VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Philip Banks]

"Please quote for this job" on Voice123 - I put in the box $1.3billion, didn't get it.

Dress it up how you like, people are complaining about not enough or no work from Voice123 and that is the fault of a saturated market place.

For less than $200 you've got yourself a mic, headphones and some software to set yourself up as a Voice Over. Spend another $200 and Voice123 will open the market for you to sell your wares. If a job is posted the chance of getting it is 1 in 2816 or if you audition you can get the chance down to around 1 in 200. The system encourages "begging bowl" marketing. I searched for someone like me and before the search results came up I was asked "Why not post a job and let these people look for you?" (paraphrase) Do you like the idea of a system where you pay to get found and when someone looks for you they are steered away?

Anyone with $400 and some gamblers optimism isn't going to get what they want but they may get what they deserve. Alex is thinking and working like a businessman, may be it's time we stopped blame-shifting and did the same. If people want to continue buying his "Lottery tickets" and then don't win it's hardly his fault.

[Mitch Blum]

Nothing like going a year and a half between posts!

I got in and out of the v123 game long ago. If you've got time to kill it's nice for practice scripts and weblinks. Other than that, that's a whole lot of auditioning for a unimpressive payday. I'd be more inclined to pay more money to audition for jobs that actually make the walk to the bank worthwhile.

[Patricia Shanks]

OK... No time to read and memorize everything in this thread. Loose thoughts from a loose mind ensue:

1) I will not pay $200 for the opportunity to audition for only 5 jobs/month. Ridiculous. I can find other sources of copy to pay to read for practice - or take another class in town with some flesh and blood people and maybe do some more pointed networking.

2) I have a degree in business and my final project was a marketing survey that netted much more than the expected 1 to 3 percent response. I can put my $$ and time into marketing myself through other arenas - including online services - that will not restrict my auditions, and probably score more.

3) The V123 jobs I've gotten - or gotten close on... "most" of them were people finding me on the site without first asking for an audition. Kind of like old-fashioned casting. (Somebody LIKED me!! I'd like to thank my mother and father, and the Academy... ) What a concept.

4) It does boil down to dollars. Most of those posting the auditions are clearing houses just looking for an adequate talent who they can present to their client who will work for cheap. This also means that the "adequate" talent needs to submit within the first 20 or 50 or so, or the clearing house can't be bothered. Remember... we think it's about our talent. They don't really care how talented we are. Adequate. Have you HEARD some of the stuff that has been cast through V123?! Woof. OTOH, I did hear an insurance ad I had auditioned for and darn if that girl who scored the gig didn't rock! So, a few of the higher-end entities have some taste.

5) Those of us who know we can score work, because we do other than through V123, need to keep on dragging our tuchases out of bed in the morning, pull up those hip-high Shinola waders and keep on auditioning. It's some kind of dues that we pay. If we can keep auditioning for V123, in the face of the inevitable "thanks, but no thanks," we are true competitors - BUT NOT FOR $200 FOR 5 AUDITIONS. Did I already post the word, ridiculous?

6) I don't like the graphic on V123 that shows a bread line of partially lobotomized talent and somebody's teeth hanging out at me. It's obtuse, it's insensitive and it's rude.

7) If we really want to make V123 work for us, we need to not offer to do anything for $50 - even if we live in Podunk. But tell all the talent in Podunk who don't read these boards to do that. How can we? They don't read these boards. Ah, as Willie S. might have said once upon a fortnight, "ay, there's the rub." The talent sleeps. They do not dream. Is it not better to flip the burger for the mere buck and keep our professional standards high? Methinks 'tis.

I can't help it. When I think of V123, the first thought that jumps into my head is that somebody with a home business needs an outgoing message for their Panasonic answering machine - avec tape - circa 1988. I think that V123 should start looking at how they can draw and retain quality clients. This probably seems ridiculous to V123 - but what about an incentive program to draw more uptown and selective clients? V123 certainly makes money from us. Maybe V123 can invest some $$ in our future. All of us know it takes money to make money. If V123 wants more $$ from its talent pool, would it not make more sense to offer us MORE instead of less for our money? (And which 5 auditions per month would these be? Can we select the other coupl'a hundred talents who will be auditioning with us? Because we know the numbers will just keep going up, up, up. Surely I jest. And you don't have to call me Shirley!) I think Connie is onto it. "Hi, Connie! Waving at you!" Perhaps those doing the casting should pay something, too. A nominal fee would make a huge difference in the stuff we have to filter through and throw away. (One of today's charmers made a big point about being comfortable with adult language. Yuk. I had to go wash my typing hands after receiving that one.) I wonder how the possibility of charging the lister is being tested. How are changes in the program test-marketed to us? Hmmmm.

I don't want to be or like to be disgruntled. The positive thought nets positive results. I hope I don't have to be disgruntled over this. NOBODY MAKE ME BE DISGRUNTLED OVER THIS!

There's probably more. But I must push on through this day. FWIW, or not.
_________________
Patricia Shanks

(949) 723-4473
patricia@patriciashanks.com
patriciashanks.com
shanksfortalking.com

[Patricia Shanks]

When you're cool, it comes through even when you're not trying. I meant #8 in the last post.

ABC
Always... be cool.
_________________
Patricia Shanks

(949) 723-4473
patricia@patriciashanks.com
patriciashanks.com
shanksfortalking.com

[Bailey]

Everything you said makes so much sense,,, but I do have one more piece of wood to throw on the fire.