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Is Fiverr Good for Voice-Over Jobs?

Fiverr has launched in 2010 and has undercut many services by offering very low prices, among which is voice-over.

Fivver is a great place to start voice-over career as it doesn’t require professional skills to receive paid job offers. On Fivver you probably won’t earn much but it might help you build up your skillset, get valuable feedback and earn some money.

Here is a brief list of reasons why you SHOULD offer voice-over services on Fiverr:

  • It is easy to start voice-over profile on Fivver
  • Fivver doesn’t require much voice acting experience
  • On Fivver you can get paid while learning voice-over
  • Fivver doesn’t require top quality audio gear
  • On Fivver you can work on your free time
  • Fivver might provides extra income
  • Fivver is free and safe

Here is a brief list of reasons why you SHOULD NOT offer voice-over services on Fiverr:

  • People expect to pay less for voice-over gigs on Fivver than in more professional job websites
  • There’s high competition in voice-over niche on Fivver
  • On Fivver you will often work for one time customers

Let’s now take a deeper look into each aspect. We will start with why you should start offering voice-over services on Fivver.

Fivver is very easy to set-up

It took me less than 20 minutes to set up my Fiverr account for voice-over services. That includes setting up my description, services, price list and photo.

You may want to play around and tweak your description as it’s what will sell your services to future customers and therefore very important. But 20 minutes is all you need to begin your voice-over career.

That is less than what it would take to write your cover letter for a future employer.

You don’t have to be experienced voice-over artist to start working on Fivver

No voice-over certifications or experience is required to begin on Fiverr. It is nice to have proof of your skills and if you do, let people know about it by publishing your more known clients and what kind of voice-over gigs you’ve done in the past. But don’t worry if you don’t have any experience.

Fiverr doesn’t aim to provide the best services ever. Rather it aims to provide the best value for customer’s money. The rates are low and nobody will expect you to have 10 years of experience in voice-over to provide a 5$ gig.

Since you are not asking hundreds of dollars for your services don’t stress about below a par level of your services. There is a reason you are asking low rates.

However, you would benefit if you created a short voice-over demo reel showcasing your capabilities to perform different voices that might be applicable for various voice acting roles.

Get paid while learning

When you are new to voice-over and want to improve Fiverr is the way to go. Expecting to get paid lots while still being new to the industry would be a newbie mistake, BUT it doesn’t mean you can’t get paid at least something.

Charging 5$ for 10 minutes gigs is not the best money ever, but that is still something, more importantly, you will get feedback from actual clients. Get ready for some harsh criticism, but if you want to learn quick, this feedback is as good as it gets.

Your friends and family know you and even if they cringe at your performance you won’t get real, harsh feedback. Clients, on the other hand, are not related to you and don’t need to hold back before announcing what is wrong with your performance.

Don’t be frightened though, it is a natural process. You will most likely feel awful and timid and feel like you are asking money for lacklustre services. Most of us get through this phase, it is okay, just keep on going.

On top of that, it is important you learn the industry. You will start to see what kind of services people are looking for and will be able to see how the industry works. You will soon realize there are all kinds of gigs to do, from recording voice in the elevator to trying to impersonate a talking chimpanzee.

Fivver doesn’t require the highest quality gear to start voice-over gigs

When starting out your voice-over carreer on Fivver the highest quality gear and software are not required. Starting with something as cheap as the Blue Snowball USB microphone is fine.

Don’t spend hundreds of dollars just to realize you don’t enjoy this kind of work. If you spend 50$ for a budget microphone at worst, it will make a good general use microphone.

Having a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) is also unnecessary. Get Audacity as your first DAW, it is free and really good.

Work on Fivver during your free time

Fivver offers a lot of flexibility for voice-over artists as you can work during your free time. You can still keep your daytime job to maintain a good income.

Fivver is free and safe

While many websites that offer jobs for voice-over artists require some sort of subscription or bidding fee, Fiverr is free. There is no entry fee and you don’t need to pay to be found in search results. The only fee is the service fee which is paid by the customer.

This is great news for voice-over artists as you don’t need to spend money just to receive some voice-over jobs.

What are the drawbacks of working on Fivver as a voice-over artist?

Fivver offers low rates for voice-over jobs

Fiverr isn’t known for high rates and high quality services. Rather, it is known for affordable, good value services. Hence, don’t expect to get paid a lot for your voice-over gigs.

If you are a professional in voice over Fiverr is most likely not for you and you may want to look for platforms that charge a bit more from clients. Top-end voice actors don’t receive as many gigs as low to medium priced voice-overs artists due to the much higher pricing which is not expected on Fivver.

It is alright to work on Fiverr when you are just starting out, but once you have a reasonably good demo reel and have sharpened your skills it is probably time to focus more on other platforms for voice-over jobs.

The competition is high in voice-over niche on Fivver

The competition on Fiverr in voice-over niche is fierce. I mentioned that you don’t need to be a professional voice actor to get gigs on Fiverr, but it is not likely that you will get easy gigs right off the bat. It will still require some skill and effort, even if you are charging a measly 5$ per gig.

Often clients will want unreasonably high quality recordings for pennies. You will have to deal with it on a daily basis because the competition is high in the voice-over niche and there are always other options to choose from besides you.

It’s hard to earn a reputation on Fivver as a voice-over artist

As you begin it is extremely hard to gain a reputation and begin getting voice-over gigs. That is because you have no credibility under your belt and there is no way your future customer can check how you do.

Even lowering the price for the sake of getting orders and good reviews is not an option because there is a set limit of 5$ and it is unlikely that you are the only one charging at that rate.

For that reason, it’s very important to showcase your voice-over skills with demo reels and provide a nice description for your voice-over services.

Also, you can stand out from other voice-over artists by specializing a bit more by not just offering a regular voice over service, but for example, specializing in a cartoonish voice or robotic voice or anything else that you feel comfortable with. Just try to perfect the particulate voice.

You can read the following articles to learn how to do voice impressions:

One time gigs

Most of the time on Fiverr you are dealing with one-off voice-over gigs. People are looking for quick and cheap solutions and often you are dealing with other freelancers as yourself or YouTubers. You will rarely if ever get an offer from companies.

It means it is unlikely you will get paid well for your voice-over jobs and it is unlikely you will have regular clients to provide you with stable income. So you will always be guessing whether you have enough income for the month to come if you rely solely on Fivver.

CONCLUSION

Fiverr is great when you are starting as a fresh voice-over artist with little or no experience. You can start gaining some income and experience using it. But it is not as appealing for already experienced professional voice-over artists that rely solely on voice-over for income.

Fiverr should be looked like a stepping stone to get your foot set in voice-over industry and once you establish yourself as a professional voice-over artist you can start looking at websites dedicated to professional voice-over jobs.

You can read an overview of the best websites for voice-over jobs in this article.

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