At Voice123, your online voice actor profile allows the platform to match you with incoming projects to submit your voice over auditions. Clients can also find your profile when searching for suitable voice actors and create a direct booking! 

Now, the key that unlocks a successful profile is the balance between too little and too much. 

Too little information could leave a potential client wondering, “But what about …?”

Too much information could overwhelm a potential client and lead to, “That’s quite a lot to take in!”

Regardless of the platform that you choose to register for, think of your profile as a résumé that can show a client the 3 main aspects of your voice:

1. The sound, tone, and ‘personality’ of your voice
2. Current vocal abilities 
3. Past vocal accomplishments 

Most online voice acting profiles allow you to write a headline about yourself. This is what a client reads first, so be sure to use an actionable and unique description. 

Voice actor for 3 years. Deep, warm, calm, professional, authentic. 

VS

The authentic voice you can trust for your next project! 

Use the ABOUT section to highlight your key vocal skills and abilities. 

Remember, this is not about you, it’s about your voice! This isn’t the time to talk about your hobbies, your bubbly personality, what you do on the weekend, or why you love voice acting.

1. Vocal abilities.
2. Main vocal styles, celebrities, and accents.
3. Contact details. 
4. Studio description.  
5. Equipment description. 
6. Time-frames, turnarounds, and schedule. 
7. Additional services.
8. Descriptive adjectives for your performance and acting abilities. 

This section allows you to showcase your best work. On Voice123, that’s done through playlists grouping voice over samples of past voice acting jobs. This is also how to get a voice acting job because it’s the perfect opportunity to ‘show’ the client instead of telling them.

“I’ve been a voice actor for 5 years. I have a versatile voice. I can give you a quick turn-around. Call me on 1091029202. True authentic voice.”

Sure, it’s simple and to the point, but this is not how to get a voice acting job. The client has probably looked at 10 similar profiles so at this point, they can either scroll for more information, or skip to the next profile. You need to stand out from the crowd by avoiding basic sentences that won’t grab a client’s attention.

Most online profiles can rank for SEO on search engines and client searches on various platforms.

Now, keyword stuffing can be tempting, but it’s not how to get voice acting jobs successfully! The principal is simple. Your profile isn’t a dictionary of adjectives that describe your voice, it’s a simple summary of what your voice can do. 

Take a look at our Platform Education series to go through our how-to guide with valuable tips and advice to optimize your profile.

Perhaps the greatest pro union voice actors will cite is the minimum pay and fair professional rates, though not all voice over work guarantees minimum pay or rates. But in most cases, minimum pay for voice over work means more consistent pay, and often better pay than non-union voice acting jobs. SAG-AFTRA has minimum pay rates listed.

Check out SAG-AFTRA’s rate estimates per job and Global Voice Acting Academy’s pay chart. You’ll notice the estimates are in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, which is often more than what some jobs offer.

When work disputes arise, the union is there to help. Unions can enforce limits to working day hours, grant sick days, and ensure you have a safe place to work. They also make sure you get paid fairly.

SAG-AFTRA can cost $3000 to join (though it can be lower or higher in certain states), costs $226.96 in annual base dues, and work dues are calculated at 1.575% of covered earnings up to $500,000. For new voice actors who aren’t making a lot of money in their career, joining SAG-AFTRA might not be an option.

When you join SAG-AFTRA, you follow its policies. That includes sticking to jobs that meet certain requirements, because taking jobs otherwise is a conflict of interest. It breaches the commitment to fair and equitable jobs that people have worked for. 

The overall loss of jobs can be a significant con for voice actors who continue to rely on non-union jobs.

If you join SAG-AFTRA, then decide you still want to take non-union jobs, you might declare FiCore status. FiCore, or Financial Core, is a legal status that allows you to take non-union jobs after joining a union, but you sacrifice some privileges like voting within SAG-AFTRA.

Declaring Fi-Core status enables you to do voice over work that union members might otherwise not be able to do, while still enjoying some of the benefits that a SAG-AFTRA member would. 

Some people in the industry look down upon benefitting from the union while going beyond its rules that’ve been set to improve working conditions and fees for voice actors. Declaring Fi-Core status is not standing in solidarity with the union. 

In some cases, declaring FiCore status can have adverse effects on your career opportunities, such as acquiring a poor reputation and even being barred from work. It’s not legal to bar someone from work because they’ve declared Fi-Core status, but voice actors have said it happens anyway.

As a non-union or FiCore voice actor, you might sacrifice more chances to have minimum, secure pay (not every voice over genre or job offers it) for the ability to access more non-unionized jobs (and union jobs at the same time if you’re FiCore). Having access to more jobs is a huge factor to consider because online voice acting platforms like Voice123 have opened up many opportunities for freelance work.

The amount of non-union jobs you can find on these platforms can easily add up to union work, especially if you’ve built lasting and recurring relationships with clients. In some cases, you can convert non-union work into union work, so joining a union doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sacrifice all of your previously developed non-union relationships.

It’s definitely possible to make a career without joining a union. Jon notes, “There are those people out there that are just completely non-union and they do great. They’re just very smart and they do their research.”

We encourage voice actors to research their worth. Some big companies, to save money, may offer non-union jobs that pay much less than the same job if it was union work. As a resume builder, these types of non-union jobs can be helpful. But it’s important to know how much your service is worth, and to be paid fairly as your career progresses.

It depends. If you haven’t built up a sustainable income as a voice actor or through other work, or if it meant not being able to do the non-union work you’ve been doing for years, it might be the wrong move to make. If you’re financially prepared, or know that the genres of voice over you want to get into generally offer union work, it could be the best move you make for your career.

In any case, the benefits are obvious. Joining SAG-AFTRA means securing rights for you as a voice actor. Rights to fair pay, fair working conditions, and fair benefits to cover the cost of the job.

The question is more a matter of whether or not the genres of voice over you work in offer primarily union work. Animation, video games and commercial jobs often do.

On top of that, a big consideration is letting go of the non-union work and relationships you’ve built over years. The situations are niche and specific to each voice actor, so we encourage you to research what’s best for your particular situation if you’re considering joining SAG-AFTRA.

Our recommendation is to carefully consider the financial implications of joining a union, and how it might affect your relationships with your existing clients. By then, hopefully you’ll have enough experience being the CEO of your own business to see if you’re fine handling the risks as a fee-free, non-union voice actor; or whether you’d like to enjoy the benefits of becoming a union voice actor.

Either way, we just hope that you’re careful with accepting voice acting jobs. It’s an exhilarating and wonderful career. But non-union voice actors, if not wary, can be taken advantage of. And if unprepared, union voice actors may find themselves feeling restricted by the union.

However, if you prioritize your wellness, we’re sure either choice can be the right choice for you!