? A personal view of Fiverr business model change

[juanwriter]

Yup sales are going down month by month and I am updating my profile on other freelance platforms. I used to fully rely on Fiverr but now I cont rely on fiver alone. I think most of the veteran Fiverr sellers are in same situation. If I get more sales on other freelance platform(s), there is a chance that I can concentrate more on that platform and ignore Fiverr. Now I am wondering what will happen to Fiverr if most of the senior Fiverr sellers get more sales on some other freelance platforms and concentrate more on that?

Yup sales are going down month by month and I am updating my profile on other freelance platforms. I used to fully rely on Fiverr but now I cont rely on fiver alone.

Well, I have a natural mix in my income sources, that is, I just let them flow and grow as market demands. Fiverr is still the best of them until now, so I think the ship is holding the enemies cannons, but I don’t know for how long.

[gabrielavila96]

Welcome to this thread.

Please note that I am not an employee of Fiverr, nor I have any relation to the company but to be a user (seller) for almost two years in this platform. What comes below is just my personal opinion, and I may be wrong (probably) or right, but that does not matter. I just want to write it just to provide some feedback to Fiverr.

If you are here, you may know already about the change Fiverr introduced in the way we see Sellers ratings. Now, only the last 60 days ratings are shown in the Gig ad. In desktop, if you hover over ratings in Gig window using your mouse, a small window pops up and show the lifetime ratings and the last 60 days totals. But if you don’t do it, you don’t see the lifetime ratings for the Gig.

In mobiles are worse, as there is no cursor to hover over the ratings, hence there is no lifetime ratings information if you don’t enter the Gig and look for that information specifically (which, by the way, is a bit hidden).

But this “small” change implies too much for Fiverr business model. In fact, this strikes at the heart of the Fiverr concept, and I will show you in this article why, and how this can lead to a total change in the business model.

We all know it, online freelance marketplaces heavily rely in building a trustful environment. If you have to spend you hard earned bucks in a digital place, you want it secure, and you want the best experience possible. There are mainly two options here:

• Use a review/rating system to build authority and confidence.
• Use brand building methodologies (make people trust Fiverr brand).

Fiverr is going from A to B. They are changing the user rating based model to get into a brand name based model. But… this can completely destroy the business in the process.

This is a very delicate time. I think no one has done this before.

WHY THE CHANGE

I do not have the numbers with me, nor I can access the data. But I think the brand suffer from a bad user perception of being cheap and without quality. The marketing campaigns made in the past did not help, in fact, made this worse. So, the idea of Pro was introduced to counteract this vision, and build up a quality feeling for the marketplace.

THE CHANGE IMPLEMENTATION

The first step was obvious: introduce the Pro seller to the marketplace, and populate it. However, this movement had a very painful side effect. Now, the regular sellers are “not” Pro, so buyers overall quality perception decreased more. The first step was a setback.

The Pro stats were also disappointing in some cases, with low ratings and feedback. It is not rare to see Pro Gigs with 4-5 reviews and less than 4 star rating average. Buyers expectations were too high for the actual delivery. The reason is easy: there are no real difference between the regular/veteran sellers and Pro sellers. In fact, some Pro sellers are “just regular” sellers rebranded, but with a different approach, mostly in price range. Now it is Fiverr who warrant the results, rather than other users (the “handpicked 1%”). The B model approach.

So, we have a problem here. Next action? Well, let’s make a monthly evaluation, a hard one, so we can achieve two main goals: increasing buyer satisfaction using seller fear of being demoted, and lowering the overall ratings (level tier/average rating). Pro sellers are immune to this (of course, B model).

And now, here comes the “big beast”, the worst idea behind the process: let’s make all marketplace even. How to achieve that? Easy, let’s make it remember only the last 2 months for regular sellers, but not for Pro.

THE DISASTER

The idea, though it follows the main goal of making Fiverr a Pro brand, can totally destroy the business model. Let’s check how it looks now:

This is the page I get when I enter in Photoshop Editing. We see here the changes in action. The facts:

2018-08-17%2016_13_58-Online%20Photoshopping%20-%20Photoshop%2C%20Editing%20%26%20Retouching%20Services%20_%20Fiverr2014×1804 330 KB

• We see 2 Top Rated Sellers, but their reviews are 44 of 62, instead of 177 and 240. Lowered numbers, but also, the 62(240) has a rating of 4.9 overall in the last 60 days, but Gig lifetime rating is 5 stars. So, both TRS have their stats downgraded from lifetime stats to this last 60 days stats.
• There is one level 1 seller with 30 ratings, but he/she has 151 in lifetime. Again, downgraded. Also, this is not a “real” level 1 seller. Downgraded also in level due to monthly evaluations.
• Then we see 7 new sellers, 3 below 30 ratings, 4 without ratings but “Rising Talent” label.
• And finally, 2 Pro sellers with a noticeable price difference, without ratings, but with an “interesting” buy & review label (B model again, this is not a label earned but gifted).

Of 12 Gigs, 75% are just new sellers/new gigs (PROs don’t have any sell also) when you get into the main Photoshop Editing section if you don’t select any filter. Also, veterans are downgraded so they appear closer to the unrated Pros and new sellers. The gap is less noticeable.

Why all of this?

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH

With the last movement, a painful side effect has struck the marketplace. It’s easy to spot: now Fiverr looks like a Fiverr clone. At first glance, now this platform looks like a new website. Sellers have lost their seniority, the ratings are so low it looks like there is almost no traffic here. If we look the Photoshop Editing front page, the reviews are all under one hundred. Only some sellers have enough orders per month to go over 100 ratings, and all are teams or fast gigs. The regular freelancer will be around 10-60.

The fact is this a major loss for everyone: buyer perception is now awful. “This is a new marketplace or what? Sellers have few ratings or not even one in front page.”

Basically, Fiverr is now 2 months old.

MY PERSONAL OPINION

I understand why the Pro movement and why Fiverr wants to create a professional look. I even support the idea. BUT, the implementation is really unfortunate.

The loses of this process are just too high:

• Veteran sellers feel now betrayed and they have lost all their confidence in the platform, and already looking for alternatives. Loosing veterans is loosing Fiverr business.
• New sellers, though they may think it is a nice scenario for them, it’s not, as their hard earned stars will “disappear” after 60 days, and with no returning buyers to support their ratings, they will work hard for nothing. In fact, new sellers are the ones that will suffer more from this.
• Pro sellers may think this is the best scenario for them, but this is not. A platform without seniority is a dead platform. Pro can’t live without regular sellers because Fiverr brand is not strong enough to support them alone.
• Fiverr is risking their base players, and that will hit hard in their income and business trust. The brand name will be destroyed after that, and the Pro effect just don’t work.

Let’s face it: the B model is not for Fiverr, or, at least, is almost impossible to achieve using the Pro idea. You may be burning the ships to get something which value is uncertain.

Every hour this change is live, every hour we are loosing customers. ALL OF US.

THE PETITION

Though I support Fiverr team and the idea behind this, the implementation is absolutely business killer. I will survive this, and some veterans perhaps, but when I get no new customers here due to the terrible changes, and the orders of returning buyers decrease slowly, this platform will be dead for me. And all the effort made along these 2 years will be for nothing, only for a handful of bucks.

This is discouraging, and this is my petition:

• Revert the unfortunate changes, specially the 60-day ratings.
• Give all the sellers the opportunity to become PRO fulfilling public and clear requirements (like another tier in fact, something between Level 2 and TRS with special conditions).
• Improve the search engine to reflect authority of Gigs.
• Improve the reputation rewards and create a strong approval system for the ones that want to become a seller here or publish a gig. That WILL improve overall quality better than other measures. It is discouraging to see a 9 yo child selling Minecraft configurations, against the TOS due to his age, and still his gig got approved. A well known forum made fun with that, decreasing Fiverr brand name perception (again).
• Use Fiverr as a freelance marketplace, not for “other” unknown purposes. Thank you. ←
• Fight the chargebacks and force Paypal to be reasonable (no more 3 months CB or orders cancellations). I bet you have strong executives that can negotiate it efficiently.

Some of you may think that Fiverr rules as they want, neoliberalism told us that. But I think not. Every time I put my heart, effort, soul and hopes here, I own a piece of Fiverr. By now, a lot of us are in fact part of this company, and we may not be legal employees, but we are part of it.

I hope you listen to us.

Thank you.

Juan

Spanish Works Content & Translation Manager

PS: I may edit to fix typos and grammar, as I wrote this quite fast as I am overbooked. Sorry about that.

Mod Note (Openly by fonthaunt): I know some folks are interested in this thread, both lurkers and posters. I just want to remind everyone to self-moderate, post within the guidelines, avoid personal attacks and don’t give mods or staff a reason to edit/remove stuff.

they may think it is a nice scenario for them, it’s not , as their hard earned stars will “disappear” after 60 days, and with no returning buyers to support their ratings, they will work hard for nothing.

Since I’m new this was the scariest part for me. I’m not saying this will happen, but starting on this platform (any platform overall) is hard, and to lose this easy the reviews will feel really bad, I hope to continue the way Im doing right now.

[wilsenh]

Great explaination of the problem, it hurts us the sellers

[naim_kst]

Great example. Thanks a lot!

[deesajn]

The greatest summary I have ever seen. Thank you.

[jamescott]

Juan, I wish they would give you a seat on the board.

[juanwriter]

Juan, I wish they would give you a seat on the board.

Juan, I wish they would give you a seat on the board.

Thank you! I think I said in another thread (or was this one?) that I am ready to take a flight to NY or Tel Aviv if I have to (both lovely cities!), and @cyaxrex answered me they would add a fee to buy water cannons for their HQ lol :rofl:

Anyway, I am willing to share my experience and knowledge. I really appreciate Fiverr really, and I just want to help this marketplace become a great place for all of us: PRO, Veterans, New sellers, Fiverr Staff, executives, investors… we all can make good profit here. I want to help in any way: a forum post, a report, feedback… I am all open to all kind of possibilities.

[sajeeeb]

Wow! Great explanation.
Thank You so much

[Guest codemanbd06]

Wow! Great explanation.

Thank You so much

thanks for the great information:

[juanwriter]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman, and I had a good feeling about him. Now I see the 60-day ratings UI change is gone, back to normal lifetime reviews, and several improvements have been implemented, like leaving out the worst rating for promotion/demotion calculation, among other things. I am glad and happy that I could help in any way. Thank you to all the people that helped, and the Fiverr Staff, including Mr. Kaufman, for hearing us.

[woofy31]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman, and I had a good feeling about him. Now I see the 60-day ratings UI change is gone, back to normal lifetime reviews, and several improvements have been implemented, like leaving out the worst rating for promotion/demotion calculation, among other things. I am glad and happy that I could help in any way. Thank you to all the people that helped, and the Fiverr Staff, including Mr. Kaufman, for hearing us.

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman

So, in that conversation, have you forgotten to bring to his attention the matter of cancellations that are not our fault yet still affect us, OR did he tell you something that is so big, so unthinkable & enlightening that you simply cannot share with us mere mortals as it would likely rupture the space-time continuum? 😃

Other than that, we’re obviously all super thankful for your input & tangible help you’ve brought to the table! 🙂

[chrisdata]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman, and I had a good feeling about him. Now I see the 60-day ratings UI change is gone, back to normal lifetime reviews, and several improvements have been implemented, like leaving out the worst rating for promotion/demotion calculation, among other things. I am glad and happy that I could help in any way. Thank you to all the people that helped, and the Fiverr Staff, including Mr. Kaufman, for hearing us.

Woah, how he’s having conversation with you? via s***e? FaceTime?

[juanwriter]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman

So, in that conversation, have you forgotten to bring to his attention the matter of cancellations that are not our fault yet still affect us, OR did he tell you something that is so big, so unthinkable & enlightening that you simply cannot share with us mere mortals as it would likely rupture the space-time continuum? 😃

Other than that, we’re obviously all super thankful for your input & tangible help you’ve brought to the table! 🙂

Other than that, we’re obviously all super thankful for your input & tangible help you’ve brought to the table! 🙂

I appreciate your kind words and thankfulness. We did not talk about any details, he just explained to me that this post didn’t go unnoticed and that they were working hard on the issues, and they are aware of the marketplace situation and they are trying their best, in few words. Please note that I had not a formal conversation, just some messages, so no big secret to keep I am sorry. But, what I can say, is that I found him very kind and reasonable. That’s all.

Woah, how he’s having conversation with you? via s***e? FaceTime?

Just messages, believe me, is just what I had written: I had a good feeling about him. That’s all, no more to say really. I am just a regular seller here. Usually, the PR or CM are the ones that talk with customers/users, so if the CEO message us, that is very interesting, and I see he does it more than we think. At least he get feedback from us, which is something interesting, as CEOs are usually focused on other tasks.

[eoinfinnegan]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman, and I had a good feeling about him. Now I see the 60-day ratings UI change is gone, back to normal lifetime reviews, and several improvements have been implemented, like leaving out the worst rating for promotion/demotion calculation, among other things. I am glad and happy that I could help in any way. Thank you to all the people that helped, and the Fiverr Staff, including Mr. Kaufman, for hearing us.

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman

I think this should be really welcomed by sellers.

Sure, it could be seen as a bit of a PR thing or whatever, but the reality is that things have been heard and some changes made. It should encourage people to be positive and to continue with constructive feedback and criticism, rather than moans. This post is a great example of this even if I enjoyed @torrelles “creative criticism” better but when people explain things in a rational and constructive way, Micha’s response suggests that Fiverr does hear us.

Many of us have criticized Fiverr’s lack of communication and this shows a different angle which can only be a good thing. So write posts, sing songs, create videos, write stuff on your body and dance in the jungle - whatever your chosen way of communicating is and let’s hope this communication and interest in our opinions continues!

[juanwriter]

I had a conversation with Mr. Kaufman

I think this should be really welcomed by sellers.

Sure, it could be seen as a bit of a PR thing or whatever, but the reality is that things have been heard and some changes made. It should encourage people to be positive and to continue with constructive feedback and criticism, rather than moans. This post is a great example of this even if I enjoyed @torrelles “creative criticism” better but when people explain things in a rational and constructive way, Micha’s response suggests that Fiverr does hear us.

Many of us have criticized Fiverr’s lack of communication and this shows a different angle which can only be a good thing. So write posts, sing songs, create videos, write stuff on your body and dance in the jungle - whatever your chosen way of communicating is and let’s hope this communication and interest in our opinions continues!

This post is a great example of this even if I enjoyed @torrelles “creative criticism” better but when people explain things in a rational and constructive way, Micha’s response suggests that Fiverr does hear us.

Indeed, it’s nice to find you are being heard. And about the criticism… no wonder @torrelles is from Spain like me… we are the masters of criticism! the reason is simple: In Spain, blaming each other all day long and fighting between us is a national sport… At least some Spanish try to be constructive and creative 🙂

[torrelles]

This post is a great example of this even if I enjoyed @torrelles “creative criticism” better but when people explain things in a rational and constructive way, Micha’s response suggests that Fiverr does hear us.

Indeed, it’s nice to find you are being heard. And about the criticism… no wonder @torrelles is from Spain like me… we are the masters of criticism! the reason is simple: In Spain, blaming each other all day long and fighting between us is a national sport… At least some Spanish try to be constructive and creative 🙂

In Spain, blaming each other all day long and fighting between us is a national sport… At least some Spanish try to be constructive and creative 🙂

Oh yeah! It doesn’t matter the moment or the situation, we’ll always find a way to criticise things and people. You guys shouldn’t get into Twitter Spain, that’s a rage fest. 😂

[eoinfinnegan]

In Spain, blaming each other all day long and fighting between us is a national sport… At least some Spanish try to be constructive and creative 🙂

Oh yeah! It doesn’t matter the moment or the situation, we’ll always find a way to criticise things and people. You guys shouldn’t get into Twitter Spain, that’s a rage fest. 😂

In Ireland our criticism tends to be done with sarcasm and cynicism.

[juanwriter]

In Ireland our criticism tends to be done with sarcasm and cynicism.

In Ireland our criticism tends to be done with sarcasm and cynicism.

I remember one of my stays in Dublin, I was in the hotel room, and switched on the TV… I was shocked with a TV Show… “The Savage Eye” special “Catholic Church”, I thought “in Spain this TV Show would be impossible to air”. Then I became a “The Savage Eye” total fan lol! (well, not really for the fun but for being so daring). In Spain we had some comedy shows about politicians and dissapeared due to being too much “unconfortable” for them…

Sorry for the off-topic.

[radiojay]

They would earn more if they would promote better their best sellers, and encourage sellers to earn their reputation, instead just giving them.

I really don’t understand why fiverr try to obfuscate the top sellers (by ridiculous placement rotations, placing amateur sellers as being bestsellers, and hiding the total number of reviews), giving preference to new arrivals and amateur gigs, create a such ridiculous leveling system (where a seller with an overall 90% performance may get promoted, when another seller with an overall 97.25% can be demoted - see explanation below), and many others already discussed.

as talked above:

Seller 1: Response rate 90%, Delivered on time 90%, Order Completion 90%, Rating 90% (4.8), Overall 90%.

Seller 2: Response rate 100%, Delivered on time 100%, Order Completion 89%, Rating 100% (5.0). Overall 97.25%.

Seller 2 is clearly performing better, but also the one to get demoted.

I mean that some strategies of fiverr are so ridiculous, that when they are trying to make more money, they are just “pulling the carpet” below their own feet.

Fiverr clearly is trying to do more money, like any company, or even any seller at fiverr, but they wrongly just “raise” the prices instead adding value to their product.

I am curious more about the factor that people, when leaving a rating, tend to 5 star or 1 star people. I’d love to see the fiverr coding on that!

[humaira531]

I did not read your Fiverr clone post, but I will look for it. Feels nice, I am not the only one that thinks that.

Regarding becoming PRO: it does not matter. Fiverr will survive only if we are all united as a team. Some will work with the PRO label in their gigs, others as TRS, others (like me now) as veteran regular sellers, others new sellers… we all fulfill our role for the different customers that comes here. PRO are more like what I do outside this platform, though my prices here are over the average in my niche, and I usually get medium size projects. PRO also mean now less customer base, it is challenging.

yes you are absolutely true juanwriter

[henryforshaw]

As a new fiverr attemptive-seller I am discouraged by what I hear about fiverr. It doesn’t seem like enough buyers are here to out strip the supply of sellers and make the prices fair. From what you are saying it does sound like people who have invested a lot of time and energy are being disenfranchised and the playing field isn’t level.

[congruentgraph]

Thank you very much for the great post!

I am one of those veterans severely being affected by the consequences. All my indicators in terms of reviews, orders completed, etc, are at 100% and my order views and sales have dropped 80% in the past 3 months.

What is happening is incredibly unfair and I feel the system is no longer based on performance.

[posturedoctor]

I applied two times, and I got rejected. It doesn’t matter what I have in my portfolio, the quality of my work, what matters is that you have a diploma or degree in the field that you apply for, or did some work for popular clients (rising startups, and etc). That gives you weight! If I don’t have that, it’s hard for Fiverr to sell me as a pro.

For example, you have an awesome track record off Fiverr, and a college degree in your field (you have in directing which is closely related to your work). On the other hand, I don’t have a college degree in design, but in agriculture, my clients are mostly small companies without large presence, I don’t have a lot of followers on my social media pages, and that’s why I won’t be a pro anytime soon, same goes for Chrisdata.

I am not attacking neither you or any pro on this platform. In a matter of fact, Fiverr PRO is a great thing as it might attract different kinds of clients in the long run which can benefit us the regular sellers. For now, I have a mixed opinion, and I rather not share it completely. 🙂

So only Fiverr Pro sellers are hired for Fiverr Business? I’m a Fiverr Pro seller but I’ve never been contacted by a Fiverr Business Manager about my gigs. But I have had quite a few ‘Fiverr Business’ clients buy my gigs. How do I know if I am a part of the Fiverr Business platform?

Thanks!

[juanwriter]

Please note that this post and whole thread refers to a specific situation that happened almost 3 years ago. Lots of changes since then, so this can’t be applied nowadays. In order to avoid confusion and thread resurrects… can a mod close this? Thank you.

[wp_kid]

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