Version 1.0 iphone App Talent User Guide The Official Guide For The Voices.com iphone 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 new to Voices.com Navigate around the iphone app Plus, youʼll learn about amazing features such as... Creating a profile to showcase your work as a voice talent Recording demos using your iphone 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 phone. Most people writing directions for "how to download apps to iphone" assume that you have a username and password. Follow the instructions below for easy downloading. 1. First you will need to create an account on the Apple AppStore website 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, Apple AppStore 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. From your iphone, click on the App store button and scroll through to find the Voices.com app. Or, you can just search Voices.com in the App store and it will come right up. 4. Select the Voices.com app and hit the "free" button (it's a free app), it will then change the "free" to "install". Click again to install. Here is where you will enter your username and password. You should only have to enter your username once and your iphone will remember it, but you will need to always enter a password to prevent just anyone from downloading apps to your iphone. 5. Once your iphone 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 your new app on your iphone. 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 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 voiceover work, wants to record a sample of their voice on their iphone and promote themselves to prospective employers. To sign up, all you need to do is select a username, password and add your name and email address. That s it! Once you ve signed up, you ll be immediately logged in and can start using the app right away. 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 iphone. 4
RESETTING YOUR PASSWORD 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. 5
CREATING YOUR PROFILE 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 iphone 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. 6
WRITING YOUR BIO Bio 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 7
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! Viewing Existing Demos From the Demos list, simply tap a particular demo to see more information. On the Demo Details screen you ll see a large audio player displayed as well as all the specifics about your demo such as the language, category, tags and number of times that the demo has been listened to. 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 rule of thumb, the more information the better. You also have the ability to delete a demo if necessary. 8
ADDING A DEMO Using The Studio To Record a Demo One of the most amazing features of the iphone 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 iphone s built-in microphone, you can record a sample of your voice. To get started, click the New button and you ll be presented with the recording studio. The Studio is divided into two main sections; The Script and The Recorder. On top, you ll see The Script as well as navigation arrows to see other scripts that are available in the script library. Scroll up and down to read the full script. If you d like to see other scripts in the library, tap the arrows or swipe left and right to see the next or previous script. Find a script you d like to record. On the bottom, you ll see The Recorder. The Recorder includes a prominent record button, a play button and scrub bar to fastforward and rewind through the recording, timestamp indicators and a level meter. 9
RECORDING WITH THE IPHONE How Do I Record on the iphone? 1. To start recording, tap the red record button. 2. Speak into the microphone of your iphone, ipod Touch or ipad, which is located on the bottom of your device. 3. Read through the Script. Scroll through the script by moving your finger up and down on the Script. 4. Once you re done recording, hit the square Stop button. How Do I Listen Back to a Recording on the iphone? 1. Play your recording back by touching the triangle. 2. Advance the recording by touching and holding the circular marker. 3. If you like what you hear, click Save located at the top of the screen. 4. If you d like to re-record the Script, simply hit the Record button again. Recording Over An Existing Demo You can replace the audio of a demo on your profile by recording a new sample using the iphone. 1. Navigate to the demo you d like to update 2. Tap the Edit button 3. In Edit mode, you ll see an option to Update Recording 4. Now, you ll be in the Recording Studio with the Script on top and the Recorder on the bottom. 5. Hit the record button to start recording. 6. Press Stop to cease recording and then listen to your recording by clicking the Play button. 7. Repeat as necessary until you are happy with the recording. 10
GETTING FEEDBACK RATINGS Averaging Your Feedback Your averaged 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. 11
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 organized by status with the most recent jobs at the top of the list. By default 20 jobs are shown for each status, but you can always load more. Each job in the list displays the job title, budget, deadline and your personalized VoiceMatch score. 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! To learn more about a job, tap through to view the complete job details. 12
VIEWING THE JOB Getting All The Details On the Job Details screen, you ll see all the specifics about the job in the Key Information section including: Job ID Category Language Gender Age Range Sounds Like Word Count Budget Posted Date Deadline Also, you ll see a Sample Script as well as Instructions. To take action and reply, just tap the Reply button in the top right-hand corner or the bottom of your screen. How Do I Reply To a Job From The App? 1. In the iphone App, tap the Jobs button in the bottom navigation. 2. From the list of jobs, tap a job that interests you to view more details. 3. On the Job Details screen, review all the information and when you re ready, tap the Reply button located in the top right-hand corner or the bottom of your screen. 13
AUDITIONING FROM YOUR IPHONE 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 auto-populated 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. 14
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. 15
RECORDING AN AUDITION Submitting a Demo 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 iphone Recorder and iphone microphone. If you record a new one make sure you save the demo in order to submit it. If you select an existing demo after recording a new one, the existing demo will replace the newly recorded one and you will need to rerecord your custom demo, then save and submit it. Once you ve completed the proposal, quote and recording, click Submit from the top right-hand corner 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. 16
GETTING PAID 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 to view the Payment Details. Here you ll see the payment details such as: The client s name The client s overall feedback rating The deposit date The payout date The payment amount The job title 17
COMMUNICATING WITH TALENT Inbox Access all your previous messages and communicate with voice talent right from your iphone. 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. If you ve read a message, there will be no blue dot. You may also view your previously sent messages and deleted messages. Message Details Simply tap the subject line to see the full message. On the message details screen, you can: Read the entire message Reply Mark the message as unread and go back to it later 18
RATING THE iphone APP Rating The Voices.com iphone App in the App Store 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 open itunes. In itunes, 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. 19
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. 20