VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[alextorrenegra]

Hello!

I am Alex Torrenegra, the General Manager of Voice123. I want to thank you all for the great feedback you provide to sites like us. To all of you that have obtained the Premium membership thanks a lot! We really appreciate your support.

Voice123 has always been meant to help talents and to help talent-seekers. We look forward to continue doing that. We are aware of all of the problems you have listed in here, being one the issue of auditioning along other 200 people for a job. In a few months you will see several major changes in Voice123 that will address these issues and will hopefully provide you with a better auditioning experience and a higher return of investment in you Voice123 investment. We are already working on them.

Again, thanks a lot for your help and your patience. As many of you, I would like to see the problems taken care of right away.

[Drew]

I'd be really curious to see HOW you're going to pull that one off, Alex. What? You and your staff will make arbitrary and capricious decisions as to which leads go to whom? With more than 2-thousand members, you can't possibly assign leads to talents whose voice signatures MAY appeal to a specific job. Especially when most of the talent seekers haven't a clue as to what they're after, either. So, I certainly don't want that decision to rest in the hands of you or your lackies. That's a licensed agent's job. And you guys are computer geeks looking to make a buck in the pay-to-play VO game, not agents who are accountable to both their talent and the employers.

Yes, I'm very curious.

Oh, and while I'm at it, do away with the ridiculous mass mailing "Thanks but no thanks" option. It serves no constructive purpose. Perhaps the noobs gotta know. Those of us who make a profession out of this do the auditions and forget about 'em. We really don't expect any further communication unless we get a call-back. It's part of the biz. Those emails are annoying!
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[Mike]

[Tom Greenlee]

Drew, I don't know for sure, but I think part of their plan is the 10 free credits a month thing. According to their info, most leads can be answered with 2 credits. As a premium member you get 10 free credits per month (five answered leads)....after you've exhausted your 10 free credits, you can purchase additional credits to be able to answer additional leads. That MAY and I say MAY, weed out the low ballers and the people that are not really serious about whether they get that job or not.....it might force people to be more selective about the leads they DO answer, which will cut down on the number of people that answer each lead. So, 2 ways of cutting down the number of responses to a lead....1st being that you will only be able to answer 5 leads per month for free....making you choose wisely about the leads you answer.....2nd....alot of the schmucks out there that aren't serious, will probably not purchase additional credits after they have exhausted their 10 free ones, which will be an additional layer of people that won't be responding to some leads. This is just my analysis of what he might have in mind. The 10 free credit thing hasn't been implemented yet, so everyone can respond to as many leads per month as they want for free....but in the future it will be implemented. So...right or wrong, that's what I think their plan is on how to control the number of auditions per lead.
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TG2

"Communication without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communication is irrelevant."

Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
Former Commandant of the Marine Corps

[Drew]

So, on top of $200 annual fee, we'll be restricted to five auditions per month and have to purchase additional ones? That's what you're saying? Pardon my vernacular, but that's bullshit!
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[Tom Greenlee]

NO....not 10 auditions! 10 free credits.......each lead can be answered with 2 credits....meaning you only get 5 free auditions per month!....hahahahaha....I agree.....that is ridiculous......pay 200 bucks for the right to audition for 5 leads amonth for free...then start adding more bucks for additional auditions......

Edit*****and according to their info, MOST leads can be answered with 2 credits...depends on the freshness of the lead...the amount of the budget etc....which indicates that the higher paying leads will be MORE than 2 credits to answer.
_________________
TG2

"Communication without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communication is irrelevant."

Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
Former Commandant of the Marine Corps

[Bailey]

Research...

http://www.torrenegra.com/group/content/our_history

Voice123... Language123... Casting123... at least someone is making money in the 123 business.
_________________
"Bailey"
a.k.a. Jim Sutton
Retired... Every day is Saturday, except Sunday.
VO-BB Member #00044 .gif" alt="W00T" border="0" />
AOVA Graduate 02/2004 ;
"Be a Voice, not an Echo."

[Drew]

I edited my post. Five auditions. Math isn't my strong suit. My 13-year-old does all my accounting for me.
_________________
www.voiceoverdrew.com
Skype: andrew.hadwal1
Although I have a full head of hair, I'm quite ribald.

[alextorrenegra]

That is right TGG. That is one of the several changes coming soon.

Drew, hopefully TGG's explanation will help in addressing your concern about any arbitrary decisions in our side,

In regards to the "Thanks, but no thanks" notes that you may get, you can easily opt out from receving said notes by clicking on the optout link at the bottom of the emails you get. If you need assistance opting out or if it is not working for you, please let me know.

[Deirdre]

Wow-- this "credits to answer a lead" thing is news to me.

When did that get added as a "feature"?
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DBCooperVO.com

[alextorrenegra]

[Tom Greenlee]

"D", it is a feature that hasn't been implemented yet. Until it is implemented you can audition as many times as you want for free, but once it gets implemented...that stops. I think it's a few months away from being implemented, but I don't know.....it doesn't say anywhere when it will start.
_________________
TG2

"Communication without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communication is irrelevant."

Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
Former Commandant of the Marine Corps

[Drew]

[Philip Banks]

Clients could be encouraged to do more research by ensuring that they request specific voices to audition, in the long run it would save a lot of time and effort.

In order to make a living as a voice over I need to do 15 jobs per month at my minimum session fee. That's not making a fortune, just making a living. Based on the statistics available. How many auditions would I have to do each month to get the 15 jobs and with the "credit" system how much would that cost me?

[ConnieTerwilliger]

I'm real curious about that "credit" feature.

One question for Alex - if he is still lurking. Do you charge the "clients" anything to post to the site? I don't think you do at the moment. Perhaps weeding out the low-ballers on that end would help.

In general, I've gotten to the point where I don't audition if someone doesn't know enough about the industry or their project to have a budget in mind. Oh, occasionally I'll bite on a generic voicemail project since I have an auto reply created for that, but try to low ball my own rates for corporate or commercial work to try to get a job. No. Sorry.

At this point, I consider Voice123 just another "ad" in my total marketing plan - a bit more interactive than an ad in a publication, that's for sure, but part of the cost of doing business. When time permits, other marketing comes into play (research, individual emails, cold calls, networking, etc.), but for much less than the price of an ad in a trade mag, I'm visible.)
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Playing for a living...
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