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Help page for dashboard/voice_seeker

Dashboard

The dashboard is your control center within bodalgo. It is divided into two main sections:

Jobs

Manage the jobs you have posted or post a new job.

Profile

Your personal data and preferences.

Help page for dashboard/voice_talent

Dashboard

The dashboard is your control center within bodalgo. There are two main sections:

Jobs

Browse jobs that match your profile, filtered by various criteria.

Profile

All necessary information about you and your voice.

Help page for home/all

Find the perfect voice – easy, fast and free!

bodalgo is an online market place for voice-over talents and voice actors regularly used for commercials, image clip, presentations, web clips, documentaries, and much more.

Our mission: To make it as easy as possible for you to find the perfect voice for your audio projects – free of charge!

Find the perfect voice

Post your voice jobs quickly, easily and for free. Matching talents will answer with a quote and audio demo. Finally, you chose your favorite voice – and you’re done. It is as easy and straight forward as it sounds and a lot of fun.

Lots of savings, and no fees

Because a lot of voice talents have their own recording gear, you can benefit from a great deal of savings because there is no need to hire an external studio. What's more, bodalgo will not ask for any commissions or escrow fees. Finding the perfect voice is easy, fast and free – and always will be!

Listen to recordings live

New web technology makes it possible to connect your browser to a talent's studio, allowing you to give directions during the recording. The best part: You don’t need any software or hardware – bodalgo is all you need. This feature is offered completely for free for a limited period of time.

Find the perfect voice with bodalgo – it's easy, fast and free!

{~ if (!@SESSION.role): ~} {{ @DICT.SIGNUP }} {~ endif ~}

Help page for overview/all

Overview help topics

Overview

Help page for ratings/voice_seeker

Rating voice talents

Important note: We’ve all had days where everything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong. And it’s frustrating. But before blaming it on the talent by giving a bad rating, take a step back and ask yourself if it really comes down to a job not well done or circumstances that weren’t ideal in the first place.

In other words: Try your best to be fair and objective and the rating tool will help everybody get better at what they do.

All ratings are final. You will not be able to change them afterwards. As soon as the rating has been submitted, the talent will be able to see it too.

How it works

Once the deadline of a job has passed you may rate the talent's work. First, chose the talent that won the job from the popup menu. Then use our five star rating system to rate that talent's work according to three categories:

Recording

This category focuses on the technical aspects of a talent's recording only. It should, of course, be free of (white) noise and room ambience, feature a decent volume level and be delivered in the format you have agreed on.  In case the talent did not record the audio themself, simply leave this rating empty.

Delivery

The question to ask here is: How well did the talent follow the directions of the briefing? How well did the talent read the script according to your guidelines?

Communication

Almost as important as the work done is how the talent communicates with clients.  Did the talent react promptly to emails or calls? Did they deliver the audio in time? How do you feel overall about the communication skills of the talent?

Who can see the ratings?

A voice seeker's average rating (ie. a combination of all ratings that have been given) is only shown to talents when they audition for a job posted by that voice seeker. A voice talent's average rating can be seen by everybody browsing the talent's profile page.

Help page for ratings/voice_talent

Rating voice seekers

Important note: We’ve all had days where everything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong. And it’s frustrating. But before you blame it on the seeker by giving a bad rating, step back and take a deep breath..

In other words: Try your best to be fair and objective and the rating tool will help everybody get better at what they do.

All ratings are final. You will not be able to change them afterwards. As soon as the rating has been submitted, the seeker will be able to see it, too.

How it works

Once the deadline of a job has passed, the voice seeker can rate the talent's work. As soon as they have, you will be able to rate the voice seeker in return using these three categories:

Briefing

Were you briefed properly? Or were there open questions? Did you feel you knew what the client expected?

Script

How do you rate the preparation of the script? If it was a timed recording, did it feature time codes and was there enough time to read the script?  

Payment

Were you happy with the payment terms of the voice seeker? And did they pay accordingly?

Who can see the ratings?

A voice seeker's average rating (ie. a combination of all ratings that have been given) is only shown to talents when they audition for a job posted by that voice seeker. A voice talent's average rating can be seen by everybody browsing the talent's profile page.

Help page for voice_job/voice_talent

Voice jobs

The overview lists all matching jobs (maybe filtered by new, answered, expired).

Click on the title of a job to browse the details of that job. {~ if (@SESSION.is_premium): ~}There you will be able to audition for the job.{~ else: ~}As a premium member of bodalgo you will be able to audition for jobs.

Upgrade to Premium!{~ endif ~}

Help page for voice_job/voice_seeker

Voice jobs

The overview lists all your posted jobs (maybe filtered by answered and expired). You will also see how many talents have auditioned in total and how many new auditions are waiting for you.

Click on the title of a job to view the details and – if present – the auditions you have received so far.

Help page for voice_job/voice_seeker (budget_examples)

What voice actors cost

When posting a job, a correctly set budget is important in order for talents to be able to audition for the job. That's not always easy. bodalgo is there to help: The system automatically analyzes the job posting and will inform you if the budget needs attention. bodalgo will also make a suggestion of what the budget should be.

Although we have done our best to make this work just fine in most cases, there may be some occasions where our system produces unwanted results – it's a pretty complex topic. If you feel that the recommended budget is just not right, you can contact us and we will take care of it personally.

Here are few hints and examples:

Commercials

The length of a recording is not usually relevant when it comes to commercials. Far more important is the distribution. If a spot is aired, it could air locally, regionally or nationally. Rates vary from country to country but it is fair to assume that a local spot requires a minimum of 50-150 US Dollars, regional spots 150-250 US Dollar and national spots a minimum of 500-750 US Dollar.

When it comes to online, there are big differences! If a spot is only shown on the company’s homepage and/or is hosted on YouTube, this does not automatically count as a commercial. Only if the spot is booked through a media budget, for example as a pre-roll before a YouTube video, should this be seen as commercial with a minimum budget of 500-750 US Dollar (equivalent to TV national).

If you use the voice-over in different distribution channels, the budget needs to go up accordingly. A rule of thumb: Each additional usage/channel asks for 50 per cent of the initial budget on top (see example below).

Internet-Clips/eLearning/Presentations

All those categories basically need the same budget which is determined by the length of the audio. It gets a bit more complicated if used in multiple channels. But it is not hard to do:

Example: Multiple channels/usage in different media types

Let's say you need to produce a tutorial of around two minutes. A correct budget for one medium (like online, for example) would be around 200 US Dollars. In case you also plan to use the audio at fairs, and want to produce a give-away DVD as well, then add 50 per cent of the initial budget for the additional usages. The total budget necessary would be: 200 US Dollar + 100 US Dollar (50 percent for usage at fairs) + 100 US Dollar (50 percent for usage on DVD) = 400 US Dollar in total.

Word, Takes, Modules

There are a few different ways to determine the length of a voice-over. Most of the time, the word count or the length in seconds, minutes and hours will do the trick. A few jobs might require a different approach, though: IVR (telephone prompts) counts modules, games and movies use the number of takes to determine the budget. bodalgo works with any and all of them.

Help page for voice_job/voice_seeker (new)

Posting jobs

We have optimized the process of posting jobs to make it as efficient as possible and fun at the same time. Our goal: Posting a job should not take longer than three minutes, generally much less.

All you need to do is fill out the form. We make sure you don’t forget important information, so you can concentrate on what you need rather than on what we need to identify the perfect talent.

Still, there are some good practices you might want to consider in order to make the most out of the casting process:

The brief: You may be as brief as you like regarding the description of the job, but remember: The better talents understand what the job is about, the more relevant their auditions will be!

Regarding budgets: The system automatically analyzes the job posting and will inform you if the budget needs attention. bodalgo will also make a suggestion what the budget should be. Although we have done our best to make this work just fine in most cases, there may be some occasions where our system produces unwanted results – it's a pretty complex topic. If you feel that the recommended budget is just not right, you can contact us and we will take care of it personally.

Fair play is most important to us

Usually, all market participants play fair – which we really appreciate. Unfortunately however, occasionally talents will try to secure a job by googling your contact details and approaching you directly. We don’t tolerate unprofessional behavior like this and would like to ask you to report any talents that play unfair.

Help page for voice_job/voice_talent (unique)

Submit an offer

The details page shows you all the information about the job. Read the brief carefully, before auditioning for the job!

How to audition

A word about custom demos: Of course, it's great for a voice seeker, if talents take the time to record custom demos to audition for jobs. On the other hand: There are markets where a custom demo is something a client would need to pay for! We ask voice seekers to refrain from "conditions" like "only auditions with custom demos will be considered", but at the end of the day it's the talent's decision whether they want to record a custom demo or not. bodalgo will not tell you what you should or should not do. But we recommend that you only produce custom demos for jobs that have a budget worth the effort.

No noise! Badly recorded demos should not exist in a professional world in the first place. However many talents still use – maybe even without realizing – horrible demos. Noise, room ambience, bad microphones, too high/low volume etc. – if you are not sure about the quality of your recordings, we urge you to put some decent headphones on and listen to your recordings. You will only be successful if you master basic recording skills (you do not need to know how to mix a rock band, but you need to know how to record your voice at its best!).  

No intro! Your demo should start straight away with your voice. Refrain from music beds - they don’t say anything about your voice, take a lot of time and could kill your chances straight away as voice seekers might simply skip to the next demo due to lack of time.

Less is more! A voice seeker simply hasn’t got the time to read through page long messages. Explain in five short sentences maximum why you are the perfect voice for that job. If you have trouble doing so, then it’s probably a good indicator that the job’s not for you.

Stick to your prices! Even if there are some voice seekers that rate money over voice impact: Usually it is your voice that makes the difference, not the money. Stick to your price list. Don't be tempted to play low. Be confident. You are a pro and all you are doing is asking to be paid like one. Period.

Quality over quantity

bodalgo has never and never will limit the amount of jobs you can audition for. Still, we know for a fact that it is a very bad idea to simply audition for every job that comes along. It kills your success rate, it takes a lot of time and you will not be happy with the outcome. Instead, concentrate on the jobs where you know you make the difference.

Help page for voice_job/voice_seeker (unique)

Manage offers

Together with the job details you will see all auditions you have received so far. You can extend/collapse each audition to see the message sent with the offer. Also, there is a message form that allows you to quickly send a message to talents.

Like & Shortlist

In case you especialy like an offer, you can promote it to the shortlist by clicking the like button. By doing so, you not only have quicker access to the offers you've liked so far, you can also share this list with others. This is especially useful when searching voice talents on your client's behalf. If you share the link to the job's shortlist, your clients will see a completely neutral page that has no apparent connection to bodalgo (there is also a preview option, so you can see how the shortlist is presented to people you share it with).

Of course, you can also determine which information should be visible on the shortlist: Just tick the according checkboxes if you want to include more details. You can change the options any time and as often as you like.

E-Mail-notification

See the option "Notification"? If checked, you will receive an email for every new audition posted for this job..

Help page for voice_talent/voice_talent

Voice-over talents

This is bodalgo's voice talent database. As soon as your account has been approved, your profile will be listed too (you can check yourself by typing your name in the search field and clicking on the entry that should show up).

In case you are not able to find your own entry, your profile has probably not been approved yet. As we check on each and every profile manually, this might take a few days.

No amateurs allowed

bodalgo is a platform for professionally trained voice-over talents only. If you have little or no experience in the voice-over world, unfortunately bodalgo is not for you. We will not accept any non-professional registrations and will delete profiles of amateurs without warning or feedback. Also, we will delete profiles with poor audio demos that do not support a professional approach. Because of the number of registrations, we are not able not give any personal feedback on why your profile has not been accepted nor will we enter into any discussions about our decision (which is final). For more information, please click here.

Help page for voice_talent/voice_seeker

Find voice talents

Manual search

Use this page to specifically search for a voice manually (although we do not recommend this as it much less comfortable than posting a job).

Let us do the work for you

In most cases, it is far more convenient to post a voice job. That's easy and free of any charge. And hassle free. At the same time you just get offers from talents that match your needs.

Post your voice job now!

Help page for voice_talent/voice_talent (edit)

Profile settings

This is an overview about the different sections of your profile that you are able to customize to your abilities and needs. Please take a close look at our tips at the end of each section!

Voice

That's where the basic settings about your voice are stored – like voice gender, pitch and voice age. You will also define the areas of work you are willing to provide here.

Tip: Although we have currently set no limits, it’s not a great idea to try and provide all kinds of voice-over work. If you happen to have limited experience in cartoons, for example, you should leave this option unchecked, as there is little chance you will secure a job against other talents with vast experience in this field. A realistic choice is what's needed here to max out your success rate.

Description

Tell clients a bit more about you and your voice. The short description should sell your abilities in one catchy line (you can be more verbose in the long description). Also, details about your training, experience and special skills are to be told here.

Languages

Set your mother tongue and foreign languages here.

Tip: Once set, you will not be able to change your mother tongue. What's more: You must not set a second mother tongue unless you have been born and raised bilingual. Being "really good" or "close to native" in a second language is never good enough. Even if you have spent a long time in a different country, you need to have been raised bilingual or this option is simply not for you. Profiles that abuse this feature will be deleted without warning.

Audio demos

Upload up to five audio demos. All uploaded demos need to be in MP3 format and have a maximum size of 3 MByte.

Tip: Your demos should start immediately with your voice – and nothing else!  No music bed, no f/x intros, just your voice! You will limit your chances dramatically if you do not stick to this rule! Equally important is superb technical quality. If in doubt, have your demos checked by an experienced audio engineer or the chances are that the quality of your demos is not up to scratch!

Studio

In case you have your own recording gear or access to a studio, list details about the equipment used  in your recordings here.

Templates & signature

Templates will help you make your auditions more relevant. Every time you audition for a new job, you can save a new template. So after a while you should have a nice relevant set ready for most type of jobs. Tweak your templates regularly to find out what wording works best!

Personal data

Your personal data like address, telephone etc.

Tipp: In order to have your profile activated, your personal data needs to be complete.

Preferences

Change the look and feel of bodalgo to your needs.

Help page for voice_talent/voice_seeker (unique)

Voice-over profile

Profile

On a talent's profile page you will find all relevant information about the selected talent plus some audio demos. You can leave individual notes for each talent which comes in handy when you want to remember details about price negotiations, for example. Notes are always kept private, you are the only one who gets to see them. When adding a new note, the current date is added to the beginning of the new note, so you always know when you have added which note.

Contact form

At the bottom of each talent's profile, you will find a contact form.

The contact form is solely to be used to contact a talent about a specific job. It is – without exception – prohibited to contact talents to invite them/make them aware of any other services (such as – but not limited to – voice agencies, voice actor databases etc.), no matter if they compete with bodalgo or not. We will take legal action against any violation of this rule (which is also part of the T&C you agree to when registering with bodalgo).

Please play fair! Thank you for your understanding.

bodalgoCall

You can call any talent of bodalgo using our High Quality Audio Chat bodalgoCall. Ideally, you want to use the Google’s Chrome browser for this as it fulfills the technical specifications best for this new technology. We are working on bringing bodalgoCall to all other major browsers, too.

A little bit of nerd speak: bodalgoCall uses a pretty new web technology called webRTC (web real time communication). This new set of tools goes through various changes regularly and therefore might not be as stable as you would expect in all configurations. However, it is still a great tool to easily communicate with voice talents in real time and direct them during the recording.