When it comes to talking some of us hate to hear our own voice, others absolutely love the sound of their own voice (some a little too much) so love it or hate it, how good would it be to be able to earn extra money as a voice over artist using your very own dulcet tones.
You may think that you have to have the voice of an angel to be able to qualify for voice over work….You couldn’t be more wrong. Companies are constantly on the lookout for all sorts of voices to fulfil their needs.
Think about it for a second, the amount of possibilities is vast considering the opportunities on offer ranging from radio commercials to video games… yes video games. Not to mention cartoons!
They all have talking in them and as I’m sure you know Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck can’t actually speak for themselves (sorry if I spoiled that for you)
Now I’m not saying your going to be the next voice for Bugs or Daffy, but you get the idea.
INTERESTING FACT: DID YOU KNOW WALT DISNEY WAS ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE TO SUPPLY A VOICE OVER, IT WAS FOR MICKEY MOUSE IN 'STEAMBOAT WILLIE'
Take a quick look at the video below to get some idea of what its like to be a voice over artist.
Tools Of The Trade
If you thought you were going to get away with only your voice as the only piece of equipment then i’m sorry to say you’re going to have to spend some money on some vital stuff to get you going.
You don’t need top of the range stuff just yet, but you are going to need the basics to get started.
- A quiet area/room with sound-proofing
- A microphone
- A pop shield
- A computer with recording software installed (something like audacity which is a free program)
- Headphones
Now these items don’t need to be brand new, they just need to work properly. Get the best you can for your budget then once you’re making some money you can always upgrade then.
Show Me The Money
So, if you were to venture into this exciting world what can you expect to earn as a voice over artist.
The image below courtesy of voices.com shows a snapshot of what you can expect to earn from radio and television commercials.
As you can see the earning potential is pretty damn good!
INTERESTING FACT: THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY IS WORTH OVER $14 BILLION
So How Do I Get Started
Well there are various ways to enter the voice over world and the best part is you don’t need any formal qualifications.
I’ll list some of them here and give a bit of background for you to make it that little bit easier to see what one would suit you best.
voices.com
Voices.com was founded in 2005 by David and Stephanie Ciccarelli with the idea of crating a business that solely focused on one area…voice overs…pure and simple.
Their website is a goldmine of information for anyone looking to learn a little bit more about the business, such as ‘the beginners guide to voice acting’ or if you have a bit more experience ‘the professionals guide to voice acting’.
Their client list includes the likes of GoDaddy and Microsoft.
There are 3 different plans:
- Guest…………………..free
- Premium Lite……….$49.95 a month billed every month
- Premium……………..$33.25 a month billed every year
All memberships have 4 basic features such as personal profile, storage for your demo, the ability to be found in the directory and payment protection
Premium as you would expect has the most features which you are encouraged to join up to but, if you are a complete beginner then the Guest plan would be a good starting point.
They also strongly recommend having your own website to showcase your talent, however they don’t actually tell you how to build one, but this is your lucky day, I can offer you 1 totally free website and the opportunity to learn how to make it a success. If you’re interested click here to find out how.
voice123.com
Voice123 was launched on the 13th of June 2003 and some of their clients include the likes of History channel, Pixar and electronic Arts to name a few.
With Voice123 a buyer will post a project on the website then the companies ‘smartcast’ will find the actor best suited to the needs of the buyer. This is done by an algorithm which uses data from the actors profile as well as factors such as deadlines, delivery method, gender and voice age, etc.
To start with you can make use of the free standard subscription which if you are new to this industry is a great way to get a feel for the way things work.
The profile you create on this plan will actually be indexed by Google and other search engines so buyers can also find you that way as well as the search feature on Voice123.
When you’re more comfortable you can upgrade to premium which gives you a much better chance of landing a project because all premium members are invited to audition if that particular project matches your profile. This option doesn’t come cheap at $395.00 a year, but should give you more work as a result.
voicebunny.com
Founded in 2012, Voicebunny is a sister company of Voice123, but unlike it’s older sister Voicebunny is a place for experienced voice actors.
If you have experience as a voice over artist then you can join their application process which entails determining certain attributes, if you make through this then your work will be shown to their many clients.
But, as Voicebunny is clear to point out, less than 2% of the people that apply actually get put on their books.
The ones that do make it can dictate what their own rates will be and won’t have to pay commission or subscription fees.
Upwork
Upwork has many categories for freelancers and one of those is for voice over work. Having been around for over 20 years you can be sure of working with a company that has stood the test of time and continues to work to be the best.
The choice of jobs is vast including an announcer for a YouTube channel, a voice over for story reading in games based in medieval times, voice dubbing, phone calls and everything inbetween.
The good thing is that almost every listing has the price advertised and a description of what they are looking for.
There are 2 membership plans available, Basic and Plus. Basic is free whereas Plus will cost you $10 a month. There are some advantages to using Plus, but in the beginning the Basic plan will do just fine.
Envato Studio
Envato Studio is slightly different in that you need to be approved by them in order to be included in their community of freelancers.
To get approved you need to fill in an online form that they call an expression of interest form. They make it clear that just because you fill out the form doesn’t mean you’ll hear back from them.
If you do happen to get selected you will benefit from marketing by way of Envato being a trusted name, protection in the form of payments from buyers.
The need for admin work is keep to a minimum with Envato doing all the heavy lifting and you are in control to decide how much you want to charge for a particular job.
Envato charges the freelancer a fixed fee to use the platform of 30% of the price of each service offered only payable once the work has been completed and the job is closed.
Voice Crafters
Voice Crafters was founded in 2008 with some pretty impressive goals in mind, not least aiming to cultivate long term relationships with their customers.
And that is something that is reflected by the glowing reviews they have on Trustpilot, an impressive 100% Excellent score.
Voice Crafters also provide multilingual voice overs with their actors being pre-screened. This means that not everybody makes the grade.
On top of this to be able to join you must be a professional full time voice actor with at least 5 years experience and your own recording studio.
If you do happen to fill the requirements their minimum rate is $85 which is for a very small project.
At the time of writing they are not accepting any US or UK English talent which means they truly live up to their multilingual standing with over 80 languages catered for.
Snap Recordings
Snap Recordings are slightly different from the rest of the crowd in that they specialise in one sector; the telephone market.
They provide voice over talent for the messages you hear when on the phone like the initial greeting, on hold messages, prompts like which number to press for a certain department and any other type of telephone recording.
While I couldn’t find any information on payments for the artist, the pricing starts at $50 for 75 words which is roughly 30 seconds for greetings, etc.
On hold messages start at $99 for 100 words and a 1 minute duration.
EarWorks
Earworks Media has amongst its clients some of the biggest brand names and works with major advertisers and production companies.
To qualify to be on the Earworks talent roster you will need to have your own Source Connect home setup. If you’re not sure the Source Connect simply enables remote audio recording, it’s basically an app.
They do specify one in particular which will cost you $75 set up fee and $35 monthly subscription.
Alternatively they do state if you haven’t got that the other option is to live within a reasonable driving distance of Virginia Beach.
They do require that you have experience behind the mic and have an up to date demo in MP3 format.
Fiverr
Fiverr is a massive platform that caters for almost any task you can think of including listing voice over artists.
The good thing about Fiverr is if you are just beginning there are no prerequisites regarding your level of experience, you can set up your profile and allow potential customers to choose for themselves.
You can also search for VO work that is being advertised on Fiverr.
Getting work on Fiverr all revolves around reviews, the more you have and the better they are then that’s when you can start charging more.
RELATED READING: CAN YOU MAKE MONEY ON ETSY?
Games/Toys
Now this is something that you’d probably not instantly think of, but there are so many toys now that have interactive voices.
Manufacturers include Mattel, Hasbro and Leap Frog needing to fulfil the ever increasing demand for the next talking toy or game.
Video Games
The video game industry is huge and with that comes the need for voice overs to make the games come to life.
Video games like role playing, adventure, action, even sports based games all make the perfect opportunity for the voice over artist.
These types of games need different roles for voice acting like narrators, commentators, aggressive sounding voices or charismatic, there’s something for everyone.
YouTube
But where do you start….well have you heard of YouTube……only kidding of course you have.
Now YouTube has just about every subject under the sun and a lot of them have no actual spoken word only music.
What if you were to find one of these videos with a reasonable sized audience and pretty recent uploads. You would then contact the owner to see if they would be interested in your services.
Amazon ACX
Audiobook Creation Exchange or ACX for short offers a vast library of books that accept auditions for voice over narration.
As a narrator you would audition for any books you think you could do a good job of providing a voice over for. You simply record a sample of the book and submit it, then you just have to wait and see if you’re the authors No1 choice.
If you’re lucky enough to be picked then it’s time to hit the recording studio.
Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way to listen to blogs rather than read them, a lot of people don’t have the time to sit down at their computer and read a lengthy post, but would find it much more convenient to listen to them perhaps while doing the everyday chores or working out down the gym or simply lying on a sunbed on a sun drenched Caribbean beach………
Anyway back to the post.
Blogs cover virtually any subject you can think of. But a lot of them don’t have the time to create a podcast, a bit like myself.
Find a blog you’re interested in and make contact with the owner stating your idea. It may just be that the owner has been thinking about getting a podcast up and running and you’ve come along at just the right time.
The thing is there are so many blogs out there that if the first one isn’t interested then just move on to the next.
Going It Alone
If you have your home studio set up and are quite confident of your voice over skills then you might want to go it alone and approach potential customer directly and having your own website will add to your credibility.
If you set things up the right way you won’t even have to approach customers, they will find you.
All you need is the right training to get your website on the first page of the search engines for phrases that people are looking for.
I can help you do that, just click here to find out how.
SO THERE YOU HAVE SOME GREAT IDEAS FOR USING YOUR VOICE WHICH WILL GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO START EARNING MONEY.
Are you a voice over artist? Has it been great success or a miserable failure? Or do you have any other suggestions?
Either way I’d love to hear from you 🙂
Hi Sharon,
Wow, this post is almost five years old and I just found it today! I am always looking for ways to make extra money online and I found being a voice over artist interesting. I believe that the membership fees for voices dot com are much higher now, correct? You’ve listed quite a few ways to get started. I appreciate the info from this post. Thank you!
Terese
Hi Terese, Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Voices.com have changed their pricing structure slightly by adding a platinum category which is only accessible by invitation only. Their guest pricing is still free and their premium has been simplified at $499 /year rather than the monthly @ $599 or if paid yearly @ $399. Thanks for bringing that to my attention and I will amend this post to reflect this 🙂
I started hearing about the job of a voiceover actor during the pandemic. And recently I got interested in it. There seems to be a good pay check for these jobs, and I have been told a couple of time that I should consider a career in voice acting. Your post has encouraged me too. Thank you!
I can’t thank you enough for providing this article, Sharon.
It inspired me to start thinking of doing a podcast. As you mentioned, I belong to those who hates their own voice. It’s not because I’m embarrassed or feel cringy while listening to my audios but I don’t think that’s my voice. I’d already bought Blue Snowball for my YouTube channel but couldn’t start due to my voice issue.
During my school days, my friends and teachers used to tell me that there is something wrong with my voice. So I underwent speech therapy and all the issue got solved. But my self confidence got tarnished. Is there any way to overcome the issue? My voice sounds like a sort of nasal voice in videos.
I’m excited to try out all these opportunities and will definitely do so once I rectify my problem.
Glad you enjoyed the post Sethu. Don’t worry about what your voice sounds like, the voice over industry requires all sorts of different voices which is what makes this such an awesome opportunity.
Just go for it!
I wish you great success.
That was a very informative post. I had no idea that voice over work could be so lucrative.
I have a UK English accent and so I suspect that I would probably struggle to get any paid work in the US. Do you think that this is correct or is there a market in the US for slightly posh UK voices?
Alternatively, are there similar resources and opportunities available in the UK for voice over work?
Hi Kristian
You would be wrong in your assumption that you would struggle, the British accent is always in demand in the USA, especially slightly posh ones 🙂
The good thing about voice over work is that you don’t have to be in the country that is looking for artists, if you secure a job in the US and you’re from the UK it’s as simple as recording the manuscript and emailing it over.