With this site going to the dogs, does anyone have experience of Bodalgo?
It seems like it's GENUINELY aimed at Professionals only, but is quite expensive.
Does it operate like Voices Pro did?
Any personal anecdotes/endorsements?
I joined Bodalgo for about a year and scored some work there - but not a huge amount. It was alot of corporate narration type jobs, not huge budgets but pretty fair usually. And you take them off platform so good for making connections. The problem is there are so many people auditonning for each job - hundreds usually - which can be a bit disheartening - although I dare say its the same here - we just aren't told!! I may rejoin again - but yes it is quite pricey.
Just as FYI from what I understand about Bodalgo, just my personal experience, (I've been a member for almost 2 yrs) is that entry is limited and every application is vetted by Armin and his team. the average number of demo applications for each project is under a 100 per job. This site, on the other hand, does not vet applicants. There are many, many members. The last job I was hired for off of Mandy, the client mentioned she had 487 applicants in 2 hours. Each project for Mandy gets well over 400 applicants.
I loved Bodalgo for a long time but recently it's got quiet for me. However I'm willing to trust in it for a longer because I generally think it's been great.
Here, barely any of my auditions get listened to anymore so I don't bother auditioning unless there's something I really think I have a chance of getting or it's a really good gig. It's very disheartening not even getting a listen most of the time. I assume the listen rate is so low because of the number of applications. I doubt renew unless this turns around.
I tend to audition only for Bodalgo jobs that are female only and also state ‘Great Britain’ for the accent. Neutral does not mean RP, it means a kind of generic European sound so that the accent cannot be pinpointed. And probably most of the jobs in there are for ‘neutral’ voices. So my job success rate on there is quite low although I have got a big well paid ongoing animation job through it, so occasional gems will surface!
I'm a big fan of Bodalgo, it's probably my favourite P2P site. I'm also a premium member of Voice123 which is can also be good but far more expensive than Bodalgo and you don't get access to all the jobs on the site unless you're paying for the premium membership and your reviews/demo 'like' rating are in good standing. But yeah they're both a hell of a lot better than Mandy currently is!
Bodalgo are one of the good guys. Vetted jobs for generally proper rates and great communication from the chap who runs it, who genuinely cares about the industry. But I think there's been a lot of new sign-ups because that last job I applied to had nearly 300 applicants! But... that's still a lot less than Mandy. I get shortlisted a lot (I am cursed with the repeating pencil) and bagged a few decent jobs that have paid for the membership for the last few years at least. It's more expensive than Mandy but better value for money, imo. I find employers who have a proper budget will prefer to use a vetted site like Bodalgo rather than trawl through hundreds and hundreds of responses of varying quality on here. Mandy seems to now be the realm of employers with small budgets who want to get away with no usage and in perpetuity etc.
It's difficult it's trying to get a balance of having a career but not over committing yourself to a point where you're working at a serious loss. (unless you have deep pockets) with cost of living I don't think many of us have deep pockets.
Bodalgo is fantastic, have booked major jobs on there. You need a premium sound to really stand a chance though. And make sure you're quick to audition or you'll get left behind. I've also cast on there and the first applications get more of my attention than say number 200 (yes it can be that much sometimes)
That's interesting - Armin (site owner) has always said that when the job poster logs in to listen to auditions, the latest to post is at the top of the list, so there's no need to rush it in. Is that not the case?
Well, I signed up with Bodalgo (£££s ouch) and it's not quite what I expected it to be.
It seems every job emanates from Germany, and everything I have seen is home studio 'Remote Record' - fine, but I expected a mix of London Studio/Home Studio.
Apart from a few jobs, everything is 'Custom Demo' - my choice, I know, but I patently refuse to set up my home studio for demos and record them on my Smartphone (which has been fine for MANY clients in the past).
No lobs yet, but those posted are certainly more frequent and at better rates than what has become of this place.
Following on from my last post (for some reason I am now a 'Private User', nothing to do with me).
When Voices Pro (Mandy started going pear shaped just over a year ago, I started to lool around and beard good things about Bodalgo, who I joined last Autumn. Unfortunately, I too fimd them with very much to be desired. I've been shortlisted a few times, but STILL no work.
I am particularly irked by them not posting jobs at a set rate, but a 'span' - instead of £500, say, they post a 'range' of something like £249-£499 leaving it up to the respondees to prostitute themselves or ask for a decent rate.
I don't come across it elswhere, Jobs are advertised at set rates with set budgets, they're either decent, or they're not, one applies or passes.
I suspect my responding with the higher of the 2 rates doesn't go down well, but why pitch at the bottom, when you know that its wrong?
All this does is drove rates dawn and is a contradiction of what Bodalgo says it is there to do.
How hard can it be for a client to post their job and the fee they expect (and budget they have) to oay for it?
In my experience over the past 15yrs in VO, I have come across other sites that do ask for a quote. Voices dot com is one. Any site that gives a budget rather than a rate is asking for a quote. Also, in my experience, the client listens to your voice before they look at your rate. These are big companies. if you think going £75 higher on a job rather than lowballing is the reason you didn't get the job... the rates don't matter. They matter on a site like "5err". they do not matter on Bodalgo, Voices dot com, or even Mandy. Give yourself some credit. Quote what you believe you are worth.
The average job payout on Bodalgo is €250. it's not a "big job" site. Personally, my success rate on Bodalgo has been very good and I get at least 5 green thumbs out of every 20 demos.
Of course, my experience is going to be different. I have a different voice and probably different experience. This is also my day job so I again my experiences are going to be different. For example, I can't afford to lowball. I wouldn't want to but I also want to be paid for my time.
As far as setting a different price per job? I have my rate. it is my rate for almost every job, regardless of budget. Just because a client is offering more for the same job, I still quote my rate. (i do take into account usage) but Bodalgo is mainly corporates. I have my rate. It is slightly higher than standard but I have earned the right to quote it from the feedback I have gotten from clients and the amount of clients I have worked with. I have a template with my rates and revisions. it rarely changes for corporate usage. Know your worth and stick to it. If you believe you are worth it, the client will pay. They want your voice and are not going to quibble over €50-75. At least, this is my experience. I hope other can pick up some tips from it. I also welcome any questions.
again, know your worth. That is your rate, regardless of budget. On a side note, I recently quoted my rate to a client who loved my voice, and they came back with, our budget is slightly more, so is it all right if we offer you an extra £150? That happens more than you think. Don't undercut your collegues. Low quotes are not the reason they are working. Quote your worth. I'll bet they are.
oops. almost fall off my soapbox.... ahem. I'll just put it back in the closet. have a great week everyone.
My work is,.or was, fairly evenly balanced between Acting, Modelling and Voiceover.
There are faitly standard BSF rates, but overall rates will vary MASSIVELY according to Media, Term and Territory - so there really is no single 'rate' that any VO can pitch at a Bodalogo job - and its not just a case of £70-£100 over either, often the rate top to bottom is a £250 range.
Lets be honest here, since COVID the market is now saturated. There's people who are applying for jobs who really shouldn't be as they just "wanted to try it out" kind of attitude.
I need more profit from my other jobs before I can think of Bodalgo or Voices.com. & I think I'd probably rather not know how many people have applied for a job as it can put you off.
Hello, me again - apparently I'm a 'Private User' - although not sure how that happened - my Actor Profile stills shows my Name and Fizzog - I'm Ian Seale, many of you will have met me at the Mandy Meet Up - when I mentioned that work seemed to have 'fallen off a cliff' - and I'm the originator of this Topic.
By way of an update, I have STILL had no work whatsoever through Bodalgo.
I thought I'd check through some of my last 60 submissions - which made interesting viewing:
Each is a block of 10 submissions:
Listened To Short Listed
7 1
9 2
7 1
8 0
5 1
10 1
Many might consider that quite a good hit rate. I might too, if it resulted in any work.
Maybe it is the state of the industry, but I am struggling to find a platform that is anything like Voices Pro / Mandy was - before the Backstage takeover.
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