How to find voice acting jobs
You put in the work, educating yourself on voice acting and performance, and you invest in crafting a solid home recording studio set-up, one that works for you. Now for the fun part - this section covers topics that affect how you approach finding voice over jobs online.
This is an ever-growing list, but here are ways to set yourself up for success as you audition for voice acting jobs online.
By having an online presence with a complete voice actor profile
As far as the online voiceover industry is concerned, you make your own luck. But there are things that you can do to set yourself up for success – one of them being aware of the benefits an online presence will give you. No one will hire you if they don’t know you, so when you’re ready to look for voice over jobs online, this should come as no surprise. A complete voice actor profile will help boost your digital presence and play a part in your journey of landing voice over jobs. Our SEO engineer, Andres Zuleta, even created a 3-part series on how to make the most of your voice actor profile by optimizing your information, playlists and samples. But don’t just hear it from us, hear it from other voice actors who’ve found success in securing returning clientele by keeping their voice actor profiles up to date.
By understanding what being in a union vs non-union offers
Online work has complicated the issue because suddenly we’re all dealing with a global market that crosses borders, boundaries, and oceans on a whim and in the blink of an eye. We cover the advantages and disadvantages of being in a union vs. non-union, as well as FiCore possibilities.
Auditioning day after day is tough. It will always be tough because a possible ‘rejection’ is always involved. Having the right approach is a key element. Never depend on just one platform or offline pipeline for all of your work. Diversify your work sources and do not despair if one source of work dries up or changes. That’s why you have multiple work pipelines – so you can give yourself as much stability as possible.
Gaining traction with your voiceover career takes time and effort. If you commit to the long-term and you persevere, you’ll see consistent results.
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Where to find voice over jobs from home
Entering the world of online casting: what are online casting platforms?
As noted on the first page of the voice over guide,
“Online casting platforms provide job opportunities for voice actors and, because they’re online, the voice actors who make use of these platforms can be anywhere in the world.”
Online casting platforms are also particularly useful for casting directors who need to find precisely the right voice, language or accent they need for a specific job.
Middlemen and other intermediaries who extend the supply chain without adding any real value to it – and often pay themselves handsome commission fees in the process – are eliminated (this idea is how Voice123 came to be – read our founding story here). This is the main reason why online platforms are becoming the new normal for voice actors around the world, and why many blogs include listicles that group together the best places to find voice over jobs online.
Not all platforms suit every voice actor. It’s important to read, share stories with colleagues, and even interact with the customer service team of each site in order to establish a clear sense of what you will be offered, as well as what the advantages are. It’s equally important to set realistic expectations for yourself. Here’s a quick list of some reputable online casting platform (at the time of publication) in alphabetical order:
Guest Post from Edge Studio
Edge Studio has been providing valuable advice on voice over education and production in the industry for over 30 years. Interested in learning from their key insights?
David Goldberg, the founder of Edge Studio, shares his first-hand experience on how to create a voice over business with a solid foundation so that the work finds you.
Read his Guest Post in the piece, How to find the best voice over work.
What is a platform?
A platform uses technology to connect people, organizations and resources in an interactive ecosystem, providing an open, and participative infrastructure. It’s the prevalence of these platforms today that have transformed the global economy; everybody’s in touch with everybody in an instant and can sell products and services to anyone anywhere in an instant, too.
There are many types of platforms so, within a voice actor environment, here’s a short description of each of the main ones, based on how they charge:
Mark up: The platform buys a product or service (say, a voice actor’s work) and re-sells it on to a buyer for a higher-profit.
Commission: When a buyer pays a seller (voice actor), the platform facilitates the payment, and then charges a percentage (or a flat fee) for each transaction. The biggest benefit of this model is that sellers don’t have to pay anything before they receive value from the marketplace. This is very attractive to voice actors, but it’s also very difficult to get into.
Subscription, or Pay-to-Play (P2P): A membership fee is charged to access some of the benefits of the platform. The value this model has for voice actors is the opportunity to find new customers and get exposure. Most of the time the platform is free for clients, but requires a subscription from voice actors. Some other platforms in this category (like LinkedIn) charge companies a subscription fee to access their talent pools.
Lead fee: Clients post projects/requests on the platform, and voice actors pay in order to bid for them. You only pay when you are put in touch with a potential buyer.
Several casting or booking platforms use the commission-based model, but also charge a subscription fee, thus getting revenue from both variables in the equation. Then there are also production platforms that take charge of the entire process from start to finish and deliver a fully completed project to their client.
Browse our practical how-tos to increase your chances of finding voice over jobs online.
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