Make the Most of Voices.com

Now that you got started on the web, you are going to flock to a few websites to get your name out there and get some work. One of the major websites to recruit voice over artists is Voices.com. I am an avid user of Voices.com and I have booked about 20% of my work through the service.

Voices.com is not without it’s drawbacks. It does cost money to become a member ($30 USD per month) and you do have a ton of competition. There is also a huge waiting game involved with Voices.com. As you start to get jobs, more will come. Persistence is key.

The first thing you need to do on Voices.com is create a good profile. Make sure that your bio is written well. Make sure your experience, skills and equipment is listed. See my post here about writing a good bio to help you. Add a photo of yourself that’s a good headshot or, a photo in the style of a headshot.

Once that is done, start looking for work. When you look through the jobs opened to you, read the description carefully. If you can not provide the client with everything they need, do not audition! You’ll waste your time and theirs.

If a script is provided, read the script completely before you decide to audition. When you read the script, make sure that you are able to read everything clearly and pronounce every word clearly.

Once you’re ready to audtion for a job, give the client a customized audition! Many clients will ask for a script read or partial read up front. Take some time out of each day to record custom auditions. Give the script  a few practice reads before you record the audition. Make sure to watermark your audition before you send it out. Don’t know what a watermark is? Here’s some information on how to watermark your work.

Which Sites to Start On?

I have a lot of people I network with who are just starting out in the voice over world. One of the first things people ask is how do you start online? There are quite a few sites for voice over artists that promise you to get work. Some of them are good and others are best left until you have some work under your belt.

Voices.com is the first one many people go to. I will be honest, Voices.com is not the best bet for someone just beginning. Yes, they do market themselves for all levels of experience but the competition on that site is *very* heavy. If you don’t have a good demo and some experience, you are going to get overlooked for someone else. At $30 a month, you have to look at the return on your investment. I’ll be writing a post soon to give you some hints on how to work voices.com and get jobs.

Voice123.com is a site I can not review or recommend. I haven’t made it past their sign up phase. They immediately ask you to pay an almost $300 premium up front in order to audition for jobs. I really can’t see myself shelling that money out when their service has not proved that they are worth my money. Maybe they need to add a free trial period or something.

Elance.com is a good place to start. Yes, it does cost $10 a month and it isn’t a voice recruiting site. You do have an option to sign up under voice talent in the Design and Multimedia category. The jobs are not high paying, but the competition is not high either. It is a very good way to get your foot in the door and get some smaller jobs to work on your resume and experience.

Odesk is similar to Elance, but Odesk is free to use. There are some drawbacks to that. There are a lot of “voice over professionals” on Odesk looking for work. The jobs are very low paying and Odesk does take a portion of your pay out. However, the work can be fairly steady and it is a good way to get some experience with no cost to you in the end.

I have used all four of the services that I mentioned. Elance doesn’t work out well for me at all. I finally canceled my account with them. The jobs weren’t paying me enough to want to continue to stay there. Odesk has been something I have stuck with. A few phone systems here and there, maybe a narration or two. The jobs are not high paying but they do add up to some nice extra cash in the end.

You already saw what I thought of Voice123.com . I really can not justify paying them almost $300 up front when I have not seen what the site can do for me yet. I would rather pay a monthly premium or try a trial basis first. If you have the extra money, give it a try. That turned me off fast.

Voices.com is probably my favorite site for voice over work. The competition is heavy, the audition process is easy and nothing is 100% guaranteed. It doesn’t sound so hot, so why is it my favorite? Stay tuned for that answer.

(The above post is an opinion only. Do your own research before you make a decision.)

There is a Balance

I am not a full time voice over artist. Many of us aren’t. The majority of us hold regular jobs during the day. It isn’t an easy balance to hold onto and a lot of questions are asked. How do you balance it? When do you decide to go full time? How many hours a day do you work? How do you handle your payments? The list goes on and on.

In order to really balance a home life and work life with voice over work you need to have three things always in mind. The first is self-discipline to know your limits. The second is great time management to make sure nothing suffers. The third is keeping an eye on your income and money.

During lunch breaks, I check for job auditions. If I am off work early, I work on auditions and send them out. When I have a job to work on, I do it at night after the kids have gone to bed or I wait until Saturday if I can. This ensures that I am with my family and I don’t cut in to too much family time.

Your time management will be different from mine. As time has gone on, I find I am taking more and more time with voice over work and jobs. I have moved myself to be a freelancer so I can work my own hours (most of the time) and I am able to manage my time better. As you start getting voice over work, you will need to set a schedule for yourself to balance your time.

I can’t answer the question “When do you decide to go full time?” Because I have not made that decision yet. From what I know of full time voice over artists, you must have a steady workload coming in and have a set income requirement as well.

I would assume it’s similar to my freelance work. I have a set number that I need from clients in order to live. If the client can’t provide me with that set number, I will take the job and do something else while that job is going on.

There are a lot of resources out there to help you be more productive as a voice over artist. Asking questions to full time professionals will also give you a good idea on how to balance things. If you do decide it’s time to really work on voice overs, get your schedule under wraps and manage yourself well. That is the key to a successful balance.

February Needs An Update

March is getting close! There has been no real update since December thanks to the move to Nashville. I’m sorry about that. Rest assured that I still have you all in mind.

Lately, I have been focusing very much on three things: marketing myself, time management and finding out what is the best investment for me.

I have branched out to create a page on Facebook for myself. Though my Facebook profile remains private, the Facebook fanpage will include some exclusive updates and posts that you will only get there. If you click on the link to the right of the page, you can join the Facebook page. All of that is part of better marketing myself since I’ve moved. Another thing I am focusing on is getting through to local businesses and sending them a demo and my information for their consideration. So far, it has been a good time investment.

My time management became a problem during the move. It’s difficult when everything is a mess and you don’t have the chance to work as you’re used to. A new city and new home brings new jobs and a new situation for me and my family. I have had a lot of opportunities handed to me; some of them would have caused me to move away from voice over work. After much prayer and thinking over what is most important, I have decided to let some of those opportunities drop for now so I can continue to focus on voice over work.

Another large issue has been what is the best investment for me. I am a member of a few websites where I am able to audition and get work. I also invest in website, server, streaming and some marketing materials. I have started to really look at what type of return I am seeing on my investments. Soon, I’ll have some personal reflections on that. Hopefully it will help others who are investing money in self-marketing and some voice over websites.

Projects? Yes! I do have projects coming up. I’ve signed on with a new company that creates browser based games. I’ll be narrating their first title and voicing some NPCs. I will also be with them in future titles. There is a much larger project in the works that I still can not talk about, but I can say it’s an animation. I am still working closely with Nathan Pinard on his various projects. I’ll be doing some studio work with Nathan in the coming weeks for a project with Christopher Buckner of Beyond Ascension.

March looks like it’s shaping up to be a very interesting month for me. There will be some shifts in how I invest my time, my money and how I market myself. I have been keeping a close eye on seminars, classes and reading blogs from the serious pros. I have definitely learned a lot and I am now applying what I have learned to make sure 2010 is a successful year for me.

Is Your Bio Going to Catch the Client’s Eye?

I realized something earlier today. My bio sucked. It was practically a Facebook “About Me” blurb. Obviously, my bio was not going to catch the eye of any potential clients. It was a horrible oversight on my part. The bios that I had up were uninteresting and written in five minutes.

Having a good bio is a part of marketing yourself to potential clients. The client wants to see at a glance what you can do for them and what you have already done. We will keep in mind that most people will only spend about thirty seconds on a bio.Which means it needs to be short, sweet and to the point.

Eye catching bios should be written in third person. This is a trick I learned from freelance writing. When you write in third person, people tend to feel it is more trustworthy. This is because you tend to trust what someone else says rather than the person talking about themselves.

Bios should include facts about you as a professional voice over artist. Don’t overdo it. Include the most important facts about yourself. A list of things such as relevant education,relevant experience or important clients you have worked for. Then move on to the voice itself. Post facts about your voice and how you deliver your voice and adapt it to fit different roles.

Be a little conversational, but keep it clean. That’s a tough one for most people. There’s a fine line between conversational and downright silly. This isn’t a Twitter conversation with a friend. You are selling yourself to a potential client in a thirty second window.

You should always add awards, honors or degrees you carry. All of that should be able to fit into one sentence. It is important that potential clients see what you have accomplished so far. Plus, we all know that it is nice to toot your horn a little.

Somewhere in that bio, throw in a fun fact about yourself that is relevant to what you do. The big exception to that rule is a fact that is very unique to you. I wouldn’t recommend to say that you are allergic to caterpillars in your bio (yes, I really am), but maybe the fact that you played guitar with Springsteen could be included (no, I did not).

If you need help writing a bio, there are plenty of writing services that could write you a bio for a small fee. Keep your bio short, interesting and sell yourself. Give your potential clients a reason to remember your name.

A Good-bye to a friend

I wanted to use my little space on the web this time to memorialize a good friend.

Today, my family and I made one of the most difficult decisions a family has to make. Our Twelve year old German Shepherd, Molly was let go. She had been going downhill fast. Her health had failed some time ago and there was no quality of life left for her. Molly was confused, hurting when she moved and had little control on her body. Letting her go was a good thing. It was not easy, but it was good.

Our family got Molly when I was Sixteen years old. She was just a little ball of puff then. She grew quickly into a beautiful German Shepherd dog who was as lazy as they come. Playing was never Molly’s strong point. She was always content to lay around the house near her people. As long as we were close, Molly was a happy dog.

Molly has been a welcomed pillow to many of my tired friends, a source of much love to our whole family and at one point she was responsible for saving me. When Molly was a year old, someone tried to break into our home. Molly and our other dog, Mungo , both alerted me to what was happening and tore through the yard after the person. The police confirmed that Molly and Mungo had run the person off and they jumped our back fence to get away from the dogs. If it wasn’t for those two, who knows what would have happened.

Relocated

The move has finally finished and I am all settled in Nashville, TN. I’m pretty excited about the prospects here vs. the prospects in Southern Illinois. There is a lot more voice work to be had here in Nashville. I am already seeing some requests come through and already hooking up with some local studios.

Currently I have a few projects in the works that involve voice acting and not commercial voice over. Unfortunately, I can’t say anything just yet because of a NDA on both projects. I can tell you that I am very excited about both of them. I can also tell you that one is a game and the other is an animation.

Yes, this is a small update. The update is more for the purpose of saying “I’m now a Nashville local”! I do look forward to working with a lot of businesses and studios in Nashville soon!

“G” Now available for your Netbook

This is a release coming from Soma Games regarding the [formerly] mobile game “G” which I provided the narration for. I’m very excited to see Soma Games moving along in the gaming world. They are an awesome company with some amazing ideas. I highly anticipate seeing what they have in the future.

It was all hush-hush up until the last minute but back in early December, we were invited by Intel to be one of their pioneer developers for the App Store they just launched at CES.
http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/appup.htm

We really didn’t know what to expect but it seemed like one of those too-good-…to-be-true opportunities so we dropped what we were doing (namely F) and busted our chops to make their very aggressive deadline…then we waited to see what would happen at CES.

The short answer is that the App Store has been big news and basically every major news organization in the country has covered it: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Gamasutra…everybody. What’s better – G is now one of only 22 or so games in the whole system and is currently number one or number two in ranking. w00t!

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Conquest of Heroes Trailer

This video is a trailer for the upcoming video game Conquest of Heroes by Beyond Ascension Ltd.

It is a look at the Liberty Island levels of the Conquest of Heroes game.

The video was created for Beyond Ascension Ltd. by students in Sweden for LiA placement. This is the final exhibit for their internship.

Music: Nathan Allen Pinard and Romeo Knight

Voice Over: Candace McCarty

Don’t Get Discouraged

A lot of people I know ask me about the work I do with voice overs. The majority of the time, I hear “How can I get into this?”. My answer is always the same to anyone; a lot of patience, time, investment and audition, audition, audition!
A few friends I know are beginning to audition for voice over roles. Some of them are getting discouraged about the audition process. Do not get discouraged! That is the main thing I would tell anyone. Auditions aren’t easy. This field isn’t easy either.

Get used to the word “no”. For every 1 “yes” you hear, you will most likely hear “no” 100 times. It is just the way it goes. The key is to keep going and keep auditioning.

When you do get a rejection, try and get some constructive feedback. This isn’t always possible, but sometimes you have open communication with the client. If that is the case, ask them for some feedback on your work. Use that feedback to improve.

While you are working on auditions, continue to improve yourself. Take workshops and classes, continue to practice and develop your voice and tones. Find a mentor if possible and work closely with them. All of this will help you in future auditions.

It is not an easy road. It takes a lot of perseverance as you break into voice overs and voice acting. On a personal opinion, I feel that voice acting is much harder because so many people have stars in their eyes and think they will be the next Nickelodeon/Disney/anime voice actor right away.

Be realistic about your goals. Your first audition is not going to land you a huge client. Set goals for yourself that are easy to reach. Within your first year, try and land at least one client with a good reputation to go on your resume. Try and produce a professional demo reel within that year as well.

That is just an example of goals to set. Of course, you will set your own for yourself. This year, my goals are to have a brand new character demo reel produced and a fully produced commercial reel as well. I have also set the goal to take on a major client which I have already started working on. These goals are realistic for me and I can reach them before December of 2010.

Set your goals for the year. Don’t get discouraged and keep at it.