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!

Technorati Tags: audio marketing, how to find a voiceover

Tools like Tweetmic (for the iPhone) and Phonevite offer you the opportunity to actually create your audio while on the move through your phone.

This video takes a look at Twaud.io which I discovered just this week. You can upload or live-record audio and automatically Tweet it when you are done:

All these applications (and those that are likely to follow) offer amazing opportunities for creating your own Twitter podcasts, updating your followers while on the move, creating audio competitions and offers, and many other ways I’m sure you can come up with as well.

Here are the Twaud.io examples I recorded so you can check out the quality. As you can hear, the live-record is a bit fuzzy:

Download audio file (twaudio-recording.mp3)

But the uploaded file maintains its quality:

Download audio file (boothsgottalent-twaudio.mp3)

.

Technorati Tags: phonevite, twaudio, tweetmic, twitter audio, twitter podcasting, twitter sound, twitter sounds

Unfortunately, my computer can’t handle it (time for a new computer asap). To learn more about your different options head to the Techsmith website.

Technorati Tags: camtasia 6 audio, camtasia audio, recording microphone and speakers in camtasia

Every now and again (more and more regularly infact) we have been recording one-off audio demos for producers and emailing them as part of our weekly availability.

This is our version of Britain’s Got Talent:

Download audio file (the booths got talent.mp3)

Our producer Mark Stephenson is actually the talented one for constantly coming up with great ideas and mixing these fantastic demos.

Oh, and that really is me gargling! My new party trick

Technorati Tags: british voice artists, british voiceovers

The voiceovers are (in order) Jon Iles (a voice that would melt chocolate), Susan Winder (yummy mummy), Sally Williams (so smooth) and ME!!! (and, yes, I am aware that I am the least sexy of all of them, at least voice-wise )

Download audio file (the-booth-Valentines-Day-Demo.mp3)

To contact any one of us, email thebooth (at) thebooth.info

Hope you get lots of love and sloppy kisses this Valentine’s Day!

Technorati Tags: lisa hartwell, sexy voice artist, sexy voiceover, valentines day voiceover

Someone mentioned to me once or twice that Internet video marketing not only worked but that it worked REALLY well

At the beginning of October I started making some screen capture videos about using Audacity. They were simply basic tutorials on how to use Audacity to record your voice and add music. Using just a few of the tips I learned from Jason Moffatt’s Easy Video Sales, I added these videos to YouTube and to this blog.

I have to say I am amazed at the results:

• The Audacity tutorials are by far my most viewed pages on the blog (although that isn’t a complete surprise since they are my only posts – except two – since 1st October)
• More importantly, 25% of unique page views are to one of those video pages
• 20% of my traffic is coming from YouTube
• People are spending longer and viewing more pages on my site
• Additionally, 12,223 people have watched my Audacity YouTube videos (according to their stats).

It isn’t enough to just put your videos out there and hope people see them. Like anything online you need to pick the best keywords, do some promotion, and if you want viewers to do something in particular after watching your videos (instead of moving onto someone else’s video) there has to be a strong call to action and/or motivation for them to click away from YouTube.

Easy Video Sales has certainly helped me to build a nice chunk of traffic to my videos, and I plan on taking more of Jason’s advice to boost that traffic (including getting the videos out there on more than just YouTube). Oh, and maybe I should consider how I’m going to monetize these babies! One thing’s for sure, I should have listened to Ed Dale a long time ago when he raved about video – he does know a thing or two about Internet Marketing

And, you’ll be glad to know, there are more Audacity videos on the way.

Technorati Tags: easy video sales, ed dale, internet video marketing, jason moffatt

This video is from my friends at voiceovers.co.uk and should explain everything:

Hope you enjoyed that. You can get more information at Santa Loses His Voice

Technorati Tags: santa claus voiceover artist, santa voice artist, santa voiceover, santa voiceover artist

It shows you how to add a new track to appear alongside your voice track, simply fade the music in and out, and mix the tracks together.

Unfortunately the video is 17 minutes long (and Youtube only allow a maximum of 10mins for videos) so this is the first half:

And this is the second half:

There are many other ways you can edit music and mix it, but this was the simplest one to demonstrate how quickly and easily it can be done (especially as you are unable to hear the audio I am mixing – must look into other ways of recording it so you can hear what I hear).

Technorati Tags: audacity tutorial, free recording software

Firstly, how to make the audio louder or softer. Especially in interviews, you will often find one person is louder than the other. There is a very simple way to boost or quieten audio using Audacity.

Secondly, recordings of just voices sometimes have obvious background noise and various clicks and pops that you never noticed while recording. There are two features in Audacity that can help you screen out some of these noises.

My only suggestion with these tools is that you don’t over-use them, or have the settings too high. They can make the audio sound tinny, and I would personally prefer to hear a recording that has some depth (even if there is a bit of background noise) than a recording that sounds soulless. But it is very much a matter of personal preference and it is worth playing around with the settings until you like what you hear.

In the next Audacity tutorial I will show you how to bring in another track, which is useful if you want to mix some music with your voice track.

Technorati Tags: audacity tutorial, free recording software

Also, since I changed the blog (after losing everything and having to re-install from a backup) I have noticed most of the audio and pictures I had uploaded have disappeared from blog posts and pages, so I will start replacing those at the weekend.

I had a lovely surprise when I returned from France to discover I had made number 21 on a list of the 50 Most Powerful and Influential Women in Social Marketing on the Immediate Influence Blog. I feel quite honored to appear on a list like this – I’m pretty sure it’s the first time, and want to thank anyone who nominated me through Twitter (I sound like I’m making an Oscar acceptance speech – LOL – I’d like to thank God, my parents, the wonderful developers at Twitter…).  I’m not sure how influential or powerful I actually am, but it’s great to see that somebody thinks my ramblings are worth listening to.

In France I was – yet again – trying to explain to my friends the point of Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites. They couldn’t understand the value of creating communities and networking online, whether for business or pleasure. We came to the realization that our online personas often reflect our offline ones. I am essentially a sociable, chatty person who is always ready to extend my circle of friends and acquaintances, while they only like to socialise within their small group of friends. I did try to explain that you could choose who you did or didn’t follow/listen to very easily, but I have not converted them.

I love to communicate with people and social media offers me that opportunity. It certainly beats sitting on a cold bench in the city centre chatting to anyone who may walk by and show an interest!

Technorati Tags: social marketing, social media, social networking, women internet marketers