Comments for Mary McKitrick's Voiceover Blog

Comment on Perceived Value in Voice-over by The secret to landing any freelance job | Nethervoice

The secret to landing any freelance job | Nethervoice — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:17:36 +0000

[...] blog posts that are absolutely worth your time: Setting rates in the voice-over business & Perceived value in voiceover. And if you like her writings, wait till you hear her [...]

Comment on Wild View Wins Four Emmys by Radio Advertising

Radio Advertising — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:30:00 +0000

Wow! Great job! Congratulations on your Emmys.

Comment on Wild View Wins Four Emmys by Rod Schwartz

Rod Schwartz — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:36:52 +0000

Mary –

Just stumbled across this today (2/25) and wanted to add my congratulations, even if belatedly.

Best,

Comment on Wild View Wins Four Emmys by Tim

Tim — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:50:00 +0000

Congratulations! Definitely amazing to have an Emmy to your trophy list now

Comment on Wild View Wins Four Emmys by Tommy

Tommy — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:20:03 +0000

Well done, Mary! You are a talented soul.

Comment on Setting rates in the voice-over business by Mary

Mary — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:21:04 +0000

Gillian, I think many would agree that setting rates is the most difficult part of this job, although others are completely unfazed and unafraid of letting new clients know their minimum session fee (usually for one hour) and their fee per subsequent half hour. Others use union rates. Others have a per word rate and stick to it; others use that rate as a jumping off place and take into account the earth’s distance from the sun divided by √ of their grandmother’s birthday… I always try to find out the client’s budget if I’m feeling short of cash, so that I can maximize my chance of getting the job while not leaving money on the table.

You really can’t calculate what you’re worth based on your inventory of equipment and skills, but taking stock of it all will help you to see that your rates are justified. You have to start from a position of confidence in what you’re offering and be willing to walk away when you see the rate conversation going downhill with your client.

Thank-you for your kind words, and thanks for stopping by.

Comment on Setting rates in the voice-over business by Gillian Martin

Gillian Martin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:57:16 +0000

Hi Mary,

I have just discovered Double Dutch and was lead to your blog on rates. It was a great read – thank you. So much is involved. I am a freshman in the industry and just landed my first eLearning job this week. I feel I was paid very fairly – I quoted on the higher end of what they were asking, but was then asked to set up a price per word for future projects. I think I may have just sold myself a little short, hoping to attract more biz from them. This rate setting is so complicated and other than trial and error, I really don’t know where to begin….. well I guess somewhere in the middle of those rate sheets quoted by Edge Studio and Voices.com. How do you actually go about incorporating all your training, home studio etc (what you talked about in your article) into your pricing and what minimum is the minimum standard?

It seems to be all over the place. I’m located in Colorado, but on Voices, there are companies posting from all over the world!

Thanks for your time.

P.S. I had come across your website before today on my research travels as I remember the photo of your lovely pebbles. It is very zen and serene. I love pebbles too and have them on my screen saver!

Regards,

Gillian Martin

Comment on When a voice actor gets sick – Or, what I learned about misery this week. by Michelle

Michelle — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:39:51 +0000

Thanks for sharing this with me via Facebook. I made some today finally. Let’s hope it works!!

Comment on You ARE using Google Analytics, right? by Lance Blair

Lance Blair — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:43:20 +0000

All of your writing about Google, SEO etc. is very valuable and I highly recommend others to heed your advice. With Google Analytics I’ve found out things such as my international voiceover clients really do visit and spend time at my site…whereas I get zero traffic from my P2P websites. This is in line with what I’ve found from my P2P clients – they really don’t use my site for anything but for the FTP portal, and don’t spend the time looking at my own site. It is nice to see the direct flow from Google to my site…but little flow from Bing so far even though I have a good presence there.

Comment on I Love Digikey by Mary

Mary — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 15:34:42 +0000

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog. I’m glad to know I can call you at any hour and not wake anybody up

You will definitely be hearing from me again.

Mary