Send With Your Name

Full disclosure: the genesis of this blog comes from the VO Yahoo Group, but it’s such a great idea (I hadn’t thought of) that I wanna make sure you hear about it.

The thread starts with the usual dialogue about zipping files to send, or whether to use DropBox, YouSendIt, DropSend, or some other large-file-transfer utility.  Any of those three are workable solutions for making sure you client receives the typically large audio files that you may be generating in your VO work.  DropBox depends on the client having installed the program on their resident computer, though, and that can be another layer of inconvenience you may not want to impose on your client.

YouSendIt and DropSend are pretty popular, low-cost, subscription services that allow easy automation of your files, scheduling, follow-up, and tiered-pricing.

So what could be easier than that?

Your own website, that’s what.

If you’ve already paid for the domain name, and the hosting, it’s likely you have FTP access, and extra space you’re paying for, but not using.

Create a subdirectory for your client, and store the finished files there.  That way you bypass any sort of email layer of interface, and your client not only gets the name-branding of your website reinforced, but also will likely feel as if they’ve been given a higher level of customer care.

The difference is answering mail sent by YouSendIt, or acccessing a subdirectory like:  http://MyVOwebsite.com/ClientName.

There’s no additional monthly fee, you avoid the irregularities of email, the files stay there as long as you want, accessible from any computer, anywhere, and you customer feels a closer connection to your VO business.  What’s not to like?!

Check on your hosting service plan to see how much storage you originally purchase.  Chances are for not that much more, you can upgrade to a bunch  more space.

To see the original Yahoo VO Forum thread, click HERE and HERE (you have to be a member).  The second link also includes a handy list of other file-send utilities than the ones I mentioned here.

CourVO