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Looking for feedback - voice casting websites!
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote


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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

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Jeffrey Kafer
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Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Location, Location!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Microsoft paid for me to attend the official Dale Carnegie communication training 8 week regimen a few years ago.

Clearly it didn't stick.
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Bailey
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Joined: 04 Jun 2005
Posts: 4336
Location: Lake San Marcos... north of Connie, northwest of the Best.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I may have eaten too many chocolate chip cookies while reading this thread, but if you don't want to know the answer to "Does this dress make me look fat?"... don't ask.
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"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jeffrey.... that wasn't directed at you.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

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Ed Fisher
DC


Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Scott Pollak wrote:
To be honest, I was not even familiar with VoiceRealm until this thread appeared.


Ditto.

JeffreyKafer wrote:
So tell us what you want to hear and we'll repeat it back to you.


Ouch ! Gasp

My first impression was that this was a person who had actually come, not to genuinely ask for advice, but to promote a "new" voice-over site...to a very large audience of VO Artists.

Not that there is anything WRONG with that. I mean, promotion is promotion.
(God knows, I believe in marketing. It's not easy and you gotta do what ya gotta do.)

But....as I said. THAT was my very FIRST thought.
(I admit to having a very serious cynical streak)

And...frankly, belonging to both of the others....they could use a little competition. IMHO.
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LaurenVoiceRealm



Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 22
Location: New York, NY

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rick Riley wrote:
Lauren, you asked for feedback. I'm with others on this who don't like the fact that you remain a roadblock between talent and the client.

I belong to both Voice 123 and Voices.com. I have pretty much quit using Voices.com because they are so demanding that they receive their 'share' of the pie, they pretty much say, 'we don't trust you' in providing it to us. So we're going to make sure you can't even include your email address when communicating with the client for an audition. That way you HAVE to go through us so we get that 10% SurePay fee that we say upfront, you're not required to use. In essence, you're doing the same thing.

Being a Voiceover talent is all about marketing. Why go to all the trouble of marketing yourself to become a professional in the industry, and then be represented by someone who refuses to acknowledge who you are? You say, 'We only have pro's on the site, but we're not going to tell you who they are!' Isn't that kind of silly?


Hi Rick. Each site charges a completely different yearly subscription and operates under a similar but different model. We primarily make our profit from commission (again it costs a lot more than most realize to run a site like this), therefore it does not make any business sense for us to spend marketing dollars to bring a client to the site, to search our database, find a voice they like, then contact them externally. I can't speak for other sites.

We are driven by commission. And this is the reason why we now have partnerships with ad agencies and production companies to exclusively use our service. If you are a voice talent that wants to build a brand, then that is great! If you're a voice talent that wants to be connected to professional clients through our marketing, resources and contacts, then that's great too. We totally understand it's not for everyone. But we are an alternative to other sites.

Lauren Smile

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LaurenVoiceRealm



Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 22
Location: New York, NY

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 4:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Clutter Ash wrote:
Scott Pollak wrote:
To be honest, I was not even familiar with VoiceRealm until this thread appeared.


Ditto.

JeffreyKafer wrote:
So tell us what you want to hear and we'll repeat it back to you.


Ouch ! Gasp

My first impression was that this was a person who had actually come, not to genuinely ask for advice, but to promote a "new" voice-over site...to a very large audience of VO Artists.

Not that there is anything WRONG with that. I mean, promotion is promotion.
(God knows, I believe in marketing. It's not easy and you gotta do what ya gotta do.)

But....as I said. THAT was my very FIRST thought.
(I admit to having a very serious cynical streak)

And...frankly, belonging to both of the others....they could use a little competition. IMHO.


Hi Clutter Ash!

Our site is continually evolving, and it's been interesting to watch our competition implement ideas that we've come up with and executed. we are always looking for new ideas and feedback. but at the same time I guess I'm going to try and explain how we do things differently.

Of course healthy competition is good! And as I mentioned above we are an alternative.

Lauren

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The Voice Realm
www.thevoicerealm.com

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Ed Fisher
DC


Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NOT to be a "stick in the mud"...

but it WAS mentioned earlier that QUOTING an entire long winded message (as mine tend to be) is considered bad form here. The way to solve that is simply to delete some of the copy you don't need and make sure you leave the bracketed portions on both ends.

And Quoting someone Quoting someone else....? Don't get me started.

Not to be overly sensitive. But, it's a bit like coming into somone's home and leaving mud tracked on the floor. JS

To check your handiwork, simply click on the "preview" button prior to pressing "submit."

YW
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LaurenVoiceRealm



Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 22
Location: New York, NY

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 5:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry! Still new at forum posts....

Lairen
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The Voice Realm
www.thevoicerealm.com

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Ed Fisher
DC


Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

NP

I'm not that "old" myself.

Well actually I am....but VO-BB wise I'm just a "toddler."

Some of the best advice I received was to click on the "VO-BB FORUM INDEX" in the upper left and then click the "View Post Since Last Visit." in the upper right.

If you are a "regular" and trying to keep up with "what's new," I find that combination very handy and a BIG time saver.
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Lee Gordon
A Zillion


Joined: 25 Jul 2008
Posts: 6864
Location: West Hartford, CT

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 7:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In Voice Realm's defense, their no-direct-contact-with-the-job-posters policy was in place from day one, as opposed to Voices.com who have tried to change the rules in mid-stream. Nevertheless, I agree with Bish's position on this. For me, the no contact thing is not a deal breaker, but it is not my preferred way either.

And every job posted on Voice Realm is posted with a specific fee, not a nebulous range or a "to be determined," although I do find many (but not all) of the fees a bit on the low side. Not Voice Bunny low, but once you factor in the 20% Voice Realm takes, I find many of the jobs not worth bothering to audition for. But that's OK; there are still some (like the $800 job I just auditioned for) that are worth the time it takes to cut a quick demo.

If I had one suggestion for Voice Realm, it would be to give the job poster the option to "pick up the tab" on the talent's commission fee (or whatever you choose to call it). Knowing which clients are willing to foot the bill for the extra 20% would give us voice talents a little better idea of who we might really prefer to work with.
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Voice President of the United States
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Ed Fisher
DC


Joined: 05 Sep 2012
Posts: 605
Location: East Coast, U.S.A.

PostPosted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lee Gordon wrote:
In Voice Realm's defense, their no-direct-contact-with-the-job-posters policy was in place from day one, as opposed to Voices.com who have tried to change the rules in mid-stream.


With Voice.com, now you only get the contact info of those who hire you. (And vice versa) That, at least, can be useful in the long run..

I find it amusing that the site will not allow me to sign my name as C.Ash. Somehow with a "dot" and three letters it thinks I"m posting a website.
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LaurenVoiceRealm



Joined: 29 Apr 2012
Posts: 22
Location: New York, NY

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 1:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another thing to note is that we have also, many times, covered a small number of fraudulent charges by clients. That is, a client has used a stolen credit card to make a payment to a voice talent through our site. We have still made payment to the voice.

If this happened to you as an individual you would be out the money lost for your work done and also then have chargeback fees from the merchant service provider.

Also each voice through our site knows that the client has already made payment to us, so they can feel secure in the knowledge that they will get paid and not have to chase up invoices.

We have a number of voice talent that we've paid over $20,000 individually to that simply get notification of the jobs, record the script, upload the file, client closes job and payment is released within 72 hours.

The voice doesn't have to worry about bidding for jobs, invoicing, chasing up invoices etc.

None of these voice talent have ever raised any issue about only their first name being known to the client.
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The Voice Realm
www.thevoicerealm.com

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Scott Pollak
The Gates of Troy


Joined: 01 Jun 2010
Posts: 1903
Location: Looking out at the San Juan mountains

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

LaurenVoiceRealm wrote:
Another thing to note is that we have also, many times, covered a small number of fraudulent charges by clients.


Wow. Is this really that big of an issue?
In about 12 years of doing this, fulltime, I've been stiffed by a client a grand total of 2 times. And I've NEVER had to deal with a 'fraudulent charge'. This just seems so odd to me.
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Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com
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FinMac
Lucky 700


Joined: 14 Jan 2013
Posts: 707
Location: In a really cool place...Finland!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:34 am    Post subject: what I like the least about p2p sites Reply with quote

Hello Lauren,

Your site is completely new to me as well. I am on one at the moment and have used 2 others.

One thing that bugs me about the one that I am currently on is that most of the time there is a required custom demo. That part is OK with me. However, for example, from my last 20 auditions, eight have not been opened.

If the client can REQUIRE me to give a custom audition, the client should be REQUIRED to listen to it. This has happened with clients who gave me a "personal" invitation as well. Our time is valuable and should be respected.

Auditioning on these sites is like shooting "free throws" in a gym with the lights out. If you miss, you have no idea by how far and how you could correct it.

Of course, specific feedback would require the time of the potential client...but perhaps that is too much to ask.

All the best,

Mac
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