Did you make any changes this week?
I love making changes because the point is always to make something better.
So, I made another change this week…
I swapped out my old audio player on my voice over website for the VoiceZam player.
Here’s what the old one looked like:
And here’s the new one:
I like the way the new one looks but the decision to switch wasn’t because of appearance.
I made this change based on the advantages the new player would give me.
I realize VoiceZam isn’t new (they’ve actually been around since 2002).
And I’ve tried it in the past.
But they’ve made (and continue to make) huge improvements in something as simple as your demo player.
(FYI, in case you are wondering I’m not paid by or affiliated with VoiceZam in any way, I just believe in it)
The demo player on your website doesn’t usually get much thought, but it serves a huge role in your website conversions.
So maybe it’s time to rethink it.
VoiceZam is especially useful if you’re marketing directly to voice over clients and sending them to your website.
Clients like VoiceZam too:
So if you don’t know what VoiceZam is or you’re wondering why I switched, check out the video below…
In the video, I cover:
– Advantages of using VoiceZam
– An inside look at what you can do on the dashboard
– The promo code to get a nice discount
– And more…
Are you already using VoiceZam? Or are you thinking of trying it?
If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts, make sure to leave a comment below…
UPDATE TO THIS POST:
You may notice I'm no longer using VoiceZam on my voice-over website. It's still a great tool, with great analytics and support. For me though, I found I wasn't checking the analytics as often as I thought I would. And I didn't love paying a monthly fee for a demo player - so for those reasons I switched.
It's still a great tool and I may go back to it in the future.
I wrote an article about customizing the Royal Audio Player as an alternative to VoiceZam. One time cost of $69 vs. monthly subscription fee of $8.95. You can read about it here: https://medium.com/@nathanpuls/royal-audio-player-as-an-alternative-to-voicezam-for-voice-over-7b90586b308c
I noticed that you’ve stopped using VoiceZam on your website and replaced it with waveplayer wordpress plugin. Any particular reason? And do you still recommend VoiceZam?
Hi Ahmed, VoiceZam is still a great demo player. I don’t really have the time to look at the tracking info it provides. I’m testing other options that don’t have monthly fees as this is a question I’m asked by others. Several of my clients have mentioned they love the VoiceZam player. Has it made a difference to the bottom line? Probably not.
Hello Jason
Thanks for sending me the newsletter and the feature on Voicezam, which I watched with interest. Certainly, when I was thinking about my new website, I was looking at Voicezam as a demo player because of what I had heard about the linear nature of stock website plugin players. However, with the range of plugins available for WordPress, you can almost totally replicate the experience provided by Voicezam: you will see this if you visit my website VO/Narration page http://martynswain.com/voice-over-narration/
I agree that there are other features about the Voicezam app which are user friendly for the client but I would not be surprised to discover that those can be replicated with WP plugins as well. I will investigate and get back to you!
All the best
Martyn
Hi Martyn,
You’ve done a great job getting your plugin player to work in a way similar to VoiceZam. I also like that it plays on mobile devices which has been an issue for some players in the past.
There is a slight loading delay – I wonder if you could code it to pre-load the demos.
You can definitely come close to VoiceZam’s front end features but I haven’t seen anything to do what VoiceZam does on the backend, like the tracking features. I haven’t seen a plugin that can do that yet. Let me know what you find.
As a high school student I’m not allowed on Upwork because it’s apparently just for people who have post high school voice acting experience at a school or whatnot. I’m becoming a voice actor because I love it and because I don’t have to deal with paid post high school education. If you’re reading this trying to become your own voice actor know that starting any career is not easy but it is worth it. If you were rejected from Upwork or anything else don’t give up. There will always be radio, cartoons, and videogames. There’s always another way.
Hi O’Ryan,
I’m not sure why you were rejected from Upwork but if you keep practicing and seek out a voice over coach, you’ll improve your talent. Once that is done and you feel like you’re ready, there are many other ways to find voice over work: http://voiceacting101.com/voice-over-work/ besides Upwork.