The Most Important Ingredient For Success

The end of 2010 leads many to reflect on New Year’s resolutions. Yet, there is an ingredient for success that must exist before any New Year's Resolution gets off the ground. This ingredient is important because a career in voice overs, or any form of entertainment, is a career where one seeks approval from complete strangers for artwork created, in order to be paid to fund more creating. It is a career where one wakes up everyday to start a new job search. It feels impossible without the most important ingredient for success...Love

Love serves every person as a foundation; a cornerstone engraved with a purpose. Love serves as a free pass for when the entire world seems to say “STOP!’, but you say, ‘GO!’. Love serves as confidence and a safety net to make choices when others think you have gone crazy. Love makes you right when all signs, all people, and all opinions, tell you that you are wrong. Love gives an artist the ability to romanticize the times they are considered, ‘Struggling’. Love just makes living life, and sharing, much easier.

In that respect, Love is the ultimate wisdom, for without it we will never be sure why we are building a career in a business considered to be ‘unreal’ by those whom have never dared try it. This is the one career that demands a person love him/herself, support group, and belief in his/her own talent, before they can even get started as a business. Love is most important, simply because if one does not love what they do, feel loved, or have no love in life, they may never know how good it feels to share what makes them special with the rest of the world. Love is the ultimate force against negativity, and that voice that says, ‘It's ok if you make a fool of yourself....I still love ya’.’ Love also helps people take responsibility for what they do.

For me, Love was a voice that said, “Hey it is fine that you want to quit your Wall St. job at AIG, and work as a manager at a website with staff in Latin America despite the fact you do not speak Spanish. We can buy Rosetta Stone. No big deal.” Love is also that voice that leads one to make smart decisions, and smile at challenges. Love drives people to express; when there is doubt one is being too 'mushy'. I had doubts of writing this, but my wife expressed, ‘You should not be shy especially because you sleep well at night knowing the company you work for loves the people they serve everyday. Be thankful.’ Love, for all its magic, brings us back down to earth, humble, and understanding.

Love will carry Voice123 into 2011 and beyond because it is a creation based on loving intentions for helping a loved one find voice over work. When Love is well-placed, it is impossible to deny.

What ‘Love’ inspires you to carry on into 2011, and for years to come?

Happy New Year from Voice123, and may 2011 be exciting and prosperous!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Guru
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

A Voice For Every Need: Voices For Commercials

Announcing, hard-sell, real, conversational, and energetic voices will help your product stand out above the rest. The selection of the right voice over for your commercial is critical. Many times people remember the voice that is selling the product, as well as, the product itself!

Voice123 allows voice seekers to listen to voice over demos online and select the best voices for their commercials. Create and post a project online to be answered by voice over talents, or browse Voice123's voice over talent database and select voices for commercials. Voice talents will send you custom voice demos with your script and a price quote in a few hours.

Start using Voice123 today and learn how to manage voice over castings for your commercials!

Find the Best Voice For Your Commercial Now!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Guru
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Voice123 Thanks The Voice Over Community For 2010!

Voice123 wants to take a moment to thank the entire voice over community (we know voice talent work as voice seekers too) for helping set a record of over 1000 voice over jobs posted a month in 2010 with our SmartCast system; not to mention the private jobs posted!

On the chart below, you will notice that Voice123 continues to grow, and continues to provide voice over jobs for the voice talent, who is all about ‘do-it-yourself’!





This has been an exciting year, finding out that jobs passing through the site came close to earning voice talent an Oscar-nominee, and also landing a major motion picture voice over job for the highest grossing animated film of all time!

For 2011, we leave voice seekers with a quote...from a voice talent, Naomi Mercer:

“There is no such thing as a small job; just small thinking.”

Any plans for 2011? We hope they include posting voice over work on Voice123!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Guru
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Community: Living With a Voice Actor – Internet Blues

The blog below is part IV of a series of blogs written by Dianne Russell, partner to Voice123 voice talent, Adam Behr; a successful voice talent with Voice123. The series gives insight into what it means to be ‘living with a voice actor’, based out of South Africa:

"When I first started writing these posts about my voice actor, I really didn't understand a lot about the voice business – it simply provided me an endless and ever-changing stream of personal entertainment. However, in 2010 I have come to understand and appreciate the complexities of running a voice acting business from home, especially when trying to set up in a developing foreign country like South Africa, where Internet is an unreliable and frustrating luxury.

I now realize how North Americans take their fast, reliable, inexpensive Internet service for granted. South Africa is lagging far behind in the internet world; although somewhat faster internet has been available since the spring, it is expensive, limited, totally unreliable and apt to cause trouble at the worst possible times – a nightmare for internet-dependent voice professionals. It also comes “shaped”, a term I had never heard before. Shaped internet is internet that prioritizes certain functions during high traffic times. Email and YouTube are not priorities, nor are large voice files. During high traffic, the Internet slows to a crawl, and all one can do is wait...and wait...and wait. A voice actor in South Africa is doomed to the ebb and flow of connectivity, which requires immense patience when the connection is cut mid recording. I have spent hours of my time arguing with our internet provider, struggling to understand the foreign accents of the customer service reps and desperate to get my voice actor reconnected before a Voice 123 audition expires and he subsequently blows a gasket in frustration.

It has also been interesting to see how people in an internet-deprived country like South Africa try to grasp exactly what it means to be a modern-day voice actor. Although they seem to get the idea that it involves acting with one's voice (and therefore does not involve a camera), there is often confusion about the mechanics of how it actually works. For people who live without Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the idea that someone can work from home by recording voices and sending sound files from Africa to North America through a phone line (Internet here is still ADSL) is a genuine puzzle. The concept of ISDN is mind-blowing to some, and the confused facial expressions make me think of what it must have been like when the telephone started coming into mainstream use.

At this time of year, we tend to think of our blessings and express gratitude for all that we have. I truly hope that voice actors in North America, who live with the joy of affordable, reliable, lightening-fast internet, comprehend how fortunate they really are!"

Voice123 thanks Dianne Russell and Adam Behr for the honest look into their lives, working in the voice over business. We hope you have enjoyed it!

What do you think?

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Trend: Skype And The Voice Over Industry

Two days ago, Skype experienced world-wide outages, and for the next 24 hours, it was easy to witness just how important Skype is to the voice over industry, as people scrambled to find ways to communicate with peers, or just took it an excuse to take an early Holiday. Back in 2004, when online casting began to explode, the major concern was that auditions were being sent into a 'black hole' and no one knew who was who, and only had forums to communicate; a somewhat two-dimensional way of communicating.

Since 2007, and especially in the last three years, Skype calls have enabled voice over coaches, voice talent, and voice over clients to record work, create voice over demos, 'phone patch' (maybe Skype-patch?), and hold voice coaching workshops. Perhaps the greatest advantages to Skype continue to be:

• Face to face reassurance that you are working with a 'human', which helps build trust
  
• Increasing sound and picture quality
• Low or no cost (On average Skype customers spend just $8 USD a month)

Skype has also allowed Voice123 staff to communicate; not just within staff, but also with members of the voice over community. There is just something special about being able to say, 'Look! The guy writing emails is a real person!'. Perhaps, this blog is inspired by a story today on Good Morning America, of a US Marine in Afghanistan, who was able to watch his daughter's birth via Skype, I will be using Skype to stay in touch with my large family during a Holiday party, and all of the voice talent I had the chance to meet face to face this year while working at Voice123 (Skype call with Chris Kendall and Loren Gursky). Simply putting a face and voice to the email is enough to remind us what makes people in the voice industry so special.

What do you use Skype for your voice over needs?

Happy Holidays! Here is a gift for you: Skype Smiles & Skype Flags

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Happy Holidays From Voice123!

The Voice123 staff wants to quickly take this opportunity to wish all of the Voice123 Community a very Happy Holidays!

In the past year, we averaged over 23,000 emails a month, and enjoyed every opportunity to help members of the voice over community with their voice over needs. We are grateful to be of service to the entire voice over industry.

This season leaves many thinking of Holiday memories and classics!

Do you have some you would like to share?

Leave us comments below!

Special Happy Holidays From The Voice123 Team!

Recording Booths: How Do You Do It?

Good day, and Happy Holidays! I am a staff member at Voice123, Leo DeLope, with the chance to write a blog this morning for voice talent. Some of you may already know me from Voice123 Live Chat and help desk emails. As an aspiring photojournalist, I can identify with running into economical obstacles, in the pursuit of working in a career that demands passion. Equipment can be expensive, and not being able to afford it, or not being sure what to buy, led me to the Internet to do research.

I came across the acronym, ‘D.I.Y (do it yourself)’, and fortunately, I found a large community willing to share ideas on how to get work at a great price. In the process, I continue to have fun, meeting new and interesting people from the Voice123 Community. Recently, I found a story of a voice talent on Voice123, who built his own recording booth. It caught my attention because the voice talent took ‘before/during/after’ pictures of the process. I know he is not the only one with proud photos of his recording booth! We would love to see your booths, and talk about how you did it! Being creative can not only save you money, but it can also earn you some free subscription time on Voice123!

Show us your photographs of your booth, and let us know how you did it!

The cheapest and most creative solutions will win a 6-month subscription on Voice123! We promise to share your tips with the voice community and promote you; maybe I can offer ideas that could work for your profile picture. If you would like to see some of my pictures you can go to www.leeooh.com, or check my flickr profile.

Let us know what you think, and how you 'do it yourself'!

Happy recording and Happy Holidays!

Leo Lopez
Account Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Community: Change The Voice123 Motto!

Since opening in 2003, Voice123 has always had the ‘title’, ‘The Voice Marketplace’.

Simply put...it is time for voice talent to change to a ‘motto’ and we would like you, the voice over community, to give us your ideas!

Please go to this survey to let us know in four words or less, what motto should be used for Voice123!

If your idea is chosen, we will give you a 1-year Premium Subscription to Voice123!

You can leave comments to tell us what you think, too! Just remember to leave your name to be considered for a 1-year Premium Subscription!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Soundproofing and Recording Part II: Recording

In our last blog from December 15th, 2010, we shared with you soundproofing advice from voice coach David Zema, as part I of this series. Today, we share part II: Recording!

"There are many tutorials on line for using Audacity and other software for recording. Learn how to set levels for your voice and how to fix some of the unwanted background sounds in post-production until you can set up a quieter recording environment. Using noise reduction and other post- production processes may help, but they add unnecessary time to your busy schedule. The time spent setting up a permanent quieter environment is time better spent than fixing it in the mix for every recording. Learn the best practices for recording sound:

• Get a fast, quiet computer with as much RAM as you can afford.
• Use only 7200 RPM or solid state hard drives.
• Use a second hard drive for recording your audio and not the same hard drive as your operating system.
• Use the best uni-directional or cardioid microphone you can afford.

You are welcome to send me an mp3 of a recent audition recording you have done. I will send back a brief note telling you what, if any background I can hear as well as what I think may be the problem. If you would like a private consultation regarding soundproofing or recording or voice over coaching and demo production, I am available for that as well. Soundproofing and recording take time to learn, troubleshooting and problem solving to get right. Be patient and persistent and you will succeed! - David Zema"

Coming up on Monday, look for a very special blog that will invite you to talk about how YOU, the voice talent, 'do what you do' from home! If you have pictures and info you would like to share from your Voice123 Meetup, please do not hesitate to write us, or share with the Voice123 Community!

Tell us what you think! Was this helpful?

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Soundproofing and Recording: Part I

Last Friday, Voice123 held a Meetup at David Zema’s recording studio in New York City. We all discussed soundproofing and recording from home. David Zema wrote a blog on the topic. Today’s blog will be about ‘soundproofing’, and you will see the extreme limits one must go to when working in the 'city that never sleeps' as a voice talent:

"I have been recording audio since I was 12 years old and shooting video since I was 18. I have sound proofed over twenty spaces in the last 20 years. One thing I have learned about soundproofing is that I am always working to improve it.

When I finally got my last studio to the point that I thought was perfected, I had to move because a noisy performance space had set up operation on the floor below. Their speakers were located right beneath my sound booth. It was going to take layers of lead and concrete to muffle that noise! In 2008, I moved to my current location at 1123 Broadway. The room I rented had previously been a recording studio, and the building has solid walls built in 1896. But it took layers of plexi-glass (acrylic) and homasote to muffle the sounds reverberating up from 25th Street.

Then along with hanging many baffles made of Berber carpeting and soundproofing foam from Marketek, I found a used soundproof isolation booth on ebay. I added more soundproofing materials to the isolation booth and now everything is quiet enough to record. Additionally, I use pipe insulation on an iron based mic stand for a second corner area used for recording. This area uses a cork board, Marketek foam, Berber carpeting and a vinyl mat on top of the carpet to deaden sound before it reaches the mic. Remember that separation of your computer equipment from your microphone will reduce unwanted noise and vibration. Using the quietest equipment you can get is the ultimate goal. Consider a solid state digital recorder that is noise free as an option for small spaces. The microphone enclosure is another option if you can't soundproof an entire room. Materials that have mass or density are used to stop sound.

Homasote and even special sound resistant sheet rock called QuietRock, fiberboard, soundboard, fiberglass insulation and another materials when used properly have enough density to stop some frequencies. However, these materials will most likely need professional installation by a soundproofing contractor to be done properly, or require a patient ‘do-it-your-self’ craftsman with tools and a lot of time. Concrete, sand, lead and mass-loaded vinyl are used in professional sound studios, but are very expensive and not an option for most apartment renters."

Coming up on Friday...Part II: Recording! David Zema is a voice over coach with Voice123. If you are ever interested in sharing a blog, please do so with the Voice123 community, or please email it to help@voice123.com! We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

Tell us what you think, and if you found this helpful!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

If I Was An Agent...Why I Would Use Voice123

I had this conversation with some Voice123 staff over dinner last Friday: “If I was an agent, I would be using Voice123 everyday.” Here is why:

• Union-friendly job posting procedure and search feature


• ‘My Preferred Voices’ feature would allow me to save people I should work with, ‘paperlessly’, simply by clicking ‘Preferred Voice’ under the audition, or ranking the talent.

• Time-saver: Voice over agents have used Voice123 in the past to find talent. These jobs receive the quickest response out of any other job posted. In addition, Voice123 is a global marketplace, meaning I could very well post a job at 11pm EST, and get plenty of auditions before I go to bed, either from the pacific coast, or other parts of the world!


• Shared inbox link to give to people for consideration, which also allows for me to hide that I used Voice123. You will not find any reference to Voice123 here. This feature was created for the job poster to take the credit for finding talent.


• The website co-founders and staff are comprised of voice talent, artists and skilled web developers. I can trust the website will be sensitive to the business needs of the voice talent, and the job poster who needs an organized, time-saving technology for voice casting.


• Finally....It is free to find voice talent. Voice123 only cares that voice talent get work, and does not take commission. So...no intermediaries. I guess that is a time-saver, too.
  

When I used Voice123 as a voice talent, I was contacted by agents a couple of times through the search feature. For this reason, I especially like the Voice123 voice seeker interface because it promotes loyalty and relationship building.

After a while, you start to realize you found more voice talent than you ever could have without the use of technology.

What do you think?

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Community: Unique Success Story

We want to share a success story today reported to us by Voice123 voice talent, Vanessa Lee, taken directly from email with her permission. Thank you Vanessa!

"I recently went to Space City studios in Kensington, London, as I had been chosen to voice a Mudd face pack commercial which is currently on TV. As I left the building I received a phone call from another producer at Space City, who asked me to voice an AxaPPP radio commercial, so I turned around and went back and made that recording, too. It was a complete coincidence that my audition had been ranked "finalist" by two separate producers in the same company, on the same morning, and both jobs came from the Voice123 website. Thanks Voice 123! That was the best paid morning’s work ever."

Here is her voice in action!



If you have a success story you would like to share from a voice over gig, simply drop us an email with your permission to post it! We will gladly share it with the voice community!


Thank you!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Voice123 Meetup! See You Tonight!

Tonight at 7pm, Voice123 staff and voice talent will be holding a Meetup at 1123 Broadway, suite. 1012, in NYC, NY; the studio of voice coach, David Zema.

For more info please check here.

This meetup will have a particular theme to it: Discussing soundproofing and recording. If you dislike cold weather, or cannot make it, we are going to Livestream the Meetup, going online shortly before 7pm!

Voice123 Livestream Channel

The video will be available for viewing immediately following, if you miss any of it. Please take a look at these other great Voice123 Meetups in your area!

• Orange County, California
• Dallas, Texas

Voice123 thanks David Zema, Bettye Zoller, and Ben Bledsoe; voice over coaches with Voice123 looking to connect face to face with voice talent!

If you are a voice coach looking to promote a Meetup through Voice123, please organize one today!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Usage: Don’t Knock Yourself Out!

Over the past few months, Voice123 has been featuring voice talent through social media. We do so by posting a project, that usually has a relevant theme to what is being talked about online. We somewhat ran into a snag this month, when it came time to promote the shared inbox on this voice job. Only 3 followed directions. Please don't knock yourself out of work doing the same!

Now, I do not like people beating up on voice talent by saying, ‘They never follow directions! (grumble grumble)’. I have heard it talked about before, but I think its unfair to single anyone group out. Why? A statistic recently showed that if you ask 100,000 people to do something on a website, you can expect less than 200 people to do it. In short, everyone is guilty of it at some point e.g. How many can actually say, ‘I read all the terms of service agreements for everything!’.

The problem is...In short, people are just people. Imagine you are a voice seeker, and you post a voice job, and you have a boss to give auditions. Listen to this and think about how many followed the script note: Record your audition in the voice of the VO Job you always wanted, and tell the world why you want it!

There is great talent on here too! However, that greatness has to translate into an online environment, and it may just start with the way one interprets or reads directions!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Image from IGN.com

Is Seeking Voice Talent Like Ordering Pizza?

The idea for this blog came from an experience with trying to use The Dominos Pizza online ordering website, while working late one night last week.

The Common Thread
Pizza and voice overs...both can be ordered on a website, but they are two entirely different businesses. But the fact that they can be ordered, or sought, on a website creates a common perception as to ‘how things should work because it is a website, after all!’.

The Bad Experience With Dominos
Now living in New York City, it may seem I betrayed brethren by ordering pizza from a chain restaurant; online no less, but I was in a bind. I was working alone and could not leave my desk. I placed an order asking for Buffalo chicken wings, cheesy bread, and diet coke; yes, from a pizza place. The website showed me this really cool graphic, that I could track my order, and I thought, ‘Great, back to work. I got this graphic telling me what's up!’.

Then, the food arrived...kind of...

The Buffalo wings were the wrong type, the sauce was wrong, they sent me Sprite and Coke, and the delivery man had no pen to sign the credit card receipt....because it is a website, so I paid online. I was forced to ask, 'Did you bring me the wrong order? Maybe this was meant for someone else?'.

It got worse...
I tried to call the store, the delivery guy, and the supervisor; numbers given to me by the website. No one answered the phone.

Back to voice overs...
Imagine, you are a voice seeker and you 'go to a website', ask for a female speaking voice talent who has ISDN, and you need the voice over work within a day. For that reason, you agree to pay a little more than usual. Now, because the money looks good, some voice talent who are the complete opposite of what you requested (perhaps men), decide to submit auditions, state that they are experienced (and they are...offline), and therefore they should be considered.

Did someone just show up at the door with a bottle of coke? These two anecdotes are taken straight from my work experience here.

Human Nature
When it comes to doing anything with a website, the fact a person takes the time to request something, means they want what they asked for, or as close to it as possible. You can be a chef straight out of Sicily, or a union talent with decades of experience, any client ready to spend money simply wants what they requested; the chef's/voice talent interpretation of the request...not the polar opposite. Creative license expires when you offer the 'absolute wrong', in a business with no 'absolute right'. Artistic interpretation aside, do not be the voice talent who makes great pizza, but has no business plan in place to deliver it in the manner expected of a website.

Websites
Be it a pizza or a voice talent, websites in any service industry have to provide solutions, and therefore the same psychology applies across the board for a ‘paid more when pleased more’ business:

• ‘Please...I know what I want. Show me you know what I need.’
  

Epilogue: Ending on a positive note!
Over the weekend, the corporate offices of Dominos called me to apologize, and refunded my money. Even still, we all know how impressions can lead us away from something; opportunity has been lost.

I took what happened Friday, as a sign someone was telling me to eat healthier.

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Community: Building Community Any Which Way You Can

Meetups!
Voice123 is holding a Meetup this Friday, December 10th, in NYC! You can see that many voice talent are planning to come out! We hope you can too!

We are looking to discuss building home studios that day! Please take a look!

Did you know about other Meetups for Voice Talent?

• Bettye Zoller Meetup Group
• Gabrielle Nistico Meetup group

Organize a Voice123 Meetup!

Skype Calls!
Skype is turning into an important networking, business, and support tool in various ways every single day! Voice talent already use it as a ‘phone patch’ for voice over work, and it is also a way to talk face to face with other voice talent, supporting each other, and building a voice over community!

On Friday, December 17th, I will get to do my first Skype call with voice talent, just to talk about working in voice overs. Thank you to Loren Gursky and Chris Kendall for inviting! You can read more about it on their Facebook group!

Please check us out, too, on Twitter and Facebook for updates, blogs, and great info!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Trend: Working Around An Obstacle

Over the summer, Voice123 did a survey asking about the various ways that voice talent get work.

You can see that forum post here!

Each month voice talent are surveyed on Voice123, and the most common statistic is that 6% to 10% of Voice123 voice talent can make a full-time living off of Voice123 alone. There is no voodoo behind it. There is a common thread among all of them:

• They have repeat clients
• They know how to market themselves online
• They are talented
• They have a brand to them that requires no explanation
• They think creatively as a voice talent, and as a business

What is meant by ‘creative business thinking’?
As many know, or find out, Voice123 uses a software that aims to fairly distribute auditions among ALL paying subscribers. SmartCast can be viewed many ways, but the end result is that it is still a software with rules, and when these rules are learned, it is only at that point that a person can create his/her own; sounds very ‘Matrixee’.

Do the people working full-time do anything unfair?
No, but they know that believing the way to ‘win more jobs’ is to ‘constantly audition with blind online rigor’ is a mistake. You can only go out for that which fits you, and will not waste anyone's time.

“But what if I am in high demand”?
To get to the point, some voice talent realize that maybe SmartCast does limit them, and they would rather only use Voice123. They realize this because they get work on Voice123; not because they got work somewhere else.

Working Around an Obstacle
Many...but not all...purchase more than one profile, and when one seems to be getting limited, they jump to the next for a while. We never thought of it, but someone did, and it worked for him/her, so they told their friends...and they told their friends...and so on...and so on....This is a great reason to study how people succeed, and not study how others failed. You will always find both, but only one way teaches you how to get work.

Is this ‘cheating’?
It is hard to call something, ‘cheating’, when someone has taught another a way to work a system, by creating their own rule. The web allows for one to create a ‘persona’, but the industry always had stage names, no? A creation always takes on a life of its own. We have heard stories of amazing voice talent creating a false persona, and booking more work from the profile where their approach to work is more of an ‘act’, and they are shocked to find they are rarely hired from the profile where they sell themselves by stating how they have great experience, but more so where they simply can do the job.

Isn’t this a business about 'getting paid by pretending to be someone else anyway'?
To conclude...if you find you can get lots of work, and feel our system limits you, go for a second profile. Clients are reaching the same voice talent, and you are not shelling out a fortune to 'pay for privilege.'

It happens, so we want you to know about it. What do you think?

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Image by Pease on Earth

Usage: 'Tis The Season To Be 123 Savvy!

If you have been using Voice123, or are just starting, and still get nagged by that question, ‘Are they using my audition?’, this blog is for you.

So far in 2010, Voice123 has posted more than 1,000 SmartCast voice over jobs a month. I mention these because they are the jobs that were screened, as private jobs are not screened. :

• January (1073)
• February (1112)
• March (1357)
• April (1280)
• May (1193)
• June (1191)
• July (1085)
• August (1287)
• September (1234)
• October (1268)
• November (1211)
  

Why bring this up now?
Did you know less than 1% of voice over jobs on Voice123 turn into a troubled business transaction; stated as such because dropped communication leads to more problems than one “trying to steal”.

However, we had the higher activity of non-payment and/or troubled business transactions resulting from dropped communication during December 2009, and resolved in 2010.

What you need to know for yourself...
1. How to spot ‘spam’. It is easier for some more than others. Ask around.
2. How to investigate who you will be working with, and how to not overreact.
3. Know when you have to be ‘flexible’ vs. ‘when someone is ‘breaking you’

Perhaps, I have seen this to be very difficult for voice over talent to do, only because they aim to please in a business that has no ‘absolute right’; not to mention for years there was a fear if one told an agent, ‘I am busy.’ there was a fear they would never call again. Fact is...Everyone on Voice123 is a ‘DIY’ business, and sometimes a business has to say, ‘No.’ No one ‘gets in trouble’ for being their own business.

What you should never do...
Never lose your head in a situation. Working online is not war. "Give peace a chance". It may be romantic to be the "working class hero", and really tear into someone, but instant "web karma" will get you...and you will find yourself chasing more business away than attracting from overly emotional business behavior.

"Imagine" what you will find out when you stop to ask questions to protect yourself. Sure it may seem like starting over, but the info is out there for free. Just google it. Cooler heads always prevail.

Never ‘assume’. (see: 4:20). It is always important to laugh off spam. Taking online behavior personally will destroy your spirit. Websites are opinion and trend based, and we all have opinions:




Have a great Holiday!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Image by Pease on Earth

A Voice For Every Need: Voices for Documentaries

Did you ever need someone to translate the feeling behind something that is happening, or has happened in the past? If so, you need someone who has great voice talent, combined with a unique ability to be sensitive about the topic of your documentary, and transmit the 'grit' behind the topic!

Have you heard of that beautiful city, that great hero, the way they built that gigantic bridge, or how the space was conquered? If so, you may have noticed the common link in all of them... the documentary voice over, that voice that keeps people on their seats waiting for the commercials to be over and listen to more.

With close to 90,000 voice over talents registered to Voice123, you have thousands of specialized options to choose for your documentary.

Post a voice over project now! Listen to those that best suit your project in just a couple of hours, contact them right away, and get your project going!


Check out the documentary demos of our talents!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123

Photo by Me the wanderer

Community: Some Good News For a Monday!

Always fun to report Good News of Job Bookings! This week’s comes from someone you may know very well: Zurek!



The job posting...
http://voice123.com/lv/Standing_ovation__1.html

Why it was a good idea to audition for it...
Many who equate ‘dollar amount in budget’ with ‘value of job’ may want to think twice. The value in this job comes from its:

1. Professional script and description using industry lingo
2. The seeker has been on the site since January 2008 and posted before
3. In ALL the jobs posted on Voice123, the voice seeker listened to 100% of the auditions!

If you are one who ponders, ‘Why does no one listen to my audition?’, keep all this info in mind because it is displayed for all voice over talent on every project!

Thank you to Zurek for sharing this with us!

Quick news!
We hope to see you this Friday at The Voiceover Mixer being held in Times Square, or at this Voice123 Meetup in NYC on December 10th!

Steven Lowell
Community Development Manager
Voice123 Facebook
Voice123 Youtube Channel
Twitter: @voice123