I’ve created a whole Summer of Sound to help you fulfill some of your audio marketing needs simply and cheaply, as well as offering cost-effective ways to try out audio solutions you may have always wished for but either not had the money or not known where to begin.

Throughout the summer I’m going to be giving away free reports and podcasts on how to make your own audio marketing better and more effective, offering specials on different voiceover services (from voicemails to podcast intros, video narrations to web page audio) and even giving away free voiceovers (that’s free voiceover recordings – you don’t get to keep the actual voice artist!).

Keep in Touch with Audible Marketing

To keep up-to-date with the latest giveaways and special offers you will need to keep an eye on the blog and/or my Twitter account – @LisaHartwell. You can also sign up below to receive notifications first by email.

Now, I know you are probably wary of giving out your email address because you just keep getting the same affiliate promotions over and over again, so I promise you I won’t be telling you about every new product launch or my “buddies” latest offering.

What You Get in Return

As an initial “welcome to the Summer of Sound” gift, I am giving away the first free report to you just for signing up. This is an updated version of a report I wrote for the Immediate Edge early in 2008 and has only been seen by Edge members so far (actually, this updated version hasn’t been seen by anyone else). The report is called How to Source the Perfect Voiceover for All Your Audio Projects and will guide you through the (sometimes confusing) world of sourcing voiceovers, and how to make sure you get exactly what you want from your audio out-tasking.

In fact, why don’t I let the introduction to the report tell you more:

I had a call last week from a well-established UK marketer asking for advice on finding a voiceover for two projects he had. One involved recording 3 separate ebooks of 45, 80 and 56 pages, the other a project of 200 pages. He couldn’t understand why his usual UK voiceover had passed on the project and wanted to know what he should be paying for such a project and could I recommend any male voices. When I said that this was a big job, he expressed surprise – he thought it was relatively quick and easy.

It made me realise that even for marketers who have been in the business for quite some time, this can be a confusing area. There are vastly different fees and significant variations in the quality of the finished product.

I see it from both sides of the coin. As a marketer, I want my job done quickly, professionally and without any major stresses or hassles, plus I want it at the best possible price.

As a voiceover, I want to be paid what my time and talents are worth, and for clients to appreciate the quality of the work they’re receiving.

Hopefully this short report will not read like a justification of my existence, but will explain why finding a voice is not always a simple process, where to find the right voice for your project and what you need to know before booking a voiceover…..

Make sure you keep an eye on Twitter and your emails as some giveaways and offers will ONLY be offered to followers of the Summer of Sound through those media. And I’m planning on offering a really wonderful prize at the end of the summer to one email subscriber and one Twitter follower….so sign up now!

If you are the figure-head of your company and people relate your product and service to you as an individual, then there are times when your voice will be more effective than a faceless voice artist. For example, when a customer visits your website and they are looking for information they relate directly to you, what is going to be the most effective way to keep them on the site and encourage them to buy your product or service – a professional voiceover, or a photo of you with your voice saying “Hi, this is Joe Bloggs, welcome to my website…”?

It certainly worked well for the likes of Victor Kiam - ”I liked it so much, I bought the company!” (Remington) – and it is a common tactic for the majority of Internet marketers.You may hate your own voice. You probably cringe every time you hear a recording of your voice. Well, guess what? You’re not alone. Even professionals feel uncomfortable about listening back to their own voices but know it is the only way to hear what does and doesn’t work and to correct any problems.

During my years in radio we would have “snoop” sessions, which involved listening back to part or all of a show and picking it to pieces, deciding what worked well and what should be avoided in the future. It was hard to get past cringing at everything I said in order to listen objectively.

Few people have voices that will turn listeners off completely. The exceptions are high-pitched squeaky voices or whiney nasal voices, and even these can be corrected with time and effort. Practice recording your voice using whatever equipment you have available, and play it back to yourself. Listen to what sounds good and what doesn’t.

The initial mistake most people make is they try to speak differently to their normal speaking voice. Suddenly, their speech is stilted and monotone. You should talk as if you were explaining your product or service to a client, face-to-face, or telling a friend a story. Be natural. Don’t be too precise with your pronunciation – you don’t need to speak the Queen’s English.

Accents are interesting and you shouldn’t try to lose yours. If your accent is strong and you are marketing to people nation or world wide, slow your speech down a little and make sure you are clear and will be understood by people who aren’t familiar with your accent. The ear quickly adapts to new accents as long as the speech is comprehensible.

Give some thought to when your customers might be more amenable to hearing your voice than that of a professional. Practice recording yourself speaking and aim to sound natural and friendly. Stop worrying about not sounding slick and polished and remember that people often respond best to “normal”.

You may not be an instant natural at this (few are) but, like most things, you will improve quickly with effort.

Sorry I have been away for a while. Things were all moving along nicely with the last blog and then suddenly the blog host deactivated the account. Said I’d added an illegal plugin or something (actually, the word illegal wasn’t used but can’t remember the exact term).

As it couldn’t possibly have been me who added the plugin (since I’ve only just discovered how to do that) I was at a loss at what to do. And the guy who created the blog for me didn’t seem keen to resolve the issue for me so I figured I’d better learn how to do it myself.

If I’d known how easy it was to create a WordPress blog I would have done it AGES ago, but as always with this techie stuff, I need someone to give me the dummies’ guide and lead me through step by step.

Thanks to Caroline Middlebrook for providing that dummies’ guide in her free ”How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress” ebook. I already had an account at Bluehost, so I simply pointed my nameservers there instead and followed her guide step by step. Caroline, you are a star!

I spent hours searching the template stores for the perfect template, and then ended up using a free template. I just liked the Web 2.0 feel of this template. I may change it down the line if I find another I prefer, but I’m pretty happy with this one.

This blog is a work in progress as I discover new things I can do with WordPress but the content will be very much geared towards audio marketing and internet marketing, with an opportunity to guide you towards some of the (free) audio and videos I have created for you. Plus, I always think any blog is a bit more interesting if the blogger adds the occasional personal post to prove they are human (or nearly human!).

Oh, and some of the articles from the previous blog will appear here too gradually, incase you missed them first time round.

Good to be back!

Lisa