VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Lynne]

I've come across a website development service here in town that sounds pretty interesting. They're running an opening special right now and are waiving their normal development fee. The deal is that they will design and host the website for a monthly fee only, no long-term contracts, etc. When I talked to the guy, he had never done a voiceover website before and I explained that the demos would need to be able to be heard and downloaded. He said that I would have to put links onto my website to go to something like Soundcloud, which is where those accessing the site could hear the demos. He wasn't sure if they could be downloaded from Soundcloud. In other words, the icon for the demo would be there, but it would navigate to Soundcloud, rather than it being hosted by them. Is this simply a hosting issue for space or something?

Their company is called Linku Web Design and their website is www.linkuwebdesign.com

Could those of you in the know about websites comment on this? Are demos on websites usually linked to a secondary site? Can demos on Soundcloud be downloaded? Maybe if I could give this guy some guidance using some web-speak (so to speak), I could get the website I need for VO.

Admittedly, I'm trying to save some money here, but I don't want to get something that won't work for me just for the sake of saving money. The continual dilemma, no?

Thanks for any info you can provide!
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"Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time." Joseph Campbell

[Scott Pollak]

Lynne, I'm a former web designer, along with my wife, and here's my .02 worth:

- No, you DO NOT have to link to an outside source like soundcloud to host or download your demos. That's ridiculous and if a designer told me that I'd run as fast and far away from them as possible. That's absurd and I simply can't believe the guy doesn't know any better.
- That being said, I did a very quick browse of their portfolio and their stuff looks good. But it's all pretty corporate looking. Can they create an artistic site that represents YOU?
- As an aside, why is it necessary for a client to be able to download your on-site demos? I doubt anyone has EVER downloaded mine. I would place that on my list of priorities at about 27,346. It's a non-issue.
- And as a FINAL aside, what would the monthly hosting fee be? Anything more than about $12/month is too much. Check out places like wix.com and others where anyone - yes, even you - can create a nice custom site. Or better yet, contact THIS site's owner, Deirdre, who, I understand, is overflowing with web design expertise.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Lynne]

Thanks, Scott. I knew you had this background and I appreciate your expertise. The monthly fee they are charging is twenty bucks a month. I absolutely agree with you that his approach to getting my demos heard gives me pause. As far as downloading, I've heard both schools of thought. Some producers/casting directors I've spoken to, insist on that ability. I think they download it on to their iPhones or something, not sure. But one told me he gets very frustrated with sites that don't have that ability. Others I've spoken to really don't care and don't download. I guess if it's possible to have that done and it satisfies half of those who are hiring, it's worth doing.

Yes, I know about DB's web expertise. We have talked, but it was a while ago. She is still at the top of my 'go to' list. My current site is on Wix...you've actually seen it. Just looking for something a little more polished and professional.

Anyway, thanks for your $.02.....it's worth a helluva lot more than that!
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"Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time." Joseph Campbell

[Deirdre]

Monthly fees for website maintenance are outrageous unless you're using tons of bandwidth or need constant service. VO folks need a solid portal for the purveyance of demos and contact info, the rest is fluff.

FWIW,
People download my demos all the danged time for reasons known only to them I know this because I've got file-tracking code all over the place.
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DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[kgenus]

Your typical ISP charges roughly $5/month. (i.e. http://www.bluehost.com)

In the time you will waste working with them, you could learn HTML using text based online resources (which are everywhere) or you could go to Lynda.com and learn everything.

If you do not want to learn html, then you can easily use WordPress, available with almost every ISP, with a template of your liking. Updates are even easier and can be done by anyone with a small list of directions.

Your design may not be grand, but it gets the job done. If you really want to get more out of your site, get an account with an online service that tracks your site's usage along with the mouse movements. It will tell you where people's eyes are headed so you can begin tweaking for efficiency.

My advice, WordPress.
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Genus

[Bish]

$8 per month (on an annual plan) including domain registration, great templates, full stats, and more than enough space and bandwidth. You don't need to learn HTML or CSS if you don't want to as the whole thing can be done with a wysiwyg editor.

Try Squarespace... it's free for a couple of weeks so you can try it out and it's soooo much easier than Wordpress or stuff like that.

Sorry Kevin, but personally, I think that Wordpress is becoming a bloated, ill-maintained dinosaur. If you've got the established skill-set, it's great, but (in my opinion) it's like telling someone to buy a Blackberry
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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.

[Lynne]

So, Bish, the eight bucks a month is for squarespace? And that includes hosting? I know lots of folks who have used Word Press and I appreciate the suggestion, Kevin. I'm not a total dunce when it comes to technology and learn pretty quickly. But, I spent some time on Word Press, trying to figure out where to start and finally gave up. I think it works for some, but it wasn't for me. I ended up going to Wix and did my own website, which is the one I have now. But, it's got the Wix logo plastered all over it, it loads slow, and there's no capability for flash. Plus, it just looks homemade. So, that's why I'm shopping around.

Thanks for the info....more to explore!
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"Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time." Joseph Campbell

[Bish]

Just to clarify... the $8 per month rate and the free domain registration are part of the annual deal... so it's $96 up front for the year for the registration (or transfer of your existing one I think) hosting, front end and content management system... one-stop shopping. They support a lot of podcasting with their adverts, so there are a lot of 10% off coupons out there (try TWIT8) and it's down to around $86 ... I think that's a really good deal as it includes domain registration. I'm on a monthly plan at the moment, and I'm converting to an annual just so I get a native domain name from them! (and the new features of the latest version)

I sound like a shill... but it's really easy. Go to the Squarespace site, make up a site name and play for a couple of weeks. One of the new features is dynamic re-sizing, so your site will detect phones or tablets and re-size the graphics and layout automatically.

One of the other great things is that a lot of developers and designers are getting on board with the Squarespace model and are getting pretty good with the custom tools. So, if you want to pay someone to design a Squarespace site (rather than do it yourself with their templates or your own code) it's easy.
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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.

[Monk]

I work with a local provider, bcn.net, (Berkshire County Network) and have at least 12 domains for various clients and it only costs me 30 per quarter for the server space.

And what's better, when I have an issue, I call Wally, their tech guy. Billing goes through Fred.

The other annual fee is for the domain name through networkSolutions.

I do my own design, and managing.
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Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com

[agettig]

I've been pretty happy with weebly.com for my VO and related sites. It's very easy to maintain and you can delegate site creation to your designer, if you are using one, so they can put it together for you. Maintenance thereafter is cake.

I do my domain registration and other hosting/heavy lifting through Dreamhost.

Demos available for download is a very good thing. I recently had to use Audiohijack to get someone's demo from their site for a client to listen to because they were not available for download and I didn't have time to wait for them to send me the mp3's. (He booked the gig, btw.) But had they been available as a download, it would have saved precious time. And time is $$$.

[Mike Harrison]

If you want your site to be indexed by Google and the other search engines, don't have a landing/home page made with Flash. Search engines cannot read anything contained in Flash documents.
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Mike
Male Voice Over Talent
I have taken leave of my sensors.