Unusual Ways To Earn a Living Via The Internet: Voice Overs

Written by Raj Dash on September 2nd, 2006

Voice overs have always been one of those hidden markets that only a few people know about, care about, or are even suitable for. But if you nuture your voice as an instrument, take care of it, and are reliable, the radio and TV voiceover market can be lucrative.

Often, you don’t even need to go to a big city to get some work, as small cities and towns often need people for the odd local radio or TV commercial. You can’t make a living locally, for the most part. You’d need to be in a larger market to do that.

Well, what’s a larger market than the Internet? Voice123 is looking for voice over talent. This is the first I’ve come across an agency that looks for voiceover talent online, and offers clients the chance to listen to demos online as well. Signing up is free, and a number of features comes with that, including your own Voice123 website and notifications of qualified projects. Payment is made through Paypal directly to you. There are some additional features, some of which might require a fee. They include being listed on Voice123’s Voice Talent Feature, and being able to have a Paypal button right on your profile.

The Standard subscription is free; the Premium subscription is US$195/yr. The latter gives you the ability to audition using their “state-of-the-art voice auditioning system, Voice123″. Basically, whenever a talent seeker needs voice talent, the system finds the most qualified talent (provided you’re registered and have set up a profile), and automatically invites them to audition.

Because there is no way to record a demo to the Voice123 system directly, via your microphone and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) software or from a regular phone, you have to have a few basic pieces of audio software to record yourself. You should be able rip a CD or DVD from the software as well.

Fortunately, Audacity is of incredibly high quality and is free, and rumoured to have been written by professionals in the industry. I wrote about Audacity, and what equipment you need for recording, over on my Sound Alchemy Online website. However, that article has a lot of extraneous text. Instead, I’ll try to write a revised version for this website, in a sort of tutorial, some time in the future. For now, suffice it to say that you should get Audacity, or a recording industry standard like Soundforge (free trials), which is now owned by Sony. Soundforge also lets you synch music/ voice with video and standard frame rates. So if you are planning on doing voice over work for TV commercials, it’s the type of software you’ll want.

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8 Comments to “Unusual Ways To Earn a Living Via The Internet: Voice Overs”

Stephanie Ciccarelli

September 4th, 2006 at 9:14 am

Hi Raj Kumar Dash,

Interesting article about voice-over career options online.

Have you heard of http://www.voices.com?

This is the top industry website for freelance voice actors and voice-over professionals. A voice acting blog, VOX Daily, is available to voice professionals in addition to voice work, resources, and incredible customer service.

Voice actors who are starting out in the field can find everything that they need to get started at Voices.com. All voice actors receive a free website to list their voice acting resume and experience, room to upload high quality audio samples, and are featured in the Voices.com voice actor search engine. Voice actors can even get paid by PayPal through their Voices.com websites.

Job opportunities are just one perk of the Voices.com web service for voice actors. It’s extremely easy for businesses and organizations to post jobs, search through the voice actor database, and contact voice actors for work. A large number of voice actors conduct all of their business activities online at Voices.com the voice marketplace.

Membership fees vary for both voice actor members and client members. Voice actors can get started as a Guest, an account free of charge, or they can select one of two paid options that offer additional marketing services. The Preferred membership is USD$99 per year and the Premium membership is USD$199 per year, offering a competitive price for extraordinary value compared to other services.

Looking forward to reading your review of the Voices.com service on “It’s my business”. Nice to meet you!

Best regards,

Stephanie Ciccarelli
Voices.com
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/
http://www.voices.com

rdash

September 4th, 2006 at 9:59 am

Hi Stephanie, thank you for the info. I’ll have a look at your site this week and try to write a review on the weekend, maybe even set up a profile if I have time.

cheers,

raj

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September 17th, 2006 at 8:38 pm

[…] Recently, I wrote about voice over work as an unusual way to earn online. That post is fairly general but it referred to Voice123.com, one of many sites that act as a portal for voice over talent and talent seekers. After that post, Stephanie from Voices.com let me know about that portal. So I signed up for a guest account and am giving you a quick synopsis. I’ll do it as a comparison to Voice123. […]

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July 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm

[…] Voiceovers. It takes work to crack into, but if you have a versatile, clear voice, work well under deadlines, and have the minimal necessary equipment, Voice over work could be an option for a bit extra capital. […]

Roy The Radio Snack Guy

January 10th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

Hello.. very interesting post you have there. Thanks to the internet, being in the business of voice recording, radio commercial and other forms of audio production are now possible. The internet has certainly allowed us to do business beyond geographical limits.

Earn Easy

August 19th, 2008 at 11:44 am

Hmmm…. Interesting article. I never knew any such thing exist. Sounds interesting and informative too. Thanks..

Can You Earn A Living Online?
Short answer: yes. I'm doing it. So are others. The hard part is, it takes time. I took me nearly a year because I didn't know about real opportunities. So, in the spirit of this site, I'll teach you what I know + what I learn along the way. For free. No tricks. But if you're not serious, find something else to do. Because patience and knowledge makes a difference. Note: This is not another "internet marketing" site. It's about actual opportunities, what they are, and how to find them. Yes, marketing yourself online will be a part of the process, but it's not about selling software to people to teach them to sell software. Get my meaning?