I am a voice artist and have been on fiverr for over 6 years now. I have completed over a thousand voice overs during that time and have excellent reviews and am highly rated. When I was just starting out in voice over I had experience with theatre, teaching, training, etc. So even though I was new to the voice over business I had background experience and training. Fiverr was a great place to get my feet wet, to gain experience in the field even though I was getting paid a very small amount. However over the past couple years fiverr has changed in that regard. They have so many people registered there that it is completely saturated with talent. Fiverr expects those on the site to advertise on their own and bring clients to fiverr even though we get paid much less than we would on any other site. If I am going to advertise I will be sending people to a site where I actually make decent money. So even though I get a lot of return customers on fiverr, there are seldom new ones that I get because I am not advertising and the site is too saturated. A lot of good talent are starting to leaving because of this. I am considering it myself. Another couple of issues is that being on fiverr means you will deal with people who want to rip you off, pay you next to nothing and expect you to do things that any professional who knows anything about voice over would not expect. Some of these people will even threaten to leave bad reviews if you do not do extra work for them. Fiverr needs to do better on protecting their people on the site. Also, the automatic way they evaluate some of the metrics is not always accurate. I cannot count how many times they have lowered my status due to inaccurate calculations. And of course they can't or won't correct the problem until the next month. So I have just learned to ignore my status and know that those who have used me for projects in the past know my quality of work and will use me again. So Fiverr was a somewhat okay place to work a few years ago, even with the sucky customer service, but starting a profile now is not a good idea because the site is too saturated with talent already. I have also hired services on fiverr and feel that what I get for the money is a great deal! It requires you to do a little searching before hiring and willingness to communicate with the person you hired. They cannot read your mind. If you are not willing to do that, then don't bother people on fiverr. They are getting paid next to nothing to help with your project. Please make it easy for them to understand what you want, and most of the time things will end up good. The value you will get for your money will be great. And if you want stellar quality, pay someone who charges more money and has more reviews. Yes, there are some scammers on there, just like any site. I suggest you do a smaller paying job with someone first to see if you are a good fit before hiring for someone for a bigger more important project. Also, the prices on fiverr are so much lower than what should be charged. Please do not ask to have an even larger discount. It really is insulting.
Hi Grace,
Thank you for your feedback. You're right, building a voice over business is hard work and requires a lot of commitment, no matter where you choose to pursue your career. We're pleased to be a part of many voice actor's successful businesses, which each has to define for themselves. As for your other points, please allow us to correct a few misconceptions:
1. We invest significant amount of resources into bringing clients to the site. Our goal is to help our customers succeed, making us extremely invested in these jobs closing. After all, when someone is hired for a job on Voices.com, everyone wins.
2. Voices.com is an online marketplace. We provide a level playing field for all talent promoting their voices. This applies to those already working as voice actors and those embarking on a career in voice over. Some of the top talent on Voices.com today were brand new to voice over when they first signed up with us. Because they could register for our platform early on, they were able to gain experience, build a portfolio and achieve success. Everyone starts somewhere.
3. We send auditions to talent at the exact same time so everyone has the chance to book the job. A client decides how many auditions they will listen to. Some will listen to all auditions while others move ahead faster, especially once they've heard the voice they want to work with.
4. The average pay out to talent has increased by 36% in the last 2 years.
5. If you ask Customer Support to check in on a payment for you, we always release payment within 14 days if we don’t hear from the client. With that being said, we realize it’s not convenient to be reaching out to support so you’ll soon see auto-release of payment on all jobs (see blog post here - https://www.voices.com/blog/new-product-updates-30-30). In fact, you can always keep an eye on our blog for upcoming product updates (this does not include any aesthetic updates).
Wishing you all the best and success in your VO career!
Voices.com