Posted on

Don’t Make This Voice Over Demo Posting Mistake

I have voice over demos posted everywhere. On my web site. On Pay 2 Play sites like Voice123, Voices, bodalgo and The Voice Realm. I have my demos posted on my Facebook page, my Tumblr blog and my LinkedIn Profile. I’ve got them on SoundCloud and Pintrest too.

Basically, if I can find a place to post my demos, I will.

Today I want to take specifically about posting your demos on your personal web site.

The Demo Page

play-buttonIf you’re like 97% of the voice actors on the web, you have a demo page on your web site. That page could include anywhere from one to seventeen different demos of your work.

You may have a simple audio player, a more advanced one like SoundCloud or you may do what I do and include YouTube video demos.

For those of you that have all your demos listed on one page, please avoid this mistake that could be fatal to your success…

Auto-play Is Bad

I visited the demo page on a certain voice talents site the other day. When I clicked that page I was inundated with cacophony of sound. You see, they had auto-play enabled on each of their demos. When you clicked onto the page, every single one of them started at the same time.

In another example, a different talent posted YouTube videos of some of their completed projects. Each video was set to auto-play. When you looked at each project page individually, it wasn’t so bad. However, when you clicked the category link (as you can with WordPress sites) all the projects loaded on a single page and, again, started playing at once.

Rest assured that if this is what happens to a potential client on your site, the chances of them having the patience to stop each demo so they can hear one at a time or virtually slim to none.

Give Them Control

voice-over-demo-control-buttonsI know that many people have the mindset that if you don’t force voice seekers to listen to your demo they won’t.

It’s true we want to make it easy as possible. But we can do this by providing direct links in emails and social media posts and by making our demos exceptionally easy to find with navigation on our sites.

If the client (or potential client) is on your web site, they’re there for a reason. They want to hear your samples. As long as they find them, rest assured, they’ll click “play” on their own.

So turn off auto-play on your demos and save them from the noise.

QUESTION: Do you use auto-play? Why or why not?

share