Does Voiceover Coaching Make Voiceover Artists a Good Choice?

by Victoria DeAnda on November 11, 2016

As you swim in the sea of voiceover talent, you may see there are many voiceovers who state they have had voiceover coaching. While it may seem like a good thing to have experienced, is it really all it is cracked up to be?

The answer to this question is: It depends.

Voiceover coaching can be quite helpful to voiceover artists. Since it can be difficult for artists to identify problems with their voice, a coach provides a good assessment. A voiceover coach also has a toolbox of skills that can be taught to artists, depending on what they need to improve upon.

Whether voiceover coaching is something you should hold in high regard depends on the skills and experience of the coach. Not all coaches are good ones, and that makes the difference when an artist says he/she has had voiceover coaching.

So, how do you know if you should care that someone has had voiceover coaching? The best way to know if it’s a good thing or not is by researching the voiceover coach.

If the voiceover coach is a noteworthy one, you should be able to find information on him/her easily. With the Internet, it’s easy to find people, and then all you have to do is read up on the person. You can even connect on LinkedIn and see if there are any reviews about the coaching he/she offers. If everything seems to check out, it’s likely the voiceover coach is a good one, which means the voiceover talent is likely quite skilled.

Something else to think about is that it takes initiative to seek out a voiceover coach. Those who do it care about their career, or they wouldn’t care about improving their skills with a coach. Just knowing that a talent has had voiceover coaching may be enough to show you that person would be good to work with, even if the coach isn’t one that is as good as the others out there.

What Else You Should Know About Voiceover Coaching

Voiceover coaching is a way for voiceovers to improve their skills. Many artists will seek a voiceover coach because they truly want to develop their abilities, while others simply do it because they want to put it on their resume. Since voiceover coaching isn’t the end all for determining whether you should use a voiceover artist, simply look at what skills and experience the voiceover has and use the voiceover coaching as a bonus. While it can show that an artist is dedicated and has improved, it really doesn’t matter if the artist doesn’t have the qualities you need for the client request(s) you must fill.

 

How to Choose the Best Web Address for Your Voiceover Website

by Victoria DeAnda on October 21, 2016

Being successful as a voice over artist is a combination of persistence, talent, and setting yourself up to succeed. It also requires a little bit of luck, which seems to favor the prepared. This is why we’re going to discuss how to choose the best web address for your voiceover website. You can possess all the talent in the world in your tiny pinky finger, yet it won’t do you any good if nobody can locate your website.

Simple Guidelines for Choosing a Website Name for a Voiceover Website

What’s in a name?

Essentially, it would be ideal to name your web address (domain) after the name of your voiceover website. It’ll be easier for people to remember your site’s URL (also web address) if it is named after your website. Try using your name if possible. This allows you to stand out above the others.

For example, if your website is named “Janet Johnson Voiceover Artist,” then it might be available as “JanetJohnson.com.” If it is not available, then you can play with it a little to come up with something else, like “JanetJohnsonvoiceover.com” or “JJohnsonvoiceover.com.”

Length matters and SEO

You want people to remember the name of your web address. You have up to 67 characters to work with but aim for a meaningful short URL that includes your site keywords, such as “voiceover,” because it helps your website rank better in the search engines. This is known as “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO. Be careful. Don’t stuff unnecessary keywords because Google’s algorithm will penalize your site. Basically, if it doesn’t fit naturally, leave it out.

Differences between .com, .org, .net, etc.

You wanted to secure a “.com” domain extension, but you can only find “.net,” “.org,” and other TLD (top-level domain) extensions. Should you go with a second option or work out a new domain name in order to score a “.com” web address? This one is a matter of preference. Some people swear by using “.com” and others say that it doesn’t entirely matter.

If you select a URL that has anything other than “.com,” then make sure you promote your website with the full name. Instead of using “JJohnsonvoiceover,” use “JJohnsonvoiceover.net” every time you advertise it. If you don’t, then people automatically default to “.com” out of habit. Also, if it’s country specific, then you might want to consider using a country-specific domain.

Names with hyphens

Try to avoid using an address that contains a hyphen unless the name you want has hyphens. People are more likely to forget to type in the hyphens when attempting to visit your website.

Similar names

Do a search prior to selecting the name of your voiceover website. If someone has a similar name, then you’ll need to ensure that your voiceover website name is distinctive from theirs. You want to avoid brand confusion and any legal action that might be taken against you due to infringement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narration Voiceover Industry Is Growing for Voiceover Artists

by Victoria DeAnda on October 7, 2016

The Future of Narration Voiceover

As technology continues to race ahead rapidly, the future of narration voiceovers is naturally questionable. In the years leading up to now, there were limited methods for obtaining different types of information. Newspapers, radio stations, and few television networks were available, but in today’s world, things have changed.

Moving Forward

There are hundreds of radio stations, nearly unlimited podcasts, online videos, newspapers, and blogs. Content must be crafted to be entirely unique. Narration voiceover makes up nearly 90 percent of an artist’s work. Often this work is comprised of audiobooks. However, it also extends to documentary narration, biographies, educational films, and more.

Narration voiceovers were already in high demand, but as the shift in technology continues, the need for voiceover talent will continue to increase in an attempt to keep up with the change in times.

How to Succeed in Narration Voiceover

The competition is already fierce in the industry, but there are a few distinctive actions an artist can take to stand out above the rest. Even though the demand for talent has increased, so has the talent. Taking classes to hone your skill is advised. Not only that but becoming versatile and knowledgeable in other areas will prove to be a great asset when trying to secure clients.

Business Skills

You will need to become business savvy to get yourself out there if you wish to  succeed. Marketing yourself is especially important. In addition to this skill, learn to master your talent for closing a prospective gig. It’s about as equally imperative as marketing yourself.

When you work as a contractor, you will need to learn the basics of bookkeeping, which includes invoicing. Managing your time efficiently is another task that will determine whether you succeed or not.

Versatility and Time

Time is the single thing everyone wishes they had more of each day. Clients expect work to be turned around quickly. Since everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, you have to discover how to achieve this. Investing in professional-grade recording studio equipment will give you better versatility. This can be attributed to the ability of being able to record at any time of day you wish instead of booking a time slot at the recording studio. Many projects will move from requiring the artist on site to allowing them to work from home. Additionally, agencies often email the script and require the recording emailed back for auditions. It would be financially beneficial to learn how to properly set up and utilize a home studio in order to deliver a quality product.

Job Pricing

Unless you are a big name in the business, then it’s no surprise job rates have dropped. Unfortunately, more is expected for less pay. In addition, hourly and set rates have begun to replace royalties. More often than not, companies require the voiceover artist to sign a buy-out release form, giving them full ownership of the recording. Here’s a tip: Always try to negotiate the price.

 

 

 

How to Use a DiscBound Planner to Keep Your Voiceover Gigs Organized

by Victoria DeAnda on September 23, 2016

Recently, I discovered the advantage of using a discbound planner. Even though we’re in the technology age, I find that it doesn’t work for me with planning. I’ve found having everything I need in one planner (work tasks, personal responsibilities, budgeting, and meal planning) is much easier for me. It’s just nice to open up a book and see everything you need to do without having to click around or worry about a battery diary.

I believe a planner needs to fit a person. There’s a reason there are so many planners available. Each one is unique to meet the needs of users. The great thing about the discbound planner is that I make it anything I want. You can easily remove pages, move them, insert pages, and even decorate everything.

What has worked for me as a voiceover artist is looking for printable inserts. I have found the perfect inserts for an entire month on two pages and daily planner pages. I use the monthly pages for appointments with clients. I use the daily pages for a task list. I also include my goals for the day to keep myself motivated. Taking notes is important for me to do for my projects. I have inserted Notes inserts in between each day. I can then jot down notes for the tasks I need to do that day. It’s very convenient.

Each section of the planner has dividers, which makes it easy for me to flip to what I need quickly. This is so nice when meeting with clients and taking notes. I can then remove those notes and place them in the right part of my planner for the time that project needs to be worked on.

As I go through my days, I turn to my planner almost every hour to make sure I don’t miss anything, and I’m staying on task. I have a bookkeeping section in my discbound planner, which is used for keeping track of expenses and income. Having that information in front of me enables me to make quick decisions without much stress. It’s great!

If you’re looking for a way to organize your life better, consider the disc-bound planner. You can set it up any way you want, so it works for you. You can be creative with it, too. It’s wonderful for a voiceover business.

 

What Voiceover Agents Look for in a Voiceover Talent

by Victoria DeAnda on September 2, 2016

Voiceover agents have an important job; they need to find the best voiceover for a project. With thousands of voiceovers in the country, this job can be extremely challenging. This is particularly the case because they have to look for specific voiceover talent. The problem is that many agents pass over many voiceovers because they simply don’t know what they can do – they aren’t aware of their actual skills. For this reason, it’s important to know what voiceover agents look for in a voiceover talent, so you can be sure to highlight the skills they seek.

Years of Experience

The first thing agents want to know is how many years of experience you have in the industry. It’s best to have whole experience, rather than splitting it up between niches. For example, if you did narrative voiceover for three years and announcing for two years, it’s better to say five years of voiceover experience.

In the details of your resume, you can identify the types of voiceover you’ve done within the number of years. This will give agents a better idea if you have the experience they’re looking for without disregarding you due to quickly seeing two years of experience.

Training

Training shows that you have made the effort to improve upon your skills. This also indicates you’re motivated to perform at your best. Including the type of training and how long it lasted is an excellent   way to show agents you’re flexible and able to learn new techniques.

Awards

Many agents look for voiceovers who have been acknowledged for their skills. If you’ve received any awards or recognitions through your voiceover career, you should include it in your portfolio. It doesn’t matter how long ago the awards or recognitions were received. Just letting agents know you received them is sufficient.

Previous Clients/Projects

If you’ve ever worked for big time clients or noteworthy projects, it’s important to include them in your portfolio. Since , more prominent clients and projects can be much more complex, agents will be much more interested in you because they know you can handle the stress and workload.

High-Quality Demos

Demos should be high quality and exemplify the skills needed for a project. It’s best to have a demo with a few different types of voiceovers or multiple demos, so you can have enough examples to show agents. Many voiceovers miss out on opportunities because they don’t show off the skills necessary for the project, even though they have them.

You Have One Shot – Make It Count

You only have one chance to impress a voiceover agent. Be sure to follow the above tips so that you can capture agents’ attention. This will increase the likelihood that they’ll call you for an audition or offer you the project.

What Not to Eat Before a Voiceover Session

by Victoria DeAnda on August 25, 2016

Healthy foods not only improve the health of your mind and body, but they also improve your vocal abilities. If you’re wondering why some days you can perform much better than others, it may be what you’re eating before your voiceover sessions. The following can help you understand how food affects your voice.

Acidic Foods

Acidic foods lead to acid production in the stomach. The acid can travel up your esophagus, burn your throat and give you a sore throat, which can make it painful to perform. When you’re in pain, you’re less likely to do your best. What’s worse is that some voiceover artists lose their voice when they suffer from acid reflux due to eating highly acidic foods.

One of the biggest acid production culprits is caffeine. As a coffee lover, it can be difficult to turn away from it, but for the sake of a productive voiceover session, it’s worth it. Acid production isn’t all that it does; it can also lead to dehydration, which can make your vocal chords stiff. It can lead to an overproduction of mucous that can cause coughing during sessions.

Some other foods that can lead to acid production include:

  • Meats
  • Processed chicken
  • Alcohol
  • Highly acidic fruits and vegetables
  • Potatoes
  • Spicy foods
  • Fried foods
  • MSG

Fatty Foods

Fattening foods are a huge no-no for voiceover sessions. It can produce acid in the stomach and slow down blood flow to the vocal area. This can make it difficult to adjust the pitch of your voice when working on projects that require you to change your pitch often.

Dairy Products

Dairy products such as sour cream, milkshakes, ice cream, cottage cheese, etc., can lead to an overproduction of mucous. This can be quite cumbersome to deal with during a voiceover session. It’s what makes you want to clear your throat often, which is going to hold you back from getting the work done. It can also cause your voice to be scratchy, and that lowers your voice quality.

What You Should Eat

Small low fat, low-acidic meals, snacks, and room temperature water is what you should consume when you’re busy recording throughout the day. They’ll keep your vocal area hydrated and healthy.

Some of the best foods to eat for meals and snacks are:

  • Fish
  • Plain chicken
  • Yellow vegetables
  • Rice
  • Apples
  • Eggs
  • Almonds
  • Whole grains

Since water reaches the vocal area of the body last after being absorbed into the bloodstream, it’s important to consume a lot of water – 8+ glasses a day.

Take care of your vocal chords before and during your voiceover sessions. It’ll make your job much easier and enjoyable.

 

 

How to Use Pay Per Click for Voiceover Business Promotion

by Victoria DeAnda on August 12, 2016

Pay Per Click is a form of advertising businesses that has been used for a long time. Since millions of people use Google every day to search for whatever they need, business owners want to reach them before they click on the first few websites in the Google search engine results.

What you need to know is that pay per click, or PPC, can be costly. It’s worth it if you’re an established voiceover looking to boost your exposure significantly. It can be a great way to put yourself right in front of other voiceovers who may be trying to get to agents and prospective clients first.

How to Get Started with Pay Per Click for Voiceover Business

You can get started with PPC by doing keyword research with the Google Planner Tool. This will help you see what agents and prospective clients are searching for on Google.

It’s important to pay attention to competition and cost per click when doing your research. Cost per click is how much you’ll pay every single time someone clicks on your Google ad. The competition tells you how many other voiceovers are trying to use it to gain exposure. It’s best to go after low/medium competition keywords with a decent cost per click so that you can get more for your money. As you have more money to invest in your marketing, you can start to move towards the keyword phrases with a higher competition.

Once you have the list of keywords you want to use, you need to go to Google’s ads manager. There you’ll set up your payment method and create the ad. You should use the keyword phrase in the title and description. You have a limited number of characters to use for the description, so your ad should be attractive and concise.

The following is an example of an ad for pay per click for voiceover business promotion. If you wanted to use the keyword phrase “experienced voiceover artist” you can make the title “Hire an Experienced Voiceover Artist” and the description as “Experienced voiceover artist with 10 years in the industry. Award winner.”

Once you have the ad created, you can choose how long you would like to run it for and set up the tracking for it. This will help you gauge which keywords work best for you.

Success in advertising is achieved through trial and error. Try pay per click for voiceover business promotion to see if it works for you. It may be what you need to grow your voiceover business.

When Should You Update Your Voiceover Demos and Why Should You Do It

by Victoria DeAnda on August 5, 2016

If your demos haven’t been updated in a while, you may want to consider updating them. You may think they’re still good to use, but they may be costing you a lot of business, and that means revenue.

When You Should Update Voiceover Demos

You should update your voiceover demos yearly. It’s good to choose one month that will be your update month. Many voiceovers choose January since that is the beginning of a new year, but you can choose whatever month is best for you. Perhaps a slower than usual month would provide you the opportunity to create new demos without hampering business.

Some voiceover artists prefer to update their demos much more frequently. Usually, this is when they have decided to venture into a new type of voiceover. For example, a voiceover who often does announcing may decide to dabble in narrating, and then create demos to market that type of work. If this is the case for you, it’s good to update your demos whenever you’ve been able to develop a new skill you can show off to potential clients.

Why You Should Update Your Voiceover Demos

There are many reasons you should update your voiceover demos.

Market Improved Skills

Hopefully, every year that goes by, you gain more experience as a voiceover. Your skills have improved, even if you don’t think they have and by creating new demos each year, you’ll be able to show your current level of skill.

Promote New Skills

As mentioned above, when you update demos, you can add new skills to them. This may bring new, unique projects your way that could lead you down a different path.

Improve Sound Quality

Over the course of the year, you may have improved the equipment you’ve been using. You can use this new equipment to record better demos that will impress prospective clients.

Evolve with the Voiceover Industry

The voiceover industry is ever-changing. Clients are looking for different types of styles and voices for voiceover, and if you continue to use the same demos as you did five years ago, you may not be up to date on the latest demands. Updating your voiceover demos will allow you to show your clients you’re current and able to provide what they’re looking for right now.

Boost Confidence

If you’ve been using the same demos for a while, it’s likely you’ve grown tired of marketing them. You’re saying the same things and showing the same samples. There’s no excitement in it. Creating new demos will help boost confidence because you’re showing prospective clients something new you have done and that excited energy can do wonders for bringing in new business.

Schedule Time to Update Demos

Don’t wait too long to update your demos because you’ll likely not do it.  Instead, schedule in time to create them in the next month. It may take some extra effort and time, but it’ll be worth it when you’re able to bring in a few more clients because you’re showing them how good your voiceover skills are right now.

Guest Posting to Boost Your Voiceover Business

by Victoria DeAnda on July 29, 2016

Millions of professionals use the Internet every single day. Many of them are looking for voiceovers. Your marketing goal is to make yourself visible, so they find you when they need a voiceover.

One of the best ways to boost your visibility to grow your voiceover business is to guest post. Guest posting allows you to educate others on many different aspects of your work and tells professionals you are an authority in the voiceover industry.

How to Get Started with Guest Posting

Guest posting is writing an article and having it published on someone else’s site. For instance, a job site that often has visitors seeking voiceover artists has a blog. You write a blog post about the benefits of using a voiceover in commercials, and that post is published on the blog.

When the blog post is published on someone else’s blog, you reach that site’s visitors. Those readers may end up clicking on the link to your website in your bio to learn more about you and your services. Some of those readers may turn into clients!

Now that you understand how guest posting works, you’re probably wondering how you find sites to contribute articles. This is the tricky part.

Due to recent changes with Google, many websites do not accept guest posts from people who seem as though they are advertising their services. What this means is that any links in the bio may hurt the site, which can affect its traffic. Many website owners have decided not to accept guest posts anymore because of fear this will happen to them.

Does this mean you shouldn’t try to find website owners who are willing to post your well-written, informative content? No, but it does mean you’ll have to put a little more work into finding opportunities.

The easiest way to find guest blogging opportunities is to Google “voiceover guest blogger” “voiceover articles” “voiceover article contributor” or “voiceover blog.” You can come up with variations of these and other phrases that will produce websites that relate to your business that would enjoy having voiceover topics published on their blog.

Convincing People to Allow You to Be a Guest

The success of finding someone who will allow you to be a guest on a blog starts with showing the person you understand the topic you’re proposing. You can do this simply with an outline. This outline should be detailed and thorough, so the website owner can see exactly what he or she will be getting from you.

It’s useful to look through the site before coming up with content ideas. You’ll be able to get a feel for the style, tone, and some of the topics. It will save time when it comes to choosing a unique topic that will fit the needs of the site’s audience.

Once you have an outline, send the website’s contact an email. It might be useful to start a spreadsheet or another organization tool to keep track of the emails you’ve sent and the topics you’ve proposed. You can always recycle topics if you don’t receive a response, so keeping a record of responses is important to do as well.

Aim for sending about five emails a day. Don’t become discouraged if you don’t receive a response right away. Email responses are usually at a rate of 1% or less, so you’re lucky if you get one for every ten emails you send.

Take your time and send out proposals consistently. Before you know it, you’ll start receiving responses, so you can get your name in front of some of the best clients for boosting your business.

 

What Parts of Your Voiceover Business Can You Outsource?

by Victoria DeAnda on July 22, 2016

Outsourcing can bring your voiceover business to new heights. Owning a business can be a lot of work, and not everyone has the time for it. Also, some of the tasks can not be done by everybody. For instance, not every person understands and can do bookkeeping, but it’s an incredibly important job. In this case, it would make sense to outsource the task.

Voiceover Business Outsourcing

It can be unclear what you should outsource as a voiceover business owner. You’ve probably become used to doing everything yourself. This can make it difficult to relinquish control over some of the tasks. It’s important to do it, though. The less you have to do, the more time you’ll have to market your business and complete projects on time.

A great way to identify which jobs you can outsource is to write down everything you do each day for a month. After the month, go through your list of tasks and cross out the ones that you must do. For instance, you have to work on client projects, and you have to meet with clients. Those cannot be outsourced since you’re the person that the client wants and needs.

Once you’ve identified the tasks you have to do, you’ll be left with the ones that you can outsource. Go through them and jot down some notes on how you can outsource each job. You may be able to consolidate some of the projects and outsource them to one person, or you may have to find one person to take care of one job. When you do this, you’ll have a better idea who you have to find.

Begin Finding Opportunities for Outsourcing

You can find many people looking to help you online. If you need someone locally, you may want to try LinkedIn or Craigslist. LinkedIn allows you to search for people by area and see their knowledge, experience, and skills. Craigslist is divided into cities, so you can place an ad looking for someone with the credentials you seek.

If the tasks can be done remotely, it’s best to search for people online. Many outsourcing websites such as Upwork help you find individuals who can help you. Take time to look through profiles and read reviews to find the perfect matches for the tasks you need to be completed.

Feel the Pressure Slip Away

As you delegate many of the tasks you need completing to run your voiceover business, you’ll find yourself with more time. You’ll think, “Wow, I have time to work on more projects now.” This may lead to outsourcing your marketing so that you can have more potential gigs. As you take on more gigs because of the increase in marketing, you’ll earn more money. In addition, as you take on more voiceover work, you’ll be able to turn away low paying gigs and raise your rates leading to bigger revenue increases.

Consider outsourcing now. Make your list. Identify outsourceable tasks and start finding people to help you. It may be the best business decision you’ve ever made.