Hey, there!
You: “Um, what’s with the capital ‘R’ in the word ‘Redirection’ in the title of this post, David?”
Me: “I’m glad you noticed. And it’s capitalized because it’s really important. It can mean the difference between someone booking you for a VO job, or them booking someone else.”
You: “Wow. That does sound important.”
Me: “I know. Here’s why…”
You’ve got a WordPress site. It’s going great.
Imagine linking, all over the web, on your own web page, on your About Me’s on Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, etc, to your demos or profile page over on Voice123. That Voice123 link is now everywhere.
Then, one day, you wake up, and you find that no one can find your demos. Or profile. Because Voice123 decided to change the format of their links, or, perish the thought, they go out of business or change their name or who knows what.
Now, all of your links don’t work. And you have to hunt them all down and change them, one by one, with no guarantee you’ll ever find them all.
And for sure, someone is going to want to hear your demos, not be able to find them, and end up booking someone else instead.
No one wants that, right?
No, you don’t.
So, plan for disaster, and use something called Redirection.
If you use WordPress, the Redirection plugin makes the problem of broken links manageable. Imagine, if you will, a link that YOU create, on YOUR site, that remains constant, and that, in turn, redirects people who click on it to the real link of your choosing – the actual location of your demo, as an example. You can make your created link something easy to remember, like:
http://yourdomain.com/commercial-demo
…and then have it point to whatever the actual location is for your demo’s MP3 file. The Redirection plugin makes that a snap. Then, use that created link everywhere instead of the actual URL.
And then, should the actual URL of your demo, or target link, have to ever change, you can just update the Redirection plugin’s settings, and everywhere that your created link exists, they will all instantly point to the new, updated target link. Let Voice123 wreak havoc with where they put your demos – you just calmly update your Redirection target link, and all will be well with the universe.
And, actually, it doesn’t just apply to links to your demos on Voice123.com. Because any website can change their URLs at a moment’s notice. And that’s a lesson that was brought home to me recently.
I started to get a bunch of emails from 60 Second readers, telling me that the link I’d published in one of my posts, the one that let you vote for VO2GoGo in the BACKSTAGE Readers’ Choice Awards, was giving them a “This survey has been closed” message.
Turns out that overnight, BackStage changed their voting page URL. And that meant that all of the newsletters that went out yesterday no longer have a working link in them.
Well, from now on, I’ll be able to fix that, in this and all future posts, just in case they get “creative” again. All I did was create a Redirection link on the VO2GoGo.com website, and chose the current working link at Backstage as the target.
Works like a charm. For now.
(And we won, by the way.)
But, if BACKSTAGE changes the URL again, all I have to do is change the target URL that my created URL points to, and all will still flow smoothly.
So, for the links that really matter, that are off your site and out of your control, use a Redirection plug in, or, have your web designer create redirection links that you can change on the fly.
Hope this helps.
David
David,
I don’t have the techno knowledge that can comprehend at the geek level…most performer artists probably don’t…we dwell in that rarified (if that’s the right word) world of romantic idealized notion that we can gain the attention of viewers/listeners and they will wish to see/hear us “perform”…I think art is born of the desire, the anguished, often, desire to be recognized, given value, approval, and ultimately love. I’m waxing philosophical now, but art and philosphy are cousins if not brother/sister…? Any, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosopy, Horatio.”
Bruce C
I feel I stand in your shoes Bruce Carradine, It’s almost as if that part of my brain which computerizes is non available to me. My arms go up in gestures the god’s can see but my Apple does not comprehend. AHHHH MEEEEEE!
Great advice David. When I’m wealthy I’ll hire an assistant. Linda Roper
Wow, David! What great info – you are a jewel and a true servant of the industry – particularly to us who are working at working! Thanks! xoxoxxo
You are, quite simply, AMAZING!! If a tech- challenged person like me can even begin to understand what you’re talking about- well, that’s something.
By the way, the link to the survey takes me to a page that says they are not accepting any more responses at this time.
Sorry to have missed the opportunity to vote for you because I would definitely have !!
See you later today- looking forward!!
Pretty links is a nice option too. Its a url shortener which uses your domain as root.
This is a true gem.. I’ve just been getting into naming links properly on my website – and its very helpful to know I can also do this. Redirection here I come! Thanks David
Thanks, David! I always wondered how exactly you did that. This will save a lot of trouble!
Wow, there is so much more to navigating the web then clicking links and typing url’s. How did you learn all this?
Some courses, books, years of working at Apple or just poking around on the computer?
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us who have PC learning disabilities.
Hey, congrats on the win! Not surprised in the least. I really want to learn WordPress and make my own site. I’ve done a few online tutorials and feel that I could do it if I had someone I could be accountable to. Didn’t you say you were going to add a make-you-own-website-on-wordpress class to your curriculum? That would be unbelievably awesome! Keep up all the great work – we count on you!
hee hee, I had to read this one thru again to fully comprehend it. now that I have, wow. cool. luv it.