You probably already know that there are a lot of people taking up blogging because they think that they can earn a living doing it. All power to you if that’s the case. But don’t ignore other opportunities that basically use blogging as a means to an end. In such cases, you are actually selling something else: audio content, video content, consulting services, editing services, etc. The reason you blog, then, is both to give visitors some background information of what you’re doing, and to give search engine spiders some index food.

I’ve loosely been running a series here about other ways you can earn revenue using blogging as a vehicle. Here’s another opportunity: voice overs. Anytime you’re watching TV, a film, or listening to the radio and you hear someone’s voice but don’t see them (100% of the time with radio), that’s a voiceover.

There is actually a great deal of opportunity in the market, if you know where to look, have a good/ varied/ unique voice, are reliable, and also lucky. In the past, voice over work was available mostly in large cities. Sure, there are local radio and TV stations that need people, but there typically aren’t as many jobs.

But with the Internet, the entire voice over market gets opened up. Anyone in the world with access to recording software/ hardware can offer their services to clients anywhere in the world. And that’s the beauty of it; just because you don’t speak English doesn’t mean you can’t do voice over work. There’s work all over the world, and you don’t necessarily need to travel to get it.

It’s not necessarily easy work; you have to be pretty meticulous. If you are using a loud computer or have poor quality audio recording software, your initial demo isn’t going to catch a lot of attention. That doesn’t mean you need to spend lots to set up a home record studio, but you also want a bit of quality.

If you want to learn more about voice over work, you can read my Unusual Ways To Earn a Living Via The Internet: Voice Overs article, which talks about a voice over agency called Voice123. I also talk briefly about Audacity, a free, high quality audio editing package.

I’ve signed up for voice over opportunities with Voice123 (just this morning, in fact) and once I’ve had a bit of work, I’ll write about my experiences. (I have already received a few leads.) If you sign up as well, know that you get a free web page at Voice123. However, setting up your own site where you write about topics related to voiceover work, as well as publish samples of your work or even offer podcasts, will bring in traffic and maybe even clients - whom you can then direct to your profile page at Voice123. In fact, publishing a regular podcast could go a long way towards showing potential clients your ability to do voice work.

So use blogging as a means to getting voice over work, which if you get gigs will likely earn you more money than contextual advertising (for the average blogger).