Your Simple Guide to a Voice Over Career

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There are other ways to protect your mental health as well.

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Long-form narrator Ilyana Kadushin recommends taking frequent tea breaks, taking time to close your eyes and rest your mind, and paying attention to your posture and positioning in the booth. All of these suggestions not only help to protect your voice, but also help to protect your state of mind and help you to avoid burnout. There are so many other advantages to being a voice actor like being your own boss, working from home, and going to work in your pyjamas.

For many people, these attractive working conditions outweigh the sometimes stressful situations posed by working in an industry known for high competition and lightning-speed turnaround times. At the end of the day, being a voice actor is a unique career path that is sure to expose you to new people, new thoughts, and knowledge in new areas that you would have never expected.

You may have a natural talent for voice over, but the most successful voice actors will attest that education is still crucial to success. There is so much value in attending training sessions and hiring a voice over coach. Vocal coaches are industry gurus who can expose you to techniques, concepts and tactics you would have never thought of otherwise.

They can broaden your horizons in ways that help you become more connected with your talent, and then turn your upgraded skills into dollars. Many voice over coaches offer generalized training for beginners, but there are a plethora of coaches who offer specialized training in every niche you can think of.

They can help with audio production education, and demo production, accent training or reduction, character voice development, marketing your services, and so much more. Voice actor David Thackara shares his thoughts on voice over coaching, as well as his 3 best tips for voice actors who are getting started, including: To learn more about how to choose the best voice coach, and what services voice coaches offer, check out our Selecting a Voice Coach article.

Budget was the last factor on their mind when deciding to hire a voice actor.

There are many considerations to take into account when calculating what you should charge for your services. The best place to start is by understanding the voice over business model. From the perspective of break-even and profitability, you need to factor in the costs associated with running your business and managing your career. Only once you understand your expenses, will you understand what it will take to make a profit.

At a bare minimum, the salary expectation you set for yourself needs to account for those costs and others associated with conducting business. From the perspective of building your business, as you gain experience, build your client base and referral network, and complete jobs for more notable brands, your salary can increase too. Voice actors who have more developed brands, higher reputations, and more notable clients in their portfolio are able to set higher rates.

And sometimes it comes down to confidence. Beyond the business scope mentioned above, some quote considerations need to be weighed repeatedly for every voice over job you go for: Ensuring you get all of the necessary details from the client ahead of time will help you to provide your most accurate quote.

You can also read more about how to crunch the numbers into your very own voice over rate sheet. A voice over home studio is essential to enabling you to produce high-quality work for your clients. This may not be as daunting as it sounds, because a recording studio only needs to be large enough for you to comfortably sit in.

People can get quite creative with which spaces they convert into voice over studios — from garages to closets. In this article, audio experts offer sound advice on where you should spend money and where you can save money when setting up a recording studio on a budget. Regardless of whether you choose to spend or save on the cost of building your home recording studio, there is one important step that is often overlooked — and that is soundproofing your studio.

Soundproofing is one of the most important considerations for those who wish to set themselves apart with professional sound quality, as well as those who wish to save valuable time. Imagine how much time and frustration you would save if you could reduce the number of unwanted sounds you had to edit out after recording your track. It helps to remember that soundproofing has three key phases — all of which must work together to create the perfect voice over environment. Specifically, soundproofing needs to address: There are a lot of different microphones available on the market and about ten times as many opinions over which microphone is best.

However, the process of choosing a mic must be tailored towards which one best suits your unique voice. Unlike pay-to-play sites, there is no membership fee. That low price is the main beef people have with Fiverr. Plus you can price add-ons to increase your rate even more. Even if your rates are higher than the competition, someone may be willing to pay more to have YOU voice their project. For me personally, there was one other big factor that helped me make my decision about whether or not to be listed on Fiverr. Finally, just publish your gig and your voice-over services will be on the Fiverr marketplace ready for sale!

Have you ever checked out your local chamber of commerce business directory? Do a quick Google search to find your local chamber of commerce. Go through the list and look for businesses you feel could gain value from your voice-over services. Think about where voice-over fits in and could benefit their business. Use info you find on their website to write a short script and send them a custom voice-over sample. I also recommend you follow him on social media in order to get updates. Instead they spend their marketing budget finding businesses with jobs to post. As you can see, everything you need to make changes to your profile or answer castings can be found right there in one place.

The clients who post voice-over jobs are typically located outside the U. There are no commissions, fees or add on costs. Voice talents work with and are paid by clients directly. Then fill in your name, email and create a password. With the free membership you have a profile and can see the public job postings and their budget but not the script. I recommend upgrading to a paid membership. Bodalgo has 3 paid membership plans you can upgrade to:. So it really paid off. Those are clients I never would have been exposed to without being a member of Bodalgo. Now make sure your profile and demos are up to date.

Once you upgrade you can instantly audition for any open jobs. So before you quote a voice-over project make sure you do the currency conversion using a calculator. Radio imaging was one of my first loves. Go to Voice and signup for a free account. You can sign in using Linkedin, Facebook or email. I always use my email when I sign up for new things. Voice makes it simple to create your voice actor profile. The site will walk you through your profile creation. Voice has a crazy intelligent algorithm called SmartCast which will judge you based on the ratings clients give you after listening to your audition.

If your auditions continue to have low ratings SmartCast will take note and not send you as many opportunities. Once your profile is complete, you need to select your membership level: ACX is where many authors and publishers go to convert their books into audio books. ACX has some strict requirements when producing audio books. Use the filters section to narrow it down by gender, genre if you have a specific genre you prefer or if you want to exclude , and the project rate. Publishers select whether they are willing to pay for narration with a Royalty Share or per finished hour of audio.

Most of the titles are listed as royalty share. This means you receive of portion of the audio book sale proceeds. If you choose to narrate a title that pays via royalty share, ACX will provide you with earnings statements on a monthly basis. There are many factors that determine the success or failure of an audio book. Most are out of the hands of the voice actor who provided narration for the project. For that reason, I prefer to be paid by finished hour for audio books. Now you can review the audition script and read direction notes from the publisher.

Just record your audition and upload the MP3. Have you ever thought about how your family and friends can help you open doors to new voice-over work? Make sure friends and family know exactly what it is that you do. So share some projects. Let them hear your work. If a friend or family member works at a company you think could use voice-over in some way — bring it up to them. Ask them who would be the best person to contact.

If your friend or family member owns a business, do a sample phone greeting voice-over to show how you can help them sound more professional. Mandy Voices, part of the larger Mandy Network, is a creative community where you can do more than just look for voice-over jobs. It offers networking opportunities and career tools that will help you build your voice-over business and reputation, as well as job listings.

Blog posts are great right? You could read a blog and learn to cook an amazing dinner tonight or read about places to visit during an upcoming vacation. Otherwise you can use a site that has a list of popular blogs, like Alltop. Skip any blog that is written by a branded personality. Fans and followers usually want to hear the voice of the personality behind the blog.

Or go directly to the page here. You can see the companies as a list or on a map view, and you can refine your search even further to see the services they offer, their star rating on the site, and their exact location. No matter which techniques you choose to use, if you follow that path consistently the result will be voice-over work everyday. Try one and see what kind of result you get.

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Jason thank you so much for that article. It was extremely thorough — just what I needed! As someone re-entering the business who previously relied on word of mouth in a small market, that article was extremely helpful! I followed the advice you gave me a few weeks ago considering my website and I also joined voices. I am also fitting a large walk-in closet with a studio. Thank you for a very informative article. I had also passed on Fiverr before, but will give it a second look. I can also attest to finding work on ACX for those who are looking for audio book work.

Not only have I been able to secure steady work there, I also made contact with a publisher who helps keep my audio book jobs jumping. Thanks for checking it out Greg! Very true — audio books can be a great source of on-going income.

23 Ways to Find Voice Over Work Today That Will Generate Income Tomorrow (Updated 2018)

Great article and suggestions. I keep scratching my head and wondering how to gain clients. This article has it all and I will be implementing many of your recommendations in my daily marketing. Thanks for the insight and into. Looking forward to seeing the results. They provide the voice talent to their clients — but also sell equipment to VO artists from a simple mic to a full booth installation.

10 Steps To Improve Your Voice Over Career Opportunities

Voices website has too many people. My auditions never even get listened to. Thanks for the input! Lots of great tips here, nice one! I shall certainly try a few of them. The P2P sites are a good way of finding these clients and establishing on going relationships with them. I was invited to join Voice Bunny when they started up, as I was a member of Voice at the time.

From time to time a client will contact me through Voice Bunny and ask me specifically to do a read for them. Partly because of the ridiculously low fees for the work, but mostly because of the system which makes it impossible for you to have any direct contact with the client. This is a major impediment to delivering a read which the client actually likes. As a VO actor, I very often have some questions about the text and the style the client wants — sometimes uncertainty about pronunciation, or perhaps you spot an error in the text and want to check if the client wants it like that or wants you to change it.

It also makes the job more satisfying, having actual human contact.

Voice Bunny makes it absolutely impossible to connect with the client. If the client does want a revision, you can charge for that, although Voice Bunny tries to make you feel bad if you do. In all other VO work I have done, I will do as many revisions as the client wants at no extra cost. But all other VO work I have done pays much more than Voice Bunny, and revisions is just part of the job. So when I do have a revision request — even for a single word — I will charge the same amount as the original fee. If I do get 2 or 3 revisions, the fee starts to approach a professional level.

This system is inherently bad, and encourages the talent to provide a read which makes it past the Nazi Bunny approval, but which the client will not be happy with. Not that I would do that, of course, as it is hard-wired into me to always try and deliver the highest possible quality of work. You just need to make that commitment to book out some time, without feeling guilty about it, and block out all distractions so that you can really focus on your career — what you really want out of your voice over career, and out of your life.

By making career planning a more regular feature, you will feel more secure in your decisions you make, be better prepared for the any uncertainties that lie ahead and know what you need to do to succeed. The first and most important step in the voice industry is to assess yourself. Well let give you a short explanation as to why this first step is vital whether you are a professional or a new to voice over. You might have heard of the expression the map is not the territory. It was an expression used by Alfred Korzybski. We take a view of all the possible routes then focus on the one that is going to minimise our time to get to our destination.

Sometime then passes and you still use the same route. However, during that time new roads have been developed that could save you time.

The key point is that no longer understand and know the map. In terms of voice over you need to stay relevant, adapt as the market changes and optimise your skills to the shifts in the market. Successful people have goals, but even if you have a career or are already in a professional position, you may struggle on occasion with progressing along a path upwards in your career. It can be easy to feel suffocated, confined, or lacking direction when it comes to navigating through a career. To keep from veering off track, it is helpful to set up career goals. Career goals will represent objectives, benchmarks, and milestones in your career.

Before you set your career goal, there are few things that you should know about goals, as they are set on various levels. First, decide what you want to do, accomplish. Secondly, split your larger goal into smaller and more achievable goals or targets that you have to achieve. This will make accomplishing your goal easier to manage and will help you breakdown the process into a step by step approach which will ultimately lead to your goal. Finally, you will want to formulate and develop a proper plan for your goal. It can be best to establish a step by step plan that will enable you to start working towards achieving it.

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