I spent the best part of an afternoon going through the studio’s sound effects to find all the ones I needed for the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast introduction. That just left the circus music I needed and a couple of sound effects, so I went to ProductionTrax – a Royalty Free Music library – for the rest.
This is the video I made showing how easy it is to listen to samples, buy and download royalty free music from libraries on the Internet.
My apologies for my croaky voice, I hope you can still understand what I am saying (if you want to know why I’m sounding this way please read my new blog IM Geek Girl).
It really is that simple, and many of the sites have short pieces of music you can buy (15/30/60 second spots) so you don’t even need to edit. Of course, the piece of music I have bought is much longer and I only need a fraction of it, but I can easily fade it out without having to do much editing.
Before I show you the next stage in creating the podcast intro, I want to cover the subject of royalty free music.
Many people hear the word “free” and think that’s exactly what royalty free music is. Actually, many people still believe that any music they get online is free. The truth is that all website content, whether audio, video or written is copyrighted and can only be used if the creator has given their permission. In the case of music and sound effects, some audio is given a creative commons licence by its composer, in which case you can use it (although they normally specify it can only be used on non-commercial projects).
What royalty free music really means is that once you have purchased the music you do not have to pay a new fee every time you use it. There are no further royalty costs to pay.
Some music production companies will create CDs of music and send them to audio production studios for free, but every time a music track, or part of a track, is used they have to be paid a music licensing fee.
Similarly, if you want to use a piece of your favorite music on something – say you’d like a bit of Coldplay on your website or podcast - you have to contact the publishers and find out if you can use it and what the royalty fee is (and don’t be surprised if it costs you hundreds or even thousands of dollars and comes with some tight restrictions).
What are your Options with Royalty Free Music?
There are many royalty free music libraries online. They offer a number of different options depending on your usage:
Pay per track: this is the ideal solution if you want to use music tracks occasionally or you want a variety of very different tracks. This is my preferred method and I tend to use ProductionTrax for the majority of my music
Pay per album: most royalty free music libraries also offer a number of music collections i.e. a number of tracks that you purchase as an album. They are usually grouped by style or composer. For example, if you are using a lot of cinematic type themes you can usually buy a collection of them. This can be especially useful if you only want short tracks, as many libraries offer collections of 30second or 60second spots that provide variety for a number of different projects.
Subscription: ideal if you are using a lot of music (and sound effects). Some libraries work on a monthly subscription basis, allowing you to use any of their tracks through your subscription.
When purchasing your royalty free music online you usually download the tracks directly from the website (in wav or mp3 format), but most sites also offer the option of paying an extra fee to receive the tracks on a CD or in a different format.
Be sure to check the usage options of the tracks. Just because they are royalty free does not mean they can be used indiscriminately. Often the cost is higher for a music track that is going to be used for commercial purposes as opposed to educational or non-profit.
Now that I have explained the concept of royalty free music (and hopefully made it clearer rather than confusing the issue) I’ll show you how I chose the music for the podcast intro in my next post.
Many people are curious as to what happens during a voiceover recording session, so I’m letting you hear the whole of my session with Jon Iles when we recorded the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast intro.
OK, this may not have been a typical recording session as Jon and I are friends and we were having fun with this script. Some recording sessions take much longer than this, but Jon is pretty good and knows what I like so I don’t need to give him much direction.
Unfortunately, you can’t hear what I am saying to Jon but I am sure you will realise the times when I am speaking to him and asking for a repeat of something or maybe for him to say a line slightly differently. Actually, Jon cracks me up so mostly from my end there was a lot of laughter.
I have cut out a short portion of the audio because Jon’s phone started ringing and he used some very choice language. He is such a professional that to have taken his phone into the voice booth with him was completely out of character and his swearing was at himself for forgetting to leave it in the Green Room.
As well as the main voiceover you can hear him recording some of the final sound effects too. My favorite is his Bruce Lee impression.
I hope that hasn’t ruined your image of what voiceovers do. It really is a simple case of a producer in a studio talking to the voiceover in a soundproofed booth, working through a script together with the producer giving direction where required. No jiggery pokery!
In my next post I’ll show you what to do with this voiceover recording when you head into the editing and mixing stage.
In my last post I announced Cynthia Abel as the winner of the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast Intro competition. But what made me pick her script over the others?
First of all, here’s her script as she provided it:
The intro is a bit like a circus ringmaster introducing an act.
With an underlying consequence to demonstrate the perils of the introduction statements.
—————————————————–
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“Offering more outrageous thrills than a Japanese game show.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - karate attack yell] “Aaayeee”
[Sound of hitting wall - Splat]
[Sound - groan of impact] “Uuffff”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“More chilling than a Polar Bear Club outing at the South Pole.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - Splash into water]
High trembly voice: “It’s c-c-c-old-d-d.”
[Optional, omit if deemed too offensive] “Ohhh … shrinkage.”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“More cutting edge than a complete set of chef knives.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound - Knife chopping]
In stilted chef Julia Child voice:
“Ow. And now we apply the bandaid to staunch the flow.”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“Taking hoards of wide-eyed eager cyber explorers on a more profitable challenge than climbing Mt. Everest.”
[Background sound - End Drum roll]
[Background sound]
Nerdy voice: “Ooooh. Look at the view on my five dollar screen saver.”
[Background sound - Drum roll]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“Helping the socially inept make friends and influence the Internet market place…”
[Background sound - End Drum roll and pause]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“We present the Intrepid Master of WiFii walkingin the Virtual Center of Cyberspace…”
[Background sound - Cymbal clang]
Deep voiced Announcer:
“Eddd Dale and his Marketing Menagerie!”
[Perhaps a bit of circus music to close?]
What I liked about this script was its simplicity, yet it still gave me lots of opportunity to really play with it (and go overboard on the sound effects). At the audio production studios I work from we talk about some audio being Theatre of the Mind. Sounds pretentious, but it simply means that you take a script and create an audio production that immediately conjures up images and associations in your head. This is particularly relevant to radio commercials, but also works for a fun podcast intro like this one.
And, of course, it embodied 2 of the things that we associate with the Thirty Day Challenge: it is designed for beginners (Cynthia’s script didn’t use any “in” language that newbies wouldn’t understand) and it is fun! And the circus theme definitely works well with the Thirty Day Challenge team
As you can hear from the final result, very little was changed:
What I changed and Why I Changed it
There were a few things I changed. I played with the sound effects a little more than the script said. This is not unusual when changing a written concept into audio. For example, I used different drum rolls and other linking sounds so that it didn’t get too repetitive.
Apart from that, I couldn’t get the “ it’s ccccoooold” to sound quite right in the mix, and felt the “oooh shrinkage” was descriptive and funny enough on its own. Also, even at his best, Jon cannot impersonate a woman and I didn’t have a female voice that could imitate Julia Child (hell, I had to look her up on YouTube because I didn’t even know who she was)!
The great part about the rest of the script was that the highly talented Jon Iles was able to do all the rest of the voicing AND he managed a few sound effects for me too. I personally think that the final introduction has a circus feel but with a slightly macabre edge to it.
A few people have been asking me who the winner was of the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast Intro competition. I haven’t heard Ed mention it yet, but I’m going to steal his thunder if he hasn’t as I want to share some of the reasons and techniques I used to make it.
Thank you to everyone who entered. There were actually 3 or 4 scripts that I would have liked to make but I had to pick one, and the winner came from Cynthia Abel.
I will be talking in other posts about what attracted me to the script (in fact I’ll let you see the original script in my next post) and why I chose this one over the others, but in the meantime…
CONGRATULATIONS to Cynthia and here’s the final mix of her vision for the Thirty Day Challenge Podcast Intro:
All the probloggers say not to apologize if you haven’t blogged for a little while, so I’m not going to say sorry. Instead I’ll just tell you what else I have been doing recently. First of all I have been writing pretty much all the content for the new Fresh Air Studios website. Fresh Air Studios is the professional audio production studio where I am based as a voiceover. The website hasn’t been fully launched yet but feel free to check it out, especially if you have a business that could benefit from a variety of audio solutions.
I have also been making use of Jason Moffatt’s Easy Video Sales, that I won recently. This is excellent stuff and I promise to create a proper review of it very soon, but in the meantime you can see his superb Mass Control presentation for absolutely nothing (you do need to give your name and email address). Mass Control was Frank Kern’s high priced event earlier this year and Jason gave away many of his video hijacker tips during his presentation (and then Ed Dale backed him up with a brilliant but simple YouTube trick near the end).
As part of the Immediate Edge I have been beta testing some new software called Market Samurai. This is not available at the moment but again I promise you a more detailed review. Apologies if you are following me on Twitter and fed-up of me raving about Market Samurai, but this is the best keyword/niche finding software I have ever used and they have already incorporated the extra information that Google is now revealing (as mentioned in my last post).
Finally, I have been gearing up for the Thirty Day Challenge which officially begins on 1st August. All the entries are in for the podcast intro competition and I’m almost sure I have found the winner (it’s a tough one, and I may need to make more than one intro). So, the next week will have to include me creating the intro in time for the challenge launch. I hope to video some of the process so you can see what’s involved.
For the past 2 years I have created an intro for Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge podcasts (actually the first one I created was for his Smackdown comp with Frank Kern in UltraUnderachievers, but it was used later for the 30DC).
This year I thought we should do it differently. This is partly because the pressure is on to be more creative than last year – eek! – but also because I thought it would be great to harness some of your creativity.
So, the plan is that we open it up as a competition and ask you to come up with your most creative scripts for this year’s Thirty Day Challenge podcast introduction.
If you feel up to the challenge, get your creativity flowing and write a script for me. The best one will be turned into an audio “masterpiece” and will have the honour of being heard by Thirty Day Challengers throughout the world (I’ll even send you a copy for posterity).
Now, because this is also to help you experience the reality of creating online audio, there are going to be some restrictions. Much as I would love you to be able to use any music, any voice actor and any creative concept you would like, this is not going to be possible due to costs and copyright laws.
So, this is the framework you need to work within:
Script to record should be between 30 and 90 seconds – any longer and it gets a bit tiresome (in fact, a minute of tightly written copy is preferable to 90secs with unnecessary padding)
You can use either a male or female voiceover or both but you are restricted to Jon Iles and/or Sally Williams (click on their names to listen to their showreels). This is simply because I work with them and know they will be happy to participate in the project. Jon is able to do some character voices and that fantastic deep movie trailer voice. If you don’t know whether something is possible with those voiceovers, include it anyway and I’ll see what I can do.
You cannot specify a particular music track as this is likely to cost a fortune in royalties, but you can say that music should be in the style of, for example, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Titanic etc. Or, you can simply specify that you would like it to have romantic music or sci-fi music. And, yes, you can have more than one piece of music on the podcast.
You can use sound effects (but please don’t make them too tricky to find or create – the sound of a specific Ferrari engine while travelling at 100 mph may be beyond my capabilities )
You can’t completely rip-off someone else’s work. For example, much as Ed would like a Kung-Fu Panda theme this year, it will probably breach copyright and have Dreamworks suing our a*ses quicker than you can say “Prepare for Awesomeness” Writing a script that completely mimics a film or tv script is a no-no (as well as being uncreative) but the occasional quote or referencing a film or tv show should be OK.
Once you have your ideas, please write them down in a script. Start with a brief paragraph explaining your overall concept, and then write your script, making it clear what is said by the voiceover, where the music comes in and where any sound effects are required.
The more detail the better, but don’t go overboard and write a screenplay! You’ve got 10 days to get your entry in (I’ll stop taking entries at midnight on Saturday 12th July), which should allow time to create the intro in time for the main challenge starting on August 1st. And if I really get my stuff together I will film some of the creation process too so you can see what’s involved.
Paste your script into an email and send it to lisa.hartwell@gmail.com. Include your real name, your forum name and a contact email address.
Oh, and if you aren’t already a Thirty Day Challenge participant, please sign up so you can get to grips with the concept of the Challenge before your write your script.
I think that’s everything but feel free to ask questions here on the blog or over at the relevant thread on the Thirty Day Challenge forum.
If this is your first year of the challenge and think I am speaking another language when I mention podcast intros, then take a listen to these previous ones for some ideas.
This was the intro in 2006 (remember it was originally created for the Smackdown battle between Ed Dale and Frank Kern in their UltraUnderachievers program):
I blogged previously about the ways you can use PLR creatively to promote your websites, gather leads and create products. In my Creative PLR post I mentioned how much I love the All Private Label content provided by Alice Seba and Mila Sidman. Well, they have just emailed me with a special offer for 2 new mini memberships: Craft PLR and Travel PLR.
Prsonally I am not in the craft niche but I am always on the look-out for quality travel plr, so I signed up for the All Travel Content Mini Membership straight away
At the moment, you can claim a $5 trial of each of the memberships by entering coupon code:
89684
Each membership includes 10 articles and 5 product profiles/reviews (great for monetizing your site). To test the content for just $5 go to:
I sat down earlier and created a list of different ways you could use PLR material (articles, reports and/or ebooks) that fits into my category of the Creative PLR User.
First, it might be worth explaining why you would want to be creative (in case it hasn’t clicked yet). Why go to the effort of adapting the PLR to these different formats?
It builds value. Ebooks are everywhere. They do still have some worth but by taking an ebook and adapting it to another format you are raising the perceived value of that material. You can make more money and set yourself apart from the other PLR users.
Creating multiple avenues of traffic. Taking your PLR material and creating non-written content from it increases the number of places you can post it and the amount of traffic you will receive.
Accessibility. People like their information in different formats. Some like the written word, some prefer audio, while others want video. You can reach more people by creating different media.
The following list of ideas is by no means exhaustive. I’m sure you can come up with more of your own. Feel free to add them in the comments. Different ideas lend themselves to some PLR material more than others – you’ll see what I mean:
Teleseminar series. Teleseminars can be great for lead generation and creating products. Take a PLR ebook, break it down into sections and lead a series of teleseminars on the material (allowing questions at the end of each seminar). You could even arrange for someone to interview you based on the material. Upsell to your main product or service. At the end of the teleseminar series you can sell the recordings or give them away as a bonus.
Webinar series. The next generation of teleseminars with visuals and online interaction. Create a powerpoint presentation to illustrate. Same uses as the teleseminars.
E-courses. Rather than sell a single ebook, you could deliver an ecourse over a series of weeks based on the ebook. Ebook value = $19.95. Ecourse value = $97.
Podcasts. You can use PLR in different ways in podcasting. Some examples; (a) take an ebook and break down the content to create regular weekly podcasts on the topic, (b) record a daily tip (podcasts don’t have to be long and this idea might lend itself to a daily recipe podcast, for example), (c) if you have a regular podcast you could use PLR to create features within your main podcast (take a listen to the audio example below)
Videos. We all know the power of YouTube and other video channels. Take PLR articles or reports and create videos around them. It can be as simple as a powerpoint presentation with you talking over it, or if you have super-douper video skills you can create something really spectacular.
TV Shows. With the emergence of good quality live video streaming such as UStream and Justin.tv creating your own tv show is relatively easy. Many simply present to camera, but again technology means you can be a lot more creative (check out some of Mr Ed Dale’s Thirty Day Challenge TV shows – and yes he uses Macs…in case you hadn’t heard!). You could even have your own cookery or craft making show, if you’re feeling brave.
Newsletters. I don’t mean emailed newsletters but those paper things that we used to send to people before the days of the Internet. Some people still like receiving them in the mail. Some people will pay well for a newsletter subscription. Just add good graphics and design elements.
Membership sites. It’s quite simple to set up a membership site (says someone who has never done it…but so I’ve heard) and providing PLR content in different formats adds to the value of being a membership.
There are many more ideas but I think it’s time for an example. When I worked in radio we often had sponsored features. A company would pay to have their tag (audio branding) linked to a feature within the show. This could be a feature that already existed (such as the Surf Report or Entertainment news) or one that was created to be relevant to the advertiser (i.e. the sales exec would do anything to get some money out of the client and promise them their own specially produced feature).
I remember once having to write daily fitness tips for a feature sponsored by a local gym. What I wouldn’t have given for my All Health Content PLR back then. Come to think of it, what I wouldn’t have given for the Internet back then!
Anyway, what all this is building up to is that you don’t even need to create your own regular podcast. You can simply “sponsor” a feature in someone else’s related podcast. Rather than offering them money, offer to produce a regular feature for their show as long as you can brand it with your website name and url.
I have taken an article from the All Health Content I subscribe to (Alice Seba and Mila Sidman produce some great PLR), and added an intro and outro (or tag) which is branded with my website. The intro is very simple to make – just take some royalty free music (ProductionTrax is one of my favourite places to buy it and they even offer compilations of 30 second spots so you don’t have to edit the music yourself) and mix your voice over the top using a free program like Audacity. The music I have chosen here is quite light and breezy (think Oprah) but you can choose music to reflect your content.
If you have never made something like this before it is going to take you some time to create initially. But after familiarising yourself with the technical elements and learning what sounds good and what doesn’t, you will soon be able to create them relatively quickly.
Who do I recommend for PLR content?
It really does depend on your niche. There is all manner of PLR online. I’m subscribed to a couple at the moment.
As already mentioned, I am subscribed to All Private Label Content. They produce monthly content for Moms, Health, Finance, and Marketing (articles, reports, affiliate suggestions, product reviews) as well as one-off article and research bundles. Good quality stuff and great value.
I also subscribe to Nicheology who release 2 ebooks a month (with salesletter and profile) to members but they call them Products in the Rough because all the info is there but it’s up to you to develop it how you want. Plus there’s loads of training and ideas, extra niche product profiles, and you get all the previous months’ stuff too. They limit the number of members so they aren’t always open to new subscribers but it’s worth checking out their site.
Finally, I have bought some great article bundles from Easy PLR. Sometimes article bundles are the way to go if your niche is too specialized to maintain regular monthly content or you are specific about what you want and don’t need ebooks on a myriad of different subjects.
There are loads more, so find the PLR that’s right for you and then it’s time to get creative!
If you haven’t come across PLR (or Private Label Rights) content before, then this is simply articles and other material (ebooks, reports etc.) that are created and sold to multiples of people so they can use them as their own. This usually means purchasers can modify them, use them on their own websites and in their newsletters, sell the ebooks/reports to others (but not the rights to them) and so on (you need to check the individual service’s terms and conditions for how their content can and can’t be used).
The positive aspect of PLR material is that it’s relatively cheap to purchase and means you don’t have to spend time and/or money creating your own content. The downside is that it is distributed to tens and even hundreds of other people. In the case of articles, this means you need to re-write each article significantly to avoid the duplicate content issue with the search engines. In the case of ebooks, you need to change graphics, titles, sales letters and sometimes even content in order to make it appear that you are the only site offering this book.
And therein lies the problem with PLR. Not in the content itself but in the users. In order to use PLR to its fullest potential there is still an element of effort involved.
There are several different PLR users:
Those who buy it and never use it (yes, it happens, just as it does with any product or service we buy online that requires action – some will just sit on it and never do anything with it)
Those who buy it and put it on the Internet “as is” i.e. they make no attempt to change the articles or provide a unique angle to the ebook. It’s not impossible to make some money or gather leads this way, it just isn’t as effective as….
Those who buy it and adapt it before publishing on the Internet. For example, they re-write articles using new well-researched keyword phrases, create reports from a bunch of individual articles or break down ebooks into articles and reports, add their own graphics, change titles, and add affiliate links and recommendations to reports. These are the PLR users who are putting a little more time into creating original content from shared material, and are doing it well. But I still think there is another class of PLR user, and that is…
Those who buy it and use it CREATIVELY. A tiny tiny fraction of PLR users fit into this class and find ways to use their PLR in highly original ways.
Before we look at some of the truly creative ways to use PLR, let’s look at some of the more standard ways to use it. I’m not dissing these in the slightest – they all have their benefits – and maybe even these will give you some ideas or help you see the value of PLR:
Articles – taking PLR articles and putting them on your own site or blog, on Web2.0 sites that link to your own, on Article Directory sites (not all PLR providers allow this) or in your newsletters.
Viral Ebooks and Reports to give away as lead generation
Ebooks and Reports to sell or give away to your current leads and customers
Breaking up ebooks to create reports and articles
Putting articles together to create reports for lead generation
Creating bonuses – relevant to another product or ebook you are selling
Ezine/newsletter content to send to your mailing list
eCourses to send out over days or weeks to those who sign up to your list
Audio books and reports
Yes, I know you thought my creative uses for PLR were going to involve creating audio books, after all I am a voiceover and audio producer, but actually I think audio books are still a standard use for PLR material – just not one that many people consider or pursue. There are even Audio PLR services available, but my own experience of these has not been good in terms of quality or adaptability.
Tomorrow, I’ll be giving you ideas on how to go beyond the standard with your PLR, including an example of how to adapt a simple PLR article and a couple of the PLR services I highly recommend.
