Promoting Your Voice Acting Services Online

[Hnilmik]

Promoting Your Voice Acting Services Online

Ever wondered how “popular” Internet voiceovers managed to get so popular? Ever wondered how “untalented” (if not downright horrid) voiceovers end up in big projects? I wondered how too and if there's one thing they both have in common, it's their ability to market themselves. Somehow, some way, those voiceovers made themselves marketable and opportunities just came their way. In a word: Networking. Ask any active professional voiceover how they're still working and I'll guarantee you that networking plays a big role in how they find and book gigs. So, this guide is gonna help those who could use some help figuring out how to market themselves online.

WARNING Now, I held off making this guide for the longest while since (1) these are mainly trade secrets “reserved for those who actually figured things out” because we're greedy folks who like to be a step ahead of the competition and (2) people don't always know how to market themselves well and not only fail to get the results they want, but end up becoming a fool no one wants to ever take seriously. In other words, this guide may be a double-edged sword for those who aren't careful. It sounds awful, but the truth is we all are inclined to avoid being associated to those who may embarrass us as much as we can. That said, let me lay down some ground rules since they can be found in every single one of these tips and not following them would be counterproductive to your efforts anyhow. Your RESULTS will be dictated by the EFFORT you put in: This is self-explanatory. Pretend that this is the law of inertia in physics—An object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. That outside force can be anything, from time constraints keeping you putting in the effort you want (slowing you down) to additional resources becoming available to you, like a new contact (speeding things up). If you sit around and just wait for opportunities to come to you, not much will happen. If you get out there and actively (as well as consistently) market yourself, more doors will open and you will soon enough pick up speed... Be AVAILABLE to the opportunities that may come your way: Once you get the momentum going, you'll be swamped with more opportunities than you'll know what to do with them. Marketing yourself can be very time consuming as is, especially if you're very active about it, and once you accept those opportunities, you definitely have to follow through the best you can, otherwise it's very strange to advertise yourself, only to turn down opportunities. Most people who are extremely successful at marketing themselves have time to work on the projects they're given. They may be out of school, don't have a job, or don't have a life even, but the point is they still manage to have time to work on what they work on. Successful performers can also be very busy, either with projects or their own lives, so ultimately, if you don't have enough time, make time through discipline and good time management. Be NICE and POLITE to frikkin' everyone: I kid you not, I mean everyone. From the reviewers trolling your YouTube videos (who “don't know how to spell”), to peers, producers, and anyone who else who consistently nitpick on what you do, to your supposed worst enemies—Yes, even the people you hate. You never know who you may be working with someday and being nice makes you approachable. You will look like idiot celebrities who end up in the tabloids if you lose your cool over something as small as “lol n00b”. Try not to burn bridges. In the long run, you want to avoid doing something you'll regret. Being nice to everyone isn't lying; It's effective anger management, especially if you have a temper. We're taught at a young age to be as polite as possible, after all. We're all unique individuals and we can't help our differing tolerance levels based on our personalities and upbringing, but the folks who make it are the ones who know that there's a time and place for everything—They are professional in managing their attitudes. You can't be constantly flying off the handle or be incessantly negative about your shortcomings or peers. Especially on the Internet where any post you make can be screenshot and posted on ED. To also further clarify, do NOT let your ego go to your head. We also admire humility for a reason. Got that? You better. Making yourself marketable and doing it well isn't easy, especially the psychological aspects regarding how your actions affect others, otherwise everyone would be “popular”. Every action has consequences, so you best be prepared for whatever is coming to you whenever you do something.

[Hnilmik]

Be Where the Work Is

In the “real world”, professionals would tell you to live close to where the work is, like New York, Dallas, Los Angeles/Burbank, to be able to access voice acting opportunities. Online, those opportunities are much easier to access since most, if not all, of them don't require you to be physically anywhere except in your seat or by your mic. “Where the work is” can in turn be translated into “Where would they need voices?” Think about where animators, developers, and producers would gather (communities on YouTube, Machinima.com, Newgrounds, Deviantart, to name the bigger names) and possibly need voices (audition threads, posts, boards, and videos come to mind) and show up or even hang with them. Let them know that you offer voice acting services and are interested in working with them.

Avoid joining, link-dropping, then dashing though. You'll come off as an easily forgettable fan or newbie that clearly doesn't care enough to stay. At the very least, keep “following up” with occasional posts to stay on their minds and who knows, they may scout you via PM and if you aren't active, you may miss great opportunities because the last time you signed in was years ago.

Curiosity Appeal

Links are your friends. Try to have a link to your demo and/or site every time you post or comment somewhere since every time you post, you're promoting yourself—You are basically an ad. But don't spam—It's annoying and if you have a DVR, you can think of it as fast forwarding through distracting commercials. Promoting links can usually be done unobtrusively with a sig on forums and Deviantart. Your username can also count as a link on sites like Newgrounds and YouTube, where alongside your comments on animations, videos, and blog posts is a link to your channel or profile, where people can see your uploaded content, no sig necessary.

The basic idea is let people be interested in what you do on their own accord. Ever got a comment on your performance from someone you don't know and wondered “Who the heck is this person?” It's the same idea. You can be yourself while you're at it instead of coming off as spammy. On forums it's a bit easier to attract curiosity with eye-candy images and fancy formating. Not to mention some forums don't mind if you make your own thread solely to promote your stuff (like in Art or Link sections on the board).

Shotgun Auditions

Audition for EVERYTHING YOU CAN POSSIBLY DO. This is where “be where the work is” and “curiosity appeal” comes into play. The idea here is to not cast your net too narrow to go for mass exposure. If you're not interested in too many projects and only audition once in a while, only the people who already know you know what you do. If you audition for many producers who've yet to know you, there's a good chance that each and every one of them will ask themselves “Who the heck is this person?”, especially if you have been constantly improving your skills to be able to compete against other auditioning talents.

Note the term “shotgun” instead of “sniping”. People who are already well-established in terms of skill and exposure can afford to “snipe” by picking only a few auditions to try out for. I will clarify that they've streamlined their audition efforts, picking the stuff they're most likely gonna get a role, guaranteed. They also do it more out of interest than picky-ness—They try out only for projects they are interested in (like "conserving energy") and not everyone will be interested in everything under the sun (various comfort zones and other factors). To compete for attention, be interested in a lot of different projects. You're not sharpshooting (unless you're good at "sniping"), you're just trying out for everything and you're bound to get something if you keep at it long enough. After all, not everyone gets everything. Courtesy posts/bumps expressing interest can also help generate curiosity appeal, of course~

Dominate Your Corner

And by corner, it can either be your corner of the market (your strengths you can competitively audition with; your “type”) or your space, like your channel, page, or website. For the first, be good at what you do best. If you are known for a type, that's actually a good thing to start off with. It sounds weird if you say you don't know what you're good at and people don't know who to cast you as if you're “good at everything” (for the most part; I'm aware of multi-casting). Beyond type, it can be your area of expertise, like specializing in matching lip flaps for fandubs more than original animations, where performers need to specialize more on acting without visual reference. It can also be voicing in a market where the competition is minimal. Not everyone voices is interested in voicing for radioplays, machinima, or adult projects, for instance.

For the second, like a channel or page, you have practically no one to compete with but yourself. “Curiosity appeal” lures people to check out your site, so be sure to have interesting content there, like your demo or voice samples. You can show off improvements you've been making and even personal projects you produced yourself. Curious audiences who came to your site after seeing you in something may be exposed to other projects you've worked on. Also, try to update often, especially consistently, to show how active and available you are. If you subscribe to a magazine and they don't send you your issues on time, you would probably stop subscribing. It's been proven that shows that move timeslots too often tend to lose their audiences. Stay in people's minds.

Promote the Works of Others

This one is extremely weird since you're not promoting yourself as much as you're promoting others, but trust me, this pays off big. Basically, promoting the works of others show that you have connections and producers may, if not will, turn to you as a resource (in terms of voicing as well as casting even) whenever they may need help. For the most part you are paying it forward. Do not expect anything in return, just help producers out by recommending your talented friends. A good chunk of networking is done through recommending friends, so it'll pay off in karma. If you're nice to everyone, you'll never know when people will recommend you to big projects.

Name-dropping is different from promoting the works of others. In name-dropping, you're using the reputation of others as a crutch for your own reputation (“I talk to ____ and s/he thinks I'm cool”). It's showing off (on the Internet, of all places), if not all-out unwarranted self-importance. Promoting the works of others is more like garnering praise for their work instead of yours and recommending their services. To illustrate, word of mouth and reviews help people decide whether or not they want to see a movie. Put in a good word for others.

Friendly Messages

I'm WAY too shy to know how to extensively handle this compared to friends of mine, but I do know for sure that politeness, “being where the work is”, and availability are important aspects in making with work. While earlier aspects rely on curiosity, sending a friendly, polite PM or email to a producer of your choice telling them that you admire their works and would like to contribute to future works is a more proactive way of getting your name out there. Let them know that you are available for any project they would need voices for since sometimes, producers frankly don't know where to get voices.

Why don't I always know how to do this? Since this can be a double-edged sword. I know of certain talents who get around primarily through sending messages instead of auditioning, but I also I know of too many incidences where it came off as begging for roles, especially if you don't have a demo, samples of your abilities, or are frankly inexperienced. It's all up to the producer.

[Hnilmik]

...In case I need another post.

I swear, I think I might be forgetting something.

[hentaicook]

Great, informational post!

[PsychoJAK]

thanks for putting this up Hnil~

[Sapphire]

From what I've glanced at this seems pretty much spot on. I'll read through the whole thing carefully when I get the chance.

Good work, Hnil! <3

[jluvial]

It seems like these tips would work for most kinds of creative endeavors online. I'm especially interested in the tips about promoting others and sending friendly messages. As far as being where the work is, it seem like it would be kind of overwhelming with the size of the internet.

Great job!

[azure]

I agree with a lot of this, it's been ages since I have been able to actively audition for projects but I still get scouting voice requests. If you put in time it goes a long way.