You probably have never thought about making money with your voice, at least I didn’t. Voice acting can be a lucrative and fun way to make money, depending on the popularity of the voiceover project, you may earn up to $100k for just one episode of an animation. If this sounds exciting, keep reading.
Depending on the path you take, you can eventually turn voice acting into a business and it’s a business idea that’s worth considering.
In this guide, we’re going to explore 8 ways to make money with your voice so you can find the one that suits you the most, and maybe build your own business.
What Is Voice Acting
Voice acting is about portraying a character or providing information to your audience with your voice. The scope of voice acting is broad there are always opportunities regardless of your sex, age, language, or passions.
8 Best Ways To Make Money With Your Voice
1. Voiceover Work
The first one will be voiceover work. Although it may sound less interesting, it may be the best way to start making money with your voice and gain some experience before you explore other more challenging fields.
Voiceover work is all about using your voice to inform, persuade, or guide an audience. Think of yourself as the unseen narrator, the friendly guide, or the knowledgeable expert. It’s less about playing characters and more about being a clear, engaging communicator.
Examples of voiceover work:
- E-learning: Narrators for online learning courses
- Corporate videos: From training modules to company overviews
- Explainer videos: Voiceover in animated videos explaining a product or a service Those snazzy animated videos explaining products or services?
- Documentaries: Nature, Biology, investigation and more.
Getting started in voiceover work is relatively straightforward:
- Invest in a good microphone and have a quiet space where you can record your voice
- Create a demo reel showcasing your voice in different styles
- Set up profiles on freelance platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or Voices.com
- Network with local businesses and production companies
- Practice, practice and practice
2. Audiobook Narration
Now, bookworms, this is for you. Audiobooks have gained popularity due to busy lifestyles and more readers are choosing to listen rather than read. There is a constant demand for fresh voices to bring these stories to life.
How do you get started?
- Start by reading books aloud at home. Focus on pacing, clarity, and how to infuse your emotions to reflect the storyline
- Record: Record and evaluate your performance, identify rooms for improvements
- Set up a home studio: Again, a quiet space and good recording equipment.
- Join ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange): This platform connects narrators with authors and publishers.
3. Singing and Jingle Creation
This is where you combine your passion for singing and voice acting to make money.
If you have awesome singing skills and truly love singing but don’t want to be a celebrity, there are other ways to make money using your voice.
Some options you have:
- Jingle Creation: Jingles are short songs companies use in their advertisements, for example, “I’m loving it” from MacDonald’s.
- Background Vocals: Become backup singers for recordings or live performance
- Songwriting Demos: Sing demo versions of songs for songwriters
If you need to, take some singing lessons to improve your singing skills and hop onto Fiverr and Voice.com to search for projects. You should also create demos that can be used for advertising and showcasing your skills.
4. Voice Assistant Development
You have likely chatted with Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant, which are the result of voice assistant development. This is a rapidly growing field, and tour voice could be part of shaping its future.
Voice acting for voice assistant development can be quite different, for example, in audiobook narration and cartoons. In voice assistant development, it’s about consistency, maintaining the same tone and energy level is important, whereas you are more likely required to be expressive in other voice acting projects.
Again, voice.com is a good website to get started. Alternatively, you can consider being a of AI text-to-speech generators such as elevenlabs.
5. Animations
Now, the fun part. Imagine being the voice actor of one of the famous Disney characters or popular cartoons. Although it may not be a business, but a career, it can provide extremely lucrative money. Matt Stone, one of the voice actors from South Park, achieved a net worth of $700 million from his voice acting career, and the main characters from The Simpsons are getting paid around $300K for a single episode they participate in.
Although you can eventually start an agency, and hire and nurture voice actors, this is more likely to be a career choice. On this blog, we encourage people to build their money-building machine so they can live the life they want, but if this is what you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life, and it can generate sufficient income, what’s stopping you?
6. Dubbing and Translation
If you’re bilingual or multilingual, this next opportunity could be right up your alley. Dubbing and translation work is a fantastic way to use your voice and language skills to make money.
Some areas where you can find dubbing and translation work:
- Film and TV Dubbing: Bringing foreign language content to new audiences.
- Video Games: Helping games reach a global market.
- Corporate Video Translation: Translating business content into another language
- Audio Guide Translation: For museums, tours, and cultural sites.
How you can get started in dubbing and translation:
- Perfect your language skills: Take some translation courses to improve fluency in both languages.
- Study acting techniques: Dubbing is essentially voice acting in another language, so you have to learn how to act
- Network with translation agencies and dubbing studios: Many jobs come through these channels, or you can choose to be a freelancer
7. Online Voice Coaching
Another option you have if you don’t want to be a celebrity but have excellent singing skills and a unique voice is to be a voice coach. It can be incredibly rewarding to help others find their voice and achieve their dreams. Not an automated business idea, but still a valid business idea.
You may have thought “Who am I to teach others?” Well, years of experience in the field would definitely have given you some valuable insights to share. And the best singers in the world are not teaching people how to sing, so someone has to.
Here’s how you can get started as an online voice coach:
- Identify your niche: What aspect of voice work are you most passionate about teaching, and which music genre?
- Set up your online teaching space: Invest in a good microphone and camera for quality lessons.
- Choose your platform: Use sites like Udemy or Teachable, or create your own website.
- Market your services: Use social media, create a YouTube channel with tips, and showcase your singing skills
8. Podcast Hosting
If you are someone who likes having conversations, sharing your knowledge, and learning from others, you should start a podcast.
Starting a podcast doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are different skills you have to learn:
- Choose your niche: What are you passionate about? What unique perspective can you offer? You can start a solo podcast or an interview podcast, the decision depends on your niche.
- Invest in decent equipment: A good microphone makes a big difference.
- Plan your content: Outline your episodes to keep your thoughts organized.
- Learn basic editing: Tools like Audacity are great for beginners.
- Inviting Guests: Do the research and learn how to ask the right questions
Choose a hosting platform: RSS.com, Buzzsprout, or Anchor are popular options.
You might be wondering, how exactly do you make money from podcasting? Here are a few ways:
Sponsorships and Advertising: Once you have a decent audience, companies will pay to have you mention their products in your podcast
Affiliate marketing: Promote other products and earn commissions
Premium content: Offer exclusive episodes or content for a fee.
Advertise your product: You have a loyal audience and it makes selling your own product easier
There are already a million podcasts out there, but there are always opportunities to offer a different voice and perspective. Your podcast could be the one that resonates with people in a way no others do.
Skills You Need to Be A Voice Actor
Jennifer Hale is a Canadian-American voice actress who has been in the space for many years. She has been part of many productions from video games to animations. Some of which you might know are Overwatch, Cinderella, and Aurora from Disney. She shared some tips on how to be a good voice actor/actress, which are summarised below.
Practice Reading Out Loud
Just like how you practice a foreign language, you need plenty of practice to be good. Reading out loud helps improve pronunciation and articulation, and furthermore, it helps you build confidence so you are well-prepared for auditions.
Cold Reading
Cold reading involves reading something without understanding the context. Just pick up a book and just start reading, and as you practice more and more, you will be able to read ahead. While you are reading the first word, of the sentence, your eyes will be fixating maybe a sentence ahead, preparing you for the next word while you are reading.
Breathing
Breathing is important in voice acting. You have to learn how to breathe properly so you have enough breath to sustain long sentences. Sign up for some singing courses to learn the right way to breathe can be beneficial.
Mental resilience
Another skill that needs to be developed is mental resilience. Learn to accept failure or move on and continue to develop your skills during disapproval. Success doesn’t take days or weeks, it takes years.
Conclusion
Making money with your voice is an unconventional path to take and the voice-acting field holds some business opportunities to explore. However, If you are searching for other business ideas, subscribe to our email list and learn how to start your online business today.
