Voiceovers

Have you ever thought you'd sound good on the radio? Do you like the sound of your own voice?? Well, maybe you could earn some money in voiceovers.

Voiceovers are used in a range of different areas:

• advertising
• podcasts
• training
• business presentations
• websites
• for phone systems and voicemail
• commercials
• promotions
• audiobooks
• video games
• TV shows
• documentaries
• movie trailers and more...

Some require acting talent, others are just after the 'right' voice to represent their company.

With technology as it is today, you don't necessarily need a studio and full on sound equipment to complete a recording, and that's where it can be done from home.

There are websites out there where you can register your details, including examples of your voice and any voiceover work you have done, and customers can search for the right talent for their job. For example, they might require a female voice with an English accent, to sound clear and professional. Or they might require a more seductive voice or someone who's able to imitate a specific character.

Training to work in Voiceovers

There are training courses you can do to improve your voice skills before you get started.

One I have found in Sydney is with a company called Voicebusiness, based in North Sydney.

They offer a voiceover course that 'is designed to give you an overall understanding of how to be a voiceover artist or broadcaster. During the course you will learn how to use your voice skilfully to deliver a variety of retail and corporate “reads” for radio and TV (including assorted straight and character voices), to develop the ability to “sight-read”, turning written words into “spoken” English and to conduct yourself confidently and professionally in a recording session. The final session will focus on developing a draft demo CD and a list of contacts in preparation for your launch into the recording world.'

They offer private sessions covering the following:

• How to optimise the sound of your voice and speak like a star.
• How to sound convincing, authoritative and persuasive-great for corporate narrations.
• How to read off-the-cuff and make sense of what you're communicating.
• How to deliver retail, hard sell, soft sell and all sorts of commercial "reads".
• How to do "funny" voices and accents.
• How to market yourself to the studios and to clients.
• Breathing techniques to help you keep in control of what comes out of your mouth.
• How to speed up or slow down, and how to use inflections and pauses to make what you say more interesting.
• How to improve your diction and pronunciation.
• How to deliver a clear message and get the results the client wants.

If anyone has used this company or has a recommendation, please let me know at contact@athomemums.com

Registering to work in Voiceovers

So where can you resister? Two companies I have found are:

www.voice123.com

www.voices.com

To register you neeed to pay a monthly subscription fee of between US$30 and US$40 for voices.com, so you need to be serious about doing this.

As usual with any web based business, I wonder how many jobs you get for your subscription and whether it is worth it. I need a volunteer to give it a go and let us know!