Grade Your Narrator Website

Welcome! This grading tool is based on 10+ years of creating websites in various industries—it includes general design and marketing principles, along with specific items narrators and voiceover talent can keep in mind.

Ideas that have been shared online from publishers and others have been added here too. Works for all kinds of websites: WordPress, SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly, or anything else—all these items can apply to your site.

There are 65+ questions, though not all may be visible, depending on relevancy and certain answers. All are Yes/No questions, so the whole thing will take only a few minutes, especially if you know your site well. The question scores are weighted as some items are more important than others.

After completing, you will receive:

A letter grade for your site
A copy of all your answers
A copy of all the items, ranked for importance

"*" indicates required fields

Step 1 of 7

14%

Let's get started!

Name*

First Last

Enter your email address and you'll receive a copy of your score and all the questions*

Enter Email Confirm Email

Enter your current website URL*

or state "none" if you don't have one, though I'd love to know what you're ranking! 😉

Beginning Items

Is your name featured prominently and clearly on your site?*

Yes

Do you have a tagline or message also listed clearly on your site?*

Yes

Do you have a photo of yourself on your site (or at least a drawing/sketch of you)?*

Yes

Do you have a branded domain for your site?*

For example: mynarrationsite.com is BRANDED; wordpress.mynarration.com is not.

Yes

Do you have a list of your completed audiobooks on your site?*

Yes

Do you have links to buy your previous works?*

Yes

Do you have reviews or testimonials listed on your site?*

Yes

Do you list publishers and authors you've worked with?*

Yes

Clips and Demos

Are your clips and/or demos easily accessible from the home page?*

Yes

Are your clips and/or demos labeled by genre?*

Yes

Are your clips and/or demos labeled by point of view (POV)?*

Yes

Are your clips and/or demos labeled by male and/or female dialogue?*

Yes

Are your clips and/or demos labeled by "narrative" or "dialogue"?*

Yes

For your dialogue clips, do you "get right into it"?*

Yes

Answer "no" if there's 30-60 seconds of narrative before the dialogue.

Do you offer download links for your clips/demos?*

Yes

Do you list languages spoken and/or your fluency?*

Yes

Conversational, fluent, etc.

Do you list the accents and dialects you can perform?*

Yes

Do you have at least 1-2 separate clips showcasing your accent work?*

Yes

About You and Your Setup

Do you have an "About You" section or page?*

Yes

Do you share your areas of expertise?*

Yes

These can share where you have insight or an advantage for narration.

Do you share your background?*

Yes

Do you share where you studied and with whom?*

Yes

Do you designate if training was the "Full Curriculum" a "Workshop", etc?*

Yes

Do you share what you are passionate about?*

Yes

Do you list the kind of recording space you use?*

Yes

Home studio, VO Booth, Recording space, etc

Do you list all the equipment, tools, and technology you use?*

Yes

General Web Design Principles

Is your website easy to navigate?*

Yes

Is your website easy to read? Is there enough contrast between text and background?*

Yes

Are you using only 2-3 colors on your site, in terms of fonts, buttons/accents, and background? Too many colors can become jarring or confusing and make things hard to read.*

This does not include colors in photos, though if you can tie together the color scheme of a picture with the rest of your site, that's great cohesion and branding!

Yes

No - more than 3

Are you using only 1-2 fonts on your site?*

Yes

No - more than 2

Do you have different fonts for the HEADINGS and for the BODY of your site?*

Yes

Do you have a clear Call to Action (CTA) on your home page, preferably at the top?*

Click here, contact, sign up, etc.

Yes

Does your CTA "pop" against the background - is it obvious?

Yes

Are you keeping people on YOUR site? Or are you immediately linking them to other sites?*

Audible, Soundcloud, ACX

My site

Other sites

Are you making good use of the top of your home page? This is considered your "front door" or "welcome mat" or (in newspaper terms) "above the fold". It's the very first thing people see and is prime real estate!*

Are you featuring your best work, have a clear CTA?

Yes

Does your website look good on mobile devices and is it responsive?*

Yes

Interactivity on your site

Do you have a contact form and/or your info listed for people to get in touch with you?*

Yes

Do you have an email newsletter sign up form?*

Yes

Are you offering a free incentive for people signing up to your email newsletter?

Coupon code, discount, free audio, etc.

Yes

Is your free incentive really compelling?

"join my newsletter!" is NOT enough

Yes

Do you have a customized welcome email when someone joins your list?

Yes

Do you also have a customized welcome page on your website when someone joins your list?

Are they auto-redirected once they confirm?

Yes

When someone joins your list and receives the free gift promised, is there a customized page with the download link?

Yes

Are you using custom or banded header graphics/images at the top of your newsletters?

Are they auto-redirected once they confirm?

Yes

Do you have a Blog or News page with updates?*

Yes

Has your blog or news page been updated within the last 30 days?

Yes

Does your blog or news page include featured images on each post?

Yes

Social Media

Do you link to your social media profiles on your site?*

Yes

I'm not on social media

Do you have a Facebook page?*

Yes

Does your Facebook page have a branded/custom profile pic and header graphic?

Yes

Is there a recent update on your Facebook page?

Or do you just maintain a presence there and have you "pinned" an update saying to find you on another platform?

Yes

Do you have a Twitter account?*

Yes

Does your Twitter account have a branded/custom profile pic and header graphic?

Yes

Is there a recent update on your Twitter account?

Or do you just maintain a presence there and have you "pinned" an update saying to find you on another platform?

Yes

Do you have an Instagram account?*

Yes

Does your Instagram account have a branded/custom profile pic and header graphic?

Yes

Is there a recent update on your Instagram account?

Or do you just maintain a presence there and have you "pinned" an update saying to find you on another platform?

Yes

Do you have a LinkedIn account?*

Yes

Does your LinkedIn account have a branded/custom profile pic and header graphic?

Yes

Is there a recent update on your LinkedIn account?

Or do you just maintain a presence there and have you "pinned" an update saying to find you on another platform?

Yes

Behind-the-scenes of your site

Do you have security monitoring in place?*

To detect malicious code, prevent spam, block illegal attempts to login

Yes

Do you have backup software in place and regularly running?*

Yes

Do you have spam filtering in place, to reduce comments, etc?*

Yes or I've turned off all commenting on the site.

Do you have a secured connection to your site? Do you have the 's' in https://yourdomain.com?*

Yes

Do you have a favicon for your site?*

The little graphic that appears in the browser tab

Yes

Do you have a custom smartphone graphic for your site?*

The image that appears on the "home" screen of a phone if you save it.

Yes

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Let's get started!

Beginning Items

Clips and Demos

About You and Your Setup

General Web Design Principles

Interactivity on your site

Social Media

Behind-the-scenes of your site

For Authors

For Fans

Let's get started!

Beginning Items

Clips and Demos

About You and Your Setup

General Web Design Principles

Interactivity on your site

Social Media

Behind-the-scenes of your site

Footer

Keep in Touch

For Authors

For Fans