Hi Fester,
There are many out there, the one thing I'd say is not to pay any of these until you really dug into users' comments and potential problems. I usually Google the corresponding VO website's name and add the word 'scam' to see if they're legit at all, if no results show up I search for a 'vs', as in 'Voice123.com vs. VoiceBunny' for example, with which I found this link:
_http://drewcarpentervo.com/voblog/top/
So def stay away from VoiceBunny. So far, the most legit site I've found is voice123.com which is only worth investing if you have a professional demo recording, whether it was done by you or in a studio by someone else.
I don't know how good voices.com is but I found this link on the discussion:
_http://www.voiceoveruniverse.com/forum/topics/voicescom-or-voice123com
There's also voicerealm.com which I don't know much about.
There's also various resources that can be helpful, like this VO guy's YT channel:
_https://www.youtube.com/user/VoiceOverExpert/featured
Btw, according to this guy, he has many agents but more than 90% (or thereabouts) of his gigs don't come through agents.
I've also been trying to look into this, how I could use the equipment I have, which is decent enough to start, to record the best demo I can possibly do at home. If this could work, it'd be a great way to work from home. I still have to dig deeper, as I don't have much time to research the topic.
I've also stumbled upon this video: _https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTeUeRxAS7M which gives instructions on how to build a VO box at home to minimize noises and such. As far as the recording software goes, I think you could use almost any recording software as long as it sounds good. The hard part about doing it at home - kind of creating a home studio - is that you have to do everything from recording to editing to potentially adding sound effects and music as well. I can't set up a full VO room in my closet but if you have that opportunity, that'd also be something to consider, like Bill DeWees did in the beginning.
Also, here's the website of a guy who works professionally in the industry, his name is Jon Bailey, he makes his living in VO and his website imo, doesn't even look all that good but it doesn't have to, his demo speaks for itself and that's what makes the biggest difference. _http://www.jonbaileyvo.com/Pages/default.aspx
And fwiw, if you're looking for a decent microphone that won't sink the ship, this is the mic I use, bought it about a year and a half ago and it's pretty, pretty decent!
_http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AS6OYC/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=
One probably couldn't go too far with it but for starters, until someone starts making money in VO, imo it's the best out there. But this is also a mic that can be used for many things, including recording music at home, singing, instruments, etc. so there might be other microphones out there specifically for VO in the same price range that can do a better job.
If one has the time to do all the research required and knows exactly what to do, I'd say it can be a very lucrative job that can be done from home (until the S*** hits the fan of course). If I lost my job for any reason, this would be the first thing I'd look into.
