The Internet is revolutionizing voice-over business. Today quality remote recording of voiceovers can be done virtually anywhere. With a PC, mic, and Internet connection, almost anyone can set up shop as a voice talent.

A few years ago, a remote session entailed a voice over talent standing in a commercial production house studio, say, in L.A., taking direction over telephone through a “phone patch” from, say, New York City. The next innovation in remote recording was satellite link. It sounds great on either end, but it’s very expensive, so it’s suited only for sessions with biggest budgets and most expensive talents.

A few years after satellite link came more economical ISDN, which stands for Integrated Services Digital Network. ISDN is a digital hookup via telephone system. Each location is connected to other through a piece of hardware called a “codec.” An ISDN hookup is preferred by agencies and clients with budgets large enough to accommodate additional cost of recording an out-of-market voice over artist.

The latest, and, so far, most liberating technology available to voice over talents is now ubiquitous .mp3 file—the same file type used for swapping songs over ‘Net. A voice talent anywhere in world can set up a home studio and be in business. The talent records voiceover, with direction via phone patch, if desired by client, into a PC equipped with simple audio editing software. Next an .mp3 file is created and then sent as an email attachment to agency and/or client. No expensive satellite or ISDN linkups. No commercial production facility. Simply put: no middleman.

Is this a good thing? Not entirely. The home VO studio explosion can be likened to desktop publishing frenzy of 15 years ago. Just because you have a powerful printing press in a box on your desk doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to produce coherent, well-designed publications. Everyone thought they could buy PageMaker, print some business cards and letterhead, and, voila, an instant living publishing newsletters. Of course, vast majority of these desktop publishing newbies discovered it takes more than technology to succeed. First and foremost, it takes talent, training, and experience to use tool, software, effectively—and most important—profitably.

With that caveat out of way, and assuming you have chops to make a go of your home voice-over business, let’s look at how Internet also has revolutionized promotion of voice over talents.

Drumming up business

Before home studio, voiceover artists had to go to studios to record. Promotion included distributing your demo on cassette or CD to production houses, ad agencies, talent agents, and casting agents; making phone calls; sending reminder cards with your latest credits; sending thank you gifts to clients at holiday time; and networking with anyone and everyone. Actually, to be successful, you still have to do all of those things, but now you have additional promotional opportunities via World Wide Web.

Naturally, if you choose to expand into international markets, language will be only one of many challenges. You’ll be busy with market research, finding distribution channels and dealing with legal and banking issues. Despite all these challenges, don’t make translation an afterthought – consequences could be disastrous.

The U. S. State Department says that U. S. companies stand to lose $50 billion in potential sales from poor translations. Companies get themselves into trouble with translations that are inaccurate or culturally inappropriate. Professional translations on other hand will convey a high quality image of your products or services, leverage your marketing message and help you keep your company clear of legal difficulties.

How do you get good translations? First of all, computer-generated translations won’t do. Don’t take my word for it. Go online, look up a free translation website and then have a few sentences translated into a foreign language. Then, take translation that was generated, and have it translated back into English with free service. Read it, and you’ll see why it’s not a good idea to use computer-generated translations for your marketing messages. Your texts will look unprofessional and less than competent to native speakers.

So if a computer won’t do job, you’ll need a person - but who can you trust? There are literally thousands of translation businesses out there, which vary greatly in size, price and professionalism. The translation industry is a highly unregulated market, and common quality standards are hard to find. What makes problem worse is that, even after you receive a translation, you will probably not be able to judge its quality, unless of course you speak language yourself.