There are a lot of balls to juggle in running your own business as a voice over artist. Staying on top of industry trends and learning from others who are doing well in the the voice arts is one of those spheres. I regularly check out blogs (and podcasts & vlogs) of some of the cream of the crop in our industry. Now anyone can talk can blog, but not everyone creates insightful content worthy of my (or your time). Earlier this year,  I began my To Ten Voice Over Blogs to Follow list and released interviews with people on the list.

Released in alphabetical order, we’ve so far heard from J Michael Collins, Dave Courvoisier, Bill DeWees and Anne Ganguzza. As well as following our next blogger for some time, I recently had the pleasure of working with Debbie Grattan on a national commercial, and as well as being inspired with her talent and skill set was impressed with her kindness and professionalism on set. Without further ado, here is number five from my list of the top ten voice over blogs to follow.

Voice Over Artist Debbie Grattan

Debbie, why do you blog about voice over?

SEO is the primary we reason we have a blog. But sharing information and writing articles that show my level of experience, professionalism and knowledge also helps in general marketing. Whether it’s sharing articles on social media or among my clients in an email newsletter, having content to put out is a big advantage when you’re trying to get peoples’ attention and have them check out your demos.

Do you have a theme to your blogs?

We have a couple main categories that are voice over related. Posts are written either for an audience of other voice over talent, or for an audience of people who hire voice over talent. Generally, we prefer to write content that appeals to the latter group, since that is what will most likely generate business. We also like to write about challenges we face and observations we make as small business owners and entrepreneurs. Much of our success in this business comes from maintaining a clear, consistent state of mind, a positive attitude when facing adversity and the ability to improvise when necessary. So we like to write about those topics as well.

Do you plan it out or wait for inspiration to strike?

We do a little of both… We have a planned number of blog posts we intend to publish per month, and we do what we have to do to stay on that schedule. Sometimes we want to highlight a certain topic, for example a specific genre of voice over, and we will write a series of articles on that topic.  Other times we just go with whatever topic idea we like, and find ways to skew it in the direction of voice over.

What are your favorite kinds of blogs to write about?

My husband and business partner worked for many years as a personal coach and he often contributes ideas that go in the direction of personal development, success strategies and just noticing what works and what doesn’t. So we like those types of articles, however, the most important topics to cover are those that appeal to the audience of voice talent seekers.

What kinds of blogs have you noticed get the most attention or feedback?

The post that has the most number of comments by far, is a post that my husband initially proposed about annoying speech patterns. Just type in “annoying speech patterns” in google and you should see it at the top of the list. He had been listening to NPR while driving the kids to school in the mornings and was on a rant about how these supposedly professional radio people used some very annoying speech patterns. So, that post started as a rant basically, and we seem to have tapped into something judging by how many people read and comment on the post still to this day.

We’ve also seen a lot of traffic on posts that address “male versus female voice talent.” And another hot one at the time it was written was a post on “Is your website mobile friendly?” That got huge traffic back when Google was updating their algorithms to favor sites that were compatible with smartphones. That is an even more important topic now that Google is using the compatibility metric in search results to an even greater extent.

Do you have anything else you’d like us to know about your blog in particular?

I recommend anyone who wants to get into voice over or improve as a voice over talent, do a lot of reading of blogs written by successful, experienced voice talent. There is a lot of wisdom out there. But keep in mind that everyone’s path is different and what works for one person may not work for the next person. I am not a voice over coach, yet I get contacted several times per week by people looking for guidance on how to be a voice talent. I always refer them to my blog and then suggest they look for reputable coaches and/or do some workshops. I’ve tried to put my “secrets of success” into my writing, so it’s all there for people to read. But, obviously, just reading it won’t make it happen. It takes consistent right action applied over a very long time period.