Using Online Casting Sites SMARTLY: 3 Scenarios
What?!?! Is Paul Schmidt really saying we should be using the online casting sites?
Yes, in some cases.
Wait. Aren't you the guy that hates voiceover jobs websites?
Also, yes.
Allow me to explain.
Yes. I am staunchly against relying on the voiceover casting sites as a long term strategy for growing your business.
Note: I said relying on. If the lion's share of your business is coming from the online casting sites, then chances are you're not developing your own relationships and you're leaving your business and yourself vulnerable.
But I do believe that there are certain times and circumstances where you can use websites for voiceover or work strategically.
In this post, I'm going to lay out three scenarios of when and how to use the online casting sites and which ones in each case to your advantage using the voiceover audition sites.
It's kind of like having sugar in your diet, right? Use it every day and you'll become a fat, lazy bag of pudding, but use it smartly in certain ways, under certain conditions, like using a measured amount of fructose before a strenuous workout, and you'll actually increase your overall performance.
First, let's be clear if you are or one day want to be a pro voice actor, I do not under any circumstances recommend you use the general online freelancer sites like Fiverr, Upwork, People Per Hour... Never.
As I've mentioned before, those sites are not designed for the professional voice actor and can actually damage your career. If you're a hobbyist or an amateur and you don't ever intend on going pro, then fine. Knock yourself out and I support you.
So this discussion is limited to the online paid voiceover-specific casting sites, commonly known as pay-to-plays, or P2Ps.
Alright, I'm going to detail three scenarios where you can use the P2Ps smartly, effectively, and strategically in your business.
SCenario Number One: You're full time and you just lost a huge client.
Look, your long-term growth strategy should always focus on drawing targeted relationships and turning those into regular, recurring clients over chasing jobs. But there may come a time when the shit is going to hit the fan and you're going to have to go into crisis management mode.
Years ago, I was seven months into my full-time voiceover career, and I lost my biggest client. My business was young and not mature, and that one client represented 50% of my income.
Needless to say, I was a little freaked out and my good friend Brad Hyland gave me some great advice. He talked me down off the ledge and recommended I use the pay to play sites to get some revenue in the door quickly. And he was right.
Now, you can't abandon your long term strategy completely, but you can shift some time to start cranking out auditions. A lot of them. 25 to 30 a day and that short term strategy can help you keep the lights on. But remember, you're talking about 2 to 3 hours out of your day. Every day. And that's if you're effective at auditioning and have your process down to a science.
Now, of course, the best defense against losing a huge client is to have as many clients as possible so that if and when a client relationship ends, you lose a smaller proportion of your income. But growing your regular client base takes time, and young voiceover businesses are especially vulnerable while that strategy matures.
So which specific tips should you use for this strategy?
This strategy relies on volume. You got to do a lot of auditions to start getting money in the door quickly and the leader in volume of the reputable pay-to-plays is Voice123. If you have to pick one for this strategy, that's the one I recommend. You might also consider CastVoices, VO Planet, and Bodoalgo, but understand that these sites have a lot less volume than Voice123. But on the flip side, the rates can be a little bit better.
And of course, you can always use a combination of these sites if you can handle the subscription fees.
Now, once again, to be clear, I don't recommend you use Voices.com under any circumstances because they've shown time and time again that they will take advantage of both voice actors and clients just to make a buck.
They've now taken to accepting jobs as low as $5, so effectively you're paying hundreds of dollars a year for the privilege of using the equivalent of Fiverr.
Now, there's a reputable site that I don't recommend you use, and that's Backstage. Backstage has great jobs, usually for great rates. But the problem with Backstage is it's oversaturated with voice actors and so in my view, it's not effective for this strategy.
Scenario Number Two: You're brand new.
Okay. So you've spent months getting your performance training. You've got your professionally produced demos. You've got a website to showcase those demos and to bring in work and to allow clients to contact you. And you're all ready to start seeking work. But you have no or very few clients and maybe even you lack a plan to get them.
And in the first year of your business, you need to get your processes down, including your audition process. And to do that, you need to audition a lot. But since you're new and you haven't had time to make many connections yet, you need a source of auditions not only to help bring in work, but to get that auditioning process down to a science.
So if you're brand new, the pay-to-plays can make sense.
Auditioning, just like sales and marketing, is a numbers game. The more you audition, the better chance you have of booking gigs and bringing in revenue. Now, in the beginning, it's likely that your audition process may take 15 to 30 minutes to crank one out, so you might only get a handful done in a day.
But as you get better at breaking down copy, as you get better at auditioning in the booth as you get better at editing, and get better at writing your proposal templates, that process will shrink down.
Now, for the pay-to-plays, when I was on them, I tried to get my auditions out in 5 minutes or less. That's 10 to 12 auditions an hour. That's reading the post. Breaking down the copy. Hopping in the booth. Doing a few takes, a number of takes. Coming back out, editing, writing the proposal template, and sending the audition with the finished file. 5 minutes, 10 to 12 an hour, 2 to 3 hours a day.
Now, that still leaves time for you every day to reach out directly to clients to start and grow long-term relationships.
Most of the reputable pay to plays will allow you to take clients offline and work with them directly and grow them into regular recurring clients. Voices dot com. However, does everything it can to prevent this, thus preventing you from growing when you're new. I recommend you sample the reputable P2Ps... Bodalgo, CastVoices, VO Planet, Voice123.
Avoid Voices.com avoid by any studio and avoid the general freelancer sites like an STD. One that burns.
Scenario Number Three: As a small part of your overall business development strategy, if needed.
Again, regular clients are always better than jobs, but sometimes jobs lead to regular clients. A solid, diversified business development process should always focus on growing your own long-term, recurring clients.
Your time is your most valuable asset, and the focus of your time should largely be spent on strategies that will stabilize your business long term. But that said, dedicating a small amount of time every day to auditioning on the pay-to-plays can be a good short to medium-term strategy until you don't need it anymore. Again, you'll be able to convert some of those clients that you find on the platforms to regular long-term clients.
And remember, when they're regular long-term clients and they're direct, you make 100% of the revenue, not the platforms. And here's where it gets even better. Your regular clients will often hand you work without auditioning, and when you do audition, you're oftentimes up against a handful to a couple, a dozen voice actors, and not the hundreds and hundreds you may find on the pay-to-plays.
And when that happens, your booking ratio is much better, assuming you're competent and competitive.
I always look at the reputable pay to plays as a shorter-term solution and never at the sacrifice of your own outreach and marketing efforts. You should be reaching out directly to dozens and dozens of leads every damn day.
That's where you control your own destiny.
Now, if you're struggling with how to grow your own relationships and build a solid, sustaining base of clients, click on the link for the VO Freedom Master Plan. The VO Freedom Master Plan is designed to take voice actors from not having a system booking and consistently making part-time income, often relying on the pay-to-plays to having a proven system to grow relationships at-scale that lead to more consistent booking business and income.
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