How to get your first vo gig on fiverr

[aaroncooper0825]

ok so i am just getting started in doing voice overs and on fiverr so my question is ho can i land my first gig on fiverr? and what should i expect on fiverr?

[sophia_2018]

getting first order is not easy sometimes, because you don’t have any reviews, any work samples and etc…

It is better to promote your gigs on social media in order to get your first orders.

[aaroncooper0825]

getting first order is not easy sometimes, because you don’t have any reviews, any work samples and etc…

It is better to promote your gigs on social media in order to get your first orders.

i have been trying to promote on facebook and on youtube but thats all the social media i have is there any thin else i should do to boost my chances of landing a gig ?

[personalletters]

i have been trying to promote on facebook and on youtube but thats all the social media i have is there any thin else i should do to boost my chances of landing a gig ?

Buyer requests are your friend.

[cubittaudio]

i have been trying to promote on facebook and on youtube but thats all the social media i have is there any thin else i should do to boost my chances of landing a gig ?

is there any thin else i should do to boost my chances of landing a gig ?

Hey Aaron,

I’d recommend re-thinking your demo audio a bit. The points you’re making are all good, but it sounds like you’ve just hit record on your microphone and kind of rambled a bit. Your clients are going to be sending you scripts, so you’ll want your intro audio to have at least one element of you reading from a script in there.

Also, your setup sounds really crackly… The mic you’ve got going directly into your computer is going to be your issue here. You need to be looking at a more professional setup if you’ve got the budget for it. A good condenser microphone, an audio interface to your computer, some kind of sound booth (we use something called the IsoVox, which stops us from having to build a dedicated booth in our home), some post-production software (which you’re going to need to learn how to use) are all essential for getting a professional sound.

Hope this helps, but do ask if you’ve got other questions.

[aaroncooper0825]

is there any thin else i should do to boost my chances of landing a gig ?

Hey Aaron,

I’d recommend re-thinking your demo audio a bit. The points you’re making are all good, but it sounds like you’ve just hit record on your microphone and kind of rambled a bit. Your clients are going to be sending you scripts, so you’ll want your intro audio to have at least one element of you reading from a script in there.

Also, your setup sounds really crackly… The mic you’ve got going directly into your computer is going to be your issue here. You need to be looking at a more professional setup if you’ve got the budget for it. A good condenser microphone, an audio interface to your computer, some kind of sound booth (we use something called the IsoVox, which stops us from having to build a dedicated booth in our home), some post-production software (which you’re going to need to learn how to use) are all essential for getting a professional sound.

Hope this helps, but do ask if you’ve got other questions.

thank you so much for all the info when i made that audio bite i didnt have any software to edit it or clean it up i do now have audacity and have learned alot about using it my mic is a mb800 xlr mic but i do still need to get a preamp with phantom power i dont have a booth just yet so i hang thick blankets up in a small back room for now ill post an updated audio bite on here later today to see what you think

again thank you so much for all the help

[vaishali_r]

I received my First Order from Buyer request, so continuously send the buyer request…

[aaroncooper0825]

I received my First Order from Buyer request, so continuously send the buyer request…

how do you send buyer request ?

[aaroncooper0825]

ok so i found the buyer request but most all of them are for other languages other than English so not sure how much work i can get of there but ill try

[joyh97]

Your demo reel is your money maker. Getting sales lies 80% on your demo reel, when you’re a voice artist.After that, your offerings, prices, the algorithm, how you sell yourself all come second. So I’m going to talk about your demo reel because it’s the absolute biggest factor in you getting sales or not.

Your audio quality is terrible. Like really, really awful. No one will hire you with that level of audio quality because it would be unusable for their projects. I’m really not trying to sound harsh - it just sounds like you’ve recorded your demo with your laptop computer mic, which are usually some of the worst mics you can actually use. If you have an iphone or decent android, even using that mic would provide better sound. Your current audio is muffled, distorted, and full of background noise. Editing that in audacity will clean up some of the background noise but that’s about it, you need to re-record. Your demo needs to showcase the audio quality you can promise to your clients. If you have a good quality xlr mic, why aren’t you using that for your demo?

Doing a little intro to yourself is fine, but you should spend much much less time on it. A 5 second intro to who you are is ok, but you need to actually show demos of WHAT you can do, not just explain that you can do it. The stuff you talked about in your demo would be much better said in your description, or left until the end of your demo reel. You should be demonstrating how your voice actually sounds doing a commercial script, or a character script, or whatever it is you want to offer as a service. In theory, you could show your commercial VO skills through advertising yourself so to speak, but you’d still need to completely change your demo because you don’t sound confident and you’re not actually demonstrating much voice acting skill. You sound nervous, hesitant, unsure, and you’re using too much filler (things like “so…”, “ok”, “uh”) 99% of the time, people aren’t going to want this in their scripts. Preferably you should be showing 10-20 second snippets of different scripts and different styles in order to demonstrate your range to potential clients.

The person who helped me with my demo told me something pretty important - most clients will not listen to more than 10 seconds of your reel. You need to already have their interest within 10 seconds. Your demo, both in content and audio quality, fails to meet this standard.

I want to add that I’m not saying by any means that you aren’t talented or don’t have the ability to do this, because it does sound like you have a passion for it - you just need to create a demo reel that will do this passion and your ability justice.

[joyh97]

On another note, you’re also charging too much. You’re charging around the standard price for level 1 - level 2 sellers with hundreds/thousands of reviews. Some people would disagree with me on this, but I got sales within the first week of starting here without actually doing anything other than uploading a decent demo reel that showed my good audio quality and ability, by setting my prices ridiculously low in order to get those first few sales and start building up feedback.

I was doing 500 words of recording for $5, and within a month I already had like 50 reviews, and then I started increasing my prices every month - 2 months as I built up experience, feedback, etc. I still don’t charge as much as you’re asking for lol, and voice acting is my full time job now. There is no incentive for people to hire you, a person with 0 feedback, when you’re charging the same as people with 1000 reviews. They have no reason to trust you yet.

[personalletters]

I don’t want to sound rude, but you have to get a better demo.

I’m doubting you’ve even got your microphone turned on and the sound is being recorded by your laptop sound card instead.

Put yourself in the buyers shoes, would you purchase a voice over when the demo quality isn’t great? A decent demo should take you no more than an afternoon and last 90 seconds.

You’ll get there - but you have to put more effort in.

[aaroncooper0825]

thank you all for the help im going to work on getting a preamp so my xlr mic gets picked up they way it should because all though i was using it when i made the audio bite you cant tell so ive removed the gig i posted an will post a better one when i can get a preamp but thank you all so much for the help

[aaroncooper0825]

just an update i got my preamp/audio interface in the mail yesterday now i just have to set it up and then ill make a new vo bite and see what ya’ll think

[aaroncooper0825]

ok so i learned that the xlr mic was not picking up on the lap top without a preamp and now that i have one it sounds so much better so i posted a new gig and welcome any feed back i can get on it

[smashradio]

I would first invest in some proper gear. Your audio quality isn’t where it should be at all, as previously pointed out in the responses here.

I would take some courses in acting as well, and some beginners course for voice-overs. I recently took the course that Keith has on Fiverr - and even though I’ve been in the business for around 10 years now, and consider myself a professional, he had a lot of useful information. So I recommend taking that course as well.

After you have worked on your technique, invested in some proper gear, treated your recording space properly, and gained some more knowledge, you can come back to this. Being a VO isn’t just about setting up a USB microphone, a pop-filter, and hitting record. You need to learn about the equipment, techniques, acting, and have a properly treated room/studio.

I know this might be a bit off-putting at this point. I started out just like you did once, with a cheap mic and no skills in voice over work. Today I’m working with several AAA brands and companies out there, but I’m still learning every day. So don’t give up if you really want to be a VO. It’s a great line of work.

I look forward to hearing your work in the future!

[smashradio]

I would first invest in some proper gear. Your audio quality isn’t where it should be at all, as previously pointed out in the responses here.

I would take some courses in acting as well, and some beginners course for voice-overs. I recently took the course that Keith has on Fiverr - and even though I’ve been in the business for around 10 years now, and consider myself a professional, he had a lot of useful information. So I recommend taking that course as well.

After you have worked on your technique, invested in some proper gear, treated your recording space properly, and gained some more knowledge, you can come back to this. Being a VO isn’t just about setting up a USB microphone, a pop-filter, and hitting record. You need to learn about the equipment, techniques, acting, and have a properly treated room/studio.

I know this might be a bit off-putting at this point. I started out just like you did once, with a cheap mic and no skills in voice over work. Today I’m working with several AAA brands and companies out there, but I’m still learning every day. So don’t give up if you really want to be a VO. It’s a great line of work.

I look forward to hearing your work in the future!

I would look up these resources as well, on Youtube. Great guys, doing great work.

YouTube

Booth Junkie

This channel is dedicated to the tech of at-home, professional voice over. I review microphones, studio equipment and help new voice actors set up their stud...

YouTube

Bill DeWees

Voice Over training and coaching

And take the course that Keith made here on Fiverr.

Learn from Fiverr

Voice Over for Real People: Complete Freelancing Guide

Learn how to become a voice over freelance artist, get the best tips & strategies from Fiverr Pro Keith Harris and build your voice over business in no time

[leejohnsonvideo]

I would look up these resources as well, on Youtube. Great guys, doing great work.

YouTube

Booth Junkie

This channel is dedicated to the tech of at-home, professional voice over. I review microphones, studio equipment and help new voice actors set up their stud...

YouTube

Bill DeWees

Voice Over training and coaching

And take the course that Keith made here on Fiverr.

Learn from Fiverr

Voice Over for Real People: Complete Freelancing Guide

Learn how to become a voice over freelance artist, get the best tips & strategies from Fiverr Pro Keith Harris and build your voice over business in no time

We regularly watch Booth Junkie and Bill DeWees here too. Great resources. 🙂

Also recommend Mike Russell

YouTube

Mike Russell

Hi, I'm Mike Russell. Audio production has been a passion of mine for the majority of my life. Ever since I was a child I loved listening to radio jingles an...

If you need advice on mics, try

YouTube

Podcastage

Podcastage is a youtube channel that provides Gear Reviews & Tests to help you improve your podcast and youtube audio / video. Videos are released every Tues...

[smashradio]

We regularly watch Booth Junkie and Bill DeWees here too. Great resources. 🙂

Also recommend Mike Russell

YouTube

Mike Russell

Hi, I'm Mike Russell. Audio production has been a passion of mine for the majority of my life. Ever since I was a child I loved listening to radio jingles an...

If you need advice on mics, try

YouTube

Podcastage

Podcastage is a youtube channel that provides Gear Reviews & Tests to help you improve your podcast and youtube audio / video. Videos are released every Tues...

Mike Russel is a great resource as well - just don’t use his processing for voice-over. 😛

[reginavibes]

I also started a new similar gig, but mine’s a video spokesperson. Here’s some tips

• Make sure your gig is uniquely yours (i.e. not the same cookie cutter service out there, something that makes you stand out)

• Lower your prices to $5 first to get some positive reviews, money will come in later

• Do you have a video description? If not, create a good one. It will go a long way

Hope it helps.

[leejohnsonvideo]

Mike Russel is a great resource as well - just don’t use his processing for voice-over. 😛

Mike Russel is a great resource as well - just don’t use his processing for voice-over.

Yes exactly… stick with the DAW walk-throughs and equipment reviews.

[cubittaudio]

Mike Russel is a great resource as well - just don’t use his processing for voice-over. 😛

just don’t use his processing for voice-over

Out of interest, is there anyone you would recommend for this part? It seems to be the one area of VO work where there’s numerous people saying very different things, with wildly different results. We’ve got our methods that I’m pretty happy with, but I’m always up for learning something new.

(sorry OP for taking the thread in a different direction, but this would be useful info for you as well)

[smashradio]

just don’t use his processing for voice-over

Out of interest, is there anyone you would recommend for this part? It seems to be the one area of VO work where there’s numerous people saying very different things, with wildly different results. We’ve got our methods that I’m pretty happy with, but I’m always up for learning something new.

(sorry OP for taking the thread in a different direction, but this would be useful info for you as well)

Well - not one single setup or chain will work for everyone. It depends on your voice, your studio, your gear, and the usage for the audio. I’m far from an expert in processing for VO, but I think I’ve found what works best for my personal case.

My chain is:

Noise Gate

EQ (just a tiny bit of treble, as my mic takes care of the bass roll-off)

And just a tiny bit of the tube-modeled compressor in Audition to even out the loudness.

That is for my processed delivery. I always deliver the unprocessed audio as well, as most audio engineers want to do the processing themselves.

When I warn against Mike Russel’s processing in particular, it’s because hi uses some heavy compression with the dynamics processing, normalizes twice, and adds Loudness Maximizer EQ on top of that.

That might work if you want a punchy car sales radio ad, but for a voice-over in general, it hurts my ears to hear his compression ratio and processing.

You can see his chain here:

 

Title should be “how to make your voice sound like an overeager late night DJ eating the microphone” in my opinion.

But anyway - my chain and processing works for my voice in my studio. The less processing you need the better, really. The recording in itself should be good enough to stand on it’s own, and then you can help it with a tiny bit of EQ and compression. But if you overdo it, you end up sounding like a radio presenter on a Hot FM radio station, and that’s not the goal for most voice-overs anymore.

[personalletters]

just don’t use his processing for voice-over

Out of interest, is there anyone you would recommend for this part? It seems to be the one area of VO work where there’s numerous people saying very different things, with wildly different results. We’ve got our methods that I’m pretty happy with, but I’m always up for learning something new.

(sorry OP for taking the thread in a different direction, but this would be useful info for you as well)

I always search for equipment walkthroughs on You Tube and go from there!

I have a DBX287 processor and somebody doing a product review pretty much nailed the processing settings for me.

[smashradio]

I always search for equipment walkthroughs on You Tube and go from there!

I have a DBX287 processor and somebody doing a product review pretty much nailed the processing settings for me.

The DBX is great! I absolutely love that piece of hardware. But I find it colors my recordings way too much for VO-work in general, and would think that it’s more useful when you need on-the-fly processing for live streaming/content etc.

One example would be having the compressor working live on the DBX, so if you’re streaming a game, and you all of a sudden scream intensly, the DBX would even out the loudness on-the-fly so it doesn’t hurt the listeners ears.

Absolutely a great piece of hardware, but the included processing in Audition does the same job just as well - only after the recording has been made, and not live.

With that being said, if you want to deliver that warm and pre-processed audio, with no raw alternative, the DBX does the job perfectly. For radio, streamers etc. I would recommend it, but for VO it doesn’t do it for me, because it leaves me with only a processed recording, and I like to work from an as clean as possible audio.