The New Voice123 Is Coming...

The trailer below is missing its voice. Isn’t it plain? Click on it to listen to the difference when it gets the Voice123 formula: The perfect voice for every project.

If you cannot see the trailer, go to http://v2.voice123.com

PS. Want another reason to see the trailer? Here is a clue: the new Voice123!

New Forums for the Production and Voice Community

We are very glad to present to you one of the most exciting releases of this year: The Voice Over Savvy Forum.

This free-to-all forum has the objective of creating an online community around the voice over and production industries. VoiceOverSavvy.com is there to be whatever you want it to be. Here are some ideas of how you can use it:

· Get critique and feedback on your productions, scripts, etc.
· Ask technical questions.
· Suggest new ideas.
· Share your experiences.
· Learn how to find and direct talents.
· Look for help and help others.
· Discuss anything related to the voice over and production industries.

The forum is free to use and you can sign in with the same user and password as your Voice123 account. We expect it becomes a useful resource for all of us and let’s make it a place to learn, teach, have fun, and express ourselves. We have been expecting it for a while and finally it is ready, so we hope you enjoy it and see you there!

Be Part Of The Voice123 Showcase

Would you like your voice and the voice services you provide to be shown proactively to thousands of voice seekers, talents and producers? If so, keep on reading.

Here's how you can receive enormous exposure

We are working to create a showcase of some of the best examples of the work Voice123 talents and producers have produced in response to projects and leads received through Voice123. The showcase will be highly visible on our website to all existing and new users. That's more than 250,000 visits per month!

How do I get in to the showcase?

For your voice to qualify you need to meet the following requirements:

· You'll need to have been selected to be the voice or producer of a widely distributed or very popular piece of audio. All types are suitable, from TV commercials to phone systems.

· The end client must be a prestigious organization. But it's ok if you were hired by an organization that is not widely known, as long as the recording was to promote a popular product or service.

· You must obtain your client's authorization to showcase on Voice123 the piece of audio (and video, where applicable), the script, the name of your client, and the fact that they used Voice123 to find you.

I like the idea. How can I apply?

First, collect or document all the following information:

· The script of the piece of audio.

· The exact date your client contacted you. We will need this information to double check that the client found you through Voice123.

· The date and place of the recording.

· The actual piece of audio (and video, where applicable) in a very high quality format.

· The name and contact details of the client.

· Written proof that the client has approved the audio, his or her name, the name of the organization, the organization's logo and the name of the product for showcasing by Voice123.com (an email from the client will be acceptable as proof).

Second, submit all the information above by email to help@voice123.com with the subject line "Showcase". You may attach any information you consider relevant. For example, the campaign in which the piece of audio was used, a client's testimonial for your services, etc.

Third, we will verify all the information you give us and decide whether it's good enough to be included in our showcase. We will let you know if you've been approved.

What if I do something great in the future?

No problem. Feel free to submit your application anytime, following the instructions above.

Questions?

If you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Long Live The Voice Community!

A Very Busy Week

Voice123 is very happy to let you know that the The Voice Over Savvy Forum has exceeded all expectations. More than 440 articles have been posted since the forums were launched last Wednesday, a much higher number than we ever imagined. Even though the VoiceOverSavvy.com forums experienced a problem on Thursday, when the login system failed due to high traffic stopping users to create new posts, the forums have been massively active! Check out some great posting below.

Win a Premium Subscription!

The VoiceOverSavvy.com forums are not just a place to talk and learn, but also a place to win! Starting in November, Voice123 will be giving away a one-year Premium Subscription every month amongst the 50 most active users of the VoiceOverSavvy.com forums during that month. The winner will be randomly selected the first day of each month and the results will be posted in the forums. Don’t wait to be part of this online community and, with a new reason to participate, take full advantage of the VoiceOverSavvy.com forums.

Check Out These Topics

Very interesting topics and replies have been posted in the VoiceOverSavvy.com forums. These are some great discussion you may want to check out:

Upload and Re-sampling Quality When Submitting Auditions
“I have a tech problem and was wondering if anyone else was experiencing the same thing. Many times when I upload a file for an audition it plays back distorted with a slight echo or Darth Vader kind of quality”. Check more than 20 answers at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=22

Health insurance needed for VO Talents
“[…] my biggest concern is not being able to get health insurance. [I] can't get it for myself unless I'm part of a group policy. My wife stays home taking care of our children so I can't get insurance through her work”. Let us know if you also need health insurance at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=34

Phone Patch Recording via Skype?
“I hear much about phone patch recording - I've never done it and do not currently have the gear. Can anyone enlighten me on this aspect of recording and perhaps recommended products? I don't want to be left behind!” Check the answers at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=50

Was I sooooo wrong to think this aud was purty darn good?
“I wouldn't have booked you from that audition unless I was looking for a choppy, staccato unemotional, delivery. You can deliver the goods, I could tell from your VO samples on your profile. If I were you, I'd work on putting together a "great demo", which I did not hear on your page.” Check out more comments at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=36

Does anyone have experience with representation by an agent?
“Does anyone have experience with representation by an agent?” […] “My biggest jobs have come through my own marketing efforts. Just plugging away through email databases and phone calling. In fact, my three biggest national/network jobs came these ways (without agency reps)”. Check out more comments at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=29

Do I give the client a good price or charge extremes?
“Here is a secret for the future about Voice123 SmartCast […] If you charge little, you will be matched with projects that have low budgets. If you charge high, you will be matched with projects that have high budgets”. Learn more at http://voiceoversavvy.com/viewtopic.php?t=21

If you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Just In: New Forums for the Voice Community and Industry!

We are very glad to present to you one of the most exciting releases of this year: The Voice Over Savvy Forum.

This free-for-all forum has the objective of creating an online community around the voice over industry. VoiceOverSavvy.com is there to be whatever you want it to be. Here are some ideas of how you can use it:

· Ask technical questions.
· Suggest new ideas.
· Get critique and feedback on your performance, profile, and demos.
· Share your experiences.
· Learn how to get started as a voice over or producer.
· Look for help and help others.
· Discuss anything related to the voice over industry.

The forum is free to use and you can sign in with the same user and password as your Voice123 account. We expect it becomes a useful resource for all of us and let’s make it a place to learn, teach, have fun, and express ourselves. We have been expecting it for a while and finally it is ready, so we hope you enjoy it and see you there!

Learn Where Voice123 Came From

Have you always wanted to know how the idea to develop Voice123 came about and how we became the first and largest voice over marketplace?

We have just written the story of how Alex and Tania Isabel, husband and wife, created Voice123 and how they have made the company grow to unexpected levels, always based on the grounds of passion, humanity, and hard work.

Click the following link to read the history of Voice123: http://about.voice123.com/voice/content/our_history

Check Out The New Voice123 Industry Directory!

We recently released the new Voice123 Industry Directory. This is an online directory that contains a list of resources related to the voice over and media industries.

Whether you are looking for a specific listing or just browsing the directory, the different categories allow you to look through the listed companies and websites.

The Voice123 Industry Directory is a place not just to find resources but also to advertise your products or services. Increase your chances of being found online by submitting your listing with a link and description of your website or company.

We just started adding listings to the directory and we would like you to help us build it so we can have a very useful and complete tool for everyone involved in the voice over and media industries. Submit your link or post and read comments about current listings.

We hope you take full advantage of this new feature and look forward to hear from you very soon. If you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

New Release! Please Update Your Profile Today!

Today we released a new list of the types of voice over recordings that will be used from now on throughout Voice123. The new list of types of voice over recordings is one of the most important criteria when matching voice talents’ profiles with projects’ requirements, and is also used when searching for voices using the Talent Search feature.

To learn more and take advantage of the new categories, go to the My Profile section of your account and then click on My Voice Details. Read the new list of recordings and choose those that you are willing to do. You have eleven options of types of recordings you can select, meaning that you are willing and have the capabilities to do.

Please note that if you had the old category Documentaries, audiobooks, business presentations and other long recordings selected on your profile, the system has automatically selected two of the new categories for you:

· Documentaries and audiobooks.
· Business recordings: podcasts, corporate (industrial) presentations or videos, and web sites.

The other categories that you had selected have been renamed, but are still marked on your profile.

Five new categories have been added:

· Movie trailers.
· Adult content recordings.
· On-camera recordings and infomercials.
· Live announcers.
· Spokespeople.

If you are able to do any of these recordings, please mark the corresponding checkboxes so you start receiving notifications of these types of projects. We also recommend you to verify the types of recordings that you currently have checked on your profile and update them to make sure you have the correct options selected.

If you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Why Are Voice Seeker's Details Confidential?

When you answer voice over projects, sometimes you find that voice seeker’s details, such as the company and contact names, appear as Confidential. This is one of our most commonly asked questions, so we’ve added our reply to the Resource Center and are just letting you know about it.

This contact information is kept confidential per voice seeker’s request. The following are the reasons why we give them the option to keep this information private:

· The voice talent seeker may work for or it’s in fact a large company that prefers to handle their voice over casting calls privately. This helps them manage auditions and communications with voice talents through only one channel, instead or receiving large amounts of auditions directly to them.

· Sometimes voice talent seekers are working on projects that are important and prefer to maintain secret, or they might be managing projects for external clients. In these cases they may need to keep the information about these projects confidential because of marketing and privacy issues.

Even though voice seekers keep their details confidential, you can feel confident that all projects are legitimate and companies’ information is always verified by The Voice123 Team. Their data is always in our records in case we need to contact them in the future.

If you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Visit The Revamped Profile Manager

You probably already noticed some changes in the Manage Profile section of your account. Well, this was our latest release and we want to let you know how you can benefit from it.

As you know, this is the section where you modify and update information such as your voice details, voice demos, resume, contact details, picture and password. It was formerly named Manage Profile, but now it is called My Profile. You now see that the boxes appear in a different order, with new looks, and new titles.

The following are the section you will find in the new My Profile area: My Contact Information, My Voice Details, My Resume, My Demos, My Headshot, Paypal Button, Link Exchange, View My Profile / Web Site, and Preview My Listing.

The Preview My Listing section is a new feature that allows you to see how your listing will appear on Voice123’s talent search results. When you click here a new window will open showing your listing.

Every time you modify a section of your profile, you will see a confirmations page where you will be given the option to view your profile, preview your listing or to go back My Profile.

These changes, with improved interfaces and looks, were made to help you manage your profile easier. They were also designed based on future site developments. We hope you like them and find them useful.

If you have any questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Check Out Our New Guide To Voice Over Rates

One of the most important concerns voice seeker have when submitting a voice over project is setting the budget. To help you post your projects easier and find talents faster, Voice123 has created a Guide to Voice Over Rates.

This document presents a list of voice over projects and a price range for specific criteria of each project. As you will see, the prices are presented as a range because projects of the same type may not always be equal.

These rates are can be used as a reference and final prices may vary when other factors can be taken into account when setting a budget.

Visit our Resource Center and read the Guide to Voice Over Rates. To easily find it in the future, just do a keyword search on the Resource Center and it will appear in the top results.

This guide is subject to change following your feedback. Please let us know your thoughts so that we can improve this guide and keep it updated.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Check Out Our New Guide To Voice Over Rates

One of the most important concerns voice talents have when sending voice over auditions is setting a price quote for the project. To help you in this process and to increase paying rates, Voice123 has created a Guide to Voice Over Rates.

This document presents a list of voice over projects and a price range for specific criteria of each project. As you will see, the prices are presented as a range because projects of the same type may not always be equal, so you have flexibility to set your own price depending on the project requirements.

Although we recommend moving around these rates, the chart has been designed to be used only as a guide, as a reference. This means you can always work with your own rate card.

Visit our Resource Center and read the Guide to Voice Over Rates. To easily find it in the future, just do a keyword search on the Resource Center and it will appear in the top results.

This guide is subject to change following your feedback. Please let us know your thoughts so that we can improve this guide and keep it updated.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Your Contact Information Is Now Safer Than Ever

For Voice123, your privacy and security are very important issues that we handle with responsibility, this is why we have improved our confidentiality policies.

Every time you post a project on the site, your email and phone number are never displayed to voice over talents. Additionally, when you submit a project, you have the option to keep your name and the name of your company confidential, providing additional protection to your contact information. This will ensure that talents will contact you and send auditions and quotes only through Voice123.

Sometimes you request custom voice over demos to make sure you pick the best voice for your project. If you decide to keep your company name or the name of your client confidential, we take care of not making them public in the scripts voice talents are going to record. We have refined our project approval procedure to achieve this.

This is one of the many ways we protect your privacy and keep your data secure. Although your contact information is required by us to post your project, you can feel confident it is safe. Additionally, we won’t share or sell it to third parties.

If at any time you feel your privacy is infringed or if you have any questions or comments, please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Improved System for Job Posting Processing

We are very glad to let you know that we have made an important development on the way that we process the job postings we receive every day.

The job posting process is now integrated with our Customer Relationship Management system. The jobs are now received, approved, and managed using the same system our Customer Relations Team uses to manage all customer service issues.

This improvement will bring you many benefits including:

· Faster processing of job postings, generally in maximum 15 min.
· Full integration of job postings and customer service tickets into one system.
· Easier retrieval, tracking and follow up of all information related to the same account.

We always try our best to offer your an improved service and continuously develop new features. For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Extended Hours for Job Posting Processing

Starting this week, Voice123's Customer Relations Team is processing job postings under new extended hours:

Monday to Friday from 7:00 AM to 12:00 Midnight ET, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM ET.

These new extended hours look to improve our job quality assurance process since we will dedicate more time to revising each posting. This will assure they are approved and broadcasted in the right way.

Additionally, together with our goal to process every posting in less than 15 minutes, it looks to better satisfy voice seekers' time requirements, allowing them to submit and have their requests processed when they really need them.

Please bear in mind that these new extended hours are for job posting processing. Customer Service hours via e-mail, chat and phone are from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM ET.

This is another step in our efforts to improve our service and we expect to go further.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Meet Our Newest Team Members

Today we want to introduce our two newest team members: Yvette Latour and Angela Gordon, who recently joined our Customer Relations Team as Account Executives.

Both Yvette and Angela have wide knowledge in customer service and relationship management. They will be providing you support anytime you need it, solving any questions you may have about the service, the site, or any other related issue.

If you want to learn more about our new members, just visit their profiles by clicking the links below. You will be taken to Voice123’s About Us page, where you can also learn about the complete Voice123 Team.

· Yvette

· Angela

As our Customer Relations Team has grown, I am also glad to let you know that Julia Sanders, who used to be an Account Executive, is now our new Customer Relations and Quality Assurance Manager. She is now dedicated to increase the customer satisfaction and improve quality assurance processes. To visit Julia’s profile, just click the link below.

· Julia

I am sure that this news will result in providing you an excellent service and make your experience with us a pleasant and enjoyable one.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Earn Money With Voice123's New Affiliate Program

We would like to introduce Voice123’s new Affiliate Program, where you will have the opportunity to earn money by simply referring voice talents and voice seekers to the site.

Our Affiliate Program is a program that allows you to partner with the world’s most important voice over marketplace. It aims to have affiliates that can work in two different ways:

1. Bringing voice over talents who are looking to get the best voice over jobs online.

2. Bringing voice talent seekers that are looking for the most professional voices for their projects.

Joining our affiliate program lets you earn a commission from successful transactions of users with the site, this means every time a talent seeker posts a legitimate job on the site or when a voice talent becomes a Premium Member.

The Affiliate Program is also a good way to get the site known, allowing you to receive more voice over job postings daily and get an increased online exposure of Voice123 and, hence, of your voice profile and demos.

If you want to read more about the program, learn about the commission plan, or want to become an affiliate, please visit the following link: Affiliate Program.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Happy Birthday Voice123!

I am very glad to let you know that this month we are celebrating Voice123’s 3rd anniversary and the entire Voice123 Team would like to take this opportunity thank you for letting us be part of your life.

When we started Voice123 three years ago, we never expected the fast growth we have experienced. This process has been very interesting and full of challenges, and we are happy to know that we have contributed to the careers of thousands of voice over talents. Today, we feel that there is even more we can do for our talents and talent seekers to continue being an important tool in the industry.

Voice123 introduced significant changes to the voice over industry. Our innovative business model has raised the bar for all voice talents looking to promote their voice with revolutionary concepts like online advertisement of your voice services, communication with talent seekers anywhere in the world, and the possibility to work from home. These innovations are a reality that we are proud to share with you everyday.

Increasing industry standards has been costly and demanding, but also thrilling and motivating. This is why we are always continuously developing, improving and thinking about how we can offer you a better service to make you happier. Now that we are entering our third year in business, I would like to announce that we have been working on a new version of Voice123 to serve you even better. The transition to this new version will be seamless and positive; you will learn about the details of the new version very soon.

We really appreciate the support we have received from you, because Voice123 wouldn’t be what it is today without you. Thanks to the great relationship we have developed with many of you, we have been able to receive constructive and timely feedback from voice talents and talent seekers, which has translated in substantial improvements to our site and our service. Your interest in further develop The Voice Over Marketplace is immensely appreciated.

Once again, we would like to thank you for all your support and we hope to keep growing together to build a strong and dynamic voice over industry.

Happy Birthday Voice123!

If you have any questions or comments, remember we are always readily available to help you and resolve any issue. Please visit our Customer Service page to get in touch with us.

Demos' Audio Quality Increased

After successful testing of the improved audio quality of demos, we are glad to announce that talents’ voice demos are now being uploaded to the site using a new audio quality of 64 Kbps. This is an increase from the 32 Kbps bit rate that we used to have for all demos on the site.

The new 64 Kbps audio quality applies for both demos on talents’ profiles and demos you receive on job posting answers. This bit rate is suitable for online voice casting purposes since it will provide you with excellent sound and fast retrieval, allowing you to make faster and more accurate decisions when selecting a voice.

Voice over talents are now able to better showcase their voice over professionalism and capabilities so you can easily manage your voice over auditions online and find the best voice talents for all your projects.

If you would like see answers to your postings at this time, enter your Voice123 account. If you would like to search for new talents, visit our Search Talent Feature.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Improved Audio Quality

After successful testing of the improved audio quality of demos, we are glad to announce that you can now enjoy the new improved quality of 64 Kbps that is being applied to all demos you upload to the system. This means that the site will automatically convert your demos to 64 Kbps when you upload them. This is an increase from the conversion to 32 Kbps that we use to apply.

The new 64 Kbps audio quality applies for both demos you upload to your profile and demos you upload when answering a job posting. This bit rate is suitable for online voice casting purposes since it will help you better showcase your quality as a voice talent and allows a fast retrieval and download process from the site. A bit rate of 64 Kbps becomes more effective for audition purposes than using, for example a bit rate of 128 Kbps, since it speeds up all Internet procedures keeping in mind current connection capabilities of most talent seekers.

With the enhanced audio quality, talent seekers will be able to work on their online castings with demos that allow them to make more accurate decisions when selecting a voice. For this reason, we also recommend you to reupload your profile demos that are currently in 32 Kbps if you want to have them in 64 Kpbs.

If you would like to add a demo right now, please visit your Voice123 profile by clicking here.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

About Voice123

Have you ever wondered about the faces behind Voice123? Well, now you can learn who we are and see how we look! We recently released our new "About Us" mini site where you can read about our company, our history, team members, technology partners, and more.

To visit our new "About Us" page, go to http://about.voice123.com. To learn more about our young and motivated team members, click on the names below to visit each member's profile.

· Tania Isabel

· Alex

· Caroline

· Albert

· Freddie

· Franz

· Natalie

· JP

· Carmen

· Julia

· Julian

· Lorena

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Meet Our Newest Team Members

Today I would like to introduce our two new team members: Lorena Urban and Julian Castilio.

Lorena is Voice123’s new Financial and Operations Manager. She will be managing the company’s financial planning and analysis, as well as all the additional operations that make Voice123 run today and in the future. If you want to read more about Lorena, visit her profile on Voice123’s About Us page.

Julian has joined Voice123 as a new Account Manager. He is in charge of voice talent support, handling accounts, assisting talent with the process of auditioning for voice over jobs, and solving any questions they may have. If you want to read more about Julian, visit his profile on Voice123’s About Us page.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Set The Display Order Of Your Demos

After increasing the number of demos you can upload to your Voice123 profile, you can now set the order of how you want your demos to be displayed on your website, making it more flexible and personalized.

There might be some voice over demos you want to encourage talent seekers to listen to when they are visiting your Voice123 profile. Just move those demos to the top positions to make them stand out more. Advertise your best performances and promote your voice targeted to the types of recordings you specialize in.

Visit your Voice123 profile by clicking here and just use the numbers to the left to set the position for each demo. Remember this feature is only available for Voice123’s Premium Members.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Good News for Firefox, Netscape, Safari and Opera Users

We are glad to bring good news to our Firefox, Netscape, Safari and Opera browser users. From now on, you will see results for 10 voice talents in one screen when you use our Search Feature.

Showing 10 voice talents per page, instead of the 5 that used to be shown, was a feature supported only by Internet Explorer users, but now it is also supported by Firefox, Netscape, Safari and Opera. This will help you browse our voice over database faster and select the best talent for your project more easily.

If you would like to search for a voice at this time, search our Talent Database.

If you want to post a project and let voice talents reply to your posting, visit our Post a Job form.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

The Online Recording Tool Will Be Removed On May 16th, 2006

Looking to increase the success of our talents and improve the experience of our talent seekers, we are working on some changes related to the way you create and upload audition voice over demos through Voice123. This is why we would like to inform you about the following:

1. The removal of the online recording tool on May 16th, 2006.
2. Other recording tool alternatives.
3. Consequences of these changes.

The online recording tool will be discontinued on May 16th, 2006

Auditioning to voice over jobs is a job in itself. Many factors are taken into consideration by talent seekers to select the voices they need. The better the demos you send with your answers, the more professional your auditions will be and the easier talent seekers will find a voice.

When you record a custom voice over demo that you send as an answer to a lead, we run a process that converts this audio file to an audio quality that speeds up the retrieval and downloading process. This conversion process will soon be improved to convert audio files to 64 kbps, which is suitable for online casting purposes, instead of the current 32 Kbps. An improved audio quality of 64 Kbps will help you demonstrate all your experience and quality as a voice over talent, allowing talent seekers to learn more about your voice over potential.

Voice123 offers an online recording tool that allows you to record custom voice over demos directly from your computer. This tool records at a bit rate of 32 Kpbs. When the audio quality of answer demos gets improved, online recording tool users will be at a disadvantage compared to those who use a different recording program or studio.

As a consequence, the online recording tool you find when answering leads will be removed from the site. The main reason being to create a level playing field for talents when doing their auditions. When a lead requests a generic demo, you can still send one of your uploaded profile demos. Remember that, for Premium Members, we have increased the number of demos you can upload to your profile from three to ten demos. But to answer a lead that requires a custom demo, you will need to create the demo using a recording program on your computer or your recording studio.

Recording tool alternatives

There are many different tools that allow you to make professional voice recordings. Many of these programs are advanced recording software that can be downloaded for free or purchased online for your computer. These programs offer professional audio recording and sound editing features. Among this software you will find Audacity, GarageBand, Sound Studio, Audio Recorder, Wiretap Pro, QuickTime Pro, Pro Tools, and Adobe Audition.

If you want to learn more about these programs and where to download them, please read Sound Recording Software for PC and Mac.

Consequences of these changes

Removing Voice123's online recording tool from the site is something we believe will bring benefits for both voice talents and talent seekers.

Using audio recording programs will help voice talents better showcase their voice over abilities and recording capabilities. This will improve the professionalism of auditions sent by voice talents.

On the other hand, talent seekers will see an improved experience when auditioning voice talents. They will hear better demos, allowing them to make a more accurate selection of the voices for their projects.

In summary, the removing of the online recording tool aims to help both voice talents and talent seekers. This is a change that is based on feedback we received from our members, that has been carefully analyzed and is under development at this time. The improvement of the audio quality is a benefit that outweighs the removal of the online recording tool. With other audio recording tools you can record higher quality demos, allowing you to send better auditions.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

How To Find The Best Voice Talents

Voice123 has become the primary online source of voice over talents for thousands of talent seekers worldwide. The speed and easiness to find professional voice talents are valuable elements that talent seekers want to have and that we provide as our main goal.

There are some key tips that you, as a talent seeker, can keep in mind when posting projects and finding voice talents. As you see on our site, we have two forms you can use to post a job: Basic and Advanced. It is very important to have your posting sent as complete as possible, with the necessary data to help you find the suitable talents effectively. When postings are clear and complete, they are broadcasted faster and talents can reply with what you are really requesting. The Advanced Form is a very easy way to make sure your posting is quickly processed and includes the required information, improving your effectiveness when searching for a voice.

Finding the best voice talent for your project using public postings allows you to filter the talents that will fit your project requirements. A public posting behaves like an open casting call, different to a private posting. A private posting is better when you already know exactly what talents you are considering as candidates to work on your project. So, depending on what your needs are, public postings may bring you better results.

Another important issue is the budget you have assigned to have your project. You might not have set an exact amount for the budget you will invest in the project, however, defining a budget range is a solution that will make things easier for you and for voice talents. Setting a budget range is a way to determine the type of voice over talent you are looking for in terms of professionalism and experience.

When requesting custom voice over demos, keep in mind that the minimum budget required to request custom demos on public postings is US$100. This is to make sure you will receive answers from talents that are really suited for your project.

Following these tips can make your experience with us even better, allowing you to find excellent voice talents meeting all your requirements. Remember, this service is free, so you can take the maximum advantage of the service we offer you to get your voice over projects successfully done. If you want to post a job at this time, please visit our Post a Job page.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Latest Release: Revamped Resource Center!

Now you can visit our totally renewed Resource Center, redesigned to be an easy tool to help you be a better voice over and get the best out of Voice123.

The new Resource Center provides you with lots of features:

· Helps you find answers to any question you may have about our service, such as how to send auditions, how to manage your account, our types of memberships, etc.

· You can find sections and documents that are aimed to help you succeed in your voice over career, such as a script bank, articles, webminars, blogs, and industry news. They are a useful learning and coaching source.

· If you want information about our company and the communications we send, you can visit our archive of newsletters and press releases.

· It is an excellent tool to network, promote yourself, and stand out from the rest in terms of online exposure. Submit your own articles, scripts, news, blog posts, testimonials, or any other type of information or document you consider worth sharing. These documents will have a link to your Voice123 webpage, so you can get additional advertisement of your profile on Voice123 and Internet search engines. To submit your document please contact us at http://voice123.com/doc/help.html.

The Resource Center is very user-friendly and is constantly updated. No matter if you are just starting out or if you are an experienced voice over, Voice123 can help you improve and succeed as a voice over talent.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

More Demos On Talents' Profiles

We are glad to let you know that we have increased the number of demos that our our voice talents showcase on their profiles, from three to ten demos.

You can better choose the right voice over for your project since talents are now able to upload more voice demos and showcase all the types of recordings they can do, the languages they speak, and the experience they have.

If you want to find a voice talent at this moment, simply post your project using our Post a Job Form or do a talent search using our Talent Search Feature.

Let us help you find the best professional voice over talent for your projects in just a few hours. For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

New! Voice123's Revamped Resource Center

Voice123 wants to introduce the totally redesigned and enhanced Resource Center, created to be an easy tool to get the best out of Voice123.

Our new Resource Center will help you get answers to any question you may have about our service, with information on how to find voice over talents, manage your Voice123 account, and solve any problems that may arise. You can browse the Resource Center by topic or do a search to find exactly what you are looking for.

The Resource Center is also a place to find information about our company, the voice over industry, corporate newsletters and press releases, and, if you are also a voice talent, resources to succeed in the voice over world and Voice123.

The Voice123 Resource Center is very user-friendly and is constantly updated, so is a useful way to help yourself when needed and to be up to date with Voice123’s developments and changes.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

Good News! More Demos On Your Profile!

We are glad to let you know that we have increased the number of demos that Premium Members can upload to their profile, from 3 to 10 demos.

You can improve your chances of getting a job and let talent seekers know that you are the right voice for their projects. Simply upload demos for all the types of jobs and languages you do to better showcase all your voice over experience and professionalism.

To upload new demos to your Voice123 profile, just login to your account, go to Manage Profile, and then click on the My Demos section. If at any time you need assistance uploading your demos, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Team and we will be very happy to help you.

For any additional questions or comments please visit our Customer Service page to find several ways for you to get in touch with us and/or solve your issue.

The Benefits Of Sending Answer Remarks

We recently made an important change on the way you answer leads. It is now required to send remarks when you answer a job posting. This change pretends to help you increase your chances of winning a job.

Many talents write excellent comments when they send their answer demos. When talent seekers retrieve their answers, they see which talents wrote remarks and which didn’t. Sending a remark is an excellent way of breaking the ice with the talent seeker. This might help the talent seeker decide what demos to hear.

It is good to send a well-written comment when auditioning for a job. Talent seekers do read these comments and you can catch their attention depending on what you write here.

The issue is what to write. To learn more about the benefits of writing remarks and what to write, click here to read an article in Voice123’s Resource Center.

Find Podcasting Voices at Voice123

Podcasting has been increasing its popularity so fast that companies and individuals are using it to communicate with their customers in a innovative and easy way.

Podcasting is a new way to publish and distribute content on the Internet. A podcast is actually an audio or video file that can be downloaded to a computer, listened to directly from a website, or transferred to portable audio players. It is now used to distribute news, seminars, programs, trainings, commercials, articles, newsletters, lessons, and any other type of content that you can imagine.

Whether you already podcasting, are thinking about doing podcasts, or don’t know anything about it, Voice123 can help you create you podcasts professionally. The first thing you need to know is that you can podcast anything. It doesn’t matter the content, topic, or idea, you can podcast what ever you want.

Think of podcasting as a new way to impress your clients. Post your podcasting project here and find the best voices for your podcasts in a matter of minutes.

Recommendations For Talent Seekers

We know how important it is for you to find the most professional voice over talents, and that you have a time and budget requirements to match.

Here are some recommendations and advices for you to keep in mind when posting a job and using our site:

· When you post a public job, which will be received by voice talents that match your job criteria, it is important to know when to request custom demos or generic demos. In general, only public jobs that have a minimum budget of $100 are accepted to request custom demos.

· If you still want to have a custom demo to better choose a voice talent and your budget is lower than $100, we recommend you to first post a public job and then post private leads to the talents you liked requesting the custom demo.

· When you post a public job, your contact information (name, email, and phone number) is never shown to the talents. Talents will only be able to contact you through the site. Your contact information is only received by us in case we need to contact you.

· If you need to change the email you have registered in your Voice123 account, you can go to the My Contact Info section of your account and update your email address. You don't have to create a new account to receive answers and communications in a different email address.

· When you post a job and type an email different to the one you have used before on our site, a new account will be automatically created. This means that you will end up with two accounts on our system. This might create confusions when retrieving answers to your postings. To avoid this, always use the same email or log in before posting a job.

Voice123's Latest Site Improvements

Demo Languages for Answers

When you are answering leads that request generic demos, only your profile demos of the same language as the job is requesting will be displayed. You will only be able to select demos from those demos to make sure you are sending what the talent seeker is requiring.

Error Message for Empty Answer

An error message is now shown when you try to answer a lead without writing any comments. These remarks are required to submit the answer.

New Languages on Profile

Four new languages have been added to the My Voice Details section of your profile. You can now add Icelandic, Caribbean, Croatian and Urdu to your profile if you can do recordings in these languages.

Optimization of Profile Pages

Our development team has optimized your Voice123 profile website, refining the programming code on which these webpages are written to make them more suitable for internet search engines and improve positioning results.

These improvements have been developed to help you better match talent seekers requirements and to improve your profile website results in search engines.

Voice123 Is Talent Seekers' Little Secret

We know many talent seekers have their own clients and Voice123 wants to help them offer excellent services. One way to do this is letting talent seekers' clients listen to voice demos sent by talents replying to a job posting.

Many talents allow talent seekers to have their demos downloaded to their computers, but sometimes the talents prefer not to. That is why we have an option to send a link that you, as a talent seeker, can send to your clients and let them listen to the demos without downloading them to a computer. The benefit is that it won't reveal that the demo actually comes from Voice123 as it uses a different domain name.

This was the topic of our last newsletter for talent seekers. We would like to know your opinion about this feature, if you really find it useful, or if you have any other suggestions regarding this topic.

Thanks for your comments.

Helping You Find Better Jobs

Voice123 is constantly researching for ways to improve our service and develop new features to help you get the best out of it.

In our latest newsletter, we summarized our most recent improvements regarding the way we process and broadcast job postings. These improvements are aimed to improve the quality of the jobs posted and the standard of job seekers using Voice123.

We believe that achieving this objective is a task that involves both the hard work of The Voice123 Team and constant site development. We have committed ourselves to offering you a better service, so expect news from us soon.

We would like to know what you think about these improvements, our efforts, or what you think we should do to make your experience better with us.

Thanks for your comments.

Extended Hours for Job Posting Approval

Hello talents and talent seekers. We are glad to let you know that we have extended our job posting approval hours. Now we are approving seven days a week.

Talent seekers are now able to submit requests any day of the week without worrying when will it be processed. We are sure this will help talent seekers increase the speed finding the right voice.

This will also help us improve our job posting quality assurance process and the standards of the jobs, since we will have more time to work on each lead to make sure it is approved and broadcasted in the right way.

We recently sent a newsletter about this improvement to our talent seeker, which you can read by clicking here.

We would like to get your feedback about this change. How do you feel that you benefited from it? What other recommendations do you have?

Thank you.

Paying and Getting Paid

Being paid as a voice over and paying talents as a client is one of the most challenging moments of the process of selling and buying voice over recordings. We usually recommend the usage of tools like PayPal (http://paypal.com) and splitting the payment 50-50: The client pays 50% of the price of the project to the talent to start working on it, and 50% when the audio has been successfully delivered by the talent. We recently sent a newsletter to talents in reference to this topic: Newsletter.

We would like to get your feedback. What payment methodologies do you use? What would be the ideal scenario for you? Is there anyway you think Voice123 may be able to help you pay talents and get paid by the clients?

Animation and Cartoon Voices

The voice over services play a very important role in the marketing and advertising industry. Message strategies in advertising include brand recall and brand preference, among others.

Many advertisers use character voices to get consumers to remember brand names, carryover ad impact, and create a pleasant association with the product.

I would like to know if you have had any experience working with animation or cartoon voice overs, or if you have done any jobs doing these types of voices. I am sure a lot of good advice can result from this topic.

To read the newsletter written for voice over talents, please click here. To read the newsletter written for talent seekers, please click here.