VOHeroes Affiliate Partner Back Office
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

BACKOFFICE/SUPPORT | CALENDAR + EMAIL/SOCIAL SAMPLES | FAQ | DASHBOARD

LAUNCH BASICS

Launches happen every day, and Affiliate Partners support the company launching its product or service. Here’s what launches are all about.

What is a launch?

A launch is simply a sequence of events that introduces a product or service to an audience, and makes it available for sale.

Launches can occur in many forms: a grand opening of a business, a new model year for a car manufacturer and the release of a blockbuster movie or video game – or the introduction of a new version of a voice over training program – are all examples of launches.

What they all have in common is a series of educational marketing messages, leading up to inviting the customer to purchase the product or service.

What are the main events in a launch?

The process is pretty simple. A company will share free information with potential customers, showing them how their product or service will solve a problem for them.

This is called the pre-launch period.

Then, the company will offer the product to the customer by opening registration, usually with attractive bonuses — and perhaps an introductory price — for a limited time.

This is called the launch period, registration period or “open cart” period.

Finally, when the company closes registration 5-10 days later, it marks the end of the launch.

This moment is often called “closing cart.“

What is the pre-launch all about?

You’ve probably experienced the pre-launch of a movie: for months or even years, you’ll hear all about how it’s being made, who’s starring in it, and when it will be available in theaters or on TV. That build up is the pre-launch for that movie.

The VOHeroes pre-launch is a lot more compact.

Over the course of 9 days or so, we present a series of very useful lessons in a free course, separate from the courses in the main curriculum, that offers training in some aspect of voice over. We make sure these free lessons solve a specific problem currently facing the group of customers we want to reach.

(This year, it’s all about working from home, and how you can do that successfully as a voice over talent.)

Affiliate Partners like you play a key role during that pre-launch period, messaging your audience about the free lessons.

After we present these lessons online to potential customers, we then open registration for the complete award-winning VOHeroes Pro curriculum that will help the customer achieve all of their voice over training goals. We include special bonuses with that offer that will no longer be available once registration ends.

Then we close registration, and start matriculating and opening the courses and workouts for the students who have registered. That process also takes about a week.

One of my followers missed the free lessons and is getting the sales page when they click on my link. Can you somehow make those lessons available?

Yes.

At the top of the sales page, there is a small link that will take them to the lessons, all waiting for them on one page.

In fact, here’s an answer you can give them should they ask about it (or complain):

Hey there, you!

I’m so sorry that you missed the five free lessons of Mastering Home-Based Voice Over! The lessons began in late August, and just wrapped up. I’m thinking you are just getting around to seeing my message about that course (but now you’re getting a page that wants you to register for David’s paid course, VOHeroes Pro.

Fear not: David still has those free lessons waiting for you.

Above the video at the top of the registration page you arrive at when you follow the link I sent you, it says “By now, you’ve watched all five lessons of the Mastering Home-Based Voice Over course.” and you can click on that link to get to the lessons, all on one page.

Hope that helps!

YOUR NAME

What do you offer during a launch that you don’t offer during the rest of the year?

The entire program, actually. Once the launch ends, VO Heroes Pro is not offered to the public until September of next year, when we launch again.

We also offer special launch bonuses that include private coaching, free software, the same voice over equipment David uses in his home studio, a special library of royalty free sound effects and music beds for use in podcasting, a special exclusive bonus course called Believe (for Early Action Bonus purchasers) and much more.

How long does a launch run for?

Usually, from the beginning of the pre-launch lessons to the end of the registration period, it’s about 3 weeks for VOHeroes launches. But other launches can and do vary.

What are the dates of this year’s VOHeroes launch?

All of the exact dates and times are available on the CALENDAR AND SAMPLES page, but the pre-launch begins on Thursday August 17, the registration will open on Sunday, August 27 and close on September 6.

AFFILIATE PARTNER BASICS

If you’re not familiar with the terms used by affiliates when they are supporting a launch, you’ll find them here – along with goals and ways to track your progress.

What is an Affiliate Partner?

An Affiliate Partner (that’s you!) is someone who has a following or audience that could benefit from what another company’s product or service has to offer, and they happily and enthusiastically message their audience about the product.

Usually, that product isn’t something the Affiliate Partner offers themselves.

As their audience members purchase the product having used the unique link assigned to the Partner, the Affiliate Partner is given a commission on each purchase. For the launch of the VOHeroes Pro VO training program, our Affiliate Partners are paid $500 – $750 for each referral.

But in the case of VOHeroes, it’s more than just money. We want to work with people who share our vision of empowering actors to find success in voice over, one of the easiest ways to find opportunities to work in performance.

Who can be an Affiliate Partner?

Anyone who has an audience, followers, are influencers, teachers, enthusiasts…anyone. And we look for people in particular who want to be change agents in their audience members’ lives, helping them achieve success in voice over.

And experienced Affiliate Partners aren’t limited to just working with VOHeroes. They can pick and choose from hundreds of other products and services that would be useful to their audience, that are of high quality and are complementary to what the Affiliate Partner offers as products and services themselves.

As an example, one of our Affiliate Partners teaches voice talent how to take care of their voices, maximizing their vocal health with natural practices and products. As a complement to what she offers, she partners with us during our launches, informing her followers about VOHeroes to help them with the overall creation and development of their voice over career.

Are there conflicts that might prevent me from being an Affiliate Partner?

There are no legal conflicts, but if you feel you can’t message your audience about other offerings than your own, or if you just aren’t comfortable with (or don’t like) marketing, or you don’t like to be compensated for saying nice things about someone else’s offering, then being a partner might not be for you.

Affiliate marketing has a negative reputation for some, because the Internet is filled with people who promise things that their product or service (or other’s products or services) simply can’t deliver.

We’re definitely not that. For over a decade, we’ve been helping our clients find success.

And our Affiliate Partners aren’t like that either. We prefer making an impact in the lives of our students, but we know it’s also up to those students to engage in what we teach. We make no promises of overnight success, and we make it very clear that there are no guarantees of results or ROI (return on investment) in the world of performance.

And all of our Affiliate Partners deliver our message with no promises or guarantees, either. Wo do all champion our followers’ journey, and commit to doing whatever we can to help that journey be successful.

How much time will being a VOHeroes Affiliate Partner take?

It depends on how quickly and painlessly you compose and send emails, post on social media, or organize and conduct a live event or podcast episode. On average, when David acts as an Affiliate Partner for his colleagues, he’ll spend about 20-30 minutes for each of the days during the course of the launch preparing his messaging and sending it to his audience.

And not every day in a launch is a messaging day – only a few days out of the three-week launch period actually involve sharing information with your followers.

Your mileage may vary. But…it’s not a full time job at all.

What is a referral?

A referral is the term used anytime one of the Affiliate Partner’s followers decides to join the audience of the company whose product they are promoting (like VOHeroes). That person is a referral. And you use a unique referral link to send them our way (more on that in a moment).

For example, if you message your audience about our free course, and one of your audience members signs up to watch those lessons during our pre-launch, that person is then a referral from you to us.

Note that they haven’t purchased anything. They’re just doing a little window-shopping. But we’ll know you sent them by assigning you a special unique link: your referral link.

What is a referral link, and why is it unique?

A referral link is a special web link, unique to each Affiliate Partner, which that partner shares with their followers when they message them.

It’s unique so we can keep track of which of our Affiliate Partners has sent us a referral, and know how many they have sent.

When a Partner’s audience members see that unique referral link in an email, in a social media post or on their screen and click on it, they’ll end up seeing our free class just like everyone else, but our affiliate management system will know it’s from that particular Affiliate Partner.

Where do I find my unique referral link?

When you applied for our affiliate program (run by our friends at SamCart), you filled out a form letting us know who you are and how we can contact you.

When we approved you, our affiliate program assigned you your unique affiliate link. You can find it by clicking here, or by clicking on the DASHBOARD LOGIN link on the menu at the top of this page.

When you get that dashboard, scroll down to the LINKS section, and you’ll see this:

Copy and paste that link into your messaging whenever you send your follower our way.

And don’t worry…that link will remain the same for the entire launch, so you can keep pasting it in the same way, every time you message your audience.

I made you a video that shows you how to locate your affiliate link (to go full screen, roll over the bottom of the video and click on the four-cornered icon to the right):

How do I test that referrals are being properly credited to my affiliate link?

To show you how to test that when someone clicks on your affiliate link, you get proper credit, I made you this how-to video (you can go full screen with this video):

That link is HUGE! Is there any way I can make make my referral link shorter and easier to read?

We’d love it if you shorten your link, because it will increase your engagement. David uses the WordPress Redirection plugin, but it can only be used if you have a WordPress site.

There are other website-based link shorteners that work great as well (bitly and tinyurl).

You can turn a no-so-easy-to-say-or-copy-down link like this:

https://pay.voheroes.com/referral/pro/5NxmASsVPTjUgr

into something like this:

bit.ly/voheroesVOtraining (if your choice is available)

Go for it!

How does your affiliate program know I’m the one who sent you a referral?

First, we know because we can tell what link someone clicked to visit us. As visitors arrive, we compare the link they used to get to us to our list of Affiliate Partners, and we can see who it’s from.

But more importantly, if it’s from you and one of your followers, our system places a cookie in the browser of your audience member (with their permission). That cookie lets us know whenever they come back to us that they last came from you.

Of course, audience members are often shared among Partners, especially if they are in related fields, like the performing arts.

And this is important: if an audience member who has already been assigned to you later then clicks on an affiliate link from another Affiliate Partner supporting our launch, they will be reassigned to them. That’s why it’s important to stay in touch with audience members throughout the launch process, and encourage them to visit us via your link.

(And the reverse is also true – if someone is sent to us by another Affiliate Partner, but then they click on your link after that, they’ll then be assigned to you.)

What is a conversion?

That’s the term that’s used when a referral becomes a customer, and buys the product or service being offered.

If a referral never buys that product, they remain a referral, and no money changes hands between the company and the Affiliate Partner (because no sale was made).

But if, in our case, a referral watches our free training and then decides to purchase the VOHeroes training package, that referral then becomes a conversion (they “converted” from someone just window-shopping to someone who went in and bought what was in the window), and if you sent them, you’re credited with the commission due on that purchase.

How can I track both my referrals and conversions?

If you click on the link in the menu at the top of this page, and visit your DASHBOARD LOGIN over at SamCart, you’ll see a number of things being counted.

You’ll see clicks, which is the number of times your referral link has been clicked on. This roughly translates to referrals and their visits.

You’ll see conversions, which is the number of your referrals that have purchased from us.

And you’ll see other items, like conversion percentage, commission totals, payments to you and more.

If you’ve been an Affiliate Partner with us in the past couple of years, be sure to set the dates of the current launch when looking at your data – you only want to look at those clicks and referrals that have occurred during the dates of the launch.

Why are the numbers of my referrals and conversions so much larger than I expect them to be on the Dashboard?

Happy to repeat this (it was the last paragraph of the previous FAQ):

If you’ve been an Affiliate Partner with us in the past couple of years, be sure to set the dates of the current launch when searching your data – you only want to look at those clicks and referrals that have occurred during the dates of the launch.

What if I don’t generate any interest?

We take a great deal of pride in only inviting people to be Affiliate Partners that we know align with our mission, our values and our content. Even the Affiliate Partners with the smallest followings (like, fewer than 25 followers or email list members) generate some amount of interest. In fact, one of our top affiliates in 2019 got 5 conversions from her list of only 44 people.

And she did it because she spoke from the heart, related her experience with VOHeroes and what we had to offer, then told her followers that we could help them create a satisfying, successful and profitable VO career.

And she messaged them throughout the launch with different aspects of that story. Because she is authentic, believable, and takes terrific care of her followers in her own offerings (she helps actors with their social media brands), they trusted her and have been happy VOHeroes ever since.

And if you don’t generate any conversions at all, don’t look at it as a failure. Look at it as an opportunity to refine your efforts – and we’ll be happy to chat with you about how to do that.

What does a home run look like for you when you work with an Affiliate Partner?

It’s all about focusing on being of service, not sales. Even if you don’t achieve any sales on our behalf, you’ll find that when you can create change in someone’s life, you’ll benefit in the long run.

Of course, it’s usually better for your conversion stats and your sales if you take the suggested messaging path we lay out for you, and message your followers on the days during the launch that we suggest. Across three weeks, that’s a total of 8 messaging opportunities, including the 3 pre-launch lessons, and 5 messages during registration week.

For some, that’s an easy task. For others, not so much. It’s not unusual to feel like you’re overwhelming your followers, and that people will start to unsubscribe. But if you’re being of service, truly wanting to help create change in your followers’ lives by deep learning on how to use VO to increase your professional acting profile, you won’t likely see any attrition.

And you also want to strongly consider doing some combination of email, social media, live event, podcast, blog post, video or whatever you prefer. Social media followers and podcast listeners are very accepting these days of your efforts to expose them to new opportunities, especially when you make the message personal.

But no matter what you decide, a home run for us is you being of authentic service to YOUR audience, and we want to do the same. We don’t want you to promote us just to make some money; we want you to promote us because we can create change and make impact in an actor’s life.

That’s a home run for us.

What kinds of bonuses can I offer my audience in addition to the bonuses you’re offering?

Affiliate Partners have been really creative over the last decade with this. In addition to linking to our free courses and to the registration when it opens, they’ve offered things like:

A free hour of private coaching in the Affiliate Partner’s field
A personal social media audit with suggestions on improvements
An eBook that was filled with useful calming techniques
An infographic that showed them how to soundproof a closet
A group weekend with other converted referrals from their list
And more

The only thing we require you not to do is to offer any sort of discount on our training, or the sharing of your commission with your audience member who purchases from us.

Other than that, your bonus(es) can be anything, as long as they are useful and impactful. That’s the sort of bonus that makes a difference in someone’s life. But then…you already knew that.

Will you promote me as one of your Affiliate Partners?

Whenever and wherever we can. Just tag us with #voheroes and @dhlawrencexvii (that’s David’s username on every major social network) in your posts and email messages.

If you make us aware of a post, we’ll go like it and share it. If you mention us in a tweet, we’ll re-tweet it. If you send an email to your audience that asks them to give us a shout out in the comments below the lesson video, we’ll like, share, heart, thumbs up and whatever’s available on that channel, to spread the word that you think we’re worth supporting.

I have a colleague who would be great at this. How can they sign up to be a VOHeroes Affiliate Partner?

Have them email David at [email protected]. Be sure they mention you and that you thought they would be a good fit as an Affiliate Partner. We want to make sure that all of our Affiliate Partners are of service and are…like you!

Would you be an Affiliate Partner for my launch?

David LOVES partnering for his VOHeroes partners, and the way we judge our potential partners is exactly the same criteria he uses to decide whether or not he’s able to partner with them. Get in touch and ask!

MONEY MATTERS

What you get paid and how you get paid are really important things to know about. This set of FAQs will tell you, along with answering other financial questions.

What does it cost to be an Affiliate Partner?

It’s absolutely free. We don’t charge anything to be an Affiliate Partner. You do have to give us a W-9 (or the equivalent if you’re outside the US), so we can pay you.

What is the commission per conversion for this launch?

You receive $500 for each conversion. It’s simple. Kinda. Allow me some humor.

We limit you to only 5 conversions at that commission. No more than that. Nope. Don’t ask. No exceptions. No special deals. Not even for you. We refuse to pay you $500 for anything beyond 5 sales.

But there’s a good reason for that.

It’s because your 6th conversion is worth $750. As is your 7th, 8th, 9th and beyond.

But it gets even better.

The moment you get your 6th conversion, each and every one of your conversions are then worth $750. Including those first 5. That’s right. No more $500 each for you. No way. We insist on increasing your commission for ALL of your conversions by 50%.

So, here’s a simple chart of the amounts you can receive:

1 conversion = $500 (1 x $500)
2 conversions = $1,000 (2 x $500)
3 conversions = $1,500 (3 x $500)
4 conversions = $2,000 (4 x $500)
5 conversions = $2,500 (5 x $500)
…and now, a big $2,000 jump…
6 conversions = $4,500 (6 x $750)
7 conversions = $5,250 (7 x $750)
8 conversions = $6,000 (8 x $750)
9 conversions = $6,750 (9 x $750)
10 conversions = $7,500 (10 x $750)
15 conversions = $11,250 (15 x $750)
20 conversions = $15,000 (20 x $750)
50 conversions = $37,500 (50 x $750)
100 conversions = $75,000 (100 x $750)

…and so on.

We love paying out $750 instead of $500 per conversion. We hope we can do that for you.

Aside from commissions, are there other ways to make money as an Affiliate Partner?

C’mon…you think that commissions are all we can dream up?

We’ve got much more in store than that.

We’ll be holding a special contest with money awarded during the launch, and we’ll be offering prize money for the top performers.

I heard there were prizes, too. Is that true?

Yep. Our grand prize is the brand new Apple M2 MacBook Air (the one with lots of power and no pesky fan so you don’t hear it when you’re recording). We’re really excited to get that into the hands of the best performing Affiliate Partner.

And if there’s a tie (like there was a few years ago), we’ll determine the Grand Prize winner by which Affiliate Partner generated the most clicks. And if it’s then still a tien, both Partners will get the grand prize.

Can I use part of my commission to offer a discount to my audience members?

No. As we said earlier, that’s the one thing we don’t allow. We want a level playing field for everyone, and we don’t want anyone discounting a premium offering.

When do Affiliate Partners get paid?

Once we tally up the final results after the end of the launch, Affiliate Partners who have earned a commission will be paid that commission, as well as any prize money, and will receive any merchandise they may have been awarded, within 10 business days.

We reserve the right to wait until a piece of merchandise is available, should it be out of stock during that period.

What if someone I refer to you asks for a refund? Do I have to give you back the commission on that sale?

Actually, that’s never happened. Ever.

We actually have a very clear no-refund policy on purchases of our training program and curriculum, as students get access to the entire curriculum the moment they purchase their membership. It’s as simple as that.

And there’s something else that’s really interesting about this policy: no one’s ever asked us for a refund. I’m sure it will happen someday, and we’ll have to remind them of the policy.

But…it’s never happened. And we’re pretty proud of that track record.

(We think it’s because we are undeniable agents for change, and attract the best talent in the universe as students. But that’s just our thoughts.)

EMAIL MESSAGING STRATEGIES

The most common way affiliates support launches is by emailing their audience members about all the great things happening during a launch. Here’s how all that works.

What if I don’t have a large mailing list?

That’s OK. You can be effective with a tiny list if they are truly fans. Or no list at all, if you’re totally active on social media, or you are a champ at holding a webinar or a Facebook Live.

It’s true that an entrepreneur’s number one job is to have a channel to connect with their audience, and that in most cases, email far and away outpaces any other channel.

And over time, if you are of service to your followers and encourage them to share the content you create with their peers and friends who are actors and voice talent, your list will grow.

We think it’s an entrepreneur’s number one marketing job to increase their base of followers. More followers means more change. And if you’re diligent, your list will grow as your business does.

But it’s not a deal killer if you don’t have thousands of email list subscribers right now. We want this to be a long term relationship. We’re patient, and you will benefit from being patient too.

Do I need to use one of those email services, like Aweber, MailChimp or ActiveCampaign, or can I just email my contacts directly?

You can email your contacts directly (don’t put them all in the TO box, OK? BCC is the way to go), but you’ll find that it’s easier to manage the whole process if you use an email list management service. David adores Aweber and uses it for all of his email marketing.

If your list is less than 100 people, you can get by with BCCing them with an email you send from Gmail or any other email service provider. But once you get above that, using a list manager makes it a lot easier for the list to grow, to add people to the list automatically, to analyze the results of your mailings and to allow people to subscribe and unsubscribe without you having to do anything. Most of the services are free for really small lists, so they are worth checking out.

What if I don’t know what to write to my audience?

We have faith in you. You’re an artist.

And…we gotcha covered with professionally written samples over on the CALENDAR + EMAIL/SOCIAL SAMPLES page.

Take a deep breath, return to home base, and remember to be of service. Tell a story about your relationship with voice over, David, VOHeroes (or VO2GoGo before that) or your struggle to work from home. These are universal themes that can be the bases for powerful storytelling, and your followers will be able to relate.

We also have some inspiration for you in the form of swipe files. We’ll tell you what those are in an upcoming question.

How long should the emails I send out be?

My friend Jeff Walker has the perfect answer for this: your messaging should be no longer or shorter than it needs to be to get your story told well.

On average, a few short paragraphs telling your story or describing a problem your follower might have, and how we can help solve it, with your affiliate link in there, is plenty. And if you tell your story from the heart, you’ll find your writing will be just right.

PRO TIP: always adding a PS suggesting that the follower feel free to forward the email to people they know who might be interested in VO is a great way to increase your list and in turn, your referrals and conversions.

Where can I find examples of the kinds of emails to send out?

As I said above, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve been collecting all of the emails that David has sent over the years as an Affiliate Partner himself, edited their content for this year’s launch, written new ones geared just for the launch itself, and have placed them in swipe files that will be posted during the launch.

We’ll have new swipe files for each big day in the launch: the days the three free lessons during pre-launch, and peppered throughout the registration week that follows. They will appear a few days before the date they should be sent on the CALENDAR AND SAMPLES page of this Back Office.

What is a swipe file?

A swipe file (or folder) is a collection of examples of marketing copy that has been tested and works, that you can use as inspiration for your own messaging. Swipe files include samples of emails, posts, tweets, even Instagram copy with all its emojis, that you can adjust to your own style.

How do I use the copy examples you provide in your swipe files?

You could just copy and paste them into an email or post and send them off to your audience.

But we suggest something better.

Use them as a starting point. Copy and paste them into a blank text field, then change them to suit your needs. Tell the story that’s the theme of the sample email, but tell it your way.

Start changing around the words and editing the flow to match your authentic writing voice. Rewrite it your way, but…

…don’t forget to include your referral link. (Don’t laugh. That’s been forgotten in the past.)

Again, we’ll have new swipe files for each big day in the launch: the three free lessons during pre-launch, and peppered throughout the registration week that follows. They will appear a few days before the date they should be sent on the Calendar page of this Back Office.

When exactly during the launch do I email my audience members?

There are 8 suggested days within the launch that you should message your audience, either via email, social media or both.

And you aren’t required to do this, but the message gets read if you do. Those days are:

First free lesson
Second free lesson
Third free lesson (or fourth, or fifth)
Registration opening day
Early action bonus deadline day
Whatever day you hold a live event (if you do)
The day before registration closes
The day registration closes

Again, this is suggested based on past performance. You should do what you’re comfortable with.

And you should also read the FAQ regarding unsubscribes below.

What time of day works best to mail?

There are a lot of very smart people who completely disagree on the answer to this question, and it’s hard to pin down as people consume their email in different ways at different times of the day and week.

David prefers to have email waiting for the follower in the morning when they wake up, but is also known to email about certain events in the early afternoon.

And the final day of registration, he emails 3 times in just that one day.

But remember…if you’re being of service, and giving useful information and frames of reference throughout the process, and your followers trust you, they are more likely to want to hear from you, no matter what time of day you land in their inbox.

Won’t audience members unsubscribe if I email too often?

Yes. Some of them absolutely will. Heck, they’ll unsubscribe even if you don’t email them ever!

And do you know what else might happen?

You might gain subscribers as your current followers forward your message to their friends. That’s what happened to David’s number one affiliate a few years ago. She called him, amazed that she actually gained subscribers during that year’s launch.

Again, it’s all about being of service. If someone feels they are simply being used as a potential wallet that can be pried open, you’re going to see them leave. But if you’re of service and you write and post to them with their benefit in mind, amazing things can and do happen.

I just don’t feel comfortable emailing that often. Can I send fewer emails and still participate?

Absolutely. Again, we fully expect you to do what you feel most comfortable doing. We also hope you succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING STRATEGIES

In addition to emailing during a launch, Affiliate Partners will often post about the events of the launch on social media networks. Here’s how all that works.

If I’m already emailing my audience members, am I allowed to also use social media to support your launch?

Of course. You want to support your email messaging with social media “look in your inbox” messages, or hints at what they’ll find when they do.

It’s doesn’t have to be one or the other. And for all the major social media networks, we have content in the swipe files for each event day of the launch.

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on Facebook?

Certainly. Posting to your timeline, adding a quick video or image, or any of the other myriad ways you have of posting on your own profiles, pages and in your own groups…go for it.

And you can schedule a Facebook Live with David if you like, and he’ll help you promote the launch using your affiliate code, while answering questions of those who attend. The details are toward the bottom of this list of FAQs.

What about posting in groups I’m a member of on Facebook?

Unless you’re an admin in the group, and it’s OK with the other admins, I would be very careful about that. If you are clear that the group owner is OK with you doing so, great. David is a member of a number of very supportive groups that have actually asked him to post information about his launches in their groups.

But only do it if you have their permission – and you’re being of service to their members.

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on Twitter?

Tweet away. Videos up to 2 minutes are extraordinarily effective, making sure to place your referral link in the body of the tweet. Use hashtags like #acting, #voice, #voiceover, #performance, and other performance industry related tags with Twitter (and all the other tag-happy social networks).

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on Instagram?

Go for it. Remember that IG loves square videos, photos that tell a story and emojis in your post. They also love portrait IG Stories, shot holding your phone vertically.

And be sure to put your referral link in your IG bio so people can click on it (they can’t click on anything else except ads – unless you have an IG business account), and refer to the fact that the link is there in your posts and stories using the tag #LinkInBio (thanks to my super-socal-savvy VA Stina for these strategies and tactics!).

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on YouTube?

Oh, gosh yes. YouTube is the second most used search engine in the world, and making a video for your YT followers is an excellent way to connect (and tell your story live on camera).

Your referral link should be shown on screen if you can add a title to your video, and you should also put it in the description area below your video.

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on Pinterest?

Yes. David uses Pinterest for what he calls “microphone p0rn” images. He’s a huge fan of certain mics, and loves the vintage look of antiques. And that becomes a springboard to talk about VO.

Create a board for the launch, and keep your followers posted on how the free lessons progress.

Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on other social networks?

If they allow it, please do. Just be sure not to spam boards, discussions, threads or groups, and stay within all terms of service requirements.

New social media networks pop up all the time. This past year has seen a surge in audio-related social networks, like Clubhouse and Racket. Explore these if you like, and ask for our team’s support.

Can I purchase advertising on social media to promote the VOHeroes launch?

You can, but you do so out of your own pocket, and we need to review and approve any ads you want to run.

It’s an advanced strategy, so please don’t do it if you aren’t totally comfortable with how ads work and are optimized.

Will you also provide swipe files for social media posts?

You bet. Watch the space below each big milestone on the CALENDAR AND SAMPLES page during the launch. They will appear there several days before they are needed so you can plan your messaging ahead of time.

LIVE EVENT OPTIONS

Live promotional events can really amplify your efforts to reach your audience during the course of a launch, and David is available to help you as a guest. Here’s how.

Can I have David as a guest for a Zoom, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube Live event during the launch? Will he help me promote it?

Subject to his availability, yes. He’s done as many as 25 live events in one launch, so he’s willing to do so. Just pop him an email using the Support and Help link on the menu at the top of the page.

The best time to do a live event is during the first three days that registration is open, as the Early Action Bonus will still be available.

To help promote the event, David will make a quick video element and will send you the raw footage so that you can incorporate it if you produce a video yourself to promote the live event, like this one:

I’m not sure what to ask David during a live event. Do you have any suggestions?

We sure do. In fact, one of our coaches and Affiliate Partners, Karen-Eileen Gordon, sat down and made a list of 101 questions that make all kinds of sense in a live interview with David:

Why the heck is it called voice over?
I’m an actor but have never been in this world—what’s the first thing I need to be doing?
I heard the VO world is impossible to break into. True or False?
My friend says in order to do animation you have to be a celebrity. What’s the story?
What’s the area of VO where I can make the most money the most quickly?
I heard there’s no money in audiobooks. Why would I want to do those?
What the heck is IVR?
Are there still audiobooks made on CD?
How do I break into commercial VO?
I live outside of L.A. and New York — can I be successful doing this without having to travel all the time?
Don’t I need to spend $10,000 or more for a real studio if I want to be competitive?
I can’t do any accents or dialects. How am I going to be successful in VO?
How do I learn what do to when I go into a studio to record something, like for an audition?
How many categories of voiceover are there?
What is the most popular category of voiceover, in terms of what producers buy?
How many kinds of microphones are there, and how do I know what to use?
I hear I have to know ProTools and lots of tough-to-learn programs—what’s the deal?
What is voices.com? (And should I be on it?)
What’s voices123.com? (And should I be on it?)
What’s Voquent? (And should I be on it?)
What is acx.com? (And should I be on it?)
What’s Voices.com? (And should I be on it?)
How do I get a voiceover agent?
What do I need before I look for an agent?
What do I need in order to start being considered for VO work?
What’s ADR?
What’s looping?
What’s the difference (if any) between ADR and looping?
How do I get ADR/looping work?
I need to hire a producer for all my demos, correct?
How much should a demo cost?
What are good questions to ask a demo producer before you hire them?
How many demos do I need?
How do I decide which areas of voiceover to focus on?
How many areas of VO is it reasonable to focus on without being “spread too thin?”
Can I have a different agent for each category of voiceover?
Can I have multiple voiceover agents? Don’t they dislike that?
What if I’m non-union—how much VO work is there for me?
Once I have a demo, where should I put it?
Do I have to have a voiceover-specific website, something separate from my other entertainment work?
Are there voiceover-specific casting directors, and how do I find them?
It’s okay to email voiceover people who can hire me my demo, right?
How do I learn how to make strong choices when I have a voiceover script for an audition?
What’s up with AI? Synthetic voices? Why would I even want to pursue VO with that sort of thing looming?
How is voiceover acting different from stage or film or television acting?
What’s the funniest thing that’s even happened to you in a voiceover session?
What’s the biggest paycheck you’ve ever had from a voiceover job or project?
What kind of warm-up do I need to do before recording?
Is there anything I should eat (or shouldn’t eat) before auditioning or recording?
Do I pay commission to my non-voiceover agent for voiceovers?
Can I do a union voiceover if I’m non-union?
I know about Backstage — are there voiceover-only trade publications?
What’s the best voiceover podcast?
Are there any awards in the VO industry, like the voiceover equivalent of the Emmys or Oscars?
What SAG-AFTRA contract does voiceover fall under?
I hear there are some voice over scams going around — how do I tell what’s legit to audition for?
Can I audition for a voiceover if I’m traveling? How?
Is it better to be with a voiceover-only agent, or can my film or television or commercial agent send me out?
I speak another language. Will that help me in voiceover? How?
I have a pretty heavy accent. Can I still work in voiceover? Where?
Don’t you need to start really young to be successful in VO?
Can I just record some copy on my iPhone and make that my first demo, until I get a “produced” one?
Can I get voiceover work on my own, not through agent?
If I get voiceover jobs on my own, how do I figure out what to charge them?
What is APAC? And should I attend?
I want to record audiobooks for the “Big” guys. Don’t I need to be in New York or Los Angeles to make real money doing that?
How the heck do I learn to think like a voiceover business owner?
If I’m doing voiceover auditions and work, can I deduct related expenses on my tax return?
Do I need to have an LLC?
Can I turn non-union voiceover work unto union work?
Don’t I need a fancy computer to have a working home studio?
I’ve been told I “pop” a lot, will that keep me from working? How do I fix that?
What is a noise floor?
How do I prevent or lessen mouth noise?
Are there good social media groups for voiceover? How do I find them?
How long should my voiceover demos be? How many clips in the demo?
I hear editing audiobooks is so hard it makes people want to cry. Why would I want to do that?
What if my agent is sending me out for voiceover stuff I don’t think is right for me?
Does it dilute my “brand” if I’m mostly on-camera or stage to now ALSO be doing voiceover?
What are the really good voiceover blogs and bloggers?
Things in the voiceover world and tech world seem to change so quickly. What’s the best way to stay really current?
Can I create my own voiceover content and sell it?
What are some ways to monetize voiceover content I create?
What is SAG-AFTRA’s iActor?
Do I sit or stand when I audition and/or record booked work?
My agent sometimes sends auditions that require ISDN, phone patch, or SourceConnect. What the heck is all of that, and can I get it?
How do I make sure I’m making good choices if I’m self-recording and sending auditions?
Is there a way to tell what area of voiceover I’d be best at, or best suited to?
How much money can I really make doing voiceovers?
I heard that there are even legit VO jobs on Craigslist — true or false?
Are there VO-specific signatories? Can you talk about using signatories for VO a bit?
I get contacted by voiceover companies out of the U.S. on LinkedIn…how do I tell who’s legit and who’s not?
Is there any kind of international VO organization, anything global?
How long is it healthy to record (say, for an audiobook or long-form narration) without a break? How do I know when to stop?
I heard some voiceover talent use things like neti pots, Grethers and Slippery Elm lozenges, Throat Coat tea, Lo Han Quo etc. Good? Bad?
I’m getting voiceover auditions, but not booking. What’s up? Where do I start to correct?
What is dubbing, and where can I find that work?
What’s the best way to stay in touch with voiceover casting directors? And how often?
I want to be the voice of a toy, or a greeting card that talks. Where do I find that work?
How do I find government voiceover contract work?

How can I maximize a Zoom or Live event?

Here are some things that work well:

Message them with direct links to the scheduled event.
Remind your audience about an hour before you’re going live.
Have a theme for the event around solving a problem.
Engage your audience with questions.
Monitor the comments. Place them on the screen if your software allows it.
Don’t spend a lot of time waiting for people to show up.
Say hello and get started.
Ask for shares and likes several times throughout the event to draw more people live.
Create a PowerPoint deck with the points you want to make and share your screen.
Use software like eCamm Live or StreamYard to up your video presentation look and sound.
Be sure to have your referral link handy and show it often.
Leave plenty of time for questions.
Offer a special bonus if your followers sign up before the end of the day via your link.
Place your referral link in the description of your Facebook Live or YouTube Live posting.

Is there software or are there online services that you recommend for running a live event?

Zoom, of course, because Zoom, especially if you want to keep things just to your followers.

For public Lives on Facebook and YouTube, David really loves eCamm Live – it’s for Macintosh only, but it’s amazingly well done.

Third place goes to StreamYard for a lesser known network, but with rock solid software. And if you have to, BeLive.TV. If you have to.

I have a podcast. Can I promote the VOHeroes launch on that, and possibly have David on as a guest?

That would be an extraordinarily creative thing to do, that no one has asked about, ever. So it’s a sneaky very-infrequently-asked-question that was slipped into this FAQ at the last minute by some hooligans in the neighborhood.

Do it, and produce it ahead of the launch, positioning its release either the day of the registration opening on September 6th, or a few days before registration closes.

I have a question you didn’t cover here. How do I ask it?

Just click on the BackOffice/Support link in the menu at the top of the page, and send us an email.

VOHeroes Affiliate Partner Back OfficeFAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)