The Official Guide For The Voices.com Android App David Ciccarelli Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Voices.com
USING THIS GUIDE This guide will help you to... Learn how to download the app Login to your account or sign up free if you re a new voice talent with Voices.com Navigate around the Android app Learn about amazing features such as... Creating a profile to showcase your work as a voice talent Recording demos using your Android Auditioning for voice-over jobs Accepting payment in a safe, secure way Ready? Let s jump in! 1
DOWNLOADING THE APP How Do I Download and Install The App? It's a simple process to download both free apps and paid apps to your Android. Follow the instructions below for easy downloading. 1. First you will need to create an account on Google Play before you can download any apps. Follow the link below to take you to the sign up page. 2. When you sign up, you will need a credit card or payment information, even if you only download this free app, Google Play will still require this information. After you are done with this process, you should have a username (email address) and a password. You will need these to download the apps. 3. You can just search Voices.com in Google Play and the app listing will come right up. 4. Select the Voices.com app and hit the "Install" button (it's a free app). 5. Once your Android has started downloading the app, a status bar will show up to indicate how long it will take to download (approximately 1 minute.) Once it is complete, you can access the new app on your Android in the My Android Apps section of Google Play. 2
SIGNING UP New Voices.com Members You can sign up for a free Voices.com account to get access to all the cool new features of the Voices.com Android App. The first step is to select your account type. Are you a talent or client? A client is a person who is looking to hire a voice talent for a project such as a commercial, narrate a video, provide a voice for a character in a game or record a voicemail message. A talent is a person who is looking for voice-over work, wants to record a sample of their voice on their Android and promote themselves to prospective employers. Once you ve signed up, you can start by filling out your Bio information. 3
LOGGING IN Existing Voices.com Members Already a Voices.com member? Awesome! All you need to do is login with your existing username and password and you ll have instant access to your Voices.com account on your Android. Getting a New Password If you forgot your password, that s OK. Simply click the Forgot Password link on the Voices.com App login screen and you ll see the option to have your password reset. Just enter your email address and we ll send you a new password. 4
CREATING YOUR PROFILE Setting Yourself Up For Success As a voice talent, you have most of the same sections as clients using the app; however you also have some amazing new areas. Just like your web page on Voices.com, your profile on the Android app has been given the same amount of attention to detail when it comes to design, layout and ensuring that all the most relevant information is in the right place. Your profile includes three main sections; Bio, Demos and Feedback. 5
WRITING YOUR BIO Adding Relevant Information On your Bio, you can list all your biographical information starting with your Highlights, the first section listed where you can summarize who you are, what you can offer and any achievements or accomplishments you d like to share. Next, take a few moments to complete the rest of the fields which include: Languages Accents Ages Special Skills Experience Years of Experience Education Microphone Computer Equipment Delivery Methods Turnaround Time Service Description Testimonials Client List 6
MANAGING YOUR DEMOS Showcasing Your Demos Showcase your skills by adding a sample recording of your voice. If you ve already recorded and uploaded a voice-over demo, you ll see a list of your demos here. If you re new to Voices.com or haven t created a demo recording yet, you can record your voice using this app! Editing an Existing Demo On the Demo Details screen, you can edit any of the text information by clicking the pencil icon to go into edit mode. You can edit the title, language, category, description and tags. This information is important because it s used in the Voices.com search engine when a prospective client is looking for a voice talent. As a good rule of thumb, the more information the better. 7
ADDING A DEMO Using the Android Studio to Record a Demo One of the most amazing features of the Android App is the ability to record a new demo and have it featured on your profile and in the Voices.com search engine. Using the Android s built-in microphone, you can record a sample of your voice. To get started, click the Add Demo button (the plus sign) and click on the red record button. You ll be presented with the recording studio. The Studio is divided into two main sections; The Script and The Recorder. On top, you have a script library available. Click Choose Script to access a variety of sample scripts to use for your demo. Scroll up and down to find a script you d like to record. Tap the script to populate it in the script window. On the bottom, you ll see The Recorder. The Recorder includes a prominent record button, a play button and scrub bar to fast-forward and rewind through the recording, timestamp indicators and a level meter. 8
GETTING FEEDBACK RATINGS Averaging Your Feedback Your average feedback rating is displayed below your name across the three sections (bio, feedback and demos) of your profile. Seeing the Most Recent Feedback Tap the Feedback tab to navigate to the list of the most recent feedback. By default you ll see the 20 most recent feedback ratings and reviews; however you can always load more by tapping the Load button at the bottom. Each Feedback includes a 5-star rating and a brief review, the feedback author as well as the date the feedback was given. 9
LEARNING ABOUT JOBS Navigating the Jobs Each day nearly 100 voice-over jobs are posted to Voices.com from companies around the world. The Jobs screen shows a list of jobs grouped by status with the most recent jobs at the top of the list. By default the most recent jobs are displayed, but you can always load more. Each job in the list displays the job title, budget and deadline. To learn more about a job, tap to view the complete job details. 10
VIEWING THE JOB Getting All the Details On the Job Details screen, you ll see all the specifics about the job including: Job Title Job ID Budget VoiceMatch Deadline date Posted date Number of other responses Word Count Language, Gender and Age Range Sounds Like artistic direction Reply to job button Also, you ll see a Sample Script as well as any further instructions. To take action and reply, just tap the Reply button in the top right-hand corner or the bottom of your screen. What s VoiceMatch? VoiceMatch is a recommendation engine that tells how closely matched you are to the job requirements and helps you to gauge your qualifications for the opportunities you receive. Scores range between 0 and 100%. The higher the score, the better! 11
AUDITIONING FROM YOUR ANDROID Understanding The Audition Process A Voices.com audition includes three parts; your proposal, your quote and your recording. Your Proposal Start by typing out a brief message in the proposal area explaining why you are a great candidate for this job. Remember to be professional and express your sincere interest in working for this client. Proposal Templates Tap the down arrow in the blue bar to access a list of your proposal templates. Click to view one of your templates, the template will be autopopulated into your audition response and you can move on to entering your quote. You may edit the text of your proposal so that it s more personalized right from the audition screen. 12
QUOTING ON VOICE-OVER WORK Entering Your Quote Next, enter in your price quote for this project. It s best to stay within the budget range that the client has set out in the job posting. Set your price and Voices.com will add a 10% transaction fee to your price as part of the SurePay Escrow service. The transaction fee is charged to the client, not you. SurePay is a secure payment service where the payment is held on deposit until the work is completed. By serving as a trusted intermediary, we can guarantee you ll be paid and the client will be satisfied with your work. 13
RECORDING AN AUDITION Recording With The Built-In Microphone Lastly, and most importantly, select a recording to be attached with your response. You can either select a demo that you re currently featuring on your profile or you can create a new recording using the built-in Voices.com Android Recorder and microphone. To record a custom demo, click the red record button. This will pull up the sample script from the job for you. Hit the record button and play it back. You can rerecord as many times as necessary to get it just right. When you re happy with your recording, be sure to click the Save button in the right-hand corner to attach it to the audition. You will be brought back to the audition page where you can play back your recording once more. Click Submit and you re done! After you have submitted you will be presented with the next job in your open jobs view. You can also move to the next job in the job list by dragging the screen sideways. 14
GETTING PAID FOR WORK Managing Your Payments On the Payments screen, you ll see a list of your payments with information such as the job the payment was for, the date you received the payment and the amount. To see more information related to a payment, tap through the listing to view the Payment Details. Here you ll see the payment details such as: The client s name The deposit date The payout date The payment amount The job title 15
COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR CLIENT Inbox Access all your previous messages and communicate with clients right from your Android. The list of messages in your Inbox is organized by most recent on top and you ll even see which messages are new as indicated by the blue dot. Message Details Simply tap the subject line to see the full message. On the message details screen, you can: Read the entire message Reply to the message Mark the message as unread Go to the related job That s it! You re done. 16
RATING THE ANDROID APP Rating the Voices.com Android App in Google Play We d love if you d be willing to leave a rating and review the app. Here s how you can help: 1. To rate the app, you ll first need to go to Google Play. In Google Play, search for Voices.com to locate the app listing. 2. Scroll down to the Ratings & Reviews section. 3. Click on the small Write a Review link. 4. Type out your review and that s it! Pretty easy. 17
ABOUT VOICES.COM Voices.com was established in 2004 and is now the technology and industry leading website that connects businesses with professional voice talents. Radio and television stations, advertising agencies and Fortune 500 companies rely upon the Voices.com marketplace to search for, audition and hire voice talents with the assistance of our innovative SurePay escrow service and our Web application. TV COMMERCIALS EXAMPLES The winner of several awards, including the 1to1 Impact Award, Customer Relationship Management Elite Award, and the DigiFest New Voices Award, Voices.com has raised its profile significantly this year ranking on the PROFIT Hot 50 recognizing 534% growth over the past two years. In 2012 Voices.com won Business of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce. Clients include NBC, ESPN, PBS, The History Channel, Reader's Digest, Comcast, Bell Canada, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, ING, Western Union, Ford, GM, Jaguar, Firestone Tires, American Airlines, the US Army, the US Government and thousands more. 18