How a New Breed Of Small Businesses is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies
A small seafood restaurant attracts new customers with virtually no marketing budget. A four-person iPad case manufacturer generates more than $1M in revenue in four months with only four employees. A voice-over company is able to connect thousands of artists with opportunities, all without expensive hardware and software. A law firm increases access to key information while dramatically reducing technology-related costs and risks.
And these four companies are hardly unique. A new breed of small businesses is using Software as a Service (SaaS), free and open source software, social media and networks, mobility, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies to do things simply not possible even five years ago.
The LAMP Technology Stack
The technology stack that Voices.com used to build and maintain its web application is known as LAMP which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (or Perl or Python). Used together, they represent the most popular and most powerful form of web servers and website hosting.
How To Speed Up a Website
For a web-based service that helps to make the world sound good, we've been focused on speed as an element of design. After 12 months of hard work, we've achieved a 10X improvement in page loading times. This means it's ten times faster navigating the website, uploading and download audio files.
Voices.com's page load time has been reported as fast as 963 ms, which is ten times faster than the 15.30 seconds previously reported by Pingdom, a web site monitoring and measurement service.
In today's article, I'll share with you a number of tools that we used to achieve these improvements in page load time.
History of the Voice Over
Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor, was a brilliant mathematician and excelled in academics. Being enamored with the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, Fessenden set out on a quest to develop a means of remote communication without the restriction of wires - thusly "Wireless" as it was to be known later.
In 1900 Fessenden set out to work for the United States Weather Bureau. During this time, the first voice over was recorded in 1900 by Reginald Fessenden who reported on the weather during a test.
Reactions to Male and Female Voice Overs
A lot of thought goes into the "right" voice for every advertisement. This, is primarily the role of casting directors. Certainly the tone and timber of a voice are two things that can help sell the product or service. But, probably the most important question every marketer must answer is, should the voice be male or female?
These are some of the findings of a new Adweek Media/ Harris Poll, survey of 2,194 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive.
Statistics, Market Research and Analysis
Collectively, we work in an industry with eight decades to its claim and one that has undergone a phenomenal series of changes. Estimated to be a $12.3 billion industry world-wide, voice-overs and language services penetrate all forms of both media and new media, touching the daily lives of nearly everyone in Western culture.
You're likely already aware that voice-overs is a huge market, but by global standards many would consider it a niche market. And, like other niche markets it is often difficult to find market research, statistics and analysis in support of this growth industry.
Today, we've published market research on key areas of growth. It's literally a page from our marketing plan, so save yourself the time of doing your own research and enjoy these statistics.
Why Marketers Should Use Voice Overs in Flash Videos to Improve Engagement
There are many reasons to use voice-overs in Flash videos on your website; one of the most important is to improve viewer engagement for increased sales. If you're currently using Flash videos on your website's landing page, that's great. You can add a voice over to the Flash video so it will catch your visitor's attention and hold it.
Numerous studies have been done on the correlation between the human attention span and what captures an individual's attention and keeps it (Download Word Document). These studies have found that combining sensory elements, such as visuals and sound, will increase your retention rate and keep visitors on your site for longer periods of time.
What Apple iAds Mean for Voice Talent
Steve Jobs presented at the World Wide Developer Conference in San Francisco and introduced the new iPhone 4 which boasts of several new groundbreaking features, such FaceTime video calling and Retena Display, the next generation of high resolution displays for the popular mobile phone.
Aside from the new iPhone, Jobs revealed two important facts that show their commitment to dominating the mobile market. First, the launch of the iAd mobile network and second a sizable commitment from a roster of global brand willing to engage customers in a new way, though the innovative iAd format.
iAds combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of Internet advertising, giving advertisers a dynamic and powerful new way to bring motion and emotion to mobile users.
History of Video Games and Voice Overs
The video game industry is one of the largest and most profitable markets in the world. For years, it's been the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry and has since eclipsed motion pictures. In the U.S., the gaming market raked in 19.6 billion dollars in revenue in 2009. In that same year, the Hollywood box office took in only 9.7 billion dollars.
72% of Americans are gamers and use a variety of gaming consoles. Other than innovative game ideas and superior graphics, part of this success is due to the astounding voice talent that heightens the experience of playing the games.
Strategic Thinking for a Successful Podcast
As with any other part of your marketing efforts, including a podcast, it truly benefits you to be prepared.
Whether you are podcasting for leisure or business you will need a plan.
Planning topics to discuss, possible guest interviews, and the duration of your show in advance will go a long way when producing a professional sounding podcast. Since you'll be recording your podcast in an almost live fashion, you will have the flexibility of going back and re-editing sections before committing your show as "podcast-ready."
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