VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Moosevoice · Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 7:57 am Post subject: voplanet

Been using voplanet.com for a couple years now and not one hit back from it.
I reached out to them and they said my audio quality/reads are good that it's just 'competitive.'
Curious as to who else is using this....

A, are you auditioning on voplanet
and
B, have you gotten any work from it?
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Rick Riley · Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 4:49 pm Post subject:

My experience with VO planet has been negative from day one. I mentioned it on a FB forum some time ago when Kevin West was in the process repackaging the product and was heavily promoting it. He contacted me privately and said he’d like to make it up to me with a free subscription. The following is a letter I ended up writing to the VO Planet Team on Jan 16th, 2020, over a year and a half later, after receiving multiple emails to join VO Planet.

I wrote…

Back on May 24th, 2018, Kevin West contacted me about radio as apparently, he used to listen to me in Miami. At the time he was repositioning VO Planet to start up again. I told him my experience with VO Planet and his reply, “That is just sad. How could they? None of the former ownership are involved with this site. I am so sorry that happened. We will launch soon and I am happy to have you join free.”

He then messaged me and said, “Please message me in about a week and I will send you your log in info.”

I messaged him on July 16th, 2018, saying, “Hi Kevin, I see you're up and running now. You had mentioned due to my prior experience with VO planet that you would offer me a freebie. That still good?”

I did not hear back. So I messaged him again on 2/21/19, saying, “Hi Kevin, I see you're up and running now. You had mentioned due to my prior experience with VO planet that you would offer me a freebie. That still good?”

I never heard back, yet I know he saw the message because his picture is next to the message as being ‘received’ on Facebook.

I don’t need freebies, but the offer was made by Kevin and when I went to follow up on it, I was ignored, TWICE.

Please take my name off your email list as when I see ‘VO Planet’ it conjures up poor images of words not kept. When I tell someone I’m going to do something, I follow up and do it. Integrity is everything and the lack of integrity on Kevin West’s part would indicate he is not someone I would want to do business with.

After receiving the letter, he contacted me via Facebook and we had an exchange. He apologized and I accepted, but he never followed through on the comp.

You're experience pretty much mirrors mine without the promise to make amends, which never happened anyway.
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Eddie Eagle · M&M Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 2393

I tried it for a year last year. I know my reads were worthy but no hits. There were few projects that were decent but only as many as I could count on my hands.
No more p2p ever again. I don't need to waste $300 for marketing in that way.

BruceG · Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 6:47 am Post subject:

Has anyone considered Bodalgo? They seem to be honest and forthright in the way they do business.
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"What was that? An exhibition? We need emotional content." - Bruce Lee, Enter The Dragon

Moosevoice · Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 7:03 am Post subject:

FinMac · Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 7:22 am Post subject: No saving VO Planet

My experience with VO Planet is from many years ago.

Like Eddie, I remember very few auditions, and got nothing to show for the investment. I am not interested in saving the VO Planet!

Have been on Boldago. It is a better system for the talent, but the competition is very tough. On one recent audition there were 473 talent posting their auditions for the job.

When I wrote to Armin about the absurd number of applicants he told me that since they do not restrict how many auditions you can do, this kind of thing can happen. But after my complaint he posted a note with each new audition reminding the talent to only audition for something that is in their wheelhouse.

He seems like a decent guy who wants to be fair to the talent.
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"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)

Lee Gordon · Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 7:54 am Post subject:

Here is the note that Bodalgo now includes in a red box at the top of each audition.

IMPORTANT: Only audition for voice over work you excel in!
Do to the effects of Corona we see a higher number of auditions per job than usual. Although bodalgo never limits you in the number of jobs you may audition for, it is important to understand that due to bodalgo's vetting of each profile, the competition (i.e. the average quality of auditions) is much stronger than with any other website.

Therefor: Only audition for this job if you absolutely excel in Corporate/Presentations.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

Jen Gosnell · Posted: Sat May 23, 2020 6:47 am Post subject:

I use VO Planet and submit auditions there fairly regularly. So far, I have not booked through them.

I do think the quality of the jobs that get posted there are generally good, and their associated fees are usually fair, in contrast to what I've seen on most other P2Ps over the years. I'm sure it's true that there's a lot of competition for jobs. Something I saw a while ago ~ I don't recall the source now ~ led me to believe they have well over a thousand members. If I had to guess, I'd guess it's probably much higher than that.

VO Planet is basically a family business. Their staff isn't big. This means they care and are personally invested but also that they can get overwhelmed. Responsiveness isn't necessarily the greatest, and I've seen Kevin feel the need to mount public defenses of one situation or another from time to time. One thing I have been not impressed with is the communication to subscribers. I do get audition emails, but I never receive a direct email from them regarding membership benefits, company updates, etc., unless it's time for my membership to expire. On occasion I have wandered across their FB group and seen some sort of update from Kevin that I had absolutely no idea about, that I would have liked to know. And I do find that frustrating.
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Moe Egan · Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 1:14 pm Post subject:

I recently (in the last few months) signed up for Bodalgo and VOPlanet- both for the first time. I've been P2Pless for a long stretch, but in these uncertain times (DRINK!), I figured it was good to have a few more tools in the tool box.

Lee- I did noticee the Red Warning box on Bodalgo too. Apparently, not many people are reading it. Or many VO people are just flailing and throwing auditions at anything and everything they can. I saw one the other day, had maybe 20 responses, within an hour or two there were over 280 responses. What on Earth would possess someone to respond to an audition that has ALREADY had 280 reponses? Ninja

Do they really think they'll be heard, or seen in THAT mess? I just don't get that. I don't like that VOPlanet doesn't give you the number of already submitted auditions- no reason to waste time spittin' in the ocean. Just my .02
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Tue May 26, 2020 2:43 pm Post subject:

A few years ago at Faffcon in Hershey, in a Hotel in NYC and a restaurant in LA I did a teaching thing called "First, you have to think differently!"

Today that title and mindset is even more important, whilst acting on it is vital.

For whom do you want to work? ASK THEM. Remember to let them know that it is ok to say no.

Write down the following.

How much do you need/want to earn in the next 12 months? Include in that number the cost of running your business. Assume you will work only 3 days per week and for a total of only 46 weeks per year. One job per working day = 138 jobs. Divide the number you have as your answer to my opening question by 138. That number is the lowest fee you will charge for a job, your personal minimum session fee.

If someone is offering you a job you know how low you are able to go. If they offer $50 then you know to say thank you but "my minimum fee is..."

Marketing to the average VO = "Doing exactly the same thing that every penniless VO is doing while expecting a different outcome."

Repeat after me "DUH!"

Lee Gordon · Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 12:53 am Post subject:

BruceG · Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 6:21 am Post subject:

Moe Egan · Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 6:35 am Post subject:

Hmmmm. I didn't know that. Thank you Bruce for the insight.
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Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 6:51 am Post subject:

Where we are now.

VO Manger - Forwards auditions to clients
VO agent - " see above"
VO Casting Director - Forwards auditions to the above and to VO people.
VO P2P sites - Allows VO people to pay for the privilege of collecting auditions.

OAV Grand Master and all truly informed End Users (producers et al) simply know the right person and make one phone call/send one email then get the job done while everyone else is wading through 967 completely unsuitable auditions.

'tis the way of things!

Moe Egan · Posted: Wed May 27, 2020 7:16 am Post subject:

You speak the truth, Mr. Banks.
_________________
Moe Egan
i want to be the voice in your head.
~~~~~