VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[kgenus]

Peter,

Equality would imply women and men are in the same boat. Back in 1992/3 a pair of drunk Mustangs came into the station I was working at to "take care of the guy with the smooth voice." I was fortunate someone else was there to stop them, but it went on for a period of two and half months. That is going to happen to anyone catering to the public.

This time, three words, "Doing Business As."

Folks, I'm hear all week!!
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Genus

[audio'connell]

[quote]That is going to happen to anyone catering to the public.[quote]

THERE'S you're problem right there and THAT'S why those guys were pissed off...you were an announcer and they wanted a caterer! (Ba dum bump).

Folks don't forget to tip your waitresses...they take care of you, please take care of them!
_________________
- Peter
audioconnell Voice Over Talent
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent

[Deirdre]

I even shield my web registry.

I get e-mail from interested clients and once I establish some kind of rapport, I'll give up my phone number.
If someone needs to know my SPIDs or Fax number, they'll call or send an e-mail.

It's not a problem for anyone I'm working with now, but, of course, I'll never know if I'm losing business.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Philip Banks]

[nick reed]

Why not get a second line for your home, put a phone with a message recorder on it and answer it only after screening calls? I had a second line and it was only $20/month. In my area, they call it a "teen" line, obviously meant for your kids, but you can use it for anything.

[Deirdre]

My question is-- how is a phone better if the client simply gets an answering machine?

I can respond nearly instantly to client requests via e-mail because I'm working online almost all day.

The Cell Phone number sounds like a good test. I never use all the minutes I buy anyway.
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DBCooperVO.com

[ReyAnthony]

[kgenus]

[banjo]

Nada....have had my studio/office and ISDN phone #'s on my site for over 7 years without any "crank" calls...yet.

[Charlie Channel]

Hey, look ... whacko's are everywhere. I practiced law many moons ago, and believe me, there are clients who are on the edge. The problem is you don't know it until they come looking for you, the judge, the opposing party or anyone else who might be reasonable.

Wait until you get a call from the county D.A. who say, "Hello Mr. C, my professional and ethical duty is to inform you that a threat has been made against your life by _____________ , a person with the ability to carry out that threat." At that time I owned a weapon. So, I walked to a closet, retrieved my equalizer, began loading it and said to the D.A., "You tell the !@#$% if she sets foot on my doorstep, she's dead." And, hung up.

Not only DID she come by my house while I was not there, I was told. A few days later they arrested her with a loaded .38, stalking her husband in front of his carpentry shop.

I really sympathize with personalities and luminaries in the public eye who really must be vigilent. After all, even if you successfully survive a mess, it's likely to affect your career. But, marketing is important and I think it's easy enough to get a telephone that will enable you to make sure there's access to you while it shields you.

Look, if your connected, Anytime, Any place, Anywere through Internet, get a VOIP box and service and relax. And, as for an anwwering device, I find it's extremely useful to cover the phone while I'm working so that I'm not distracted.

The disadvantage of the E-mail only solution is that some people don't want to use it, your spam filter may chuck somebody you actually want to hear from (mine did that and I only found out when I checked the primary mail server) who discovers you through surfing, plus there is always a delay in passing e-mail from one server to another, and the Internet is a single point of failure (packets get lost, regularly, servers go down, and stuff like that).

CC

[Deirdre]

Domains By Proxy can be your buffer. Otherwise, all your contact info is available to anyone with the brains to look up your website in the WHOIS registry.


And-- to Kevin:

That software-IVR thing is Windoze only.
Poo.
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DBCooperVO.com

[Guest]

Interesting line of thoughts here, from no Phone number, to VOIP where you don't necessarily "live" where your telephone number originates from, to moving to Scotland (I'm on my way...), to answering devices and business lines with and without answerers.

My thoughts are simple and along the same lines for those who are interested... get your second line or a distinctive ring capability... then on the website advertise your number as "Represented by the Frank F Agency" and put the number there. Of course you may substitute any name or moniker of your choice in place of mine and presumably you would not use your real name in this location either. Then, answer that phone or line with ..."The Frank F Agency, how may I help you?"

I believe in the K.I.S.S system - Keep It Simple Stupid - and I'm Stupid.

Frank F

[Frank F]

Whoops, forgot to "Log-In" even though it's probably obvious it is me...

Another continuing thought... Just say "please direct all calls to Morrison, Morrison, and Morrison at this number for immediate service".

FF

[allensco]

I have my home and mobile phone numbers as well as email info on my website. I get wrong numbers occasionally, mostly local folks with fumbly fingers, but no crank calls. I get plenty of those at my day job (911 dispatch).

[Bruce]

I post my local number and the 800 that feeds it on my website, because I'd hate to give a potential (lazy) client any reason to give up trying to reach me. I'm apparently missing out on all the sexy crank calls, darn it. Now the number is unlisted with the phone company so I don't get siding salesmen calling, but I circulate it widely to people in the business.

I don't list my Fax number because you can get a ton of Fax spams which actually costs something. On a tangent, I threw out my last Fax machine and have been using E-Fax. I get an 800 number from them and all Faxes to that number get sent to me as a tiff attachment to an e-mail. If it's not important I just delete it, and if it is, I print it. I use my printer's scanner and convert documents to pdf files for sending documents out. Actually I'd love to drop the Fax, but I don't because I have one really good client that still uses it (she's a 60+ technophobe).

On a another tangent, I will say my spam jumped considerably when I joined a chat group at yahoogroups, but luckily my ISP's spam filter catches 80% of it and my Entourage e-mail program catches another 15%. Unfortunately I still have to scan every message marked "spam" by my ISP because every once in a while they throw VO-BB messages in there and I have to tell them NO!

Bruce