily solved).

Adam, are you using Squarespace 5 or 6? I'm on 5, and I was wondering if it's a particular problem with 6 ... I'm going to give the alternate pop-out method another go when I'm in a coding mood (as it's a more elegant solution)... but what was the original problem?
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[ChrisMezzolesta]

This thread is getting even more interesting than it already was! I am a non-coder but very pro-Zam, so this, um, Synergy (ducks) is cool to see! Vive le Zam. Gotta get some more links out there but yeah it's a direct line to the good stuff.
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

[Adam Verner]

Bish - I'm on Squarespace 5. The original problem: for some reason, the built-in pop code wouldn't work (although perhaps I was doing it wrong). The player would appear, but in-line with the content, and the "x" button would be hovering far away out of sight at the top of the page.

So I implemented the Fancybox.net code, which I actually like better, it has more options and whistles. I also use it to pop out vimeo videos for my video demos (like the explainer video demo).
So like Jason I would love a Zamlink from an email or whatnot could bring the visitor to my site and trigger the popup - remains to be seen if I can do that.

I'm actually not sold on the statistics being that valuable yet - though it's still early. I wonder how many site visitors you'd have to have to make a good judgement call. I'm thinking of trying to come up with a spreadsheet and formula set to analyze the statistics to give you more objective numbers. Stay tuned!
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Adam
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Natural Voice
adamverner.com
adamverner.com/blog
twitter.com/adam_verner
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[Jason Huggins]

The original pop out code works fine, it just doesn't have the animation and the overlay to fade the background. I have the zamlink autoplay working with the original code (plus the extra stuff Bob helped me with) I just have to figure out how to get it to play nice with the fancy box iframe stuff.

It is basically just a script that adds the m (category) and p (portalName) variables to a "get if" kinda way. It ends up being http://therealcoolguy.com/index.html?m=2&p=zamlinkportalname

If m is present, launch player with m= value. If p is present use it as the portalName.

Using fancybox, it plays the demos, but doesn't display the player right...not just yet

[Jason Huggins]

Here is a link to a doc with the necessary code changes:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zzpbdyimk1h0z0/voicezamcode.docx

Basically, it just adds the functionality to the original popout code. It does NOT work with fancybox...but I'm working on that one. It will however (if you already have the popout player in place) give you the ability to have a ZamLink that autoplays from your website rather than having the ZamLink go directly to the VZ page. One less step for the listener to get to your contact info

Also, the Zamlink will not be the zamlink address that you create in the VZ dashboard. All you have to do to create a zamlink is add a name of some sort after the p= portion of the address (for those who didn't already know that), and it automatically captures that name in your stats....just to be clear

The trigger is in my previous post. I may actually ditch the fancybox player, because even though it looks a bit nicer, it will require some scripting that I'm not really good at.

Shout out to Bob for putting this idea into code...I couldn't have done it alone.

[ChrisMezzolesta]

The statistics is the other major selling point! Even if someone does visit your website and listen, how do you know they did unless they contact you? At least if I see that a targeted link was clicked, I can sorta do a followup tickle sort of email, not necessarily mentioning the click, but keeps it closer to the event and maybe more top of mind...Otherwise, as groovy as the main meat of the player is, it is still a player, but add that great functionality to the statistics, and whoa! I have just landed a new eLearning client thanks to using the Zamlink and following discussions on Twitter. I could see when my links were clicked, what was listened to etc...so even if it's not your primary reason for using VZ, it is most definitely a value added element! Plus it's quite an elegant player solution IMO. Good stuff.
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com

[Jason Huggins]

Totally agreed! I look forward to really effectively using the stats for marketing. The whole reason to make the player do the autoplay thing is to be able to track email links that send someone to your page instead of to the VZ site. The fancybox part is just a final aesthetic touch...but for some reason the hardest to work out

[Bish]

Continuing with the ever-so-slight thread-jack...

Adam, I found the same problem with the in-line issue, and the separation of player and the closing "X". What I found was that the placement of the voiceDemo division in the html was critical. My order is: player init - a little bit of css style to put it left 15% - and then the div marker. Only after all that am I doing the selection with onclick.

If you're interested, look at my home-page code (after all the Squarespace crap, at around line 480), you'll see the order. It's still a work-in-progress after I decided to use VoiceZam... and I may still try the fancybox pop-out method as it seems a more universal approach for my videos as well.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Adam Verner]

Have more time to work on this now...

Jason, thanks for posting that code - unfortunately it won't work with SquareSpace for some reason. I get an error when I try to inject that code into my <head> tag. Is it working for you?

On another subject, I've had a month or two now to scan the statistics, and I'm not convinced of their usefulness. It's interesting to see users listening to various reads on various demos - but none of their behavior has caused me to change the order or replace anything - yet.
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Adam
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Natural Voice
adamverner.com
adamverner.com/blog
twitter.com/adam_verner
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[Jason Huggins]

Ya know, honestly, I was thinking a similar thing. The info is great! Don't get me wrong, but I've noticed a trend in what people listen to, and I don't need to change much.

[Jeffrey Kafer]

Data may be interesting, but unless it's actionable, it's not very useful. What is the actionable results of the data that voicezam provides?
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Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com