Casting Voices

Introducing Ad Man and Voice Girl, the two new faces of the Voices.com experience!

When you think about it, Voices.com is really all about how business people and organizations connect with voice talents for work opportunities.

It seems so simple when you boil it down.

Voices.com provides voice talent with powerful opportunities to market their voices while also giving business people the tools that they need to search, hire, and collaborate with qualified voice professionals quickly and easily online.

While the concept is straightforward, we're not satisfied with merely providing you with text, resources, and a fancy website.

We want to give you an experience...

So, to meet those ends, we've created a new means to share more of our vision with you; a vision that will heighten your experience and liberally sprinkle it with zest.

Meet Ad Man and Voice Girl, representative of the quintessential Voices.com experience.

Ad Man embodies the characteristics of all people who seek voices for their projects and Voice Girl represents all voice professionals promoting their talents at Voices.com.

Ad Man and Voice Girl will be making appearances on the Voices.com website, on blogs, and of course, throughout the media.

Their experiences are reflective of everyday business activities at our website, inspired by the spirit of innovation, motivated by passion and enthusiasm so contagious that nearly everyone will come down with an exciting case of Voices.com.

Keep your eyes out for Ad Man and Voice Girl...

Cheers,

Stephanie

We've produced a web-based guide for small businesses and entrepreneurs who want to start their own podcast, including access to pre-recorded, complimentary podcast imaging episode numbers!

Businesses have been quick to discover that reaching their audiences through podcasting is the way to go.

Although the awareness is there, millions of people are still in the dark about how to start a podcast for their organization and where to turn to get professional intros recorded.

As an expert in the field of podcasting, we're offering a superior online resource for new podcasters, instructing them on how to bring their podcast from concept to completion following a series of tutorials available on our website.

The Voices.com Podcasting Guide quickly dispels any podcasting fears and prepares aspiring podcasters for the world of podcast production, distribution, and, if desired, the eventual monetization of podcasts.

Small businesses have to work within budgetary constraints.

Recognizing that large budgets may not available to small businesses for new marketing endeavors, we are not charging a fee for you to access this integral podcast development information.

Whether you need to learn the rudiments of podcasting or want to find a professional to record elements of your podcast for you, you'll be able to find everything that you're looking for at Voices.com.

Cheers,

Stephanie

Here we are in the middle of October. Leaves are tinted in the glorious shades of autumn, cool breezes put more stride in each calculated step, and winter is fast approaching. For advertisers, the subtle temperature changes and bursts of color represent more than just the Fall season, but time to change gears and seek out voice-overs for their Christmas commercial campaigns.

It won't be long now. Sooner or later, your Christmas and holiday season advertising deals will start tumbling onto your desk and deadlines will creep through your email from clients who need to get their Christmas campaigning into order.

Yes, it's only mid-October, but folks, you need to get on this now before the busy holiday season becomes a deluge of Christmas Commercial Chaos!

For the most part, you've got it under control, perhaps because there aren't any pressing projects in the queue yet. Remember, we're about to enter November, and according to the internal advertising clock, this rhythm is about to increase to a merciless go-go-go pace.

If you are already working on production elements for your customers, whether it be copy writing, video, or music selection, don't forget to put the voice-over at the top of your post-video production To Do list.

While it's true that professional voice talent can record within 24 hours, even with same day delivery, it is only prudent to get your voice-over recorded (and deliver your clients advertisements) soon before the mad rush hits and everything needs to have been completed "yesterday".

How do you find a voice talent?

You can start by visiting Voices.com. You can either post a voice-over job and receive applications online or search the voice talent database by keyword and via Featured Voice Talent categories.

You'll be able to find Christmas voice-overs for all ad types, including Santa Claus sound alikes, elves, families, children's voices, jingle singers, religious, narrators for shows, cartoon voice actors, promos, commercial talent, and much more.

Find your holiday sound at Voices.com, your Christmas Voice-over Headquarters (and voice-over headquarters all year round :)

Posting a job is one of the fastest ways to find the voice that you want that meets your artistic, technical, and budgetary requirements. If you're new to our service, click here to post your voice-over job for free at Voices.com.

Best,

Stephanie

Audiences are becoming increasingly multi-media hungry. Advances in technology today make the use of audio on the web feasible. Here are some reasons why you should be thinking of adding audio to your website and some pitfalls to watch out for.

There is an ongoing debate on whether or not to use audio on your website.

It reminds me of the debate 10 or 15 years ago on whether to use graphics on the web.

Today, we can't even imagine a website without graphics.

Advances in technology made that happen and advances in technology today are making use of audio, and even video, on the web more feasible.

Let's look at a number of reasons why you should seriously consider using audio on your website.

Audiences are becoming increasingly multi-media hungry. The proliferation of personal audio devices, like MP3 players, makes sound a natural addition to text and visuals. All age groups are adopting the use of these devices, whether it is to listen to music, to podcasts or to audio books.

Your website is there to educate your visitors, whether it is about your services, your products or a particular point of view. People learn in different ways, some by reading, some by listening, others by doing and some by a combination of these methods. Adding audio to your site offers your visitors yet another 'learning' option.

Surveys have shown that websites with audio lengthen the user's duration, and the longer your visitors stay on your website, the more likely they are to buy your service or product.

Audio can:

• make a good first impression
• tell the visitor something about the site
• summarize the site's content
• give added information
• point out highlights
• help the user navigate the site by pointing out pages that shouldn't be missed
• direct the visitor to take action such as downloading information, filling in a form requesting further information or taking advantage of a special offer
• reinforce the written word
• give your website personality

One of the best uses for audio on the web is to add punch to online presentations, demos and virtual tours.

There are a number of things to keep in mind if you do decide to add audio to your website.

Make sure you know your target audience and cater the audio to them. Always give your web visitors the option to turn off the sound. Not everyone has high speed access and not everyone likes listening to sound when surfing the net. Some people prefer to get a feel for your site, your product, your services, before listening to what you have to say.

Make sure that your audio file loads very quickly. To do that, make the file small. Do not use stereo. That doubles the size of the file. Do not make the audio a barrier between your visitor and your website. Make sure your audio file does not open in a new window taking your visitors away from the main site. Do not make the sound too loud. Remember, people listen via earphones, in public places and in office cubicles.

Do not use audio just for the sake of having audio. If you decide to use just music, for example, make sure that the music you choose is somehow connected to the content on your website.

Remember the old adage, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

Make the sound professional and clean. Make sure you have a professional write your copy and it is well worth getting a professional to record it as well. Finally, make sure any music you use is either royalty free or that you have received permission to use it (which generally means paying a fee).

Contributed by professional voice talent Elaine Singer

This topic has been up in the air for the years. This past Spring, our team collaborated with dozens of professional voice talent to settle the score on acceptable benchmarks for non-union voice-over rates. Download the PDF Voices.com Standard Voice-over Rates here.

Ever wondered how much voice-overs really cost?

Voice talents, as you can well imagine, were quite passionate about this topic, and eager to help 'set the record straight' on the median fees charged by professionals working in the online voice-over marketplace.

After a series of conversations, feedback emails, comments on the VOX Daily Voice Overs blog, telephone calls, and live chats, we compiled and averaged the rates, bringing them closer in scale to the rates of organized unions such as AFTRA and SAG.

You may ask "What's the difference between union and non-union? Shouldn't non-union voice-overs be far less expensive?"

Well, consider this: Being a member of a union has certain benefits. By charging union fees and following the rules of conduct when contracting a voice-over job, the profits received by the talent contribute to their pension and or health plan as well as protect them from misadventures with clients who fail to compensate them according to their written agreement.

Unions have established fees that are charged for voice-over work, whether it be for broadcast, film, industrial use, and so on.

Non-union voice talent, or, those who are not affiliated with a union, do not have a governing body to provide them with assistance and the perks of benefits. These professional talent who opt not to be in an organized union are in most cases just as talented and experienced as those registered with the unions.

Due to the fact that there was no 'official' non-union standard rates card, and also because a significant number of talent getting started in the industry are non-union, the ability to charge random fees crept in, and in many cases, inexperienced voice talent charged far less than they should have been for 'professional' voice-over services.

This is where the schism between the two groups occurred.

Professional non-union talent have an uphill climb when it comes to keeping those in the non-union circle accountable, quoting an appropriate rate for work. This is why we have set budget ranges starting at a minimum of USD$100 for posting a voice-over job.

When it comes down to it, a voice-over is a voice-over is a voice-over. Each voice-over is a call to action, whether it be for sales, customer retention, or for educational purposes. The voice talent is your salesperson, and it is their voice that works tirelessly to promote a product or service, raking in the sales for your organization or company.

The voice talent is also your organizations' audio ambassador and is often the first point of contact between you and future customers. People come to trust the voices they hear and associate them with your brand, building brand equity for you and correlating your offerings with honesty, excitement, or great tasting food, depending on your business.

The cost of a voice-over is calculated by not only the performance, but factors in production costs, how the audio is used, how often it is heard, by the size of the audience, market size (local, regional, national), and also if the audio will be used in perpetuity, in other words, as long as it is available for consumption and you are making a profit off of the voice-over.

Keep in mind that recording voice-overs is how these professionals support their families and make their living. There is a lot of added value tucked into a voice-over not to mention skill and technical savvy acquired over years of career dedication and educational endeavors.

Click here to download the Voices.com Standard Rates Sheet.

Please bear in mind that each talent reserves the right to charge their own rates. The Voices.com Rates are designed as a reference for non-union, dry voice rates (dry voice means no music or sound effects).

If you have any questions or comments, you can contact us via traditional methods or leave a comment on the blog.

Best wishes,

Stephanie and the Voices.com Team

Google's acquisition of YouTube is about more than mere videos... it's about a new market of opportunities to advertise using voice-overs online.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Google had been in talks with YouTube and had discussed the potential of overtaking the popular video website that allows people to upload video content to the web for mass distribution and observation.

Well, earlier this week, Google did acquire YouTube... for a cool $1.6 Billion.

This isn't the first foray Google has made into the world of broadcast and multimedia. Remember this? After announcing that radio advertisements were soon to be on the Google menu, it wasn't much of a surprise that video advertisements would be next on the search engine company's to-do list.

Video is a visual medium with an audio component. When the tape is rolling (or animation is generated, for that matter), the natural progression is to include voice-overs, wouldn't you agree?

Since the Google acquisition of YouTube, the world can expect to see more advertisements and in turn hear more voice-overs to accompany those video ads online.

This acquisition may prove to be a major boon to the voice industry and another product offering in your toolkit of services.

Have you tried online video advertising yet? The digital ad age is upon us - don't miss out on targeting new audiences with video and voice!

Cheers,

Stephanie

A reflection on the effects voiceovers for food commercials have on television viewers.

Sitting down to watch television can be an enjoyable, relaxing experience.

However, while a person is contentedly watching a commercial about a food or beverage product, regardless of time of day, there are numerous creative elements trying to persuade stomachs that their master needs to eat, especially if that tummy is subjected to food commercials prior to consuming a decent meal.

Ever wonder why it is that people react so intensely to these subtle, yet edible suggestions?

One would suspect that an internal reaction to the material presented acts as a subconscious catalyst to induce symptoms of hunger. The hidden ingredients that trigger an emotional urge to eat, aside from the obvious visuals, are found in the copy (script) of the commercial and embodied in the voiceover, reading the copy in a cleverly, appetizing manner.

It makes a great deal of sense that the captivating essence of a message on TV would heighten an individual's interest and magnify a state of hunger to proportions unrealized until the onset of deliciously executed advertising.

In theory, the copy and voiceover performance in a food commercial is supposed to conjure insatiable cravings in a viewing audience. Now that this topic has just been discussed in detail, it's time to consider the other side of the coin. How does the actual production of these commercials affect those, particularly the voice talents, involved?

If a viewing audience is being persuaded by the copy that a voice talent is reading, is it then not inconceivable that the very talent delivering the message of a good home cooked meal could be subject to the same hunger pangs?

For example, a voice talent could be reading the copy for a commercial about a hearty, home-cooked meal, complete with roast beef, glazed vegetables, and mashed potatoes...

Perhaps they are voicing a commercial that targets people on the go, marketing quick fixes like fast food restaurant fare, take-out, or pop in the oven TV dinners. Alternatively, the voice talent could be promoting lavish culinary delights such as rich, creamy ice cream, pastries, and confections.

Depending on the time of day, if they have had anything to eat recently, where they are in proximity to food, and how appealing the copy is, the voice talent could be writing him or herself a recipe for Death by Chocolate or go running out the back door to the garden in search of some organic grub.

When it comes down to it, the voice talent is being paid to market a product, and they must, as a good salesperson, believe in that product to the full in order to sound genuine and trigger an emotional response from viewers.

The voice talents' interpretation of the copy is key to initiating hunger pangs in a viewing audience just as much as the visual component is responsible for luring eyeballs to the screen. Judging by the eating patterns, diets, and spending habits of consumers today, these advertisements are doing their job, and quite well at that.

To quote a famous restaurant chain, "Have you had your break today?".

In conclusion, creative elements in food commercials and the voiceovers performed in them are very persuasive, indeed. It takes a stoic stomach to say no, whether in front of the tube or behind the microphone.

This is good news for those of you who produce commercials for the food, beverage and hospitality industries.

If you need to find a voice talent to record for your next project, click here to post a voiceover job.

Best,

Stephanie