In
this Issue: |
| VO Marketing.............pricing
your project. |
| Webmaster Wilco's Tips.........increase
traffic to your web site. |
| Paul Boucher shares.........A
Coach for your One Man Team. |
| A few questions............a
subscriber seeks advice joining a Union. |
| A bad VO investment..........and
they ran away with the money. |
| Your input..........feel
free to submit questions and concerns. |
| Why join CV?.........some
of the benefits are not so obvious. |
| Live Chat
now being tested.........drop by and say Hi |
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| VO
Marketing
There are many solutions to this question. Optimally being in a
position of having an established personal price scale is the goal.
In other words, they are lining up to hire you and with your reputation
and track record, you are "the voice" at whatever the
cost (as long as you are reasonable). As an example it is not unusual
for one VO talent to charge $25 for a 30 second spot while another
charges $350 or even more. If you are a Producer do you base your
hiring decision on price? Chances are that would be very wrong.
Is more expensive better? Usually yes, because the cash register
rings when this VO talent speaks and you can be sure he/she can
prove it.
If you are not already in a Union the quick answer is to base your
pricing at, near or above Union rates. You can find these rates
here Aftra
, SAG
, ACTRA
, and UDA (French). These rates
are a great guideline and very acceptable within our VO industry.
My personal pricing for narration is by the word and commercials
are priced by the client, broadcast market and run (duration).
In the old days narration pricing was by the page or by the hour.
For the life of me I can't figure out how this can be uniform with
VO talents pricing varying from country to country and market to
market.....................more
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Wilco's
Tips
Wilco Cramer, is webmaster for Commercial
Voices.com and VoicesInternational.com. You are invited to contact
Wilco for any of your web site needs. Discount available for CV
members.
Looking to increase traffic to you web site?
Try these quick and easy tips:
1. In your email signature not only include your
name and phone number but also include your web site address. Not
only will all your recipients quickly see your web site address,
but sometimes people forward your email to other people and they'll
see your web address
and check out your site.
2. Market your web site on with everything you
have. Include your web address on your business cards, letters heads,
pens etc.
3. Keep the content of your web site up to date.
Something that was written 6 months ago may not apply today. Visitors
will quickly notice outdated information and therefore quickly leave.
4. Try to bring visitors back to your web site
on a weekly, or monthly basis by implementing a monthly newsletter,
weekly news bulletin, or even free downloads.
5. Last but not least, the best way to generate
traffic and business is word of mouth. Mention your web address
to every one that you know.
Wilco is Webmaster for CommercialVoices.com
Wilco@WilcoCramer.com
WilcoCramer.com
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Paul
Boucher re: Your One Man Team
A coach for your one man
team?
Performance and Business Coaching
Food for thought for your voice performance business:
1) You are never good enough at your craft to rest on your laurels.
2) Your personal foibles are the most significant obstacles your
business faces.
Let’s start with point # 2; a “personal foible as
the obstacle” scenario. Carla has a growing business –
growing to the point where she’s had to hire a few people
(be it bookkeepers etc). Carla is frustrated and can’t figure
out why her company, despite the quality of its work, can never
get anything completed on time. It seems that everyone she’s
hired is exhibiting some sort of behavior that pushes things past
deadline every time............................more
Paul Boucher is a Founding Member
of CV
TheRightVoice.com
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| Questions
from one of our subscribers
Hey CV,
Super talented bunch you have there. I have been a VO talent for
over 25 years and I am at a loss in deciding whether to join AFTRA
or not. I understand there are nice benefits and membership fees
are pretty reasonable but am I not a little too old to qualify for
the benefits and perks?
As I do not attract the big Hollywood dollars I'm afraid their net
percentages of my work would be pretty minimal. Who can I talk to
to get the straight goods whether I should consider joining or not?
One more quick question, if I join may I accept non-union jobs as
long as I give the Union their percentage?
Signed,
50 and lovin' it
(Please forward your advice here
for publication next month .........thanks Ed)
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IMPORTANT
- WE NEED YOUR HELP!
If you have paid money to National Talent Retrievers, we want to hear
from you!
In 2003, a company named National Talent Retreivers (NTR) was soliciting
voiceover talent for participation in a multi-media CD that was to
be distributed nationally to producers and agencies. The company has
apparently gone out of business, taking the money from everyone who
paid to be a part of the project.
Peter Drew is compiling names and contact information in preparation
for possible legal action against the owners of NTR. We know who and
where they are, but we need your help to build a strong case against
them.
If you paid any money to NTR, please contact Peter at pdrew001@yahoo.com,
or simply reply to this email and I'll make sure Peter gets the information.
Please include your name, address, phone number, the date(s) and amount(s)you
paid for your participation in the project as well as the name of
your contact person and any experiences you have had with the company.
Thanks for your help.
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Your
input
Your questions, concerns and comments are very important to us at
CV. Whether you are a client wishing you were a Producer or a Producer
looking for VO talent, contact us at your convenience and we will
point you in the right direction. Many of our VO talents wear Producer
hats, script writing hats and marketing hats, so questions in just
about any category are welcome. Send us an e-mail and watch for
the reply in our next Newsletter. Your query will be answered by
one of our top VO talents. E-mail
us here.
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Why Join
CV?
The standard reply is "to get hits
and get heard" but there are other seen and unseen benefits
that justify membership in CV. By joining in our Platinum membership
category you will be invited to audition for projects coming in
from our Producers+ feature. These are selective VO projects not
of the $50 variety. This feature has been growing and as more
Producers and clients become aware of it we are sure to see more
projects in the future.
It would be wise for current members to promote this feature as
well should you or your client want assistance in auditioning
additional voices.
CV offers a money-back guarantee to all members. We guarantee
you will get hits and you will get heard. We are happy to provide
you with your personal URL to look up your CV stats. In addition
to providing you with hits to your individual CV pages these figures
will tell you the date, time and IP address of visitors to each
page. It is nice to know how many visitors have read your bio,
gone to your demo page to listen and looked up your contact page.
If they have not contacted you directly from there they may have
gone to your personal web site You can check your personal stats
to see how many referrals you have had from CV. And you can bet
that these visitors have found you for the very first time.
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Live
Chat
We are doing a trial run of a Live Chat program. Queries can be addressed
immediately to a CV visitor as long as there is someone available
to respond of course. During the testing phase we have installed it
on our Producers+ page and on our "Join Here" page. Feel
free to drop by and say hello.
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The
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Producers, Clients and Manufacturers in the Voice-Over Industry.
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