We continue our dive into voice over websites and tips for casting voice overs and hiring voice actors. This time, let’s look at freelancer sites. Can you really book a voice over for five bucks? Should you? Read on my friend…

Freelancer Sites

By freelancer sites, we mean websites where independent workers from many fields can be hired. There are quite a few. One of the most polarizing freelancer sites is Fiverr. Maybe you have seen the ads: a pic of someone wearing headphones with the caption “I will do your voice over for $5.00!!” Wow. Five bucks? Really? There are a few voice talents who do a lot of small jobs on these sites and love them. However, those ads infuriate a lot of professional voice actors. They feel five bucks for a voice over is robbery. Every time the Fiverr people run an ad we see rants from voice talent all over social media.

Really? A Voice Over for Five Bucks?

First, what does five bucks get you? Not much. If you read the fine print you will find that five bucks gets you maybe a few seconds of voiceover. Even so, five bucks for five seconds of voice over is dirt cheap and well below market value. Should you hire through a low-budget site? The question is a moral and an artistic one. From a voice actor’s standpoint, it is complicated. Voice actors that work on these sites are generally looked down on by the voice over community and are given a hard time about it, with good reason. Rates are in decline for voice over because of these kinds of sites. Add in the bidding wars at most P2P sites and you again have a race to the lowest possible fee for voice work. There are not many successful voice actors willing to put their name, voice and reputation on a site like Fiverr. Being associated with budget sites screams, “I am cheap labor!” The best voice people do not want to be associated with low-budget work. In the end, freelancer sites are fine if you are doing low-budget work or student projects and just need a basic, cheap voice over. But if you're looking for a quality voice over, you should hire a professional voice actor from a reputible site.

In our next article we will take a look at hiring a voice actor through an agency website. Working with an agent is much different than hiring direct.

Continue reading: Should you hire through a voice over agent?

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