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Why grammar is super important for us sellers

smashradio

By smashradio
in Tips from Sellers

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mrproofreading Contributor

mrproofreading

Posted
Posted

Oh, my! 😱

I didn’t think about that. I guess it’s pretty easy to just copy another seller’s gig. Occasionally, I am faced with identical gig page from two sellers but most of the time it’s on two different pages, so I would never know.

My gig’s image is also stolen a lot. The number of tickets I have to create to have them removed is frustrating. 🙂

One such example:

https://www.fiverr.com/hemanthgrandhi/proofread-and-edit-flawlessly?context=adv.cat_5.subcat_114&context_type=new&pckg_id=1&pos=3&ref_ctx_id=8b83552f-aa00-45d6-a2b4-7914519ac61e&source=category_tree&funnel=9e0e2663-8e44-4fb7-aaae-6838ca9e72b0

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gina_riley2 Veteran

gina_riley2

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Hee, hee!

That was just plain lazy.

I’m faced with challenges of finding a legit writer vs fake ones because of profiles like that. I won’t know until I get delivery!

One of the reasons why I only pay $5 or $10 max when working with new sellers. I’m not being cheap, I just don’t want to lose lots of money. Afterall, 20 - $5 gigs equal to $100.

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mrproofreading Contributor

mrproofreading

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On 1/8/2018 at 3:11 PM, sara19841 said:

Back in the good ol’ days, when I had dozens of orders in my queue, I’d browse the site and find numerous sellers had spun my gig description.

Another trick I’ve seen the scammers use is stealing descriptions from other freelance platforms. Their gigs look enticing at first, but soon the iffy reviews start coming in when it becomes apparent the seller barely speaks English.

I honestly wouldn’t mind if they used it for inspiration to create something unique. But, they don’t. Instead, they copy it word for word, including my username - ha.

I’ve just copied my best-selling gig description into Google and it’s pretty remarkable how many users have ripped it on other sites.

On 1/8/2018 at 3:12 PM, gina_riley2 said:

I’m faced with challenges of finding a legit writer vs fake ones because of profiles like that. I won’t know until I get delivery!

One of the reasons why I only pay $5 or $10 max when working with new sellers. I’m not being cheap, I just don’t want to lose lots of money. Afterall, 20 - $5 gigs equal to $100.

You’re right.

On the flip side of that, I am usually bombarded with sample requests (to see my work). I’m always a bit skeptical about providing them because:

  1. The samples could be stolen
  2. I only have permission from a handful of clients

So, there’s often a trade-off between the client trusting my reviews without seeing any “work samples”. If you add scammers into the mix, it can really hurt your business.

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gina_riley2 Veteran

gina_riley2

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You’re right.

On the flip side of that, I am usually bombarded with sample requests (to see my work). I’m always a bit skeptical about providing them because:

  1. The samples could be stolen
  2. I only have permission from a handful of clients

So, there’s often a trade-off between the client trusting my reviews without seeing any “work samples”. If you add scammers into the mix, it can really hurt your business.

sample requests

When I need a custom sample of a seller’s work - I order the $5 gig! 😜

No buyer should be asking for sample, unless it’s wedding cake you are selling. 🙂

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gina_riley2 Veteran

gina_riley2

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You see, that’s part of the problem - my writing gig starts from $20! 😃

That’s a poor excuse for a buyer. You have plenty of other gigs that are $5. If I wanted to sample your writing, which I don’t because of your perfection in writing just in the forum; I’d order your “I will professionally rewrite your content gig.”

I can see what I get from you. I’ve been here long enough to know tricks. I set aside xx amount of money to order sample gigs from sellers - even level 2/TRS with hundreds/thousands of reviews. I want to see if we are compatible.

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miiila Grand Master

miiila

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Sellers who steal others’ profile and gig descriptions sometimes, by the way, often seem to add a little something, or change it very slightly, to get the name of the seller they stole from out of it (not always, as Mr. Proofreader noted ;)) or because they steal, mix & match, maybe in the hope to escape detection or because there were three sellers with a couple orders in the queue and they thought by combining their texts, they"ll get triple the orders or something.

And they seem to have the tendency to not notice that by doing that, the last sentence or word gets cut off in th

😉 Best to not assume Fiverr changing the allowed character limit since they posted “their” text is the reason for a profile description that lets the last word hang in the air unfinished like a promise. Chances are, it’s a bad omen rather than a promise, especially with a proofreader, or really anyone whose job requires attention to details, for that matter.

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humanissocial Experienced

humanissocial

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It’s OK! Unlike some other people, I’m happy to be corrected when it comes to my English. That way I can improve it! Thanks for pointing that out.

@samperfect That is precisely my point. How on earth will a proofreader do this? Or anyone else for that matter. I get it if you’re jogging along, texting with your best friend, but not in any professional context.

And the phone excuse. Always funny. Whenever I type on my phone, I always double check the content before sending it. It’s not that hard.

You’re very welcome!

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paulmaplesden Enthusiast

paulmaplesden

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On 1/9/2018 at 8:54 AM, vickiespencer said:

I agree, especially about Grammarly. It does not catch all errors and even suggests incorrect options! 

The number of false positives on Grammarly is a huge issue. It simply cannot handle more complex writing. It’s fine for very basic spellchecks and obvious mistakes, but that’s it. 

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Guest sara19841

Guest sara19841

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I agree, especially about Grammarly. It does not catch all errors and even suggests incorrect options!

The number of false positives on Grammarly is a huge issue. It simply cannot handle more complex writing. It’s fine for very basic spellchecks and obvious mistakes, but that’s it.

Plus Grammarly’s stylistic suggestions are pretty misguided.

Its dislike of the passive voice drives me nuts. It’s worse than Strunk and White for that.

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smashradio Grand Master

smashradio

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On 1/9/2018 at 10:50 AM, paulmaplesden said:

The number of false positives on Grammarly is a huge issue. It simply cannot handle more complex writing. It’s fine for very basic spellchecks and obvious mistakes, but that’s it.

That is why it is necessary to learn some basic rules of the language. Grammarly can help, but it will never be perfect.

On 1/9/2018 at 10:51 AM, sara19841 said:

Plus Grammarly’s stylistic suggestions are pretty misguided.

Its dislike of the passive voice drives me nuts. It’s worse than Strunk and White for that.

I usually skip any complaints about passive voice in Grammarly.

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Guest offlinehelpers

Guest offlinehelpers

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I’m posting this with my buyer’s hat on. 🎩

Can I start by saying that I’m always really impressed when Fiverr users learn English to enable them to use Fiverr. I know I wouldn’t be able to learn a second language to such a level, and I salute all of those who’ve been able to achieve something I know I couldn’t. I was lucky the stork dropped me down the chimney he did so I didn’t have to learn English as a second language.

However, it really does worry me when responding to forum posts which are from users who describe themselves as being fluent in English on their Fiverr profiles, but it’s clear from the off that their English is anything but fluent.

There’s nothing wrong with saying on your profile that your English level is basic, conversational etc. Buyers would think much more of you if you were honest about your abilities. If you set yourself up as being fluent in English and a buyer finds that this isn’t the case, you’re setting yourself up for cancelled orders, bad feedbacks etc.

Please, just be honest about your English level - we buyers are quite happy to take it into account and work with sellers who are good at other things we need if we know beforehand. If we’re expecting fluency and don’t get it we’ll be disappointed.

I do hope nobody’s feelings are hurt from this post - that is not my intention.

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carineb Rising Star

carineb

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I’m posting this with my buyer’s hat on. 🎩

Can I start by saying that I’m always really impressed when Fiverr users learn English to enable them to use Fiverr. I know I wouldn’t be able to learn a second language to such a level, and I salute all of those who’ve been able to achieve something I know I couldn’t. I was lucky the stork dropped me down the chimney he did so I didn’t have to learn English as a second language.

However, it really does worry me when responding to forum posts which are from users who describe themselves as being fluent in English on their Fiverr profiles, but it’s clear from the off that their English is anything but fluent.

There’s nothing wrong with saying on your profile that your English level is basic, conversational etc. Buyers would think much more of you if you were honest about your abilities. If you set yourself up as being fluent in English and a buyer finds that this isn’t the case, you’re setting yourself up for cancelled orders, bad feedbacks etc.

Please, just be honest about your English level - we buyers are quite happy to take it into account and work with sellers who are good at other things we need if we know beforehand. If we’re expecting fluency and don’t get it we’ll be disappointed.

I do hope nobody’s feelings are hurt from this post - that is not my intention.

Please, just be honest about your English level

I think that this topic is not limited to English language. Many sellers write on their profile that they are fluent in different languages but it’s not true!

Some “european” translators are worst than google translate!

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azeemsarfraz Newbie

azeemsarfraz

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Please, just be honest about your English level

I think that this topic is not limited to English language. Many sellers write on their profile that they are fluent in different languages but it’s not true!

Some “european” translators are worst than google translate!

carineb

do you ever try to understand the problem behind it?

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Guest offlinehelpers

Guest offlinehelpers

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Please, just be honest about your English level

I think that this topic is not limited to English language. Many sellers write on their profile that they are fluent in different languages but it’s not true!

Some “european” translators are worst than google translate!

I think that this topic is not limited to English language.

From my point of view it is, as I don’t use anything but English on Fiverr, so wouldn’t be able to comment on any other languages. 🙂

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carineb Rising Star

carineb

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I think that this topic is not limited to English language.

From my point of view it is, as I don’t use anything but English on Fiverr, so wouldn’t be able to comment on any other languages. 🙂

You talk about the quality of the communication, but we can think about the quality of the gigs…

The communication between sellers and buyers is mostly in english, but there are a lot of translators or copywritters who claim to be fluent in different languages and deliver very bad jobs.

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azeemsarfraz Newbie

azeemsarfraz

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You talk about the quality of the communication, but we can think about the quality of the gigs…

The communication between sellers and buyers is mostly in english, but there are a lot of translators or copywritters who claim to be fluent in different languages and deliver very bad jobs.

correct but do you think all the time language matters?

and i agree with you that quality does matter a lot

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