Firstly, I’m after a quick poll as to who uses Joomla for their CMS? Joomla and WordPress are obviously some of the most popular CMSs around. My main website is built on Joomla, whilst this blog is WordPress. Of the two I currently have experience of, my preference is certainly WordPress. I shall tell you why.

Overall, I find Joomla to be quite clunky in it’s workings. You have to do things a certain way most of the time, with not much flexibility. There are certain things it does which don’t quite make sense in my head. It also appears that you can’t make a blank hidden page on your website, like for a client’s project that you don’t want the public to know about. I’m told this is very easy on other systems.

Yesterday I had a big Joomla problem. I was editing some content, and the whole thing crashed, as well as my server, for around two hours. Now, I cannot guarantee that it was Joomla that broke first, but from the series of events that happened, it looked that way. I couldn’t even access the login page to enter the back end of the site, let alone load any of my website’s pages. Nightmarish.

Luckily, it somehow resolved and was working again within a couple of hours. And it just got me thinking. I’ve never had one problem with WordPress. Not one. It’s with the same hosts who host this blog, and I’ve not seen it crash once, or even go down for any reason. Very strange that my main site does.

There’s lots of other niggly problems that I currently face with Joomla, and have for a while, but I’m not going to bore you with them. Needless to say, I am much more of  a fan of WordPress than Joomla, for sure. I think it’s just got too many features that the average person, who isn’t a web techie, doesn’t need. If you’re a developer and you’re phasing up a website from small to big, then great. But then if I was doing that, Am sure WordPress would cater for me whatever I needed to do with my site.

What’s your experiences with either? Am I alone in my feelings towards the ‘Big J’? Please tell me I’m not.

Or is it?

As most businesses have commonly agreed, August is typically the quiet month of the year, with everyone on holiday and not spending money. The thing is, for the bulk of the people I’ve been talking to recently, it’s quite the opposite; including me.

So far this past 4 weeks, I’ve had lots of enquiries, certainly no fewer than a regular month, and several placed orders, some of the work which has already happened this month, and a few sessions already booked for September. Not bad going for ‘the quiet month’!

This month has also seen me upgrade some of my audio kit, so I’m very pleased about that. I’m now the proud owner of a Neumann TLM 103, a common standard amongst many of us VO’s. Having used it quite a bit over the last few days, I have to say, I’m extremely pleased with the quality…..which naturally continues on to create a better overall product for the client.

So, here’s to the beginning, in a few days, of September, and may it continue to be busy for us all!

Richard Heathcote

Voice Over Artist & Audio Marketing

Episode 6 – July 2010 - “Smartphone Suicide, Subconscious Salespeople, & The Importance of Networking Your Business” (17m 6s)

In this episode, I talk about smartphone suicide, how Google has now discontinued plans for both the Google Nexus Two, and even the current Nexus One. I’m also giving my take on the situation with Apple and the iPhone 4 amongst ‘Antenna-gate’; and I’m talking to Stefan Thomas from No Red Braces, who’s giving us an insight as to why all businesses, both micro and massive should be networking now more than ever

Episode 5 – May 2010 - “Audio Marketing, a Podcast Special Edition” (24m 14s)

This is a recording of a talk I recently made at a 4Networking event in Sutton Coldfield. I talk about the importance of businesses utilising audio in their marketing strategies, how it can open up massive new avenues of audience, for the people that are auditory learners, i.e. they absorb information better in audio form. I talk about podcasting, the power of the human voice, branding your company with audio, the immense reach of the iTunes podcast directory, and how businesses can easily implement audio in their current marketing plan.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Hopefully destined for a Sky TV channel, this is a TV promo that I recently voiced.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

This is a recent project of mine, voiced for a betting facilities company in Ireland. I play several of the characters within this piece….

It’s certainly something a bit different for me, playing some animated characters. Rather fun!

Anyway, enjoy…..

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Right Click To Download Episode 3 – Feb 2010 - “Top Sales Tips, The iPad, & New Mobile Tech” (26m 24s)

This episode we’re talking to Gary Gorman, a sales expert from Paradigm Training, and getting his top 5 sales tips to make you more effective in your business. We’re also talking about the new revolutionary device from Apple, the iPad, and how it could influence the tech market. We’re also taking a look at the new mobile devices from Windows and Google. Will they be game changers and be true competition for the iPhone? You decide.

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Is It Worth Paying For A Voice Over Artist?

This may be a question that you’ve asked yourself before, or for a lot of you, it probably wouldn’t have even crossed your mind. But there is certainly a proportion of society that own businesses, or are in charge of high profile brands that must at times ask themselves this question. Is it worth paying for a professional voice over artist to promote their brand/company?

The simplest answer is of course, you get what you pay for. If you have a guy in the office who ‘has a pretty good speaking voice’, who you think should be the voice of your podcasts, or online/media/TV related promotional material, then fair play to you. Have you ever heard that person’s recorded material before? Do you trust them to be ‘the voice’ of the company/brand? Are you ok with the fact that when people hear that voice they’ll associate it with your company? These aren’t all negative points, far from. This counts as for better or indeed for worse. If they are for better, then excellent, give it a chance!

However, if they sound like a totally different person, which is actually more often the case, then you really should think about bringing in a professional; someone that is used to performing in front of a microphone. The thing is, when you put a regular person in a studio environment, in front of a professional studio microphone, it’s like sticking a big lens of a camera in someone’s face; it can be extremely off-putting. Some people tend to freeze, not know what to do or say, change the pattern of their speech, their tone, timbre, level, pitch, or worse, be completely monotone.

If this happens, you could have wasted time in the studio and need to rebook when the person has composed themself, or wait for a professional to take over!

The good thing with hiring a voice artist, is that we’re completely used to all this; We know how to handle a microphone, and chances are, we know exactly how to lift your script by performing the words that are on the page, rather than just simply ‘reading’ them. (A quality you don’t often get when audio tracks are home-made).

So, the next time you have a requirement for a voice track, be it a TV advert, a podcast, corporate video, web audio of any sort, the question you need to ask yourself is, in the long term, is it worth paying for a professional voice over artist? The answer is up to you.

Want more information? Check out my main website: www.richardheathcote.co.uk

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

Advertiser Vs Consumer – The Reality

In this ever-changing world of buying and selling, the goalposts and conditions in which this is done are changing rapidly. The world can seem like one big call centre, every time the phone rings it could be someone trying to sell to us. What we really like, as a nation, are the conditions in which we want to buy, not be sold to. That is the reason I quite like this video; it shows the relationship between the advertiser and the consumer and how much times have and are changing!

Remember, when in business – create the conditions in which your audience wants to buy, cause they really don’t like to be sold to!

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist

This is a recent talk I gave at a 4Networking meeting in Birmingham Longbridge about personal and business branding by incorporating audio into the mix.

In this modern age, it’s becoming more and more important for businesses to be accessible to lots of different types of people, and the ways they absorb information. Become a market leader by having an ethos of accessible-to-all, utilising good copywriting, graphics, imagery, video and audio.

For more information about audio marketing, please click here. Meanwhile, enjoy the video )

Richard Heathcote, Voice Over Artist