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My Fiverr Pro experience, 37 orders in - AMA!


paulmaplesden

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I know people are interested in how Fiverr Pro is impacting the platform as a whole. Here’s what my experience has been like as a Fiverr Pro seller since starting in late June. This is a follow up to my original AMA post and my previous “thoughts” post. I am happy to answer any further questions you have.

  • I have no problem in being transparent about orders, earnings, etc. I do this in the hope it can inspire others, because we all deserve to be as successful as possible. Freelancing by its nature is a difficult job with lots of uncertainty. But, diligence, professionalism, and the right approach directly translates into success. If you’re not comfortable with me sharing info like orders / earnings etc, I apologise in advance, but have nothing to hide.

  • I’ve completed 27 orders with ten more in the pipeline. That’s been without any outside marketing from me - purely people finding me on Fiverr. Now, I did put a lot of effort into making my gigs as good as possible to begin with, and that seems to have paid off.

  • That’s a big saving in terms effort that I would normally have to spend finding new clients outside the platform. I would typically spend 1 - 2 hours a day looking for and applying to new opportunities. The Fiverr orders have meant I do not have to do that. It’s one of the reasons I have no issues with the 20% commission.

  • Almost all of my clients have been other small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. I have written for consultants, software startups, trucking companies, attorneys, engineering businesses, and more.

  • The content has often been highly technical in nature. Content includes areas like “Forming an LLC and legal business structures,” “How to enhance revenue by integrating your sales and marketing departments together,” “Using data analytics to maximize your membership software platform,” “What is the best cable connector for complex pin arrays as an electrical engineer?” and other similarly esoteric content. That’s not surprising - I am mainly a technical writer, and that’s what I am asked to do.

  • Almost no-one orders “cold.” Of all the orders I have received, less than 10% has been without them contacting me separately first of all. Almost everyone makes an initial enquiry and asks questions about how I can help them. I am happy to offer advice and a little consultancy up front to help them decide if I am the right seller for them.

  • This has been a successful approach - around 40% of enquiries have converted to sales, and I am getting a fair number of repeat customers.

  • I am probably getting an average of around 1 - 2 orders per working day.

  • Inbox spam remains a problem, especially for people who want to pay me to write an Amazon review (without seeing my reviews start at $200!) I have recently been taking a zero-tolerance approach to this!

  • People are willing to pay much more than the $100 minimum for PRO gigs. My completed gigs looks like this: Total sold: Custom Offers - $1,192, Gigs - $2,986.5, Avg. Selling Price: Gigs ($186.66), Custom Offers ($132.44). Orders have ranged from $70 up to $680. I currently have around $2,000 worth of orders in the pipeline.

  • Clearly Fiverr Pro is a success for Fiverr as much as it is for Pro sellers - I estimate they have made over $1,500 in commission from me thusfar!

  • Excellent communication is key - I am as proactive at communicating as possible. People spending this sort of money like to be hand-held through the process.

  • I often go above and beyond what buyers request, doing additional research, providing enhanced word counts, or doing anything I can to really enhance the value of what they get. I feel that reflects well on me, the Pro service, and Fiverr as a whole. This tactic has worked well, with six orders with tips, and a tip total of around $350.

  • Fiverr Pro now makes up a decent portion of my income - around half of my freelance writing income, and about 35% of my business as a whole. It’s been very worthwhile getting involved.

In terms of how Fiverr PRO has impacted the platform - in some cases, sellers do not want to pay my prices. In those cases, I tend to refer them to other areas of the platform where they can find work at a less expensive price. In other cases, I do not know if they would buy if the PRO option were not available. I think PRO is best when it covers very niche and specialist areas, or provides an extremely high level of service. If people want standard content, then the regular marketplace is perfect for them. If they want something a little more niche, that’s what PRO is for.

I would be interested in Fiverr’s take on how PRO has impacted the marketplace as a whole. I suspect it has been good for the overall platform, because it brings in a whole tranche of new sellers. I know that getting approved for PRO can be tough, but it’s definitely worth persevering. I am happy to answer any further questions about my experiences, so fire away!

Thanks for listening.

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Apart from you, is there anyone who is benefiting from PRO gigs? I have seen many with PRO gigs but have not made a single sale. May be the PRO gig is only benefiting you in this platform. Sorry to say. I have not seen anyone advising…

May be the PRO gig is only benefiting you in this platform.

I have seen some other Pro sellers making sales, too, so no, it’s definitely not just him. 🙂

people who want to pay me to write an Amazon review

Amazon doesn’t allow paid reviews; they sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers for writing them.

I’m mentioning that just in case, so that people don’t think that a Pro seller is allowed to do something that would get anyone else’s gig deleted (or account banned). I’ve read your gig description, and I like how you clearly outlined (without mentioning Amazon!) where the buyer can publish the review.

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What are your plans given that the PRO gigs have worked out great for you? Will you create more gigs? Well, its great to hear about your success.

Will you create more gigs?

Possibly. I have been approved in three more categories now. It’s really a case of figuring out if I have the right level of expertise and can create enough value to offer gigs at Pro prices in those categories. It’s also a case of supply and demand, at the moment I am pretty much flat out with work, so don;t really need any more!

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Apart from you, is there anyone who is benefiting from PRO gigs? I have seen many with PRO gigs but have not made a single sale. May be the PRO gig is only benefiting you in this platform. Sorry to say. I have not seen anyone advising…

Apart from you, is there anyone who is benefiting from PRO gigs?

So looking through the various categories, there are certainly plenty of Pro gigs with reviews, which I am guessing means it’s successful for people besides me.

  • Logo design - 25 Pro reviews.
  • Social media marketing - 24 Pro reviews.
  • Whiteboard videos - 7 Pro reviews.
  • Articles and blog posts - 61 Pro reviews (24 are mine).

There are some other categories, but those are the main ones. So yes, it looks like 117 reviews across those areas. Assume a 70% review to gig rate, and it looks like around 150 gigs ordered, so that’s not too bad. Assuming an average rate of $150 per gig, that’s about $23,000 in revenue over the six weeks Pro gigs have been around.

Paul.

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May be the PRO gig is only benefiting you in this platform.

I have seen some other Pro sellers making sales, too, so no, it’s definitely not just him. 🙂

people who want to pay me to write an Amazon review

Amazon doesn’t allow paid reviews; they sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers for writing them.

I’m mentioning that just in case, so that people don’t think that a Pro seller is allowed to do something that would get anyone else’s gig deleted (or account banned). I’ve read your gig description, and I like how you clearly outlined (without mentioning Amazon!) where the buyer can publish the review.

Amazon doesn’t allow paid reviews; they sued 1,000+ Fiverr sellers for writing them.

I’m mentioning that just in case, so that people don’t think that a Pro seller is allowed to do something that would get anyone else’s gig deleted (or account banned). I’ve read your gig description, and I like how you clearly outlined (without mentioning Amazon!) where the buyer can publish the review.

Thanks for pointing this out. Indeed, I now specifically tell people it is against both Fiverr and Amazon TOS and then report them.

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Guest uxreview

First, thank you for the insight!
Since you’ve been so transparent and responsive, would you mind sharing your analytics data. Such as impressions & clicks per day.

I’m not surprised that PRO gigs get orders because there’s market for everyone, but I’m curious how much visibility they get compared to others.

Now, it’s not a loaded question or anything and you’ve shared a lot with us, so feel free to say no 🙂

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First, thank you for the insight!

Since you’ve been so transparent and responsive, would you mind sharing your analytics data. Such as impressions & clicks per day.

I’m not surprised that PRO gigs get orders because there’s market for everyone, but I’m curious how much visibility they get compared to others.

Now, it’s not a loaded question or anything and you’ve shared a lot with us, so feel free to say no 🙂

Since you’ve been so transparent and responsive, would you mind sharing your analytics data. Such as impressions & clicks per day.

Sure, here you go:

gigs.thumb.PNG.021ff4b45c35ddafbfabff856e66ff34.PNG
analytics.thumb.PNG.70a258f08d8c63db7d75bcd4d80d1ce6.PNG
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Guest uxreview

That’s why I want to apply for Fiverr PRO when it comes available in my category.
My click rate compared to impressions & order rate is pretty much the same, but my impressions are under 1K per month since I’m no where near the front page. I don’t have a problem selling my gig once people reach out to me, but if people don’t see your gig then it’s hard to sell anything.

I’ll need to do some work to improve my chances for the PRO eligibility. Thanks again Paul!

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I have some questions about becoming a Pro 🙂

  1. Do you have a large social media presence on all the sites they asked about?
  2. Do you have a higher education (I know they ask multiple times for certificates, awards, and diplomas on the application)?
  3. Can you explain this: I started the application yesterday. At some point, they ask you to describe your work flow and then list five companies/brands you’ve worked with. Then the next page asks:
  • “How many iterations do you normally do?”
  • “How much would you charge for a project like this?”
  • “How long would a project like this take you?”

Do you have any idea what project this question is referring to / What did you use as your baseline (a recent project or something else)?

Oh, and just out of curiosity: did you have any gigs before applying or did you jump right into the application?

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I have some questions about becoming a Pro 🙂

  1. Do you have a large social media presence on all the sites they asked about?
  2. Do you have a higher education (I know they ask multiple times for certificates, awards, and diplomas on the application)?
  3. Can you explain this: I started the application yesterday. At some point, they ask you to describe your work flow and then list five companies/brands you’ve worked with. Then the next page asks:
  • “How many iterations do you normally do?”
  • “How much would you charge for a project like this?”
  • “How long would a project like this take you?”

Do you have any idea what project this question is referring to / What did you use as your baseline (a recent project or something else)?

Oh, and just out of curiosity: did you have any gigs before applying or did you jump right into the application?

I have some questions about becoming a Pro 🙂

Do you have a large social media presence on all the sites they asked about?

Do you have a higher education (I know they ask multiple times for certificates, awards, and diplomas on the application)?

Can you explain this: I started the application yesterday. At some point, they ask you to describe your work flow and then list five companies/brands you’ve worked with. Then the next page asks:

“How many iterations do you normally do?”

“How much would you charge for a project like this?”

“How long would a project like this take you?”

Do you have any idea what project this question is referring to / What did you use as your baseline (a recent project or something else)?

Oh, and just out of curiosity: did you have any gigs before applying or did you jump right into the application?

Happy to answer:

  1. No, I don’t have any professional social media presence to speak of. I tend to just keep social media for personal stuff.
  2. I do not have a formal higher education (i.e. I do not have a degree). I do have a wealth of experience in writing, business, and technology though, including a fifteen-year career.
  3. I do as many iterations as the client requires. Around 70% of my work doesn’t need modification, around 25% needs one revision, and the remaining 5% needs 2 or more. I can’t remember the details of the charging questions, but I just gave my standard rates (typically 16c - 20c a word). Projects normally take a couple of hours for a 1,000 word article. In those cases I just took a selection of projects from my portfolio (in my mind a project is one piece of defined work for one client).

I didn’t have any gigs before applying, I created them all afterwards.

Hope this helps.

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I have some questions about becoming a Pro 🙂

Do you have a large social media presence on all the sites they asked about?

Do you have a higher education (I know they ask multiple times for certificates, awards, and diplomas on the application)?

Can you explain this: I started the application yesterday. At some point, they ask you to describe your work flow and then list five companies/brands you’ve worked with. Then the next page asks:

“How many iterations do you normally do?”

“How much would you charge for a project like this?”

“How long would a project like this take you?”

Do you have any idea what project this question is referring to / What did you use as your baseline (a recent project or something else)?

Oh, and just out of curiosity: did you have any gigs before applying or did you jump right into the application?

Happy to answer:

  1. No, I don’t have any professional social media presence to speak of. I tend to just keep social media for personal stuff.
  2. I do not have a formal higher education (i.e. I do not have a degree). I do have a wealth of experience in writing, business, and technology though, including a fifteen-year career.
  3. I do as many iterations as the client requires. Around 70% of my work doesn’t need modification, around 25% needs one revision, and the remaining 5% needs 2 or more. I can’t remember the details of the charging questions, but I just gave my standard rates (typically 16c - 20c a word). Projects normally take a couple of hours for a 1,000 word article. In those cases I just took a selection of projects from my portfolio (in my mind a project is one piece of defined work for one client).

I didn’t have any gigs before applying, I created them all afterwards.

Hope this helps.

Thank you, that’s really helpful!

I wanted to give my price per word ("$__/word) but it was a numeric answer only, so I had to put in a number with nothing else. There was no room on that page to give any explanation about anything, and no clarifying information whatsoever.

If anyone wants to apply, I would suggest thinking these questions through beforehand:

“How many iterations do you normally do?”

~ Dropdown: Select from 1-10 or you can choose “Unlimited”

“How much would you charge for a project like this?”

~ Give a number (you cannot add “per word” or anything).

“How long would a project like this take you?”

~ Give a number (you cannot add any explanation/detail).

You won’t receive any context or information within the application (I feel like the person making the survey must have left out a question/sentence somewhere. Without other information, you have no idea what project you’re quoting for).

I might have to re-visit this part with a support rep if I’m not accepted 🙂

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I don’t know why but the sharing of your income puts me off a bit, which I know you acknowledged and you are free to do as you wish, but here’s why:
There has been a lot of sellers grasping at straws lately with a massive decline in sales, so to have high personal figures shown by someone who is new on the platform and was invited to be on an elite level that 98% of sellers will never be part of, feels funny. You’re doing extremely well, but unfortunately it might be at the expense of others. Not directly of course, but Fiverr has been making a lot of changes and tests lately (including the Pro program) to favour higher price points, which have drastically changed a system that was previously working really well for a lot of people.

Anyways, I know we gotta adapt, yadda yadda, but I was just disheartened reading this knowing how difficult it has been for some people around here, who had previously enjoyed income levels similar or close to you.

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I don’t know why but the sharing of your income puts me off a bit, which I know you acknowledged and you are free to do as you wish, but here’s why:

There has been a lot of sellers grasping at straws lately with a massive decline in sales, so to have high personal figures shown by someone who is new on the platform and was invited to be on an elite level that 98% of sellers will never be part of, feels funny. You’re doing extremely well, but unfortunately it might be at the expense of others. Not directly of course, but Fiverr has been making a lot of changes and tests lately (including the Pro program) to favour higher price points, which have drastically changed a system that was previously working really well for a lot of people.

Anyways, I know we gotta adapt, yadda yadda, but I was just disheartened reading this knowing how difficult it has been for some people around here, who had previously enjoyed income levels similar or close to you.

I don’t know why but the sharing of your income puts me off a bit, which I know you acknowledged and you are free to do as you wish, but here’s why:

There has been a lot of sellers grasping at straws lately with a massive decline in sales, so to have high personal figures shown by someone who is new on the platform and was invited to be on an elite level that 98% of sellers will never be part of, feels funny. You’re doing extremely well, but unfortunately it might be at the expense of others. Not directly of course, but Fiverr has been making a lot of changes and tests lately (including the Pro program) to favour higher price points, which have drastically changed a system that was previously working really well for a lot of people.

Anyways, I know we gotta adapt, yadda yadda, but I was just disheartened reading this knowing how difficult it has been for some people around here, who had previously enjoyed income levels similar or close to you.

I understand your concerns, which is why I would always advocate building multiple income streams. I have gone through similar experiences when clients left before I was on Fiverr. There’s no doubt about it, being a freelancer is tough. It’s why one of the first things any freelancer needs to do is to build up a cash buffer to get some resilience in their finances so they are not as impacted by the feast <> famine cycle we are all so familar with.

I appreciate you may be uncomfortable, but I have always been one for complete transparency, and the purpose of sharing this stuff is to inspire, and show that freelancing can be a very valid, valued, and ongoing career. I say that because I didn’t do anything “special” to get here - there has been no part of my freelance career that cannot be replicated and improved upon by others.

As you say, we must adapt and change. Platforms alter, clients come and go, marketplaces go through phases. The one thing a freelancer can never do is sit still. Also, to your point of a “massive decline in sales” - we don’t know how widespread that is. We don’t know if there’s a redistribution of sales from the regular marketplace to Pros, if sellers as a whole are impacted or just people who post on the forum, or what other factors are at play. We simply don’t have objective information and statistics, just anecdotes and examples.

All this is to say we need to focus on what we can do, which is presenting ourselves in the best possible way, adapting to changes, diversifying income streams, and doing whatever we can to cultivate clients, build professionalism, create trust and generate financial buffers.

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I just wanted to follow up on this to say Fiverr has commissioned a couple of posts from me for their blog:

  • What Fiverr buyers can expect from Fiverr Pro.
  • What sellers need to do to improve their chances of getting accepted to Fiverr Pro.

I will let you know when they are published and hope they give greater insight into the world of Fiverr Pro, and its place alongside the general Fiverr marketplace.

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