Counting auditions...counting jobs

[kVox]

As we all know, blind auditions have become rather ubiquitous to say the least. By blind auditions I mean the ones that come via email that have no real direction, (the ones that usually say something like… “need conversational read of attached copy by 2 PM tomorrow, etc”. ) Of course at some point it becomes a question of diminishing returns so I’m in the process of evaluating how much time & effort to give them, and when I do, with which company/voice bank/representative? In other words, do an actual COUNT of auditions requested (over a given period of time), auditions I’ve delivered and then jobs gotten from those auditions. (A measurable ratio as opposed to my “general recollection” or anecdotal information.)

So I’m running a little experiment for three months; (I’m just past halfway.) I’m doing almost every audition that comes across my desk (or is that microphone?). I’ll share all the results when they’re in, including who I did auditions for, how many, and how many jobs I got from those auditions.

I’m sure many of us work with individual companies, studios and smaller “voice houses” but I’m really trying to get a read on the big houses since (at least in my experience), they seem to be the ones dominating the business in terms of generating the real volume of auditions, (although not necessarily work). The sites I’m talking about in particular are Sunspots, Studio Center, Earworks and Voices.com. I’m on the roster for two of those and I’m considering the others. I don’t include Voices 123 in this group because their whole bidding model is entirely different and I have personally decided to pass. Of course there are dozens of other smaller operations, several of which I’m listed with myself, but they don’t do the massive volumes of work I’m talking about.

My question is, has anyone done this for themselves? Have you ever actually logged this kind of info? Over what period of time? Any interesting or consistent results? If you haven’t, are you thinking about doing so? All it can do is help us figure out where to steer our careers.

I am not looking to start a debate about how/when/why to audition. It’s everyone’s personal choice. What I’m interested in is data, (for lack of a better term). I’ll be adding mine to the mix at the end of September.

I hope you find your career enjoyable and rewarding!

Cheers,
kVox

[annavo]

I love it! I think this is great to quantify activity like this. Every month, I go over what I've accomplished for the month and what I'm going to get done the next month, and I always count up the auditions, callbacks (for animation stuff), and bookings...and WHERE they came from. It's so helpful to know what sort of results all the activity is generating, and if I don't track it, I forget how much I've done (or blown off) in the past month.

Thanks for sharing your results with us--I'm looking forward to seeing data collection in action!

Bestest-
Anna Vocino
www.annavocino.com
www.breakintovoiceover.com

[Julie Williams]

I haven't logged auditions and their sources vs jobs landed. But I have begun... just this month in fact...to track where each lead came from for each job I do.

[AlexisAdair]

Hmmm, thanks for the new names! :) I'll have to check out some of those places I haven't heard of.

And speaking of places to get work - I've gotten a surprising percentage of my work from Craigslist, of all places. I've gotten at least a few jobs, a couple of which have turned into repeat customers. I just got a $500 job from a referral by one of those repeat customers. I may almost have made more money through Craigslist ads than through the specialized voiceover sites.

Now, Craigslist is 90% (or more) crap and scams, but I find that I often can easily book the work there, because the serious competition isn't looking there I've learned to spot the useless stuff pretty quickly, so a quick skim is all it takes to see if there's anything legit. I'd been checking the New York listings only, but since I can record at home, I could theoretically look in any major city. Haven't done that yet, though.

I am a statistics nut, and I've done some of that tracking stuff (I love my spreadsheets), but I'm not sure right now where I saved the files. Eh. I'll figure it out eventually.

Definitely worth quantifying your results. Best of luck!

[bobbin beam]

Craig's list is worth a few good laughs now & then. Actually, I haven't had much time to look at it lately. Glad you've learned to discern.....