Plans for Marketing Online - Opinions please!

[MaryM]

Hi Everyone,

Goodness me, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to introduce my thoughts/questions regarding this matter for days now. Please believe me when I say I’ve looked at most of the old posts regarding VO sites and have noticed the recent ones as well. But things are changing everyday and I'm still new to online marketing.

So, without offending or annoying anyone, I’d like to bring up the topic of Voiceover Sites… again.

I’m not a member of any of them. But I understand that part of networking these days is to market oneself more and more online. I have a website which I owe a big thanks to all the advice provided here. I have three agents, but things have been slow lately. And on my own I’ve gotten some good amount of work in anime doing Walla and bit parts. It’ll be a while before I can achieve supporting roles and leads.

While I’ve auditioned numerous times for two years, I haven’t gotten any jobs outside animation. It could be that I’m just not meant for anything else, which I wouldn’t mind if work was plentiful where I am, thought it’s not. Right now, I’m not ready to journey out to Los Angeles.

And yes, I’ve done cold calls, e-mails, mailed out CDs and have done my best to follow advice from other hard-working voice talent who have been kind enough to post here.

So, before I spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars joining VO sites. I was wondering if some folks could mention all the sites available out there and an opinion or two.

Voice123 (I know quite a lot already, but any new information would be most helpful)
Voices.com (I haven’t heard one bad thing about them yet)
VO Planet (Not much info)
VoiceHunter (Not much info)
Voicerecruiters (?)
CommercialVoices.com (Some info)
Voicemodels.com (?)
Interactive Voices (I haven’t heard much that’s good)
Creativevoices.com (A voice site from the Philippines, I know nothing else about them)
Voicestarz.com (A site geared towards animation, looks very interesting though)

Are there any others out there that I missed?

I understand I’ve probably mentioned a little more than needed in this post but I want to be super careful about my decisions this year.

For anyone who has the time to read and respond, thank you for your time.

Mary

[Jon Morss]

Mary,

Welcome.

Here is my input on the couple of sites I am or have been involved with:


VoiceHunter -- Great site to be listed on. I have had plenty of Auditions from them, but so far no gigs landed. The lack of gigs is certainly not from a lack of help from the folks at VoiceHunter who are all very helpful, which is a big plus in my book is when it comes to the whole online experience. You actually deal with a live human being instead of just the web site. Gabby is simply the best. Oh, how could I forget, Bob Bergen is on the site as well some other really big named VO artists. Chat with Eric on this site to get more info. I highly suggest this one.


Voices.com - A good site with plenty of opportunities. Seems like they cater more to narrations and TSRs but I seem to see a lot of other auditions fly my way. Again, the folks there are very helpful.


Voice123 - Tried it for a month, but since I already have a buy life I can not always get to the audition in time before they stop accepting them. Another advantage Voices.com has over this site in that you have more time to respond to auds.


Voicestarz.com - I was involved in this site from the beginning. Tara and Craig Strong are very nice and offer some great advice. A few folks that were listed there early on have gone on to great careers in Anime such as Kyle Hebert and George Mannly. However, it does not seem to be very active anymore (at least the last time I looked) so I am not sure if there is any real value of signing up outside of getting the Cool DVD and a critique from Tara. It was great while it lasted though.


Good luck.

[Bob Bergen]

Hey Mary!

OK-first of all, you're in Fort Worth. Texas is the anime dubbing capital of the world. So demographically you are where you need to be for anime. Since anime is a big focus for you, let me discuss your character demo first. You do a lot of voices. But what I'm not hearing is original characters. Let's take that southern "voice" on your demo. If I were to tell you to take the accent out, you'd be stumped. That's because you aren't doing a character. You are doing an accent. Now, some characters have accents. But it seems to me you are relying on the accent to define that character. Bottom line is, it isn't a character. It's a voice with an accent. Your character demo needs more,well, characters. You need original characters. As original as Jimmy Neutron, or Bart Simpson, etc. Originality in characters is what will get you noticed!!!!!!!! Also, your entire character demo sounds like it was recorded on the same day, same mic, etc. Your energy has a sameness that makes your acting sound one note. Overall I need to hear more from you. You are on the right track. But I don't get that "wow" factor that is needed to compete/stand out amongst those already working.

Your commercial demo is OK.I like it more than your character demo. But again, I want to hear more from you. More conversational at times, less pushed, more real. But you're definitely on the right track.

I would improve the demos before further marketing. Once you get the demos rockin, I'd concentrate on getting more agents. Online VO sites are fine as well. It's a hard journey, Mary. But all of us have been on this journey. I'm grateful I got in when I did. As competitive as it was back then, it's 10 fold today!!!! Technology has opened up VO and made it possible to compete no matter where you live. However, due to technology, it's upped the competition 10 fold! So it's so much harder to get the gigs. Even in LA!!!!!!!!!!! So you aren't alone!!

But you do need to be better than everyone else! Your demo has to be as good or better than the top VO actors represented by William Morris. If you want the big bucks you need to work union. The only way to make a good living at VO is through residuals. And with union work you gain health benefits and a damn good pension.

But union work in down the road. If your goals are indeed that high you'll get there.

As for spending money joining online sites, ya gotta spend it to make it. There are no guarantees. But if it's important enough you'll do whatever it takes to make it in da biz.

The only online site I personally work with is Voicehunter. I joined them a few years ago. I decided to give it a year. If I didn't get work in a year I figured I'd chalk it up to a business write off. I lucked out in that I booked enough my first year to justify the costs. I now make more in a month than all the money I've spent being a member over the years. But that's just me. Again, not everyone will succeed.

But like I said, you never know till you try!

[JoeActor]

Hi Mary,

You may also want to check out the following forum link:
http://www.voice-overs.com/forum/rev...line-services/

It has a number of our users' opinions on a variety of online services.

Happy reading!

Joe J Thomas
Joe J. Thomas Acting Portfolio

[MaryM]

Thank you guys so much for taking time to respond. The advice is is so helpful and I'm glad someone had the link to the polls, they help tremendously!

Voices.com sounds like the way to go.

Take care all!
Mary

[Jon Morss]

Mary -- Yeah. What Bob said. Joe has a point regarding the link as well.

Hey, out of curiosity, which Anime shows have you worked on? Since you live in the DFW area, I assume you work with FUNimation. I watch a ton of Anime with my daughter especially Anime from Texas, so more then likely I have seen the shoes you have been in.

[MaryM]

Hi Jon,

Yes, my work is with Funimation and they are awesome!!!!
So far I've worked on
School Rumble
Holic or xxxholic (I don't know what the xxx stands for)
Black Blood Brothers
Mushishi
Baldr Force
Witchblade
Sasami
Ghost Hunt

But the majority of my work has been with episodes of Shuffle! and Hell Girl. I had the fortune of playing a guest character on Hell Girl on the episode "Friendly Neighbors", I think that's the name.

I have another job this Friday but I don't know what show yet.

Oh, these are probably not going to be shown are Cartoon Network, that I know of anyways.

[Jon Morss]

Mary,

Awesome! I've seen most of those. Travis Willingham (Ginko - Mushishi - King of Gods - Shuffle!) was here in Sacramento over the weekend, along with Vic Mignogna, Laura Baily and Darrel Guilbeau. Travis is just one funny dude. Speaking of Shuffle!, my daughter just showed me a clip from the Anime last night with Travis, Vic and Jerry Jewel's characters. Looks pretty cool.

The reason I asked about what you have worked on is that I did not see this listed on your web site. You already have an impressive list of credits and it may do you good to list them on your web site. Looping and Walla are great places to start and some of the best in the business got their start there as well. Its just a suggestion, but if I were you I would certainly list those credit on my site.

As far as your demos are concerned, Bob is THE guy in this area and any feedback and comments he provides should be taken seriously. However, are the voices on your Character demo voices of the characters that you have already voiced in Anime, or are they just made up? If they are from characters you have voiced, I think the credit list would help link the two together. Again, this is how I see it.

Since you are working with FUNimation, I would image you have some theater background. That seems to be the norm there. If so, why not list that as well on your page. There certain is no shame in that.


Alright, I've rambled enough for one morning. I love the work that FUNimation produces and I think you are very lucky to work with such a great bunch of folks. I would trade places with you in a heart beat.

Good luck

[MaryM]

Hi Jon,

Yeah, I had my website done right before I got work with Funimation. I'll see what I can do about adding my resume.

As for my character track, the voices are made up. Some lines I got from a favorite book or two the rest are one liners my producer provided me with. As Bob Bergen is right, I did do the voices all in one day. He's got great ears.

When I took an anime workshop in Houston at ADV Films the director told me that once I had some voice credits I should have someone take segments out and put another character demo together.

I wonder if that would be appropriate, because that's actual work I've done with real characters from real shows.

What do you think?

Commercials are an unfortunate weakness I have. I've taken 4-5 workshops to help me through it but I can't get a break.

At least I have animation to work with.

Later!
Mary

[Eric]

Mary if you have any questions about VoiceHunter.com. Please feel free to call or email me. 704-405-2100.