Tell me how you feel about Pro sellers and Pro gigs

[uxreview]

Do you think that switch shouldn’t be there at all, and Pro gigs should have to compete in the search results based purely on their own merits?

For me it is off by default but I don’t remember, I may have switched it off initially.

The switch is actually a good idea from a UX point of view as those who are here specifically for pro gigs can get to them easily, my issue is with the artificially high placement in “organic” results.

Regarding sharing my stats

I just reread my comment above and it sounds like I was saying you don’t deserve the placement and I want to clarify:

Some basic math would suggest you do deserve a high placement, based on revenue and not conversion rate - that’s fine by me - my issue is with the other sellers who have not made anything like the number of sales you have yet are still in top spot. For example, I would imagine that @frank_d deserves to be on the first page in the video category based on revenue from his Pro gig as one or two sales brings in more than 20 sales of lower priced gigs. Ultimately, this would need a much more complex algorithm (which should also give a chance to newer gigs/sellers) and I just don’t know if that is possible or reasonable to expect from Fiverr.

Edit: Just tried going to Writing&Translation>Articles & Blog Posts and the switch was on by default.

Edit 2: Oh wow - I just switched off the switch, refreshed the page and it was switched on again! Hmmmm. I think that is a recent change. Would like to hear if it is the same for others. When logged out, it is off.

I just switched off the switch, refreshed the page and it was switched on again!

For me it’s not switched on by default, but I’m pretty sure that an average buyer will switch it on. It’s pretty much in your face when you first come to the site. It will pop up and PRO ads are on multiple pages as a header, so it’s hard to miss it.

Who doesn’t want to hire a professional? Lot of them can’t afford PRO gigs, but they will at least take a look. If a PRO gig gets 20-30K impressions per month then it’s very likely that it will make some sales. Even if you have higher conversion you won’t make it here if you’re constantly on the page 25.

I get it, Fiverr is a business and from that point of view it’s probably more profitable to show high value gigs at the top. Even if they help PROs sell just 1 gig a month they will probably make more money than helping level 2 seller to sell 50 gigs at $5 price range.

I didn’t do any stats on it, but I was familiar with 2 PROs before they got promoted here. They were really struggling, less than 20 reviews and 1-2 sales per month. After they got PRO badge they started getting sales even at higher price range. I wouldn’t be surprised if their conversion rate remained the same or even decreased, but due to higher visibility they are getting more sales.

So, is it fair towards other sellers here, probably not. Is it a wise business decision, time will tell, but if they take the right steps moving forward and switch out PROs that don’t sell then yes it is.

I’m taking the advice from one of the mods (it was Eoin I think 🙂 ). Don’t waste your time on complaining, adapt to the new environment. Even though I think it’s unfair, I’m doing everything I can to improve my chances to get the PRO badge.

My gig was featured just recently and I can already see that I’m getting more queries. Today I even had to turn one down because I’m fully booked and couldn’t meet their deadline. If PRO gives me similar exposure then I don’t have to worry about search algorithm anymore 😛

[misscrystal]

I earn as much or more than a pro seller on less than 1000 impressions a week per gig.

[frank_d]

I earn as much or more than a pro seller on less than 1000 impressions a week per gig.

That’s a pretty bold statement. How sure are you about that?

[gina_riley2]

Here is what I’m sick of hearing, somehow Pro sellers attract a different level of buyer. Oh really?

Many people on this forum know me by my presence and I’m split in my opinion of 5r Pro Sellers. I’ve worked with Pro Sellers before they got the badge and those that I do know, I trust - because they have proven the quality of their work.

I prefer to vet the sellers myself, because its my money and I know what I like. 5r has yet to prove to me they know the process, just by the fact they gave that shiney black badge to sellers using template.

Sellers seem to want that badge because they are somehow under the impression they charge high.

You can charge whatever you want, if your username is *****, *******, ****, or about two dozen other proven sellers on this platform that I can think of. I will buy. I trust them, not because of some secret vetting process by 5r, but because I know them from the forum as well as having worked with some of them.

I have a problem with the word “Pro” being thrown around so much. I say there is a diffetence between Pro Badge sellers and professional sellers.

5r shouldn’t be segregating buyers into “price conscious” and “entrepreneurs” - I fall in the middle. Regardless of my income or business, I’m not going to pay 10x more when I don’t have to.

Because of bad luck in my attempt to hire a great logo designer, I welcome Pro Sellers. The real question is will they deliver quality? Losing $25 Is one thing, losing hundreds or thousands is a whole different ballpark.

I wrote a page response to Paul’s article/blog post. I may or may not post it. I am guessing this is a follow on?

[misscrystal]

That’s a pretty bold statement. How sure are you about that?

That’s a pretty bold statement. How sure are you about that?

I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t. Why so surprised? I’m sure there are a of sellers who do.

[frank_d]

That’s a pretty bold statement. How sure are you about that?

I wouldn’t say it if I wasn’t. Why so surprised? I’m sure there are a of sellers who do.

Oh OK. I’m here if you feel like exchanging screengrabs of earnings any time. (Privately of course)

[misscrystal]

Oh OK. I’m here if you feel like exchanging screengrabs of earnings any time. (Privately of course)

I’m not here in some kind of contest with you. I don’t really care what you earn and I didn’t say it to get into this kind of discussion. If you earn more than I do then good for you.

Surely you don’t think only Pro sellers earn big money?

[paulmaplesden]

Here is what I’m sick of hearing, somehow Pro sellers attract a different level of buyer. Oh really?

Many people on this forum know me by my presence and I’m split in my opinion of 5r Pro Sellers. I’ve worked with Pro Sellers before they got the badge and those that I do know, I trust - because they have proven the quality of their work.

I prefer to vet the sellers myself, because its my money and I know what I like. 5r has yet to prove to me they know the process, just by the fact they gave that shiney black badge to sellers using template.

Sellers seem to want that badge because they are somehow under the impression they charge high.

You can charge whatever you want, if your username is *****, *******, ****, or about two dozen other proven sellers on this platform that I can think of. I will buy. I trust them, not because of some secret vetting process by 5r, but because I know them from the forum as well as having worked with some of them.

I have a problem with the word “Pro” being thrown around so much. I say there is a diffetence between Pro Badge sellers and professional sellers.

5r shouldn’t be segregating buyers into “price conscious” and “entrepreneurs” - I fall in the middle. Regardless of my income or business, I’m not going to pay 10x more when I don’t have to.

Because of bad luck in my attempt to hire a great logo designer, I welcome Pro Sellers. The real question is will they deliver quality? Losing $25 Is one thing, losing hundreds or thousands is a whole different ballpark.

I wrote a page response to Paul’s article/blog post. I may or may not post it. I am guessing this is a follow on?

I wrote a page response to Paul’s article/blog post. I may or may not post it. I am guessing this is a follow on?

It’s part of what prompted this. I want to create future content for Fiverr that speaks to the concerns of those on the platform, so this is really a research piece. I’m interested in any and all opinions.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

I earn as much or more than a pro seller on less than 1000 impressions a week per gig.

I earn as much or more than a pro seller on less than 1000 impressions a month per gig.

Sorry for borrowing your post @misscrystal - this is what I was talking about earlier - the whole competition thing.

Can’t we just go back to when we were all happy when we did well, and we were equally happy when somebody else did well? Leave the competition to the main Fiverr site please.

[misscrystal]

I earn as much or more than a pro seller on less than 1000 impressions a month per gig.

Sorry for borrowing your post @misscrystal - this is what I was talking about earlier - the whole competition thing.

Can’t we just go back to when we were all happy when we did well, and we were equally happy when somebody else did well? Leave the competition to the main Fiverr site please.

I didn’t think it would become a competition when I said that but I should have known better.

I was making the point that lots of sellers earn the same as Pro sellers without all the fanfare.

[Guest offlinehelpers]

I didn’t think it would become a competition when I said that but I should have known better.

I was making the point that lots of sellers earn the same as Pro sellers without all the fanfare.

Thanks @misscrystal - I’m glad you didn’t mind me quoting you - I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, as you know! 🙂

[paulmaplesden]

Let’s all just be nice! I’ve been (rightfully) banned from my own thread before, don’t want that happening again! We’re all friends here.

[misscrystal]

Let’s all just be nice! I’ve been (rightfully) banned from my own thread before, don’t want that happening again! We’re all friends here.

Let’s all just be nice!

Who isn’t being nice?

[frank_d]

Let’s all just be nice!

Who isn’t being nice?

He’s probably talking about me. I apologize if ny response was perceived as hostile @misscrystal

Good for you! 🙂

[eoinfinnegan]

I love that feeling when I am catching up on a thread and right after I begin to think that there are going to be some flags soon, it sorts itself out and I can go deal with the 37th spam post by someone in the space of 10 minutes. I love getting rid of spam and spammers; hate disrupting otherwise good conversations that have a few flagworthy comments 🙂

[misscrystal]

I love that feeling when I am catching up on a thread and right after I begin to think that there are going to be some flags soon, it sorts itself out and I can go deal with the 37th spam post by someone in the space of 10 minutes. I love getting rid of spam and spammers; hate disrupting otherwise good conversations that have a few flagworthy comments 🙂

I don’t see anything here to be flagged but maybe by this time I’m immune to them.

[eoinfinnegan]

I don’t see anything here to be flagged but maybe by this time I’m immune to them.

I mean I thought it might devolve but was wrong

[misscrystal]

I mean I thought it might devolve but was wrong

I’m getting hooked on the adrenaline rush when they devolve.

[topaz_muse]

Pro Sellers/Gigs are IMO neither good nor bad for the fiverr marketplace. Reason being they’re like everyone in regards to posting gigs and making sells. They don’t make much of a difference toward regular sellers because you can’t control where buyers go as only they know what they’re looking for.

That said, there’s some slight if not minor angst toward the roll out of pro. From my infancy days to now, there were DOs and DON’Ts in place in regards to presentation of one’s self along with gigs. Even when the premise of the market was changing to show that the DON’Ts were becoming DOs they were still not allowed.

When PRO rolled out it seemed that those guidelines weren’t at the forefront. Is this concerning? Not totally but the issue in regards to funds protection is still there no matter how much heightened support is advertised. I would feel better about the program along with the site as a whole if something were in the works to keep everyone safe.

I don’t have anything against things tagged PRO but I do have a problem with implementations that are meant to of use but fall short of satisfactory. There was nothing really wrong with the announcement of PRO, however; the process and execution could’ve been done with more care.

It’s probably asking a lot but all I want out of the main site is some coherent order where things make sense without need of a translation guide.

[paulmaplesden]

Pro Sellers/Gigs are IMO neither good nor bad for the fiverr marketplace. Reason being they’re like everyone in regards to posting gigs and making sells. They don’t make much of a difference toward regular sellers because you can’t control where buyers go as only they know what they’re looking for.

That said, there’s some slight if not minor angst toward the roll out of pro. From my infancy days to now, there were DOs and DON’Ts in place in regards to presentation of one’s self along with gigs. Even when the premise of the market was changing to show that the DON’Ts were becoming DOs they were still not allowed.

When PRO rolled out it seemed that those guidelines weren’t at the forefront. Is this concerning? Not totally but the issue in regards to funds protection is still there no matter how much heightened support is advertised. I would feel better about the program along with the site as a whole if something were in the works to keep everyone safe.

I don’t have anything against things tagged PRO but I do have a problem with implementations that are meant to of use but fall short of satisfactory. There was nothing really wrong with the announcement of PRO, however; the process and execution could’ve been done with more care.

It’s probably asking a lot but all I want out of the main site is some coherent order where things make sense without need of a translation guide.

That said, there’s some slight if not minor angst toward the roll out of pro. From my infancy days to now, there were DOs and DON’Ts in place in regards to presentation of one’s self along with gigs. Even when the premise of the market was changing to show that the DON’Ts were becoming DOs they were still not allowed.

When PRO rolled out it seemed that those guidelines weren’t at the forefront. Is this concerning? Not totally but the issue in regards to funds protection is still there no matter how much heightened support is advertised. I would feel better about the program along with the site as a whole if something were in the works to keep everyone safe.

Can you go into a little more detail on this? I don’t have a history on Fiverr and don’t know what those previous guidelines were? Examples would be great!

[miiila]

As a writer, you know how important and powerful words are. While certainly jealousy and whatever else has been mentioned might be a factor, I believe a lot of it has to do, indeed, with the presentation and choice of words along the way.

This is a quote from one of @mjensen415 's posts from one of the official ‘PRO threads’, to illustrate this point:

As for L1, L2, TRS. Those are levels for Sellers. A Pro Gig is a new level of Gig. As a seller, you can offer both standard and Pro Gigs.

There was lots more like this (you can imagine there were lots of threads about it, so we could divert ourselves from algorithm talk or other flavour of the day issues 😉 ) before PRO started - at first, it was called “Category Development Initiative” - and the tenor always was ‘it´s not a new seller level, it´s a new kind of gigs’, yet now the term ‘pro sellers’ is everywhere, and even if there is no official ‘PRO seller’ ‘label’, if forum and Fiverr blog articles and everywhere uses ‘pro sellers’, it´s a de facto new seller level/label.

I know, this can easily be overlooked/brushed off as penny-ante stuff, and some people might not even realize it´s where their own resentment comes from too, but being a writer, and knowing how to use words, and how they affect people on superficial and also deeper levels, I’m sure you can see the effects something like this must have.

Probably calling it ‘PRRO sellers’ even already might have completely smoothed this over 😉 Jokes apart though, people don´t like companies/groups/people claiming perfectly normal everyday words for themselves (there are (good) reasons why companies need to invent words all the time as we know) everyone who, since years maybe, called themselves ‘(insert their field of expertise) pro’ or ‘xy professional’, in their Fiverr profile (sic! 😉 ) and gig description and everywhere, could still do so without fear of being ridiculed (pretty sure I saw it happen on the forum once already) or having to take it out of their profiles even (no, don´t and didn´t have that in mine ever as far as I remember, before you ask, but I used to see profiles/gigs that did, all the time before PRO happened).

Yeah, there are more important things in the world and obvs there is no way to ‘take this back and do it again a bit differently’ now, but since you´re asking, I think it has a lot to do with this, and, if you go to those 2 threads I linked (I think they are from before you joined us here on the forum, so you might not have read them) you can find a wealth of info as to how people felt/feel about it, ‘from the start on’, so to speak, so that might be useful for your quest.

And, just for the record, I believe that your intention in joining the forum and your posts about being a PRO seller were/are just what you said yourself, to share your insights, to answer questions of others who are interested ‘in the pro thing’ and such.
How things are meant and how they, sometimes/by some people, are perceived aren´t the same, as we all know. Everyone loves the ‘You are only responsible for what you say/write, not for what others hear/read’ quote, at least when we claim it for ourselves, don´t we all. 😉

I’m convinced as well that we shouldn´t create a rift where none must be and can get along just fine as ‘fellow sellers’ here on the forum and wherever.

But yeah, didn´t want to write all this actually but leave you those 2 links up there here - I think they are worth a read, especially for the ‘historic component’ and also since you’ll find as well posts by people who might not read and post here, as ‘official posts’ usually get replies from others than regular forum participants too, so you might get a bit of a ‘broader sample of feelings’ there.

[paulmaplesden]

As a writer, you know how important and powerful words are. While certainly jealousy and whatever else has been mentioned might be a factor, I believe a lot of it has to do, indeed, with the presentation and choice of words along the way.

This is a quote from one of @mjensen415 's posts from one of the official ‘PRO threads’, to illustrate this point:

As for L1, L2, TRS. Those are levels for Sellers. A Pro Gig is a new level of Gig. As a seller, you can offer both standard and Pro Gigs.

There was lots more like this (you can imagine there were lots of threads about it, so we could divert ourselves from algorithm talk or other flavour of the day issues 😉 ) before PRO started - at first, it was called “Category Development Initiative” - and the tenor always was ‘it´s not a new seller level, it´s a new kind of gigs’, yet now the term ‘pro sellers’ is everywhere, and even if there is no official ‘PRO seller’ ‘label’, if forum and Fiverr blog articles and everywhere uses ‘pro sellers’, it´s a de facto new seller level/label.

I know, this can easily be overlooked/brushed off as penny-ante stuff, and some people might not even realize it´s where their own resentment comes from too, but being a writer, and knowing how to use words, and how they affect people on superficial and also deeper levels, I’m sure you can see the effects something like this must have.

Probably calling it ‘PRRO sellers’ even already might have completely smoothed this over 😉 Jokes apart though, people don´t like companies/groups/people claiming perfectly normal everyday words for themselves (there are (good) reasons why companies need to invent words all the time as we know) everyone who, since years maybe, called themselves ‘(insert their field of expertise) pro’ or ‘xy professional’, in their Fiverr profile (sic! 😉 ) and gig description and everywhere, could still do so without fear of being ridiculed (pretty sure I saw it happen on the forum once already) or having to take it out of their profiles even (no, don´t and didn´t have that in mine ever as far as I remember, before you ask, but I used to see profiles/gigs that did, all the time before PRO happened).

Yeah, there are more important things in the world and obvs there is no way to ‘take this back and do it again a bit differently’ now, but since you´re asking, I think it has a lot to do with this, and, if you go to those 2 threads I linked (I think they are from before you joined us here on the forum, so you might not have read them) you can find a wealth of info as to how people felt/feel about it, ‘from the start on’, so to speak, so that might be useful for your quest.

And, just for the record, I believe that your intention in joining the forum and your posts about being a PRO seller were/are just what you said yourself, to share your insights, to answer questions of others who are interested ‘in the pro thing’ and such.

How things are meant and how they, sometimes/by some people, are perceived aren´t the same, as we all know. Everyone loves the ‘You are only responsible for what you say/write, not for what others hear/read’ quote, at least when we claim it for ourselves, don´t we all. 😉

I’m convinced as well that we shouldn´t create a rift where none must be and can get along just fine as ‘fellow sellers’ here on the forum and wherever.

But yeah, didn´t want to write all this actually but leave you those 2 links up there here - I think they are worth a read, especially for the ‘historic component’ and also since you’ll find as well posts by people who might not read and post here, as ‘official posts’ usually get replies from others than regular forum participants too, so you might get a bit of a ‘broader sample of feelings’ there.

That was an awesomely helpful post, thanks so much for putting it together! Plenty of food for thought.

[misscrystal]

The pros are held out as superior sellers who deserve to get the big bucks.
They get in your face promotions.

Meanwhile the rest of us might be just as good and earn just as much without all the help.
So it’s unfair competition for those who are every bit as good and earn just as much.

Otherwise I don’t see a problem with it. It’s a glorified, heavily promoted TRS.

[paulmaplesden]

The pros are held out as superior sellers who deserve to get the big bucks.

They get in your face promotions.

Meanwhile the rest of us might be just as good and earn just as much without all the help.

So it’s unfair competition for those who are every bit as good and earn just as much.

Otherwise I don’t see a problem with it. It’s a glorified, heavily promoted TRS.

The pros are held out as superior sellers who deserve to get the big bucks.

They get in your face promotions.

Meanwhile the rest of us might be just as good and earn just as much without all the help.

So it’s unfair competition for those who are every bit as good and earn just as much.

Do you feel that’s something coming from Fiverr itself and the way pros are marketed? If so, can you point to any specifics, or is it a general feeling you have? If there are other contributing factors and specifics that make you and others feel that way, it would be really useful to know what they are.

[misscrystal]

The pros are held out as superior sellers who deserve to get the big bucks.

They get in your face promotions.

Meanwhile the rest of us might be just as good and earn just as much without all the help.

So it’s unfair competition for those who are every bit as good and earn just as much.

Do you feel that’s something coming from Fiverr itself and the way pros are marketed? If so, can you point to any specifics, or is it a general feeling you have? If there are other contributing factors and specifics that make you and others feel that way, it would be really useful to know what they are.

I don’t think I need to explain that any further.