VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

nick · Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2017 10:43 pm Post subject: My first website and demo.

Well, I got my very first website and demo up online.

www.nickwinzenried.com

Comments welcome!

Bruce, if you listen closely, you will hear... "Visa, it's everywhere you wanna be." Smile

Tim Jackson · Joined: 21 Nov 2017 Posts: 23 Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Nick,

Your voice is very smooth, believable & listenable. I like it a lot. Your spots have subtle differences that show different sides to your voice. One nit - there is no gap/obvious change between 'changs' in the first spot and 'climb' in the second spot. It took me a couple of words to know we were on to the second spot.

I am not so fond of your audio playing automatically on the landing page.

On my machine, at least, there is a bug in your player that will play about .25 s of audio from your page about 4 seconds after I complete playback and move to another tab. I don't remember another page doing that.

There is one and only one way to contact you, and that is using your built-in contact form. It makes me wonder if you really want people to get in touch or not.

I like the simple design of your page and the interesting photos add color and pop.

Tim

nick · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:28 am Post subject:

Tim,

I sure appreciate your comments.

So, you are hearing audio after the auto-play? I will be interested to find out if others get the same result.

Can you clarify what you mean when you say that "it goes to another tab"? Is it going to another page? When I originally built this site, it had five pages but it should show only one now.

I agree about the lack of a gap before the spot that you mentioned. I am trusting the produce's "take" on that but I will consider whether it needs to be changed.

You are right about the contact info. I will change that tomorrow.

Glad you like the pics too! I took those pics of my equipment and added the color effects with a photo editor.

Last, but not least, thanks for your very kind comments on my voice. I am happy that you picked up on the "subtle differences" in the demo.

Thanks Tim!

Nick

FinMac · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 2:45 am Post subject: Like it

Hei Nick,

I like the simple website. It works very well.

Like the demo too. It has good variety and shows what you can do. Nice job!
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todd ellis · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:53 am Post subject:

hi nick - the audio stops after the first auto-play (for me, anyway) - but - and this is jmho - i don't like auto-play at all. your voice is good - the quality is good - but if i want to hear anything - i'll click - again - just my opinion.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

nick · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 10:58 am Post subject:

Scott, thanks for your comments. Much appreciated!

Todd, thanks for letting me know that auto-play works fine on your system. I wonder if it has to do with which browser one is using? I am a little surprised that you do not like auto-play. I thought that everyone would like auto-play. I will be very interested to find out how other people feel about it.

Thanks guys,
Nick

Tim Jackson · Joined: 21 Nov 2017 Posts: 23 Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Nick,

The short answer... forget about the bug. I couldn't reproduce it today.

---

Sorry I was unclear in my original post. Here is how I got the little audio chirp:

1) I open a new tab to your site. Audio plays and I listen all the way through. I scroll down to look at the rest of the site
2) I go back to the tab that has VO-BB in it and start writing. About 3 or 4 seconds later I get a chirp of audio (about a quarter second) in my headphones.
3) I go to the tab with your site, replay the audio all the way through.
4) I go back on the tab with VO-BB I get another chirp like the last one.

Bish · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:25 am Post subject:

List me with those that cannot abide autoplay!
Incidentally... it does not actually autoplay on my system (Mac, Safari)... but it looks like it wants to be as the player shows the "pause" instead of the "play" icon (as if it's in play mode). I have to stop and start it again to actually hear anything.

I like the site... it's simple, and I like the movement in the top graphic on scrolling (but that's me... I like things like that). I actually like the equipment pics as well... and thank you for not using a Shure SM55 Smile

I'm not a great liker of contact forms with no alternative direct email address. The practical reason (for me) is that a contact form does not give me the option of keeping and filing my own email request. A form is OK for some... but having a direct email hyperlink where a click brings it into in my own email system (mailto:) is preferable. And you need a phone number. If you don't want to put your general number out there, grab a Google voice number and forward it to your mobile or whatever.

Oh... and I liked your demo Smile

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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.

Bruce · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:04 pm Post subject:

Sorry to say Nick, in my 13 years here at the VO-BB autoplay is massively reviled among our members, several of whom are hiring producers as well as voice talent.

Make it easy (and our choice) to hear you and to contact you by phone and email as soon as we arrive at your site, and that will make it easier to make the decision to possibly hire you. Even bakeries don't shove a cookie in your mouth the second you walk in the door. They let you assess the location first.

Minor, minor thing: when you can afford to do so pay Wix for your site so you don't have to display their link, or take it somewhere else where the site is all yours. Nothing says newbie beginner like little ads for Wix. We don't lie about our experience in this business but we don't broadcast how new we are either if we can help it.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

Kristin Lennox · Flight Attendant Joined: 30 Apr 2011 Posts: 858

todd ellis · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 12:38 pm Post subject:

i DO like cookies - but i'm with peter re: contact forms. the forms are fine - but i like a direct email as well. phone number - even better.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
who's/on/1st?

nick · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 3:24 pm Post subject:

Okay... so I made most of the suggested changes.

1. Turned off the auto-play
2. Took off the Wix link
3. Added my email address

I will have to think about how I want to handle the phone number...

Thanks everyone!

Nick

Bruce · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:53 pm Post subject:

Your experience may be different but I’ve had my phone number on my website for over 15 years now and never had a problem with prank calls or business calls at odd hours.

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

nick · Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:43 pm Post subject:

Art · Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2017 1:23 pm Post subject:

The demo sounds fantastic.

I might go with a simplified domain name like "NickWinz.com" (it's available!), "NicksVO.com" (also available!). I'm predicting some people having trouble with the spelling of your last name.

My e-mail address is on my site as art (at) arthoward.com and I hope people will know to type it into their e-mail client in proper format. I used the "mailto:" HTML tag long ago and got lots of spam, plus "undeliverable" bounce backs where a spammer had spoofed my address while spamming corporate e-mail accounts. They use bots that crawl for anything in name@email.com format in the code of your site and harvest your address, even if it's hidden within e-mail form code.

In summary, the only thing I'd consider changing is a simplified URL.
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Art Howard.com