Voices.com vs Voice123.com

[WayneLHenderson]

Hello everyone. I'm curious, are many of you members of Voices.com as well as Voice123.com? Or, do you stay just with Voices.com? Others? Thanks.
Wayne

[chucktaylor]

I can't afford Voice123 right now, but with Voices.com's monthly plan, I can at least audition for gigs (haven't won any yet, but I've only be on 2 months so far)

ct

[JoeActor]

Hey Wayne,

I subscribe to Voices.com and Voice123. I will definitely be renewing Voices.com - they've been improving steadily, in my opinion. I am on the fence about Voice123 due to SmartCast and the rate increase.

There are some other sites in the review section, but these two are the most common ones...

Joe J Thomas
Joe J. Thomas Acting Portfolio

[Glenn Moore]

For me personally, the jury is still out on both of these sites. There are even a couple of new ones I may look into and see if they're worth it or not. I have made my money back on both of these but that's about it. Since I still have the day job at the radio station I don't have time to pounce on auditions 10-20 times a day. So I will probably not renew either one of them next month. I will focus my marketing money on other things that will promote my services to clients who don't know I am out there. Not saying I would not renew in the future if I find time to do the hundreds of auditions every month....and it is true that one paid job can pay for the membership...but for now I am going to pass on them.

Glenn

[Colin Campbell]

I am at both and 123 is the only one that brings work. In a year and a half, I think I only landed one job at Voices. It did pay for the membership for both years however. Voices just feels like a black hole for auditions. I'm getting about one a month at 123. I too work in radio and do auditions at home at night. It's hard to keep up.

[Julie Williams]

I get a the most work of all the sites on voice123, (the MOST is from my own marketing) but I hate their system. Smart cast is a pain and it truly is a race to be the first one to audition. However, I can't argue with all the work! I do wish they'd allow us to add templates for our bids to save time. And it's SUCH A PAIN to have to respond immediately to leads or not get to respond. I blow it off half the time. I know the CLIENTS don't need the leads within an hour, but it seems like if you don't respond within an hour, you can't. SO, voice123 is perfect for you if you don't have a life, and if you are not getting any jobs...so you can sit and watch your email all day. This is an excellent site for beginners, though, because thre's lots of copy to practice with, and they have an abundance of "bottom feeder" leads ($50) so beginners have a better chance...as a lot of seasoned talent will delete them.

I get a good amount of work from voices.com (less than with voice123, but a good amount) and I find them soooo much easier to work with. Far fewer headaches, and their system allows my assistant to submit demos and bid for me on lower budget jobs. I do wish they'd allow us to upload both an audition and a demo (instead of either or) if we want, but the rest of their system is great. They also have valuable info in their vox daily blog. And they are so easy to work with. THey are so responsive if you have any questions. Plus, for those who can't afford to pay for the whole year, they do take mo payments. I highly recommend them.

No one mentioned VOPlanet. You'll get far fewer leads but the quality of leads is better. I find a lot of the larger jobs that my agents send me (from voicebank.net?) on VOPlanet. They also pay a finders fee when you recommend them (so tell them Julie Williams sent you and I promise the fee will go toward talent services like th VoiceOver Insider and forums, etc.)

I joined VoiceOverDirectory months ago... I only paid $50 for a year...but I've gotten very few auditions (maybe 6?) and no jobs from it.

It's been my experience that all these sites can work within your marketing plan... I believe you should be on every single site you can. (Maybe not voiceoverdirectory...until they're more built up) and on your OWN site... But your agents and your own marketing efforts are essential too!

ARRGH! Just got a response to a chastizing email from v123. See, since I've been on vacation I've submitted a lot of double demos on days when I wasn't in a studio... with an explanation that I was on vacation in Hawaii and that I'd be back in studio on Friday. I got some great responses from clients and prospects... some, in fact, have had me send pictures as they sent icy photos from where they are. But In got caught by v123 quality control. Apparently I did a very bad thing, submitting demos, bids, and explanations. I explained the situation and got this response.
Thank you for your message, we certainly understand the situation. I'd like to clarify that the reason for Voice123 getting involved in the quality of the audition process with the voice seekers is that our compromise with them is to send him/her custom auditions if that is the project requirement, and if we don't keep that promise it makes the talents and the company lose credibility. Therefore, we recommend you to please audition only for the projects that you find suitable and for which a custom audition is not required, while you are on vacation.
ONe thing I don't like about voice123 is that they have never done a VO ... they just saw a niche market... and yet, they are trying to tell us how to run our businesses. Voices.com would never do that.

[dagoldenknight86]

I have a few years under my belt in radio and have gained a lot of networking. From that is where I get most of my gigs. I've bought a month worth of membership at voices.com and I had no luck. They didn't have a lot of auditions that fit my voice (teen-young adult, i'm 21). I have a 1 month trial of voice123 (today is day 2) and have already found more auditions that fit my voice. The one downside (only because I don't understand it) is the Smart Cast. I get a daily e-mail showing all the auditions that matched my voice and only a small percentage were with the Smart Cast. Still haven't figured that one out.

In my honest opinion, you'll get a higher ROI with cold calls and networking then any of the cattle call sites.