Posted March 7, 2009 by Bob
Valeria Maltoni’s blog Conversation Agent has a valuable post titled Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to Make it Work. If you are now or are thinking about blogging, whether about voiceover or any other subject, there’s much to glean from this post.
And if you do start a voiceover blog, please leave a comment here or email me to let me know because I’d like to add you to my blogroll, which is an intentional effort to list every voiceover blog available.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (1)
Posted February 18, 2009 by Bob
The brilliant folks at Future Now, and in particular co-founder Bryan Eisenberg, have prepared a brilliant blog post with oodles of links, videos and guidance on how to setup and use Google Analytics.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (2)
Posted February 3, 2009 by Bob
Marice Tobas truly is an amazing voiceover coach. You’ll hear something like that from almost everyone who studies with her, which doesn’t make it any less true a statement. You’ll get some wonderful insights into Marice, her approach to coaching and her life through the podcast by Tracy Pattin on the Voice Registry blog.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted January 31, 2009 by Bob
Erik Sheppard and September Day Leach are a couple of very talented voice performers who have started a voiceover podcast that hosted at Erik’s blog. Episode One is now posted and features the lovely and talented Joan Baker.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted January 12, 2009 by Bob
Erik Sheppard is being driven to distraction by a spelling conundrum. To help him out, I’m posting this poll.
I look forward to seeing the final results in two weeks.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (11)
Posted January 11, 2009 by Bob
Doc Philips has been the driving force behing the voiceover blog carnival called Voices That Motivate, which he’s hosted on his blog each time thus far. He’s now open for submissions to the 4th edition.
You can make your submissions here. If you blog about voiceover you almost certainly have at least one post you’d like to highlight.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted January 2, 2009 by Bob
Chris Brogan has written an excellent post called 27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community. I highly recommend you spend the few minutes you need to read his post. My thanks goes to my manager Stacey Stahl for sending this link my way.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted December 20, 2008 by Bob
My dear friend Rowell Gormon and his wife Lisa have come by today to help me celebrate my birthday. Of course, we had to capture the moment digitally.
It’s ever so delightful to spend a day with friends and family.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (2)
Posted November 10, 2008 by Bob
Doc Phillips emails with news that the new, edition number 2 of the Voices That Motivate blog carnival is up and running today, November 10, 2008.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted November 1, 2008 by Bob
I’ve just added a new entry to my blogroll in the first section here to the right, because there’s a new blog that’s just been started as an extension and adjunct to Voiceover Universe. It’s called Meet The Bloggerz and I’ve been invited to be one of the contributing authors, along with my friend Dave Courvoisier. I imagine a few others will join in as time goes along. In any case, I’m thrilled to be included and hope you’ll plan to visit Meet The Bloggerz from time to time.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted October 21, 2008 by Bob
Bryan Eisenberg posts on GrokDotCom the 7 Signs you May be a Social Media Addict. It’s a humorous and interesting look at the Internet world.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted October 10, 2008 by Bob
Today I SumbledUpon an article titled How Often Should You Blog, with the specific focus of answering this question for people who blog for the purpose of promoting their own business rather than to generate income directly from their blog. Excellent information.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted September 22, 2008 by Bob
My friend Dave Courvoisier lives and works in Las Vegas, which is relevant to this post mainly because his location puts him in line to visit lots and lots of conventions and expositions when they come through town. Blog World and New Media Expo has just been there and along with several more topical posts, Dave has also prepared a wonderful post listing loads of resources, even providing a downloadable list of even more.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted September 6, 2008 by Bob
My friend Erik Sheppard emails this morning with news that he’s added a blog to his voiceover site. Erik is a brilliantly talented voice actor, has a good head for business, and is clearly a gifted writer as well, based in his first few posts. I’m looking forward to reading what you have to say, Erik. Thanks for letting me know.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (2)
Posted September 1, 2008 by Bob
Dave DeAndrea, a very talented voice actor, has joined the blogosphere. My very best to you, Dave. I’m sure I’ll enjoy reading what you have to say.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted August 23, 2008 by Bob
Check out this blog post by my friend Doc Phillips. He’d like to know if there is enough interest to get a board going for former radio folk, which sounds like it might be a lot of fun.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted August 19, 2008 by Bob
RadioCreativeLand has a new spot on my blogroll, not least because they were kind enough to say some nice things about me.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted August 9, 2008 by Bob
One of the major highlights of Dan O’Day’s Summit 2008 was the return of Dick Orkin to the event. Dick was co-founder and participant in the Summit for the first several years.
Dick is truly a creative genius of the first rank and it was inspiring to hear a number of examples of radio campaigns the Radio Ranch has created through the years, in the context of the initial challenges set by the clients and how they found solutions to those challenges through the commercials they created. But, before all that got started, Dan had to convince Dick to actually join him on the platform.
Eventually, Dick and Dan did reconcile.
The entire experience revealed a number of valuable nuggets of information. One of my favorites was that when the Radio Ranch is working on an advertising campaign they don’t just come up with one or two ideas, but actually don’t quit generating ideas until they get as many as ten. Only then do they start actually crafting commercials.
There are many more comments and photos from Summit 2008 to publish, but they will have to wait until after I finish a narration I need to do for one of my clients this evening.
However, I do want to note that I was able to take in a portion of VOICE 2008 today. Nancy Wolfson did a very interesting presentation on branding. And while I was there, I got a chance to catch up for a few minutes with my friend, Anna Vocino.
These have been a couple of simply incredible days and there are two more days of VOICE ahead of us. I’ll post more about both as soon as I can.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted August 6, 2008 by Bob
My oldest son Eric is working as my assistant and apprentice for the next year, having just graduated from High School in June. While he and I are in Los Angeles he received (slightly delayed) one of his graduation gifts, from Nancy Wolfson, a free voiceover lesson.
While Nancy directed from her desk …
Eric worked in her voiceover booth …
It was amazing to watch and listen and to hear how Eric’s performances grew during just this single 50 minute class with Nancy. As Eric and I drove back to our hotel room, he couldn’t stop talking about what a wonderful experience it was. I quite agree.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (17)
Posted July 10, 2008 by Bob
Tracy Pattin emails with news that while she’s been podcasting for a while, now she’s moved to a new level by posting on YouTube as well.
Very nice, Tracy and Doug. Good stuff.
By the way, you’ll find more info about Doug and the new voiceover opportunities in New Media at the VoiceRegistry Blog.
Category: Blogging, General, People, Tools | Comments (0)
Posted July 3, 2008 by Bob
The Ask Joe week 9 video is now out from Joe Cipriano.
Find more videos like this on voiceover universe presents…
For more, visit the Ask Joe Group at Voiceover Universe.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (4)
Posted July 1, 2008 by Bob
Four times a year, the Office of Science and Technology at the Embassy of Austria in Washington, DC publishes “bridges“, an online publication on Science and Technology policy intended to build “bridges of knowledge and expertise between Austria and North America.” It’s my delight to serve as the narrator of the podcast version of each volume, recording a selection of the articles each quarter for simultaneous release. Volume 18 is now live.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (0)
Posted June 30, 2008 by Bob
Bryan Eisenberg is one of the leaders of Future Now, a company at the forefront of helping companies make the most effective use of their web sites. He was interviewed a short while ago by Search Engine Watch editor Kevin Heilser, and that interview is now published on the Future Now Blog.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted June 29, 2008 by Bob
Trish and Terry feature an interview with my friend Bobbin Beam on Episode 18 of the Voice Overs on Demand podcast.
For more about Trish and Terry, check out the Voice Overs on Demand group at Voiceover Universe.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (0)
Posted June 16, 2008 by Bob
Dan O’Day emailed this morning to let me know that in spite of his determination not to, he’s started a blog. I know Dan to be an excellent writer, though he’s told me a number of times that it always takes him a long time to write something. He says it’s because he’s a slow writer and it takes him a while to correct the mistakes he made in his first draft. So, while the posts may not be all that frequent, I’m confident that what’s there will be choice material indeed.
Update: Edited to better reflect the reality that Dan notes in his comment below.
Category: Blogging, General, People | Comments (4)
Posted June 15, 2008 by Bob
… is a trite old phrase that’s largely fallen out of favor. Seth Godin reminds us that when it comes to marketing ourselves and our business (including our voiceover services) silence distinguishes between the the professional markets and the amateurs.
After reading Seth’s post I reminded of some advice I was given many years ago: “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Category: Blogging, Career Advice, General | Comments (0)
Posted June 12, 2008 by Bob
With thanks to my friend Juan, I’ve just signed up with rssHugger.
Whatever else they have going for them, it’s a cute logo. The site is run by Collin LaHay and he explains the idea behind the site on his About page.
I have no idea if this site is going to generate a ton of new traffic to my blog. After all they don’t have a category on the site for voiceover; but like Juan, I thought it was work the few moments to sign up for this free service. And I’ve submitted a request to add “voiceover” as a category.
I’ll offer updates from time to time about my experience.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (2)
Posted May 20, 2008 by Bob
I’m a month late (but better late than never?) in saying Happy Blogiversary to my friend Joe Szymanski.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (2)
Posted April 30, 2008 by Bob
(Update: I’m bumping this to the top of my blog again today, since it’s now the last day of April.)
During the 2007 edition of Dan O’Day’s International Radio Creative and Production Summit, I learned that Steve Stone and I have something in common beyond the fact that we both do voiceovers. And it’s that point in common that prompts today’s post. It’s a letter Steve has written and is distributing as far and wide as I can. And no, aside from our common work interests, this has nothing to do with voiceover. Here is Steve’s letter…
———————————————-
April is here, and with that something very close to my heart. It’s Autism Awareness Month. Even more specific is World Autism Awareness Day on Wednesday April 2nd. Autism has become a silent epidemic. Did you know that one in every 150 children born today will be effected by Autism?
I’m truly blessed to have a wonderful wife (Leslie) and family. We have three young children, Jacob (9), Joey (5) and Julia (4). When our first child Jacob was born, my wife and I had no idea what was waiting for us. As Jacob got older, he wasn’t developing socially like other kids his age. He would throw tantrums that lasted for hours, he would obsess over the same toy, or word, he couldn’t look in our eyes, and what crushed me was that when showing him affection….it wasn’t reciprocal. There were many nights my wife would cry herself to sleep because of the stress, and the not knowing what was ailing him. Soon after at the age of 4, Jacob was found to have Aspeger’s Syndrome (AS).
WHAT IS ASPERGER’S?
Asperger’s syndrome is a developmental disorder that is part of the autism spectrum. Signs and symptoms of Asperger’s syndrome include:
* Engaging in one-sided, long-winded conversations, without noticing if the listener is listening or trying to change the subject
* Displaying unusual nonverbal communication, such as lack of eye contact, few facial expressions, or awkward body postures and gestures
* Showing an intense obsession with one or two specific, narrow subjects, such as baseball statistics, train schedules, weather or snakes
* Appearing not to understand, empathize with, or be sensitive to others’ feelings
* Having a hard time “reading” other people or understanding humor
* Speaking in a voice that is monotonous, rigid or unusually fast
* Moving clumsily, with poor coordination
* Having an odd posture or a rigid gait
It’s an everyday struggle, Jacob has been in therapy for more than four years. The constant battle with anxiety and his paralyzing rigidity is overwhelming at times for my wife and me. To make things twice as hard our middle child Joseph has been diagnosed with Asperger’s as well. Again make no mistake Autism is an epidemic. I’m not asking for your money, I’m asking for your help in raising awareness.
After all we are in the “media” business right?
HBO recently debuted a documentary called “Autism: The Musical“, which has received great reviews for it’s intimate look into the world of Autism.
There is also a feature film documentary that is making the rounds at film festivals, about a teenage boy with Asperger’s.
http://www.billythekiddocumentary.com/
The most comprehensive information can be found at
Autism Spectrum Disorders can be overwhelming for parents and families, early intervention is key.
I’m happy to say that both Jacob and Joey are making great strides, and are learning to cope.
Thanks for your time.
Steve Stone
——————————————————
Thank you, Steve. Cinda and I also have a son with autism. Brian is his name. He is our youngest son. He’s 10 and doing amazingly well. But, we too want to be sure you know about the importance of this month and this day. Thank you for reading.
Category: Blogging, General, People, Tools | Comments (0)
Posted April 29, 2008 by Bob
My thanks to my friend Milton Friesen for linking to this video, thus helping me find it.
Category: Blogging, General | Comments (2)
