The world of E-learning has exploded over the past 10 years. With faster internet connections, learning a new skill remotely is now faster, more affordable and available to more people than ever before.

It is an exciting industry that is spread across almost every single sector of business. Any sort of training that can be done via an electronic device falls under the category of e-learning.

This has meant an increase over recent years in the utilization of voice talent for many of these courses and training modules. With many voice actors now recording from professional home studios, this has also meant that overheads have fallen, which has allowed for the process to become more affordable for many businesses and production companies.

Many e-learning courses can run for hours. And as many voice over professionals are aware, an e-learning course that has a final ‘play time’ of 3 hours, can easily take double that to record and edit.

E-learning is becoming more popular as it is applied in more unique ways. There has been a huge increase in e-learning production companies. Hence, more and more VO talents are required to role play the many characters that can sometimes be incorporated into a production.

Scores of voice actors associate ‘e-learning’ with medical narrations or even ESL (English as a second language) courses. But their uses are wide and varied, with many now incorporating one voice playing many characters.

Gordon explains that a voice over news must adapt to the change. “If your focus is on “Main Narrator” roles you will have to work tirelessly at self promotion and be successful minimally. Not to accent our unique business approach at E-LV but we target the entire project. In fact we target multiple projects being created by multiple ID’s (Instructional Designers). More often than not Main Narrators are selected as someone who previously played a small character role. These roles can be extremely small, 10 words in some cases, but your “tone” has been heard and noted.”

Many e-learning courses can run for hours. And as many voice over professionals are aware, an e-learning course that has a final ‘play time’ of 3 hours, can easily take double that to record and edit.

The long hours in the studio are just one of many challenges a voice actor will face when diving into the niche sector of the voice over industry.

Gordon elaborates. “By far the biggest challenge is getting heard by the ID’s who actually produce the productions. If you can get to that point hopefully the end user client will accept the ID’s recommendations for the various roles. The second challenge is the pay scale. There are no e-learning production companies who can pay you your $150 -$250 minimum to record a few words or sentences. Some projects incorporate 20-25 character and there may be one Main Narrator. The funds are simply not in the budget to pay scale rates. A voice over talent should look at a small character roll as an audition and hopefully larger or more numerous roles down the road. Also, the more character roles you can fulfill the more work you will find but that is another topic.”

Modern technology is changing the way that many industries are operating their businesses. This is especially true for international and domestic courier services, where the latest technology driven operational changes have transformed the customer service experience. Here are some examples of how this has been done.

Planning delivery routes
New route planning software, now studies details of all of the deliveries that a driver has to take out with them in the morning from a depot. This information is then used to plot the most optimal driving route for voice recording services. They also import road works and traffic conditions to work out when each parcel is likely to me delivered. A sat nave route planner is then loaded to each vehicle and tells the delivery driver exactly where to go after each drop. The result is the driver minimises the petrol used and their time per delivery. This enables the courier companies to drive down their operational costs.

Customer Expectations
As the courier services now know a rough time when each parcel is due to be delivered, they have a fantastic opportunity to raise rates of clients being in to accept their deliveries. They do this be texting and or emailing the receiver with the information that a parcel has been loaded onto a vehicle for collection and that it will be out for delivery today. They can also specify a one hour window when the delivery is expected to be made. This enables the receiver to manage their time to ensure that they are in for the delivery. If they are not going to be in it also gives them the ability to advise the carrier so that the driver and avoid wasted time and reschedule the delivery for when they are going to be in.

International customs clearance processes
In recent years this has been revolutionised to such an extent that for many international parcel deliveries to destinations outside of the European Union, the customs documentation is submitted whist a consignment is in transit before it arrives at the destination. For many items they can be automatically cleared and not selected for inspection. Meaning that the transit time for the shipment has been reduced. This is especially important for fast international parcel delivery to countries outside of the European Union.

Online tracking updates
The days when couriers could collect a parcel with only a hand written address on them are rapidly ending. Now most courier services require clients to print of an air waybill from their online despatch system. This will validate a female voice over artist delivery address, and provided a printed label that can easily be read with a bar code on. The bar code used acts as a unique identifier for the shipment and is scanned every time a parcel is moved by the courier. So if you use a courier service to send a parcel to Holland you can monitor its transit at every step of its journey giving greater peace of mind.

These are some of the ways that modern domestic and overseas courier services are adopting new technology to improve their services and lower their costs.

If you are seriously thinking about getting into the voice over industry, the internet contains endless tidbits of information about voice over jobs, from breaking into the industry to landing the perfect jobs. Take a look at some of the subject areas below that you will be able to find information on:

All you Need to Know about Cheap Voice Overs: the internet will usually provide very detailed information on general voice over topics.

Becoming a Voice Over Artist: you will likely be able to find information on what it takes to get you to the point of being a successful voice over artist.

Locating the Best Voice Over Agents: being able to use the internet to find good voice over agents to help boost your career is probably the best move you could make as a newcomer to voice over jobs.

Getting the Best Voice Over Training: of course, voice over training is absolutely crucial when preparing yourself to work in the voice over industry. Having a great sounding voice will not necessarily get you the kind of voice over jobs you are interested in.

Scoping out Great Voice Over Talent: talent scouts as well as film, television and theater directors often use the internet to find talent for their upcoming voice over projects.

Get the Practice you Need with Voice Over Script: many sources on the internet will tell you that practicing voice over scripts is a sure way to sharpen your skill and make a big impression at your audition.

Tips for Doing a Voice Over Recording: as you will find when doing voice over research online, the technical aspects of a voice over recording can make or break your attempts to jump into a voice over type career.

Landing Quality Voice Over Work: perhaps one of the best ways to really get good voice over jobs is to zoom in on a specific type of presentation, e.g. movies, commercials, television shows, and master the art of doing voiceovers for a specific niche.

Choosing voice over jobs is a great way to get into the entertainment industry without putting yourself at the forefront of an on-screen or on-stage theatrical presentation. And the great thing is you can create an impact that is just as meaningful as that created by actors and actresses.