My humble tips to earn money on Fiverr... [ARCHIVED]

[artworkking]

… OK, I’ve only been here a little over a month but I’ve done something right and I’d like to share that with you guys.

I’m on track (once current orders are finished) to earning just under $800 in a week of hardcore work here and I think I know why (feel free to jump in and correct me if you think I’m incorrect).

I started here in early February so I’ve been here for 7 weeks and I had an order the first day I signed up. Before I started, I did a lot of research into what was being offered - I didn’t want to duplicate any gig, or if I did, I wanted to do it better! So I started out with a WordBoard.

Simple vector PDF supplied to a client with a single word or phrase that I built on - each gig took about 20 minutes.

I though this was great - a few gigs here and there to break up the day (my normal day of working freelance/retainer for my ‘usual’ paying clients).

I then added gigs to my list, again checking what had been done before and seeing if I could do something new or do something better than what was already there - all the time, relying on my 20 year history as a designer and knowing what I could do quickly and effectively.

I then hit on something a client in the UK ask me to produce - a retro style flyer. I had a search and all I could find on Fiverr was generic flyer designers - nothing specific. So I launched another gig.

It was an instant hit! I had orders straight away. Then one day, whilst sipping on a beer in the garden, my iPhone went ballistic! I thought it had broke! I had order, after order, after order… and more! I couldn’t work it out! Why was this gig so popular? I then checked the main Fiverr.com site and I could see my little gig featured at number 11 of almost 4m gigs!

Let’s just say the past week has been hectic. Last count was around 80 gigs produced (not all have been rated yet) and that included starts of 3am and working through till 11pm at night.

I made a few adjustments to my gig thereafter (got rid of the 24 hour turnaround and made it 5 day with the addition of extra gigs for quicker turnaround) and it’s now a manageable source of income. I have roughly 20-30 gigs waiting at anyone time. I do 10-20 gigs a day and by the time I’ve woke in the morning, it’s back up to 20-30 gigs waiting with all the new orders.

So, to cut a very long story short, my advice (and I do feel a bit of a prat giving advice at such an early stage in my Fiverr experience) is the following:

1. BE DIFFERENT! Do not just offer a ‘Flyer design’ or ‘Business Card design’ service. I offered a ‘retro style flyer design’ and it’s working for me. I’m ‘guessing’ this is because people will search using keywords; ‘PUB flyer’, ‘CLUB flyer’, ‘SHOPPING flyer’… you get my gist!
   I also think being 11th on the front page was because this gig was different - I could be wrong of course!

2. SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE! I’ve been a designer/illustrator for over 20 years now and I know that beyond the ability to design, the one factor most important to a client is service. It’s that simple. I recently had a client make 9 amendments to a logo design. That’s fine. The fact it was his error on ALL occasions for omitting essential information from the off? Again, no problem. You NEED to have that approach. When you do, a kind reminder of “Hey man, I’m sure we’ve both got beer to drink here - do you want to get all the info together and then I can complete in one go for you?” approach works - who said designing for a client had to be formal? They’ll respond to this kind of comment when it’s clear you’ve gone way above any expectation they had originally. Bend over backwards at the start, and it will pay off in the end - and remain honest! Honest to yourself as well as the client!

So many of my replies to clients have started “Not a problem at all…”. Although you may feel some clients are taking the &&*, they are human and they probably know they’re asking a great deal for Five dollars - but if you supply, and whilst maintaining that smile and at the same time remind them of the work involved (in the nicest/funniest way) - we’re all winners!

3. MANNERS! My computer is often covered in cereal. Seriously. I get my frustrations out by shouting at the computer… NOT typing it! Never say anything you’ll regret 10 minutes later. It might make you feel better, but you’re not helping the client and you’re not helping your rating. ALWAYS be courteous, thoughtful and most importantly - IN CONTROL! YOU are the designer - the client has come to you for a reason. Use your knowledge to the max and advice your client along the way by working with them, NOT against them.

Hey, at the end of the day, the minimum gig is $5. Going to bed with a smile on your face, and hopefully a smiling client, is far more important than angry exchanges over what is essentially $5.

And that’s it! I got to level 1 after 1 month and I’m 90% into getting level 2 after 7 weeks. Next step for me is Top Seller and I might even consider giving up my ‘normal’ client base and focus 100% on Fiverr! And that’s a serious comment! I have a few other gigs up my sleeve that I know will get a decent order following… I’m just waiting to be able to charge $40 at level 2 for me to instigate them!

I hope that information helps someone starting out on Fiverr - I’m sure there are those far more experienced than me that may add (or totally disagree) to my comments - but hey, it’s working for me!

Thanks Fiverr!

And thanks for reading.

All the best fellow Fiverr members!

Artwork-King

[designmytype]

Congrats! You are clearly doing something right.

How fast do you work for it to be worth it though?



A while ago I had a gig designing flyers. My mistake was I was designing each single one from scratch. Each design used to take me a couple of hours at least, which for $4 (or £2.40 should I say) was ridiculous. I’ve now pre-designed templates for my design gigs which should speed up my workflow (which I’m guessing is what you’ve done with your flyer gig?!)



Thank you for posting. I really appreciate all the tips.

[artworkking]

Exactly. Each one is different enough… to be different 🙂 but I’ve put the ‘tools’ in place to be able to use them quickly and efficiently.



Ground work is all it takes I guess.